Manager's Meeting 2013

 

 

Back from Detroit and now I'm a Managing Director. It is more of a title change than anything, but I have been asked to help out more with some of our other offices. The Manager in Fresno is retiring and the plan is that Fresno will fold into Sacramento as a Service Office. Our local Manager has been asked to stay on for the next year as we transition the office. The concern is that we will lose some of the staff because she has been the Manager there for over 25 years.

 

It was a really good meeting for my office as we won 8 awards at the meeting, including a Distinguished Service Award for one of our Assistants, New business awards for both Peter and Matt and awards for Top Producer for both Pete and Matt. Peter also won a Leadership award and our office won an Office of the Year Award. I was still recuperating and the hours were not my friend. We generally start at 8 AM and GO GO GO until 11 at night. Darla asked me to try to make sure I got plenty of rest and didn't push myself too hard. I did NOT go to the Hospitality suite at all this trip, which is rare for me, but we got in so late each night and I was so exhausted, that I just went to bed.

 

I called Darla on Friday night and couldn't get hold of her. It turns out that she took advantage of me being gone and took a road trip to Pasadena to see Daniel. She had a voucher for a free night at a Marriott facility and took advantage of that. Both Daniel and Becky joined her and they had dinner Friday night and breakfast on Saturday. Darla was on the road by two in the afternoon and made it home in time to pick me up.

 

My office also won a bunch of trophies in the Pinewood Derby. Our car wasn't fast and we took second in all four heats that we ran. The trophies we won were all aesthetically based as we took two 3rd fro Carrier's Choice and Executives Choice and a Second Place for Most Original. There were 74 entries, so it was significant and Connie's husband did a great job of building and designing the car.

 

I also came back to the annual fall deluge of leaves as the wind started in on Saturday and blew all day today. I took about 45 minutes to rake up some leaves, but as soon as I picked them up, others blew right in behind them.

 

I got in about ten o'clock last night and Darla and I went in the spa and then I went to bed as it was already 2 AM my time by the time we got home and got out of the spa. I was up about 7:30 this morning and Darla fixed a nice home cooked breakfast of eggs and sausage in a burrito. I then taped the Dallas game and headed to the course. Today was the Past President's tournament for 2013. All of the former President's tee off first and I was in the first group with Neil, Rick and Tim. I played okay, but lost a ball on the 9th hole and took a 7 for a 44 on the front. I had birdied number two but followed that up with a ball in the water and a double bogey on the next hole. I did get it going on the back nine and birdied number 10 and 16 for a 41 on the back and an 85 It won't be good enough to be in the money, but I should get some skin money for the three birdies and I did improve my Eclectic score on two of the holes. The Eclectic is the year long best score on each individual hole at Diamond during selected tournaments. I now have a 63 on the year.

 

It has been over two weeks since this illness took hold and I still tire easily and have a cough deep in my chest. I don't think the trip to Detroit helped and I plan to relax and take it easy the rest of this week. I'll be at work, but will rest when I need to, drink plenty of water and put this behind me for good.

 

Darla has an event in Monterey next weekend and she wants me to go with her on Saturday. I think I just need to take it easy at home. We talked about going up to Tahoe on Sunday and staying over at the Lakeside Inn. They have a deal for $89 that includes a night's stay, breakfast for two and a Steak and Lobster dinner for two. Not a bad deal. We'll see if we make it next week.

 

Our office has once again beat our budget goal for the month and we are carrying over September and October for our holiday lunch. Hopefully we will hit our number in November as well and we can have a great celebration in December.

 

I will be changing things up in my office starting this month as I will completely give up all of my agencies. I discussed this with many of the managers that handle offices of my size and they have given up production and concentrated on working with the younger producers and making sure that the younger staff members get the proper training. I have 26 people who all report to me now and I don't feel that I'm giving the few agents that I have left the proper level of service. I will get more involved with marketing and training and making sure that my office remains one of the best in the company. I don't get paid on my own production anymore and I don't like to compete with my guys who do get paid based on their numbers.

