Thanksgiving 2018

It is that time of year again for leaves and clogging downspouts. I had both in spades after the first real storm of the season. We had heavy rain and wind on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a second round due in on Tuesday thru Thursday of this week. The rain and wind absolutely inundated my yard with leaves and you can see the huge pile of leaves that encircle my home above. The city of Roseville will be out tomorrow with a truck and a loader and they will have the entire pile cleared up. They do a great job here in Roseville cleaning up leaves in the neighborhoods that border the city parks.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving holiday with dinner at Don and Alicia's on Thanksgiving and I was able to enjoy the Cowboy win on tape delay after lunch. We played cards and had a fun afternoon Dan came for lunch and David and Miya came for dessert. It was a fun visit with family.

Earl and Frances have moved their RV to the Elks Lodge here in Roseville and we had dinner out with them on Wednesday night at El Azteca, our local Mexican food taqueria. Earl has 100 questions for me on his homeowners policy and it takes me back to my Continuing Education classes. I have told them to save all of their receipts, including food and clothes, PO Box, gas, mileage, etc. He is such a good Christian man and says "I'd have to eat anyhow." True, but you wouldn't have to go out to dinner and you have groceries in your house. They had really bad cell service and wifi up in North Chico and decided to move closer to family as they await the word on when they can re enter the Paradise area. It is closed to everyone but emergency workers, Insurance adjusters, PG&E crews and first responders.

Darla and I went out to lunch on Friday and I spent some of the afternoon clearing the gutters and downspouts which were all clogged. We have the gutter covers, which are screens that stretch over the gutter tops. The problem is that small leaves and debris still get into the gutter and the downspouts end up clogged and overflowing. I fixed the first three with no issues. The final downspout was clogged, not at the opening of the downspout but actually within the downspout and I had to disassemble the downspout and damaged the sleeve that drops through the three inch hole into the downspout itself. I jerry-rigged it back together, but need to stop at the hardware store and pick up a replacement.

Saturday was "leave" day as I worked for about three hours picking the leaves out of the bushes and raking them off the driveway and lawn. I got them all piled up and then spent another hour on the back yard cleaning up leaves and cleaning the pool. Darla and I spent Saturday early evening at church and then went out to dinner afterward. We were seated in the bar area and basically forgotten. It was terrible service and we both were frustrated with empty drink glasses and they didn't bring our appetizer until after the main meal was served. It was a disaster and I wrote a nice note to the owner and told him his new bartender is useless.

Today, I played golf and struggled in the cold and wet conditions just breaking 90. Ron shot 93, his friend 102 and Paul shot a stellar 78. The sun broke out after the front nine and we enjoyed the weather and fellowship, if not the golf. I came over and took Samson to the park and had him on his leash as their were other dogs in the park, He wanted to go visit them and took off at a full run when I had stopped and my feet flew out from under me on the wet grass and I landed on my tail bone. He was pulling me and I had to yank back to get him to stop as I rolled around on my back like a turtle out of his shell.

Darla came back from her errands and we had a turkey in the oven. Charlie and Freida joined us for dinner. Daniel and Becky came by to visit before dinner, but had been visiting with Becky's folk who rented a house up in Camino. The family went to the Indian Casino nearby and enjoyed the all you can eat buffet about 2, so were not up for an early dinner at 4:30, so said their goodbyes and headed home.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print for this epistle. I will sign back on in the coming weeks and let you know what we have been up to. I hope you are all well and look forward to seeing the family on the upcoming cruise to Mexico. Ciao.

From Paradise to Hell on Earth!

 

 

 

It has been a harrowing week starting last Thursday morning at 8:15 AM with a butt dial call from Earl's cell phone to Darla when she heard sirens in the background. She immediately called back and talked to her Mom who said that the Paradise Fire Department was at their door and they had to evacuate. There was a fire that had started on the other side of Lake Oroville and the Feather River and it had jumped the river and was heading up the canyon to their property. It was a blustery day with winds up to 50 MPH in gusts in the canyon. Paradise is a bucolic town built at the top of a canyon on one side and a steep hill leading up to the city from Chico. It is a place to retire and enjoy your golden years.

