Midweek Update

I wanted to add a few more pictures from Almanor and bring you all up to date on things that happened over the weekend. I love the picture of Jen on the jet ski getting some air and of Sam, David and Luke on the kayak on the lake. The last picture is Darla's boganvillas in the back yard. Her babies.

 

Darla went to and enjoyed her annual conference in Kansas City. I dread the humidity in the south and Midwest and feel like I'm trapped in a room where someone just washed a dog while I'm toiling in the humidity. I can't imagine that that type of oppressive air adds to longevity. I digress. Darla traveled with one of her reps that has rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, she also struggles with the internet and computers and when she made her flight, she took a flight out of Sacramento that went to Dallas and Darla flew a half hour earlier on a flight to Denver. They were to meet up in Kansas City and Darla was to arrive about 90 minutes before her rep. Darla is a dealer and when they offered anyone $500 to take a bump on the flight, Darla bit. She called me and asked what to do with her rep. I told her to tell her you got bumped. Now Darla was coming in 90 minutes AFTER her rep. It all worked out as her rep's plane was delayed two hours and they showed up within 30 minutes of each other. As Darla said, it was meant to be. Now we have $550 in credit with Southwest for our next trip to Vegas.

 

I took Darla and her rep to the airport at 4:30 AM and headed back to get another 90 minutes of sleep. I worked that day and then had to pick up one of the Managers from HO for a visit to my office. I picked her up at the airport at 6:30 and we drove over to the Morton's Steakhouse in Sac for dinner with Pete. We ate like bandits and I started to put the weight on that I lost on vacation. How sedentary is your life when you lose five pounds on vacation?

Thursday morning, I picked her up at her hotel in Roseville and we met Pete and one of his agent's for breakfast. I was back to the office for a half day and then off to Walnut Creek for the second round of Deposition Prep with our lawyers. Darla and I had stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on our last trip to WC, but the same room this time was $188. I decided instead to roll the dice on an Expedia "Hot Rate" listing for a 4 diamond hotel within 20 miles of Walnut Creek for $144. I ended up with the Lafayette Park Hotel, an absolutely grand old hotel in Pleasant Hill, 5 minutes west of Walnut Creek. It is an old English style hotel with marble staircases, wood walls, large overstuffed beds and furniture as well as wainscoting and rich crown molding and heavy carpets throughout the property. They also had five different courtyards built into the hotel design. It was absolutely decadent and I loved it. I got there early enough to relax by the pool and enjoy the charm of the spa and wait service on site. I have a few pictures above of the grounds.

 

The deposition on Friday was about three hours and the lawyer really grilled me. I think I kind of egged him on, because most of my answers early on were, "I'm not a claims person, nor a coverage expert." At one point he asked me that with a premium of over $9,000, wouldn't the insured expect to get some premises coverage at the apartment complex? I told him that our insured was by definition a named insured under the apartment complexes' insurance policy (and the lawyer's client), so it was more in his interest to be insured under that coverage form. He seemed to think that was an "A-HA!" moment as he jumped in and said then what was the property manager's insurance going to pay for? My answer was "the frivolous lawsuit that we are defending at the moment". He was not pleased! I think he kept me there about an extra hour just to make me pay for being a smart ass. It was a good experience and I got good feedback on my testimony by our lawyers.

 

Saturday, I was up early and Paul, John, Russ and I piled in the Explorer for a trip up to Marysville and our away event at Plumas Lakes. It is an old style golf course with shorter holes, but narrow, tree lined fairways. We had 34 players and the average score net was about 8 over par. I shot a 46+42=88 for a net 70 and took second low net. I won $48 in skins after picking up $30 from the prior tournament that was in an envelope waiting for me. Adding in the $35 for the tournament innings as well, it was a good day for me.

 

I got home a little after 5 and relaxed in the pool on a hot night. Darla called and told me that her flight that was supposed to arrive at 11:00 PM had been delayed three hours because the plane coming in from LA had been hit by lightning and taken out of service. They had to wait for that plane to arrive in KC and then take it to Vegas and on to Sac. The new arrival was 2:05 AM. I got a call from the husband of Darla's rep and he asked if I could bring her home rather than back to our place. He has MS and doesn't do well in the dark. OK.

 

I was getting up from my chair by the patio table next to the pool and used the armrest to push myself up. My left hand was gripped around the plastic armrest when it broke in two and the full weight of my body crushed my fingers between the plastic grip and the two metal tubes forming the arm of the chair. I was able to quickly sit back down, but the blood began running and my finger throbbed. I ran into the master bathroom and grabbed a towel to use as a compress and held it over my head. They say five minutes is a good time to get the bleeding to stop, but every time I looked, it was still spurting. I was afraid that I'd have to go to the Emergency room and that was the last place I wanted to be on a Saturday night. I finally got it to stop bleeding and inspected the wreckage. I have a large hematoma under my nail. The nail bed has torn loose and the length of my first knuckle was ripped open. I called a Physician's assistant with our Medical provider and she told me how to dress the wound and clean it. I kept it in gauze and bandages and decided to see how it looked Sunday.

 

I picked Darla up at the airport, we transported the package to Citrus Heights, dropping her at her door and then got home about 3:30AM. I fell into a deep sleep. Sunday morning I was up by nine and checked the damage. It looked better and had stopped weeping (so had I by then). I re wrapped it and Darla and I spent a lazy day watching golf and relaxing by the pool.

 

I will leave this again until Sunday and bring you up to date on what is my crazy life at that time. Be well. Ciao.