 

Well, dinner is served, so I will bid you all adieu and I'll be back at the keyboard next weekend. Ciao.

The Flu turns into Pneumonia

I finally got back to work last week on Thursday but was far from 100%. I was tired and weak and still wheezing and short of breath. I called my doctor and finally got an appointment with one of his colleagues for Friday. I had trouble sleeping again Tuesday and Wednesday night, but found several packages of TheraFlu in the cupboard and made up some hot, lemony brew that finally calmed my cough and let me sleep.

The doctor on Friday examined me, listened to my lungs and pronounced me to have a lung infection. I was put on a prescription of antibiotics and finally started feeling better. I'm still coughing and have some blockage in my lungs, but the symptoms have almost disappeared and I feel much, much better. I will complete the protocol. Hopefully by the then the infection will clear up and I'll be able to breathe deeply again. This has been one of the worst medical dilemmas that I can ever remember going through. I was thrilled that they finally diagnosed the pneumonia as it is treated with antibiotics and almost always a complete recovery. I was talking to Darla about it last night when...

She read me the riot act! She told me that I didn't take care of myself while I was sick, in particular I didn't eat properly and that the flu had morphed into pneumonia because I let it happen. That she has diabetes and I can't allow infectious diseases like pneumonia to enter our house because she is so susceptible to any infectious disease. It certainly gave me pause and I admit to being a horrible patient. I hate being sick and if I don't have an appetite, I don't eat. I think I probably had the pneumonia from the start because I've never had the flu more than two or three days. This illness now has dragged on for 11 days and I leave for five days in Detroit tomorrow. I did lose 6 pounds while I was ill and weigh in at 191 pounds right now. I was at 218 at my heaviest after being at 189 pounds when Darla and I were married. It was a tough way to lose the weight, but I feel physically very good at this weight.

I went out on Saturday and played Timber Creek in Roseville with Neil, Boyd and Tim. We had a $60 Groupon and I was committed to playing. I was weak and tired and basically got out of my sick bed to play golf and not surprisingly shot 50 on the front nine. What I was proud of was that I followed that up with a 40 on the back for 90. It was a great tome getting together with the guys after a week of being ill. Next week we play in the Past President's event which is the annual tournament that honors the past presidents of the Roseville Golf Club. I will play in the first group with Neil and Rick and Tim. All of the Presidents tee off in the first group and we all have our own skins that are paid for by the club. It is an honor to take low net in the Tournament and I will do my best.

I am off tomorrow morning for Detroit and fly from Sacramento to Los Angeles and then on to Detroit from there. We will have meetings Wednesday and Thursday in Home Office and then Friday and Saturday at the Henry Hotel in Dearborn. Saturday we have a Pinewood Derby and I turned the CA03 (our branch code) car to one of my underwriter's husbands who is a woodworker and off on disability. He asked me for some ideas and I told him to knock himself out. This is what he came up with. I don't know how fast our car will be, but it will definitely be one of the cooler looking cars.

I will try to get some pictures and videos. this should be kind of fun and at least different.

Darla is off visiting a new recruit tonight and is bringing dinner home with her. I would have packed while she was gone, but she picked up a new garment bag for me. The clasp on the last one broke on my last trip. I have clothes laid out, but this trip is all dress shirts and suits, so the packing is pretty easy. I usually try to bring a pair of sweats and a t shirt to relax in when I'm in the room. The weather here this week is 82 degree high all week. Detroit is a high of 48 degrees (low 28)  Thursday Friday and Saturday with a slight chance of snow flurries overnight. UGH.

Well, there isn't much to this post, but I was late getting it done again yesterday and decided to do the post tonight. I expect Darla any time and look forward to dinner. Pete and I went out to Fat's Chinese today and I'm ready to eat again. I hope you are all well. Darryl, are you and Cheryl going to join us in Mexico this year? If so, bring your golf clubs. Ciao.

