Just finished watching the NFC Championship game and I think we have the best two teams in the Super Bowl this year. I will be pulling for the Broncos and another win for Peyton Manning. As to the Niners-Seahawks, Colin Kaepernick lost the game for the Forty-Niners with a fumble and two interceptions late in the game. For awhile it looked like a USFL playoff game with two quarterbacks who couldn't throw the ball to save their lives and quarterbacks running around like a Division 1 AA game. My guess is that the Super Bowl will be competitive simply because Marshawn Lynch is almost unstoppable at times and will keep it close. In the end, Manning is just too good and has too many weapons. Seattle's defense is number one against the pass and Manning's offense is the best passing offense in history. It will be fun on February 2nd.
The pictures above show the reason that Jerry Brown has declared a state of Emergency for drought conditions in California. Folsom Lake is slowly drying up and is the source of water for most of the homes in the area. The reduction in the water level has uncovered a city buried under the water when the dam was built. It is called Mormon Island and was a gold rush encampment and the foundations of the stone homes are now visible and the park rangers are doing tours of the city ruins. We have received 18% of normal rainfall for the season since July 1st.
Our weather here continues to be in the 70's every single day with freezing temperatures overnight. It is so clear that the temperature can drop 30 degrees in 90 minutes once the sun goes down at night. I played golf Thursday afternoon and we finished at just after 5PM and the temperature went from sunny and almost hot to tremendously cold in a matter of minutes once the sun reached the horizon. I have a dozen plants that have gone completely brown because of the frost and I hope that most of them come back next year. I actually had about 8 that froze last year and six of them came back better than ever, so we'll see. The concern right now is water rationing and the fact that if we make it to a stage 2 drought emergency, we will have to cut out watering our plants and watering our lawns altogether. Right now they want us to cut water usage by 20% and are limiting our watering to three days a week. You can be cited for any wasting of water, including letting a hose run or over watering your lawn and having the water run down the gutter. A first citation is a warning, the second a $25 fine and the third a $100 fine.
Our weather here continues to be in the 70's every single day with freezing temperatures overnight. It is so clear that the temperature can drop 30 degrees in 90 minutes once the sun goes down at night. I played golf Thursday afternoon and we finished at just after 5PM and the temperature went from sunny and almost hot to tremendously cold in a matter of minutes once the sun reached the horizon. I have a dozen plants that have gone completely brown because of the frost and I hope that most of them come back next year. I actually had about 8 that froze last year and six of them came back better than ever, so we'll see. The concern right now is water rationing and the fact that if we make it to a stage 2 drought emergency, we will have to cut out watering our plants and watering our lawns altogether. Right now they want us to cut water usage by 20% and are limiting our watering to three days a week. You can be cited for any wasting of water, including letting a hose run or over watering your lawn and having the water run down the gutter. A first citation is a warning, the second a $25 fine and the third a $100 fine.
I did play golf on Thursday afternoon and it was but my second round of stroke play golf for the year. I had set up to play with one of my agents and two of the guys from the club, but got a call from my agent in the morning saying that he was suffering from a bad case of kidney stones and couldn't make it. I decided to go ahead an play and took the afternoon off. I'm glad I did as I got to play with Pamas Bhatti, my FBI friend who has been so busy with overtime that he hasn't been able to get out and play. He is an interpreter for the FBI and speaks 7 languages including Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Punjabi and Sindhi. His specialty is critical to getting intelligence on the Taliban and staying ahead of the crazies. He leaves for India on Tuesday and will be there until April. He plans to open a golf course in his hometown when he retires and is working with the Indian Government Tourism group to bring in a course architect and start the process of getting investors. His family has the necessary land and Pamas wants to be the director of golf. We'll see how it goes for him. I shot an 81 and played alternately well and poorly. I hit some great drives, but struggled with my irons.
Friday night was poker at Charlie's place in Granite Bay. His home is located near Folsom lake and it is dark and difficult to find his house in the neighborhood. I picked up John and Carl and drove over to his place and got utterly lost as I turned on the fourth street instead of the fifth. There isn't a straight road in the development. I finally worked my way back out to the main road and made another successful run at finding his place. It was funny because one of the other guys saw my car and followed us all throughout the neighborhood. We realized that we were being followed and I almost made a wrong turn on purpose off the main drag to throw them off, but decided that I'd already had my fun with them if simply by accident.
Saturday I played golf with Boyd, Neil and Bryan at Cherry Island. We all struggled on the Bermuda grasses and slick, yet bumpy greens. I shot 89, Boyd had 87 , Bryan shot 84 and Neil was in the 90's. It was a glorious day in the 70's and warm and wonderful. I got home and had a great sleep on the couch after golf. I'd got in late on Friday night after poker and returning the guys to their homes and then up relatively early for golf. I was a bit tired, but I think the potato and bacon soup that I ate at the restaurant after golf was the contributing factor.
Today was a day of church early followed by a nice breakfast and then chores. I got the spa cleaned up, the chemicals done and filters cleaned out. I then washed both cars and cleaned up the yard and fertilized the lawn. I watched both football games on tape delay and the golf tournament from Palm Springs.
Jennifer and McKenny have found a home in Vegas and it is very nice. A 2100 square foot, three bedroom two story home near Samantha's school. They had a nice link on the web, but took it down once the kids signed their lease. Hopefully their move will go well and as a Dad, hopefully things progress quickly and they don't "play house" for too long. Sam needs some stability in her life with Jennifer.
Well, that's it for this week. Not much going on in the New Year. I hope all is going well with each of you. It is Darryl's birthday tomorrow and I wish him a most Happy Birthday! Ciao.
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