Easter

 

Happy Easter to everyone. He is Risen and life is so worth living. The pastor today gave us a saying to keep in mind: "Look to your hope as you plan your future and not to your hurt." And we all know that our hope is in Jesus Christ. We had a nice service this morning at 8:30 at Adventure. It was a great service and a great message. The pastor mentioned James Harrison today. He is known as the "Man with the golden arm". He is an Australian who was found to have an unusual plasma composition that has been used to make a treatment for Rhesus disease, a disease that is caused when a fetus has a different blood type than the mother. He has given blood every other week since his plasma was found to have the life saving characteristic and it is estimated that he has saved over 2.4 million lives of babies. He has donated blood over 1000 times. Amazing.

 

I had a Good Friday this week and a Great Thursday. I was invited up to Serrano County Club in Folsom on Thursday by the CEO of the insurance group that I am on the board of. I had Gary join us as well as he is a member. We met out there after noon for a quick lunch and teed off at 12:50. I was anxious to play the course again and to see Folsom Lake from the elevation of the course to see the amount of water that we have in storage now. The second golf picture is of the lake from the course. There are also some really nice pictures of the snow up in the Sierras. It is an awesome course and always

 

 

a joy when I play it. I shot an 89 with a 44+45 and struggled on the fast tricky greens, but I had a blast.

 

Friday, I got up early and washed Darla's truck as I had agreed to drive Neil, John and Steve to the course. We played at Ancil Hoffman and had a coupon for $100 for 4 players with cart. We got out there early and had an early lunch, hit balls, did some putting and then headed out on the course. I shot 90 and, although I had the lowest score, it was a struggle with the driver all day. I had a great driving day out at Serrano, but couldn't find the fairway all day at Ancil Hoffman and struggled just to make pars.

 

Friday night I hosted poker and had six players show up and we had a good time. Darla made us lasagna for dinner and I added French bread. The guys loved it as we usually have pizza or chili and it was a nice change. I won a lot early and lost late to basically break even, so overall a good time for me.

 

Saturday I was up early again and washed the 300 for our drive up to Paradise and dinner with Earl and Frances. We picked up David at a restaurant here in Roseville and made the 90 minute drive up to Paradise. We stopped at a nursery in Paradise and bought Frances a plant. The picture of David and the wisteria vine above is from the nursery. Don and Alicia were up in Paradise and had stayed the night on Friday night. They had been in Napa doing wine tasting. Their 5 year old son is quite the wine connoisseur now as they are at the wineries quite a bit. We met all of them up at the Black Bear Diner in Paradise at 2 PM for an early dinner. I had the pot roast dinner which was far too much food and had a gut ache the rest of the afternoon. David had dinner and jumped in the car with Don and Alicia for the ride home and we drove over to the folks house in Paradise for some good conversation and some strawberry short cake for dessert. I ate the dessert, although really didn't need it. We stayed until about 6 and were back home by 7:30.

 

Today, we went to church at 8:30 and I got home and did chores all day. I rewashed my car as we picked up a mass of bugs all over the front of the car and on the mirrors, etc. I mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes, cleaned out the filter and cleaned the pool. I shocked the spa, added some acid and balanced the chemicals. I also cleaned the stamped concrete and weeded the palm garden above the pool. I came in, turned on the golf about 3 PM and fell fast asleep, waking up at 4:30 and finishing up in the back yard. I watched the Kings beat Dallas to cripple their playoff chances and then jumped on the blog. You are up to date.

 

I have one of our corporate vice presidents coming in this week. He is one of our regional trainers now working with the younger producers on marketing techniques and desk management. I have three of the younger producers making marketing calls with Michael. I pick him up at the airport tomorrow morning and he will be here until Thursday. We have golf planned with one of Gail's agents on Thursday and look forward to it. I also have a River Cats (Giants AAA team) game on Wednesday night. They are playing the Giants in an exhibition and it should be fun. Darla and I are going with Pete and Vicky.

 

Well, hopefully you had a great Easter and remembered the reason for the season. It's not bunnies and eggs. Jesus is alive and at work in our lives today! Be well. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring has Sprung

 

 

Actually, the sky has sprung a leak as we have an early Spring storm that has rolled in and is supposed to last through Tuesday and then back to our 75 degree heaven. In fact is will be upper 70's by this weekend. I actually have this Friday off, which makes it a true Good Friday.

 

The pictures are from my game Friday at Sierra View Country Club. The country club almost backs up to our club, Diamond Oaks. I missed golf last weekend and my desire was to get out and play Diamond in preparation for our qualifier this weekend. I set up a 3 PM tee time on Friday and invited one of my agents and Paul to come out and play. I then called Jesse and he has joined Sierra View and invited us out to play with him. Sierra View is about 50 years old, but is an immaculate layout with nice views and tremendous holes. I had trouble getting used to the greens and shot a 45+42=87. The greens were very fast, but true. Once I figured them out, it was much easier around the greens. I had a couple of holes where I used driver and shouldn't have. I'll remember for next time and will get out there a bit more often with Jesse a member there now.

