October Meanderings

 

Just a couple of pictures from Jennifer, two of her Mom and daughter date last weekend and another of a pumpkin patch trip Sam took with a girlfriend. Looking forward to seeing these two when we all go to Nuevo Vallarta in December. That trip was almost thrown up into the air by Hurricane Patricia, the largest hurricane to ever approach the western coast of Mexico. The El Nino waters caused the hurricane to grow exponentially overnight and as it approached the coast it was aimed right at Puerto Vallarta. Luckily, the storm trended further southwest and landed right between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. Not to diminish the widespread damage, but only the wings of the storm hit Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo and the winds at the time were about 65 MPH and caused very little damage. The winds at the eye of the hurricane were 165 MPH. There was damage to homes and businesses in the very lightly populated areas south of Puerto Vallarta. One resort that is rather exclusive and remote was hit pretty hard and roofs, trees and buildings were uprooted and damaged, but the resort was evacuated and there were no injuries. The huts and homes of the very poor were damaged badly and there were numerous injuries and flooding and the damage is still being assessed.

 

It was a good week of work and a great weekend with poker at my house Friday night and golf today. I did yard work on Saturday and Darla and I went out to dinner after church on Saturday night. Darla fixed a taco soup for the guys and I grated cheese and offered chopped onion, sour cream and hot sauce along with bread and butter. I had a good night with the cards which is fairly rare when I host (for whatever reason). I made about $75. The game ended at midnight and I was in bed by 12:15 after cleaning the kitchen and shutting down the house.

 

Saturday I slept in until almost 9 AM which is a rarity and then headed over to Home Depot to get some plants, grass seed, and lawn weed killer. We had a couple of plants that gave up the ghost in the backyard above the pool and I replaced those. I trimmed back the tree at the back end of the pool, cleaned the pool, sprayed down the back yard stamped concrete after using the Toro Yard Vac to clean up the leaves, clippings and other blooms that had fallen in the wind we had during the week. I also put down the seed and mulch around the dead spots in the front and side yards.

 

Darla called on her way home from Luke's game and woke me up as it was already 4:30 and I had dozed off after all the yard work. I jumped in the shower ad we ended up about 5 minutes late at church. We went over to Cha Cha's, a favorite Mexican food spot across from church and we spend some of my poker haul.

 

Today I was up and off to golf early. I hadn't played since the epic fail in Aptos. I hadn't practiced or even looked at my clubs in two weeks. Darla had fixed a quiche on Saturday morning and I had a bite of that before heading to the course. It was a good morning as Robert in the golf clubhouse "comped" my round today and I was able to use a 2 for 1 beverage coupon on the course and a 2 for 1 lunch coupon after the round with Neil. I played well, but missed a four foot putt for birdie on number 2. I ended up with a 40 on the front nine and a 43 on the back for 83 and a net 68. Joe, our two time President in 2003 and 2006, shot an 83 as well with an 18 handicap and had a net 65 which won the competition between the Presidents. Charlie also had an 83 and a net of 66. I took third out of the ten playing. My 68 should be good enough for third or so in my flight. I left early to come back and watch the Dallas game. Tough loss for them and now they face Seattle at home this next weekend. I was suppose to go to that game, but with all of the hassles I've been through at work, decided not to push the issue. Our Dallas Executive VP offered me the tickets after I let Ajay take over Reno. He only lasted a month there and quit to go to Scottish, where I've lost five employees. Frankly, I wouldn't want to spend the money to fly in and watch Matt Cassell throw interceptions. Randy, we'll do it another time.

 

I have some good news on Jennifer. We had a referral to Camille's brother-in-law for her and  she finally met with him on Friday. He loved Jen and her experience. He is an engineer trained in Tower construction for cell towers. A few years ago, he and a partner began building medical offices, hospitals, surgery centers, etc. They are so busy and he is desperate to get some help with permits and reading plans. Jennifer can do that for him. They are both ex military and he is very impressed with Jennifer's progression both in the Army and in business. Jennifer is ready to try something new and will meet with the partner hopefully this week. They want her to brush up on her CAD knowledge,. Interestingly, David is a CAD expert. Fingers crossed, but John (Camille's husband) said his brother-in-law was absolutely glowing about Jennifer. Good to be wanted. The company recently finished a building in Sacramento and has projects throughout the west coast. They need her in Vegas, where the corporate offices are and a big portion of their construction.

