Better late than dead, eh? I missed work yesterday with what has become a recurring back problem. I've been treated by a chiropractor for the better part of a year, but things are getting worse. I drained the koi pond on Saturday and trimmed and cleaned up the plants in and surrounding the pond. I did manage to kill ALL of the resident gold fish (see last week's blog). I removed the filter and UV light and the pump. It was getting hot, so I took a thirty minute break to look at the golf on television and my back cooled off as I was lying in a twisted position and my back locked up. I spent Saturday night, Sunday and Monday suffering from intense muscle spasms. If I moved the wrong way, it was like shoving a knife into my spine. I slept on the couch Saturday night, because every time I tried to move to get up, my back would spasm and bring tears to my eyes. Finally, the call of nature got me at about two-thirty and I was able to roll onto my stomach and off the couch onto my knees. I made it to bed and spent a sleepless night turning and spasming. Sunday was more of the same. Darla abandoned me and went to a San Francisco Giant's game with a friend and I spent a pathetic day on the couch and on the bed.
Finally, Monday I was able to see the chiropractor and he told me about hurting myself laying down (Now, I know for a fact I'm getting old). I saw him in the morning for an adjustment and electro-therapy and then again late afternoon. Darla had to help dress me, put my socks on and help me with my shoes. She said that was good training for when I get old. I said, what training, you're doing it NOW? I feel well enough to be back at work today, but will see the chiropractor at 3:30 today and 5:30 tomorrow. Hopefully, he can get me lined back up and in good shape before our vacation this weekend. It took almost a week last week to calm my back down and I was well for all of three days before messing myself up again. As I've said before, I have a congenital defect in my spine, where one of the verterbrae did not fully develop in my spinal column. It has never been a problem when I was a helathy young buck, but now that my spine is shrinking with age, the defect is beginning to tell noticeably. I will likely have back problems the rest of my life and it is really threatening my golf game. I haven't picked up a club in three weeks and with the pain, have no intention of seeing the teebox at any time soon. If I can get healthy, the toughest thing I'll be lifting is a soda at the beach at Lake Tahoe.
I talked to Dad on Sunday and he and Shirley are seriously looking into joining the family in Kauai next year. We will be in Kauai from June 12th -23rd of 2005. We will spend a week in our timeshare at the Makai Club Cottages, although we upgraded from a one bedroom to a two bedroom. We will then move for three days to the Kauia Beach Resort near the airport, where the boys can snorkel and perhaps even take surfing lessons. It should be a fun trip and one of our last family vacations with David graduating from high school. We have also invited Darla's Mom and Dad to join us in Hawaii next year, so it should be fun.
The boys started school yesterday and are back in football practice and all that entails. David was up with the roosters and at school by 5 a.m. for a senior tradition of watching the sunrise on the first day of school. They ate muffins and drank orange juice and coffee. Sounds like something out of the Lord of the Flies. The Seniors always seem to have odd traditions.
We will be on vacation in Lake Tahoe this coming weekend, but it will be a mishmash vacation as we have to return the boys for school on Monday. Because of my limited vacation, I will work Monday and Tuesday and then Darla and I will return to Tahoe to see the week out. The resort is breathtaking, right on the beach at Lake Tahoe and within a mile of the casinos at Stateline, Nevada.
Hot August Nights ended it's run this past weekend in Reno. It is the largest car show in the Western United States and unless I miss my bet, I expect to see Dad and Shirley there next year. The other big one in California is the Fortuna Car show in Fortuna, California on the coast. It is more of a 40's-50's style car show, but they have all classes of cars. Dad's two rides are both sharp and expensive. I'm looking forward to hearing his stories as soon as he begins to show his cars.
Well, this is short and sweet this week. I have tons of work to do , having missed Monday, so I better roll up my sleeves (I'm wearing a golf shirt with short sleeves) and get to it. God bless.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Monday, August 02, 2004
It is another Monday morning. Today has an overcast sky and it is cool. We have had mornings like this for the last week. It is very similar to weather that you see at the coast with a morning overcast that burns off by noon. Our sky has been clearing by about 9:30 and we have temperatures that are unseasonably cool with highs only reaching into the mid-eighties. It is tremendous weather.
Darla and I took advantage of the fine weather and took a trip up to Nevada City after church yesterday. The boys surprised their Mom and were at church when we arrived yesterday. We saw David's Mustang parked in my spot at church and Darla got excited. She feels tremendously blessed when the boys show that their relationship with Jesus is not something that is an obligation of being part of our family, but something that is a part of them. David decided to go to church and Daniel was right there with him. Daniel left even more of an impression on his Mom as his name tag from church was plastered on her back when we went to breakfast in Auburn. The cook at the restaurant asked Darla if she taught Sunday school. She looked at him funny and he said that she had a name tag of "Daniel" on her back.
We drove up Highway 89 after church and decided to go visit the Empire Mine, a state historic site in Grass Valley. The mine was the largest solid rock gold mine in California and was bought out by the Newmont Mining Corporation in 1925 from the owner, William Bourn. Bourn was the son of an industrialist from New York who moved to San Francisco in 1870 following the California Gold rush. Although Bourn did not come to California to prospect Gold and came simply to provide all of the necessities of the prospectors, clothes, supplies, etc., eventually he bought the Empire Mine as part of his holdings. He lived in a mansion in San Francisco. He died in 1878 and his 17 year-old son was forced to take over the mine and run his father's various businesses. In 1895 he built a 4600 square foot cottage on the grounds for his use when he was visiting from San Francisco. He sent one of his spinster maids to the Empire site to live in the cottage and run the household.
The mine itself closed two months before I was born after producing almost 6 million ounces of gold, which would be worth over $2.5 billion at today's prices. The most amazing thing is that geologists have determined that the mine stripped only about 20% of the total gold out of the mine and 80% of the gold remains. Most of the mine shafts are now flooded and all of them are closed.
The grounds are tremendous with restored gardens, clubhouse, pools, ponds and the mine itself. Darla and I walked down into the main mine shaft about two stories into the ground and I leaned over and asked Darla what would happen if we had an earthquake right then. She gave me a look. The tightness of the mine shaft was so narrow that the miners could not stand up, but had to lay down to move down the shaft.
My back decided to lock up again last week and I'm still stiff and sore. The pain was so bad on Thursday that I had to leave work and seek solace in some pain medication and a chiropractic ice bag. The problem was that I had a huge account that was due to close that afternoon. It is a brokerage account meaning that the company underwrites the account and I act as broker on the file. I tried to stick in there, but was getting physically ill from the pain in my back. I couldn't stand up straight and it hurt to breathe. Three months ago I would have been sunk if I left, but now with Anthony as my assistant, I was able to turn the account over to him and he was able to work with the underwriter and the retailer to get them a quote. Long story short, we closed the account on Friday when I was back to work and we sold a $156,000 account. My average month has been about $250,000 in premium, so you can see how this will affect my August. I am starting the month with almost $200,000 in premium already booked and close to $12,000 in income to the company. My old assistant would have wet her pants and gone home with a migraine. One of the reasons that I'm willing to share my bonus with Anthony.
Well, I managed to do a good impression of Heinrich Himmler this weekend as I instituted death for most of my goldfish by adding too much PH decreaser (another word for acid) to the pond. Several of the fish immediately began to float sideways and bite the big one. I reread the instructions on the bottle and it said not to change the chemistry of the water by more than two points or it would cause stress to the fish. I dropped it about 12 points in a fell swoop. I lost about fifteen of the sixty fish yesterday. Darla called this morning to say that the top of the water looks like a fish graveyard with some thirty fish floating on the top of the pond. We have had too many fish for too long, but I had not planned to commit goldfish genocide. I'll see how many fish (if any) remain. A pond of our size should hold no more than about 25 fish. The problem is the little buggers use the pond as their own little sex lair and the fish population continues to expand.
I talked to both Darryl and Randy last night. We all have free nights and weekends on our cell phones, yet rarely do we talk to one another. It was nice getting caught up with both of them. Randy has bought some property at a country club about an hour outside of Euless, Texas. He took a week last week and vacationed at a condo on the country club. He played golf several days and it strikes me that I am the golfer in the family and now Dad, Darryl and Randy are all country club members and I'm not. Something seems off in this equation.
Well, I have to get to work. We have an audit starting this week with two people in from home office. Ciao.
Darla and I took advantage of the fine weather and took a trip up to Nevada City after church yesterday. The boys surprised their Mom and were at church when we arrived yesterday. We saw David's Mustang parked in my spot at church and Darla got excited. She feels tremendously blessed when the boys show that their relationship with Jesus is not something that is an obligation of being part of our family, but something that is a part of them. David decided to go to church and Daniel was right there with him. Daniel left even more of an impression on his Mom as his name tag from church was plastered on her back when we went to breakfast in Auburn. The cook at the restaurant asked Darla if she taught Sunday school. She looked at him funny and he said that she had a name tag of "Daniel" on her back.
We drove up Highway 89 after church and decided to go visit the Empire Mine, a state historic site in Grass Valley. The mine was the largest solid rock gold mine in California and was bought out by the Newmont Mining Corporation in 1925 from the owner, William Bourn. Bourn was the son of an industrialist from New York who moved to San Francisco in 1870 following the California Gold rush. Although Bourn did not come to California to prospect Gold and came simply to provide all of the necessities of the prospectors, clothes, supplies, etc., eventually he bought the Empire Mine as part of his holdings. He lived in a mansion in San Francisco. He died in 1878 and his 17 year-old son was forced to take over the mine and run his father's various businesses. In 1895 he built a 4600 square foot cottage on the grounds for his use when he was visiting from San Francisco. He sent one of his spinster maids to the Empire site to live in the cottage and run the household.
The mine itself closed two months before I was born after producing almost 6 million ounces of gold, which would be worth over $2.5 billion at today's prices. The most amazing thing is that geologists have determined that the mine stripped only about 20% of the total gold out of the mine and 80% of the gold remains. Most of the mine shafts are now flooded and all of them are closed.
The grounds are tremendous with restored gardens, clubhouse, pools, ponds and the mine itself. Darla and I walked down into the main mine shaft about two stories into the ground and I leaned over and asked Darla what would happen if we had an earthquake right then. She gave me a look. The tightness of the mine shaft was so narrow that the miners could not stand up, but had to lay down to move down the shaft.
My back decided to lock up again last week and I'm still stiff and sore. The pain was so bad on Thursday that I had to leave work and seek solace in some pain medication and a chiropractic ice bag. The problem was that I had a huge account that was due to close that afternoon. It is a brokerage account meaning that the company underwrites the account and I act as broker on the file. I tried to stick in there, but was getting physically ill from the pain in my back. I couldn't stand up straight and it hurt to breathe. Three months ago I would have been sunk if I left, but now with Anthony as my assistant, I was able to turn the account over to him and he was able to work with the underwriter and the retailer to get them a quote. Long story short, we closed the account on Friday when I was back to work and we sold a $156,000 account. My average month has been about $250,000 in premium, so you can see how this will affect my August. I am starting the month with almost $200,000 in premium already booked and close to $12,000 in income to the company. My old assistant would have wet her pants and gone home with a migraine. One of the reasons that I'm willing to share my bonus with Anthony.
Well, I managed to do a good impression of Heinrich Himmler this weekend as I instituted death for most of my goldfish by adding too much PH decreaser (another word for acid) to the pond. Several of the fish immediately began to float sideways and bite the big one. I reread the instructions on the bottle and it said not to change the chemistry of the water by more than two points or it would cause stress to the fish. I dropped it about 12 points in a fell swoop. I lost about fifteen of the sixty fish yesterday. Darla called this morning to say that the top of the water looks like a fish graveyard with some thirty fish floating on the top of the pond. We have had too many fish for too long, but I had not planned to commit goldfish genocide. I'll see how many fish (if any) remain. A pond of our size should hold no more than about 25 fish. The problem is the little buggers use the pond as their own little sex lair and the fish population continues to expand.
I talked to both Darryl and Randy last night. We all have free nights and weekends on our cell phones, yet rarely do we talk to one another. It was nice getting caught up with both of them. Randy has bought some property at a country club about an hour outside of Euless, Texas. He took a week last week and vacationed at a condo on the country club. He played golf several days and it strikes me that I am the golfer in the family and now Dad, Darryl and Randy are all country club members and I'm not. Something seems off in this equation.
Well, I have to get to work. We have an audit starting this week with two people in from home office. Ciao.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Another weekend is in the books and it is back to business. It is supposed to be 104 degrees today and then the weather will begin to cool to the point that they are forecasting temperatures in the 80's by the weekend. What a nice change that will be.
Darla and the boys made it back on Saturday and I really missed them. It's difficult to live in a perfectly vacuumed, neat as a pin house. I felt like I was single again. The boys came in and dumped their clothes and things all over the place and it started to feel like home again. And people accuse me of being sarcastic.
I haven't been able to reach Jennifer recently. I tried calling her last night to see how things are going on base after the accident last week, but her phone was off. I assume that the Army will have a ceremony of some sort to celebrate the life of Specialist Lal, but who knows? I'm sure they went through with the change of command ceremony. It is the Army way to forge ahead in the face of disaster. It is how they survive during wartime.
I trimmed my moustache on Saturday night and inhaled a hair. It somehow got stuck in my throat and all manner of coughing, chocking, gargling and retching was unable to dislodge it. I woke up Sunday morning with an infection in my throat and a voice reminiscent of Barry White. The human body is an amazing creation, but an agonizingly imperfect one at that. This is why my blog is titled as it is by the way.
The three club tournament this weekend was an effort in survival. My choice of driver, six-iron, putter seemed at times wholly inept, such as when I found myself in a greenside bunker with a large lip and little room to land the ball on the green. After chunking the first attempt and skulling the second, leading to a double-bogey, I was glad that I get 14 clubs in all of my other tournaments. The winners shot net 70 and had a net 76 after shooting 45-43=88. I did win $22 in sklins, however thanks to one birdie and three pars. It was a tough tournament.
Darla, David and I went out to the lake yesterday. Daniel opted out, being tired and having missed television all week. He was in his element lolling about the house and watching B grade movies all day. The lake has lost at least 40% of its volume since the start of the Summer and it has become something of a muddy little hole. We drove down to the beach and spent about three-and-a-half hours relaxing. Darla and David went along with me, but both spent most of the day under the umbrella, having spent the entire week in the sun. Darla and I decided that will be our last trip to Folsom Lake this year. They increased the entry fee on July 1st and the lake is just not very nice right now, with tree limbs sticking up out of the water and no sand on the beaches as the water has receded to the mud of the lake bottom. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Work has been a boon lately and I'm having my biggest month since I joined Burns and Wilcox. So far this month I've booked over $200,000 in premium and over $30,000 in net income. My goal with a week to go is $275,000 in premium and $40,000 in income. I knew this would be a good renewal month, but I've also kept my new business up and I'm putting a great start on the new bonus period. I am sharing 10% of my bonus from the first half of the year with my assistant. Again, this is not something that has been done in this office before and I'm being a rabble rouser. The harder I work, the harder I force my assistant to work, so I am not only team building, but I am incentifying (is that a word?) my assistant and having him share in the rewards that come from hard work. Anthony and I earned the highest bonus in the branch last period and we plan to do the same this period.
Darla and I will sit down this week and plan out our trip to Hawaii for next year. We may visit two islands, but we're afraid that may counter our plan to relax with a twelve-day visit to the islands. Darla and I found that with a 7 day trip last year, it was too short. Two of the days are spent travelling, so if we take twelve days, we'll be able to relax for ten. If we move from one island to the other, it may seem that we are taking three days to travel. We'll decide this week and get it booked and get the dates out to Dad and Shirley and Earl and Frances to see if they will be able to join us.
Well, work awaits and it is calling my name. Have a good week. Ciao.
Darla and the boys made it back on Saturday and I really missed them. It's difficult to live in a perfectly vacuumed, neat as a pin house. I felt like I was single again. The boys came in and dumped their clothes and things all over the place and it started to feel like home again. And people accuse me of being sarcastic.
I haven't been able to reach Jennifer recently. I tried calling her last night to see how things are going on base after the accident last week, but her phone was off. I assume that the Army will have a ceremony of some sort to celebrate the life of Specialist Lal, but who knows? I'm sure they went through with the change of command ceremony. It is the Army way to forge ahead in the face of disaster. It is how they survive during wartime.
I trimmed my moustache on Saturday night and inhaled a hair. It somehow got stuck in my throat and all manner of coughing, chocking, gargling and retching was unable to dislodge it. I woke up Sunday morning with an infection in my throat and a voice reminiscent of Barry White. The human body is an amazing creation, but an agonizingly imperfect one at that. This is why my blog is titled as it is by the way.
The three club tournament this weekend was an effort in survival. My choice of driver, six-iron, putter seemed at times wholly inept, such as when I found myself in a greenside bunker with a large lip and little room to land the ball on the green. After chunking the first attempt and skulling the second, leading to a double-bogey, I was glad that I get 14 clubs in all of my other tournaments. The winners shot net 70 and had a net 76 after shooting 45-43=88. I did win $22 in sklins, however thanks to one birdie and three pars. It was a tough tournament.
Darla, David and I went out to the lake yesterday. Daniel opted out, being tired and having missed television all week. He was in his element lolling about the house and watching B grade movies all day. The lake has lost at least 40% of its volume since the start of the Summer and it has become something of a muddy little hole. We drove down to the beach and spent about three-and-a-half hours relaxing. Darla and David went along with me, but both spent most of the day under the umbrella, having spent the entire week in the sun. Darla and I decided that will be our last trip to Folsom Lake this year. They increased the entry fee on July 1st and the lake is just not very nice right now, with tree limbs sticking up out of the water and no sand on the beaches as the water has receded to the mud of the lake bottom. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Work has been a boon lately and I'm having my biggest month since I joined Burns and Wilcox. So far this month I've booked over $200,000 in premium and over $30,000 in net income. My goal with a week to go is $275,000 in premium and $40,000 in income. I knew this would be a good renewal month, but I've also kept my new business up and I'm putting a great start on the new bonus period. I am sharing 10% of my bonus from the first half of the year with my assistant. Again, this is not something that has been done in this office before and I'm being a rabble rouser. The harder I work, the harder I force my assistant to work, so I am not only team building, but I am incentifying (is that a word?) my assistant and having him share in the rewards that come from hard work. Anthony and I earned the highest bonus in the branch last period and we plan to do the same this period.