 

All of that changed on Thursday when the winds blew and a combination of drought, dry brush and winds all combined to create what would become California's deadliest wildfire. The fact that there are 27,000 people in the town and many are older and in declining health was a major contributor to the loss of life.

 

Earl and Francis packed up their motor home, hitched their Jeep Cherokee to the tow bar and headed out of town. Unfortunately the fire was faster than them as it raced through the town and cut off the main means of egress from the city. They made it into the middle of the town on Skyway and were told to turn off and park on the side of the road and exit to a parking lot. The fire department basically set up a perimeter around the parking lot and they were trapped there for about ten hours. The top two and bottom two of the pictures above were taken by Earl on his cell phone as they sat and waited for the authorities to turn them loose. The other three are from a local media source. The destruction of the Black Bear Diner hits hard as it was one of our family meeting spots for meals up in Paradise.

 

Earl and Frances saw more devastation and sadness that day than you should have to endure as they sat and watched their retirement home city go up in flames. They watched as homes and business burned and trees would explode in the path of the fire. As of this writing there have been 45 confirmed deaths but that toll is unfortunately rising as the teams of workers go house to house and search the charred remains for victims. They have cadaver dogs that are looking at the completely burned out remains of homes as they try to determine if human life was lost. Many of the victims were shut ins with serious health ailments and on oxygen or confined to wheelchairs. There were also many victims that burned in their cars as they tried to escape the holocaust, but their egress was blocked by fire and the flames overtook them. There were six people that died in a remote area and there was a dead end on the block. There was only one way in and out an they died in their cars as the wildfire overtook them. There are still over 200 people unaccounted for.

 

The fire department finally released the 500 from the parking lot about 5:30, but Earl and Francis were the last to be released because of the size of their RV that needed to be turned around and headed in a different direction. Even when they finally got going they were stopped at an intersection by a caravan of cars from the smaller community of Magalia above Paradise that also was being evacuated.

 

Earl and Francis caught up with his sister and brother in law who were visiting them when the fire hit and both had to evacuate. They stayed overnight at the parking lot of the Lake Oroville forebay in Oroville. It was there that they ran into one of their neighbors who worked for PG&E as a below ground lineman. He was able to get back into the city and take cell phone footage of their neighborhood. Their shed behind the home had burnt with all of the tools and their boat, but the house was still standing. It is bittersweet news as the town lost about 90% of the homes and 80% of the businesses. The hospital is still standing and their church, but several shopping centers burned to the ground and most of the restaurants are gone.  They had pretty much resigned themselves to their home being gone and now they have to plan to be back in the city in the coming weeks to see what has been damaged and the extent of the smoke damage. Earl is concerned that the value of the home has dropped dramatically and I told him, "Yes, if you were to sell now", but once they make a few repairs it will be a prime location for a rental for the locals that must remain in the town like the fire fighters, government officials, church and business leaders as well as the army of contractors and workers that will descend on the area to rebuild it. We are not sure what they will do and they are not making any decisions now, but their experience was horrific and they can't imagine living there with just a shell of the community left. The city and environs are still closed and they are trying to limit looting and additional vandalism. They already found a group of looters that were dressed as emergency workers, but were there to rob the victims.

 

 

Earl and Francis have their RV at the home of a friend from church in North Chico and they have their home on wheels as their home for the next month or so as they await the city to reopen for victims to assess the damages.

 

Darla and I drove up Sunday to Chico and surprised her folks at the church that has welcomed the Paradise Alliance Church members in to their fold in Chico. We met them and were able to pray with them and cry with them as the stories from their church members were told, so many of them left with a car and the clothes on their backs. So much sadness and misery is heart breaking, but at the same time there is a resourcefulness shown and a spirit in Christians that always amazes me. I don't know how non Christians navigate life's sorrows without the love of a Saviour.

 

Well, I wanted to get Earl and Francis' story on the blog as it is a defining moment in their lives and a tragedy that they have made it through. They were shaken, but their faith remains strong and they both know that their true treasure is stored in heaven and not on earth.

 

Take a minute to give thanks for all that God has blessed you with and cherish family as so many lives have been torn apart by this tragedy. God bless all of you. Ciao.

Rose Cup Winners 2018!