The Flu puts me on my back!!

That's my girl. And a picture from Jennifer of Sam doing homework for Kindergarten. No other  pictures this week as I spent most of the weekend flat on my back with a BAD case of the flu. It started Friday night after poker when I came home and decided to sit in the spa with Darla. I had some body aches that were creeping in and we spent about twenty minutes relaxing in the spa. When I got out, I decided to add some chlorine to the spa, but I couldn't even pick up the bottle because I started having body spasms that were chills. My entire body was shaking and I could barely open the slider to get back in the room. Darla thought I was kidding. I've never had chills like that before in my life. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers up over my face and tried to get my body to relax. It finally did and I actually slept well Friday night.

Saturday I was up early for golf and I felt great (surprisingly). I thought the worst has passed, but boy was I wrong.  I actually played one of my better rounds of late shooting a 37+43=80. I was actually 5 over par after 17 holes, but had some serious problems with my sand wedge up by the green. I took 5 to get on and then just missed a 15 foot putt and took a triple to end the round. Ouch.

I left pretty early after the round as I needed to clean the pool, trim some bushes in the back yard and clean up the downed leaves in the yard. I worked for about 2 and a half hours and then felt tremendously tired. I laid down and slept for about two hours. When I woke up I had the return of body aches and got into the spa for about thirty minutes. When I got out I took a shower and then laid down and fell asleep again for an hour. Darla came home and I had a fever, a stomach ache and a splitting headache. We skipped church Saturday night and I laid on the couch and slept off and on. I took some Advil and Day Quill and went to bed about 11:30. Saturday night was a really rough night as I had trouble sleeping because of my cough which exacerbated my headache. I also woke up about 4;00AM with a tremendous fever that caused me to sweat through the sheets. Darla wasn't in bed and she was up with some stomach issues of her own. I got up and took a Nyquil and a couple of cough drops.

I didn't get out of bed until noon on Sunday. Darla was up and off to a Silpada event after going to church. I felt like Hell and got up and watched some of the football games while actually sleeping off and on. Darla came home about 4 PM and I turned the TV off after the last game and fell asleep hoping to wake up for the Dallas game that night. I slept through most of the first quarter before waking up and watching the game while laying flat on my back.

I had another rough night last night and was awake with my cough and headache. I got up about 8AM and called into work and did payroll and then a project for Harvey that was due today and I went back to sleep. I woke up at about 11 and worked on the computer for an hour and fell back asleep until 1 PM. I was really sore and got up and went into the spa and let the hot water pound away at my sore body. I got out of the spa and felt really weak and laid down on the chaise lounge in the back yard and let the sun work on my mood. I crawled from there back to bed and felt like Hell. I had congestion in my chest, a headache, a cough and body aches. I laid on the bed and Darla came home and I asked her to call the advice nurse at Sutter to figure out why I wasn't getting better after 48 hours.

We changed to Cigna health Coverage from Kaiser and the wait for the advice nurse was a half hour. We finally got to talk to her and she told me to take Nyquil or Day Quil and stay away from Ibuprofen or Tylenol as the Day Quil already has that ingredient in the mix. It also has a decongestant and a cough suppressant. She told me to drink lots of water and don't do any strenuous activity. I talked to her about my concerns that this might be walking pneumonia as my friend, John, just went though that and was on antibiotics. My symptoms are more closely related to flu and I hope to lick this soon, because I have work to do.

Well that's it for this week. I didn't feel like even doing a blog entry, but I am my Dad's son and a bit anal, so here you go. I hope you all have a good week and avoid this flu. It has been brutal. Ciao.

OH..Monterey, Baby!!

