It is the middle of Summer in Nor Cal

 

Just a couple of pictures tonight in spite of the fact that we had Don, Alicia, Luke, David and Daniel over for swimming today. We had a good time, we just never got the camera out. It was sort of an odd day today with some monsoonal clouds that passed over the area early and kept the temperatures down. In fact it was only 90 degrees at 3 PM, but the clouds cleared off and the blue skies returned and it was 100 degrees by 5 PM. Luke had a great time jumping and splashing in the pool and then had a real blast when Daniel and David got here and played with him. We had a barbecue lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool.

 

It looks like Daniel and Becky finally got their wedding invitations done and mailed this weekend. The hold up was that Becky's Mom had some students that do calligraphy and she wanted them to address the invitations. I'm sure it will look nice, but the envelopes will likely get thrown in the trash. We've had a lot of family call and ask when they would get the wedding invite and we told them to be patient, that Becky's family had a plan.

 

The top picture is of Sam on a hike with Jen and McKenny today. They took their dog, whose name was Gunner last week , but is now Maceo, which stands for "gift of God" in Spanish. The bottom picture is of Darla at conference with the ladies of Silpada last week.

 

It was a HOT weekend and the forecast is for 100 degree temperatures all week. We have had three straight days of 100 degrees. I played golf yesterday with Ron from one of my largest retailers. He called me last week and invited me to a Mini Invitational at his Country Club here in Roseville. We had an off week for the Roseville Golf Club and the Club Championship starts next Saturday. I was free and I really like the Sierra View course. The format was a flighted 9-9-9 event, whereby there are 8 players in each flight and we played as two man teams. We played 9 holes of best ball against each of the other three teams and it was a total points event. There were two points available per hole with an additional 2 points to the winning team. We lost the first match 8-12 and won the next two matches 12-8. Our total was 32 points and both Ron and I thought we had won when we walked off the course. Unfortunately one of the other teams had a two win, one loss performance and they had 33 points. The saddest part of this is that Ron played my ball on one of the holes that we lost in the final match and we couldn't find my ball (it was already up on the green). We looked for fifteen minutes and I finally conceded my score and then Ron realized he played the wrong ball. Those two points cost us the match. The winners of each flight won $75, but more important got into the horse race where the winners won $450, the second place team $225 and the third place team $150. Oh, well, it was fun. I shot 44-40-42 for the three rounds.

 

I have been out of my office for a week and a half and they will finally start the demolition on Monday. The delay was for some minor finishes that we wanted changed. The builder wouldn't start the work until the change order was signed and that occurred on Friday. The time line shows that we will move into the new space on September 9th. I'm ready. We are having a good month so far this month with four business days left, but I can definitely use some new blood. Harvey will be in the office a week from Wednesday to interview a couple of final candidates I have for the pool Assistant position. I want to hire one more for that unit and bring in a Business Support Specialist for our Personal Lines unit. I'm not really enjoying the new office, which is much smaller and kind of a fish bowl. I'm used to a little more privacy and it is easier for the employees to just stop in and chat now. They used to have to make a point to come back and see me. I do have an open door policy, but I like to have a point for the employees to come in and see me, not just to shoot the breeze.

 

Darla and I heard last week that our pastor is stepping down at church. We read his letter to the church and he says that he is out of gas, that the church has stopped growing. We have heard rumblings that the debt load of the church is really high and that some projections for growth of income and members had really slowed. This has been going on for most of the year. Rick has been Senior Pastor of our church for 20 years and is ready to pass the baton. Strangely, the plan is to join with a church in Amarillo Texas that has 8 campuses and become a 9 church body and the senior pastor, Tommy Politz, will take over as the Senior Pastor of our church. There will be a vote next weekend during the three services. Tommy preached today and I really liked him. I still think the combination is a little odd, but Tommy obviously knows how to grow a church as his main church in Amarillo has doubled the membership from 3000 to 6000 in two years. The only problem is he is in the Bible belt in Texas and Nor Cal is one of the most un-churched areas in the country. I hope it all works out. Tommy has agreed to take on the challenge and move to Northern California, but asked Rick to stay on staff and to be his personal pastor. More to come on all of this.

