The heat is back. We had a nice six or seven days of cooler weather with cool nights and highs in the 80's and low 90s. Not so fast, bucko. The heat is on with 104 yesterday, 107 today, 109 tomorrow and 100's forecast until next Monday. Yuk. At least we don't live in Houston. Hurricanes are a fact of life and one of the reasons that our Louisiana, Florida, Texas and Carolina offices are among our most profitable. We are not an insurance company so the inevitable losses will hit the insurance companies and wind deductibles and premiums will skyrocket for awhile. We just make commissions off our sales of policies.
I wouldn't live in one of those areas because hurricanes are a fact of life for them and the devastation we are seeing now is an expected fact of living there. I especially question New Orleans, which is a city below sea level on the coast in a hurricane belt. Do I feel sorry for them? Sure. I feel sorry that they rebuild only to lose everything again within another 20 years. If there weren't computer models that forecast hurricanes to hit the same area over and again, I'd say I'd feel more for them, but this is a part of their lives that they CHOOSE to be a part of. The same is true of earthquakes in Napa and Santa Cruz, San Francisco and LA. Theses folk know the risks that they live under, so feeling truly sorry for them when tragedy strikes seems somewhat silly. As a Christian, I feel sorry for the suffering and especially for the kids that are in the middle of the devastation through no fault of their own. The parents act like they are shocked, yet had to opt for insurance that excluded wind damage because they live in, wait for it, a HURRICANE ZONE and couldn't afford the premiums. The pictures of trailers flipped over and boats upside down and twisted on top of docks is sad, but what idiot left his boat in the water when they knew a hurricane was brewing in the Gulf?
The top picture is part of the Engagement series that Jen and Mac had done last week. Their "Save the Date" cards should be going out soon, but the date of the wedding is Saturday April 21, 2018 in Las Vegas.
The pictures of Samson are from "new parents" Ken and Darla. I had a poker game Friday night hosted here at the house and I didn't want him running around and causing trouble as a non housebroken pet. I also didn't want to put him in his cage, so we arranged a "play date" with the neighbors. They just had to turn their dog over to a rescue as he bit their 13 year old son. The kids have been missing the dog and Jeremy, their Dad said that they would love to watch Samson some time. I dropped him off at 6 with his bed and a backpack of his toys and his seat belt. Michelle had to take their 13 year old son, Gavin, to his first school dance at 7:30 and Gavin wanted time to spend with Samson before he had to leave. Their daughter, Jordan, who is one of Sam's friends from her visit this Summer, was at a friends house until 7:30 and Michelle packed up Samson and brought him in their SUV to drop off Gavin at the dance and pick up Jordan. They also stopped at her in-laws to let them meet Samson. They have suggested we put a dog door in the fence between our houses. They really enjoyed sitting him and her text to me, said "This is the sweetest puppy ever, he can hang out with us anytime." Nice to have that option, but we will probably pay the kids to watch him in the future.
The poker game itself went really well and it was good to get together with the guys. I won about $45 Friday night and the fellowship is always fun. We had six guys and I had carved meats and fixings for sandwiches. Darla fixed a nice potato salad and we enjoyed the meal.
I had golf on Saturday and was playing with Phil, the agent who is a business partner with Mark, who I played with last year. Mark is a member of our golf league and plays in our twilight league. Phil is a good friend and we set him up with Carmen, one of Darla's girlfriends, and they have been together for over a year now. Phil ended up signing up for the league on Saturday as we offered new members a one day only opportunity to join at our renewal rate of $83 rather than the new member rate of $98. Pete in my office is joining as well and they will team up in the twilight league next year.
I set up a practice round on Thursday afternoon for Phil and Mark's Invitational partner, Phil Lee, who is an agent in their office. Pete joined us as Mark had league and couldn't come out. We had a nice late lunch at 1:30 and then teed off. We played 12 holes and Phil Lee had not been playing great, but nothing horrible. I could tell he was frustrated. On the twelfth hole, a par three over water, he shanked his tee shot into the water. He said loudly, "That's it! I'm done!" He got in the cart with Pete and rode down to the green and as we headed to the green to play the hole, he unhooked his bag from the cart and walked off the course. I was shocked as frankly he isn't good enough to get that upset. We soldiered on and I shot a nice 84. Pete shot 87, which is GREAT for him. Phil shot a 93 and he doesn't have a handicap (YET).
I showed up for the Invitational on Saturday and was playing in the Peoria flight as Phil doesn't have a handicap. Mark and his partner were also one of the 5 teams that were playing Peoria. What I didn't realize is that not only had Phil Lee walked off the course, but he quit the Invitational as well and he was the guest of his boss. What?? I told both Mark and Phil that I, as a boss, would have a huge problem with that kind of attitude in an employee and especially for a salesman. Losing is part of the process and you have to learn to deal with it. I was frankly, a little offended that he walked off the course after I paid his way. We'll see how he does with them as a producer. He's been with them for about four months and his stripes are beginning to show.
Phil and I played well together and we ended up shooting a 74, which would have given us a net 56 if he had a handicap. As it is, we had a net 71 and finished out of the money. Mark and his replacement partner shot 72, net 69 and won $62. We had a great time and the tri tip sandwiches afterward were outstanding.
Darla and I are trying to set up our Vegas trip and we have gone from Labor Day (can't go because Samson hasn't had his third Parvo shot),to September 22 (Darla booked a party that weekend)to October 14th (which it turns out is our Monterey trip with the club) to October 7th. We will hopefully stick with that. We are also booking a trip to Canada to see Dad and Shirley over Thanksgiving. We will fly in on Thanksgiving arriving at their house by the time the Cowboy game starts. We will stay until Tuesday. We needed to talk to the boys and then make sure we can get Samson in for his Obedience training with Darla's friend, Dale Roberts, who has a 39 acre training facility in Lincoln, the next town over. Dad and Shirley wanted to go to Mexico with us again in December, but we are saving our discretionary income for the wedding next year.
Well, that is it for this week. We are having another big month at work and hopefully we end up hitting our goal of a 10% increase over last year, which was our biggest month ever. I will check in again next week. Stay safe the family in Houston, although Aaron is posting videos of his kids in Kayaks on the streets, so they are somehow enjoying the crazy. Ciao.
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