 

My cold has pretty well run it's course and I'm now just suffering from some sinus congestion and living on Afrin at the moment. The interesting thing is that I'm able to use my CPAP machine just fine at night and the positive air pressure keeps my sinuses open overnight. I was off the CPAP for four nights while I get passed the runny nose, sore throat and cough. I didn't miss any work, which would be my CEO's preference.

 

Things at work continue to progress. Our numbers are down and we are struggling with budget, which puts me under pressure, but seeing as I have several brand new producers, I'm overall satisfied with how things are going. Our trend is up each month and things are progressing in the right direction. I just need to manage expectations and make sure that we are doing everything to continue to grow our bottom line. I have another one of my long term employees off on a maternity leave and will be back in about three months. I've added a replacement for her from our Southern California branch that will help us out for the period that she is gone. I may shift the new employee to another team when Oksana is back. We'll see.

 

Darla and I were at church today and we continue to work or way through our ownership quandary. A large church in Granite Bay is willing to take us on and we are doing the dance with them to see if this is a good match. I went to a meeting last week to discuss the machinations of a merger of these two large organizations. Right now, we have the former dean of a Christian college here in Roseville who is acting as the senior pastor until we can find a replacement pastor and make the merger happen. Bryce has been part of our church since 2004 and is in his early 80's. Not a long term solution. Bryce is a lot of fun and Darla and I took a class that he taught several years ago. He handles the senior classes for the church and jokes that he can give the same presentation each week because half of them can't hear him and the other half can't remember. He says the only problem is that he has to prepare that same message every week, because he can't remember it either.

 

It was a nice service today and it feels like a lot of the shock and awe that came from the Texans pulling stakes and heading home has passed and we realize that it wasn't a good match after all. Our executive pastor said that he heard a quote this week that spoke to him: "The Devil knows your name and calls you by your sins. Jesus Christ knows our sins and calls us by our name." Pretty powerful, eh?

 

Darla and I had friends over last night and finally cooked our Prime Rib that we had bought for New Years and Darla got sick. We were concerned the meat might not be good, but it was excellent. Rand and Julie came over and we enjoyed a good meal. The only problem was that Darla told Julie that if they wanted wine to bring it. Neither of us drink wine. I'd much rather have a nice rye than a glass of wine. I'll drink it, but Darla's not a drinker and we just don't keep wine in the house. Strangely, Rand decided that he wanted a red wine with dinner. The problem was they didn't bring one with them. We should keep wine in the house for just such occasions, but I don't do the grocery shopping, so..hey.

 

I did play in the qualifier yesterday and actually showed up at 8:30 for a 10:23 tee time. Paul wanted to meet for breakfast, which I did. I ended up reading the paper and relaxing until about 10:00 and then starting my practice before teeing off. Again, I started slowly, this time leaving putts short because of the speed of the greens at Sierra View. I shot 45+41=86 and Paul shot 83. Together, our best ball score was 68. It was a tough day for most and scores ranged from 75 to 61. We ended up in the money.

 

I will be in charge of scoring and caddies at the National Trusted Choice Golf tournament in August. I was volunteered by the Tournament Director who is one of my agents. It will be a long week as I have to have spotter and fore caddies in place by 7 AM everyday and scorers ready to go by 7:30. I will need about 50 volunteers and need some millenials as the scoring involves the use of ipads and the scores have to be uploaded to the scoring system. it will be interesting and a busy week actually starting on Saturday and ending on Thursday night. This event will bring some of the best 16-18 year old golfers from around the country. In fact, there will be college coaches on site as well as some college recruiting trailers. Former winners and participants include Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, Charles Howell III, Justin Leonard, Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson, David Gossett, Grace park, Christy Kerr, Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer. Burns is a sponsor and I will have a number of my staff members there during the week.

 

Well, that it is for this week. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. Be well and continue to follow in the footsteps of The Lord. Ciao.

 

 

Back from Canada with a Cold

 

I can't really blame Canada for this cold, but it started up on Friday at work. I was sneezing over and over like I was allergic to something in my office. It was bizarre. By the time I went to bed Friday night I was completely stuffed up and couldn't use my new CPAP machine that I picked up on Tuesday. I had planned to play golf for my birthday with three friends and when I woke Saturday, I was completely congested, feverish and feeling none the better for a night of sleep. I texted my buddies and begged off. They ALL knew I was really sick if I was missing golf.