 

I hope you are all well and living life to its fullest. Be well and stay in the footsteps of our Saviour. Ciao.

 



This Bachelor thing isn't my cup of tea

I admit that I miss my wife when she is away on conference. My biggest problem and why I wouldn't make a good bachelor is that I get busy and forget to eat, forget to go to bed. I'm oblivious to things around me. I noticed the cat's water was out today. I wonder how long they've been slowly dying of thirst. They aren't my cats, but Darla would probably be upset if she came home and both cats were lying on the floor with distended stomachs slowly dying of dehydration. Just a guess. In fact, it is ten to ten on Saturday night and I haven't eaten dinner yet. I played golf today and stopped on the way home at 2:30 and had a late lunch. Actually, it was a second lunch because I had brought a sandwich with me. maybe that's why I'm not hungry. I'll probably have a cheese quesadilla in a few minutes and call it a day.

I talked to Darla a minute ago and she is heading to bed and will be up to catch the airport shuttle at 6:40 tomorrow morning. I'll be asleep. Tonight was the awards ceremony and she walked the stage twice tonight and received awards. One was for lifetime recruiting and the other ( I believe) was for number of recruits that she brought on last year. I complain about her being gone, but I do enjoy the trips that we have taken, including the Bahamas 9my favorite so far), Hawaii twice and Mexico, Punta Cana is this next year. They announced the next destination for 2016 tonight, but I haven't heard where it is. I forgot to ask. I'm proud of Darla. She is so much healthier since she quit work and much more balanced since she got her medications under control and her diabetes seems to be in check.

We had our quarterly golf meeting on Thursday night and Rick and his wife came out to see everyone. He stood up and gave an update on how he is doing. He is finished with stage one of the chemo and on to round two. He went in and had another cat scan to get a baseline on how his cancer is responding and, amazingly, he has no new lesions and the lesions that are there have all shrunk. I say amazing because round 1 is also known as "chemo lite" because the body has to slowly adapt to the poison that is being injected into it. Normally, the best case is that it is status quo. To see the cancer shrink and the chemo working is very rare. Hopefully, Rick continues to respond well to his treatments and can beat this bastard disease.

I played golf yesterday with Paul Gonzalez, one of my bachelor friends. We got on the course at 3:30 and finished in 4 hours. I shot 87 in practice for the 3 club tournament. I used a driver, 7 iron and putter. Paul used three wood, 7 iron and 60 degree wedge. He putted with his wedge and did quite well, shooting an 81 in his practice session. Paul is a 10 handicap, so was at 71 net. I was home by 7:30 and was able to relax at home and watch some TV before bed.

Today was the 3 club and I shot a 41 on the front side, but followed that up with a 45 on the back. The 7 iron is great from the fairway, but useless in the thick, wet rough we have at Diamond and a real problem in a greenside bunker. Paul shot 40 on the front and 47 on the back for 87 and was out of the money. My net 72 was good for second low net and $45. I also had a nice birdie on number 15, the 176 yard par three. I hit a drive to 20 feet and drained the putt. I won $21 in skin money. I stayed to the end and helped Neil post the scores on the board and pay out the skins. I was home by three and had a nice nap on the pool.

I've since timed the plants in the back yard, cleaned the pool and added new chemicals, sprayed down the rear yard, which is now a fine able offense in Roseville because of the drought, and washed Darla's truck. I'm not too concerned about spraying down the deck, for two reasons: 1.) it is in my back yard and not the purvey of the city of Roseville, and 2.) I'm a Republican and believe in freedom of choice.

I did buy a bumper protector for Darla's truck and installed that yesterday. The new Explorer has a metal top on the rear bumper and she tends to nick it up when she pulls her jewelry cases from the cargo area. I was able to cover that area with a rubberized mat made by Ford for this very purpose. I washed her car and will show it to her when I pick her up from the airport.

Randy is lined up for his trip in for the wedding and we look forward to seeing them. They fly in Friday night of Labor Day weekend and fly back on Tuesday. We will hang out with them after the wedding on Monday. I haven't heard from Darryl. but may give him a call tomorrow.