So, yeah, one of my golf goals for the year was realized which is making the Rose Cup Team for Diamond Oaks Golf Course. This is the 6th time in 20 years that I've made the team and the third time that we actually won the Cup while I was on the team. We have seven wins in the 20 years of the cup. My scoring was not paramount to our win, in that I made 3 points out of a possible 8 for the team. Probably my biggest contribution was finding an errant drive hit by one of my teammates on Saturday. He was in the group in front of us and hit the trees off the 17th tee. I saw the ball hit and ricochet back near the fairway. When we were finishing putting on number 16, Steve was driving back to the tee to re-hit as they couldn't find his ball. My cart mate and I drove back and showed them where the ball was. Steve won his match and got 4 points...he won by one stroke.

 

We played at Sierra View Country Club on Friday. I struggled and shot 90 and Steve and I took 1 point. Steve shot 87. Our team played relatively well and we had 15 1/2 points and trailed the leaders, Woodcreek, by 2 1/2 points. We had a great dinner at Sierra View consisting of filet mignon.

We played at Diamond Oaks on Saturday and felt pretty confident on our home course. I struggled again and shot 88 for 2 points, but our team played brilliantly and we took 36 of the 120 points to win the match with a total of 51 1/2 points. Woodcreek took second with 45 points. We had a nice dinner of heavy appetizers (hey, we're not a country club!).

I may have mentioned this, or not. This is my last year as the handicapper for the club.ihave been doing this off and on for 16 years.  It is a position that is appointed annually by the President of the club. The new President and I really don't get along. He was the VP this year and was trying to change the duties of the VP. The biggest duty is to set up and run the annual Christmas party . He wasn't on the job for two months when he petitioned the board to do away with the gifts for the members at the Christmas party. The VP approaches golf courses that we play and gets rounds for a group of 4 that we give away at the event. He also approaches local merchants and asks for donations for our party. His final job is to run a 50-50 raffle at each tournament. The raffles usually collect about $180 with $90 to the winner and $90 to the Christmas fund. With 24 play dates throughout the year, we raise about $2000 for the gifts for our members. He didn't like having to do that work and I called him out on it, basically telling him that was his ONLY job besides doing a quarterly newsletter. He was not happy, but agreed to do the job he signed up for. He didn't even approach me about the job and gave it to one of his cronies. I can use the break and will be willing to train the guy who is taking over for me.

The second picture is of Darla on one of her Facebook check-ins. She called it curly hair Thursday. Cute wife.

Happy to have talked to Dad and Shirley tonight and got the great news that Wayne and Marilyn will be joining us on the cruise in December. Great times ahead. That's it for this week. I hope all is well with all of you. Ciao.

Back from the Manager's meetings in Detroit

 

 

Back from Detroit and the countdown (for me) is on to retirement. I have three more meetings left and then I'm done. I could stay on longer if they make me an offer that I couldn't refuse, something like three or four days a week with a guaranteed salary and a guaranteed bonus. Wendy joined me at the meetings this year. She has been with me for six years and is an MBA and a great choice to replace me. There is no guarantee that she will be the replacement, but they are grooming her now for a Management role. She is in our KAMP (Kaufman Accelerated Management Program). She spent six days in Home Office learning and meeting staff. She teamed with four other KAMPers and is working on an internal program to help new employees assimilate into the company. The KAMP participants joined us for the four days of the Leadership meeting.

 

The pictures. The first shot is of dinner Tuesday night after a day of travel to get to the meetings. The second picture is of Michael and I and was for Darla. The third and fourth pictures are from the Detroit History Museum, where we visited on Wednesday night for drinks and dinner. They have all sorts of history of the Detroit area and businesses. The pictures I took are of a Cadillac assembly line from the 1980's which was built in the museum to show how the cars were built. 5-7 are pictures of the surprise visit from Webb Simpson. Webb won the Players Championship this year and the picture of Michael and I with him also has him holding the crystal trophy from the Players. The last four pictures are from Saturday and our trip to the Little Caesar's Arena, which is home to both the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Pistons.

