I love living in this country where you have the right to do most anything that you want to do. I choose not to buy Safe and Sane fireworks and watch $100 worth of my money burn up on my driveway while a bucket of water and hose sit at the ready. I've never understood the mindset of watching lame and uninteresting sparks and whistles erupt while the only lasting impression is the burn marks you leave on the ground. I'd rather hook up an old toaster to an extension cord and pour colored water into it and watch the show. To each his own I guess. The one good that comes of the insanity is the money that the non-profits make from the sale of fireworks to the uninformed masses. A good fireworks stand at a key location will make about $10,000 for a charity or little league. In California, firework stand permits are limited to charitable causes.
We had our annual 4th of July swim party, this year named "Finally Summer" on July 2nd. We played golf that day at Diamond in our Firecracker tournament. Bob Pando and his wife came into town from San Jose and played. We both stunk up the joint in the 100 degree heat shooting a pair of 91s and deciding to drink rather than think. I came close to heat exhaustion when I get really light headed on number 11 and had to put a wet towel over my head to drop my core temperature. it wasn't that hot, but the course is poring water on the greens in this heat wave to save them and the humidity on the course is insane.
The gang all showed up about 5:30 and we worked on appetizers and drinks from the shallow end of the pool, that still has some of the dropped salsa, bean dip and chip fragments lying on the bottom. I will get out there today and clean up the leavings. I barbecued shish-ke-bobs of steak, chicken, bell pepper, onion, and zucchini and we ate salads of potato, fruit, spring, Chinese chicken and pistachio. The ladies made ice cream pie, chocolate dipped strawberries, and eclairs. Someone brought a nice bottle of wine that went untouched as we had beer, wine coolers, hard lemonade and Lilly's margaritas. It was HOT and the pool was the place to be until about 7:30 when I started the barbecue. We had a great visit with the 11 people who showed up to the gathering. It was really great to see and spend time with Bob and Vicki and we have to get out to San Jose to see them.
Sunday, Darla wanted to go to the lake with Alicia and Don. We considered bringing the jet ski, but had not picked up Yamalube, the oil propellant that mixes with the gasoline in a two stroke engine. Folsom lake was packed and all of the entrances were closed to vehicles by about 11 AM. Don has a slip at Brown's Ravine and we were able to use his guest pass to park at the marina and take his boat out. The boys said that they will take the jet ski out for a trial run this week. Neither of them were able to find jobs ad it is situation normal around here as far as them and work. Darla has encouraged them to go work with habitat for Humanity or ANYTHING to make their Summer less of a lounge act and more of something they can put on their resumes. Darla even talked to both of them about joining the military as officers if they can't find work right out of college. Both could join the Army Corps of Engineers as officers.
I digress. We set up on the beach area of an island at Folsom Lake and relaxed, eating sandwiches and watching Lucas play in the water. Don took the boys out wake boarding and even wake boarded himself a couple of times with David driving the boat. Don's best friend, Rob, showed up later in the afternoon with his two sons and daughter and three of their friends. They all wake boarded and we finally left about 5:30. Don drove us back to the marina and was going back to pick up Rob and his crew afterward. They will be back out at the lake today, but we will stay home and relax. The boys may make the trip out and join him at the marina.
Today is a day to simply relax and reflect on our weekend and even to perhaps nap a bit on the pool. It is headed to 103 degress today and the pool makes the day seem a lot more tolerable. The temperature of the pool is up to 87 degrees.
We just finished a surprisingly good June at work. The month started with the loss of a $435,000 account and it looked pretty bleak at that point. Thanks to the diligence of my staff, e were able to more than make up for the loss of that account, and although our premium writings were down about $200,000, we were up almost $15,000 in income and profit for the month. I was very proud of the troops. We won't get a lunch out of the results, but I can't say enough about the hard work shown by my staff.
We are now seriously looking at office space in Roseville. We are in the negotiation phase of leasing our new space and we are having buildout proposals done at two locations in Roseville and one in Folsom. We will play each of the landlords off of each other and see what kind of deal we can come up with. it is exciting although I have about six staff members that will increase their commutes by 30 minutes with a move to Roseville. My commute will go from thirty minutes to about eight minutes. so, with the bad comes some good. I stayed away from Roseville when we first started our search because of the commute problem for some of the staff, but the best buildings available are in Roseville and many of our retailers have relocated here as well. I have about three of my renting staff that have said they will relocated to Roseville if we move. Oh well.
Next week we will be in Almanor and the blog will be on vacation. The fun thing about that is that when we return, we will have stories and pictures of Jennifer and Samantha from our trip. john is trying to wreck the vacation, because he thinks he can, but Jennifer has the right in the court papers to a vacation and she will be here. John needs a hobby or a girlfriend or something to get him off Jennifer's back. I know he is a good Dad one on one with Samantha, but is toxic to Jennifer. We don't have contact with him because he is so toxic and unhealthy. Hopefully, some day he will find some happiness in his life and we can reconnect with him.
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