Darla has dinner in the oven, the smell of steak an rice is in the air. The end of the Carolina beat down of the Cardinal is almost over. Carson Palmer is trying to throw his fifth interception as he throws the ball down field in a 49-15 route. Cam Newton has already called it a day and helped to douse his coach, Ron Rivera, with a bath of orange Gatorade. There were three quarterbacks in the conference championships over the age of 36 and only one, Peyton Manning, has emerged and will play in the Super Bowl. Peyton isn't playing because of his abilities, but because his team has the number one defense in football and forced Tom Brady to look mortal today. I would think based on how the teams are playing right now that the Panthers will be favored in the Super Bowl. I'll guess a six point favorite. We'll see. I would not put it past Peyton and the Broncos to win won for the Sheriff.
This was a busy weekend with poker on Friday night and golf Saturday. Darla went out with the girls on Friday night. Their plan was to go to dinner and then out to the movie, but the ladies ended up in an epic gabfest and missed the movie. Poker was at John Parola's house here in the neighborhood. I had a poor night with the cards and would have lost big, but hit three pots at the end of the night that shaved my losses to less than $20. It was good catching up with the guys and hearing how the retire guys live their life. John and Camille are looking at buying a new house and moving out of the neighborhood. They had some new furniture in their living room and I envy him. He's retired and his wife was just promoted at PG&E to a management position. She had been in charge of a call center with over 1000 employees and now will be in charge of all of the pay centers in the Western United States. I kid. I wouldn't want to be buying a new house at 65. Darla and I are hard at work paying off bills and planning toward my retirement in about 7and a half years.
Darla has a great opportunity with the foster care agency that she works at to take over the agency in the next five years. The two owners now are both in their 70's and depending more on Darla every day. She works part time, but is picking up more of the management of the facility as time goes on. Our biggest concern as I move toward retirement is health coverage for Darla as she is 7 years younger than me. If she is running the agency, she can get her health care paid for by them.
I got out of poker a little before midnight and it was absolutely sheeting down rain. I had parked across the street from John's house and was soaked to the bone by the time I got to the car and buckled in. I was pretty sure that golf was out for Saturday. I had signed up for the first Diamond tournament of the year, which are the events that are set u and run by the golf course itself, rather than by our club. Robert from the pro shop called me Friday at work and let me know that the tournament had been delayed until next weekend. Paul and I decided to meet at the course Saturday at 9 AM and see if the rain ad let up enough to play. I got home visited with Darla and was asleep by 1 AM.
I woke up Saturday about 7:45 and found a text from Paul that he saw rain coming in about 11 AM and headed to the course at 7:00 AM. It had stopped raining and the current forecast was for scattered showers throughout the morning. Darla had an event at the house and I had to be out from 11 to 2. I decided to go over to the course and see if I could hook up with Paul and play the back nine and then go over to the casino until the coast was clear to head home. I was covering for our club secretary while he is back East and had about 6 new golfers to add to our club handicap system. I got that taken care of and sat and waited for Paul to come around. He came around with the second group that I waited on and I grabbed my gear and headed out to he course. They charged me $20 to play the back nine and off we went. Paul had hooked up with one of our other members, a 79 year old guy who is about a 17 handicap. Joe is a wiry guy who married for the second time at the age of 63. I played really well on the back nine shooting a 39. It started to rain on the 18th hole and we finished up. Paul wanted to play another 9, but the rain seemed to intensify and I suggested lunch and then we'd play it be ear. The rain moved out while we were eating and we decided to play another 9 holes. The course was literally empty. I checked in with the pro shop and they said. "Hey, go play, no charge."
I struggled on the front nine that doesn't drain as well as the back side. There were more puddles on the greens and in the fairways and the creek on number four had run over its banks and was rushing across the fairway. I ended up with a sloggy 44 on the front side for 84. I ended up in the sand on three of the holes and it was mostly mud. I have a new sand wedge that I bought specifically to help me get out of the sand. It worked brilliantly on all three holes and it's a great investment. The wedge is a Cleveland Smart Sole wedge.
I got back home and sent the next two hours working on the yard, cleaning up downed leaves in the back yard and blowing off the front yard of leaves and twigs from the storm. I also drained about six inches of water off the top of the water. The recent rains have filled the pool over the tile line. It took about 90 minutes to get the waterline down to the correct level. I have a water faucet on the pool pump and filter and just run a hose line to the front yard. Darla still had a few guests at the house and they slowly trickled out as I worked.
Today, I cleaned my car. I wanted to completely vacuum the interior and the trunk as my golf cart had let a lot of dirt and mud in the trunk. I cleaned my golf cart and clubs while I was at it. I got the car washed and cleaned and then decided to change out the metal trim on the drivers and passenger doors. I'm really enjoying the new stereo and back-up camera on the 300. I got the Bluetooth set up this week and can now listen to my music and take and make phone calls without hooking up the lightning cable to the phone. I still have to plug it in to use Siri or to use the Apple Play features, including maps and directions.
Darla and I went to lunch together on Friday, knowing that she was out with the girls and I had poker. I took her out to Benihana for lunch and we had a table to ourselves. It was nice to have some private time before we went our separate ways that night.
Work is going well. We are having an okay month, but Wendy will be back on February 1st. I'm looking forward to getting my entire crew back together and really starting to work hard to get our numbers up. Wendy's numbers are okay, but it will be important for her to get back out doing marketing and seeing her agents to get the flow of business turned back on.
It was a nice weekend. The rain has moved on for now and, unfortunately, it's not due back until Friday and then expected to stay throughout next weekend. We need rain, but I'd rather see it rain during the week. The forecast is always in flux, so we'll see how it goes.
I hope you all have a good week and enjoy all the friends and family in your life. Ciao.
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