Darla and I will sit down this week and plan out our trip to Hawaii for next year. We may visit two islands, but we're afraid that may counter our plan to relax with a twelve-day visit to the islands. Darla and I found that with a 7 day trip last year, it was too short. Two of the days are spent travelling, so if we take twelve days, we'll be able to relax for ten. If we move from one island to the other, it may seem that we are taking three days to travel. We'll decide this week and get it booked and get the dates out to Dad and Shirley and Earl and Frances to see if they will be able to join us.
Well, work awaits and it is calling my name. Have a good week. Ciao.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
This is an URGENT call to prayer. Jennifer phoned this morning and there was an accident at her base in Augusta, Georgia. One of Jennifer's friends and a fellow soldier in her unit, Melissa, was killed this morning in a freak accident at one of the fields on base. She was working on a 30' ceremonial tower and it collapsed. Two other soldiers were injured, but Melissa Lal died of traumatic injuries to her body and head injuries. She was airlifted to the local hospital where she was on life support for harvesting of her organs, but brain dead.
The unit is in a state of shock and Jennifer is extremely shaken and upset. She has been up and down the same tower over a dozen times and has dismantled it and re-built it as well. Please pray for Melissa, her family and her military unit. Each of those soldiers will have but one thing on their minds when they climb the next tower. Pray that God grant each of them peace and comfort in their time of extreme sorrow. God bless our soldiers who put their lives on the line every day so that we can live in peace and freedom. Amen. The link to the Augusta Chronicle story on this tragedy is : http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/072104/lat_tower.shtml
The unit is in a state of shock and Jennifer is extremely shaken and upset. She has been up and down the same tower over a dozen times and has dismantled it and re-built it as well. Please pray for Melissa, her family and her military unit. Each of those soldiers will have but one thing on their minds when they climb the next tower. Pray that God grant each of them peace and comfort in their time of extreme sorrow. God bless our soldiers who put their lives on the line every day so that we can live in peace and freedom. Amen. The link to the Augusta Chronicle story on this tragedy is : http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/072104/lat_tower.shtml
Monday, July 19, 2004
Jennifer has returned back to her base in Georgia. She left last Thursday after a whirlwind two weeks that saw her really enjoy herself with her Mom, her brothers, Darla and I and especially her friends. It was sad to see her leave, but she is that much closer to her final days in the Army and a return to civilian life. As I've said before, Jennifer will not be tempted by any monetary inducements to stay in the Army. She has enjoyed her stay, her training and the people that she has met along the way, but she is ready to put the military behind her when the time comes to make that decision. Jennifer had been leaning toward going to work for one of the civilian contractors or in the fibre optics field, but she is now indicating an interest in going into teaching. The nice thing for her is that she is young and has those options. If she does choose to go into teaching, she will have to finish her schooling first and the California GI bill and the GI Bill will provide her $50,000 to finish college. It will be interesting to see which path she chooses when she gets out.
She spent a week working with grade school kids in the Augusta school system. The base at Fort Gordon has a program whereby they provide several of the Army Specialists and Sargeants and they meet with the kids and discuss their jobs in the Army and tell the kids about their experiences. Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed her interaction with the students and got her thinking about teaching as a profession. I told her that learning how to starve as a soldier would provide good training toward starving as a grade school teacher.
Darla and the boys are up in Almanor this week in a two-bedroom cabin. I drove up Saturday morning and spent two days at the lake. The boys are wakeboarding and knee boarding and Earl (Darla's Dad) has decided that David needs to learn how to drive the boat and he is learning how to pull his brother, how to circle around and pick him up after he falls and all of the other ins and outs of piloting a boat. I watched him pull the boat in yesterday afternoon and park it between two other boats at the dock and he did great. David is a responsible kid, but more than that, he wants to excel at whatever he does. He knows enough to ask questions and really learn whatever he is trying to master. He's quite a kid. They will be up there all this week and return home on Saturday night.
The house was mercifully quiet when I returned home last night and I have plans to get quite a bit accomplished this week that it is hard to do when the family is there. I will wax my car, do yardwork trimming and perhaps even some new plantings. I have some sprinkler heads that need to be replaced and I want to work on a couple of spots on the carpet that need cleaning. I talked to Dad last night and he said that I'd be a little lonely by the end of the week. I'm sure I will, but I do have a loner mentality and I enjoy being alone. It will be a nice change and allow me the time and the ability to get some things done.
I copied a number of Jennifer's CDs while she was here. The interesting thing is that she would not have had a CD three years ago that I would have been remotely interested in. She had some of the more current music from some of my favorite artists including John Mayer, Melissa Ethridge, Norah Jones and Annie Lennox. Jennifer said that her interest in music is more mainstream Rock and Roll, but these artists are almost Easy Listening. I don't know who this bothers more, me or her, but I saved about $50 in music purchases and really enjoyed the three hour drive up and back to Almanor because of the music. She even introduced me to a new artist, Dido, who has nice mellow music. Three years ago, her music was all Rap and every CD had a Parent's warning on it for vulgar language. Nice to see your children grow up. Now we need to work on David, who has the rap music in his car. What is it with this genre? I'd think the angry young rapper music would have faded into banality by now.
I've had some reflection recently on my commitment to the golf club. The board has some concerns that my job is interfering with my responsibilities as the Vice President of the club. (Does that sound kind of goofy to anyone else?) I've missed three board meetings so far this year and the last one I missed was set for July 5th. I was with Jennifer and wasn't about to cut my day short to sit through a board meeting of the golf club. The guys are concerned and I talked to the President about it....or perhaps more to the point, he talked to me. When he asked me to be VP, I worked for Republic Western, I worked out of the house and my time was mine. Now, I'm working fifty-hour weeks and I don't have a lot of extra time to donate to the club. I was very frank with him and told him that as far as I was concerned, the golf club is leisure time and Family comes first, Work second and everything else brings up the rear. He asked if as President, I could make ALL of the meetings next year and I told him that I wasn't sure. If work demanded that I be in Phoenix or Michigan, I'd be gone. I don't think he liked my answer and it could be that I won't take over as President next year. Either way, I'm okay with it. I'm involved in the golf club because I want to give something back to a group that has given me a lot of joy, but I'm not married to it. Not even close.
I talked to Dad last night and invited he and Shirley with us to Hawaii next year. We will take the boys to Kauai in early June for about 12 days as a Graduation present to David. We will upgrade our condo to a two-bedroom and hopefully Dad and Shirley will be able to trade into the same complex in Princeville. Many people enjoy Honolulu or Maui more, but I prefer the solitude and beauty of Kauai. We will spend a lot of time in Poipu at the beach, but will spend our down time at the Makai Village in Princeville and dinners in Hanalei. I look forward to it already. We are also inviting Darla's parents to join us. I hadn't planned on bringing my golf clubs, but if Dad and Shirley are there, I'd have to accompany them on the course. It'd only be right.
I have an insurance golf tournament on Thursday at the Woodcreek golf course in Roseville. We will have a barbecue dinner afterward. The tournament is for the Insurance Professionals Association, formerly Insurance Womens. It's a fun tournament with a female in every foursome. Gail, one of the other underwriters in my office will be in our foursome and she is quite a golfer. I think we will give them a run for their money this year. Saturday, I play in the Roseville Golf Club annual three-club tournament. We have to choose three clubs and play the whole round with those three. I will use a driver, six iron and putter this year. Last year I used driver, six iron and sand wedge and putted with the sand wedge. I had way too many putts and will remedy that this year. It is a fun tournament and I'll let you know how it goes.
Well think of me this week, getting caught up on my chores, unashamedly watching Sportscenter and baseball games and fixing my own dinners and lunches. I will survive. Ciao.
She spent a week working with grade school kids in the Augusta school system. The base at Fort Gordon has a program whereby they provide several of the Army Specialists and Sargeants and they meet with the kids and discuss their jobs in the Army and tell the kids about their experiences. Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed her interaction with the students and got her thinking about teaching as a profession. I told her that learning how to starve as a soldier would provide good training toward starving as a grade school teacher.
Darla and the boys are up in Almanor this week in a two-bedroom cabin. I drove up Saturday morning and spent two days at the lake. The boys are wakeboarding and knee boarding and Earl (Darla's Dad) has decided that David needs to learn how to drive the boat and he is learning how to pull his brother, how to circle around and pick him up after he falls and all of the other ins and outs of piloting a boat. I watched him pull the boat in yesterday afternoon and park it between two other boats at the dock and he did great. David is a responsible kid, but more than that, he wants to excel at whatever he does. He knows enough to ask questions and really learn whatever he is trying to master. He's quite a kid. They will be up there all this week and return home on Saturday night.
The house was mercifully quiet when I returned home last night and I have plans to get quite a bit accomplished this week that it is hard to do when the family is there. I will wax my car, do yardwork trimming and perhaps even some new plantings. I have some sprinkler heads that need to be replaced and I want to work on a couple of spots on the carpet that need cleaning. I talked to Dad last night and he said that I'd be a little lonely by the end of the week. I'm sure I will, but I do have a loner mentality and I enjoy being alone. It will be a nice change and allow me the time and the ability to get some things done.
I copied a number of Jennifer's CDs while she was here. The interesting thing is that she would not have had a CD three years ago that I would have been remotely interested in. She had some of the more current music from some of my favorite artists including John Mayer, Melissa Ethridge, Norah Jones and Annie Lennox. Jennifer said that her interest in music is more mainstream Rock and Roll, but these artists are almost Easy Listening. I don't know who this bothers more, me or her, but I saved about $50 in music purchases and really enjoyed the three hour drive up and back to Almanor because of the music. She even introduced me to a new artist, Dido, who has nice mellow music. Three years ago, her music was all Rap and every CD had a Parent's warning on it for vulgar language. Nice to see your children grow up. Now we need to work on David, who has the rap music in his car. What is it with this genre? I'd think the angry young rapper music would have faded into banality by now.
I've had some reflection recently on my commitment to the golf club. The board has some concerns that my job is interfering with my responsibilities as the Vice President of the club. (Does that sound kind of goofy to anyone else?) I've missed three board meetings so far this year and the last one I missed was set for July 5th. I was with Jennifer and wasn't about to cut my day short to sit through a board meeting of the golf club. The guys are concerned and I talked to the President about it....or perhaps more to the point, he talked to me. When he asked me to be VP, I worked for Republic Western, I worked out of the house and my time was mine. Now, I'm working fifty-hour weeks and I don't have a lot of extra time to donate to the club. I was very frank with him and told him that as far as I was concerned, the golf club is leisure time and Family comes first, Work second and everything else brings up the rear. He asked if as President, I could make ALL of the meetings next year and I told him that I wasn't sure. If work demanded that I be in Phoenix or Michigan, I'd be gone. I don't think he liked my answer and it could be that I won't take over as President next year. Either way, I'm okay with it. I'm involved in the golf club because I want to give something back to a group that has given me a lot of joy, but I'm not married to it. Not even close.
I talked to Dad last night and invited he and Shirley with us to Hawaii next year. We will take the boys to Kauai in early June for about 12 days as a Graduation present to David. We will upgrade our condo to a two-bedroom and hopefully Dad and Shirley will be able to trade into the same complex in Princeville. Many people enjoy Honolulu or Maui more, but I prefer the solitude and beauty of Kauai. We will spend a lot of time in Poipu at the beach, but will spend our down time at the Makai Village in Princeville and dinners in Hanalei. I look forward to it already. We are also inviting Darla's parents to join us. I hadn't planned on bringing my golf clubs, but if Dad and Shirley are there, I'd have to accompany them on the course. It'd only be right.
I have an insurance golf tournament on Thursday at the Woodcreek golf course in Roseville. We will have a barbecue dinner afterward. The tournament is for the Insurance Professionals Association, formerly Insurance Womens. It's a fun tournament with a female in every foursome. Gail, one of the other underwriters in my office will be in our foursome and she is quite a golfer. I think we will give them a run for their money this year. Saturday, I play in the Roseville Golf Club annual three-club tournament. We have to choose three clubs and play the whole round with those three. I will use a driver, six iron and putter this year. Last year I used driver, six iron and sand wedge and putted with the sand wedge. I had way too many putts and will remedy that this year. It is a fun tournament and I'll let you know how it goes.
Well think of me this week, getting caught up on my chores, unashamedly watching Sportscenter and baseball games and fixing my own dinners and lunches. I will survive. Ciao.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
The heat hit us last week, but someone decided that warm was not good enough. It is expected to be over 100 degrees for the rest of this week. Thank God the air conditioning in my office was fixed last week.
Jennifer and the boys will spend the day at the local waterpark in Roseville. She had promised the boys that she would take them and they kept missing the mark. They decided that today would work best for them and it is supposed to top out at 103 degrees today, so I can't imagine a better scenario for the kids. In fact, I envy them. After a nice three day weekend and a great trip to Reno/Lake Tahoe, the work is dammed up in my office and waiting for me to unclog the works.
Our trip was really fantastic. The accomodations at the Atlantis Casino were first rate. We drove up after church on Sunday. Jennifer was her regular zombie self after a night on the town with friends Saturday night. She was a trooper and kept her eyes open during the service and chattered away on the drive up to Reno through Interstate 80. We stopped in Auburn for fuel and breakfast and she began to look a little more human. Our plan was to spend part of the day at the beach in Lake Tahoe and then drive on to Reno in the late afternoon. It was idyllic weather at the lake and the beach was overflowing and closed to anymore cars. We stopped along the road, Jennifer took pictures and we decided to drive on to Reno rather than hike into the beach. We took our Subway sandwiches and drinks out to the pool after we checked in and enjoyed a picnic on the sundeck.
Jennifer decided to get her nails repaired at the nail salon of the hotel before dinner and Darla told her to bill it to the room. She had broken a nail and needed it repaired. Jennifer and I walked down to the Players Club where she signed up for a card and I inquired about a comp for dinner. They gave us $120 at the Atlantis Steak and Seafood restaurant on the second floor.
We had a wonderful dinner. Jennifer ordered the petite filet mignon and shrimp scampi with a Ceasar salad. They prepared the salad at the table beginning with the anchovies and mixing the dressing. They dried the lettuce and tossed it right there. Darla had the mushroom soup and I had a tossed green salad. After the soup and salad they came and served us champagne poured over a small dollop of sorbet. It was a classy meal and we really enjoyed it. I had a 16 ounce prime rib that was like butter, it was so tender. Darla had prime rib and coconut shrimp. The dinner proved to be one of the best that I can remember and Jennifer said that it was by far the best that she had ever had. She sat mesmerized watching them prepare her salad. I joked that they were going to have a small boy come out and feed it to her between bites of grapes as two men stood by fanning her with large fans. It was a lot of fun.
Jennifer's name was put into a drawing for $2500 as a new Players Club member and they drew for $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000 and finally $2,500. Her number was close on a couple of occasions. It would not have surprised me to hear her name called at all.
After dinner we sat and played video poker from ten o'clock until two a.m. I quit after hitting four Aces with a 2 on a triple bonus game and winning a $100 jackpot on a nickle machine. Jennifer could not catch a cold the entire weekend and Darla and I would have been way up for the weekend if we weren't feeding her habit. We figure between us we gave her about $100 in gambling money. Darla and I ended up down about $50, so figure we were up $50 for the weekend. We were up about $125 Sunday night, but made a deposit at the casino in Tahoe on Monday.
We have arranged a week's vacation through RCI (the time share group) in Tahoe for August 14-21st at the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club on the Lake at Stateline on the California side. We stopped by to see the facility and were thrilled with the sandy beach, tennis courts and pool on site. The facility is very nice and makes the older time share that we stayed at near Heavenly Valley ski resort last year pale in comparison. The location is excellent in the redevlopment area of Lake Tahoe. It is across the street from the Heavenly Valley gondolas and has a Marie Callenders on site. I'm excited for our vacation next month already. The boys will go up with us and then head home on the weekend. I'll work Monday and Tuesday and then Darla and I will go back up for the balance of the week.
Darla and the boys leave for their vacation at Lake Almanor on Saturday. I'll drive up with them and drive back down on Sunday night. I don't have much vacation and we have to use some of the bonus points this year that we got from RCI when we bought the time share in Hawaii. Darla gets extra vacation time, so will enjoy Almanor and then the week in Tahoe next month. I already took some time off for the trip to Vegas and for the Reno trip yesterday. I only have four days left.
We had a scare on the drive back from Tahoe yesterday afternoon. We were on Highway 50 on the road out of Tahoe on the Highway 89 bypass and had a woman pull out in front of us from the side road. I think she was following someone and when he pulled out, she drifted out behind him. There was a car coming in the opposite direction and no room for her to get by me. I slammed on the brakes of the Explorer and we fishtailed. The woman somehow managed to whip her car into a U-turn and we just avoided her. My only comment as this was happening was, "Unbelievable!!" when she began to drift in front of us. If she had continued, we would have T-boned her and likely knocked her into the oncoming car. Darla spilled a Diet Pepsi that she was drinking all over herself. Jennifer's comment in the back was, "You're not big on using your horn are you, Dad?" The Lord was looking out for us and for the numbskull in the compact car.
We stopped in El Dorado Hills and had dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants, an Italian outfit called "Strings". It was a marvelous little vacation and we got some good quality time with Jennifer. She professed to having a great time and I'm sure she did.
