Summertime!

I am done with this drought and if you can't beat it, you join in. My lawn is going dormant for the Summer and I will only water it once a week to keep it alive. I did some research this last week on lawn paint and how long it lasts. Lawn paint has been used for years, mostly on golf courses and sport's venues. It is plant based and I found a product called Enviro Color, which is used by the NFL and the PGA. The product comes in a 32 ounce bottle for $25 and you mix 4 to 8 ounces per gallon. I bought enough to cover our 2000 square feet of grass in the front and side yard. It is mixed in a tank sprayer and applied with a fan spray nozzle. It will stain anything it touches, but will not adhere to wet surfaces, so I sprayed the trunks of the trees and had to wash off a few spots that got on the concrete. It went on amazingly well and it was literally like painting the lawn. I'm looking forward to someone turning me in for wasting water. It looks good and that's all I care about.

I did have one couple stop while I was applying it and ask me what it was that I was applying. We chatted for a few minutes and they left committed to buying the product and spraying it on. I should just set up a little side business and green up all the lawns around me.

It was a good week all told this week. I had a meeting with one of the larger agencies in the area. They are part of an Association and have never used wholesalers in the past. They work with smaller agencies all over the western United states and I was asked to sit in on an interview with their CEO for a board position. Jeff, one of my agency owner's, will be the President of the Association next year and he asked if I would serve on the board with him. When I met with Alan (the CEO) I asked him for a quid pro quo, namely that he allow me to come in with two of my underwriters and meet with their underwriting staff. That meeting was on Tuesday and couldn't' have gone better. They were impressed with our depth and size and we are moving forward on an appointment. It could be a real coup de tat for Burns and Wilcox. Both of the underwriters that I brought with me, Wendy and Linda performed tremendously well on the call and impressed their staff.

Our pool is at 84 degrees and Darla and I spent most of the weekend relaxing on the water. We have four umbrellas surrounding the pool and there's plenty of opportunity to get out of the sun. The one issue we have is bees. I have a ground cover surrounding the pool that is a cherry ground cover with little red flowers throughout. The bees love the ground cover. They don't bother me much on the pool, but seem to harass Darla unmercifully. I was working on the tile today and she was on the lounge trying to read. One of the bees kept dive bombing her and she ended up overturning the raft, drenching her sunglasses and book and my finding the whole episode tremendously funny did not endear me to my bride. She tends to have mosquitoes and bees bother her and is talking about tearing out the ground cover. We'll see if she follows through on that.

I played golf with Neil again this weekend. He had bought a coupon two weeks ago and paid for golf and I took us to lunch afterward. It was my turn to reciprocate this weekend and we went to Cherry Island in Elverta and then he took us to lunch at El Azteca in Roseville. We sat at the bar and visited with the owner. We had margaritas, lunch and then the owner treated us to smoothies after lunch. Smoothies are not on the menu, but she was making some for her workers with pineapple, coconut, strawberries, banana and lemon. They looked delicious and she gave Neil, Paul and I a taste. Paul played with us Saturday morning and then joined us for lunch. I played with no back pain, but was off on my game and shot 45+45=90. Neil beat me for the second time in three weeks with an 89.

I play in our weekday tournament on Tuesday. I'll take the morning off and then head into the office after lunch. I have the 8:09 tee time and play with Boyd, Andy and Jay. Next Saturday is the Diamond event and I'll play in that with Andy and Paul.

Darla has her team meeting here tomorrow night and that means that I'll work late and be able to get  a couple of my team caught up on their QAs. We approve the policies once they are written and when I have a few extra minutes I'll jump in and clear up some of the QAs. Tomorrow will be my chance to make a few team members happy.

We are almost back to full staff. I have one more interview on Thursday morning and I hope that it is a good one. This woman I'm interviewing has worked at an MGA for 25 years with several competing firms and she decided to try the retail life last year and went to work for an agent on commission. She is not progressing at the rate she had hoped and is interested in coming back to the wholesale side of the business. It would be a quick training exercise for her and we'd have her up and running quickly. She also happens to be a neighbor, living about two blocks away. Darla had told her next door neighbor who works in banking about the job and she must have told her friend as they both applied. Small world.

Rand and Darryl are both back from Hawaii and the reality is probably settling in that work awaits tomorrow. Dad and Shirley are still in Iceland and their reality is retirement.

Well, that's all for this week. I hope everyone is in good spirits and living in the footsteps of our Lord. Ciao.