I have been warned to stay off my feet

I guess it is more of the same on the pictures, but a couple more to keep our memories fresh. I did bang my Achilles again in Vegas and needed to see my doctor this week. I originally injured my foot playing racquetball with Darla over four months ago and was hoping that the injury would heal itself. I wake up every morning and limp into the bathroom and stay with my right foot essentially frozen until the blood starts flowing and everything un-stiffens. My doctor said it is the same as arthritis where the joints are so fused in the morning that people can't even use their hands. I had banged my heel on the door jamb of the rental car and a fresh round of pain coursed through my body and I decided it was time to get some help. I went to the medical center on Wednesday and she sent me down to x-ray to get a look at the heel. Essentially the Achilles has come loose from my heel and is "floating". She wanted to cast my foot right then, but I had the 18th week of my twilight golf league on Thursday night and then the Labor Day golf event on Sunday. She wasn't impressed with how seriously I was taking the injury and told me that I had three weeks to see some improvement in my heel or she would put me into a cast. The Achilles needs to rest and hopefully it will reattach itself if I can stay off of the foot and not work it loose again. I am wearing the walking boot whenever we are out and I keep my foot up when I am at home.

We were out to church and then dinner on Saturday night and when we went into Mary's Pizza Shack, we sat in a booth next to a woman in a walking boot. I leaned over and said, "I can feel your pain" as I walked past. I excused myself and went to wash my hands and Darla was giggling when I got back. Apparently, the woman had a complete heel replacement 15 years ago and has been in her boot ever since. Leave it to me to insert my walking boot into my mouth when we are in public.

Steve and I did play for first place in the league againts a husband and wife team going for a three-peat in the league. We beat them pretty handily closing them out on the 8th hole with two pars and winning the league. We all went out afterward to pizza and I put my walking boot on and kidded them about losing to a gimp.

Darla and I were supposed to go to a Labor Day barbecue this afternoon, but Darla has events every night this week and wasn't feeling up to being gone tonight. I think if the event had been held over the weekend, we would have been there. The hosts both played in our Labor Day golf event and decided to have it today at their house in Granite Bay.

The Labor day golf tournament was different for me in that I used a power cart in order to stay off my foot and I had the heel bandaged with an Ace supporter. I must have looked like quite the athlete, with a tendinitis brace on my left arm and an ace bandage on my right leg. Age is somewhat humbling, but I recall Darla telling me to play racquetball because I didn't work up enough of a heart rate when I golf. True, but I had never injured myself golfing either, other than the tendinitis, which actually started years ago when I still played softball. I managed a 42+42=84, which wasn't really bad or good and gave me a net 74 with my 10 strokes (I'm at a 9.8 index now).

It will be difficult, but I will lay off golf next weekend and wear the walking boot for the next three weeks and the Ace bandage when I can't. I have two charity golf games next week, one in Redding and the other here in Roseville and I will take carts at both of those. My biggest concern is that one of my agents has invited me to play in the Serrano Invitational again this year. This is the three day event that cost $1800 per team to play and includes shoes, shirts, golf gloves, golf balls, sunglasses, cigars, pens, hats and all the free food and drink you can consume while you play. My agent, Gary's, wife will be out of town during the event, so we will go stag this year. Darla, Kelly and Gary and I were going to attend a pre-event party at a 21,000 square foot home at the country club, but now Darla will be in Pasadena at a work conference on that date. I think it could have been a great event for Darla's Silpada business as those ladies will drop $1000 on jewelry without batting an eye. Oh well.

I need to be serious about healing. If I end up getting a cast, I won't be able to drive as the cast will be on my right foot. Darla doesn't seem all too thrilled about the concept of chauffeuring me around town. I'm sure I can get a ride home from work, but she would have to drive me each morning. I'd like to avoid that as I would have the cast on for a month.

Darla and I spent some time on the pool today reading and relaxing after the golf finished up this afternoon on TV. I was winding down finishing up my chapter in the shade of the umbrella in the far end of the pool when I heard Darla yell and then a splash. A bee had landed on her and stung her thigh and she overreacted, flipping her pool lounge over and dropping her book into the water. She was not too thrilled that I found the entire episode slightly amusing.

Jennifer and Samantha ended up in Southern California this weekend with her mother at Disneyland. Sam had lunch with one of the princesses at Disneyland and Diane and Jennifer ran in the Disneyland half marathon on Sunday. Jennifer has been working every night up to when she left on Saturday morning and she texted me that she had worked 15 hours on Friday and another 16 hours on Tuesday, her birthday. It seems like it is feast or famine in her job.

We finished the month of August up another 12% at work and the additions to staff have all panned out pretty well. I have one issue with one of the new employees and attitude, but seemed to get through to her that a pleasant demeanor with one's work mates is the smartest road to happiness in the work place. Her argument that " I thought I got paid to work, not make friends" didn't go over very well with me. I reminded her of her interview and the focus that I had on TEAM and that any additions to staff would have to mesh well with the team as we had things really rocking. she kind of shrugged and said, "oh, yeah." I told her this was an opportunity to do a U turn and make amends with her coworkers and I saw her doing just that on Thursday and Friday. Hopefully, that continues. I've been very lucky in my recent hires and it is hard to hit a home run every time. I will take the staff out to lunch this Thursday at Buca Di Beppo in Roseville to celebrate another month of being above budget. I suppose a $300 lunch is  cheap price to pay for continued success.

I put some items for sale this past week. I had two golf clubs, two golf bags and two golf carts. I put the clubs on eBay and the carts and bags on Craig's list. I had a Cleveland 7 wood that I thought I'd be lucky to sell for $25. I had put it up on Auction with a Buy It Now option of $69 and it sold the first day. I have a lightly used Titleist Vokey 60 degree spin milled wedge for $89 BUY It Now or auction and it went to auction with a 5 bids and a current price of $50 with one day to go. I hope to get $75 for it. I sold one bag Saturday for $25 and the rest of the lot yesterday for $100. So, for a bunch of left over golf equipment, I should hopefully clear $269. Not bad, and I cleaned out the garage.

Well, there are two seasoned rib eyes sitting on the kitchen counter awaiting my barbecue skill, so I will work my way over to the kitchen and out to the gas grill in the backyard for some medium rare deliciousness. Be well and I will check back in next weekend. I'll be bored, so prepare for quite an epistle.