I am grateful to all of my family and friends that prayed for Jennifer's safety while she was in Iraq. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ciao.
Jennifer and the boys will spend the day at the local waterpark in Roseville. She had promised the boys that she would take them and they kept missing the mark. They decided that today would work best for them and it is supposed to top out at 103 degrees today, so I can't imagine a better scenario for the kids. In fact, I envy them. After a nice three day weekend and a great trip to Reno/Lake Tahoe, the work is dammed up in my office and waiting for me to unclog the works.
Our trip was really fantastic. The accomodations at the Atlantis Casino were first rate. We drove up after church on Sunday. Jennifer was her regular zombie self after a night on the town with friends Saturday night. She was a trooper and kept her eyes open during the service and chattered away on the drive up to Reno through Interstate 80. We stopped in Auburn for fuel and breakfast and she began to look a little more human. Our plan was to spend part of the day at the beach in Lake Tahoe and then drive on to Reno in the late afternoon. It was idyllic weather at the lake and the beach was overflowing and closed to anymore cars. We stopped along the road, Jennifer took pictures and we decided to drive on to Reno rather than hike into the beach. We took our Subway sandwiches and drinks out to the pool after we checked in and enjoyed a picnic on the sundeck.
Jennifer decided to get her nails repaired at the nail salon of the hotel before dinner and Darla told her to bill it to the room. She had broken a nail and needed it repaired. Jennifer and I walked down to the Players Club where she signed up for a card and I inquired about a comp for dinner. They gave us $120 at the Atlantis Steak and Seafood restaurant on the second floor.
We had a wonderful dinner. Jennifer ordered the petite filet mignon and shrimp scampi with a Ceasar salad. They prepared the salad at the table beginning with the anchovies and mixing the dressing. They dried the lettuce and tossed it right there. Darla had the mushroom soup and I had a tossed green salad. After the soup and salad they came and served us champagne poured over a small dollop of sorbet. It was a classy meal and we really enjoyed it. I had a 16 ounce prime rib that was like butter, it was so tender. Darla had prime rib and coconut shrimp. The dinner proved to be one of the best that I can remember and Jennifer said that it was by far the best that she had ever had. She sat mesmerized watching them prepare her salad. I joked that they were going to have a small boy come out and feed it to her between bites of grapes as two men stood by fanning her with large fans. It was a lot of fun.
Jennifer's name was put into a drawing for $2500 as a new Players Club member and they drew for $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000 and finally $2,500. Her number was close on a couple of occasions. It would not have surprised me to hear her name called at all.
After dinner we sat and played video poker from ten o'clock until two a.m. I quit after hitting four Aces with a 2 on a triple bonus game and winning a $100 jackpot on a nickle machine. Jennifer could not catch a cold the entire weekend and Darla and I would have been way up for the weekend if we weren't feeding her habit. We figure between us we gave her about $100 in gambling money. Darla and I ended up down about $50, so figure we were up $50 for the weekend. We were up about $125 Sunday night, but made a deposit at the casino in Tahoe on Monday.
We have arranged a week's vacation through RCI (the time share group) in Tahoe for August 14-21st at the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club on the Lake at Stateline on the California side. We stopped by to see the facility and were thrilled with the sandy beach, tennis courts and pool on site. The facility is very nice and makes the older time share that we stayed at near Heavenly Valley ski resort last year pale in comparison. The location is excellent in the redevlopment area of Lake Tahoe. It is across the street from the Heavenly Valley gondolas and has a Marie Callenders on site. I'm excited for our vacation next month already. The boys will go up with us and then head home on the weekend. I'll work Monday and Tuesday and then Darla and I will go back up for the balance of the week.
Darla and the boys leave for their vacation at Lake Almanor on Saturday. I'll drive up with them and drive back down on Sunday night. I don't have much vacation and we have to use some of the bonus points this year that we got from RCI when we bought the time share in Hawaii. Darla gets extra vacation time, so will enjoy Almanor and then the week in Tahoe next month. I already took some time off for the trip to Vegas and for the Reno trip yesterday. I only have four days left.
We had a scare on the drive back from Tahoe yesterday afternoon. We were on Highway 50 on the road out of Tahoe on the Highway 89 bypass and had a woman pull out in front of us from the side road. I think she was following someone and when he pulled out, she drifted out behind him. There was a car coming in the opposite direction and no room for her to get by me. I slammed on the brakes of the Explorer and we fishtailed. The woman somehow managed to whip her car into a U-turn and we just avoided her. My only comment as this was happening was, "Unbelievable!!" when she began to drift in front of us. If she had continued, we would have T-boned her and likely knocked her into the oncoming car. Darla spilled a Diet Pepsi that she was drinking all over herself. Jennifer's comment in the back was, "You're not big on using your horn are you, Dad?" The Lord was looking out for us and for the numbskull in the compact car.
We stopped in El Dorado Hills and had dinner at one of my new favorite restaurants, an Italian outfit called "Strings". It was a marvelous little vacation and we got some good quality time with Jennifer. She professed to having a great time and I'm sure she did.
I am grateful to all of my family and friends that prayed for Jennifer's safety while she was in Iraq. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ciao.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
The heat is on here in Sacramento. This past weekend was a scorcher just in time for July 4th. Jennifer made her return to California and she is certainly enjoying herself. She flew in on Thursday afternoon and she has already been water skiing, out to see a band at a local venue, to several parties, out with friends and out to dinner with me last Friday night. Jennifer looks great and is back to 105 pounds of soldier, after losing 13 pounds in Iraq. Jennifer did get as high as 122 pounds during basic training, but her musculature around her neck and arms has softened as she has evolved in the Army from a workout monster to a soldier. Jennifer continues to rack up Personal Training marks and is one of the few soldiers in her unit to max out her PT test. The maximum score is 300 and she had hit 299 in Basic, but re-tested just before her vacation and maxed the test with 300 points. She got a day off work and has a four-day pass waiting for her when she returns.
Jennifer had a really nice visit to Pittsburgh with her friend, Ryan. They stayed at Ryan's parents house in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and visited with Ryan's friends and buddies while they were there.
Darla and I will treat Jennifer to a trip up to Lake Tahoe and Reno this weekend. Jennifer's Mom is having a party for her at their home in Folsom on Saturday. Jennifer will stay with us on Saturday night and then we are off to Lake Tahoe after church on Sunday. We'll spend the day at the beach over on the Incline Village side of the lake and then drive over to Reno, where we will stay at one of the luxury rooms at the Atlantis casino. The Atlantis has spent over a half million dollars renovating their 13 year-old casino and they now have rooms with all cherrywood furniture, granite and marble in the bathrooms and flat screen televisions in the rooms. The rooms are a little higher than the normal rack rate in Reno, but I think Jennifer deserves it.
Darla and the boys spent the weekend up in Lake Almanor with her folks. The boys skiied and swam to their hearts content. Jennifer and I joined them Sunday morning and spent the day on the boat. Jennifer was whipped from the night before where she saw the band with the lead singer who was formerly with the Smashing Pumpkins and Hole. I guess she had a blast, but got back to my place about 3 a.m. I rousted her at six a.m. and poured her in the Mustang for the three hour drive to Lake Almanor. Jennifer was chatting up a storm early in the drive, but was soon fast asleep. I woke her about 7:30 and we had breakfast in Oroville. She proceeded to tell me every story that she told me at six a.m. She swears she didn't remember being awake and told the family that she was dead to the world until I woke her up for breakfast. She slept part of the rest of the trip to Almanor after breakfast.
Jennifer is full of stories from Baghdad and Augusta. It's a good thing as a golfing buddy of mine is friends with a reporter from the local Roseville paper and she wants to interview Jennifer for a story in the paper. She wants to see Jennifer's pictures from Iraq and do a story that will put a local spin on the war in Iraq. Jennifer isn't thrilled about meeting the reporter, but I'm guessing that she will warm to the idea when they meet later this week. I'll try to get a link to the paper's website and add it to my blog if and when the story runs.
The boys made it back from their football camps. David had a blast with the Stanford coaching staff and worked out with one of the top quarterback recruits in the country. He is a quarterback from Florida where he won the high school state championship. He was at the camp as a guest of the Stanford coaching staff (I thought that was illegal???). He is a recruit for Stanford as well and will make up his mind on a college this Spring. David said the kid has a rocket for an arm. David learned alot from not only the coaches, but from the other quarterbacks in camp as well. He learned proper footwork and how to read defenses and setup drills, etc. He said it was well worth his time and our money.
The temperatures are supposed to remain near 100 for a few days and then cool off. I'm hoping it warms back up next weekend as Tahoe is especially nice when it is 100 degrees in the valley. I hope all are well. Jennifer is in town until July 15th and it is a blast to spend time with her and hear her stories. I'm really enjoying myself. The blog will be late again next week as we'll be in Nevada with Jennifer. Take care.
Jennifer had a really nice visit to Pittsburgh with her friend, Ryan. They stayed at Ryan's parents house in the suburbs of Pittsburgh and visited with Ryan's friends and buddies while they were there.
Darla and I will treat Jennifer to a trip up to Lake Tahoe and Reno this weekend. Jennifer's Mom is having a party for her at their home in Folsom on Saturday. Jennifer will stay with us on Saturday night and then we are off to Lake Tahoe after church on Sunday. We'll spend the day at the beach over on the Incline Village side of the lake and then drive over to Reno, where we will stay at one of the luxury rooms at the Atlantis casino. The Atlantis has spent over a half million dollars renovating their 13 year-old casino and they now have rooms with all cherrywood furniture, granite and marble in the bathrooms and flat screen televisions in the rooms. The rooms are a little higher than the normal rack rate in Reno, but I think Jennifer deserves it.
Darla and the boys spent the weekend up in Lake Almanor with her folks. The boys skiied and swam to their hearts content. Jennifer and I joined them Sunday morning and spent the day on the boat. Jennifer was whipped from the night before where she saw the band with the lead singer who was formerly with the Smashing Pumpkins and Hole. I guess she had a blast, but got back to my place about 3 a.m. I rousted her at six a.m. and poured her in the Mustang for the three hour drive to Lake Almanor. Jennifer was chatting up a storm early in the drive, but was soon fast asleep. I woke her about 7:30 and we had breakfast in Oroville. She proceeded to tell me every story that she told me at six a.m. She swears she didn't remember being awake and told the family that she was dead to the world until I woke her up for breakfast. She slept part of the rest of the trip to Almanor after breakfast.
Jennifer is full of stories from Baghdad and Augusta. It's a good thing as a golfing buddy of mine is friends with a reporter from the local Roseville paper and she wants to interview Jennifer for a story in the paper. She wants to see Jennifer's pictures from Iraq and do a story that will put a local spin on the war in Iraq. Jennifer isn't thrilled about meeting the reporter, but I'm guessing that she will warm to the idea when they meet later this week. I'll try to get a link to the paper's website and add it to my blog if and when the story runs.
The boys made it back from their football camps. David had a blast with the Stanford coaching staff and worked out with one of the top quarterback recruits in the country. He is a quarterback from Florida where he won the high school state championship. He was at the camp as a guest of the Stanford coaching staff (I thought that was illegal???). He is a recruit for Stanford as well and will make up his mind on a college this Spring. David said the kid has a rocket for an arm. David learned alot from not only the coaches, but from the other quarterbacks in camp as well. He learned proper footwork and how to read defenses and setup drills, etc. He said it was well worth his time and our money.
The temperatures are supposed to remain near 100 for a few days and then cool off. I'm hoping it warms back up next weekend as Tahoe is especially nice when it is 100 degrees in the valley. I hope all are well. Jennifer is in town until July 15th and it is a blast to spend time with her and hear her stories. I'm really enjoying myself. The blog will be late again next week as we'll be in Nevada with Jennifer. Take care.
Monday, June 28, 2004
A great weekend is in the books and it is back to work and the process of earning a living. Our new underwriter starts today and she was here bright and early at 7:30 this morning. It was a good sign as generally I'm the only underwriter in attendance until about 8:45. Our core hours are 8:30 - 5:00, but anyone in production knows that those are the staff hours. Our true hours are whatever it takes to get the job done. Gwen told us during interviews that she likes to get to work early, so we will have another body to make the first pot of coffee in the morning, a critical element to the success of any organization.
Darla and I went to the Placer County Fair on Saturday night. We strolled the grounds looking at the pies and clothing, photography, cookware booths, food booths and wondered what we'd paid $7 a head to see. We both enjoyed the hypnotist, a highlight of which was watching as she hypnotized an obviously inebriated Charlie Manson look-alike in the crowd. He was not part of the show, but what part of his alcohol-warped brain was still working was open to the power of suggestion and he dropped prone on the ground in the middle of the crowd. A small dog climbed on his face and was licking him for all his worth. Finally, when one of the volunteers woke up out of the hypnotic phase, she invited Charlie onto the stage and he became part of the show. It was hilarious.
I had a Sunday golf game, so Darla and I went to church Saturday night before the fair. It is definitely a different crowd on Saturday night at church. Darla was concerned about wearing shorts to church, which (by the way) I do every Sunday. She needn't have worried as most of the churchgoers were in shorts and sandals at 5:00 p.m. on a hot Saturday afternoon.
I did play golf at the break of dawn on Sunday. We teed off at 6:04 and I woke up about 7:00 a.m. I started my round 6 (double-bogey)-6 (double-bogey)- 8 (triple-bogey). I'm an 11 handicap and I was 7 over after three holes!! I was able to wake up and completely turn around my game with birdie-par-par-bogey-birdie-par to finish the front nine at 42, six-over par after being seven over after three holes. I shot 41 on the back side for 83, 11-over par. I was proud of my comeback in the round and even happier to collect the $42 in skins and stroke bet money from my playing partners. I think they all thought early on that this was a day that they would fleece me royally.
I was off the course by 10:15 and Darla and I packed up and headed to the beach. We were on the beach by noon as we stopped for sandwiches on the way. The crowd at the beach was thinner than usual, although the temperatures climbed into the middle-nineties. Two people got their cars stuck in the sand and one guy in an older Ford Bronco pulled both of them out. I told him that he should charge for the service and he said that the first guy gave him $20 and that made up for the second girl whose Honda Civic was hopelessly sunk into the sand. He pulled her out after she continued to spin her wheels until her front bumper (she had front wheel drive) was covered by sand. He hooked up to her rear bumper and yanked her out. She simply waved her thanks and drove away. I've learned to stick with the hard packed sand of the roadway and stay out of any soft sand.
It is amazing to me the collection of stuff people bring to the beach. The array of screen rooms, canopies, umbrellas, barbecues, rafts, tents, boats, wave runners, air mattresses, dogs, kids, fatties, skinnies, hard bodies and albinos on the beach is almost overwhelming. Darla and I spend hours people-watching on the beach, which is fine until one of the string bikinied hardbodies walks by. Then I usually catch an elbow in the ribs. Some things are timeless I guess. This week, Darla was particularly annoyed with the dog people as the aroma near our blanket was a bit over-whelming. Most dog walkers in the neighborhood carry a bag and a scoop of some kind and pick up after their dog. The beach dog people are famous for simply covering the offending fecal matter with sand. The problem is the beach ends up looking like a field of brown-sugared sausages. We hunted for the offending cigar, but couldn't find it. The wind blowing in off the lake carried the scent to us without fail. It was kind of a "crappy" day at the beach.
Jennifer will make her triumphant return home this week. She flies in on Thursday night and will be here until July 15th. We plan to take her up to Lake Almanor to water ski and jet ski over the 4th and then Darla and I will take her up to Lake Tahoe and Reno on the 11th-12th. She will get together with the boys and go to the local water park at some point. Her Mom has plans with her and she has plans with her friends, so it will be a whirlwind visit. Jennifer is in Pittsburgh as I write this with Ryan, a friend of hers, staying with his parents. They are having a blast visiting the sights in Pittsburgh (what steel mills and factories?). She got there last Thursday and will fly home this Thursday. I really look forward to seeing her. She really is my hero for her bravery and her dedication to defending our country. She will go back to Augusta and then fly home for a week before leaving for her 14-month tour in Kuwait City.
Well that's it for another week. Be well. I'll add to this after Independence day.
Darla and I went to the Placer County Fair on Saturday night. We strolled the grounds looking at the pies and clothing, photography, cookware booths, food booths and wondered what we'd paid $7 a head to see. We both enjoyed the hypnotist, a highlight of which was watching as she hypnotized an obviously inebriated Charlie Manson look-alike in the crowd. He was not part of the show, but what part of his alcohol-warped brain was still working was open to the power of suggestion and he dropped prone on the ground in the middle of the crowd. A small dog climbed on his face and was licking him for all his worth. Finally, when one of the volunteers woke up out of the hypnotic phase, she invited Charlie onto the stage and he became part of the show. It was hilarious.
I had a Sunday golf game, so Darla and I went to church Saturday night before the fair. It is definitely a different crowd on Saturday night at church. Darla was concerned about wearing shorts to church, which (by the way) I do every Sunday. She needn't have worried as most of the churchgoers were in shorts and sandals at 5:00 p.m. on a hot Saturday afternoon.
I did play golf at the break of dawn on Sunday. We teed off at 6:04 and I woke up about 7:00 a.m. I started my round 6 (double-bogey)-6 (double-bogey)- 8 (triple-bogey). I'm an 11 handicap and I was 7 over after three holes!! I was able to wake up and completely turn around my game with birdie-par-par-bogey-birdie-par to finish the front nine at 42, six-over par after being seven over after three holes. I shot 41 on the back side for 83, 11-over par. I was proud of my comeback in the round and even happier to collect the $42 in skins and stroke bet money from my playing partners. I think they all thought early on that this was a day that they would fleece me royally.