 

Work is going very well and we are on track for budget this month. The timing couldn't be better as I head to Detroit and another Leadership meeting a week from Tuesday. All of the teams are working hard and having stellar months. I'm proud of all of them.

 

The staff bought me some gourmet cookies for Boss' Day last Friday and one of them ran down the back stairs to catch me as I left early to head to LA. She flagged me down like she was landing a plane. The cookies went quickly with David and Daniel in the middle of them last weekend, but the card and the sentiments written by the staff really warmed my heart. Great to hear such positive and uplifting comments after a really tough year. It isn't fun to be in charge of an office that has higher expenses and lower revenues. We are bringing it around and the reduction is totally expected, but management has little patience for the bump in the road. I expect to get back on track in 2016 and back to being one of the top offices in the company where we frankly belong.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I hope all are well and living a happy and content life in the shadow of our Lord. Ciao.

 



Dan's Birthday Trip to Pasadena

A great trip to Southern California. It was almost the trip that wasn't. The Grapevine over the Tejon Pass sustained a heavy rainstorm on Thursday night with rain falling at the rate of 5 inches per hour. The heavy rain caused a massive landslide that inundated the portion of Interstate 5 that runs over the Grapevine. It was closed in both directions and we weren't leaving until noon on Friday, so we monitored the news. The Northbound direction was opened at noon with the Southbound lanes expected to reopen about 5 PM. We took a deep breath and I worked half a day and headed home to pick up Darla and head downtown to get David. We picked him up about 1PM and off we went flying down I-5 and trying to get updates along the way. David finally got a tweet from the CHP at 4PM that two southbound lanes were open and there were CHP officers ferrying traffic over the grade. We hit Bakersfield about 4:30 and the base of the Grapevine at about 5:00 PM. The traffic was at a crawl, but we had been hearing all day how the 101 route via HWY 41 was stopped  and it was taking about ten hours to go Sac to Los Angeles. We had about an hour and 20 minute delay and once out of the gridlock, we made it to Pasadena by 8:00PM, a trip of about 7 hours that usually takes about 6. Not bad at all.

 

We met Dan and Becky at their home in Pasadena, picked them up and headed out to The Hat for dinner. The Hat has multiple locations in the LA area and is famous for their pastrami sandwiches. I had a cheeseburger and frings for dinner. David and Daniel both had the pastrami and liked it. We headed back to their home and visited for a bit, but I was dead tired and we left David with them and headed to our hotel. We were saying goodbye and Dan had to head to the loo. He texted Becky and told her he might "be awhile". She blurted out, "Daniel might be awhile, you should say goodnight through the bathroom door." It was such a Newlywed moment. Darla and I died laughing and Daniel was heard to say, "Really, Becky?!!" We waited for him to say goodbye and had a good laugh at his expense. They are a great couple and a really good match. Their little place is definitely small, but it's home.

 

Saturday the boys joined us for breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. The boys had some funky looking cheese omelet that I didn't touch as they had been sitting out in a heated tray for half an hour before they got there and who knows how long before Darla and I got there. We had bagels and cereal and a cinnamon roll. We packed up there and headed out to Los Angeles. Becky had a training and was due back about 11PM. David wanted to go see the Broad museum, which is a huge building consisting of 100's of privately owned art in the personal collection of Eli Broad, a founder of the largest home builder in the United States, Kaufman and Broad. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get a free ticket to the gallery. It was nice and has been years since I've been to an art museum. There was some modern art on display that looks like a 5 year old painted it. I don't get modern art. I like color and texture. Jennifer is painting and specializes in both of those things. One of the pieces I saw looked like it was the handwriting of a 7 year old with a bunch of random words like Destiny and Upheaval. Nice NOT.

 

From there we drove over to the Pueblo district which is like Chinatown, but more like Mexicotown. There were trinkets and things you'd see in any tourist area of Mexico. We killed some time as we waited for Becky to take the Metro Train into Union Station, which is across the street from the Pueblo district. From there, we walked down to a little deli restaurant called Phillipe's that served carved sandwiches. Very nice meal with dill pickles and potato salad.

 

From there we drove down to Santa Monica and spent the afternoon wandering the pier and looking at all of the people on the beach and on the boardwalk.  We wandered for awhile, took some pictures above and then wandered into the city so the kids could have some coffee. Coffee? Well, iced mochachino or something.

