A Great Trip with Randy and Cake

 

A great time was had in the hills of Texas. I didn't even know that Texas had hills until this trip. Randy lives a good two hour drive west from Dallas. The resort is nice, although they are in the process of selling it, so some oft he golf course is not getting top notch maintenance at the moment. The greens are good and the tee boxes seemed very nice. Some of the fairways are a little rough, but overall, the course is very nice. It is rated the fourth toughest course in Texas and I would concur. More on that later.

 

Darla and I were able to get a heck of a deal through Virgin American Airlines. They have just started to fly into Dallas Love Field and are in a spirited battle with Southwest Airlines. They had a deal on their website that if you shared an ad with three friends they would give you a two-for-one voucher. I sent the ad to two of Darla's e-mail addresses and my work e-mail. We were able to get a flight out of SFO for $292 and got the companion fare for free. I was also able to get a Hotwire deal on a rental car where we had a Chrysler 200 for five days for $91.

 

Darla and I left Thursday morning and drove to San Francisco where we parked our car at a Travelodge for $35 for five days. We caught the shuttle from there to the airport. We got there early, checked in and went in to have lunch. Darla thought our gate was 57 and it said Dallas at 11:55.  We sat there talking to those around us and I got up to stretch my legs and noticed that we were at an American Airlines gate and the flight was delayed. We ran over to the Virgin gate at 55 about 11:30 for the 11:45 flight to see that that flight was delayed for 45 minutes as well. It seems to be the norm anymore. We had shared a chicken sandwich for lunch and I was still hungry so got a bowl of clam chowder and enjoyed that with Darla while we waited.

 

We arrived in Dallas at 6:45, about an hour late and took the shuttle to the rental car place. I had hoped not to have to drive in the dark as we were heading into unknown territory on two lane roads. The car place was crowded and it took us about 50 minutes to get through the crowd and get our car. Texas has decided (in their infinite wisdom) to set up toll roads that have no change booth. All toll t=roads in the area are automated and you have to have a toll tag. Now how someone from out of state can navigate the roads is an unknown commodity and apparently one that Texas legislators don't really care about. The rental car company offered me a toll tag for $20 a day. Uh, no thanks. The toll tag would have cost me more than the rental. We steered clear of Toll Roads, but the GPS on the phone and the MapQuest that I printed were not in agreement on the way to go. We tried to figure out if either had a toll road which is a huge PIA. We ended up not taking the toll road when the GPS called for it and it would recalculate and take us the free way. You see there is a Toll Road and then there is a Freeway. It definitely took us longer to get there than it did on the return trip and we went a totally different way. It got dark toward the end of the trip and I had no idea where we were.

 

We finally arrived about 9:45 to find Cake in bed. She had worked that day and hadn't slept well the night before. We stayed up and visited with Randy, Dad & Shirley. We didn't see the dogs until the morning because they were in with Cake.

 

Their house is beautiful and it was designed for them with a media room, a billiards area, a huge kitchen, high ceilings and five bedrooms and four bathrooms. One of the bedrooms on the first floor has been made into an office for Randy and is very nice. The media room upstairs has it's own dishwasher and a sink, microwave and refrigerator. The house has a large balcony on the second floor that flanks the golf course side of the house and they have it decorated with recliners and chaise lounges, tables and plants. Very nice.

 

The weather was fairly typical for late April in Dallas with thunderstorms, tornados, hail, wind and alternating sunshine.  When we golfed on Sunday, we experienced rain, wind, lightening, thunder, clouds and bright, hot sunshine. I could never get used to the weather in Texas and stepping off the plane, it was hot, humid and kind of dank, like being stuck in a room where a dog was just washed. the politics in Texas are more aligned with my thinking, but the weather in Northern California is much nicer. It was 88 degrees here today and down to 55 degrees right now.

 

One of the issues I had to deal with while we were in Texas was a continuing sore back. I pushed it a little too hard while I was there, golfing three times and I could really feel the pain in my hips and the right side of my back. I was able to get in to see Jane at my Bowen Therapy today and she worked out the kinks and although I'm still sore, I feel much better. it usually takes two treatments to fix any serious issue that I end up with.

