A good weekend in the books

It was about golf and relaxing this weekend. I got a chance to try out my new clubs and they are a work in progress right now. I think I actually played better with Darryl's second set. My problem right now is gauging distance. The new X-R 18 irons are about 10-15 yards longer than my R7 irons. The one club that is absolutely perfect so far is the Callaway X 3 iron. I'm nutting that about 215 off the fairway. The driver is probably too stiff for me, but I've hit some really good drives (and a few I'd like to forget). The Callaway FT-9 has an extra stiff shaft and a 8.5 degree face. When I hit it, I'm about 240-250 in the fairway, but I have a tendency to overswing and get a slice., something I didn't worry about with my Ft-iQ.

I went out with Matt and Darren yesterday and played Woodcreek. I was consistently inconsistent and flying some greens with iron shots and shot 44+44=88. Matt shot 75 and was ready for our two man scramble today. We each had to get 5 drives in and I figured that with my inconsistency, Matt would carry us. He hits the ball about 25-30 yards longer than me and was hitting the ball well. Funny, I hit more fairways than him today and we ended up using nine of his drives and nine of mine. It was a 7:30 shotgun, wet and cold (although it was 79 degrees today) at the start and the grass was covered in dew. We shot a par on our starting hole 17 and then Matt hit a 285 yard drive on the 440 yard number one handicap hole 18. We managed to both mess up our approach shot and left a par putt of 20 feet that we both missed. We settled down on the front side and shot a 34 with seven pars and two birdies. The back nine was fun as we had birdies on four of the first 5 holes and ended up with a 33 on the back for 67 gross and 60 net with our combined 7 strokes. Matt is a 4 and I get 11 and we get the average of our two scores which was rounded down for some unknown reason. We ended up taking $5 from Boyd and his partner and winning $45 in the tournament. Matt got signed up for the club at our renewal rate and has the rest of this year and all of next year to play the tournaments. He is an excellent golfer and will be right there with Bob Pando for a shot at the club championship in the coming years.

I got home from golf on Saturday and was exhausted. I talked to Darla for a bit and laid down on the couch and was soon fast asleep. The doorbell rang at 5:30 and Darla got up from her spot on the bed (she doesn't like to nap on the couch, which likely has more to do with my snoring than the relative comfort of the sofa). It was one of our neighbors letting us know that I had a flat tire on my car in the driveway. I had left it out to wash it. The 300 has low profile tires and I probably wouldn't have noticed it, put it in the garage and had to get the tire changed at 6;30 this morning before golf. Thank God they came by. I'd like to think I'd have noticed it when I washed it though. I ended up having AAA come out and change the tire. I then washed my car and Darla's Explorer. I moved my clubs into the Explorer and Darla agreed to take the 300 in to Firestone today after church. It turns out it was a bad air stem and they were able to change that out and put the tire back on my car for less than $25. Darla walked across the street from the Firestone and had breakfast at the Waffle House this morning while they were fixing the tire. I got home again today, watched the Dallas game and fell asleep again on the couch. I'm turning into Gramp Lyon. At least that's what Samantha calls me.

Darla and I are off to Monterey next weekend. I decided to go to work Friday morning as it is month end closing and work a 1/2 day. Darla and I will take a slow drive down to Monterey and have dinner likely on the wharf as our hotel sits at the foot of the wharf in Monterey. We play Poppy Hills on Saturday and Old Del Monte on Sunday. The blog will be late next week as I work on it around the Monday Night football game.

I had mentioned in an earlier blog entry that we had toured the facility at Darryl's work in Longmont, Colorado. I was impressed with the scope of the operation and Darryl is the number three man at this massive facility. There is a facility President, A VP and Darryl as the Operations manager. He has the warehouse report to him as well as receiving, shipping and the terminal operations. We walked through the refrigeration storage areas, the freezer, as well as the main warehouse full of ice cream, candy, cigarettes, dry goods and all types of food, tobacco and candy. It was very impressive and I was impressed with Darryl's respect that he had from everyone as we walked through the terminal and warehouses. They were having some sort of problem with cigarettes on the day we walked through. The cigarettes have to be stamped with a tax stamp from the state where they will be sold and corporate had made some error, so the shipment was late and they had about twenty people standing around waiting for work. They were relaxed until they saw Darryl and they all got busy. It was great.