 

We finished up there and then drove onto the Pacific Coast Highway and the coast drive to Malibu. There is a little fish market and restaurant called Malibu Seafood Patio Cafe and Seafood Market.  The food is incredible, but you order and have to pick up at the window. They have a large two tiered patio that looks out over the beach and ocean of Malibu. It was our big dinner for Daniel's birthday and his choice for dinner.

 

We drove back after dinner. Sam and Jennifer wanted to join us, but she couldn't find anyone to watch the dog and Sam had a sleepover planned and soccer on Saturday.  Sam made us promise to Face Time with her and so we called her when we got back to Daniel's. They had been out on a Mommy-Daughter date to see Pan in 3D. They were on the drive home and Jennifer called us back and had Sam on the phone from the backseat. She had a huge bowl of popcorn. I guess they bought the big tub you can refill and had filled it right before they left. Jennifer would live to regret that. We laughed when she showed us the huge bucket. David came in and she had to show him the bucket, except she tipped it, dropped it and dumped it all over the backseat and floor. She was belted into her car seat, so couldn't catch it. We had a good laugh that continued when they got home and Sam ran in to get the dog to help clean up the mess. At one point Jennifer grabbed the phone and gave us one of those "exasperated Mom" looks that had us howling. We visited for awhile and my phone battery was waning, so we said our goodbyes. I was absolutely exhausted after a long day.

 

We were up today and off to meet the kids at a little breakfast place called Europe Pain. I had a great sandwich made with cheese and bacon on olive bread. It was spectacular. Dan and Becky ordered a ham version of the sandwich and had them add two poached eggs on top of their sandwich. The sandwich you eat with a fork and knife as the bread is dipped in egg and fried. Absolutely delicious. We drove over to their place in Pasadena and picked up David's gear, including a Keurig coffee maker that Dan gave to Dave as they had two.

 

We got out of there about 11:15 and back to Sacramento about 5:15. We ran into a huge slowdown in Sacramento because of a major accident downtown and we were able to get off the freeway and take side streets into David's neighborhood. It was a great trip and a good time with the boys and Becky.

 

I have the Past President's tournament on Sunday and will play in it. We have a separate skin's game for the Presidents and there is a perpetual trophy for the winner between all of the Presidents. There are 9 of us Past Presidents playing in the event this year. It is a tournament within a tournament as the rest of the players are there and playing as well (there are 80 players). Each of the Presidents are competing in our flight as well. I need to get those handicaps done tonight.

 

Well, I'm beat and ready to sit back and relax once I get those handicaps done. I hope all are well. Take good care. Ciao.

 



Weekend in Aptos, CA

 

 

Back at Home after a nice, short three day vacation to Aptos, CA. We rented a beach house about a block from the beach access. I say that because the area that we stayed is on the bluffs above Rio Del Mar beach. The address was on Sea Cliff Drive if that gives you some idea of the topography. We were able to walk to the beach, but had to hike down a fairly steep set of stairs from the bluffs down to the beach. Frieda and Charlie are both close to 70, so it was tough sledding for them, but I loved the location. The house itself was very comfortable. It was a three bedroom home and the only problem was that the two bathrooms were both located outside of the rooms. One of the bathrooms was right next to the front door and all of the bedrooms were upstairs. Essentially, Charlie and Frieda used the downstairs bathroom to shower and get ready for bed and the upstairs bathroom overnight. That bathroom was right outside our room.

 

We drove in Saturday morning and they met us at our house at 8:30 and we were off on our trip. We drove down through the Bay Area and across to San Jose and Highway 17 into Santa Cruz and on to Aptos. We got checked into the house and drove into town to have lunch and get some groceries. We decided to eat out Saturday night, but to barbecue some steaks on Sunday night after golf. We found a little eclectic bar by the name of "BURGERS." It was the type of place that lived up to it's name as it had a plethora of choices on burgers. Darla and I had the Hank Williams Sr burger and Charlie and Frieda had a Cowabunga and a Moon Doggie burger. The food was excellent. We went across the street from the restaurant to the shopping center and picked up asparagus, potatoes, bagels, mushrooms, ice cream, garlic bread and Caesar salad.