I was off the course by 10:15 and Darla and I packed up and headed to the beach. We were on the beach by noon as we stopped for sandwiches on the way. The crowd at the beach was thinner than usual, although the temperatures climbed into the middle-nineties. Two people got their cars stuck in the sand and one guy in an older Ford Bronco pulled both of them out. I told him that he should charge for the service and he said that the first guy gave him $20 and that made up for the second girl whose Honda Civic was hopelessly sunk into the sand. He pulled her out after she continued to spin her wheels until her front bumper (she had front wheel drive) was covered by sand. He hooked up to her rear bumper and yanked her out. She simply waved her thanks and drove away. I've learned to stick with the hard packed sand of the roadway and stay out of any soft sand.
It is amazing to me the collection of stuff people bring to the beach. The array of screen rooms, canopies, umbrellas, barbecues, rafts, tents, boats, wave runners, air mattresses, dogs, kids, fatties, skinnies, hard bodies and albinos on the beach is almost overwhelming. Darla and I spend hours people-watching on the beach, which is fine until one of the string bikinied hardbodies walks by. Then I usually catch an elbow in the ribs. Some things are timeless I guess. This week, Darla was particularly annoyed with the dog people as the aroma near our blanket was a bit over-whelming. Most dog walkers in the neighborhood carry a bag and a scoop of some kind and pick up after their dog. The beach dog people are famous for simply covering the offending fecal matter with sand. The problem is the beach ends up looking like a field of brown-sugared sausages. We hunted for the offending cigar, but couldn't find it. The wind blowing in off the lake carried the scent to us without fail. It was kind of a "crappy" day at the beach.
Jennifer will make her triumphant return home this week. She flies in on Thursday night and will be here until July 15th. We plan to take her up to Lake Almanor to water ski and jet ski over the 4th and then Darla and I will take her up to Lake Tahoe and Reno on the 11th-12th. She will get together with the boys and go to the local water park at some point. Her Mom has plans with her and she has plans with her friends, so it will be a whirlwind visit. Jennifer is in Pittsburgh as I write this with Ryan, a friend of hers, staying with his parents. They are having a blast visiting the sights in Pittsburgh (what steel mills and factories?). She got there last Thursday and will fly home this Thursday. I really look forward to seeing her. She really is my hero for her bravery and her dedication to defending our country. She will go back to Augusta and then fly home for a week before leaving for her 14-month tour in Kuwait City.
Well that's it for another week. Be well. I'll add to this after Independence day.
Monday, June 21, 2004
A glance at the calendar tells me that Summer begins today. I suppose in some parts of the country you need to look at a calendar to tell the changing of the seasons. Sacramento is one of those areas with very distinct weather in different seasons. It's just that the climate doesn't pay attention to the calendar. It's been in the nineties for the better part of a month here, although we just had our first official day over 100 degrees last week. I talked to Dad last night to pay homage to Father's Day and recognize the fact that without his involvement, I wouldn't be living this life today. He said that the Surrey area had about 94 degrees yesterday and he and Shirley spent the day at a car show locally. The official high temperature for Vancouver was 82 degrees, but like San Francisco, when the city temperature climbs over 80 degrees, you can usually add 10-15 degrees to the cities in the suburbs. That is HOT for the Vancouver area, especially this time of year. I called him at about nine p.m. and talked briefly to Al, as they had their phone on call forwarding, and they were just putting the meat on the barbecue for dinner. I guess appetizers and refreshments ran a bit long at the Nowakowski household.
The boys made it off yesterday morning for their football camp in Oregon. The camp is being held at Southern Oregon University and the boys had to catch their bus yesterday morning at six a.m. David packed up his Mustang and off they went at about five-thirty Sunday morning. At least that's the word according to Darla. I was fast asleep. We picked up David's Mustang later that morning and brought it back to the house. Darla and I will drop it back off at Woodcreek on Thursday morning as they will be returning then. David rightfully didn't want to leave his car at the school for five days. They called last night and made it to camp by shortly after noon and had already been in full pads and done some weight training. They will be doing three-a-days during camp and are thankful for the cooler weather of Oregon.
David will turn around on Friday and Darla will drive him to camp at Stanford. The Oregon camp is a Woodcreek camp with all of the coaching staff there and this is a chance to put their offense and defensive game plans together. David received his wristband of plays in a special meeting with the head coach on Saturday night. They are serious about having David compete for the starting quarterback position for Varsity, although David has told them in no uncertain terms that if he has to choose between quarterback and free safety, that he chooses defense. Apparently, they are okay with him playing both ways this year. We'll see. The Stanford camp is a specialty camp for quarterbacks and receivers and they will work with the Stanford coaching staff on drills and techniques. That camp is four days and cost $440. He will have the opportunity to spend some time with a quality Division I college coaching staff and it should be invaluable in his growth as a football player.
David has already received about a dozen letters from smaller schools in the country about having him play for them. The coaches put several names out for scholarship consideration and David scored well on his SATs and carries close to a 4.0 average, so he is a good catch for a smaller school. David wants to pursue a career as a CAD architect (Computer Assisted Drawing) and will only consider schools that have an Engineering and Architecture curriculum. If he had his choice, he would go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is one of the premiere Architecture schools on the West Coast. In fact he and his Dad visited Cal Poly on their vacation and David made a few contacts while he was there and brought back a scad of information. Our friend, Rob McKone, who played college basketball transferred to Cal Poly from Weber State and still has some contacts at the school, so we hope to interest them in David's athletic prowess. David has two things going for him...he is an excellent student and he plays two sports, football and basketball. The smaller schools have less scholarships and prefer their atheletes to play more than one sport. Keep your fingers crossed. A scholarship would save us a bundle.
Golf. Of course I played this weekend. We were supposed to have a tournament at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course, but the course cancelled our tee times when we didn't hit our guaranteed number of players. Several of our golfers dropped out to play in the Buick Scramble qualifier. I snuck out and played on Diamond Oaks early on Saturday and shot a 41+42=83 and finally snuffed the poor start/good finish problem, although I started double bogey-bogey-bogey and then ran off five straight pars. Perhaps I'm refining the poor start pattern even further and continuing the trend in a microcostic manner. I enjoyed the round and hit crisp, straight drives and rolled in some good putts, even chipping in for birdie from off the green on the back side.
The US Open was a delight this weekend. I taped the final round as Darla and I were at the beach on Sunday. I was a bit amused at the infighting between Tiger Woods and his former coach, Butch Harmon. He was critical of Tiger's play and how he is practicing and said that Tiger is in denial on the state of his game. Tiger was not pleased. Butch Harmon comes from a long line of golfers. His brother, Bill, once blew up in a junior tournament and threw his entire set of clubs into the pond. When he got home, he told his father, Claude, what he had done and told him that he was quitting golf and joining the Army. His father thought about that and then asked him why he didn't join the Navy, then at least he could get his clubs back. A great story.
Jennifer has been out on manuevers the last week. She showed up to work on Tuesday and they sent her unit into the field and they had to stay out in tents and set up camp. She expects to stay in the field until she leaves on her vacation June 24th. She got twelve hours off on Saturday to get some rest at her bunk. She called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, but we were at the beach. She said she'd try to call one night this week. I told her to call me at the office.
I kidded last week about Dad's obsession with his lawn, but then mowed my lawn on Thursday night and then again last night. It's growing so fast, I may have to cancel our vacation. J/K.
Hope all are well. God Bless and have a great week.
The boys made it off yesterday morning for their football camp in Oregon. The camp is being held at Southern Oregon University and the boys had to catch their bus yesterday morning at six a.m. David packed up his Mustang and off they went at about five-thirty Sunday morning. At least that's the word according to Darla. I was fast asleep. We picked up David's Mustang later that morning and brought it back to the house. Darla and I will drop it back off at Woodcreek on Thursday morning as they will be returning then. David rightfully didn't want to leave his car at the school for five days. They called last night and made it to camp by shortly after noon and had already been in full pads and done some weight training. They will be doing three-a-days during camp and are thankful for the cooler weather of Oregon.
David will turn around on Friday and Darla will drive him to camp at Stanford. The Oregon camp is a Woodcreek camp with all of the coaching staff there and this is a chance to put their offense and defensive game plans together. David received his wristband of plays in a special meeting with the head coach on Saturday night. They are serious about having David compete for the starting quarterback position for Varsity, although David has told them in no uncertain terms that if he has to choose between quarterback and free safety, that he chooses defense. Apparently, they are okay with him playing both ways this year. We'll see. The Stanford camp is a specialty camp for quarterbacks and receivers and they will work with the Stanford coaching staff on drills and techniques. That camp is four days and cost $440. He will have the opportunity to spend some time with a quality Division I college coaching staff and it should be invaluable in his growth as a football player.
David has already received about a dozen letters from smaller schools in the country about having him play for them. The coaches put several names out for scholarship consideration and David scored well on his SATs and carries close to a 4.0 average, so he is a good catch for a smaller school. David wants to pursue a career as a CAD architect (Computer Assisted Drawing) and will only consider schools that have an Engineering and Architecture curriculum. If he had his choice, he would go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is one of the premiere Architecture schools on the West Coast. In fact he and his Dad visited Cal Poly on their vacation and David made a few contacts while he was there and brought back a scad of information. Our friend, Rob McKone, who played college basketball transferred to Cal Poly from Weber State and still has some contacts at the school, so we hope to interest them in David's athletic prowess. David has two things going for him...he is an excellent student and he plays two sports, football and basketball. The smaller schools have less scholarships and prefer their atheletes to play more than one sport. Keep your fingers crossed. A scholarship would save us a bundle.
Golf. Of course I played this weekend. We were supposed to have a tournament at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course, but the course cancelled our tee times when we didn't hit our guaranteed number of players. Several of our golfers dropped out to play in the Buick Scramble qualifier. I snuck out and played on Diamond Oaks early on Saturday and shot a 41+42=83 and finally snuffed the poor start/good finish problem, although I started double bogey-bogey-bogey and then ran off five straight pars. Perhaps I'm refining the poor start pattern even further and continuing the trend in a microcostic manner. I enjoyed the round and hit crisp, straight drives and rolled in some good putts, even chipping in for birdie from off the green on the back side.
The US Open was a delight this weekend. I taped the final round as Darla and I were at the beach on Sunday. I was a bit amused at the infighting between Tiger Woods and his former coach, Butch Harmon. He was critical of Tiger's play and how he is practicing and said that Tiger is in denial on the state of his game. Tiger was not pleased. Butch Harmon comes from a long line of golfers. His brother, Bill, once blew up in a junior tournament and threw his entire set of clubs into the pond. When he got home, he told his father, Claude, what he had done and told him that he was quitting golf and joining the Army. His father thought about that and then asked him why he didn't join the Navy, then at least he could get his clubs back. A great story.
Jennifer has been out on manuevers the last week. She showed up to work on Tuesday and they sent her unit into the field and they had to stay out in tents and set up camp. She expects to stay in the field until she leaves on her vacation June 24th. She got twelve hours off on Saturday to get some rest at her bunk. She called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, but we were at the beach. She said she'd try to call one night this week. I told her to call me at the office.
I kidded last week about Dad's obsession with his lawn, but then mowed my lawn on Thursday night and then again last night. It's growing so fast, I may have to cancel our vacation. J/K.
Hope all are well. God Bless and have a great week.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Back to the blog. I'm a day late, but I did it for the kids. Our golf club sponsors an annual junior golf tournament and being one of the leaders of the association, I had to take the day and help run the tournament. We had about 85 golfers from age 7 -17 and there was some pretty stellar golf to watch and enjoy from these kids. The winning score for the boys was 71, shot by both a 17 year-old and a 15 year-old. The playoff only lasted one hole with the 15 year-old scoring birdie to the 17 year-old's bogey. The girl's winner shot a 76, which included a one-under 36 on the front side. I really enjoyed myself, which is good given the fact that I'll have to run the tournament next year. We provided each of the players a bucket of balls, a divot tool and ball marker combo with the tournament logo on it and a lunch of two hot dogs, chips and soda. We also had plenty of snacks, water and volunteers. I was impressed with the spirit of sportsmanship displayed by the kids. They were respectful of each other and especially respectful and appreciative of the volunteers that helped put on the tournament. I helped to hand out the trophies and had at least twenty-five kids approach me, shake my hand and thank me for putting on the tournament.
For all of the bad in society and the disrespect and the unhappiness displayed by the younger generation, the athletes and participants in sports tend to be a more positive and well disciplined group of kids. It is encouraging to see that the best of our future can often be found on the ballfields and basketball courts, gyms and golf courses in this country.
David and Daniel leave Sunday for their Summer football camp in Oregon. They will return on Thursday and David will turn around and leave for his quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The boys are excited to get on with their football lives this Summer.
The windows were put in last week and we are thrilled with the results. Darla took the opportunity to paint David's room while we had his bed apart and furniture moved. David was a little hesitant to have us paint...I'm sure it was a privacy thing...but he greeted his Mom with a big hug yesterday and thanked us both for fixing up his room. We put in a new stereo stand and got rid of some extra junk he had laying around. Darla wants to tackle Daniel's room next. He said he only wants white paint and we are trying to talk him into some sort of pigment in the paint.
Darla and I went out to the beach on Sunday. We've discovered a small beach at the rear of Folsom lake, called Oak Beach. It is not a large beach and the only way to get to it is driving down onto the sand and parking just yards away from the shore. We drove down and had some bozo in front of us who decided to stop in heavy sand and back up. He had 4-wheel drive and we didn't. I had a few choice words for him as we sunk into the sand and our wheels spun without traction. I was able to rock us back to moving by going from reverse to drive and back again. The next SUV I buy will have 4-wheel drive. We were able to watch one yahoo from the beach who backed his truck up and over an outcropping of rock and then watched as his truck dug the left rear into the sand and he sunk like a stone. His car ended up canted to the left and he was hopelessly stuck in the sand. The park ranger came and completely ignored his pleas for help. Finally, about eight big bruisers helped him jack up the truck, fill the hole in the sand with rocks and dirt and help him back out and around his predicament. He drove past the park ranger and told him he was a %#*%^$$#.
Dad and Shirley are off for a few days to the Okanogan in Canada for some sun and relaxation. Dad sent us an e-mail to let us know that he'd be gone for a few days and said that they can't be gone long, because he needs to mow his lawn every three days. I just wonder where I got this obsessive-compulsive streak? Does anyone have any ideas? I'm open to discussion on this item.
My golf game this weekend was a mosh pit of inaccuracy, inconsistency and ineptitude. I shot 43-42=85 and went from poor start-good finish to vanilla pudding. I had two double bogeys, two triple-bogeys and two birdies amongst a host of pars and bogeys. I lost both bets that I had with the gamblers in the club, but I won $28 in skin money for the two birdies. I played the four par-threes in 2 under par. If I'd been playing a pitch and putt, I would have won the tournament.
Well, work has piled up in my absence. Funny, how nobody seems to step up and do your work when you are in absentia. I need to roll up my sleeves and get to work. Tough duty as I'm wearing a short sleeve polo shirt, but I'll do my best. Ciao.
For all of the bad in society and the disrespect and the unhappiness displayed by the younger generation, the athletes and participants in sports tend to be a more positive and well disciplined group of kids. It is encouraging to see that the best of our future can often be found on the ballfields and basketball courts, gyms and golf courses in this country.
David and Daniel leave Sunday for their Summer football camp in Oregon. They will return on Thursday and David will turn around and leave for his quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The boys are excited to get on with their football lives this Summer.
The windows were put in last week and we are thrilled with the results. Darla took the opportunity to paint David's room while we had his bed apart and furniture moved. David was a little hesitant to have us paint...I'm sure it was a privacy thing...but he greeted his Mom with a big hug yesterday and thanked us both for fixing up his room. We put in a new stereo stand and got rid of some extra junk he had laying around. Darla wants to tackle Daniel's room next. He said he only wants white paint and we are trying to talk him into some sort of pigment in the paint.
Darla and I went out to the beach on Sunday. We've discovered a small beach at the rear of Folsom lake, called Oak Beach. It is not a large beach and the only way to get to it is driving down onto the sand and parking just yards away from the shore. We drove down and had some bozo in front of us who decided to stop in heavy sand and back up. He had 4-wheel drive and we didn't. I had a few choice words for him as we sunk into the sand and our wheels spun without traction. I was able to rock us back to moving by going from reverse to drive and back again. The next SUV I buy will have 4-wheel drive. We were able to watch one yahoo from the beach who backed his truck up and over an outcropping of rock and then watched as his truck dug the left rear into the sand and he sunk like a stone. His car ended up canted to the left and he was hopelessly stuck in the sand. The park ranger came and completely ignored his pleas for help. Finally, about eight big bruisers helped him jack up the truck, fill the hole in the sand with rocks and dirt and help him back out and around his predicament. He drove past the park ranger and told him he was a %#*%^$$#.
Dad and Shirley are off for a few days to the Okanogan in Canada for some sun and relaxation. Dad sent us an e-mail to let us know that he'd be gone for a few days and said that they can't be gone long, because he needs to mow his lawn every three days. I just wonder where I got this obsessive-compulsive streak? Does anyone have any ideas? I'm open to discussion on this item.
My golf game this weekend was a mosh pit of inaccuracy, inconsistency and ineptitude. I shot 43-42=85 and went from poor start-good finish to vanilla pudding. I had two double bogeys, two triple-bogeys and two birdies amongst a host of pars and bogeys. I lost both bets that I had with the gamblers in the club, but I won $28 in skin money for the two birdies. I played the four par-threes in 2 under par. If I'd been playing a pitch and putt, I would have won the tournament.
Well, work has piled up in my absence. Funny, how nobody seems to step up and do your work when you are in absentia. I need to roll up my sleeves and get to work. Tough duty as I'm wearing a short sleeve polo shirt, but I'll do my best. Ciao.
