Goodbye Summer!

It was likely our last 100 degree weekend in Sacramento with a high of 104 degrees on Saturday. It is not unusual for such hot temperatures late in the year, but the average high temperature for this time of year is about 88 degrees. I used the hot weather to do a last good cleaning of the tile on the pool and shut off the waterfalls until next Spring. The waterfalls are great and add a nice touch to the backyard, but they tend to get quite a bit of calcium buildup around the tiles below the waterfalls and I can only truly clean the tile from inside the pool. The pool water had dropped to 75 degrees and it was a little cool in the water, but it bounced back up to 82 degrees this weekend with the heat and I was able to get back in the pool and do some cleaning. The boys took down the outside gazebo before they left for Cal Poly and I have to take down the chairs and umbrellas eventually. It is still nice enough to occasionally eat out side, so I'm going to wait on that. It is now completely shaded on the pool by 5:00 PM and the sun is down by about 7:40 PM. The days are growing shorter and soon we will turn back the clocks and make it dark early at night.

I played golf in the sweltering heat on Saturday and had my best round of the year. I wilted a bit on the back nine, but had six pars, two birdies and a bogey on the front nine for a one under par 35. I parred the first two holes and then had three straight bogeys before hitting a par, birdie, bogey and finishing (limping home) with a double bogey for a 41 and 76 on my round. It was in a tournament and I took second low net with a 65. Some 71 year old 12 handicapper shot a 75. Boyd had low gross with a 73. It was a great round of golf and I wonder how I'd have finished if I wasn't walking the course in 104 degree temperatures.

Our trip to Denver comes up in two weeks and I plan to prepare for the golf by taking a trip with Bob, Boyd and Neil up to Jack Nicklaus' Old Greenwood course in Truckee next Sunday. The course is at 6500 feet and is 7518 yards from the tips. We will play it at the 6457 yard configuration, which is still a challenge with a 564 yard par five (that would play 631 yards from the tips). Take a look at the website: http://www.oldgreenwoodgolf.com/golf/proto/tahoemountainclub/
Click on the gallery and look at the course. It is equally as beautiful as the pictures. I played the course back in 2008 on a trip to Reno with one of my agents, but we made the mistake of playing it at 6,944 yards and we struggled. I shot 89 and had to make a par on the last hole to break 90. My agent kept saying the ball flies farther in the high altitude. it does, but not that much farther. my home course is 6200 yards from the tips. Hopefully, the day at Old Greenwood will prepare me for the course in Colorado. Darla and I look forward to the trip.

Things are getting busy for us as we approach October with the trip to Denver and then a trip to Monterey over Halloween where the golf group will play Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach and Old Del Monte in Monterey. I will venture out with some of my buds and play Bayonette at the old Fort Ord military installation. It was completely renovated in 2007 and 2008 and I look forward to playing that one. I also have the Manager's meeting in Detroit the first of November and then we are off to Nuevo Vallarta in mid November with Dad and Shirley, Darryl and Cheryl and Neil and Lilly. That schedule seems to fit Dad and Shirley better than Darla and I.

Darla and I were in church today and we had a guest worship leader Wayburn Dean, former member of the Christian group Acapella. Our worship leader stepped down last month and is getting a divorce from his wife. Wayburn is on fire for the Lord and it was a delight listening to him today and worshipping with him. He is a candidate to take the worship leader position and I hope he takes it. I heard Wayburn and his group in concert probably ten years ago and have one of their Cd's. The sermon today continued the series on icebergs in our life and is on the theme of the Titanic, an unsinkable ship that hit an iceberg. The series is about the threats to our Christian life: temptation, deception and this week, addictions. They showed a clip of an interview between James Dobson and Ted Bundy in the night before Bundy was executed and it was chilling to hear him talk about his life growing up in a Christian home and how he got into pornography that kept escalating until he killed 39 women. The point that Bundy made is that he talked to other inmates who had killed and raped women and 100% of them were in to pornography as well. With the Internet, our children are exposed to it constantly. It is scary.

Darla talked to Earl and Frances and they had a great week up in Tahoe. The weather was incredible and they even ran into some friends from paradise while they were there and had dinner with them at the Lakeside Inn. They spend a lot of time sight seeing and spent time at lake Tahoe. It sounds like they really enjoyed the trip.

I hope to have Earl and Frances over next weekend and have earl help me put in a screen partition over the front door. We want to be able to open the front door and let the cool air come in and move down the hallway into our bedroom and living areas. I've not put one in so far because we have a very nice wood front door and I didn't want to cover it up with a storm door. Earl bought a roller screen door from Home depot and installed it on his double wood front door and loves it. I'm also looking at having a whole house fan installed this Fall to help cool the house down on hot days. Everyone that has one loves it.

I played in a charity golf tournament on Thursday and my team shot a 15 under par 57. Everything went right for us in the round, we sunk long putts, chipped in from off the green, were on par fives in two. Our 57 was good for fourth place in the tournament. Unbelievable. Darla had a party that night and wouldn't be home until ten. The tournament wrapped up at 7:15 and was right next door to the Thunder Valley casino. I went over with $50 and came home with $577. I wasn't there for an hour. I was playing a quarter machine and putting in one and two coins. i hit a couple of four of a kinds and had my pot up to $170 and on my first bet of four coins, I hit four aces with a four for 1,600 quarters ($400). I immediately cashed out and was home by 8:45 Pm. Nice, eh?

Well, that's it for this week. I may work on the blog early next week because of the Truckee golf, but whatever, I will be back at it next week, Jennifer, send me some videos of Samantha!! Be well and keep living your life for Jesus. Ciao.