 

Randy and I hit balls on Friday noon and then we went out after dinner and played four holes and, although my back was aching, I went one over par for the four holes. When we got back to the house, my back was really barking at me. Walking over the uneven ground was hard on me. Saturday the course was packed and we couldn't get on the course. randy and I hit balls again at noon and Chris and his business partner, Tyler, showed up just as we got to the house. we had "beer can" chicken for dinner and it was outstanding. We took off again after dinner, although Randy stayed behind and Chris, Tyler and I took the three club shuffle and played holes five and six twice.

 

We sat after we got back in the media room and watched the Canucks give up a three goal lead to the Flames and lose their first round playoff series 4-2 to Calgary. Vancouver took a 3-0 lead and then a 4-3 lead after Calgary tied it, but couldn't hold. I watched about two hours of hockey on this trip and it is the first two hours I've watched this year (and the last two hours).  

 

We were up early on Sunday and had a nice breakfast casserole that Cake fixed. the guys headed to the course at 9:30 for our 10:40 tee time and we were able to tee off early. Randy had a 7 PM flight to Orlando for a convention, so it was good that we got out early. The course is very difficult and I struggled with both my back and the course and shot a 49 on the front nine. I was able to pull it together on the back and parred 11, 12 and 13 to shoot 42 on the back for 91. I really enjoyed playing with Chris, Randy and Tyler. Chris and Tyler don't play golf much and randy is coming off elbow surgery, so his game is rusty. The course is very tight and has a lot of water, elevation change and hazards. I certainly want another shot at the course when I'm feeling better. Luckily, I was able to get tickets to the Dallas Cowboys-Seattle Seahawks game on November 1st. I plan to fly in on Thursday and work in the Arlington office on Friday and then play golf with Randy on Saturday before we head to the game on Sunday. I have not been to AT&T Stadium, so look forward to seeing a quality game this November.

 

I made hamburgers when we got back to the house and Randy changed for his flight. I was sad to see him leave, but his bosses needed him at the event in Orlando, so off he went.

 

Cake took us into Graham on Monday mid morning and we shopped at a few of the stores in Graham. It is a small Texas town and they had some kitchy stores, including a Western Wear shop that had a little old couple that ran it. I believe it was Mr. welch and he was likely in his early 80's. I told him I really liked his store and asked how long he'd been there. His answer: "About 10:30, we were supposed to be here at 10, but we were running late this morning." His answer was said dead pan and it was hilarious.

 

We also visited a consignment store that used to be a movie theater and the owner invited us to look upstairs at the old projection booth, theater and "colored" section . Fascinating and sad all at the same time.  I bought the gang lunch at a little Texas diner that served Chicken fried chicken. It was delicious. dad and Shirley shared a plate and Darla and cake had salads.

 

we got back home about 2 PM and Darla and I were off to the airport at 3:30. The weather was fine in Graford, but we hit a severe rainstorm in Fort Worth and the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the onslaught of rain. The traffic slowed to about 50 MPH, but likely should have been at 35. It was a harrowing ride, but typical of Texas weather, the rain moved off in about fifteen minutes and it was sunny and hot right away. 

 

I want to say Thank You to Cake and Randy for a wonderful trip. We had a tremendous bed to sleep in, a great shower and the food and drink were wonderful. I enjoyed the golf, although I wasn't on my game. Cake was very gracious on Monday and was a wonderful host the entire trip. Thank you both. we also really enjoyed the visit with Dad and Shirley. It was a fun long weekend.

 

Darla decided that she needed to smuggle some cacti into the state of California and we now have flowering cactus in the family room. so, in essence, we brought a piece of Texas home with us. I hope you all have a great week and I'll be back a the keyboard on Sunday evening. I have two days of golf this weekend, the start of our 54 hole Individual championship. Darla and I bought an inversion table that arrives tomorrow and I will be hanging like a bat hoping to decompress my spine and be prepared for the tournament. Be well. Ciao. 

