I am finally back to the blog after a week off. My intention was to get a post done this week, but I was tired on Monday after driving back from San Luis Obispo. It was hot and Darla and I just relaxed on the pool. Tuesday, my CEO was in the office and I had one of the Directors from Home Office in my office until Friday. Once the week slipped away from me I decided to just wait until today to get the post completed.
We had a ball in San Luis Obispo and stayed in a King Suite at the Pismo Beach Resort. It turns out that our condo was just down the street from the RV Park that Darla's parents were staying in and it was a coincidence as I had done the reservation months before. We got into the resort about 6:30 and had to take a detour as Highway 41 was closed due to a bad accident Friday afternoon.We met Earl and Frances, Darla's folks, and had a late dinner with them at the local Mexican food restaurant. Jennifer and Samantha were coming in as well, but didn't get out of Vegas until 4 PM. She ended up driving a friend's truck over because she has a tire that needs to be replaced. They finally rolled in about midnight and Samantha, who was fast asleep woke up and was bouncing up and down on our bed within minutes of waking up. Jennifer's friend's truck has a bad ding in the rear bumper and the tailgate can't be opened. You have to jiggle the key in the lock to get the rear window open so you can access the rear compartment. More on that later.
Saturday, we were up a little later. Samantha woke up and wanted to go the beach. San Luis and Pismo runs about 70 degrees in June and the winds are fairly consistent, especially in the afternoon. We wanted to get over to see Darla's parents and there were some ducks and sea gulls that hang out at a small lake behind our resort. We brought some bread along and you can see the picture of Sam feeding the birds. We went from there over to the RV park and saw Earl and Frances.Samantha played at the playground on site as we visited. David came over to see us and our plan was to go to the beach and relax in the sun. We did walk down to the beach, but the wind was up and we tried to find a spot above the bluffs to get out of the wind, but it was very difficult and the wind was blowing the sand onto our blanket, onto us and into our eyes. Samantha didn't care. She was running through the sand, making sand angels, running on the beach with Jennifer and David. Darla and I were miserable and walked back to the resort to sit by the pool until they got back and then we'd fix hot dogs for lunch. The kids followed pretty shortly after us, although Samantha wanted to stay. There is quite a draw of the beach for kids, especially ones that live in the desert.
Saturday night, we accepted an invitation from Steve, David and Daniel's father, to come to a barbecue at his rented beach house in Morro Bay. The house he rented was two stories with five bedrooms and was situated right across the street from the beach. Jennifer, Samantha and Daniel, who we saw for the first time as he was coming back from Becky's graduation from Grad school in Los Angeles, walked across the street to the beach and walked out on the pier.They had a full house with cousins, aunts, uncles and other family all staying at the home. We had a good time and stayed until about 9 o'clock.
Sunday was graduation day and we decided to miss the combined graduation ceremony and just go the individual ceremonies for the Agriculture and the Engineering schools. Jennifer had an 8 hour drive and decided to drive herself and leave from the school. I pulled her truck over closer to the condo. As we were loading the truck, I took the keys and was jiggling the key in the back lock to open the glass. I couldn't get it to open and took the keys in and just loaded the bags over the seat. As we were leaving for the graduation, Jennifer went out to the car and noticed that her key was broken. She came in and showed me the key and told me I broke it. I was shocked. We looked in the back lock and saw the half of the key stuck in the lock. We called AAA and sent Darla on with her folks to the ceremony. The locksmith took almost 45 minutes to get there and another 35 minutes to extract he half key and make a replacement key for the truck. He ended up making two and the cost was $195, $100 of which was paid by AAA. We missed the ceremony and I took Jennifer and Samantha over to the park to feed the ducks and then over to the big playground to burn off some energy before they left for Vegas. I then took them out to lunch in Pismo.
We went to the Cracked Crab and had clam chowder and Jennifer had crab salad for lunch. I had fish and chips. They had a crab tank and while Samantha was looking at the crabs in the aquarium, the chef came out with a big pot and took the crabs out so Sam could see them. He let Sam touch the bottom of the crab and when she did, Jennifer yelled "boo!" behind her. She of course jumped and one of the busboys was watching over by our table where I was sitting and he said, "Man, that's just messed up." That is my daughter. The chef told Samantha that one of the crabs was already named "Crabby" and he needed her to come up with a name for the other one and it was a girl. Sam thought a bit and said "Shelly". Not bad, eh? They left for Vegas shortly after.
Darla and her parent's and Uncle J.R. got back about 2 PM and J.R. invited me over to this place in Nipomo to play golf at his club, Black Lake. It is a course that I think once was probably really nice, but maintenance and water issues have cost the course some of it's former glory. I enjoyed the round and shot an 84, with a 41 on the back side. J.R. shot about 90 and we had a good time together, finishing our round in about 3 and a half hours. We then met Darla, her parents, and the boys and Becky at JJ Bumps Saloon in San Luis Obispo at 7 PM for dinner.
Jennifer decided to let Samantha see more of the ocean and took the 101 down to the 210 in Los Angeles and worked her way back to Vegas from there. They got home about 8:30.
Darla and I took a slow trip home on Monday, stopping in Paso Robles for breakfast and getting home about 3:30 PM. Tuesday, I had to go to my doctor to have her look at my ear, that had an exterior infection that started as a sunburn. The skin broke open and I kept putting suntan lotion on it and it got infected. My doctor put me on antibiotics for a week and wanted to look at it again on Monday. She didn't like the way it was healing, although I felt much better as the pain and swelling was gone. I went over to see the dermatologist Tuesday afternoon and he put me on a topical antibiotic that I'll apply over the next three weeks and then see me again.
Tuesday night I picked up Alan. I had on slacks and a golf shirt and had brought a dress shirt to change into. I was going to change in the cell phone lot and Pete and I got yakking and I forgot and met him in my Nike golf shirt. He had no reaction, but I'm sure it bothered him. We met Harvey at the hotel and went to a late dinner at Tahoe Joe's. I did change into the dress shirt before we left.
The trip went pretty well. We saw an agent for breakfast, one at lunch and a group for dinner. In between we had our meetings. Alan praised our office for the great 2011 we had and the momentum that we have going in 2012. He then told us three or four things that he feels we can do to improve our mix of business and the agents we do business with. I have said that my definition of marketing is not what you say, but how you say it. For instance, You can tell a woman that she has a face that could stop a clock OR you can take the hand of that same woman and tell her that when you gaze into her eyes, time stands still. You've said the same thing, but likely would get two entirely different reactions. The message was received.
I did get out this weekend, despite the 100 degree temperatures and played golf. Darren and I teed off at 6:30 PM and were done by 9:45. Darren is amazing. He rarely plays golf, but shot 42 on the front nine to my 43. I did play great on the back nine and shot a 38 for 81. Darren showed his rust on the back with a 46 and shot 88. The heat is expected to hang around most of this week and I have a 6:44 tee time at Woodcreek next Saturday morning.
Well, a lot to digest this week, but you got a double dose because of the missing post last week. I hope you all have a great week and Happy Father's Day to everyone! Ciao.
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