Monday, June 07, 2004
It is once again a new day and a new week. I have a short day today as I will be playing in the Sacramento Insurance Agents Association Golf Day. It is that time of year when each of the area insurance agent's associations sponsor a golf day. It is a good excuse to get out of the office and enjoy the sunshine while justifying the time, the expense and the smile on your face as an exercise in Marketing. I enjoyed the tournament last week although the weather in Eureka was overcast and cool. I guess it was a respite from the relentless sunshine and perfect weather that we suffer here in the Sacramento area. Eureka is located on the coast of northwestern California and has a good deal of overcast caused by the marine layer that hangs over the coast. I specifically enjoyed the golf tournament as they played both a scramble format (where each member of the foursome tees off and you chooose the best ball and all hit from there) and a stroke format (where you get to play your own ball). Three guesses as to which format I played. I shot 47-39=86, again perpetuating the poor start-strong finish routine that I am mired in currently. Today's tournament will be a scramble and I'm playing with three other strong golfers. The drive up to Eureka via Interstate 5 and Highway 299 along the Trinity River was awesome. The Mustang was fun to drive on the winding roads and I had Creedence and The Fabulous Thunderbirds turned up on the CD player as I made my way on the 5 1/2 hour drive. I drove back down Highway 101 to Highway 20 through Clearlake. It was not as scenic a drive, but proved a bit faster.
I talked in detail about my chiropractic nightmare last week. I'm doing great and the magic of chiropractic medicine is still in my good graces. However, I almost undid all of the good last Tuesday night. I mentioned that I had re-stained the spa and steps. Darla and I stayed out of the spa on Sunday and entered the spa from behind on Monday in order to allow the steps to dry. Tuesday night we christened the steps and entered the spa in the traditional way. As I got out, my feet went right out from under me on the newly slick surface and I landed on the small of my back and on my right elbow. One moment I was talking to Darla, who was still in the spa, and the next I was in a heap laying across the steps. Luckily, my elbow broke my fall and I didn't cause myself any further damage. Darla and I are being a bit careful entering and exiting the spa these days. Darla and I, even when the weather is warm, go in the spa nearly every night. We both enjoy a good soak, but it is also a chance for us to visit together after a busy day and it is both something that we can look forward to and count on. I also think the spa has done wonders for my back. I often get into the spa when I get off the golf course and my back loosens up amazingly.
The boys are off to Southern California for a week of vacation with their Dad. This is the first vacation that I can remember the boys taking with their Dad in years. Most of their vacations have been trips to Montana or Oklahoma to visit family. This trip is to go to the beach and also for David to visit Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. David wants to take Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD) and Architecture courses and Cal Poly is one of the best technical schools in California for the craft. Now he just needs to work on getting a scholarship and all will be right in his world.
Both David and Daniel will be off to football camp in Oregon next month. David will return and immediately leave for quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The coaching staff has decided that they need a true field general this year at quarterback and are giving David every opportunity to earn the starting position. Last year, the Defensive Coordinator convinced the Head Coach that David was more valuable on defense than offense. With the influx of the players from the Junior Varsity, the Head Coach sees David's defensive position being filled by a Junior and David playing quarterback. We've decided that if they are going to give him a chance that David's Dad and Darla and I will pay for a quarterback camp and we'll give him every opportunity to win the position.
In the meantime, both David and Daniel are playing Summer basketball with the Woodcreek High School teams and will both be doing summer workouts with the football teams prior to camp. Both David and Daniel earned their way to football camp by earning $375 in their lift-a-thon at school. They both walked the neighborhood and got pledges from our neighbors to earn the money for camp. About half of the players have their parents pay their way, but we believe that if they have to work for it, they will appreciate it that much more. Sort of the same reason that David and Jennifer had to BUY their cars from me.
I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of fabulously. I asked how her little guy, Ryan, was doing. She said, "Dad, he's young, not little. He's six-foot one and buff." The young man is about my size, eh? Give or take 3 or 4 inches and maybe thirty pounds. Oh, well. Jennifer is looking forward to coming home and we talked about maybe going water skiing up at Lake Almanor and maybe taking a trip to Lake Tahoe when she is home. We will also take Jennifer and the boys to the local Water Park where Jen and the boys can blow off some steam together. Darla and her work all pitched in and put together a huge package for Jennifer of snacks and goodies and sent it to Baghdad. Jennifer left before it arrived and three weeks later it was returned to sender. Darla repackaged it and sent it to Jennifer in Georgia and the package has now made it all over the world and cost about $70 in postage. Hopefully there is something left inside that is actually edible.
Darla and I will have our windows installed this Wednesday at the house. These are the replacement windows that we ordered early last month. We are having the entire front of the house redone with new lifetime windows from Sears. I look forward to getting rid of the water spotted mess that we have now and benefitting from the insulated dual pane windows as far as energy is concerned. David should enjoy it especially as his room is the hottest and coldest in the house because of a broken seal on his window.
Well, that's it for another week. I can place a check mark next to my obsessive-compulsive streak regarding the blog. Be well.
I talked in detail about my chiropractic nightmare last week. I'm doing great and the magic of chiropractic medicine is still in my good graces. However, I almost undid all of the good last Tuesday night. I mentioned that I had re-stained the spa and steps. Darla and I stayed out of the spa on Sunday and entered the spa from behind on Monday in order to allow the steps to dry. Tuesday night we christened the steps and entered the spa in the traditional way. As I got out, my feet went right out from under me on the newly slick surface and I landed on the small of my back and on my right elbow. One moment I was talking to Darla, who was still in the spa, and the next I was in a heap laying across the steps. Luckily, my elbow broke my fall and I didn't cause myself any further damage. Darla and I are being a bit careful entering and exiting the spa these days. Darla and I, even when the weather is warm, go in the spa nearly every night. We both enjoy a good soak, but it is also a chance for us to visit together after a busy day and it is both something that we can look forward to and count on. I also think the spa has done wonders for my back. I often get into the spa when I get off the golf course and my back loosens up amazingly.
The boys are off to Southern California for a week of vacation with their Dad. This is the first vacation that I can remember the boys taking with their Dad in years. Most of their vacations have been trips to Montana or Oklahoma to visit family. This trip is to go to the beach and also for David to visit Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. David wants to take Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD) and Architecture courses and Cal Poly is one of the best technical schools in California for the craft. Now he just needs to work on getting a scholarship and all will be right in his world.
Both David and Daniel will be off to football camp in Oregon next month. David will return and immediately leave for quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The coaching staff has decided that they need a true field general this year at quarterback and are giving David every opportunity to earn the starting position. Last year, the Defensive Coordinator convinced the Head Coach that David was more valuable on defense than offense. With the influx of the players from the Junior Varsity, the Head Coach sees David's defensive position being filled by a Junior and David playing quarterback. We've decided that if they are going to give him a chance that David's Dad and Darla and I will pay for a quarterback camp and we'll give him every opportunity to win the position.
In the meantime, both David and Daniel are playing Summer basketball with the Woodcreek High School teams and will both be doing summer workouts with the football teams prior to camp. Both David and Daniel earned their way to football camp by earning $375 in their lift-a-thon at school. They both walked the neighborhood and got pledges from our neighbors to earn the money for camp. About half of the players have their parents pay their way, but we believe that if they have to work for it, they will appreciate it that much more. Sort of the same reason that David and Jennifer had to BUY their cars from me.
I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of fabulously. I asked how her little guy, Ryan, was doing. She said, "Dad, he's young, not little. He's six-foot one and buff." The young man is about my size, eh? Give or take 3 or 4 inches and maybe thirty pounds. Oh, well. Jennifer is looking forward to coming home and we talked about maybe going water skiing up at Lake Almanor and maybe taking a trip to Lake Tahoe when she is home. We will also take Jennifer and the boys to the local Water Park where Jen and the boys can blow off some steam together. Darla and her work all pitched in and put together a huge package for Jennifer of snacks and goodies and sent it to Baghdad. Jennifer left before it arrived and three weeks later it was returned to sender. Darla repackaged it and sent it to Jennifer in Georgia and the package has now made it all over the world and cost about $70 in postage. Hopefully there is something left inside that is actually edible.
Darla and I will have our windows installed this Wednesday at the house. These are the replacement windows that we ordered early last month. We are having the entire front of the house redone with new lifetime windows from Sears. I look forward to getting rid of the water spotted mess that we have now and benefitting from the insulated dual pane windows as far as energy is concerned. David should enjoy it especially as his room is the hottest and coldest in the house because of a broken seal on his window.
Well, that's it for another week. I can place a check mark next to my obsessive-compulsive streak regarding the blog. Be well.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
It is a magnificent day with a high blue sky and a promise of warm temperatures, although the many trees that surround our office building are gently swaying to a light breeze that filters through the leaves. I realize often the hours that I put in when the same sprinklers that were working as I arrive at work are on when I leave the building at night. The parking lot right now is a trail of rivulets and water from the sprinklers as they dry in the early morning sun.
This is a short work week for me in more ways than just the Memorial Day holiday. I leave tomorrow afternoon for Arcata up in Humboldt County for an insurance golf day being put on by the local agents association. I have several agents that use Burns and Wilcox to write their Rodeo and special events coverage in the area and I have yet to meet those agents, so here is my chance. The timing isn't ideal as Marci's last day was last Friday and we are now one underwriter short. The office had five commercial underwriters when I joined and we now have just two, Gail and myself. We are interviewing a candidate at lunch today. Bill, our office manager, has already met with her twice and wants Gail and I to do a chemistry test with her over lunch. I will have her lick a piece of litmus paper and see if it turns purple.
I have been suffering with a strained back for over a week now. I filled a 5-gallon tank of propane for the barbecue last Monday and lifted it wrong and knocked my spine out of alignment. In spite of the fact that I have a chiropractor, it took three visits until he could pop my spine back into alignment. In the meantime, I was a figure "S" as the pain and swelling in the right side of my back forced my posture to tilt to the left. My back was so swollen that Dr Elsea could not "crack" my back the first two visits. He had me on ice and walking. The problem was, he had me ice it for ten minutes and walk the hallways for five minutes. I kept banging off the wall because I was turning left. My doctor was excellent and met with me one night at eight o'clock and then again yesterday on Memorial Day at eight in the morning. He finally was able to crack my back on Friday morning and by Friday night I was feeling fine.
That left me with a dilemma in that I had a golf tournament on Saturday morning. I had e-mailed the tournament director, Steve, on Thursday night and cancelled due to my bad back. Steve said to see how I was feeling and if I could make it, he'd fit me in. I talked to Darla on Friday night and was secretly hoping that she would forbid me from playing, but she said it was up to me. She also said that it wouldn't be smart, but it was my decision. Now adult decisions (buying houses, cars, loans, child discipline, etc.) are easy decisions to make, but when it involves golf, I'm like a little kid. All of my buddies were playing and I'd missed the last tournament when we went to Monterey. I finally decided NOT to play, but the decision was simply based on FEAR. IF I played and hurt myself further, Darla would KILL me. It's tough being an adult, but thankfully we can still rely on emotions like Fear and concerns like Consequences to make our decisions for us.
I ended up laying sod in the back yard, re-staining the spa and steps, and cutting the kick plate and then rehanging the front door instead of golf. All three of those activities were probably tougher on my back than golf. I survived, although I still have a little residual soreness. I ended up staining a park bench that we have in the front alcove of the house just off the front door. It was a little weather beaten and it is amazing how nice it looks after I stained it. I also re-stained the air conditioner enclosure and the lattice work on both gates in the back yard. Funny, when you have an open can of stain and a brush what you can find to stain. The stain is Flood's UV resistant redwood stain and it is the best product that I've found to put on wood in California. Dad suggested it as he used it on his deck in Texas and the product is amazing. It really does resist fading and is a water repellant as well. Excellent for use around a spa.
Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night at a new Italian restaurant in Lincoln. Lincoln is the little town next to Roseville and Rocklin that is going through a huge building boom. There is a new senior community in Lincoln, a new Indian casino, and some affordable housing. The Sacramento area has grown to the point that anything under $300,000 is considered affordable and Lincoln has homes starting in the mid-$200,000 range. The restaurant is located in an old historical building in Lincoln. Lincoln was known for it's foundry, where they forged clay and terrazo pots in the early 1900's. The downtown area is still a maze of old buildings and restaurants are popping up as the town grows. The food was excellent and we will return.
Darla and I also were able to sneak off for a day at the beach on Sunday. We went out to Folsom Lake and drove the Explorer right out onto the beach on the back side of the lake. We spent a relaxing day reading and relaxing in the sun and under our umbrella. We tried to return yesterday afternoon after I finished staining the spa, but the park was full and we had to turn around and drive back home. I ended up dozing in the back yard.
The only problem with this weekend is that we missed church on Sunday. Darla and I both slept through the alarm after staying up late on Saturday night to watch a movie called "Deliver Us From Eva", which is a remake of "Taming of the Shrew". Our weekend just seems incomplete when we miss church.
Darla's sister, Alicia, travelled up to Lake Almanor to spend the weekend with her parents. Earl continues to take radiation treatments for his prostate cancer and has been amazingly resilient after the four-times-a-week treatments. They have their 5th wheel up at Lake Almanor again this year and will travel up weekends until his treatment is finished. We all Praise God for the prognosis and health that he has blessed Earl with.
I talked to Jennifer on Sunday and she is doing great. She is looking forward to her trip to Pennsylvania and then back home later this month. She will be in California July 1st through the 15th and then will again fly home for about ten days before she leaves for Kuwait in September. Well that's it for this week's epistle. I hope you all are well and keeping your faith in the One who sustains us in everything we do. God bless.
This is a short work week for me in more ways than just the Memorial Day holiday. I leave tomorrow afternoon for Arcata up in Humboldt County for an insurance golf day being put on by the local agents association. I have several agents that use Burns and Wilcox to write their Rodeo and special events coverage in the area and I have yet to meet those agents, so here is my chance. The timing isn't ideal as Marci's last day was last Friday and we are now one underwriter short. The office had five commercial underwriters when I joined and we now have just two, Gail and myself. We are interviewing a candidate at lunch today. Bill, our office manager, has already met with her twice and wants Gail and I to do a chemistry test with her over lunch. I will have her lick a piece of litmus paper and see if it turns purple.
I have been suffering with a strained back for over a week now. I filled a 5-gallon tank of propane for the barbecue last Monday and lifted it wrong and knocked my spine out of alignment. In spite of the fact that I have a chiropractor, it took three visits until he could pop my spine back into alignment. In the meantime, I was a figure "S" as the pain and swelling in the right side of my back forced my posture to tilt to the left. My back was so swollen that Dr Elsea could not "crack" my back the first two visits. He had me on ice and walking. The problem was, he had me ice it for ten minutes and walk the hallways for five minutes. I kept banging off the wall because I was turning left. My doctor was excellent and met with me one night at eight o'clock and then again yesterday on Memorial Day at eight in the morning. He finally was able to crack my back on Friday morning and by Friday night I was feeling fine.
That left me with a dilemma in that I had a golf tournament on Saturday morning. I had e-mailed the tournament director, Steve, on Thursday night and cancelled due to my bad back. Steve said to see how I was feeling and if I could make it, he'd fit me in. I talked to Darla on Friday night and was secretly hoping that she would forbid me from playing, but she said it was up to me. She also said that it wouldn't be smart, but it was my decision. Now adult decisions (buying houses, cars, loans, child discipline, etc.) are easy decisions to make, but when it involves golf, I'm like a little kid. All of my buddies were playing and I'd missed the last tournament when we went to Monterey. I finally decided NOT to play, but the decision was simply based on FEAR. IF I played and hurt myself further, Darla would KILL me. It's tough being an adult, but thankfully we can still rely on emotions like Fear and concerns like Consequences to make our decisions for us.
I ended up laying sod in the back yard, re-staining the spa and steps, and cutting the kick plate and then rehanging the front door instead of golf. All three of those activities were probably tougher on my back than golf. I survived, although I still have a little residual soreness. I ended up staining a park bench that we have in the front alcove of the house just off the front door. It was a little weather beaten and it is amazing how nice it looks after I stained it. I also re-stained the air conditioner enclosure and the lattice work on both gates in the back yard. Funny, when you have an open can of stain and a brush what you can find to stain. The stain is Flood's UV resistant redwood stain and it is the best product that I've found to put on wood in California. Dad suggested it as he used it on his deck in Texas and the product is amazing. It really does resist fading and is a water repellant as well. Excellent for use around a spa.
Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night at a new Italian restaurant in Lincoln. Lincoln is the little town next to Roseville and Rocklin that is going through a huge building boom. There is a new senior community in Lincoln, a new Indian casino, and some affordable housing. The Sacramento area has grown to the point that anything under $300,000 is considered affordable and Lincoln has homes starting in the mid-$200,000 range. The restaurant is located in an old historical building in Lincoln. Lincoln was known for it's foundry, where they forged clay and terrazo pots in the early 1900's. The downtown area is still a maze of old buildings and restaurants are popping up as the town grows. The food was excellent and we will return.
Darla and I also were able to sneak off for a day at the beach on Sunday. We went out to Folsom Lake and drove the Explorer right out onto the beach on the back side of the lake. We spent a relaxing day reading and relaxing in the sun and under our umbrella. We tried to return yesterday afternoon after I finished staining the spa, but the park was full and we had to turn around and drive back home. I ended up dozing in the back yard.
The only problem with this weekend is that we missed church on Sunday. Darla and I both slept through the alarm after staying up late on Saturday night to watch a movie called "Deliver Us From Eva", which is a remake of "Taming of the Shrew". Our weekend just seems incomplete when we miss church.
Darla's sister, Alicia, travelled up to Lake Almanor to spend the weekend with her parents. Earl continues to take radiation treatments for his prostate cancer and has been amazingly resilient after the four-times-a-week treatments. They have their 5th wheel up at Lake Almanor again this year and will travel up weekends until his treatment is finished. We all Praise God for the prognosis and health that he has blessed Earl with.