 

 

Off to Dallas this week

So, Darla has a little purple theme going in the back yard this year. I spent the morning (after church) putting a second coat of sealant on the deck and I'm paying for it tonight. My back seized up about half way through the process, but I took breaks in the process and made it through. I have a congenital defect in my spine where a couple of vertebrae did not completely form and if I bend over too much, sleep wrong, twist my back the wrong way or just have a violent sneeze, my back will seize up and I can't straighten up. I end up pretty much shaped like a question mark, hunched over like Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. I laid down for awhile after I finished and Darla massaged my back, but this is a process and hopefully it will heal itself or I'll be off to Bowen before my flight on Thursday. I was able to wash the car, but had a spasm when I was setting the bucket of soapy water by the car and almost spilled the whole thing. There was a lady in church this morning that had a coughing fit during communion and she spilled the little cup of juice all over herself. 

 

I got the pool cleaned up this weekend. We had quite a windstorm this past week and there was leaves and pollen and a layer of dirt all over the pool. I was able to clean it out and wanted to actually clean the filters today, but when my back gave in, I put that off to another day. Darla bought the purple containers and plants and planted all of those while I worked on the pool. She also picked up a couple of new umbrellas from Save Mart (a grocery store of all places) and we put those up today.

 

My visit from Alan and his trip to our office went well. He was tough as usual on the underwriters (we are writing the wrong business with the wrong retailers, etc., etc.), but overall it was a good visit. My staff needed a break after all that they have been through lately, so it was good. We met one of my old agents fro lunch and he is also a very good friend of Pete's, so it was a nice visit. Tabb is the former state chairman of the IBA West group, one of the largest agency groups on the West Coast. He is also the chairman of the IBA True Choice national youth Golf tournament in 2016. I have already talked Alan in to being a national sponsor of the event which is being held at Del Paso CC in Sacramento, site of the 2015 Senior US Open. Tabb invited Alan to come out and see the tournament in person.

 

Alan also reached out to the staff and took the underwriters out for drinks after work on Monday. We met at Fat's Dim Sum Bar and had drinks and appetizers. It was nice for the staff to see Alan in a more relaxed environment and he had some very complimentary things to say about the staff and the Sacramento office. We went out to dinner afterward and Pete joined us. We went into old town Roseville, but the restaurant I wanted to go to was closed on Mondays, so we ended up having dinner at the Claim Jumper restaurant, which Alan seemed to enjoy. I took them over to McClellan Air Park at about 9:20 for his 8:30 flight on Net Jets to Fresno. We were late, but he just has to pay the wait fee. It was good to load the package and get back to normal in the office.

 

Well, normal for two days and then I had Anthony from Home office in for an Audit. I talked to him over lunch and he had a water damage claim in his house as well, but his story takes the cake. He lives in a suburb of Detroit and in January of 2014, he woke to the sound of running water. I know that sound. He had a pipe break in the house and it was 20 below outside when it happened. The house was at 70 degrees, so it shouldn't have frozen. It turns out that his flew from the stove exits right next to the pipe in question and it had developed a leak and the baffle stuck leaving the flew wide open and the cold air entering the house and then escaping to the pipe.

 

They were out of their house for 5 months and got new floors, ceilings, etc. One year and one day to the event in January of 2015, he awoke to the sound of running water again and the same pipe had broken again. It turns out that the contractor had not fixed the original problem with the flue and it happened all over again. They expect to be back in the house in May. Wow.

 

I played golf this weekend in preparation for our trip to The Cliffs and had one of my worst outings in a while. I shot 45+49=94 and my driver failed to show up. I had played poker the night before and I was a little tired, but it really wasn't the reason for my poor play. I was pulling the ball dead left off the tee and scrambling all day. My only two good drives were on 1 and 18 and I parred both of those holes. I'm bringing the sticks but I don't know what to expect.

 

Darryl and Cheryl and Dad and Shirley are in Dallas now. I see the weather is typically extreme in Dallas this time of year. My ex, Diane, posted on Facebook that she thought she was going to die last night just driving home from friends. The wind and rain were so bad that she and her husband had to pull off the freeway and wait out the storm. She sent a post that she just wanted to live through the night so she could make it to the CMA's tonight. Priorities you know? I see that the weather is expected to stay a little iffy with thunderstorm in the forecast throughout the week next week. Hopefully, we will get a chance to get out and swing the clubs a few times while we are there.