 

Back from Monterey and a really great weekend of friends, golf, food, wine and fun. I survived my visit with my CEO and he was very appreciative of the job that I'm doing and of the staff in place now at my office. We met with the staff, had lunch with one of our better prospect agencies, and also met with the landlord to look at expanding the space in my office. The landlord wants us to take on about 1100 square feet more than we want, because it would be dead space in the corner if we took just the 1100 square feet that we want. We asked them to give us a proposal and we will negotiate based on the space that we need. I had Alan on his jet and whisking off to Los Angeles by about 5:45 in the afternoon after picking him up at 9:30 in the morning. It was a bit of a whirlwind.

 

I was home by 7 PM and we were on the road to Capitola by 8 o'clock. Darla and I were up at 8 AM Friday morning and we blew a fuse in the room when we both had blow driers going and had the furnace on. We wandered down to the breakfast area while they reset the breaker.

 

We played Pajaro on Friday in Watsonville and in spite of the sanded greens, I managed an 84. Neil, Steve and John all shot in the upper 90's and low 100's, but we had a good time and enjoyed each others company. Darla and Lilly, Camille and Brenda all enjoyed their day in Capitola, strolling the beach and doing some window shopping. Neil drove me to Monterey after the golf and we met up with Darla and Lilly at their hotel. Darla and I drove on to Pacific Grove and checked into the Lighthouse Inn. We were put in a room right next door to John and Camille and Steve and Brenda were in the next building. We had everyone over for drinks and appetizers with the idea of heading out to dinner afterward. Neil and Lilly came over and we sat and talked with everyone and drank margaritas, wine and sodas and ate chips and dip. Our balcony overlooked the golf course and was next to the cemetery and the lighthouse in Pacific Grove. A baby deer and her Mom came over and were below our window. Darla threw them fruit and they enjoyed strawberries, plums and bananas. It got late and we decided to just order in pizza from Gianni's in Pacific Grove. It was excellent and we all enjoyed the relaxing evening.

 

Saturday, I got up early and met Steve and John for the drive up to the Carmel Valley and Quail Lodge golf course. We had breakfast first at the Wagon Wheel restaurant, a breakfast place that we discovered last year. It was unbelievably warm in the Carmel Valley on Saturday with highs reaching 88 degrees. We got there too early and practiced too much and it hurt us on a very difficult course. I pulled my first drive and actually lost my sunglasses when they slipped off the cart while I was trying to extract myself from under a bush. I am a wimp when it comes to sunshine and struggled the rest of the day with a high sun that was really hard on my eyes. I shot 46+46=92 and never really felt comfortable. I loved the course and the conditions, but the greens were lightning fast and I never adjusted to them. I played with Boyd, Steve and John. Steve played really well on the front, but struggled on the back side. He hit a shot that ricocheted off the side hill of the green and into the OB next to some homes. When I told him to hit another, that his ball rolled out of bounds, he had some choice words for me. He apologized, but the Lord had other things in mind for old Steve on the next hole.

 

 Steve hit his ball left into a drained water hazard. He asked me if he could play out of it if he could find his ball. He walked out on the lake bed and was looking through all of the 100s of balls embedded in the dirt when he started to sink. His left leg sunk down to his knee and he was able to turn his right leg and keep the weight off it so he didn't sink in with both legs. He called to me for help and I tried to get out to him, but the ground was soft and I couldn't make it to him. John found some PVC and was pulling it out of the ground to use to pull Steve out when it snapped back and hit him in the cheek. We were playing golf and devolved into a Keystone Kops episode. We finally talked Steve into crawling out on his hands and knees and he was able to extricate himself. He has bad feet and was wearing golf sandals that stayed on his feet when he yanked his foot out. Small solace as he ended up covered in dried mud and started to stink as the day wore on. He showered up when we finished and shot a 42+50=92. John shot 104, which put him in the money with his 28 handicap.

