April Flowers

I played golf with some guys from Ft. Collins, Colorado on Friday and they were amazed at the flowers and buds on the trees in our area. In California, the saying is that "March showers bring April Flowers". The pool is in pinks and purples right now as the plants and trees are putting on a show. It was 72 degrees today and a perfect Spring Day. I know it is 90 degrees in Texas, Nevada and Arizona, but I really like the milder Spring temperatures here in Northern California. We get overnight lows into the 40's and highs in the 60's and 70's. Occasionally, the temperatures spike into the 80's, but usually cool right back down. Our average high temperature for this date is 72 and the low 49, so we are perfectly normal and I'm loving it. We are supposed to warm up to about 75 degrees next weekend.

I mentioned that I played golf with two men from our sister company in Colorado, US reports, our inspection company that Kaufman Group purchased last year. Their VP of large accounts joined their local representative out of Oregon for a round of golf with us on Friday. Matt and I met them at a small cafe at the Auburn Airport. The restaurant, Wings, is well known in aviation circles and was profiled in the NY Times a few years ago in their article on the $500 hamburger. There are aviation enthusiasts that fly out of their area to have a good meal at airports all over the United States and Wings was listed as one of the top ten destinations for pilots. They have a huge outside seating area where you can watch planes taking off and landing. If a pilot flies in and comes over to the restaurant to eat, there is a group of pilots that sit on the closest table to the airstrip and hold up pie plates and rate the landing (8.5 or 9.0). You don't want to get a 6 rating from these guys. Breakfast was great and the golf course next door stopped serving breakfast because all of the golfers eat at Wings.

Jason, our rep, and Jon, the VP were great guys and we had a lot of fun playing. I met Jon last year and he mentioned it at breakfast. I couldn't remember him and we ended up riding together in the cart and he mentioned he'd lost 45 pounds since last year. It dawned on me then and I blurted out, "I remember now. Man you were FAT then." He had a good laugh.

Jon is an 8.5 index golfer, but had a lot of rust in his game having come from Colorado where it is 70 degrees one day and snowing the next this time of year. He really struggled and shot 92. Matt and I had trouble on the freshly aerated and sanded greens and we both shot 85. Jason shot 100 plus. He did provide some comic relief late in the round, when he got tired and started shanking the ball. Jon and I were ahead of him as he was hitting his fifth shot to the par 4 and he shanked it right at us. Jon ducked behind me and I felt his hand on my back as he dove for cover. It reminded me of the Seinfeld Episode where George Costanza knocks down an old lady when he is trying to get away from a fire at a kid's birthday party. I harassed Jon the rest of the round for pushing me into the line of fire. The ball ricocheted off my golf shoe and went into the bunker. Taylor Made was having a demo day out at the range before we teed off and I got to hit one of the new R-11 drivers. It is a very light head and I was pulling the ball left big time. I am very happy with my Callaway Big Bertha 460 and have no plans to change drivers any time soon.

In fact, I played in the first round of our 54 hole individual championship today and was bombing the driver right in the middle of the fairway. I'm up to a 13 handicap with my 11.6 index and I put together my best tournament round of the year with a 40+40=80, which gave me a net 67. I was the leader in my flight at -5 when I left the course to get home and watch the Masters on TIVO. There were about half of my flight of 20 golfers still on the course when I left, but I should be in good position going into next Saturday and will be in one of the last pairings in my flight. Both Matt and Boyd struggled today, Boyd shot 81 for a 75 net and Matt shot 79 for a 75 net. It was a perfect day on the golf course and the course is in great shape. The greens are still a little bumpy and the poa anna flowers begin to bud on the greens in the afternoon.

Darla is off at a vendor fair in Folsom this afternoon and she just called to let me know she was at the car and on her way home. We have a pork loin roast that I will barbecue for dinner tonight.

Darla and I leave for Vegas a week from Wednesday. Our return flight is at 7:25 AM out of Vegas and I called to see if we could delay it and fly back in the afternoon (Southwest doesn't charge change fees). They will charge you the difference in fares however and our flight being part of a package, the change in fare was an extra $358. We will catch up on our sleep over the Easter weekend and keep our early flight. We will be out with Mike and Jennifer on Friday night after Sam goes over to John's Friday night, so we'll either call it an early night or just stay up all night and sleep when we get home. I'm voting for the early night.

I will be out Thursday afternoon on a real estate tour of offices in Folsom, California. We will give our landlords a 6 month "early out" option and begin the job of having our build out done for the new site. My understanding is that we will have new cubicles, desks and equipment in the new location. Things are going great at work and I just received a quarter million dollar profit sharing check credited to our bottom line from Colony. Our profit through the first three months in Sacramento is $383,000 vs. $177,000 last year. I am absolutely beside myself with pride and joy at the job my team is doing in Sacramento. It is a great thing and going to work every day is a blessing to me. I'm lucky to work with the staff that I have. They are good and decent people, hard workers and a joy to be around. I have Matt and Anthony leaving for a carrier seminar in Scottsdale on Wednesday.

I have finally decided that with 19 people now reporting to me, I have to start shedding some of my production responsibilities. Matt and I have a trip to Redding planned in early May and I will introduce him to several of the agents that are in outlying areas that I have and just can't adequately service anymore. I want to keep my agents that are in the Sacramento area and peel off some of my outlying agents. The production staff likes to give me a bad time because I used to be second or third in production monthly and now run 4th or 5th out of the 7 producers in my office. My goal is to have every producer beat me month in and out and have me still bringing in about $20,000 in income a month. Pete was giving me a bad time early in the month because Matt was ahead of me. I pointed out two things. 1 Matt was doing great which was a cause for celebration and 2, the bottom line of the branch IS my number, not my personal production. I think it was an "oh yeah" moment for Pete. I am thrilled to see how focused and intent Matt is on being successful. I was talking to him as we were out on the golf course Friday and asked how he was liking his job. He said, "I think I'll get tired of it in about 40 years". He was smiling ear to ear.

I hear the garage door opening, signaling the arrival of the jewelry lady. We will enjoy a nice meal tonight and then take a walk in the neighborhood to walk off the calories. The pictures of Jennifer and Samantha were from a trip this last week that they took to the Seigfried and Roy white tiger exhibit in Vegas. The one of Samantha in her car seat is just a diva shot. Samantha wears sunglasses outside whenever it is sunny. I've never seen a three year old wear sunglasses before, but Sam is sort of special, you know?

I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. I'll let you know how I fare in the tournament as my next epistle will come after the final round next Sunday. Darla by the way blew in here, dropped off her jewelry and is now outside washing her car. I got mine washed yesterday afternoon after the Masters ended. I may take the opportunity to vacuum out the interior while she is washing her ride. Be well. Ciao.