 

We got the house completed this week. It turns out that the paint we bought was not a match for the paint that we had up there, so it cost us an extra $125 to redo the paint. Darla bought the paint and did the deed on Thursday and Friday. We had to have them color match the paint as the pint we had leftover from the original paint job was too light and didn't match the house. We can't figure out why unless we were between two colors and decided on the darker and still had the lighter can leftover. Who knows. Darla's original idea was to buy more of the other paint and paint the upper part of the siding, but I said, no. I wanted to get the right color and, besides, our house is about thirty feet on the side at the apex. We got it to match and will buy one more gallon so we have something for touchups.

Well, this will be late next week as I will be happily enjoying some R&R with Randy, Cake, Dad and Shirley. I hope you are all well and we will meet again in cyberspace next week. Ciao.

 

Masters Sunday

 

Too much fun this weekend with John and Camille at the River Cats game here in Sacramento. This is the first year that the River Cats have the AAA affiliation with the World Champion San Francisco Giants. There is an electricity in the stadium that was missing in prior years. The A's were the prior affiliation and although we are equally as close to Oakland, this is a Giant's town. We got together Saturday afternoon and they picked us up in their new Chrysler 300 and we drove in to Sacramento and had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, which is housed in the original Sacramento Train Depot and decked out in antiques and rich mahogany wood. They have the requisite streetcar in the restaurant which serves as extra seating for the restaurant and it is one of the streetcars that ran in Sacramento back in the '20's. Dinner was fantastic and they had a "strognochi" special, which was a combination of Italian potato dumplings and beef stroganoff.

 

From there we headed over to the game. I bought season tickets for the company this year and we use the seats for customers during the week and for families on the weekend. I'm using the tickets to thank the staff for their hard work and also allowing the Underwriters to take their agents to dinner and a game during the work week. There are 50 home games and I bought an 18 game package that includes both weekday games and weekends. We have four seats behind home plate about 22 rows up from the field. John and Camille had a great time and I really enjoyed our time together. Darla and Camille talked non stop and John and I were sitting on the outside seats with them in the middle. We should have sat next to each other because he and I really enjoyed the baseball. I saw my receptionist, Valerie, at the game. She works as a vendor at the game, selling kettle corn and water and we bought some popcorn from her and visited for a few minutes.

 

Our season tickets include access to the Solon Club, which is a private seating area upstairs in the shade with it's own concessions, televisions and a bar. John and I walked up to check it out before the game started and walked down quickly when we saw that the Giants were getting pounded by the Padres. I think having the tickets will be a win for me this year, especially giving how hard everyone has been working since Matt left. The game went into extra innings tied 2-2 and we finally left at 11:30 after the 14th inning. The two teams went 11 innings without scoring and then the Salt Lake Bees scored 3 runs in the top of the 16th and the River Cats scored 4 in the bottom of the 16th to win 6-5. It was about 12:45 when the game finally ended. I was very impressed with the pitchers that the Giants have. Good young arms and it has been a staple of the Giants' organization for years.

 

Speaking of work, we have our CEO, Alan, in the office tomorrow. I had another shoe drop this week as Alison, who was on Matt's team, also gave her notice and left for Scottish American. That now makes five employees under the age of 31 that have left to join this outfit in the last three years. I am really getting tired of recruiting and training this talent, only to see them leave for more money and a different "work culture". It will be a topic of conversation between Alan and I during his visit. Alan has not been to my office since the renovation and build out was completed late last year. Unfortunately, we now have a bunch of empty offices and desks now that I have lost Jennifer, Matt, Connie, Ajay and now Alison, since the beginning of the year. Ajay went to our Reno office. Connie left to join a professional liability company in downtown Sacramento. Jennifer left to go back into real estate at a huge premium in salary over what I was paying her. Alison and Matt have left to join Andy, Anthony and Dana at Scottish American. It is almost too much.

 

Alan and Harvey will arrive about 10:30 tomorrow and we have lunch with one of our retailers at 12:30, followed by an office meeting, a real estate meeting, a meeting with all of the managers and then a mixer at 5:30 with the Underwriters over at Fat's Restaurant. We have to drop his rental car off in Roseville at 8 PM and then he flies out on Net Jets to Fresno at 8;30 PM. It will be a LONG day.

