Happy Independence Day

 

 

It was a nice long 4 day holiday weekend for me and I played three games of golf (Thursday night league, Friday with the retired guys and Sunday in our Firecracker event). In between, we had friends over Saturday afternoon for barbecue, appetizers, drinks and dessert. The venue and the food are secondary, the fun is in sharing this thing called life with friends. The pool is sitting at 86 degrees, so we were all in the pool and enjoying the water. John and Camille live three blocks over and had driven John's Ram pickup over, but he drove it back home when he saw that Lilly had made tequila Jello shots and walked over. Pretty funny. We had a lively time and some great conversation.

 

I enjoy Independence Day immensely and love this country, but am troubled by this election. Trump is a blustering, obnoxious narcissist and Hillary is a crook. General Petreaus was indicted for keeping his e-mails on a private server and sharing some of the information with his girlfriend. Hillary did exactly the same thing and I think with her girlfriend as well. That really is the least of her sins. The Clinton Foundation and it's ties to foreign countries and Hillary's actions on behalf of many of the foundations' donors while Secretary of State should have her behind bars. Our country has become so immune to politicians acting in a self serving and patently illegal manner and it needs to end. We cowtow to Muslims, and any other fringe special interest group and it is horrible. This is a tidbit from a speech that Russian President Putin held before his parliament and it speaks much about how we should act:

 

"In Russia, live like Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, it should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, and live the life of Muslim's then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law.

 

"Russia does not need Muslim minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'. We will not tolerate disrespect of our Russian culture. We better learn from the suicides of America , England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Muslims are taking over those countries and they will not take over Russia. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of Sharia Law and Muslims.

"When this honorable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the Russian national interest first, observing that the Muslim minorities are not Russians."

The politicians in the Duma gave Putin a five minute standing ovation.

Now I'm not advocating that we become Russia, but we need a strong leader like Russia has, one who is not afraid to hurt someone's feelings. Trump may be that guy, but he needs to tone down his rhetoric and put the interests of the United States first, not those of fringe kooks that want free handouts because they are different from the rest of us. Try conformity, it is a tenant of the beliefs that founded this great country.

 

 It has been so hard to sit and witness the destruction of America by Barack Hussein Obama over the last eight years and the sheeples that voted him in are ready for Hillary to step in and continue the pillage. Proud to say that we have had our first black President, but he will go down in history as one of the worst, most divisive Presidents in history. We stand on the threshold of the first female President. God help us.

 

Yeah, I'm getting off the soapbox.

 

It was 108 degrees when I teed off on Thursday night and it was insanely hot. I was drenched from head to toe by the time we walked off the course, but shot a two over par 38 for the nine holes. I got home and fell into the pool and just drifted for about an hour. I then cleaned the tile and did the chemicals in the pool.

 

Friday was my day with the seniors and I played with Neil and Boyd. I hadn't seen Boyd in about two months and he wasn't doing real well. He has had a knee issue and is suffering from vertigo. The problem is intensified by the heat and he hadn't played golf for two weeks. He saw me signed up for Friday and, being a good friend, soldiered through. We had the first tee time at 7:25 AM. Boyd was slow and in a bit of pain and I helped him put his tee in the ground and mark his ball on the greens. He only played nine holes, but shot a 40. Neil and I played on. I shot 46+40=86 and wasn't in the money. I had a great time out with my friends and stayed until 12:30 to visit with the guys.

 

I had Friday off for the Kaufman Financial Holiday. I don't know what it is or why, but didn't ask any questions. I think it was the start of a month and we usually take eight holidays a year and they added this. Whatever, I was on the golf course.

 

I had Harvey in on Thursday and we did two interviews, one of whom I will hire. We hit our goal in June and I'll be taking the group out to lunch this month. It is the first time since November of last year, so good news. I told Harvey that I am playing in the twilight league this year and have Ron as my partner. Ron is the sales manager of our largest retail agency.  He spent about an hour and a half with one of my underwriters who is thinking of switching over to Professional Lines and wanted his advice. He got out of his meeting with her at 3:45 and wanted to go over financials. My tee time was 4:40 and I finally called a halt at 4:20 and literally sped over to the course. Harvey commandeered my office after I left and worked with our Personal lines underwriter. There were some issues that came up that he wants to talk to me about this week. Oh joy.

 

I did get a chance again to talk to Neil about his plans to move to Arizona. I think the shine is wearing off that idea as he found out that he can't get Kaiser insurance there and he is a big proponent of Kaiser Permanente Health. I shared with him our concerns about his health and leaving Lilly alone in a new city to care for him..or vice versa. He took that to heart.

 

Sunday was the Firecracker event and I shot 43+40=83 and that included, count them, a NINE on the front side. I was going along good and had a PBFU. PB stands for Post Birdie, you figure out the rest. I birdied the number 5 par three and then hit two balls into the hazard on number six and settled for a 9. I finished out of the money by one stroke, so if math isn't your strength, a bogey on that hole would have given me an 80, net 66 and good money. I won nothing but self respect for weathering that storm on the golf course. I truly couldn't have done it in my younger years and certainly pre-Prozac.

 

Darla and David went out Sunday with Don and Alicia boating at Folsom Lake. Maya joined them and I came home Sunday to a message from Darla that we were invited for dinner and Rib Eye was on the menu. Don smokes his meat which is a Kansas City tradition. He overdid it when he first got his smoker and it tasted like meat fixed in a kitchen where there was a house fire going on. He's improved his technique over the years ad the meat has a slight smoky flavor and I enjoy it much more. It was a great dinner with garlic fries, a quinoa salad and asparagus cooked in olive oil. Very nice. It was fun hanging out with Maya and seeing the gang. David is back from his European vacation where they flew in three weeks ago through the Istanbul Airport that had the shooting and bombing last week. He brought Darla some red wooden shoes from Holland that look like they could fit him.  

 

Well, that is it for this week. Darla is off to Rhode Island on Thursday for her new companies' annual meeting and she will be there until Sunday, so pray for me as I'll be a bachelor this weekend. Have a great week. Ciao.