VEGAS next week

I will be happy to be in Vegas next week. Jennifer has been having a rough time of it lately. Her hours have been spotty at work and she has had a tough time making her bills. She feels like she just can't catch a break and it's been hard for her to be on her own completely with no one else to help with the bills. She has been enticed with an opportunity to go overseas for several months and make some good money, but conflicted with leaving Samantha behind. She is scared and stressed and needs some time with family to sort things out. I will be there to listen, give advice if it is asked for and just to love her and Sam unconditionally. I feel for her stuck in Vegas with John and his family entrenched in Sin City, a city that has really felt the pinch of unemployment, the housing crash and a slow economy. The failed policies of Barrack Hussein Obama are felt more keenly in a town like Vegas, a city that has little to no economic activity outside gaming and the infrastructure that supports it. She has needed our help to get by recently and is embarrassed and frustrated and wants a quick fix to a problem that has been long in the making. We will sit and talk next weekend.


Hopefully a change is coming in November, but it is hard to be positive as this administration has been one large teat, using our kid's inheritance as a sucker for the unemployed, the welfare recipients and even the big banks that created their own problems. Obama has the lower class, the blacks, the Latinos and the government employees in his hip pocket and it is a long, uphill battle for the Republicans. The answer to our problems is support for small and mid sized businesses that will be the engine that drives employment and prosperity in this company, not taxation of the rich and middle class. That doesn't work and our spending policies are out of control. The current administration is a serious concern for the future of this country as a super power. The one thing keeping us alive right now is the US dollar's use as a trading currency. That is in real jeopardy as China, Saudi Arabia and other countries are refusing to accept dollars as a trading currency instead using the Euro to complete their international transactions. Most oil is now priced in Euros as OPEC has abandoned the US dollar as a trading currency. It's scary and you wonder if the Manchurian candidate Obama is reeling us all into his plan to destroy America. This is all documented in the new movie "2016" that is having a limited showing in cities with a population of thinking Americans. It is getting heavy play in conservative areas like the Midwest and south. The Republican ticket may not be perfect, but the alternative may be the end of America as a super power in world politics.

That is a sunny beginning to a blog entry, eh?  I have serious doubts about the intentions of one Barrack Hussein and see ObamaCare as a huge ticking bomb that will implode in this country and take away all of the democratic and American freedoms that this country represents. Once a government begins to dictate to the people and we lose our free will, we become servants to the government, instead of the government being there to serve us. We have veered way off on the wrong tack and we are drifting toward the rocks. I pray that we can save this country and the future of our kids and grand kids before it is too late. Obama is popular, but so was Hitler and Mussolini.

We had an interesting sermon this morning on the perils of ignoring the teachings of the Bible and doing things our own way. Pastor Rick had an interesting point that Buddhism mirrors the thoughts and viewpoints of Siddhartha, Mormonism follows the thoughts and viewpoint of Joseph Smith and that the Muslim faith follows the teachings and viewpoint of Muhammed. The only religion that has a differing viewpoint is Christianity, it teaches good and evil and warns against having false gods in our lives. CS Lewis wrote: "Anything we make into a god eventually becomes a demon." So true.  All of this ties into what is happening in America today. Moral and religious confusion leads to war and civil war. Civil war leads to loss of life and loss of life leads to loss of personal rights. We are traveling down a slippery slope right now and need to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

I'll climb down off my soap box now. I saw Neil yesterday and we played golf together. We rode together in the same cart and I got the Reader's Digest version of his vacation. they had a total blast up in Vancouver with Dad and Shirley and he couldn't stop raving about them as a couple and as hosts. They got to see Langley and enjoyed the car show in Cloverdale immensely. Neil was retelling the story of driving the 44 Mercury to the car show and how careful he was and then the crush of humanity as they left the show later and how his heart rate spiked as   he drove the several miles back to Surrey. He loved the car show and the time spent with Dad that day. Shirley and Lilly took off and shopped the stores of Cloverdale and the whole gang ate both breakfast and lunch in Cloverdale. Dad and Shirley talked them into staying an extra night and they got to take the SkyTrain into Vancouver and saw the steam clock and other attractions. Neil was tickled pink with the trip. another highlight for them was Mount Rushmore that Neil said was a stirring sight at night when they turn the light on the mountain and play the National Anthem. They enjoyed Yellowstone National Park, but it was really smoky from the forest fires. Neil asked one of the rangers when the smoke would clear and the answer was "not until the first snowfall". Wow.

We have a line of smoke that encircles the valley, but the high level winds have cleared out our skies and it is blue above us, but you can see a ring of smoke to the West and north of us. It is odd.

I did play golf three times this week. Wednesday I played in a scramble event following a Continuing Education event at Timber Creek golf course. The golf started at 1PM and took 5 hours to complete. There wee about 22 teams, but only about 15 actually finished and turned in cards. I played with Gary and Stan and Vicky. I had planned to play with Gary and hook up with two others, but I saw Stan and Vicky when I was registering them and got us all in the same group. We shot a 66 and took second place, which is a $50 gift card. The marketing rep will stop by this week and drop off our winnings. There were only two ladies in the group and Vicky won the closest to the pin for women and one of Pete's agents won the ladies long drive.

Thursday I played in our twilight league. We only have two weeks left and Steve and I are in second place. We are three points behind first, but don't need to move up as the final night will be 1 vs 2 and so on, so we need to stay in second to get a shot at winning the league. I shot 39 on Thursday and Steve shot 42.

Saturday I played power Hour with Neil, Bob and Darren and shot a nice 36+41=77. I thought I had a chance to put a really low round together, but ran out of steam on the back side. I will play in a Tuesday day event this week and twilight league Thursday before boarding the plane Friday morning for Vegas. I decided to play in the Tuesday event when I found out that one of my carriers is coming in that afternoon and wants to have dinner that night. We will go out to the Chinese Food restaurant in the Thunder Valley casino.

I will add the final piece to my work puzzle tomorrow when Kennah starts. She will be an endorsement specialist and eventual assistant to Connie, my newest underwriter. Connie is putting some serious constraints on when and how Kennah will be used as she will be training her and wants to make sure she isn't inundated with work. This will be a real boon to the office as several of the teams are buried in endorsements.

Well, the blog will be on vacation next week, but will return with pictures of Jennifer and Samantha next week. I hope you are all doing well and will add pictures next week. Be well. Ciao.