I talked to Jennifer on Sunday and she is doing great. She is looking forward to her trip to Pennsylvania and then back home later this month. She will be in California July 1st through the 15th and then will again fly home for about ten days before she leaves for Kuwait in September. Well that's it for this week's epistle. I hope you all are well and keeping your faith in the One who sustains us in everything we do. God bless.
Monday, May 24, 2004
Back to work and tired today. It was actually a relaxing weekend up until last night. Unfortunately I got into it with the boys. Daniel has a tendency to let his mouth work before his head and he pulled a doozy last night. I was already irritated about the boys being on the computer all day and I told Daniel to wrap it up about ten-thirty. He told me he'd be done when he was done and all hell broke loose. I don't understand modern teachers pushing kids to use the internet and computers. The same project that took me an hour to finish by hand takes them twelve hours on the computer. I thought the computer was supposed to speed things up? There is no reward for trying to raise someone else's kids. I suppose being a step-parent is about as tough as being a step-kid. Enough said?
I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of GREAT. She has a new beau in the military, A PFC named Ryan who is 21 years of age. She is quite taken with him and will visit his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June before coming home for two weeks. She said he is young and looks even younger. I wonder if the young man shaves? He is in his second year of a six-year hitch and has a similar MOS to Jennifer, in communications. Jennifer is still committed to getting out of the Army when her stretch ends next November. She leaves for Kuwait on September 21st and will be there on a 14-month tour of duty.
We had Darla's folks over on Saturday night and had one of those "Murphy's Law" kind of nights. Darla had planned a dinner of barbecued chicken breasts and all the fixens. The corn on the cob that she bought and served was not fresh. It tasted fine to me, but as Darla said, "You didn't grow up on a farm." The chicken breasts that she gave me were DD Dolly Parton chicken breasts, absolutely huge. I barbecued them for 45 minutes on the grill baking the outsides to a golden brown and slathering them with barbecue sauce. When we served them, there was a quick line that formed at the microwave as the breasts were basically "sushi-style" chicken. Although they looked wonderful on the outside, the insides were raw. The only thing I can think is that I cooked them on a lower heat because there were so many (8 breasts) and I would have had a fireball if I tried to cook them on high. Earl, Darla's Dad, said, "Well, Ken, you can't impress me every time."
David and I made a run to the dump yesterday and took a full load of old lawnmower, barbecue, fertilizer spreader, baseball net and stand, old metal shelving unit that was rusted and shot, and a passel of wood, much of it scraps from when Dad and I built the shed in 2000. The side of the house is back to a neat and orderly side yard instead of a staging area for discarded items.
I played golf with Jerry Tuel on Friday in a claims tournament here in Sacramento. I hadn't seen Jerry in quite awhile. Tammi is now a licensed real estate agent and every weekend is taken up with open houses and trips with prospective buyers to homes in their price range. She is doing very well and was number two in sales last month in her 45-agent office. I'm happy for her, but sad for us as the friendship has taken a back seat to her job. We invited them to go to Monterey with us last weekend, but they were too busy, which has been a theme each time we've tried to get together. Their daughter, Natalie, will graduate from high school next month and attend Sonoma State in the fall. Their son, Matt, is moving out of the house at the same time and moving in to a house with some buddies. Tammi and Jerry will be "empty-nesters", something that I strive to be in the very near future.
Work is going well. In fact, our office made a profit for the company for the first time in about 11 months. We have worked hard to pare the staff and get the people in place to make this a profitable endeavor. Of course, change isn't easy and one of the three remaining underwriters gave her notice last week and will be gone after Friday. This is another hiccup on the road to profitability. This will gravely impact my workload as we will have two underwriters essentially doing the work of five. Bill, my boss, has vowed to have a replacement underwriter in place by July 1st. As Gail, the only other underwriter in the office, takes a three-week vacation in July, I would say that it is nothing short of imperative that a replacement be found by then. Or simply put a staight jacket on me and send me to the Funny Farm.
Well, that's it for another episode of "Life with the Lyons". Be well and do something nice for someone you love today, just for the smell of it.
I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of GREAT. She has a new beau in the military, A PFC named Ryan who is 21 years of age. She is quite taken with him and will visit his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in June before coming home for two weeks. She said he is young and looks even younger. I wonder if the young man shaves? He is in his second year of a six-year hitch and has a similar MOS to Jennifer, in communications. Jennifer is still committed to getting out of the Army when her stretch ends next November. She leaves for Kuwait on September 21st and will be there on a 14-month tour of duty.
We had Darla's folks over on Saturday night and had one of those "Murphy's Law" kind of nights. Darla had planned a dinner of barbecued chicken breasts and all the fixens. The corn on the cob that she bought and served was not fresh. It tasted fine to me, but as Darla said, "You didn't grow up on a farm." The chicken breasts that she gave me were DD Dolly Parton chicken breasts, absolutely huge. I barbecued them for 45 minutes on the grill baking the outsides to a golden brown and slathering them with barbecue sauce. When we served them, there was a quick line that formed at the microwave as the breasts were basically "sushi-style" chicken. Although they looked wonderful on the outside, the insides were raw. The only thing I can think is that I cooked them on a lower heat because there were so many (8 breasts) and I would have had a fireball if I tried to cook them on high. Earl, Darla's Dad, said, "Well, Ken, you can't impress me every time."
David and I made a run to the dump yesterday and took a full load of old lawnmower, barbecue, fertilizer spreader, baseball net and stand, old metal shelving unit that was rusted and shot, and a passel of wood, much of it scraps from when Dad and I built the shed in 2000. The side of the house is back to a neat and orderly side yard instead of a staging area for discarded items.
I played golf with Jerry Tuel on Friday in a claims tournament here in Sacramento. I hadn't seen Jerry in quite awhile. Tammi is now a licensed real estate agent and every weekend is taken up with open houses and trips with prospective buyers to homes in their price range. She is doing very well and was number two in sales last month in her 45-agent office. I'm happy for her, but sad for us as the friendship has taken a back seat to her job. We invited them to go to Monterey with us last weekend, but they were too busy, which has been a theme each time we've tried to get together. Their daughter, Natalie, will graduate from high school next month and attend Sonoma State in the fall. Their son, Matt, is moving out of the house at the same time and moving in to a house with some buddies. Tammi and Jerry will be "empty-nesters", something that I strive to be in the very near future.
Work is going well. In fact, our office made a profit for the company for the first time in about 11 months. We have worked hard to pare the staff and get the people in place to make this a profitable endeavor. Of course, change isn't easy and one of the three remaining underwriters gave her notice last week and will be gone after Friday. This is another hiccup on the road to profitability. This will gravely impact my workload as we will have two underwriters essentially doing the work of five. Bill, my boss, has vowed to have a replacement underwriter in place by July 1st. As Gail, the only other underwriter in the office, takes a three-week vacation in July, I would say that it is nothing short of imperative that a replacement be found by then. Or simply put a staight jacket on me and send me to the Funny Farm.
Well, that's it for another episode of "Life with the Lyons". Be well and do something nice for someone you love today, just for the smell of it.
Monday, May 17, 2004
Back from a marathon weekend, actually an extended weekend. Our trip to Monterey was nothing short of fabulous. The weather was incredible with high blue skies and temperatures in the 70's. I even managed to get a sunburn on the sock portion of the golf tan that I sported prior to this trip. Darla applied suntan lotion liberally on my still winter white body, but missed the part of my leg where I wear sport socks when I'm golfing. The sun burned down on us as we relaxed at the beach in Carmel on Friday and by that evening, I had bright red socks on the back of my legs from a nasty sunburn. We wore SPF 30, which we have used ever since Mom succumbed to skin cancer in 1999. I used to wear SPF 2 or 4 and think that I had an olive complexion. Mom's ordeal taught me that I am nothing more or less than a white boy and I need to protect my skin when I'm out in the sun. I wish Dad would wear a more protective sunscreen. His "George Hamilton" tan looks good now, but I worry about him.
Darla and I enjoyed Mark and Mike's 40th birthday celebration. It was supposed to be a beach party, but high tide moved the party indoors to the fourth floor restaurant overlooking the ocean. The only detriment to the party, from my perspective, was the eight or ten kids that were running amok during the dinner. Mark's friends and family all seem to have kids in the 1-8 year range and the parents seemed oblivious to the kids running around the tables and doing chinups on the waitress station at the bar behind us. Mark and Mike picked up the tab for the dinner, but frankly the food was a little weak in quality. I had a chicken dish served in a garlic pastry and the chicken was bland and I only ate half of it. Mark has one friend, Victor, who stood up and gave about a fifteen minute speech that was rambling and he got emotional in the middle of it and cried. The bizarre part was that half the people continued to carry on conversations while he spoke. Darla and I kind of looked at each other and figured that there must be a history here as the group are all friends. Victor finished the speech and gave a copy of it to Mark and told him to keep it for ten years and then read it over. Victor's wife then handed him their daughter and told him to deal with her as his speech had woken her from a nap. I'm guessing that Victor is the guy who gets no respect.
The golf game at Poppy Hills was a disaster for me. Poppy is a difficult and challenging course and you need to bring your A game when you play. I left that and my B game somewhere in Sacramento. I shot a 52-42=94. I could complain about the poor start/strong finish, but 94 is firmly in the realm of hackerville. I shot three triple-bogeys over the course of the day, won no skins and paid Mark $5 as he managed a 44-44=88. I told him to consider it a birthday present. The course was in excellent shape and I did manage four pars on the course, but my game was in the toilet most of the day.
Darla and I went out to dinner on Friday night and planned our meal around the Kings basketball playoff game. We ate at a sports bar in Monterey, but the Nets-Pacers game went into double OT and we were able to eat, drive back to the hotel and we watched the second half in our room. We had some very marginal meals on this trip starting with a chinese food dinner on Wednesday night, encompassing the 40th birthday dinner, and including the fish and chips at the Sports bar. Darla and I drove home Saturday and she grocery shopped, I mowed the lawn and we then went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurtants in Roseville, Strings Italian, and the poor meals were washed away in a dash of garlic and marinara sauce and a bottle of Peironi Italian beer. Nothing like one of your favorite restaurants to save the day.
Yesterday was Darla's 40th birthday and we met the boys in the morning and then went to church. We met Alicia, who is apparently allergic to church services, at the restaurant for breakfast. One of her paramours was trying to line up tickets to the Kings Playoff game at Arco arena at 12:30 and her phone was on waiting for his call. We had no sooner got seated, ordered our meal and were waiting to be served than her phone rang, she spoke briefly to her gentleman friend and she was out of there. Alicia was born on the same day as Darla, and is five years her junior, so Alicia was able to celebrate her 35th birthday at the Kings-Timberwolves playoff game. The boys returned to their Dad's after lunch and Darla and I watched the game at home.
I had tickets for Darla and I to see the Christian band, Third Day at Recreation Hall at UC Davis Sunday night. The show was 7 pm and we didn't get home until ten thirty last night. It was a busy weekend.
I hope you all are well. Tonight is David's 17th birthday. We are giving him a Borders Gift certificate, a new wallet and a $100 bill. To be 17 and flush with cash. Can you imagine? Ciao.
Darla and I enjoyed Mark and Mike's 40th birthday celebration. It was supposed to be a beach party, but high tide moved the party indoors to the fourth floor restaurant overlooking the ocean. The only detriment to the party, from my perspective, was the eight or ten kids that were running amok during the dinner. Mark's friends and family all seem to have kids in the 1-8 year range and the parents seemed oblivious to the kids running around the tables and doing chinups on the waitress station at the bar behind us. Mark and Mike picked up the tab for the dinner, but frankly the food was a little weak in quality. I had a chicken dish served in a garlic pastry and the chicken was bland and I only ate half of it. Mark has one friend, Victor, who stood up and gave about a fifteen minute speech that was rambling and he got emotional in the middle of it and cried. The bizarre part was that half the people continued to carry on conversations while he spoke. Darla and I kind of looked at each other and figured that there must be a history here as the group are all friends. Victor finished the speech and gave a copy of it to Mark and told him to keep it for ten years and then read it over. Victor's wife then handed him their daughter and told him to deal with her as his speech had woken her from a nap. I'm guessing that Victor is the guy who gets no respect.
The golf game at Poppy Hills was a disaster for me. Poppy is a difficult and challenging course and you need to bring your A game when you play. I left that and my B game somewhere in Sacramento. I shot a 52-42=94. I could complain about the poor start/strong finish, but 94 is firmly in the realm of hackerville. I shot three triple-bogeys over the course of the day, won no skins and paid Mark $5 as he managed a 44-44=88. I told him to consider it a birthday present. The course was in excellent shape and I did manage four pars on the course, but my game was in the toilet most of the day.
Darla and I went out to dinner on Friday night and planned our meal around the Kings basketball playoff game. We ate at a sports bar in Monterey, but the Nets-Pacers game went into double OT and we were able to eat, drive back to the hotel and we watched the second half in our room. We had some very marginal meals on this trip starting with a chinese food dinner on Wednesday night, encompassing the 40th birthday dinner, and including the fish and chips at the Sports bar. Darla and I drove home Saturday and she grocery shopped, I mowed the lawn and we then went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurtants in Roseville, Strings Italian, and the poor meals were washed away in a dash of garlic and marinara sauce and a bottle of Peironi Italian beer. Nothing like one of your favorite restaurants to save the day.
Yesterday was Darla's 40th birthday and we met the boys in the morning and then went to church. We met Alicia, who is apparently allergic to church services, at the restaurant for breakfast. One of her paramours was trying to line up tickets to the Kings Playoff game at Arco arena at 12:30 and her phone was on waiting for his call. We had no sooner got seated, ordered our meal and were waiting to be served than her phone rang, she spoke briefly to her gentleman friend and she was out of there. Alicia was born on the same day as Darla, and is five years her junior, so Alicia was able to celebrate her 35th birthday at the Kings-Timberwolves playoff game. The boys returned to their Dad's after lunch and Darla and I watched the game at home.
I had tickets for Darla and I to see the Christian band, Third Day at Recreation Hall at UC Davis Sunday night. The show was 7 pm and we didn't get home until ten thirty last night. It was a busy weekend.
I hope you all are well. Tonight is David's 17th birthday. We are giving him a Borders Gift certificate, a new wallet and a $100 bill. To be 17 and flush with cash. Can you imagine? Ciao.
Monday, May 10, 2004
Monday morning greeted me with a left rear tire that had lost air. I hooked up my mini-compressor to the tire and ten minutes later was at 35 pounds of pressure. I'll have to keep an eye on it. I couldn't find a nail or any obvious reason why air would have escaped the tire, but life's little mysteries sometimes are never answered. The sky was overcast and parts of Sacramento had periods of rain this morning. I missed the rain and I'm glad of it as I spent thirty minutes washing my car and detailing the wheels last night after dinner.
Mother's Day was a success as the boys helped with breakfast after church and dishes after dinner. They also made their Mom a ham and grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. That was AFTER Darla announced that she was going to make lunch for the boys and I put the kybosh on that plan. The boys also gave their Mom a nice card and wrote in it that "their love for her was unexplainable". I suppose that was a compliment, eh?
Mother's Day is still hard for me five years after Mom's all-too premature death in 1999. I still miss her laugh and her caring attitude and our visits on the phone and in person. It seems that the void she left in my life isn't meant to be filled and I thank God that He allowed her to be such a big part of my life as long as He did. I see and feel echoes of Mom in my own wife and I smile to see the similarities in them. They are both strong-willed women, but have very strong family ties and work to keep their families together. As Mom had to put up with Dad's moods and his perfectionism, Darla has to do the same with me.
Jennifer had a Mother's day treat in the person of her Mom visiting her in Georgia. I have yet to hear the details of their visit, but I trust that they had fun and enjoyed their time together. I called Jennifer last night, but her phone rolled over to the answering machine. She may have been worn out and went to bed early. I don't know. Perhaps Diane was still there and flies back today.
Well, I'm sure this will come as a huge shock to my three regular readers, but I was able to arrange a golf game this weekend. Mark Konrad called on Wednesday night and invited me to play with his neighbor at Auburn Valley Country Club up in the foothills above Auburn, California off Highway 49 on the road to Nevada City and Grass Valley. We teed off at 6:45 a.m Saturday and I once again managed the slow start/strong finish routine that seems ingrained in my game right now as I shot 44-41=85. I had two birdies on the back side and finished with a "kick in" birdie on the signature 535-yard par-5 finshing hole. Mark struggled to a 95 and the other two guys shot 91 and 103 and I walked away with $31 in skin money and the $5 stroke play bet that Mark insists on paying me each time we play. Country club golf is like no other as Darryl can attest. Someday I will also join a club, but right now I'm like a single guy who's not yet ready to settle down with one gal. There's too many great golf courses out there left to play and I want to play the field for awhile yet.
Darla and I are off to Monterey on Wednesday night where we will stay until Saturday. I will play golf with Mark and his group at Poppy Hills In Pebble Beach on Thursday and we will then head to the beach for a beach party on Thursday night complete with barbecue and music. Mark and his brother, Mike, are hosting the party for their 40th birthdays and it is being catered by the Beach Resort Hotel where we are staying. We're not sure how warm it will be and have shorts as well as jeans and sweatshirts ready to be packed.
Darla and I will return home on Saturday night and I have tickets to see the Christian Band, Third Day, at UC Davis on Sunday night. My child bride turns 40 on Sunday and we will pick up the boys from their father's house and go to church and then breakfast on Sunday. As I told Darla, I won't be playing golf next weekend in honor of her birthday. She just gave me a look that spoke volumes. Hope everyone is well. We lost my uncle Norm last week and I wish comfort on his wife and their family. Norm was the original golfer in my life and I'm sure he's arranging tee times in heaven as I write this.