 

Saturday night we had the gang over for appetizers again and had some chicken mole and guacamole that was left over from the Silpada party that Darla had in Marina while I was off playing golf. Bob and Vicky Pando came over and had drinks with us and then we headed off to Vito's for dinner. Bob didn't play in the tournament this weekend because they have been remodeling their home in San Jose. We had a great night at Vitos and had a lot of laughs, some good food and even better wine. Bob got a call about 9:30 from Lifeline and his Mother, who is 93, had set off the alert. It was pretty tense for awhile, but we found out later that she had accidentally set off the alarm and was confused when the fire department showed up. Bob's daughters took care of the problem, but Bob and Vicki hurried home anyhow.

 

Sunday, we were up early and packed up the room and headed over to Toasties in Pacific Grove for their scrambles. They have excellent breakfasts and didn't disappoint.  From there I drove to the course with Neil, and Darla and Lilly were off to a day of sun and shopping. Sunday was nearly as warm early as Saturday, but some high thin clouds rolled in late in the day. I did play better and managed a 43+42=85 and took third net in the tournament. I think Pasadera was actually a more challenging course than Quail, but I managed the course better. Boyd shot 82 and played very well.

 

We met up with the girls after golf and the Country Club would not allow us to come inside and insisted we sit outside at tables and be waited on. There was NO ONE in the members lounge and the NFL games were on. I was offended as was Darla. Neil seemed to think it was their right to limit access as they were members, but somehow our money was good enough for them, but we were riff raff after we were finished. Most country clubs are really suffering and cater to the public to help supplement their income. I won't go back there and they are lucky to be in Monterey with old money, because the face of country clubs across the country are changing. 

 

Well, that is it for this week. I hope you all are doing well and I will log back in another week to purge my literary soul. Ciao.

 

 

Vegas, Baby!!

 

 

Back from Vegas and tired, but happy. Darla and I both saw a HUGE change in Samantha. With Jennifer moved back to Vegas, she is happy and confident and a joy to be with. We didn't expect her to stay with us, but she really wanted to stay at Circus Circus and spent both Friday and Saturday night at the casino. She went to bed early both nights and didn't argue about watching movies or wanting to stay up. We had a great trip with Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lil and Samantha, Jennifer and McKenny.

 

Jennifer got to Vegas on Friday morning and got moved into her new apartment with Samantha. It was a good thing for Jennifer that Samantha wanted to come and stay with us as it allowed her to get everything unpacked and the rest of the things moved from her other apartment.

 

We flew in on Friday morning and met up with Neil and Lilly at the casino and brought them over to the Polo Towers to see dad and Shirley. They had no idea that Neil and Lilly were coming and as we were greeting them in the lobby, Neil and Lilly walked up and Neil said, "Boy, the people you see when you don't have a gun." They were pretty surprised. We went up to their suite and visited for a bit and then headed over to New York, New York for lunch at Gonzalez, the Mexican restaurant. From there we went to the M&M World and Shirley bought Samantha her birthday and Christmas gifts, buying her a suitcase and a shirt, some silly straws and a stuffed monkey. Darla bought her an M&M blanket for her bed.

 

Friday night we had drinks at dad and Shirley's and then we drove over to Jennifer's new apartment and had pizza with them and visited with Sam. It was there that Samantha decided that she wanted to spend the night with us. We got back to the room early and let Sam watch a movie before going to bed about 8:30. About four in the morning, our neighbors came in loud and obnoxious. They were banging around and talking loud and we called security to come over and shut them up. That was just the start of the problems with these folks.

 

We woke up about 8 on Saturday and relaxed in the room for awhile. The neighbors got up about 10 AM and started smoking in a NO SMOKING room. We had an adjoining room and the smoke was pouring into our room from under the door. We called security again and they showed up and told the neighbors that they couldn't smoke (there is a $250 cleaning charge for smoking in a no-smoking room). We heard them behind the door say, "Well, we can't smoke in front of the guard, but what they don't know won't hurt us." Darla was furious and told the front desk that they needed to either move them or us. It didn't happen. we had the cleaning staff drop off a bottle of industrial strength air freshener and stuffed a towel under the adjoining door. We met Jennifer and McKenny, and Neil and Lilly at the Black Bear Diner on Tropicana after picking up Dad and Shirley. We had a great late breakfast and then spent the day with Samantha. We went to the Adventuredome, but only had her ride one ride and promised her a chance to go on Sunday.