 

We put away the provisions when we got back and headed down to the beach. It was a beautiful 82 degree day and the beach was crowded. We relaxed and I even got a short nap as the girls talked and Charlie was Charlie. We walked the beach a bit and watched the waves and let the salt air do its thing with our souls. We climbed back up and got showers and readied for dinner. The owner of the house had a nice book with menus and reviews of the local restaurants. There was one for the

Sea Harvest Fish Market in Moss Landing that had really good reviews from guests. It was on the water in Moss Landing. It was about a 17 mile trip up past Watsonville and the turn-off wasn't well marked. I almost overran it as the GPS was yelling that we had arrived and I pulled in to a dark parking lot. As a restaurant, the Sea Harvest Fish Market was a better fish market than restaurant. They failed to greet us when we came in and then left food on the floor next to us after they bussed a table. The food itself was fresh and delicious. I had a Caesar salad with fresh grilled salmon that was incredible. Darla had deep fried calamari, shrimp and chips. Frieda had a crab Louie salad and Charlie, who doesn't like seafood, had a Caesar salad with grilled chicken breast. We had a fried artichoke heart appetizer and ach had clam chowder (except Charlie). The food was fresh and delicious, but we realized when we had the appetizer that the oil they were using was old and had a smell to it. It kind of ruined the dinner for Darla who had the fried calamari and prawns. She didn't even eat the prawns and the calamari was very lightly breaded and not heavily fried so she enjoyed that. Charlie is a bit of a Hoover and finished up all of the leftover chips, bread, salad and even tried the prawns, most of which were eaten by Frieda.

 

We got up early Sunday and headed over to the course for breakfast. The Seascape resort is tucked in the middle of an upscale residential community and is very nice. The breakfast we had was excellent and we met the other golfers as they slowly trickled in for their tee times. The golf for me was not the story of the weekend as I struggled mightily, actually DQing from the tournament after my ball had hit a tree and barely trickled out of bounds to the left on the fourth hole. I had started bogey, triple bogey, triple bogey and none of us saw the ball go out of bounds so I hadn't hit a provisional. When we got up to the ball and saw it was out of bounds, the group behind us was already on the tee box and I decided to DQ, rather than go back and hit another tee shot. I was losing the ball left on my drives and struggled all day, shooting a 98. Neil shot 97, Charlie had 100 and Frieda shot 108. Bob shot 96, so we all struggled. It is a great course, but very narrow and the houses are close to the course boundaries. I had a great time seeing and spending the day with Bob Pando and we had a lot of laughs which we always do. I was pleased to hear him say to Darla after the round that he couldn't tell how I was playing based on my demeanor during the day. I have been a little demonstrative in the past when I'm not playing well. I guess I've either matured or I just don't give a rip any more. Hopefully, it is the former.

 

I will take next weekend off from golf and we will drive down to LA and see Daniel and Becky. It is Daniel's 26th birthday today. He has arranged a hotel for us near their home and it looks like David will join us on the trip. The weather down in Los Angeles has turned HOT and it was in the 100's over the weekend. It is supposed to turn more seasonal next weekend and will be in the 80's.

 

Work is starting to ramp up again and our numbers this month are really looking good. All of the teams have started the month strong and we are looking at a record month if things remain as they are right now. Things tend to settle in, but I'm hoping for a big month as the company is all about "what have you done lately?" and I'd like to show up in Detroit with a month that is not only over budget, but significantly over budget.  

 

I will return to the keyboard next week with pictures of Daniel and Becky. I haven't seen their home or spent time with them in their domain, so look forward to a nice visit this weekend. The blog may or may not be late next week. It depends on when we get back from So Cal. I hope you are all doing well. I'll be back at it next week. Ciao.

 



Autumn is in the Air

 

You can see the weather we've had lately in the last two pictures above. We had a rain storm last night when we were driving home from dinner with Charlie and Frieda. Darla and I were actually racing the storm home as I had washed my car over the weekend. It was thunder and lightning on the drive home, but the rain didn't hit until we actually got home. Sacramento in Summer is characterized by bright blue, cloudless skies and when the weather changes, it is always a delight to see the sunsets that light up the clouds with reds and golds. Darla captured a couple of photos of sunsets this past week and we had rain two days that made a mess of both of our cars. We got both of them washed this weekend and I actually spent about 90 minutes today waxing the 300. I used the old style paste wax and put in some elbow grease to take out the surface scratches. I'll use the spray-on wax in between hard waxing the car. I try to get a good coat of wax on the car before the rainy season. I bought some Invisible Glass cleaner that I use on the inside of the windows and some Rain X cleaner that I use on the exterior. The Rain X product really does sheet the rain and the wipers work so much better with that product applied.

