Tahoe Family Vacation was nothing short of AWESOME

 

It was another fantastic trip with our family. Darla and I haven't seen Italy, England or Spain together yet, but we have a nice anthology of fun family trips. This one was no exception as the weather was incredible, the accommodations somewhat Spartan, but there were four bedrooms and two baths, a nice kitchen and dining room and a great family room that was our headquarters for the week. It also had an incredible view as you can see by the pictures of the sunset. McKenny continues to ingratiate himself with Darla and I as he brought Sam up on Sunday and stayed a week. Jennifer flew in Thursday night and was there until Sunday.

 

 Jennifer has a new job that really couldn't be any more perfect for her. She is working for a service provider for Cox Communications Las Vegas. The very day that she started work, one of the supervisors for Cox took a look at Jennifer's resume and created a job for her that is supervisory in nature and requires her to be a Project Manager for various Vegas projects throughout the area. That is a good boss that looks at all of the strengths of their staff and creates jobs that fit their skill set. Apparently her supervisor was not in on the hiring decision and was getting to know the three new hires and pulled Jennifer aside and talked. Her supervisor has already told Jennifer that she wants her to hire on fulltime with Cox when her contract is closer to completion. The contract has a buyout for Cox, but they want to work into the time remaining on the contract and also look at Jennifer a bit more to make sure she is what they want. It sounds promising as Jennifer and her supervisor are creating her position as they go along. Jennifer is thrilled with her new position.

 

In the meantime, McKenny continues to shine at Erricson. He does the work of about four people and I said before when we have travelled with him that he is one of the hardest workers that I know. He is in charge of about 120 sites that are being worked on now and he worked about three days full and one night went to bed at 2 AM and was up at 5 AM because some inferior part was in play at his cell sites and 90 of them went off line right in the middle of the Olympics. He was able to get most of them up and running. He had promised Jennifer that he would take Friday and Saturday off and he was true to his word. He put his phone on DND  and enjoyed the two days with all of us.

 

I threw out my back in the middle of our trip. We took the hiking trail from the Emerald Bay overlook a mile down to Vikingsholm Castle on Wednesday. I had always wanted to make the hike down, but unfortunately, you have to hike back up. I had worn a backpack, but I think I overloaded it on our way back up the hill and was stiff and sore from the hike. I had to park the car about a 1/2 mile above the overlook, so left before Darla, Sam and McKenny to get the Explorer and drive back to pick them up. You can see the pictures of the castle above. It has a sod roof on one side. My back was pretty sore Wednesday night and by the time I got up Thursday morning my sciatica had already gone out of whack. I could barely stand up straight. luckily, I had several muscle relaxant pills with me as well as a couple of 800 mg Motrin that helped me get through the weekend.

 

I was able to get in to see Jane at my Bowen clinic this afternoon and although I'm still sore, I can feel her movements beginning to loosen up the nerve. It's a process.

 

Sam had to carry a cooler up the hill and she was slow to get ready, so her wet towel didn't make it into my backpack. Darla put it in her cooler and I heard about it when Sam made it to the truck. She carried it the whole way up the grade and neither Darla nor McKenny would bail her out. I was praising her for making it up the hill without help and she said, "Yeah, it would have been easy, but Grandma made me carry a wet towel, too." I guess Darla told her that if she made it up the hill without complaining that she could have an ice cream shake on our way back to the condo. She was true to her word as we stopped at the local ice cream shop and Sam had an Oreo cookie shake.

 

Monday, Darla and I took Sam with us and we headed out to Incline Village. The condo had a PlayStation system with tons of games, but one of the prior renters had taken the PS cord that wires the system to the TV. McKenny was able to go out between calls and get a replacement cord while we were gone. Our plan was to take Sam to Sand Harbor beach, but it was already full by the time we passed it at 11:00 AM. We went into Incline Village and had our picnic lunch at a nice park. From there we went on the hunt for a nice beach, I saw one on YELP, but when we pulled in it was a Private beach. We headed down the street to the city beach and it was full, but the guy at the entry kiosk told us to park across the street and walk in. We did that, but what he didn't tell us is that it was $12 a head for adults and $8 for children. We just walked in and Darla didn't find out until we left when she stopped at the gate to talk to the guard about the best time to get there to beat the crowds. Oops. We had a great time and you can see a picture of Sam at the beach above in her pink bikini.