After we left Denver, Darryl ended up with pneumonia. His guests were both sick when they were there, but he ended up flat on his back for a week sick as a dog. I haven't talked to him, but got an e-mail addressing his illness from him. He was hacking and wheezing and couldn't keep any food down. Tough stuff.

Work is going very well for me and I think we are getting into a rhythm with the Modesto office. I have never been busier than I am now at work as I handle a big portion of the Modesto agents and I QA every file coming out of Modesto. I still have to split up some of the agents to other underwriters, but the office will stay open until December 31st, so I have time before I need to do that. Our office is having another great month and it is fun to ride this wave. I had a young underwriter from a competitor contact me last week and I will meet him for lunch next Tuesday. He's interested in exploring the possibilities at Burns and Wilcox.

I leave for the Manager's meeting in Michigan a week from Wednesday. I fly out at 9 AM and fly through Dallas to Michigan, arriving at 6:30 PM. It is a long day of travel and the limo will pick me up at the airport and take me straight to the restaurant where all of the managers will meet for dinner. I stay until Saturday afternoon and fly back Saturday night. It is a grueling few days and I end up exhausted. Thankfully I am back for only a week and then I'm off to Mexico with Darla, dad and Shirley, Darryl and Cheryl and Neil and Lilly. It will be a blast to get back to the sun and fun of Nuevo Vallarta.

I do have one other leftover from the Denver visit and it feels a little like piling on what with Darryl's recent bout of pneumonia, but hey! We played Wii bowling in Darryl's basement while we were there. it was fun and competitive and we had a lot of laughs, but my 53 year old brother ended up pulling a muscle in his butt on the second game and had me in tears laughing as he hobbled around trying to play fake bowling. It is a new low in sports injuries, a pulled butt muscle in Wii bowling.

With that I will bid you all adieu and, until next week, keep traveling on the Lord's path and HE will direct your footsteps. Be well. Ciao.

You can see the mess to the left that I had to clean up from Tuesday and Wednesday's storm. The pool was full of leaves and branches and blown dirt. The patio had an abundance of leaves scattered throughout the backyard and I'd forgotten that Darla and I had quickly stashed the chairs umbrellas and tables into the shed on Monday night when we got home. That was also waiting for me Saturday. I had a good sleep in on Saturday as I still don't have my new clubs and was up playing poker the night before. Darla left for a Silpada gig about noon and I ventured out to mow the lawn, rake leaves, clean the pool and clean up branches that had blown into my flowerbeds and plantings surrounding the house. Darla came back from one event and was off to another and I continued working until 4:30 when I finally came in to get a shower before meeting the guys for a Kings game at Arco Arena Saturday night.

I had one extra set of tickets and we offered them to Alicia and Don, who are both ill and then to Darla's parents, who jumped on them. They drove down from Paradise and met me in the parking lot of Arco Arena before the game. I had sold tickets as a fundraiser for the IBA Sacramento group and ended up only selling 72 tickets (it's a tough sell for a team coming off the worst record in the NBA with only 17 wins last year). There were 40 of us at the preseason game and we had a good time. One lady had won the drawing and I brought her a signed Peja Stojakovich jersey from his days with the Kings.

I played golf today at Lincoln Hills. I used Boyd's second set of clubs and struggled with the slotback blade Nike irons. It was windy and cold and Boyd shot 81, Neil 93, Joe (a 7 handicap) 98, and I shot 44+42=86 and struggled with distance with the blades. I did have a nice birdie on the back nine with a long drive on a 368 yard hole. I put the approach within 5 feet and made the birdie. It is the only thing worth remembering about the round. I left right after the round and told Neil to collect my skin money and get it to me next week.

I will play in the Member-Guest Invitational next week and will play with Matt from my office. Matt is the insurance underwriting trainee and is a 3.7 handicap. He will join the club and play in tournaments with us next year. Bob has a friend coming in from Nevada for the event and we will play a practice round on Saturday and the tournament is a 7:30 shotgun next Sunday.

