Temperatures in the low 90's. The pool clean and glistening and 80 degrees. A light, unobtrusive breeze blowing in the air. Nothing not to like about this Northern California weekend. I didn't play golf on Saturday for the first time in about two months and used the time to do some much needed yard work and chores. I was up at the crack of 9 AM and after a hearty pancake and some Darla time, was out to fix a sprinkler riser in the front flowerbed that got broken off underground by an overly aggressive tug on the 100 foot hose on Friday night as I hand watered and sprayed down the grass after mowing. I then took the hedge trimmers, a garden rake, the leaf vac and some hand shears and cut back all of the bushes and flowers in the front and side yards. I filled a 90 gallon trash can that had been emptied Friday morning with trimmings, cuttings and leaves. The yard looks like a whole new landscape as you can now make out each individual plant and see in and around all of the bushes and trees.I can get a little extreme when I finally get to cutting back the plants, but it was long overdue.
I then had a bite of lunch and was on to the backyard. The automatic control for the sprinklers was on the fritz and the 20 year old controller was destined for the land fill. I took down the old one and then had to paint the wall of the house where it resided and could see the original house paint color below (white). I attached all of the wires and set the new controller, testing each station and being pleasantly surprised to see them working. I set the time, date, sprinkler station durations, day of the week, etc and waited to see if it actually came on this morning. (It did.) By then it was 3:00 PM and we had a 5:00 PM party to attend. I wanted to reseal the stamped concrete deck and decided to take on that chore in the hours left of my work day. I took a solution of water and Formula 409 to the deck with a hand mop and then took on the task of hand sealing the deck, from the shed to the spa. I used a six inch stain brush and did the 600 square foot deck in about an hour and 45 minutes. I painted myself right into the back sliding doors and then took a quick shower before heading to Darren and Marissa's barbecue in Roseville. We showed up about 30 minutes late, but there was plenty of beer and drinks left and the hors de ouvres were just coming out of the oven. The crowd was one lady and her husband from Darla's work and about four neighbor couples. I was exhausted and had trouble engaging with people I didn't know very well. They didn't cook dinner until almost 9 o'clock and I was fading fast with the Widmer IPA beers and Sierra Nevada Hefeweisens I was drinking. I spent most of my time throwing a ball for one of the three dogs running rampant in the backyard and talking to a guy who works as a telecommunications expert for the Federal Reserve Bank. He went through all of the Reserve banks in the US and each of their satellite offices. After awhile he sounded like the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons (Wa Wa Wa). Darla was engaged in a different group in the backyard and kept beckoning me over, but the comfort of the backyard couch that I was sitting on was too much of a draw for me to move over and be engaged in actual conversation. Darla and I both decided that the next time we get invited to an evening party that I shouldn't spend seven hours working on the yard beforehand.
We almost got out of the house about ten PM, but then a couple of the ladies wanted to see Darla's Silpada catalogues and it was all over for me. Darren showed me a picture that he took of the full moon on May 5th and then dragged me out to the spot where he took the picture over the fence and toward the elementary school across the street. The picture was interesting, the view of the venue where the picture was taken not so much. I got back into the house and Darla was finishing up two sales of jewelry for a total of over $400, a good night for her.
We got home about 10:50 PM and went into the spa. The stamped concrete had dried and we spent about 15 minutes soaking in the hot water. Darla got out and I followed, stepping into the water at the bottom of the steps that she had dripped on her way out of the spa. My feet went right out from under me and I crashed onto my tailbone on the hard concrete. I guess I caught myself with my left wrist as it was sore this morning when I got up. For some reason my knees hurt as well and I jarred my head pretty good when I fell as it snapped back. I went to sleep with a headache. I was frankly pretty lucky not to have hit my head on the steps as I fell right at the base of the two steps.
I had golf this morning and was sore and achy. My wrist was throbbing and we looked at a couple of ace bandages, but they were too bulky. The left wrist is the hand that I wear my golf glove, so I just secured that tighter than I normally do. I continued to put the lesson I had with Dale at Diamond to work for me which basically realigned my setup and address position on the ball. He also has me holding my follow through for a few seconds on each of my shots and going through a pre shot routine on each shot for continuity. It's working as I shot a 41+41=82 for a net 69 in the tournament. I was leading my flight when I left, but only know that I should be in the money. This was the second of the four annual Diamond Tournaments put on by the course and sponsored by different golf manufacturers. Today was Srixon and Cleveland's turn to sponsor the event.
My new assistant starts tomorrow. She was the Manager of the Brighton Collectibles store in the Roseville Galleria and asked if she could get them through Mother's day before starting work. I agreed. She took last week off to recharge her batteries and starts with me tomorrow. Shawna is a friend of Darla's and worked with her selling Silpada before taking the position with Brighton. Pete at work thinks it is nuts that I hired one of Darla's friends as she now has a set of eyes in the office. Number one, I have nothing to hide and number two, Shawna was an absolute find for me. She has a strong marketing presence and as Harvey said, "she could run your office Ken". I will have her take on some of the management of the typing team and help me with marketing for the entire office. I see her as a part time assistant for me and a marketing specialist for the office down the road. Right now, I have to teach her how to spell "insurance". I am interviewing for one more assistant position in the office and hope to have Harvey do second interviews with the candidates next week. I have one internal candidate and three very strong external candidates for the position.
We are supposed to experience a bit of a cool down this week. Our normal temperatures for mid May are supposed to be about 82 degrees and we ran ten degrees over that this weekend. The forecast is down into the mid seventies by week's end. I will get some fertilizer down on the lawn this week with the temperatures dropping down. The lawn looks good and I added some grass seed in a couple of the thin areas a couple of weeks ago and it has taken pretty well. With the slight heat wave, I have a couple of spots that have slightly browned out and I can work on those with the cooler temperatures.
Well that is another blog post in the books. Darla and David both had birthdays this week and Darla got a new ASUS computer. I have a Lenovo, which is the old IBM ThinkPad line of computers. I am thrilled with mine and was going to get Darla one, but did some research and found that the ASUS is rated just a little higher than Lenovo overall and especially in terms of durability. Darla is pretty hard on her electronic equipment because she is forever on it and I decided to give the ASUS a try. So far so good. I hope you all have a stellar week and I will blog again next week over the Memorial Day weekend. Be well. Ciao.
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