 

Tuesday, we relaxed at the pool and had a picnic lunch there (McKenny came down and joined us). Afterward we packed up and headed to town and saw the movie "The secret life of Pets" at the Heavenly Resort shopping area. It was cute and Sam loved it. We went to pizza afterward at Blue Dog pizza. You can see the picture of Sam and Grandma standing at the counter and the drawing that Sam did and had added to the wall of fame. Her masterpiece is the one right between the two of them.

 

Thursday, my back issues started, but we went out to the beach anyway and went to Round Hill Beach, on the Nevada side of the border. Darla's uncle Junior had arrived Thursday and was staying over with us. Earl and Frances had tried to meet us all at the beach, but couldn't find the beach we were at. They stopped at two different beaches and told us about Nevada Beach.

 

We had all planned to go to Reno to pick Jennifer up Thursday night, but my back was balking over the hour drive each way. McKenny left about six and Sam stayed with us and we met Darla's parents and Uncle for dinner Thursday night at the Lakeside Casino for Prime Rib. We had a forty five minute wait to get in to the restaurant and Darla and Sam headed to the store to pick up some breakfast items and some flowers for Sam to give to Mom.

 

Dinner was excellent as always and the Lakeside is well known for their $9.99 Prime Rib Special. That special is now $14.99 and they've added another special with a lobster tail and Prime Rib for $19.99. We met up with McKenny and Jennifer after dinner at the condo and played a new dice game called "Shut the box." Sam was thrilled to have her Mom there and sat on top of her as she showed Uncle Junior how to play "Monsters' Inc." on Play Station.

 

Friday I had bought four tickets for the Heavenly Valley gondola. The cost for a single rider is $49 and I got two vouchers for $44 for two riders. I was happy with my buy right up to the point that Jennifer, Junior and the rest of us showed up at the gondola and I turned in my vouchers. It turns out that the vouchers were for Squaw Valley, about 31 miles away. We decided NOT to drop another $200 and skipped the gondola trip. We stopped at Fire and Ice and McKenny, Junior, Darla and I all had a drink while Jennifer and Sam shopped for trinkets in the store. Afterward, we said our goodbyes to Junior as he was off to see Earl and Frances at their RV park. We went to Nevada Beach which Frances had told us about earlier and it turned out to be the closest to our condo.  We were able to scout out an area for the gang on Saturday when there would be 11 of us. The beach is about 1/2 mile of sandy beach and has a rental operator for kayaks and stand up paddleboards. Miya had said she wanted to try a SUP, so we were good to go

 

. I'm saving the four Squaw Valley gondola tickets until we go to Reno in September for a stay at the Peppermill. I had bought that voucher which is good for one night in a Tower Room with $100 in services (spa or restaurants) for $100 at one of the silent auctions at a golf tournament. No one was bidding on it and the hotel room in the concierge tower goes for $120 on the weekend. I basically paid for the dinner and we get a free stay out of it. We'll invite friends to go with us and hit the gondola ride on the way back.

 

Friday night, the boys arrived. Daniel and Becky got there about 8:30 and Dave and Maya got there at 12:30. Maya had a work commitment on Friday night and Dave overstayed at work getting caught up on his workload. They finally left Sacramento at 9:30. Darla stayed up and waited for them, but I went to bed. My back was sore.

 

Saturday we were all up early and had a big breakfast of quiche and toast and then packed up and were headed to Nevada Beach by ten o'clock. There was a line of cars to get in and the close in parking was already gone. We pulled around to drop off kayaks and boats that David brought and our chairs, towels, coolers and whatnot. As we pulled up, a lady told us that three of them were leaving and we could have their parking spots. It was God's Will as we parked front and center next to the beach.