 

I had a good week as we prepare for the Big I Day this Tuesday. We have a new booth that we received this year and I had one of the younger guys help me put it up in the office so we could make sure we had all of the parts and knew what we were doing before we headed to the Convention Center tomorrow afternoon. I will leave the troops to handle the booth Tuesday morning and be there for lunch and the cocktail hour in the afternoon as well as the prizes. I'm going to buy some sort of electronic prize this year, either a tablet or a notebook to give away. We also have a treasure chest that has keys to open the lock. If one of our booth attendees gets the right key, they will win a gift card. We will have a cowbell at the booth to ring when we have a winner. It hopefully will mix things up. This is the 14th straight year that I've hosted a booth at the Big I day (Big I is Insurance). We have a comedian as the speaker this year. My favorite speaker over the years was Ed Hochuli, the NFL referee. I also really liked Chuck Yeagar. The worst was a PR woman who decided to make her singing debut in front of all of us. She was horrible and people were walking out in the middle of her presentation. And we paid her $1,200.

 

Last week we finished our month and did beat 2014. We were close to our budget, but ultimately missed it. I took Thursday afternoon and went out and did some "sports marketing" with one of our agents. Gail joined me from our office and we played Cameron Park Country Club. It rained in the morning and they almost cancelled on us, but it was a wonderful afternoon and the course was wet and a lot easier than normal. I shot 42+42=84 and had a great day. We had one funny thing that happened when we had an old guy (he had to be 90) pass us on number 10. We told him he could go through and he didn't even acknowledge us, just drove on to the tee box. He was hitting his third shot up by the green and I was waiting to hit. Gail went ahead and hit a ball right down the middle about 40 yards behind him. He shook his arm at us and then walked back to her ball and hit it into the trees. We were shocked. I was laughing because it was so bizarre. We caught up to him on number 4 and he was playing 7. Our host asked Gail if she wanted him to go talk to him and she said, "Forget it, that was like 50 minutes ago, he won't remember!" Funny stuff.

 

You also see the picture of Jennifer, McKenny and Sam above. They posed for that right before McKenny left for his new job in Denver. He is working there and will be home about every other weekend. His job will pay him more than what Jennifer and McKenny were making at their last jobs combined. The firm he is working for wants McKenny to open a Las Vegas office next year, so he is excited about that possibility. In the meantime, Sam and Jennifer are by themselves. Jennifer said that she is continuing to look for work and will volunteer in Sam's class in the meantime.

 

I had mentioned last week that I had the Rose Cup qualifier this weekend. I hadn't qualified for the team since 2008. I started my round on Saturday bogey-quadruple bogey 9 an was 5 over after two holes. I pulled it together and shot 44 on the front and 42 on the back for 86 and ended up with good news/bad news. The good news? I qualified for the Championship. The bad news? They moved the event to November 6th and 7th and I will be in Detroit. I did tie for second and will take the money, but bummed that I have to miss the event. The guy that will replace me has never played in the event and was downbeat after his round. He left the course before the final groups were in. I was able to call him and give him the good news. He was thrilled.

 

Darla and I leave on Saturday for Aptos and a weekend at the beach. The weather forecast is for 82 degrees over the weekend in Santa Cruz and Aptos. We are staying at a beach house in Aptos with Charlie and Frieda (the reason for our dinner last night). We were able to discuss logistics and plan to leave Saturday morning at 8 AM for the coast. We'll get settled in the house and head to the beach. We play The Seascape Resort on Sunday. The club will play Pajaro Golf Course in Capitola on Saturday, but I played there a year ago and it was not in great shape and I decided to pass on that venue this trip. Charlie and Frieda both play and are saving some money by just playing Sunday. We are staying over Saturday and Sunday nights, so the blog will be late next week. The Seascape resort was right next to the house we rented last Summer before Daniel's wedding. I had to look at it and yearn. My yearning will be rewarded on Sunday.

 

I hope you are all well. Carrie Underwood is about to sing on NBC which means the Cowboys are on next facing the Saints in New Orleans. Be nice to each other and I'll be back at the keyboard next Monday. Ciao.