Cold and Sunny in Roseville

Yeah, it's not always 70 degrees in California. We had some snow make it's way down to the valley floor on Friday and I endured an Arctic blast on the golf course yesterday. It is the kind of weather with a bright blue sky that looks very beautiful from inside the comfort of a heated home, but the bone chilling frost and any breeze or wind will freeze you out. We had heavy rain and wind again last week and I had to empty my pool Friday night of water that had raised above the tile line and was creeping up the coping. I should have emptied it Friday morning before venturing off to work, but it was raining and windy and I didn't want to face the barrage of weather. I did have to shut the lids on both trash cans that were parked at the curb and waiting for the garbage service to empty them. The temperature is in the low fifties, but there is a cold in the air and the ground that is chilling. We have had overnight temperatures in the 20's every night for about five days with white frost on the rooftops and trees. We have several varieties of trees that are already budding for Spring after the 70's we had earlier in the month. Our fruitless cherry tree in the front yard is in full pink bloom.

Today is the last day of nourishment before my colonoscopy on Tuesday. Darla is fixing a pork roast for dinner. Tomorrow I will be on clear liquids only as I prep for the procedure. I'll have a delicious lunch of chicken broth and jello followed in the evening by a beef broth and 4 litres of lemon flavored Gavilyte that will see me cleaned out like a gutted fish. My understanding from other men over 50 is that the solution tastes vaguely like lemon flavored salt water and you have to drink 8 ounces of the stuff every fifteen minutes for 4 hours in between runs to the bathroom. I've had plenty of advice, from make sure you drink lots of 7 up to bite on a lemon or lime. I might lean toward the lemon as 4 litres of liquid is enough in a 4 hour sitting. That is equivalent to drinking down two large 2 litre soda bottles in a 4 hour time frame. I will get through it, though because one of my friends not only has issues with pre-cancerous polyps, but also chose not to drink the entire container because he felt ill and was sent back because his colon wasn't clear enough. I sure as heck don't want that. I am leaving the office early tomorrow to come home and prepare for the explosions to come in the bathroom. Oh, Happy Day!

Peter and I leave for Scottsdale on Sunday. We fly in at 8:15 after leaving here at 6 AM. We will get our rental car and then head over to the Legacy resort in Phoenix for a round of golf with Scottsdale Insurance. From there we will go in to Scottsdale and check into the corporate apartment that is being provided to us by Colony Insurance. We will have dinner at a steakhouse in Scottsdale with several executives from Scottsdale Insurance. Monday, we have breakfast with our underwriting team from Markel Insurance and then will spend the rest of the day with our hosts, Colony Insurance. My office is the largest producer on the west coast for Colony Insurance and we finished 2010 at just short of $4,000,000 in premiums written with a loss ratio of 21%. We will have lunch with the director of underwriting and then an early dinner with the VP and our underwriter before heading over to Scottsdale Stadium for the Texas Rangers vs. San Francisco Giants night cactus league baseball game. I haven't been to Spring Training since 2004 and look forward to it.

Tuesday, we have breakfast with Seneca Insurance followed by a meeting with Burlington Insurance and then golf at the Orange Tree Resort in Scottsdale with our Burlington Underwriter and with the Vice President at Burns' Scottsdale office. Our flight home is 6:30. It is a jam packed schedule with no room for any thing else. it should be fun and it will be good to see all of our companies in one visit.

Our office may be moving in July. We have an "opt out" clause in our lease and the space is larger than we need. Because of the configuration of the space it looks near impossible to downsize. Alan is interested in buying a building and we will be looking in both Folsom and Roseville for office space both to buy and to rent. If we buy a building, it will have to be three stories and at least 25,000 square feet. We would be located on the top floor and Burns would have signage on three sides of the building. We could end up staying in our space, but the landlords would have to charge us for space based only on the square footage we need (7500) instead of what we now occupy (10,000). My staff, especially the underwriters, will have some big changes in store for them as the company has moved to an open floor space plan, meaning the only offices will be reserved for Managers. My space would be configured with three offices and the rest of the underwriters would move into "partner" cubicles along with their main assistants. As it is now, we have 8 offices in addition to my corner office and each underwriter has a window office with four walls and a door.

We did end up hiring one Management trainee for my office when I was in San Francisco on Tuesday. We also offered the position to one of my assistant underwriters and she shocked all of us by turning it down. Her reasoning is because she was getting married in July and wanted to be able to commit time and effort to her marriage in the first year and because she loves working for the Sacramento office and doesn't want to be held accountable to the Home Office. I think it is a mistake on her part, but it is quite a compliment to the atmosphere and team attitude we have in my office.

Darla and I received a letter from a claims administrator for the city of Folsom on Friday telling us that they intend to subrogate against us for the costs of the cleanup from the transmission fluid spill earlier in the month. As California cities become more and more financially strapped by the weight of undocumented aliens and uninsured transients, they are looking for citizens of means to pay for services that our taxes have always paid for. It is classic double dipping and I will have a word with the claims examiner on Monday and tell her to either 1. contact the transmission shop for payment of the cost of the spill or 2. Stuff It! Unbelievable. This is the type of garbage that Obama has wrought in this country with his plans to embrace the undocumented "citizens" as he likes to call them. Arizona has it right when they will deport any undocumented persons found inside their borders. And now Obama has joined with the country of Mexico in deciding to sue the state of Arizona. Arizona is only upholding laws that are federal laws on the books since 1954 and of which Obama has "decided" that such laws are unconstitutional. I'll tell you what is unconstitutional is a President that decides to interpret laws and not enforce laws that he is duly sworn to uphold. There is a reason that we have branches of government and Obama can't just decide to make or interpret law, it is not in the constitution for him to do so. This President is a joke and this country is in the worst shape it has ever been in in my lifetime. And Friday, Obama decided the Federal Defense of Marriage Act is now unconstitutional. When did we elect this guy King? I think I missed that election. God help us.

I played Cherry Island yesterday following the rain and frost of the past week. I shot 42+43=85 and felt like I survived the round as much as played it. It was cold and I took a cart to at least have a windshield in front of me. The carts were relegated to the cart paths which hurt me a few times when I arrived at my ball after a walk from the cart with the wrong club in my hand. I'm sure mis-clubbing cost me at least three strokes during the round. I will miss the next tournament at Diamond due to the Scottsdale trip, but the weather forecast for Scottsdale is 77 degrees and Sunny, so I'll take that.

Dad and Shirley were in San Francisco on Friday and perhaps even got to see the first snow flurries in SF in 35 years as the weather was COLD. Darla and I did not make plans to see them as it was a pretty tight schedule with them leaving Saturday morning early for the airport. We will call tonight.

Well, that is the news for now. I'll update the blog next Saturday with tales from my colonoscopy. Again, I leave for Scottsdale Sunday morning. I hope you are all well. Ciao.