I look forward to Sammy being back in Almanor and able to play on the shore and take her for rides with the jet ski. She will be thrilled to be out of Vegas where they have seen temperatures approaching 120 degrees. Jennifer shared the black and white photo above on her Instagram and I stole it.
You can see a picture of Neil and I with Doug from a couple of weeks ago. I am so glad that we went and visited with him and shared a few laughs. Doug Smith passed away Sunday morning in the arms of his loving family with his wife and two adult children by his side. Cancer is a beast and spares no one that it decides to stare down. Doug was tremendously active in the Roseville Golf Club and was our Tournament Bookkeeper for several years. Doug was a man of simple elegance with a calm demeanor and a perpetual smile on his face. I will miss him greatly and was honored to have known him. We do leave for Almanor early Saturday afternoon, but they are honoring Doug at the Firecracker tournament at the club on Saturday and Neil has asked me to make the announcement to the club of Doug's passing and that the tournament is being played in his honor. Neil is setting up a remembrance table on the first tee with pictures of Doug, his driver and a guest book for the members to sign for his widow, Mickey. It is a sad time for the club, but at least he suffers no more.
I also included a photo of the pool that you have seen dozens of times. Darla and I went out Sunday and bought two new umbrellas for the pool which we put in the holes designed for the volleyball net. We had breakfast Sunday morning out and then went over to Sam's Club to shop and saw a nice umbrella for $114. We passed on that and ended up buying the green ones on sale at Rite Aid for $29 a piece. I'm sure the Sam's Club umbrella is much nicer and heavier, but I can buy almost four of these for the cost of one of those.
I only work three days this week as I have Thursday and Friday off for July 4th and then we are on vacation next week. I will golf with the guys at the club on Friday morning at 7:00 AM and hopefully beat the heat. In a nice twist, I am off on Friday and Darla has to work. Will wonders never cease?
I did play golf Saturday in spite of the oppressive heat. We had rain Monday and Tuesday and I spent part of Monday night clearing out the downspouts on my gutters. It was a decent rain with about 1/2 an inch of rain. That combined with the heat and the early morning watering of the course led to a hot and humid start on Saturday. We teed off at 7 AM and it was already 77 degrees and humid. The front nine was rather uncomfortable and my game mirrored that with double bogeys on 8 and 9 for a 44 front. In fact, Neil walked off the course as his game was so sideways. Boyd, Darren and I soldiered on and I shot a 38 on the back to match Boyd and Darren shot a 43 to finally break 90 this year with an 88. Boyd shot his usual 76. I was thrilled to turn my game around and had seven pars and two bogeys on the back side on my way to an 82.
I met with Neil today for lunch as he wanted to discuss his plans for the tournament and Doug. It was his first visit to my office and he enjoyed the man cave here in the back of the suite. We went to Mas Mexican food for lunch and I enjoyed our time together as I always do.
The office had an interesting month in June. I addressed the staff on Wednesday morning and pointed out that many of the staff had never seen us go through a month under budget, but with our budget number at $329,500 and our earned income at $258,000 with two days to go, it was a long shot. I praised the staff for eight straight months exceeding budget. A funny thing happened over the next two days and we booked another $79,000 in earned income to finish with over $2,000,000 in premium and $337,000 in net retained income. We finished the six months with $11,500,000 in premium written and $1,900,000 in earned income up 25% and 27% respectively over 2012. My staff continues to amaze me and we finished June with five of my eight underwriters over $40,000 in retained income. Awesome stuff and I am a blessed man. I will be hosting a lunch for the eighth consecutive month as we beat our budget number again.
Jennifer will drive to Vegas on Thursday and pick up Miss Samantha for our vacation in Northern California. She will drive back over night on Thursday and Friday and be in Almanor with us on Saturday for a week's stay. Jennifer and McKenney were going to come up on Tuesday as McKenney couldn't get Monday off, but his bosses have agreed to allow him to be available by phone on Monday and they will be there all week. David is coming up with us on Saturday and will head home Monday. Daniel is broke and can't make the trip this time. He still works part time at Home Depot and the drive alone from So Cal would wipe him out. He also can't afford to miss any shifts. I hope he lands something in his field soon.
My fingernail has finally completely grown back in after I lost it a couple of months ago. This goes back to last year when I slammed my finger in my golf cart and it turned black and I had to lance it to release the pressure. it was an interesting process, but I'm thrilled to be whole again.
Well, obviously I'm reaching for news and have to get back to work. I had to do some handicapping for the Roseville Golf Club last night and was too lazy to work on the blog, so I did it today. The blog will be on vacation next week, but will return with a bunch of pictures from our trip and some great memories of our week with family. Be well. Ciao.
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