It is a bit later tonight as we had dinner with Darla's parents, Earl and Frances. They have a rental home here in Roseville and they are updating the home now that their last tenant has moved out. They have redone the floors, some kitchen tile and the kitchen sink. They have repainted and are working on the grout in two of the bathrooms. They hope to have it rented out by the end of the year. They will work with a local rental service to handle the renting and maintenance on the home.
I paid off our rental in Galt last month. In fact, I thought it was paid off and I received a late payment notice. I called the mortgage company and said the final payment was shown as $877 and I received a bill that said clearly, "You have automatic payments, please do not send payment". The customer service rep said, "Sir, everyone knows that when you do a payoff of your mortgage, you must send a separate check for payment to a payoff address." Really, I don't remember that from the last three or four houses that I paid off (insert SARCASM here). I told her to credit me the late payment fee, provide me the new payoff amount and the address which did NOT show on the bill I received. She agreed and told me the payoff was $697. Wait, the payoff was $877 and I have at least 15 extra days of interest and the payoff went DOWN? Well, she said, the payoff changes daily. Yeah, but it doesn't usually go down. I sent in $700 and saw that the payoff was applied on Friday, so the loan is CLOSED. We will receive a check for about $1500 which is the balance of the Escrow account. I will directly pay the taxes and insurance now. My rental is now a cash cow as the rent is $1200 and I will use the money to pay down debt prior to retirement. It is a nice spot to be and it has been a long time coming.
I had mentioned last week that the trees at the park would start dropping their leaves soon. Well, it took all of three days and the rains came and the leaves started to fall. You can see the picture of what was awaiting me on Thursday night. This will be my joy for the next six weeks or so.
Darla and I enjoyed Halloween at a nice dinner out at Chubbies, our little 50's diner in Roseville. We had hamburgers and I had a malt and then we came home and set up shop in our master bedroom and turned the lights out at the front. We sit across from a park and get about 10-12 kids at the most and having Halloween candy in the house is like crack for Darla, a diabetic. We just avoid the whole process. If Samantha lived close, we would open the house and enjoy the holiday, but without her, we just avoid the whole issue.
I did have one picture of Samantha on Halloween as well as pictures from our office celebration. We had a chili bar with three types of chili, including a chicken dish with white beans that was delicious. We had one row of our cubicles that all dressed up in Batman costumes. I didn't dress up this year as I was still exhausted from the meetings last week and wasn't in the mood.
We finished the month up 10% over 2016 in both revenue and income, so it was a very good month for us. We had a huge new business month which is always a good indicator of an up month. Not that it makes a big difference as far as my bosses are concerned, but it increases my bonus check at year end, so I'm smiling.
Alan had a couple of his Jeremy Dickinson lithographs delivered to the office while I was in Detroit. Dickinson is a British artist and I include the pictures as his art reminds me of Norris, who Dad used in his cartoonist days. His art involves classic cars and cars shown piled up. Often he has cars jumping a pile of other cars. One of his more famous paintings is of a Thunderbird jumping a lineup of cars and busses. He also has fire trucks and old busses. I had suggested we put up some photographs of local Sacramento landmarks like the state capitol, the Old Sacramento waterfront and the Tower Bridge. This is what we ended up with.
The last picture is of our boy, Samson, who had a nice bath today and you can't tell from the picture, but he smells really good. Darla had him in our large shower in the master bathroom and got him all soaped up and washed. It is nice to see him clean again. We were getting him bathed once a month which was recommended by the internet. I found a veterinary approved non soap pet shampoo that is designed for animals with itchy skin or "hot spots" and you can use it up to twice a week. We will bathe him more like twice a month, but he was getting a little ripe after a month. He is growing and is up to 50 pounds and is growing about 10 pounds a month right now. he was 40 pounds when we went to Vegas.
Saturday night, Darla and I watched the new Netflix movie, "Our Souls at Night", which is a movie starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. It is based on a book written by Kent Haruf. The premise is a little odd, Jane Fonda's character a widow approaches Robert Redford a widower and longtime neighbor and suggests that they sleep together (Sleep, not sex). It is the hardest part for both of them, the sleepless nights. It is a cute movie starring the 79 year old Jane Fonda and the 80 year old Robert Redford. A romance blossoms, but the movie is an interesting take on loneliness. We both highly recommend the movie. The chemistry is very good between the two who have starred in many movies together over the years, including Barefoot in the Park.
Our sermon at church today was about finding JOY in the Lord. Our pastor, Kirk, uses analogies a lot. He talked about one of the younger pastors and his 4 year old son. They were visiting the little boy's aunt and Dad made him a deal that if he was really good during the visit that he'd buy him a special treat. The boy was so good during the visit and everyone enjoyed the day so much that Grandma decided to take everyone to the movie that night to see some Pixar movie. The Dad decided to buy the refreshments and got his son popcorn and soda and Milk Duds. The little boy was sitting in his movie seat surrounded by his haul, the popcorn tub on his lap, the soda in its holder and the Milk Duds tucked in the arm of the seat. He turned to his Dad and said, "I was really good today, huh, Dad?" Dad agreed that he was really good. The little boy said, "Then when am I going to get my treat?" The inference is that we are all like that with God. With all of the blessings that we get from God every day, we are always looking for more and not reveling in the Joy that we should have from his largesse.
Well, that is it for this week. I have a Top Golf outing on Wednesday with one of our vendors who is putting on a continuing education class followed by the Top Golf. On Friday, I will host one of our agents for a golf outing at the local Country Club here in Roseville along with Michael, our VP who works with my younger producers. This weekend, Pete and I are hosting two of our agents at the RGC Turkey shoot. Mark has been a member for a long time and we got his partner, Phil, to join along with Peter. I invited them to come out and play in the tournament. This will be the first tournament that Pete has ever played in. It should be fun.
Well, I will be back at this next week. Dallas won a big game today against the Chiefs and I was happy to see them play some strong defense. That unit is coming together...finally. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next weekend. Ciao.
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