Mother's Day was a success as the boys helped with breakfast after church and dishes after dinner. They also made their Mom a ham and grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. That was AFTER Darla announced that she was going to make lunch for the boys and I put the kybosh on that plan. The boys also gave their Mom a nice card and wrote in it that "their love for her was unexplainable". I suppose that was a compliment, eh?
Mother's Day is still hard for me five years after Mom's all-too premature death in 1999. I still miss her laugh and her caring attitude and our visits on the phone and in person. It seems that the void she left in my life isn't meant to be filled and I thank God that He allowed her to be such a big part of my life as long as He did. I see and feel echoes of Mom in my own wife and I smile to see the similarities in them. They are both strong-willed women, but have very strong family ties and work to keep their families together. As Mom had to put up with Dad's moods and his perfectionism, Darla has to do the same with me.
Jennifer had a Mother's day treat in the person of her Mom visiting her in Georgia. I have yet to hear the details of their visit, but I trust that they had fun and enjoyed their time together. I called Jennifer last night, but her phone rolled over to the answering machine. She may have been worn out and went to bed early. I don't know. Perhaps Diane was still there and flies back today.
Well, I'm sure this will come as a huge shock to my three regular readers, but I was able to arrange a golf game this weekend. Mark Konrad called on Wednesday night and invited me to play with his neighbor at Auburn Valley Country Club up in the foothills above Auburn, California off Highway 49 on the road to Nevada City and Grass Valley. We teed off at 6:45 a.m Saturday and I once again managed the slow start/strong finish routine that seems ingrained in my game right now as I shot 44-41=85. I had two birdies on the back side and finished with a "kick in" birdie on the signature 535-yard par-5 finshing hole. Mark struggled to a 95 and the other two guys shot 91 and 103 and I walked away with $31 in skin money and the $5 stroke play bet that Mark insists on paying me each time we play. Country club golf is like no other as Darryl can attest. Someday I will also join a club, but right now I'm like a single guy who's not yet ready to settle down with one gal. There's too many great golf courses out there left to play and I want to play the field for awhile yet.
Darla and I are off to Monterey on Wednesday night where we will stay until Saturday. I will play golf with Mark and his group at Poppy Hills In Pebble Beach on Thursday and we will then head to the beach for a beach party on Thursday night complete with barbecue and music. Mark and his brother, Mike, are hosting the party for their 40th birthdays and it is being catered by the Beach Resort Hotel where we are staying. We're not sure how warm it will be and have shorts as well as jeans and sweatshirts ready to be packed.
Darla and I will return home on Saturday night and I have tickets to see the Christian Band, Third Day, at UC Davis on Sunday night. My child bride turns 40 on Sunday and we will pick up the boys from their father's house and go to church and then breakfast on Sunday. As I told Darla, I won't be playing golf next weekend in honor of her birthday. She just gave me a look that spoke volumes. Hope everyone is well. We lost my uncle Norm last week and I wish comfort on his wife and their family. Norm was the original golfer in my life and I'm sure he's arranging tee times in heaven as I write this.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Hello again. A day late and a dollar short. I slept in yesterday morning and got to work a half hour later than normal and it threw my timing off kilter and I had to delay the blog update until today. I apologize to the three regular readers of this diatribe.
The weather over the weekend was hot and sticky with nary a breeze to cool off the denizens of Northern California. I had left my golfing passion up to a friend and he made a noon tee time on Saturday. I prefer to play early and have the day ahead of me when I finish. Also, the REAL golfers are generally on the course early and the later it gets the more young kids are out with their Dads or girlfriends out with their boyfriends who enjoy golf, but like the companionship of females more, so they forego the foursome of buddies and play with their uncoordinated sweethearts later in the day. All of that to say that it took a whopping 5.75 hours to complete our round. I shot 45-40=85 to continue the mystifying poor start/strong finish routine that I've developed of late. I parred the final three holes for the 40 on the back nine. I may actually take a weekend off from golf this weekend, but hey it's only Tuesday and there is plenty of time to arrange a game yet.
Darla and I have started a Spring makeover of our home. We have the wood blinds installed, Darla finished the window treatment in our bedroom, and I installed a new handleset and brass kickplate on the front door. I also restained the door and varnished the finished product with a high gloss varnish. True to form, the should-have-been hour-long project turned into a full day, as the brass kick plate was too large for the door and had to be cut down. My collection of "Barbie" tools proved inadequate and I ended up simply scoring the brass and bending it over to fit the bottom of the door. This required removing the door and the bottom sweep, installing the brass plate and then reinstalling the sweep. The inclusion of the brass plate at the bottom of the door caused the sweep to hit the bottom sash plate and I spent another hour sanding the sash down and tightening the sweep to the point that the door shuts snuggly. I just hope that the door doesn't swell during the winter months or we may be permanently locked into the house. The only item catching now is the rubber sweep at the bottom of the door and I'm hoping that wears down over time to the point that the door swings shut without the need for an extra push to shut it. The door looks great with the new brass hardware, dark walnut stain and high gloss finish. Darla isn't sold on the look of the brass kick plate, but I like it.
We are also having replacement windows built and installed for the front of the house. Our home faces West and the brunt of the sun hits the front and North facing sides of the house. the windows are energy efficient dual paned windows filled with Argon gas for insulation. David will especially appreciate the new windows as he has a broken seal on his window and the room is either stifling hot or so cold he has to have a space heater to warm the room. Several of the windows at the front of the house have broken seals and water has run into the dual panes and ruined the window. The new windows are expensive, but are lifetime guaranteed and we plan to stay in the house until we are wrinkled and old.
Darla and I slept in on Sunday morning, missing the snooze alarm and oversleeping through church. We both hate to miss church and feel like our weekend isn't complete without the addition of some spiritual intervention by our pastor. We used to have the option of a Sunday night service, but that has been discontinued with our new 3000 seat worship center.
Darla and I will be off next week to Monterey and a chance to celebrate Darla's 40th birthday. Yes, I have a child bride and I'm happy for that. I will, of course, abandon Darla during our vacation to play golf at Poppy Hills near Pebble Beach in Carmel. We are travelling with Mark Konrad and his family as Mark and his brother Mike both also turn 40 during the trip and they have arranged a golf tournament. We will go out to dinner on Thursday night and celebrate all of the birthdays. Everyone heads home on Friday, but Darla and I will stay over Friday night and have some alone time to enjoy each other before heading back Saturday night. I bought tickets to see the Christian band, Third Day, on Sunday night in Davis. Sunday will be Darla's birthday, a mere week after she is feted for being a Mother.
Well, that's it for another week. I talked to Jennifer and she is doing well. She had to have her Ford Explorer into the shop for a rebuilt transmission. Thankfully she was able to save money while she was in Iraq and came into some money on a settlement from Ford Motor Company on a car that she had financed some years ago at usury rates. Ford paid her over $4,000 to settle the class action lawsuit. As always, Jennifer lands on her feet..like a cat. Be well.
The weather over the weekend was hot and sticky with nary a breeze to cool off the denizens of Northern California. I had left my golfing passion up to a friend and he made a noon tee time on Saturday. I prefer to play early and have the day ahead of me when I finish. Also, the REAL golfers are generally on the course early and the later it gets the more young kids are out with their Dads or girlfriends out with their boyfriends who enjoy golf, but like the companionship of females more, so they forego the foursome of buddies and play with their uncoordinated sweethearts later in the day. All of that to say that it took a whopping 5.75 hours to complete our round. I shot 45-40=85 to continue the mystifying poor start/strong finish routine that I've developed of late. I parred the final three holes for the 40 on the back nine. I may actually take a weekend off from golf this weekend, but hey it's only Tuesday and there is plenty of time to arrange a game yet.
Darla and I have started a Spring makeover of our home. We have the wood blinds installed, Darla finished the window treatment in our bedroom, and I installed a new handleset and brass kickplate on the front door. I also restained the door and varnished the finished product with a high gloss varnish. True to form, the should-have-been hour-long project turned into a full day, as the brass kick plate was too large for the door and had to be cut down. My collection of "Barbie" tools proved inadequate and I ended up simply scoring the brass and bending it over to fit the bottom of the door. This required removing the door and the bottom sweep, installing the brass plate and then reinstalling the sweep. The inclusion of the brass plate at the bottom of the door caused the sweep to hit the bottom sash plate and I spent another hour sanding the sash down and tightening the sweep to the point that the door shuts snuggly. I just hope that the door doesn't swell during the winter months or we may be permanently locked into the house. The only item catching now is the rubber sweep at the bottom of the door and I'm hoping that wears down over time to the point that the door swings shut without the need for an extra push to shut it. The door looks great with the new brass hardware, dark walnut stain and high gloss finish. Darla isn't sold on the look of the brass kick plate, but I like it.
We are also having replacement windows built and installed for the front of the house. Our home faces West and the brunt of the sun hits the front and North facing sides of the house. the windows are energy efficient dual paned windows filled with Argon gas for insulation. David will especially appreciate the new windows as he has a broken seal on his window and the room is either stifling hot or so cold he has to have a space heater to warm the room. Several of the windows at the front of the house have broken seals and water has run into the dual panes and ruined the window. The new windows are expensive, but are lifetime guaranteed and we plan to stay in the house until we are wrinkled and old.
Darla and I slept in on Sunday morning, missing the snooze alarm and oversleeping through church. We both hate to miss church and feel like our weekend isn't complete without the addition of some spiritual intervention by our pastor. We used to have the option of a Sunday night service, but that has been discontinued with our new 3000 seat worship center.
Darla and I will be off next week to Monterey and a chance to celebrate Darla's 40th birthday. Yes, I have a child bride and I'm happy for that. I will, of course, abandon Darla during our vacation to play golf at Poppy Hills near Pebble Beach in Carmel. We are travelling with Mark Konrad and his family as Mark and his brother Mike both also turn 40 during the trip and they have arranged a golf tournament. We will go out to dinner on Thursday night and celebrate all of the birthdays. Everyone heads home on Friday, but Darla and I will stay over Friday night and have some alone time to enjoy each other before heading back Saturday night. I bought tickets to see the Christian band, Third Day, on Sunday night in Davis. Sunday will be Darla's birthday, a mere week after she is feted for being a Mother.
Well, that's it for another week. I talked to Jennifer and she is doing well. She had to have her Ford Explorer into the shop for a rebuilt transmission. Thankfully she was able to save money while she was in Iraq and came into some money on a settlement from Ford Motor Company on a car that she had financed some years ago at usury rates. Ford paid her over $4,000 to settle the class action lawsuit. As always, Jennifer lands on her feet..like a cat. Be well.
Monday, April 26, 2004
California..you gotta love it. Last week I was prattling on about rain and hoping that the sky would open and give us a much needed drenching. Well, we got our rain, although it was nothing more than a good shower. Today, the temperature is expected to hit 95 degrees and set a record for this date. Last week we were fifteen degrees under our normal and this week we are 20 degrees over it. Yesterday was 92 degrees and I have a bit of a sunburn on my back courtesy of some koi pond maintenance in my backyard. The temperature of the pond water has risen to the point that I had to reintroduce the filter to the water. In order to fit the pump and filter back into the water, I had to pull out the six water plants that I have arrayed in the pond and cut them back. I ended up in the pond moving blocks and placing the filter where I wanted it. The boys were inside watching all of the labor from a soft spot on the couch. We've been talking about having a pool put in next year and Daniel said to David that, "Ken thinks we have the pool already". Wise guy. I'm still debating on the pool. We have such a nice back yard and I hate to upend things with a pool contractor. We'd lose the pond and gain a pool, but I'm concerned that the stamped concrete would be damaged in the process. I will say this, IF we get a pool, it will be a small lagoon style pool, meant more for cooling off and relaxing than swimming. We'll see how my bonus shapes up before taking that on.
Well, praise God and pass the smelling salts, Jennifer is back in the United States of America!! She flew back in on Thursday and was in Texas for all of a day, just long enough to get prodded and pricked (seven or eight shots and a blood sample), turn in her equipment and catch a flight Friday back to Augusta. She was on a plane Friday that stopped in Houston and then flew on to Augusta. She got her car out of hock and reopened her apartment (barracks) and got caught up with some of her friends and fellow soldiers at Fort Gordon. I talked to her Saturday morning and then again last night let the boys get caught up with their sister. Jennifer will be in Augusta until about November and then she will be deployed to her new duty station in Kuwait. She has about a month of vacation saved up and will come home to California for about three weeks in June or July. I am exceedingly proud of Jennifer's accomplishments with the Army and consider her my personal hero for her bravery and love for this country. Like Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan, Jennifer was profoundly affected by the events of September 11th, 2001 and she did something about it. She was in a position to react to the threat to the United States and rather than simply condemn the American haters, she joined our country's military and she served in Iraq, carrying a weapon at all times and fitting the Coalition Headquarters at Camp Victory with state of the art communications technology. My hat is off to her and my heart is filled with intense pride that my soldier put her life on the line to defend this country. No, she isn't in infantry, but the grenades were exploding around her just the same. God bless you, Jennifer, and all of the brave men and women in Iraq and in service to our country.
I played golf this weekend at Rio La Paz, a course near the Sacramento River in a little town called Nicolaus. I played with three of the true hackers in our club. Gary Krohn is an ex-president and he loves playing golf with me. I prefer to play golf with better golfers than I am. Gary is a 22, his friend is a 24 and the other guy in our foursome is a 19. I shot 87 and watched those three shoot a combined 317. The fact that I managed an 87 while the threesome was hacking and whiffing and shanking their way all over hell's half acre is amazing. I had asked Steve, our tournament director, to put me in with some golfers and I owe him a smack upside the head. It was a beautiful day in Sacramento and I watched numerous families park their cars along the levee and herd the children with inner tubes and blankets and coolers down to the river. I wished I could join them as I often waited interminably in the fairway for the wayward three to join me somewhere near the short grass.
We survived our weekend without Mom and Darla came home yesterday tired and suffering from flu-like symtoms. She was running a fever and slept most of the afternoon. I think she may take today off and get herself healthy. We ate McDonalds on Friday and pizza on Saturday and I barbecued a london broil last night. I took the boys to church yesterday morning. Rick, our pastor, was talking about conflict and how Christians should deal with it. He told the story of a couple who were fighting and just couldn't get along. The husband was fed up and said to his wife, "I was a fool when I married you!" The wife said, "I know, but I was too much in love to notice it at the time." ..........Think about it.
Give Jennifer a call and thank her for her bravery at 310-927-6311 or write to her as follows:
Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
518, 63rd Sig Bn
Box J3
Ft Gordon, GA 30905
Well, praise God and pass the smelling salts, Jennifer is back in the United States of America!! She flew back in on Thursday and was in Texas for all of a day, just long enough to get prodded and pricked (seven or eight shots and a blood sample), turn in her equipment and catch a flight Friday back to Augusta. She was on a plane Friday that stopped in Houston and then flew on to Augusta. She got her car out of hock and reopened her apartment (barracks) and got caught up with some of her friends and fellow soldiers at Fort Gordon. I talked to her Saturday morning and then again last night let the boys get caught up with their sister. Jennifer will be in Augusta until about November and then she will be deployed to her new duty station in Kuwait. She has about a month of vacation saved up and will come home to California for about three weeks in June or July. I am exceedingly proud of Jennifer's accomplishments with the Army and consider her my personal hero for her bravery and love for this country. Like Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan, Jennifer was profoundly affected by the events of September 11th, 2001 and she did something about it. She was in a position to react to the threat to the United States and rather than simply condemn the American haters, she joined our country's military and she served in Iraq, carrying a weapon at all times and fitting the Coalition Headquarters at Camp Victory with state of the art communications technology. My hat is off to her and my heart is filled with intense pride that my soldier put her life on the line to defend this country. No, she isn't in infantry, but the grenades were exploding around her just the same. God bless you, Jennifer, and all of the brave men and women in Iraq and in service to our country.
I played golf this weekend at Rio La Paz, a course near the Sacramento River in a little town called Nicolaus. I played with three of the true hackers in our club. Gary Krohn is an ex-president and he loves playing golf with me. I prefer to play golf with better golfers than I am. Gary is a 22, his friend is a 24 and the other guy in our foursome is a 19. I shot 87 and watched those three shoot a combined 317. The fact that I managed an 87 while the threesome was hacking and whiffing and shanking their way all over hell's half acre is amazing. I had asked Steve, our tournament director, to put me in with some golfers and I owe him a smack upside the head. It was a beautiful day in Sacramento and I watched numerous families park their cars along the levee and herd the children with inner tubes and blankets and coolers down to the river. I wished I could join them as I often waited interminably in the fairway for the wayward three to join me somewhere near the short grass.
We survived our weekend without Mom and Darla came home yesterday tired and suffering from flu-like symtoms. She was running a fever and slept most of the afternoon. I think she may take today off and get herself healthy. We ate McDonalds on Friday and pizza on Saturday and I barbecued a london broil last night. I took the boys to church yesterday morning. Rick, our pastor, was talking about conflict and how Christians should deal with it. He told the story of a couple who were fighting and just couldn't get along. The husband was fed up and said to his wife, "I was a fool when I married you!" The wife said, "I know, but I was too much in love to notice it at the time." ..........Think about it.
Give Jennifer a call and thank her for her bravery at 310-927-6311 or write to her as follows:
Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
518, 63rd Sig Bn
Box J3
Ft Gordon, GA 30905
Monday, April 19, 2004
It's Monday. The weatherman promises rain showers today, but he's been promising that for three days and the worst we've seen is a light overnight sprinkle that left the ground wet and the lawns wanting a bit more. I played golf on Saturday and when we finished, the sky turned dark and the temperature plummeted to the high fifties, but no rain came. Today the sky is a slate of granite with dark clouds and a forbidding presence...but, alas, there is a hint of blue sky on the horizon and the rain may miss us yet again. There were some isolated showers and some hail on Saturday, but Roseville missed the fun. It is supposed to be showery today and tomorrow and I hope to see some real rain out of this storm yet.