 

We had a ball. Miya rented a stand up paddleboard for four hours ad everyone had their turn. I demurred due to my back, but got pictures. David went out on his one man kayak and rode along as Miya rode the SUP. Jennifer and Sam were next. Darla had a go as did Becky. David tried it, but McKenny, Dan and I all bailed. The boat got used as Daniel, Becky and Sam went for a ride. There were sand castles and volleyball and smash ball and relaxing on the beach. It was fun and we all enjoyed the sandwiches and fruit that was prepared.

 

Saturday night we all went out to dinner at Tep's Villa Roma, an old fashioned Family Italian restaurant. Darla and I treated the bunch to dinner in honor of our 20th wedding anniversary. We are proud of all of our kids and where they are in life. Daniel is well respected in his job and Dave has worked at his firm since he was 17 years old, taking five years off for college. Jennifer is in a good place in her life with a great guy who loves her and Sam and would do anything for them. It was a nice night and there was a lot of laughter and joy at our table as we enjoyed the pasta bar, salad bar and entrees.

 

The kids wanted to go out as siblings and have a drink and see the casino life, but decided to come home and play dice with Sam and the old folks (us). We played until about ten and they all headed out for a shuttle to the casinos. Darla and I put Sam to bed and sat and talked about the trip together after Sam fell asleep.

 

Sunday was cleanup and goodbyes as Jennifer, Sam and McKenny had a seven hour drive home. they left at ten after another filling breakfast. Daniel, Becky, Miya, Dave and Darla and I cleaned up the condo and headed over to visit with Earl and Frances at their RV. We left there about 1:30 and it took us almost three and a half hours to get home in stop and go traffic. We stopped in Auburn for an early dinner at 4:15 and then drove on home. The warmth of our memories are still with us as I close this.

 

I hope you all are doing great. Darryl and Cheryl are living their dream in Dallas and Randy and Cake out at Possum Kingdom Lake out in the boonies. I know Dad and Shirley plan a trip to Dallas soon. We will all be together before you know it on our cruise in March. Happy Birthday to Randy, a man who knows the saying "Living Well". I love you guys. Ciao.

 

 

 

Tahoe Family Vacation

 

Hey all. A lot of pictures for your enjoyment. We checked in Saturday and David joined us Saturday night. He was actually up this way helping a family member with some plans for a new brewery and came over and spent the night. McKenney and Sam came in about 1:30 on Sunday and we had a quick lunch of barbecued hot dogs and then went to the pool. It is about a 7 and a half hour drive from Vegas and they left at 6 AM. Sam had a little cry leaving Mom behind, but is pretty focused on our trip to the beach today and having fun on her vacation. We went to dinner last night at Chevy's in South Lake Tahoe and came home and played games last night. They have a nice video game set up, but on of the HDMI cables is missing, so we will pick one up today. Also, the wifi isn't working o McKenny and I are working off our smartphone's hot spot. The techs are working with McKenney to get us up and running.

 

We are heading into Incline Village today for lunch at a park that has all sorts of slides and things for Sam and then we will stop at Sand Harbor beach for the afternoon and swim and relax. Jennifer flies into Reno Thursday night and we will pick her up and have a late dinner there. Friday, we will take the tram up to the top of Heavenly Ski resort and play disc golf and do some hiking. Friday night the boys get here and Saturday we will rent a paddleboat and two kayaks for a fun day at the lake.

 

I'm looking forward to all of it. The Trusted Choice golf event really wore me out as I was there both Saturday and Sunday and then Monday-Thursday 6 AM to 9 PM. Tuesday was the cut party swim event for the kids and we were told by the national committee about two hours before the event that we were responsible to chaperone the event. I was afraid that we'd be having couples sneaking off into the bushes, but it was like a middle school dance. The boys were on one side and the girls having their dinner on the other. One of the agents asked Todd if he could spare $100 and announced to the kids to all stand up and empty their pockets of cell phones, money and anything valuable. He then announced that the first girl and boy into the pool would get $50. There were about 60 kids all diving in the pool at once. it was hilarious and got the party started. No one was in the pool prior to that and it was a bit uncomfortable.