Work continues to go well. I have one team that is struggling and the underwriter principally works from her house. I will have a meeting with her this week and tell her that she is moving back in to the office once the build out is completed. Her team has been complaining that she disappears too often and goes off the grid. They can't find her and they get frustrated. It will get fixed.

Well, that's it for this week. Darla is back tomorrow and I wanted to give her all of my attention, so I got this taken care of today. I hope you are all well and enjoying the Summer. I will be back at the keyboard next week. Be well. Ciao.



Finally, the walls are coming down at work

 

Back at the keyboard. You can see that Jennifer has been busy. A new dog and more holes for Samantha's head. Sam asked her Mom if she could get her ears pierced and John agreed, so off they went today and got her ears pierced. I haven't talked to her, but they also got a new dog, Gunner. He is an Australian Shepherd mix and looks like she'll be a good dog for them.

 

The temperature here continues to be HOT. We had 100 degrees yesterday and today and tomorrow will be 109 degrees again. The last three weeks have had HOT weekends followed by a really hot Monday and then cooling for the rest of the week. This week will follow the same script. It is going to quickly cool off after Monday. It will be 100 degrees on Tuesday and on into the mid nineties for the rest of the week.

 

Darla is off to Kansas City on Wednesday through the weekend with Silpada. It is their annual convention and she is off with some of her down line representatives. Darla has a special dinner and bracelet and meeting with the owners on Wednesday night for making it to Sterling Club as a Silver Manager. The rest of her girls are on their own that night. The conference is held in downtown Kansas City and they will be staying at the Westin. She will be home on Sunday.

 

As the title indicates, the build out on my office is beginning this week. I moved out of my office on Friday and into one of the other offices in the suite after moving someone else OUT. They will tear out the wall in my office and begin the demolition of the walls in the suite that we are adding on. I found out that they will add a Hot Spot in the new conference room and we will have seating in there for 20. That's nice, but I have 26 employees. We will be able to move in extra chairs when we have our sales meetings. The build out is expected to take a month and a half and we should be in the new digs by early September.

 

I had a wonderful opportunity this week to have dinner with Rick, my friend who is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Rick has always been a big man standing 6'1" and weighing in about 220 pounds. He has lost all sorts of weight to the point that the is now 175 pounds. The good news is that he dropped to 170 pounds after the first round of chemo, but has gained five pounds back. What struck me more than anything is his optimism, but also his sense of reality. He knows the odds are against him, but as a Christian, he also knows that his life is not in the hands of his doctors, but in the hands of his Saviour. They have given him six months to live. Rick says that six months is the median time that people with his diagnosis live. Some die quickly and some have a positive reaction to the chemo treatments and live for years. Occasionally, a patient will beat the diagnosis and the cancer will go into remission. He knows that he has an uphill battle to fight, but is seeing the glass as half full. We had a great lunch and a good visit and it was as good for me as it was for him.  I pray that the Lord take control of his medical condition and that His will be done.

 

Thursday, I took the day off and met up with Steve, Neil and Tim at the Park N Ride in Roseville at 6 AM and we were off to Pebble Beach and the course at Poppy Hills. We got into Pacific Grove at 9 o'clock and stopped off at the Pacific Grove Golf Course so Neil could pay our deposit for the October tournament. We all had the ham and cheese breakfast burrito (that Tim paid for) before jumping back in the car and driving the ten minutes to Poppy Hills. I absolutely love the redesign of the course, BUT the greens are rock hard and incredibly slow. They have taken a lot of water out of the course and their intention was to speed up play. The original course had a lot of sharp doglegs and the redesign has softened the course and taken the sharp angles away. The designer has also taken ALL of the rough out of the course. The fairways are wider and there is a lot of waste area that has been added to keep the ball from running into the trees. All of the redesign is great, BUT the rock hard condition of the greens does not allow you to hit a golf shot into the greens. For the most part you can run the ball onto the green, but even that is like trying to run a ball onto a freeway and have it stop. I hit a great drive on the first hole and had 135 yards into the green. The golf staff warned us about hitting balls onto the green, so I hit a sand wedge about 10 yards shot of the green and it bounced onto the green and shot through almost to the back of the green. That was hole number one and it continued throughout the round. It was a frustrating round and I don't hit enough good shots to not have a good shot count. I shot 92 and Neil and Tim were both close to 100 and Steve shot 93.

