We Survived the Deluge

 

We had a series of storms blow in over the last four days on the back of a Pineapple Express blowing in from Hawaii. We received about a third of our annual rainfall in those four days and almost 3 inches overnight. I had emptied the pool down to the bottom of the tile yesterday and it not only reached the coping, but the flowerbeds adjacent to the pool all overflowed and I ended up with both dirt and some bark chips floating in the pool. Always a fun event. The rain actually stopped this morning and I was able to get out and clean up the backyard of downed leaves, drain the pool and clean up the spa and clean out the filters and drains on the pool. The job in the front yard of raking up and piling the leaves was made easier by the wet leaves and no wind. Working with wet leaves is certainly easier, especially when you are piling them on the street. The "claw" will be along tomorrow and will pick up all of the leaves and haul them away. Nice to see all of the bare trees after this storm. There are still quite a few leaves on the roof along the flashing that will eventually find their way to the ground.

We did have the Christmas party for the Golf Club last night. Darren and Marissa were supposed to join us for their first experience with the club's holiday party, but Marissa fell ill after contacting some illness on the flight home from Dallas last week. She was having trouble breathing and Darren took her to the 24 hour Emergent Care on Saturday morning. Darla and I went over at 6:30 and had a great night with Rick and Jan, Tim and Sue, Dick and Denise and Neil and Lilly. I was lucky enough to win the "Wade Cable" Award, which is the lifetime achievement award for the club. It is the award that is given annually to a board member who has been a valuable board member for a sustained period of time. I have been a board member now for 9 of the last 11 years and  guess it was my turn in the barrel. Neil, Rick, Charlie and Gary are all past winners of the award. Wade Cable was a board member and his son set up an annual award after his death in the seventies that honors a board member each year. The award comes with a nice plaque and a $250 stipend. I also won two free rounds at Diamond Oaks in the door prize drawing. We stayed until about 11 PM and enjoyed a few adult beverages as well as some dancing during the evening.

I'm very proud of Darla as she promoted up at the end of November with Silpada to a Silver Manager. I'm not exactly sure what the parameters are for the promotion, but she has two of her team that are now Star Leaders (her prior title) and she had to have a certain amount of dollar income from herself and her team. She was sweating it right up until 10 PM on Friday night. She texted me while I was at poker to say she hit the mark. There are only two Silver Managers in all of Northern California and her percentage goes up on her team's earnings. She is thrilled and i am very happy for her. When that girl puts her mind to something, she gets it done.

We finished the month at work with an increase of over 65% in premium increase and 54% in net income increase over November of 2011. We ended up number two in the entire company in percentage increase for revenue in November. We were second to an office that writes half of what we write. We were also up over $80,000 in income and second to New Orleans, which is a $60,000,000 branch. I am absolutely thrilled and blessed to have such a great and hard working staff.  We will host a Holiday Party on Thursday night and have over 125 guests coming to see our new space and enjoy some appetizers and libations. I also have about 6 company executives coming in for the party. Harvey will be here and i am taking one of our $1,000,000 agencies out to dinner. Ron is a member of the golf club and also a VP with a large national insurance brokerage. I invited Ron to dinner after our event and also invited his wife. Darla will join us and we will have dinner at Sammy Haggar's Rockin' Island Grill in Roseville. Darla has not met Harvey and it will be a good opportunity for them to visit on Thursday night.

Jennifer sent me a text this week that she has accepted a job in the Bay Area. She is dating a guy who is moving to the Bay Area to take a job and I can only imagine that he hooked her up with the same company. I think it is Ericsson Electronics, but I'm not sure. I asked her by text if she had told John yet and she said she had. Apparently, they have a mediation appointment with the courts and then the courts will decide if Jennifer can take Samantha to California. We are thrilled and hope it all works out for her and Samantha. I enjoy visiting Las Vegas, but think that it is a lurid, horrible town to raise children. There is nudity all over buses, billboards and signs all over town. Samantha so far has not been adversely effected by the town, but as she gets older, it will be harder and harder to keep her innocent.

Jennifer and Samantha will fly out on January 4th to visit with us and to see an animatronics show at Sleep Train Arena. The show is "How to train your dragon" and stars Astrid, the little girl that she dressed up as for Halloween. We haven't seen them since mid August when we were in Vegas to see them for Jennifer's birthday. Darla and I leave for Waikiki on January 8th and will be there for five nights on her annual Soar trip. Next year is Panama and Darla is well on her way to qualifying for that trip. She has until June of 2013 to qualify and is well on her way.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope all is well in your world. I will make sure to wear plenty of sunscreen in Hawaii. Dad has been diagnosed with skin cancer again and got yelled at by his doctor for his dark tan coming home from Mexico. He was wearing 75 SPF sunscreen, but the years of exposure to the sun are catching up to him. Be well. Ciao.