I played in a two-man best-ball qualifier tournament on Saturday with one of our better golfers, in fact he was club champion two years ago. Boyd and I shot 32-32=64 and finished fourth in the tournament. I shot 44-39=83 and I'm beginning to get a little concerned about my slow starts. I need to develop the same rythym and focus on the starting holes as I do on the back nine. The top two teams go on to the regionals locally. Mark Konrad and his partner shot a 61 to qualify. Mark is our webmaster at the Roseville Golf Club and hosted the Masters tournament last week. Mark and Darla turn 40 on the same week in May and we will join them for a trip to Monterey. Mark has a twin brother, Mike, who will also join us. Several friends and family are going to Monterey with Mark. 12 of us will play golf at Poppy Hills in Carmel and we will have a big birthday dinner on Thursday night, May 13th. Darla's birthday is May 16th, Sunday.
Darla and I spent yesterday updating our house with new vertical blinds in the family room and master bedroom and new blinds in the master bedroom. We now have matching white faux wood blinds in the master bedroom on all three windows. Darla will be working on new curtains for the windows over the next week or so. I guess they aren't really curtains, they're window accents or toppers or something like that. Darla's theme for the room is blue and white, which will shock anyone who knows Darla. J/K.
We will also have a new washer and dryer delivered today. Darla has been working with the same garage sale appliances since we got married. The washer and dryer that she had was even worse than mine, so we dumped hers way back when. I think I paid $75 for the pair back in 1990 when I got divorced and they have seen better days. The washer had been rocking so badly due to the spindle being out of balance that the top panel had come loose and Daniel had duct taped the panel back down. With two six-footers in the house who are both athletes, we put the washer and dryer through their paces. Darla will be thrilled to have some nice new appliances to do the job from now on.
I have not heard from our soldier since she called last week. I'm really looking forward to her getting back to the states and back to a ho-hum existence at Fort Gordon. I'm sure Jenn has mixed feelings as she loved the work, but the stress and pressure of Baghdad was a dark cloud over that experience. I hope to hear from her in the next week.
Darla is off to a women's retreat at church next weekend. Pray for me and the boys as we struggle along without Mom. I'm sure we'll thrive and the fast food restaurants will do a booming business this weekend. I have a golf game at Rio La Paz golf course on Saturday and will leave the boys to their own devices that day. Hopefully the house is in one piece when I get home.
I got some pictures from Darryl of a golf cart that he purchased in Dallas and hauled back to Austin. He is reconditioning the unit and doing body repairs, new brakes, tires, wheels, etc. I think Dad's work with his two project cars got Darryl in the mood to work on something. He'll trick out the golf cart and have the nicest set of wheels on the course. Somehow, that body work gene passed me by.
Well, that is another installment of the blog. I hope you are all hale and hearty. Be nice to each other. Ciao.
I played in a two-man best-ball qualifier tournament on Saturday with one of our better golfers, in fact he was club champion two years ago. Boyd and I shot 32-32=64 and finished fourth in the tournament. I shot 44-39=83 and I'm beginning to get a little concerned about my slow starts. I need to develop the same rythym and focus on the starting holes as I do on the back nine. The top two teams go on to the regionals locally. Mark Konrad and his partner shot a 61 to qualify. Mark is our webmaster at the Roseville Golf Club and hosted the Masters tournament last week. Mark and Darla turn 40 on the same week in May and we will join them for a trip to Monterey. Mark has a twin brother, Mike, who will also join us. Several friends and family are going to Monterey with Mark. 12 of us will play golf at Poppy Hills in Carmel and we will have a big birthday dinner on Thursday night, May 13th. Darla's birthday is May 16th, Sunday.
Darla and I spent yesterday updating our house with new vertical blinds in the family room and master bedroom and new blinds in the master bedroom. We now have matching white faux wood blinds in the master bedroom on all three windows. Darla will be working on new curtains for the windows over the next week or so. I guess they aren't really curtains, they're window accents or toppers or something like that. Darla's theme for the room is blue and white, which will shock anyone who knows Darla. J/K.
We will also have a new washer and dryer delivered today. Darla has been working with the same garage sale appliances since we got married. The washer and dryer that she had was even worse than mine, so we dumped hers way back when. I think I paid $75 for the pair back in 1990 when I got divorced and they have seen better days. The washer had been rocking so badly due to the spindle being out of balance that the top panel had come loose and Daniel had duct taped the panel back down. With two six-footers in the house who are both athletes, we put the washer and dryer through their paces. Darla will be thrilled to have some nice new appliances to do the job from now on.
I have not heard from our soldier since she called last week. I'm really looking forward to her getting back to the states and back to a ho-hum existence at Fort Gordon. I'm sure Jenn has mixed feelings as she loved the work, but the stress and pressure of Baghdad was a dark cloud over that experience. I hope to hear from her in the next week.
Darla is off to a women's retreat at church next weekend. Pray for me and the boys as we struggle along without Mom. I'm sure we'll thrive and the fast food restaurants will do a booming business this weekend. I have a golf game at Rio La Paz golf course on Saturday and will leave the boys to their own devices that day. Hopefully the house is in one piece when I get home.
I got some pictures from Darryl of a golf cart that he purchased in Dallas and hauled back to Austin. He is reconditioning the unit and doing body repairs, new brakes, tires, wheels, etc. I think Dad's work with his two project cars got Darryl in the mood to work on something. He'll trick out the golf cart and have the nicest set of wheels on the course. Somehow, that body work gene passed me by.
Well, that is another installment of the blog. I hope you are all hale and hearty. Be nice to each other. Ciao.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Just a quick update. Jennifer called me at work today. She was very matter-of-fact with her hello. She said, "Well, hi, Ken Lyon, how are you?" She and her unit were able to catch a flight out of Baghdad at 1:00 in the afternoon on Monday and flew into Kuwait City and Camp Doha. Jennifer will be there for nine days and fly back to Ft. Bliss in Texas for debriefing and to turn in her equipment. She is thrilled to be out of the green zone in Iraq. There was a fuel transport truck that was bombed over the weekend and the thick black smoke hung over the camp. She has fifteen rolls of film to develop when she gets back to Georgia and I'm sure we'll all see the pictures one way or another.
One of the reasons she is happy to be out of Baghdad (besides the obvious) is that she doesn't have to cart her weapon with her at all times now. The camp was on high alert and all soldiers were required to have a weapon with them at all times. The bombs and explosions are a distant memory for her now, but the explosions were quite real even up until the time that they flew out of the airport on Monday. I have trouble even imagining the stress and fear that the troops endure on a daily basis in Iraq.
By the way, anyone who'd like to debate the merits of our occupation in Iraq...just shut up.
Ken
One of the reasons she is happy to be out of Baghdad (besides the obvious) is that she doesn't have to cart her weapon with her at all times now. The camp was on high alert and all soldiers were required to have a weapon with them at all times. The bombs and explosions are a distant memory for her now, but the explosions were quite real even up until the time that they flew out of the airport on Monday. I have trouble even imagining the stress and fear that the troops endure on a daily basis in Iraq.
By the way, anyone who'd like to debate the merits of our occupation in Iraq...just shut up.
Ken
Monday, April 12, 2004
Back to the salt mine after a week of conventions, parties, Easter and some family time on the weekend. A huge "PRAISE GOD!!" goes out today as Jennifer is on her way back stateside. She originally was supposed to stay in Baghdad until April 22nd, but with the increased hostilities and the marshalling of troops into the area, there are more flights available going back to Camp Doha in Kuwait. She was at the airport this morning with her unit trying to catch one of the flights out of Baghdad. Barring that, her unit would convoy out of Iraq on surface roads. I'm praying that she gets or got a flight out and is out of harm's way. I will be able to breathe again when she is back on American soil. She will be in Kuwait for a few days until she can get a charter back to the United States. Her unit will travel back to Fort Bliss in Texas for debriefing and then she will travel back to her home base in Augusta, Georgia. She will soon learn where her PDS (Permanent Duty Station) will be and Jennifer continues to lobby for Kuwait. We shall see. I hope to hear from her soon and I'll update the blog as soon as I hear from her. Thank you to everyone who kept Jennifer in their prayers. She has had more than a few sleepless nights lately as explosions rocked her base and shook her trailer. She admits to being scared and basically being told only what the Army wants her to know. She made the comment to her Mom that "you probably know more than I do, they don't tell us much".
The conference in Scottsdale was nothing short of a big party and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There are some discussion groups and roundtable conferences, but they simply satisfy the IRS that the conference is a legitimate business expense. The party starts early and lasts late and included a full fledged casino, dance hall, stage review, countless bars, an internet cafe, four different restaurants, a cookout and a full fireworks display that was one of the best that I've seen. The golf was at a world class resort called McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale and it was worth the wait. The course has a lot of sand and water and is immaculate. I also got to rub elbows with a number of senior Burns and Wilcox professionals as well as a number of the top producers. I found that interaction as beneficial to me as the opportunities to meet and interact with the Scottsdale Underwriters. I came back a little sunburned and tired, but was glad for the experience.
I played golf this weekend on Saturday in our annual Master's tournament. This is a tournament hosted by one of the board members of the Roseville Golf Club. There were 14 of us this year and we met at the crack of dawn at The Lincoln Hills Golf Resort at Sun City Lincoln Hills. I started the round double bogey, double bogey, bogey and was 5 over after three holes. I then went on a par barrage and finally birdied number 12 to go four-over after 12 and finished with a 41-39=80. I got hooted by the group as the scores were pretty high at this championship course. I had a net 66 and the closest pursuer shot 71 and then 72. I was pleased with how I pulled the round together after a horrific start. My only disappointment was a double-bogey six on the last hole. I wanted to post a 79. As always, there is room for improvement.
The family was up early yesterday and off to Easter Sunday services at Darla's parent's church in Stockton. We left the house at 7:25 and were in the parking lot of the church at 8:30 for the 9:00 a.m. service. It was kind of nice to be at a smaller church with about 800 attenders rather than the 2500 that were expected at our church. The ease of entrance and exit from their church make our weekly ordeal seem that much more complicated. We then went over to Earl and Frances' home in Linden for a celebration of Easter. The boys were of course with us and Darla's sister and her brother and his wife, daughter and mother-in-law joined us for ham and family time. It was enjoyable.
Their pastor had a story about how human beings deal with death. It is inevitable, but most people tend to regard death as a dirty secret and it ends up being a dark cloud over our lives. Christians do (or at least should) have a diffent view of death as our time on Earth is a beginning and not an end. Anyhow, a man was diagnosed by his doctor as having a terminal disease and he was given six months to live. The man asked his doctor if there was ANYTHING he could do. The doctor told him to sell everything and give it away to charity. The man said, "No problem". The doctor told him to move into tenement housing with no running water or electricity. The patient agreed to do it. Was there anything else he could do? The doctor told him to marry a woman with eight children and move them into the tenement with him. Done. Was there anything else (and this is poetic license on my part)? Yes. Give up golf and all of his friends. "I'll do it said the man. Will this extend my life?" The doctor regarded him and said, "No, but it will be the longest six months of your life!"
Ciao friends. And once again, PRAISE GOD that Jennifer is getting out of Iraq.
The conference in Scottsdale was nothing short of a big party and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There are some discussion groups and roundtable conferences, but they simply satisfy the IRS that the conference is a legitimate business expense. The party starts early and lasts late and included a full fledged casino, dance hall, stage review, countless bars, an internet cafe, four different restaurants, a cookout and a full fireworks display that was one of the best that I've seen. The golf was at a world class resort called McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale and it was worth the wait. The course has a lot of sand and water and is immaculate. I also got to rub elbows with a number of senior Burns and Wilcox professionals as well as a number of the top producers. I found that interaction as beneficial to me as the opportunities to meet and interact with the Scottsdale Underwriters. I came back a little sunburned and tired, but was glad for the experience.
I played golf this weekend on Saturday in our annual Master's tournament. This is a tournament hosted by one of the board members of the Roseville Golf Club. There were 14 of us this year and we met at the crack of dawn at The Lincoln Hills Golf Resort at Sun City Lincoln Hills. I started the round double bogey, double bogey, bogey and was 5 over after three holes. I then went on a par barrage and finally birdied number 12 to go four-over after 12 and finished with a 41-39=80. I got hooted by the group as the scores were pretty high at this championship course. I had a net 66 and the closest pursuer shot 71 and then 72. I was pleased with how I pulled the round together after a horrific start. My only disappointment was a double-bogey six on the last hole. I wanted to post a 79. As always, there is room for improvement.
The family was up early yesterday and off to Easter Sunday services at Darla's parent's church in Stockton. We left the house at 7:25 and were in the parking lot of the church at 8:30 for the 9:00 a.m. service. It was kind of nice to be at a smaller church with about 800 attenders rather than the 2500 that were expected at our church. The ease of entrance and exit from their church make our weekly ordeal seem that much more complicated. We then went over to Earl and Frances' home in Linden for a celebration of Easter. The boys were of course with us and Darla's sister and her brother and his wife, daughter and mother-in-law joined us for ham and family time. It was enjoyable.
Their pastor had a story about how human beings deal with death. It is inevitable, but most people tend to regard death as a dirty secret and it ends up being a dark cloud over our lives. Christians do (or at least should) have a diffent view of death as our time on Earth is a beginning and not an end. Anyhow, a man was diagnosed by his doctor as having a terminal disease and he was given six months to live. The man asked his doctor if there was ANYTHING he could do. The doctor told him to sell everything and give it away to charity. The man said, "No problem". The doctor told him to move into tenement housing with no running water or electricity. The patient agreed to do it. Was there anything else he could do? The doctor told him to marry a woman with eight children and move them into the tenement with him. Done. Was there anything else (and this is poetic license on my part)? Yes. Give up golf and all of his friends. "I'll do it said the man. Will this extend my life?" The doctor regarded him and said, "No, but it will be the longest six months of your life!"
Ciao friends. And once again, PRAISE GOD that Jennifer is getting out of Iraq.
Monday, April 05, 2004
I am sitting at home reading my mail and contemplating life with a cup of hot Hawaiian coffee at the ready and it dawns on me that I can update my blog now. I have a 10:30 flight to the land of the sun (Phoenix) and will be staying in Scottsdale for three days at a meeting hosted by Scttsdale Insurance Company. I'll be in meetings this afternoon and tomorrow morning. I will then play in the golf tournament at McCormick Ranch golf course. Wednesday, I'll spend the morning meeting with my underwriters at Colony Insurance and then be on a plane by three p.m. and be back in Sacramento in time for dinner.
We moved our offices from Howe Avenue out to Rancho Cordova on Friday and Saturday. I took Friday off as the tech guys were pulling computers at nine-thirty. I played golf with Gail, Anthony and Mel. We had a good time out at the old Mather Air Force Base golf course. I shot an 84 on the heavily sanded and aerated greens. It could have and should have been a much better round, but I four-putted one of the greens as the ball rolled and hopped all over the greens trying to find traction in the sand and through the waffle-like surface of the aerated greens. I played Mel straight up (he's an 11, I'm a 12). He shot 45-40 as he struggled to find a rythm putting as well. Gail surprised me with her game, which was honed on the links of Marin Country Club in the Bay Area. She shot an 88, which is 14 over on the women's par 74 (two of the par fours are par fives for women). She had two birdies on the par fives and has a straight, smooth swing. It was a good day on the links. Anthony struggled and shot 104 and only because we established a triple bogey maximum for him. Mel's wife Cora invited us all over for dinner at her house. Darla was not thrilled to have to drive across town after a long day at work and reminded me of that fact several times en route to the dinner. She enjoyed herself once she got there. Cora fixed a fondue of tri tip steak with four different sauces and we had a ball cooking up our own dinner. Darla made a nice strawberry salad and Gail brought wine and dessert.
Saturday, Darla and I ventured into the new office and I unpacked my desk and file cabinets. We have all new furniture in the new office and I was able to find spots for all of my various and sundry odds and ends. We have new double-sized four drawer file cabinets and storage space is not an issue as of yet. It was funny in that I had tossed a number of items while I was packing and tossed nearly as many as I was unpacking. A move does allow us the luxury of downsizing. I have to run for my flight, so I'll finish this when I get back from Phoenix.
We moved our offices from Howe Avenue out to Rancho Cordova on Friday and Saturday. I took Friday off as the tech guys were pulling computers at nine-thirty. I played golf with Gail, Anthony and Mel. We had a good time out at the old Mather Air Force Base golf course. I shot an 84 on the heavily sanded and aerated greens. It could have and should have been a much better round, but I four-putted one of the greens as the ball rolled and hopped all over the greens trying to find traction in the sand and through the waffle-like surface of the aerated greens. I played Mel straight up (he's an 11, I'm a 12). He shot 45-40 as he struggled to find a rythm putting as well. Gail surprised me with her game, which was honed on the links of Marin Country Club in the Bay Area. She shot an 88, which is 14 over on the women's par 74 (two of the par fours are par fives for women). She had two birdies on the par fives and has a straight, smooth swing. It was a good day on the links. Anthony struggled and shot 104 and only because we established a triple bogey maximum for him. Mel's wife Cora invited us all over for dinner at her house. Darla was not thrilled to have to drive across town after a long day at work and reminded me of that fact several times en route to the dinner. She enjoyed herself once she got there. Cora fixed a fondue of tri tip steak with four different sauces and we had a ball cooking up our own dinner. Darla made a nice strawberry salad and Gail brought wine and dessert.
Saturday, Darla and I ventured into the new office and I unpacked my desk and file cabinets. We have all new furniture in the new office and I was able to find spots for all of my various and sundry odds and ends. We have new double-sized four drawer file cabinets and storage space is not an issue as of yet. It was funny in that I had tossed a number of items while I was packing and tossed nearly as many as I was unpacking. A move does allow us the luxury of downsizing. I have to run for my flight, so I'll finish this when I get back from Phoenix.