My clubs will arrive early this week with the bag, fairway woods, irons and driver due in tomorrow and the putter on Tuesday. I'm thinking of upgrading my cart as well as i have money on the books at the club from prior tournaments and want to get a Clik-Gear cart. It is a three wheeled cart like the Sun mountain that I have now, but the tires do not have tubes and it folds down smaller in my trunk. I received my replacement shoes this week along with 4 dozen Titleist Tour Prestige golf balls that should last me into next Summer.

It was Daniel's birthday on Tuesday and he turned 20. He spent part of the weekend last week in the Bay Area and was on hand to see his 49ers lose big to Atlanta at the 'Stick last weekend. Things are progressing for the boys at school and I look forward to the big raise that we'll get when they finish up at Cal Poly.

Darla is well and her business continues to grow and she is busy. We missed each other most of this weekend as I had poker Friday night and she had an event last night and then my golf this morning, so I better finish this up and go make dinner for my wife, I'm a lucky guy. Stay well, enjoy each other's company and ask God to help you through life's hardships. Ciao.

Stormy Weather, Denver and Lost Golf Clubs

Denver was great and the hospitality by Darryl and Cheryl was first cabin. They have a beautiful home in Loveland, Colorado, two stories with a 2,000 square foot basement consisting of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a great room and a kitchen. The main living area has three bedrooms, an office, a living room and a small library/loft for reading. We were very impressed with their house, but even more impressed with their home (if you know what I mean). We had a few glitches on the trip, not the least of which was the disappearance of my golf clubs somewhere between Sacramento and Denver. We looked and waited and finally went to the lost baggage office. The guy there assured me that the lost luggage ALWAYS shows up. Darryl found a bag that looked suspiciously like mine and we took down the information and called the guy to see if he grabbed the wrong bag. We reluctantly left the airport without my clubs and a feeling of foreboding about the clubs. I decided not to let the inept handling of my clubs by United Airlines ruin the trip and Darryl and I headed off to Mariana Buttes to play golf. I was in tennis shoes and used Darryl's ten year old set of Tommy Armour 845 irons and teed off with his Callaway X Tour driver. Darryl beat me on the front nine 40-42 and I played very well on the back, shooting 39 to his 44. The guy who's bag we found Larry, called in the middle of the round and told Darryl that he had missed his flight and flew in later and that's why his clubs were still on the carousel.

The problem for me was that I'd just put a dozen Pro V1 balls in the bag, along with a new pair of Adidas golf shoes that had just arrived in my office on Wednesday. We headed home to a sumptuous dinner made by Cheryl and relaxed afterward on the couch watching the President's Cup golf from that day. The weather had turned cold from the sunny and 57 degrees when we teed off and the last two holes were COLD. It started to snow after dinner and snowed all night. we awoke the next morning to 4.5 inches of powder on the lawns, roofs, cars and everywhere except the streets and driveways, which I guess retain more heat from the day before. We had breakfast and made a run into Fort Collins, a college town dominated by the Colorado State University. We ended up going over to the New Belgium brewery, the home of Fat Tire beer. It was homecoming weekend and we couldn't get into the tour of the brewery, but sat at the bar and tasted several of the beers and just visited for the better part of an hour. We then drove back to Loveland and ate lunch at the Green Onion, a little deli. We walked to the front to order and the gal behind the counter handed us menus and said to look them over and decide what we wanted. I pointed out that we could do that or look at the 8 foot wall behind her with the same menu on it. She said that the menu included all of the ingredients of the sandwiches and she was just about to say that before "Mr. Smartass" interrupted her. I was taken aback by her directness and asked her how long she'd been in a "customer service" position.

We relaxed back at home and Darryl and Cheryl's friends form Austin, Pat and Pauline, drove in. They were there for the week. They had planned to stay at a timeshare in Estes, Colorado, but Darryl talked them in to staying with them instead. Pat was sick as a dog and was coughing and wheezing. He went to bed and skipped dinner. I fell asleep on the loveseat sized sofa as we watched the play from the President's Cup matches of Saturday. It was a mistake as my head and neck were stretched and my spine twisted.

