A good, wet weekend is just about completed. The rain is expected to stick around until Tuesday and bring us another two inches of rain. We had rain Thursday, Saturday and today.
I got a call on Thursday night on my cell phone. Darla and I were watching TV and my phone rang and she picked it up. It was a Roseville number and a young female voice asked to speak to me. Darla handed me the phone and watched closely as I spoke to the caller. I asked her what I should wear and what time to get there. Darla was a little overly interested in the call. It was the sleep study center just checking in with me. I told Darla that they asked me what I normally slept in and if I slept with anyone in the bed. They waned to bring a surrogate in to make sure the sleep test was accurate. She wasn't amused.
Darla had agreed to babysit our nephew Luke overnight at his home as it was Don and Alicia's wedding anniversary. She was in Folsom Friday afternoon to pick Luke up at his day care. I have been looking at getting a backup camera installed in the 300 and to replace the stereo that I have in the 300 now. I picked out a nice Pioneer system with Apple Car Play that allows your iPhone to be mirrored on your video screen on the stereo. The cost at the top stereo shop in Roseville was $1400 and I decided to go over to the local Fry's Electronics store to see what they would charge to do the work. They had a floor model available for a $150 discount and could get the job done for $1000. I decided to pull the trigger on the deal and would drop the car off at 9:30 Saturday morning.
I went home, had some dinner, packed up and headed to the Sleep center in Roseville. I stopped at the Best Buy on the way over to pick up an antenna connector that was needed for the stereo shop. I checked in at 8 PM. There were two technicians working the overnight study and were concerned that my ride would be there by 6:30 the next morning as they wanted to go home. I told them my wife was tied up until mid morning and they were both a little concerned. I then asked them if I could just drive the car home that I had parked in the parking lot.
The room was about as pedestrian as a Motel 6, with a queen sized bed with no head board or foot board, a small chair and a table. There was also a 19 inch old RCA television with DirecTV hooked up to it. I guess I was the late sleeper as the others were all due to go down at 9 PM and I said my normal sleep pattern was about 11 PM to 6:30 AM. I worked on some paperwork I had and looked at a book from 8 to about 9:15 and then they called me into the lab and hooked me up with all of the sensors and wires. They put 16 sensors on me. They put two on each leg, four on my chest, five on my head and three on my back. They put two straps around my waist and chest to hold all of the wires and a holster around my neck that all of the leads were plugged into. I waddled back to the bathroom and had my last comfort stop before sleep. When I got in bed, they added a sensor under my nose and plugged me into the wall. They also asked that I have "lights out" and try to sleep. It was about 9:40 at that point and I just laid in bed hooked up to wires and sensors and tried to relax and sleep.
Then, I heard the sawmill in the room next to me. This Samoan lady was already asleep and snoring like a freight train in the next room over. I wasn't tired to begin with, was a bit uncomfortable especially with the wires that were attached to my head and trailing down my back. I actually took a picture of what I looked like, but when I reviewed it the next morning it scared me, so I'm saving you that image. It took me about 90 minutes of tossing and turning to finally fall asleep. I slept fitfully, waking about every hour or so. I guess I finally settled in after midnight and according to the technicians, I was asleep on my back and snoring consistently. I did stop breathing a couple of times and gasped back awake and then rolled over to fall asleep again. I was awakened at 2:00 AM and had a CPAP machine attached to my nose. They remove the sensor under my nose and the CPAP did it's work pumping fresh air into my nasal cavity. I took about 45 minutes to get used to the machine and fall back asleep, but according to the techs I slept comfortably on my back until 6 AM when they woke me. I didn't stir and slept well. Overall, I was exhausted when I was woken up.
The techs removed the sensors from me and told me to go ahead and change clothes. I told the tech I still had a sensor on my back and she said, "Yes, you slept well on your back!". I said no I still have a sensor stuck to my back. They take the sensors and quickly rip them off and leave you cringing. She got that removed. I brushed my teeth, changed, filled out a final report on how I felt I slept and was on the way home. I had a golf game set up, but it was raining and I was exhausted. I headed home and slept until almost 9 AM. I woke with a start, got showered and off to Fry's to drop off the car for the stereo install.
Darla and Luke met me a little after 9:30 and we drove home. I offered to buy them breakfast, but they had already eaten so we drove home and I fixed ham and eggs for myself. The phone rang about 10:30 and it was the stereo shop. The floor model that was sold to me was defective and they didn't have another in stock. He offered me a Kenwood that had all of the same features of the Pioneer, except that it had a 6.2 inch screen instead of a 7 inch and not a detachable face. It was $100 more than what I paid, but he wanted me to check it out and if I was game, he'd match the price I paid for the Pioneer. I checked it out on the net and looked at online reviews which were very positive. It was introduced in October 2015, whereas the Pioneer was being fazed out for a new model. I called him back and said "Go for it."
We played with Luke and hung out at the house. Two of the guys I was going to golf with showed up at the course and played in the light drizzle. I was happy to be inside and warm and really appreciated the extra sleep. Don and Alicia were irritated that Darla had come home and weren't thrilled about having to come to Roseville to pick Luke up as Don wanted to catch the Kansas City Chiefs game (They lost.) . I let Darla deal with that. They called about 1 PM and the car was ready. Darla dropped me off at Fry's and then drove Luke over to meet his folks. It turns out that the deck that I bought also has a $50 rebate on it, so I got it for $100 less than the store price and get another $50 rebate from Kenwood in the form of a debit card.
The system is great and I'm really happy to have the backup camera installed. With the heavy window tint that I have on the car, it's often hard to see people directly behind my car. Darla won't drive it because she thinks it's unsafe. Well, not anymore. The backup camera works good and the stereo is awesome. The fun part of the stereo is that it hooks up to my Siri system on the iPhone and if I want to listen to music, I just say something like, "Play John Mellencamp" and my entire library of music on my iPhone is available to me. The system has a one disk cd player, but it won't be used much as my music is on my phone or in the cloud. It's funny how fast things change. I remember tape decks and eight track players, now everything is digital.
I got the budget completed for the office and we have a goal of $28,150,000 this year after finishing 2015 at $26,440,000. We should have no problem hitting this number. I interviewed a young lady from our Woodland Hills office on Friday and will likely hire her in to my office in March. She is moving back to the valley after growing up in Lodi, California and attending the University of California Stanislaus. Harvey will also be meeting with the competitor that I talked to in December. If we hire him, all bets are off on our numbers and we should blow through them.
Well, I have poker next weekend and golf Saturday and a golf meeting on Thursday night, so a busy week ahead. I also offered Harvey my help with our new Manager in Fresno completing his budget. If he takes me up on it, I'll be off to Fresno tomorrow. I hope you are all well and wish you a tremendous week. Ciao.
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