 

I did play golf today in the Master's tournament and after taking last weekend off, struggled to get my footing, shooting 44 on the front before having things click in and shooting 41 on the back side for 85. I birdied both 11 and 13 and won $36 in skins. Darla was in paradise visiting her Mom after her knee surgery on Monday so I stayed on and helped with the scoring and the skin payouts. I got home about 5 PM. cleaned out the trunk of my car and then vacuumed it out and put a protectant on the dash, inside door panels and seats. I finished the job with some tire shine for the tires. Alan will have his own car, but I have to drive him to the airport after we drop off his rental.

 

Frances did have her knee replacement on Monday, although it was almost called off because of a power outage in Paradise. They had her prepped and ready for surgery, when the lights went out. Luckily power was restored fairly quickly and she was able to get her surgery done and not have to have it postponed. She was in the hospital until Wednesday and back home after that. Darla fixed a big casserole dish of lasagna and brought it up with her today. They went to lunch together and both Alicia and Darla were able to go up and cheer her up.

 

You can see the pictures of the siding that got done on Thursday. They worked on the rear of the house on Wednesday and I came home after lunch (I had lunch with an agent about 5 minutes from the house). I noticed that they had replaced the 1x6 trim around the bay window in the rear of the house, but had damaged some of the 1x10 pieces as well when they pulled the framing off. I shot them a note that I need the damaged 1x10 replaced as well. I guess I offended him as he sent a note that night, saying the job wasn't complete and he never said it was complete. Darla met with them ion Thursday and explained that I'm a little OCD about things and to take me with a grain of salt. They came down on their price to get the job and I wanted to make sure they weren't cutting corners.

 

They were supposed to come out on Friday to finish the bay window and then paint the siding, but called away on an insurance job in Marysville so they will be back on Monday to finish up. I had wanted to inspect he job before paying them and had arranged to get off early on Friday. I will have no time to look at the house tomorrow with my boss in town, so I'll have to trust Darla to inspect the job and then give them their final do-re-mi. Hopefully it looks good. The siding work they did in putting up the new T-111 looks excellent.

 

Earl looked at the damage while he was here for Easter and wants me to lower my sprinklers that are on the bushes. The sprinklers are on tall risers that spray over the top of the bushes and the wind pushed the spray back on the siding. We had the belly band where the water would sit and drip behind the belly band and that is where we had the water damage. I will lower the sprinklers so that they spray at the base of the plants and that should solve our problems. That advice comes from an itinerant farmer, so will trust his judgment on the topic.

 

Darla and I talked to Jennifer this week and they had a great time in DC and west Virginia, visiting their home office and McKenny's parents and Grandparents. Sam had a particularly good time with McKenny's nieces and the farm that his grandparent's live on. Sam was sad when they finally had to fly home. Jennifer said that Sam has been really emotional lately, crying over movies and even crying when there were two birds playing in the yard and one flew away leaving the other one by itself. I'm sure it's a phase she is going through. I miss that little girl.

 

David finally moved out of his dad's house this weekend. He has lived with his father since he got back from SLO and he has really been able to bank a lot of his paycheck. He had an opportunity to move into a house in mid town Sacramento and rent a room and he jumped at it. We are thrilled for him, because his social life was pretty serious impacted by living with a 59 year old man. The mid town area of Sacramento is pretty well made up of young professionals as they want to live and work downtown and enjoy the restaurants, bars and social life. Very proud of him.

 

That's the news for this week. I'll let you know how things go with the boss this week. I hope you all have a great week and keep the Lord in your life. You won't have things go smoother, but you will have someone to take the burden off of you. Praise God for that. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter 2015! He is Risen!!

 

Happy Easter to everyone. Darla and I were up early this morning and off to Easter Services. In the midst of a serious drought here in California we finally got rain today. At least the snow is coming down in the Sierra as the rain was supposed to start up about 9 and last through the afternoon. As it turned out, the rain finally came in at 2 this afternoon and we got a good downpour for about twenty minutes and it was over.