 

I spent yesterday in bed in the morning and then Darla had a Silpada gig at the house and I decided to get up and mow the lawn and rake up some of the spiny balls that fall from the liquid amber trees on the side yard. I'd no sooner got outside and Darla came out and gave me Hell for being out in the cold. I had cabin fever and had to get outside. She said, "If you get pneumonia I'm not taking care of you." I promised to come in as soon as I'd finished the lawn. I put on some ear muffs and a hat and worked for about 45 minutes. Aside from that I've been cooped up in the house all weekend under blankets and hopped up on Day Quil. I feel a little better today and hope to be well enough to head to work tomorrow.

 

Darla and I met with the builder and picked out our granite counter tops on Tuesday (You can see a picture of the sample we have above). We have the floor picked out and are working on the faucets, shower tile and paint now. We know that we will have white cabinets and will meet with the builder again on Tuesday to go over the rest of the choices.

 

Our trip to Canada was fun. We flew out Friday morning at 7:20 AM to Seattle. Darla was up at 4 AM and I was up about 4:45 for the ride to the airport. We slept a bit on the plane and were in Seattle by shortly after 9. We shuttled over to the rental car location and ready to pick up our Chrysler 200 and they were out and we settled for a Mazda 5, which is a little Japanese POS that looks like a cross between an appliance box and an actual appliance. It got the job done and at $17 bucks a day I couldn't complain. As a matter of fact the little four cylinder putt putt made it to Canada and back on 3/4 of a tank of gas.

 

We did mostly relaxing and visiting with Dad and Shirley on this trip. Shirley had a nice Italian soup waiting for us when we got there and we sat and visited. Darla and I were tired and took a nap before our cocktails and "appies" at 5 PM. You can set your watch by Dad on their cocktail hour.

 

They had a family dinner planned on Saturday with Cam and Kathy coming over and Sherry and Al. Tyler had just celebrated his 21st birthday the week before, but he had to work and couldn't join us. , Josh, Mathew and Jonathon were able to make it, but Chris had just had his wisdom teeth out so was rehabbing at home. Mathew had his girlfriend there as well, a nice young lady named Sydney, who will be in Australia this week on Spring Break. It was great getting caught up with everyone that night. It turns out that Cam and Kathy had forgotten about the cruise next year and got signed up to join all of us on the trip. That makes it extra fun.

 

Sunday, we visited in the morning, had leftover ham and eggs from the dinner the night before and then we drove out in Dad's new Cadillac to White Rock. It was kind of cold and rainy, but the resort town was busy and we were lucky to find parking across the street from Moby Dick's, the fish and chips shop we wanted to eat at. The fish was outstanding and the shop doubles your order. Darla and I split a one piece and each got a huge piece of fish, chips and we split a clam chowder. It was awesome. We stopped at Al and Sherry's on the way home for a drink and an opportunity to see their new kitchen and bathrooms as we get started on our plans.

 

Monday, we had breakfast with Dad and Shirley, visited for a bit and then followed them over to the White Spot at the mall. Dad tried to ditch us by making a right turn in front of a bunch of traffic, but I spotted him ahead and he pulled over in a shopping center to wait for us. It was a great visit, just what we needed and a chance to honor my 79 year old father. Next year will be a blast with everyone together to celebrate Dad's 80th.

 

I did go and get my CPAP machine after we picked out the granite. The CPAP is actually a computer modem that runs the results of my sleep to my doctor and to the provider of the machine. I can't wear it when I'm congested as it is a nose pillow that blows air into my airway through my nose. I breathe in and out through my nose when I have the contraption on. I don't snore with it according to Darla.

 

Spring is in full bloom in our yard and you can see a couple of pictures of the African Daisies that are around the pool. Everything is in bloom, although we have had wet weather all week. There was a break in the storms Saturday that would have allowed me to play golf and the club was able to get the third day of the 54 hole team event in. I have an NCGA qualifier next week and will play with Paul Gonzalez instead of Steve. We needed a break. His 101 the last time we played sort of broke the bank on that partnership. I hope to get out and practice a bit this week. I have Good Friday off and will play golf at Ancil Hoffman with Steve, Neil and Charlie and I host poker that night.

 

Darla is back from her visit with David at the Kings game. He called me on Wednesday and had tickets to see Lebron James, so John and I went to the game. It was fun, but the Kings are horrible again this year and their star center got into a verbal altercation with his coach (George Karl) during the game and was suspended for the Friday night game. They lost again this afternoon, but at least David has access to good seats and they were about ten rows from the floor. You can see the view from the seats Darla sat in tonight above.

 

The picture of Sam studying was from Diane who is there (or was) visiting this week. Darla and I have reservations for the weekend of April 22 in Vegas and will be there to see Sam's soccer game and spend the weekend with them. Jennifer has been working a lot more lately on cell sights in and around Vegas for her company. McKenny has been helping out with Sam while she worked.

 

Well, that is it for this week. I will be back next week with a fresh perspective and hopefully full health. Be well. Ciao.