 

We stopped at Casa De Fruta on the way home and had dinner and ice cream before driving on home. Steve and Neil split the cost of the dinner. I stopped for gas on the way back and put $70 in the car. Amazingly, none of the guys offered to chip in for the gas. I should have insisted that they all chip in. Tim was great and slipped me $20 for the gas on top of buying me breakfast. I think I'll make sure that if I drive again, that I'll make it clear that I need each guy to chip in for the gas. I think they all are retired and think I'm a rich working guy.

 

Saturday was the Diamond tournament at Diamond Oaks. The company that runs the golf course for the city puts on about six tournaments a year. They are sponsored by different golf suppliers and this one was sponsored by Puma. I shot 41+40=81 for a net 67 and tied for first. I won the card playoff and took $80 for first place. I bought a new pair of Puma golf shoes with my winnings. I played with Paul who shot an 80 and Kelly who also shot an 81.

 

Next week is the 3 club tournament that we haven't played in the club for three years. I will use a driver, 7 iron and putter. Many of the guys don't bring a putter and try to put with their driver, but the number of putts per round that the average player has in a round makes it a no brainer to bring a putter.

 

Well that is it for this week. I will be batching it next weekend and will likely get this done a little bit early so Darla and I can visit next Sunday night. I hope you all have a great week. Be well. Ciao.

 

 

Another Blazing July 4th Weekend

No pictures this week as Darla's battery is discharged in her camera and she has misplaced the battery charger. I just need to look for it and I'll find it.

July 4th was fun and mostly devoid of fireworks which is fine by me. It amazes me what lengths people go to in amusing themselves with store bought fireworks. I'm cheap and sitting out in front of my house and watching $100 burn up isn't fun. I'd rather go to the casino and blow that money. As we were driving home from our friends on the evening of July 4th, the parade grounds were just letting out and there was a traffic backup in the "shortcut" to our house. We drove through older neighborhoods with 100's of people outside with fire pits, chairs, tables, ladders, hoses, buckets of water and other paraphernalia. I have never seen such a display of white trash America. It was like driving through a small town in Texas or Tennessee. I think the ladders started up because the fireworks specifically say to use on the ground only.

We were at friends on Friday and had a great time. I'm not mentioning their names because their interaction with one another was like the show that came with the dinner. I had to jump in when the dinner started because this gentleman is notorious for overcooking his hamburgers and I acted like I just wanted to help. I actually wanted to have a nice hamburger and not a hockey puck. Dinner was great with corn on the cob, baked beans, salads, the hamburgers and hot dogs. We checked with the gang as to who wanted what and most of the crew were up for hamburgers, so I cooked 10 hamburgers and four hot dogs. When the hamburgers were ready, I plated them and brought them in along with the four hot dogs. Unbeknownst to me, my friend threw the rest of the wieners on the grill to cook up. We went in and made up our plates and headed back out to the dinner table by the pool under the screened in gazebo and the barbecue was raging with a huge fire incinerating the wieners. The wife came out, took one look at the burned meat and laid her head against the wall and stayed there for about five minutes. The rest of us started eating our dinner. She finally came out of her trance and went over to the incinerated hot dogs still on the grill and stared at them for another minute before slamming down the grill and and storming off. She finally composed herself and joined us at the dinner table. The husband tried to laugh off his mistake by going over and fixing a hot dog made with one of the charred tubes of ash, but his wife was not amused.

She was on him for the rest of the night and he couldn't do anything right. I made a comment about a stone waterfall that they had on the hill behind the gazebo and she started in on him that he was supposed to have cleaned that out so they could run it. He jumped up and filled it with water and it was squirting all over the place because it was jammed with leaves. He tried to clean them out and just made it worse. I was dying inside as his wife let him have it.