 

The visit from Webb was certainly a highlight for me and I got to visit more with him at the Detroit Institute of Arts which we visited on Thursday night. That visit was highlighted by the Detroit ensemble, SelectedofGod, an all black singing ensemble best known as the group that sang Eminem's Lose Yourself in a Chrysler 200 commercial shown in 2013. They performed several songs including Lose Yourself and were excellent. Again, we had dinner and drinks at the Museum and were able to view the works of art, including the Wedding Dance by Peter Bruegel which is worth over $150 Million and an 1887 self portrait by Van Goh worth about $80 million. I was amazed that these pieces are displayed in the open on the walls of the Institute and can be touched although it is discouraged.. The entire collection is valued at about $850 million.

 

It was a high energy busy week and I'm exhausted.

 

I play in the annual Rose Cup goof tournament this weekend. It is a Ryder Cup style event that pits the four Roseville area golf courses against one another over two days. The first day is best ball and the final day is individual play. I played in three of the fist six events, but haven't made the team I about 8 years. This will be the 16th Rose Cup.

 

Speaking of golf, I have 12 tickets fort the final day of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am in 2019. It will be Pebble's 100th anniversary next year and the US Open will be played at Pebble in June. I will also host Ron Floyd next year at the Waste Management Open in Phoenix. We will have tickets with a private booth for lunch and dinner on Friday and will be able to walk the course. Saturday we have tickets in the pavilion at number 16, which is the par three ad known as the biggest party in golf. It should be fun.

 

That is it for this week. I hope all is well. Ciao.

 

Back from Pacific Grove

 

 

 

Just back from my golf trip to Monterey/Carmel. Darla and I always stay in Pacific Grove because we like the proximity to the beach and we really like the restaurants in PG.

 

The pictures. The top group was a week ago Saturday when Darla and I hosted our friends, Ron and Lysanne to a night at the River Cats stadium. I got the freebies as a season ticket holder. They had a live band, food, drinks and casino games. It was fun although you weren't collecting money for anything other than fun. I played roulette for a long time and cleared out a color on her. Wish that had happened at a casino. Ron lost his Mom recently (She was 95), but he's been dealing with the funeral, selling her house and now her estate. He has been stressed and tired and he REALLY enjoyed the night out. You can see him playing craps. He had a ball.

 

The next group of pictures is from our trip to Pacific Grove. The last three of that set are with Darla's cousin, Brenda and her husband, Mark. Darla dropped me off at the Nicklaus course in Monterey Sunday morning and drove over to Gilroy to meet Brenda. They are moving to Idaho and had an Open House that day and Brenda was thrilled to get away with Darla. The girls went to the beach outside Santa Cruz and then came back to Monterey and met me at the course. We drove from there to meet Mark in Moss Landing at a restaurant/fish market called Phil's. We got there and there were at least 70 people in line to order the seafood. We waited about 20 minutes and Mark showed up and got us a table. I had perhaps the BEST halibut and chips that I have ever tasted. The halibut was cooked crispy and the meat was the consistency of chicken. It was incredible.

 

The next set is the guys at the Nicklaus course. I struggled on the front, losing THREE balls in the water. I brought a new sleeve of Pro V1s and offered those up to the water hazards on the front side. I shot 47 on he front and was frustrated. I came back nicely on the back and shot 42 for 89 and second low net. There were some ugly scores. Paul shot 89, Dan shot 93 and Ron actually DQ'd on number 15 when he lost his third tee shot OB. He posted a 98, but his score was in the 100's. One of our guys shot 132. He is the guy who will be taking over for me as handicapper next year.

 

The next picture is from Friday as Darla hosted Daniel out for his birthday lunch at Benihana's. Dan turned 29. Dan just passed his test for his civil engineer licensing. He has a new job with the city of Roseville and they already matched his LA salary. Now he gets a 5% bump for being licensed. Nice.

 

The final picture is from our window project where we changed out all of the windows in the back of the house. The photo shows that we changed out the large sliding window (with a screen and lines down the center)  for a picture window and put in two casement windows on the sides that lift both up and down and lift in for cleaning. The view from the living area to the pool is now unobstructed.

 

I will get back to this at some point, but have to grab dinner and then get on to a Bible study. Darla and I are back in a Life Group on Wednesday nights and we are really enjoying it. Until later then. Ciao.