 

We had the family over on Friday afternoon for ham and mac and cheese, potatoes, salad and asparagus. The dinner was great. Luke came over and was able to have an Easter egg hunt in our backyard. I took Luke over to the park with don while the ladies hid eggs. Earl and Frances joined us shortly after and Rand and Julie came over for dinner. We had a nice visit and everyone was headed home by 8:30 PM.

 

Darla and I worked on sealing the deck on Saturday morning. I was going to work on it myself, but my back wouldn't hold up two weeks in a row and I could only do about half of the job. The treatment, which is Homax Gloss Wet Look Seal Treatment really leaves a nice glossy finish to the stamped concrete. You can see the difference between the sealed look and the stained look of the concrete when comparing the top pictures to the picture of Luke and Earl taken the night before we applied the sealant. The wet look really brings out the individual stamped stone look of the concrete.

 

Work continues and there has been some minor fallout from Matt's departure. Several of his agencies had a problem with how they were split up in the reconfiguration. Two of them wanted to keep all of Matt's assistant's together and one actually demanded that he work with all of the assistants and that I put the teams back together. I have lunch with him on Tuesday and have to get him to relax and try out the new configuration. Nothing is set in stone and I just need him to try out the new arrangement and see how it goes. I had to split up his assistants between two teams. This guy keeps talking about "tribal knowledge" and how I need to understand that his agency needs to keep the entire team together. Matt wrote $1,000,000 in income to the office and almost $5 million in premium. I had to split it up between Wendy and Pete and they each needed new assistants. Wendy was Pete's lead assistant, so Pete needed to take Matt's lead to replace her and she took two of Matt's assistants as well.

 

I have several more disgruntled agents to deal with. The bottom line is that Matt made a personal decision without regard to his agents nor to me and there is a lot of fallout. I'm doing what I can to react to the needs of his agents, but I have to look at the bigger picture as well and see how this affects my office and the staff that I have. It will all work out in the wash, but it takes time.

 

Darla and I sat last night and watched the Jersey Boys on HBO. She had ended up seeing the show with Freida on one of my poker nights. I ended up waiting until last night to see the movie and it was worth the wait. Clint Eastwood has been a better director than he was an actor and he was no slouch as an actor either. Tonight the Sinatra documentary is on HBO and we look forward to watching that together. We have been eating every manner of ham since Friday with scrambled eggs and ham yesterday morning, ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. We did take last night off and had some Spanish rice, but we were back to fried eggs and ham slices for breakfast today, ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and ham and potato soup for dinner tonight.

 

I didn't play any golf this weekend after playing four out of five days last week. My index is up to a 14.4 and I will have a 16 for Randy's course in Texas. We have our Master's tournament at the club next Sunday and I'll get 15 strokes in that one. My game has been pretty ragged this year, but I haven't been playing as much. There were sign ups for the twilight league on Wednesday night and I've decided to sit out this year. I'll play as a sub and get in a few rounds, but I can't commit to an entire season with what is going on at work.

 

Charlie was over this week and got the fans put up. He was supposed to take about three hours on the job for $200, but he was here for 14 hours and finally got the wiring done and split the living room light and the family room light. In the past, we had one switch for both lights. Charlie had to drill through a metal separator and ended up dropping three drill bits and an extender down into the wall. He got the job done though. The only problem is that we have a separate switch for the fan and light in the family room, but a single w=switch for the fan and light in the living room. I can't have him back to fix it though, because it would probable take him another 8 hours to finish the job. He also had to get a new metal box for the light in the kitchen as well.

 

The contractors will be here tomorrow to start on the repairs on the house. I signed the new contract on Thursday and got them a $1000 check for materials. I'm thinking it will likely take them about three days to finish the job.

 

My CEO is flying in next Monday to visit the office, see the new build out and address the staff. We have lunch set up with one of my agents and then he is taking the Underwriters out for cocktails on Monday night. He will than catch his Net Jets flight in Sacramento to Fresno about 8 PM.

 

Well, dinner awaits, so I need to wash up and prepare for yet more ham. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and all is well in your lives. Randy and Dad, I will see you guys in a couple of weeks. Darryl, have a great trip to Texas and we hope to see you guys soon. Ciao.