She made a comment at one point during the evening that her husband had said that he wanted to sell their house in the upscale community they live in because PG&E was too expensive and their bills run close to $1000 a month. He wants to sell and move to Roseville, where the Roseville Electric rates are less than half their rate. She said that was like selling a Cadillac and buying a Toyota to get better gas mileage. From then on I teased her mercilessly about Darla and I living in Toyota Town and being blessed to join them in Cadillac City for the holiday. She was trying to backtrack and say that it was just a bad comparison, but it was too late. We had a good laugh over that.

It was a nice three days off, but it went too fast as always. Darla and I relaxed on the pool Friday before heading to our friends about 2:00 PM. We relaxed in their pool for most of the afternoon to chase away the 100 degree heat.

Saturday was 102 degrees and I had the Firecracker tournament. I've missed this tournament the last few years because we are usually in Almanor. We teed off at 10 AM and Boyd dropped out of the tournament. His doctor found a couple of spots on his face that are cancerous and one that is pretty large above his eyebrow. It isn't affecting his game as he shot his age or better for the 24th time on Wednesday with a 73. He wants to stay out of the sun during the peak of the day and is only playing if he tees off early in the morning. I played with Steve and John, the two cousins that I also play poker with. Both are now retired and their golf games are improving with more play. In fact, John, a 19 handicap (down from 27 a few years ago) shot an 82 in our last tournament for a net 63. Saturday was a hard day for me on the course. I felt great on the practice tee and was hitting the ball straight and long. Once I hit the course, I had a case of the "rights". My drives were fine, but my approach irons all were hit 15 yards right of target. I had five straight bogeys and then a double bogey. I followed that with two pars and another bogey for 44. I did straighten things out on the back nine shooting a 40 for 84 and net 71 to tie for fifth in my flight. One of my problems is getting tired toward the end of my round and I play 17 and 18 poorly. We have a year long Eclectic tournament and my gross score is 70 with every hole a par or better, but 17 and 18 both having a gross bogey. I picked up one of those in this tournament by parring 18. John, Steve and I all ended up with net 71's on the day.

Work is great. My boss is off the next two weeks on a vacation to Switzerland and I will be busy interviewing for a new pool assistant for the office. My Operations Manager has six interviews lined up for me tomorrow starting at 9 AM. We finished June off with a bang, beating our budget for the month after missing it the last two months. One of the main problems we have is that I had an underwriter leave in March and his numbers are reflected in the budget. I'm trying to get one of the trainees up and running and prepared to take his place, but it will be 2015 before she is ready to hit the ground. I will take the entire office out to celebrate at a Budget lunch at the Spaghetti Factory in two weeks.

I mentioned last week about Darla scrambling to get her incentive trip. She is amazing. She started last weekend down $7000 on her needed sales to qualify for the trip and she ended up with close to $7500 in sales in a three day period. She qualified for her trip and we will be off to sunny Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in February. That will chase away the Wintertime blues. Here are a few pictures of the resort we will be going to.

 



I am incredibly proud of her. She was pretty intense all last weekend, at times fired up about getting there and then down in the dumps and then she'd get a $1000 sale and be right back in the saddle. It was a trip to watch her go through the motions (and emotions) and I mostly stayed out of her way. The fact that I get to join her on this trip is awesome. Last year was Panama and neither of us were excited about that. With all of her medical issues last year, it wasn't in the cards for us to go and we hear that it was one of the worst incentive trips that they have ever had. They are making up for it in 2015 with a trip to the all inclusive Paradisus  Resort in Punta Cana. They even have golf included in the package, but I've already read the fine print that "motorized buggies" are required and cost $65 per round. I may play a round or two of golf this year early in the day, we'll see.

I want to remind my brothers that the condo in Aptos is a three bedroom and you are both welcome to join us starting on August 27. We will be at the condo August 27-30 and then move to Sunnyvale. Jennifer and McKenny will be there, but I will boot them out of a bedroom if you both join us. Alternatively, there are several nice motels in Aptos if you want privacy. We are encouraging you to come in early and enjoy Santa Cruz and Aptos and maybe even make a jaunt into Carmel and Monterey.

I will be in Pebble Beach on Thursday with a couple of my golf buddies (Neil and Steve) and will play the completely remodeled Poppy Hills. We will drive in early Thursday and back that night.

Well, that is it for this edition. I hope all are well and in good spirits. Ciao.