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.