Still More Rain

It is still raining in Northern California. We had about a two day break at the end of last week and then a strong storm that has been gaining strength in the Pacific pushed onshore late last night and we are getting doused again. I got a chance to drain the pool again and had the water line at the bottom of the tile, but after last night's storm the waterline is back at the halfway mark on the tile. We are supposed to get rain through Wednesday and then tapering off toward next weekend. Our average rainfall is 19.85 inches and we have about 8 inches to date from July of last year. We had a wet year last year after two straight drought years and had hoped to keep the water works going this year. The average to date is almost 13 inches so we are behind and they are threatening water rationing this Summer. It is hard to imagine when the rain is pounding down, but we had a very dry January, which is our wettest month.

Darla just returned from San Diego and another Silpada junket. I missed her as she left Thursday and the dishes just don't do themselves, you know. I had planned to play golf this weekend, but my back has stayed tight and I decided to be an adult about things (and keep Jane, my physical therapist form spanking me)and cancelled my Sunday tournament and got Bob to take my spot at Diamond yesterday morning. It was a tough decision as the weather was nice yesterday, about 69 degrees with slowly increasing clouds during the day that lead to the current storm. I made up for my lack of golf by driving out to Thunder Valley Casino for breakfast and some nickle poker. I played for about three hours never really moving up or down from the $50 that I brought, but finally left a little after noon with $30 left after breakfast. I got home and spent three hours working on the lawn picking up the leavings from the last storm, downed branches and leaves, papers and debris left in and amongst the plants in the front of the house. I also cleaned out the pool, brushed it down and added some algeacide to counteract the effect of all of the leaves and brush that had blown into the pool in the last storm. I also used my leaf vac to clean up the backyard and took the garden rake to the side yard and de-thatched some of the grass there. The overseeding and fertilizer have taken hold and the grass is green and lush and I have to mow every week. My neighbors look at me like I'm nuts, but it is in my DNA. Blame Dad.

I took part of the weekend to add some music to my Iphone. I now have about 2000 songs on my phone and have a docking station at work that I use to listen to music in the afternoons when the phones slow down. I added an eclectic mix of music, with songs by Ray Charles, Aerosmith, Neil Diamond, Cher, Frank Sinatra and Van Morrison. I have music now that matches any mood I may be in.

I am taking Darla to dinner tonight at a new restaurant in Roseville, Cloud Nine. One of the local radio stations has a "half price hook-up" every Monday and last week it was buy two $25 gift cards to Cloud Nine for $25. I bought four of them for $50. I also took advantage of a half price deal at the new John Daly designed course at the Rolling Hills Casino in Corning were I got two rounds of golf and a $50 gift certificate in their steak house for $50, essentially I'll get the golf for free and it runs $65 per person on weekends.

I have to be in the San Francisco branch on Wednesday as our leader, Alan Kaufman, will be in town for a seminar and then he is heading to San Diego for a mid year NAPSLO (National Association of Surplus Lines Organizations) meeting Thursday- Saturday. I've been invited along with my top two underwriters, Anthony and Lorraine (from Modesto). They will be holding a professional lines seminar and I'm bringing Gail along as well. There will be about 26 people crowded into their conference room in SF. Friday, Darla and I will attend a meeting at the Silverado resort in Napa with the IBA association that I am on the board of. We will play golf Friday afternoon followed by a 45 minute board meeting and a nice dinner that night. Darla will have a spa day at the resort while I'm golfing along with a number of the other wives and female board members. It will be nice to getaway, especially after being apart this weekend.

I heard a nice "senior" joke recently:

Three old guys are out walking. First one says, 'Windy, isn't it?' Second one says, 'No, it's Thursday!' Third one says, 'So am I. Let's go get a beer.'

My favorite senior joke is:

An older couple in their 80's are both suffering the onset of dementia, but seem to be getting along great. One night the husband says, "you know what would be a nice treat tonight, scrambled eggs and bacon." The wife jumps up and heads to the kitchen. He can hear pots and pans banging and after about fifteen minutes the wife comes out carrying a big tray with two bowls of rocky road ice cream, covered with whipped cream with a cherry on top. The wife sets the tray down and the old man grabs his bowl, slowly shaking his head. "Honey, you did it again. Your memory is really starting to fade. I asked for Tin Roof Sundae with chocolate sauce!"

Our trip to Vegas will be here in two weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing Samantha and Jennifer and seeing their new house. Jennifer continues to squabble with John and hopefully they will settle their differences sooner than later. I may lose Darla one night on the trip as she met a group of flight attendants from Henderson, NV that fell in love with her jewelry and Darla has tentatively scheduled a party for the weekend of our trip.

I was also able to make reservations for Josh and Laura's wedding in Dallas over Memorial Day. I put a tickler on Travelocity for flights to Dallas from Sacramento. They were all running about $350 at the time, but I managed to get two flights to Dallas and back for $214 a ticket through Travelocity and booked it. They e-mailed me. We arrive on Friday May 22 and fly back on Sunday May 24th. We wanted to fly back on Monday, but the flight jumped to $322 for the extra night. This way, we'll be forced to come home and relax by the pool on Memorial Day (don't cry for us). We'll manage. Randy has graciously agreed to put us up in Dallas and cart us to the wedding and back. I looked at the wedding website which is http://www.joshandlauralyon.com/ which Josh put together and has all of the details. My only complaint is that the wedding is at the Stonebriar Country Club in Frisco and I haven't heard any talk about golf. This is a bad memory of Dad's wedding and Shirley's 70th birthday, each of which was held on a golf course that I have yet to play. Whazzup with that?

Well, folks, that is it. I slept in and missed church this morning, so my bad. Hope you are all doing well. Ciao.