I fell asleep at one point and woke up in Nan Schnider's backyard. Darla has decided that she wants a green thumb, so has about 18 potted plant in the backyard now, including vegetables, flowering plants and even some citronella that sit by our gazebo. I call it Darla's pot garden.They are a little hard to see because they are in the shade. With four large 8' umbrellas surrounding the yard there is a lot of shade in the backyard. Most of the pool gets full sun, but there a few patches of shade where you can set a drink or your phone to keep them out of the sun. The pool is sitting at 82 degrees and we spend a big part of the afternoon just relaxing on lounges in the pool. We did that today and now I am updating the blog and watching the US Open golf tournament on TV.
The title of the blog is pretty descriptive. My back had been sore about ten days ago or so and finally starting feeling better over last weekend. I played golf Tuesday morning in our Day on the Oaks event. I got the second tee time at 7:44 and was off the course by noon. I shot an 85 with my 17 strokes and ended up with a net 68 that took third place in the tournament. I birdied number 8 a, but still took $31 in skin money.
I had an interview on Tuesday afternoon with someone who worked for one of our competitors for 26 years. She left them last year to go to work with a retailer. Honestly, it was one of the worst interviews that I've ever been a part of. She had trouble answering even mundane questions like how many agents did you work with and who were your top ten agents. She had "stepped down" as an underwriter last year and went back to doing assistant work and couldn't remember how many renewals she worked on. It was brutal. Pete liked her personality and Renee liked her experience, so I decided to check references for her. I didn't check with the references she gave me, but called the company underwriters to get a handle on her abilities. The first one I talked to said, "she is very nice and has an engaging personality." When I pressed for evaluation of her underwriting abilities, she said "No comment". That told me everything I wanted to know. Pete talked to another company underwriter who was more forthcoming. Apparently she was demoted to an assistant position and had some terrible audit scores with that company and her employer was apparently "thrilled" when she left to go to the retail side. I crossed her off my list. When I talked to Harvey after the initial interview he asked why her long time employer wouldn't jump at the chance to hire her back. He was right n as I later found out.
We do have a young man that I'm looking at that is in his early thirties. He worked as a contractor straight out of high school and actually was a foreman on a team of underwriters, but quit when the economy soured and spent the last four years getting his degree from Sacramento State University, my alma mater. He was President of the Insurance club at the school and has a degree in Business with minors in Marketing and Insurance. He has a brother who own one of the agencies that I work with and several of his cousins work in insurance. His brother strongly recommended Burns as a great place to work. I'm running a background check on him now and once cleared, I'll have him talk to Harvey and see if we can get him hired on.
I did play golf as a sub in the twilight league on Thursday night. My back was fine throughout the round and I shot 39. I came home and had some dinner and then sat and watched television with Darla. By the time I got up at close to 11:00, my back had me twisted over in pain. I slept fitfully that night and was still in pain when I got up. I decided to go into work and call my doctor who is right down the street to see if I could get in rather than have another Bowen treatment. He was booked up, but I was able to get in to see a nurse practitioner. She didn't even examine me, just listened to my tale (tail?) of woe, and prescribed me with Prescription strength (800 mg) Motrin and 10 mg Flexeral. I've been taking both three times a day since Friday night. My back is better, but still sore. I did pass on a tournament round on Saturday, calling in at 7:00 AM to withdraw from my 7:58 tee time.
Tomorrow I have a golf tournament in Chico with an insurance agent. We will join up with Gail and another agent from the area. Gail is a Producer in my office. I'm hoping my back holds up, but what I've found is that the worst thing for my back is sitting in a chair all day. We'll have carts, but I plan to do a fair amount of walking on the course. It is a scramble, so I can take a few holes off as well.
Well, Jennifer called to wish me a Happy Father's Day while I was writing this, so short though it may be, I'm out of gas. I hope all the Dad's out there had a great day, especially my Dad. We did get signed up for the cruise, although we somehow missed out on the gratuity perk. I think Sherry was confused on when we had to sign up, but she is looking at trying to get me some additional perquisites. Well, be well and I'll talk to each of you soon. Ciao.
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