Back to the blog after a week of work. I have been interviewing like a fiend and found two great candidates that I hope to hire, one is an Underwriter at Nationwide Insurance and the daughter in law of Ron Floyd, one of my agents and a friend from the golf club. The other is a worker for one of my agencies that was bought out last year. I've known this lady for 10 years and know her work ethic. looking forward to getting staffed back up. I will be a part of a work night on Wednesday night, where about 10 of the employees will work until 9 PM to get renewals caught up for our largest agencies. I will buy pizza and beer/soda for the workers. We are down four employees after this recent purge. I had one of my high caliber employees come in this week and ask to talk to me. I promoted Wendy to a Production position after Matt left. I think my staff has hung around me too long and my sense of humor is rubbing off on them. Wendy came in and was very nervous (this is a tell tale sign and I've seen it with Matt, Anthony and Andy). She told me that she has decided to take on another position. It was an odd way to put it, but I asked her if she was going to Scottish with the rest of the ingrates. She told me no, but that she was 9 weeks pregnant and was going to be a Mom. Wow. I think she cushioned the blow for me and I don't even care that she'll be out for six weeks this Fall, at least she's not leaving.
I will continue the interview process and hope to find three good candidates to come in and help us. We finished April up about 5% from last year, but off budget by about $15,000 in income. The good news is that my payroll is about $325,000 less than it was at this time last year. It is tough and I'm not getting a lot of good vibes on my desire to promote a couple of employees and give them raises. we'll see.
My back has continued to be balky and sore and I decided to take the leap and buy an inversion table. My Bowen therapist, Jane, swears by them and the real benefit to me is in decompressing the spine. I had two days of golf this weekend and I'm still stiff and sore, but I hung for about fifteen minutes both days before golfing and felt great. I shot 42+47=89 on Saturday and got tired late. I had a 75 net and was 8 strokes off the lead in the 54 hole event. I played better today and shot 44+42=86 for a net 72 and stand in sixth place in my division with a two day total net of 3 over par. If I don't implode on Saturday, I should finish in the money. I am very pleased with the relief that I am getting from the table and will make sure to put that into my workout regimen during the week. It is a little tough on the feet and ankles as you hang, but Darla and I have it set so that we can't go completely vertical and it is easier on the joints. I can really feel the relaxation as my spine relaxes during the "hang".
Darla is modeling the inversion table in the picture above. She wanted a "Teeter" inversion table that is about $400. I didn't want to buy something that might end up being used to hang laundry on, so bought a lower cost table that is highly rated for less than half the price of a Teeter. Darla was upset when she heard that I bought it without her looking at it first and even more so when I told her it was heavy duty PVC pipe holding it together. It is a Body Champ brand and all steel with padded ankle braces and a padded back on the table itself. She is happy with it and I dodged a bullet. She wanted the table, but I think I actual need the table, so it is a win-win.
I took Darla out last night for an early birthday dinner and we stopped at the AT&T store and I bought her a new IPhone 6 and case. I was able to go online when we got home and backup all of her settings, apps, contacts and even her old Text Messages and upload all of those to her new phone by using the cloud. I felt like Josh Lyon running the backup and then the download to her new phone and everything showed up on the new phone even her background picture of her boots and all of her photos. She is thrilled and I'm her hero. We went out after shopping and had dinner at a little Italian place in Old Roseville and had a Caprese salad and a pizza with three cheeses, prosciutto, cream sauce, mushrooms and housemade sausage. It was delicious.
She was off today to Lodi and a street festival with her Silpada jewelry and did pretty well. She got a text from Tami Tuel that she saw Darla at the Festival, but that Darla was helping a customer and she didn't want to bother her. There is still some animosity between the two of them over how pushy Tami was when Darla's folks were selling their home in Linden. Earl and Frances didn't want to use a novice retailer to sell their farm and Tami wouldn't take No for an answer. Unfortunately, that incident really put a major dent into our friendship and really ended our recurring visits. I wish Tami would have approached Darla because Darla is a very forgiving person, but I think Tami knows that Darla was very disturbed by how pushy she was and their last conversation was basically Darla telling Tami that her parents did NOT want to do business with her and to call us next time when she wanted to visit as friends and not as a pushy salesperson.
Well, this is short, but I got home late from golf as I helped with the scoring. Darla and I have a baseball game next Saturday night with Jeff and Linda and will see David on Mother's day in Sacramento and perhaps see his new home. I hope you all are well. Ciao.
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