 

We again had drinks with Dad and Shirley and Samantha got a chance to open her gifts and then we were off to Maggiano's and dinner on the strip. It was an enjoyable evening and a great dinner. From there, we walked across the street to the Wynn complex. Neil and Lilly were able to see the Wynn properties for the first time and we walked around to the waterfall and took a few pictures. From there, we had to get Sam home and to bed and with the Adventuredome waiting for us on Sunday, Samantha wanted to stay with us again.

 

About ten o'clock, Darla smelled smoke again and commented on it and Samantha said, "So, what are you going to do about it, Grandma?" She was egging Darla on, but I think the smell was just residual. As a matter of fact, I think they had moved out of the room.

 

We got up on Sunday and Darla and Samantha got into a big discussion about God and Jesus and why Grandma was reading the Bible and doing her devotions. Samantha took a bath and Darla and Samantha kept talking and Darla asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart and she prayed and became a Christian. It was very cute and she shared the news with her Mom later that day. Darla was really jazzed about the discussion and shared the news with all of her Facebook friends.

 

We went down to breakfast and had a really crabby waitress that wouldn't let Samantha have a pancake with her meal instead of toast. We ordered a separate pancake and paid the extra, taking part of it out of the waitress's tip. From there we headed up to the Adventuredome and Jennifer and McKenny joined us after a bit. We bought Sam's wristband and she went on three or four of the kiddie rides before Jennifer and McKenny showed up. Darla and I went up and relaxed in the room and watched some football.

 

We headed over to Dad and Shirley's for drinks and appetizers and watched the Sunday night game. Jennifer had to take McKenny to the airport and get Samantha home and ready for school on Monday. Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly joined us and went to Sam's Town for a late dinner and a little bit of gambling.

 

Monday we met Dad and Shirley and Neil and Lilly at Black Bear Diner for a late breakfast and then Neil headed out to Paso Robles. He and Lilly are taking a ride over to Monterey where we will meet them this weekend for golf. We went over to Dad and Shirley's place and visited with them all day. We went up to the pool and enjoyed the 90 degree day poolside. Jennifer and Samantha came over and we cleaned out Dad and Shirley's pantry and loaded up Jennifer's new one.

 

Sam got a little weird when it was time to say goodbye. I think Jennifer's time in California caused Samantha to have a real problem with goodbyes. Darla thinks she has always been a little weird about saying goodbye, but I think it got worse as they had a couple of hard and sad goodbyes over time.

 

Our plane was over an hour late getting out of Vegas and we didn't get home until after 12:30 and I was exhausted all day today. This is an important week as my CEO arrives on Thursday for a visit. I ran the third quarter numbers today and we are up almost 42% in premium for the year and 35% in income year to date. I am up over 14% on my budget numbers and on track to write over $22,700,000 this year and make over $1,250,000 in profit. It is a good time to have a visit from The Man. Many of our offices really struggled this last month as we had outages and computer problems, but my office finished up 35% on the month and 15% above budget.

 

Alan flies in on Net Jets at 9:30 and leaves at 5:00 PM. Darla and I are then off to Capitola that evening for the start of our golf trip. We play Pajaro in Watsonville on Friday and then  Quail lodge Country Club on Saturday and Pasadero Country Club in Carmel on Sunday.

 

The blog will be late next week as we won't get back until late on Sunday. I hope you are all well. we had a blast with everyone this past weekend, look forward to next weekend and still later our trip to Nuevo Vallarta in December. I hear a rumor that Darryl and Cheryl may join us. I'll believe it when I see it. Ciao.