I woke up Sunday and could barely move as i was listing to the right and having back spasms. We had planned to go up to Estes and have lunch, but after getting stuck in the shower where I couldn't lift my leg the 24 inches to get out of the tub, I decided to stay home and rest. I finished my shower and sat upstairs for 1/2 an hour trying to get my back to stop spasming. I finally manged to get downstairs and eat some breakfast and found the couch and ottoman. The phone rang and it was United baggage letting me know that my clubs had not been found and telling me to file a claim. One good thing Obama has done is raised the airline's liability on lost luggage to $3300 from $1500. Good thing as my clubs, bag, shoes, balls, wind suit, etc. will cost $2200 to replace. By the way, I see Obama won the Nobel peace Prize. What a joke. it is tantamount to Todd Haley of the 0-5 Kansas City Chiefs winning the NFL coach of the year because he has his players believing they can win games. Of course, they can't, but that's beside the point. So far, it has been an Obamanation in his administration. The era of entitlement has once again arrived in Washington.

I digress. I did manage to order new clubs. I got a set of Calaway x-18 tour irons 4- SW, a Callaway FT-9 Tour 8.5 degree driver, a Callaway X 18 degree hybrid, a Ping G10 7 wood, A Callaway Chevy 18 cart bag, another pair of Adidas shoes, 4 dozen Titleist Tour Prestige balls, and Darryl gave me a McLane travel bag that I brought home with me. The clubs should arrive next Monday. I do have a tournament this weekend and will see if I can borrow some clubs from a friend. Either that or I'll bow out of the tournament.

Monday arrived and there was still snow on the ground. We decided to just relax at home or so I thought. Darryl ended up calling Ute Creek in Longmont and they were open. We headed over at 11:30 and it was 39 degrees when we teed off. I shot 42+42 for an 84 and Darryl shot 42+46 for an 88. Pat played with us, but was not at 100%. I enjoyed his company. We had to walk the course and Pat ran out of gas by the 16th hole. He was still recuperating from his illness and the cold mountain air and high altitude ate him up. I helped Darryl find a wayward tee shot on 10 and ended up in the muck and mire as I thought I was stepping on solid ground to jump a creek, but sunk into the ground and didn't clear the creek with my poor purchase on my plant foot. I was a muddy, cold mess and had to play the back nine with wet shoes and socks. To make matters worse, Darryl duffed his recovery shot and lost the ball I'd found for him. Some brother, eh?

We had a wonderful trip and Darla said that Cheryl is the best hostess she has ever stayed with. The food was great, the conversation as good and the accommodations first cabin. We hope to be able to reciprocate with them in Sacramento soon. I look forward to seeing them again in a month at Nuevo Vallarta.

The flight home was delayed 1/2 hour and I got stuck (somehow) in Darla's middle seat and she took mine. I as next to a very large woman and felt wedged into place. I like to put the armrests down to give me my own space, but when this woman tried to accommodate me, the armrest was digging into her flab and she had to lift it back up. I spent two hours wedged into a seat next to Big Momma and my thigh was hot and sweated out by the time I got off the plane. Darla, of course, chatted up a storm with her seatmates, laughing and carousing like old friends, oblivious to my torment and discomfiture across the aisle.

We got home at 11:30 and I had to lower the umbrellas and bring in the table and chairs for the backyard as a storm was coming in overnight. It arrived with 50 MPH wind gusts and 2 1/2 inches of rain in 14 hours time. I got home this afternoon after my convention downtown and spent an hour removing downed limbs and branches and draining about 4 inches from the pool water. You can see pictures of the storm above and what our front yard looked like. This is a warm storm as it was 65 degrees this afternoon when I was cleaning up the yard.

Well, I'll add more next weekend. My wife awaits on the couch with many shows taped for us to watch. Thank you, Darryl and Cheryl, for your outstanding hospitality. Darryl even took me by his work after golf Monday and I'll talk about that next week. I hope you are all well. If you ever fly United, say goodbye to your belongings when you check them at the airport.

Off to Denver next Weekend

I am looking forward to a relaxing visit with Cheryl and Darryl next weekend. Darla and I fly out early (6AM) on Friday and Darryl and I will be on the course by noon. The weather looks a little iffy with cool temperatures, but two things, it is Colorado and it is October. Darryl and I plan to play Friday and Monday, but I think I'm looking forward to relaxing and getting caught up on each other's lives as much as I am the golf. Cheryl called this week and was going grocery shopping and wanted to make sure that Darla didn't have any dietary limitations with her diabetes. Very nice of her. Cheryl is now working at a dietary store (I think) and will take Saturday off to spend time with us. Generally she works during the week and every other Saturday. We appreciate what they are doing to make our trip smooth. One thing my family has to know about me, once I decide to do something, I'm there. If you are inviting me over and think I won't come, think again.

Work has been tremendously stressful of late and now I have the budget to work on and the stress of combining two offices into one and the toll that will have on staff and income. The good news is that my office is bringing in about $70,000 a month after expenses. The Modesto office was at that total figure for nine months. Our return on investment is still not where I'd like it to be, but we have great momentum going and it is fun to be a part of something that is building so fast. It has taken a long time and a lot of hard work, but we are in a position to be a part of one of the fastest growing offices in the country.

I was worried about how to continue to motivate my number one underwriter, Anthony, but he and his wife, Erin, just gave birth to a 10 pound, 9 ounce 23 inch long third grader over the weekend. They had already picked out the name of Vincent James (he'll be Vinny whether they want that or not as they are Sicilian), but I would have suggested Mondo. Anthony is off with his family for most of this week, helping out with the baby and trying to give Mom some rest. She just gave birth to a heavy bowling ball and will need to rest.

I ended up buying the whole house fan last week and contracted with an electrician to install that and two automatic, thermostat controlled gable vent fans in the attic. He is coming over Wednesday morning to install the house fan, a control switch and the two vent fans. I also bought a pocket screen door for the front, but had some trouble with the sash plate overhanging the front step and will wait until Earl gets back from his trip to install it. I didn't want to "jerry-rig" something on the front of my home and regret it later. Earl was a contractor in his working life and can help me do it right.

We got snowed out in Truckee this past weekend. An early Fall snowstorm blanketed the Sierra and closed Old Greenwood down. We instead left early Sunday morning for Corning, California and another shot at Sevillano Links. Neil had a discount coupon that got us the $60 tee times for $30 a piece. We have played the course before and it was rough on us. I shot 86 last time in perfect conditions. Unfortunately, Sunday wasn't perfect. We had winds at 15-20 miles an hour all day and struggled on the lightning fast greens. The venue is beautiful in the valley of Corning, California, south of Red Bluff and on I-5. We saw coyotes and hawks and even a buzzard that I swear was following Boyd around (He's 69 now). I struggled to an 89, Bob had 85 and Boyd shot 82. Neil worked hard to keep his score at 99. As Darla said when I got home, it humbles you. Indeed. My handicap went up to a 10.4 for October and the only reason it went up is that the 76 I posted last weekend didn't get into the calculations or I would actually have gone down to a 9.4. So, look out Darryl, I'm coming to see you and I'm bringing strokes. 11 strokes on a course with a slope under 125 and 12 strokes over 125. Make sure you hi the ATM before we get to the course. By the way, the staff at Diamond made a mistake last weekend and I actually won my flight and the $70 first prize. Justice prevails.

I talked to Jennifer last night. She is busy at work as they are trying to finish their job at City Center by the end of October. Jennifer says "no way", but they are working overtime and there is a big push to get the venue open by December. She has seen a lot of Sam recently as John has moved to swing shift and he drops Sam off at her house at 1 PM and Jen drops Sam at John's at 4 :30 AM. They have her out of daycare right now, but hopefully she will be back in it before too long. It is a good social mechanism for children, especially an only child. Jen made a lot of friends in her day care and after school programs. She has some videos and pictures of Samantha that she has promised me and I will, of course, add to the blog as soon as I see them. She is having problems with her router and that is the latest excuse for no pictures. C'mon, Jen. I need my Samantha fix.

We have the trip to Monterey coming up over the Halloween weekend. We leave Friday and return on Sunday. That following week I'll be in Detroit for the Manager's meeting (happy to be ahead of budget for the year). I'll spend the next week in the office and then we are off to Nuevo Vallarta and a golf vacation with family and friends. It is a busy time for us right now, but there are some exciting things on tap and we look forward to playing out the string.

The blog will be extra late next week because of the Colorado trip, but I will return with stories, pictures and hopefully even a new video of Samantha. I hope you are happy, healthy and in God's good graces. It's a great place to be. Ciao.