 

We did have several records set at the golf tournament. A local girl, Emillee Hoffman from Folsom set a new Del Paso Country Club women's record with a 7 under par 64 on Tuesday. The course is 100 years old and had hosted the LPGA for about seven years. We also had the all time low total by a boy with 18 under par for the event. It was a huge success and named the "Gold Standard" by the National Committee as far as golf tournaments go. We had a few glitches here and there, but overall it went swimmingly.

 

This is short, but the munchkin is up and ready for breakfast. I hope all is well and I will touch base next week. Be happy. Ciao.

 

'

Junior Golf Tournament is here!

 

You can see from the bottom pictures that our Brand Ambassador, Jimmy Walker, won the PGA Championship today. He lead wire to wire in this event and basically, turned a mundane year into a career year in one weekend. We sponsored Jimmy this year for the first time and it is a funny story (or sad) how our sponsorship of a 37 year old journeyman golf pro came to be. Our Vice President in Dallas has a son who went to high school with a young man who went on to the PGA tour. We had an opportunity to sponsor him, but our CEO wasn't ready to dip his toe into the PGA sponsorship pool. The young man was not well known and we could have got him on the cheap. That player is Jordan Spieth. Our CEO was kicking himself and had an opportunity to pick up brand sponsorship of Jimmy Walker, who had won his first three tournaments in 2015. It cost us about double what it would have cost to sponsor Jordan, but it all paid off today. Jimmy had a poor year going with too many missed cuts and a washout in the majors this year going into this week. It all came together on one magical weekend and he is now a major tournament winner and played really well down the stretch with Jason Day breathing down his neck. It was great to see him doing interviews with his Burns and Wilcox brand marker on his right chest. THAT is really exciting for us. I sent a note to our marketing director and asked him if he could check with Google to see how many inquiries with the phrase "Burns and Wilcox" were googled today.

 

I am knee deep in the junior tournament and spent both days this weekend working at Del Paso CC. Del Paso was the site of the 2015 USGA Senior Open. The kids all flew in from states from Hawaii to Rhode Island and everywhere in between starting on Friday. We have 53 kids in host housing. I have 82 volunteers working my shifts over the next four days in scoring and fore caddying. We had a training today at 2 PM on the scoring system and I had twenty volunteers show up on a Sunday afternoon to take that training, including Shawna and Gail from work and Neil and John from the golf club.

 

The weather was ridiculously hot last week, topping out at 108 degrees on Thursday. That coincided with my twilight league and it was smoking hot. I played and shot 42 to Ron's 39 and we won our match. I got home and fell into the pool and just floated for about twenty minutes as my body temperature cooled. I came in and was laying on the couch when Darla got home. She said, "Ken, why don't you have the air on, it's boiling in the house?!" I told her it was on I could hear the fan running. She checked the thermostat and it was 86 degrees. I went out and checked the air conditioner and it wasn't running. In fact, it was buzzing. I shut it off and we opened up the windows and turned on the whole house fan. It was difficult sleeping Thursday night as the house stayed at about 82 degrees. Friday I called a buddy of mine from the golf club, Aaron, who owns his own ac service and he came out on Saturday before I left for the tournament. I told him what the problem was and he said it sounded like a starter. The part was $110 and his service was $120 (time and a half on the weekend). He didn't have the part, but had a larger capacity starter that cost $200 and came with a 7 year warranty. He told me he'd put that in and come back with the right part when it arrived. I asked him if the part would work and he said absolutely, but it was the Cadillac part. I told him to put it in and leave it, we'd take the warranty and be happy. It took him about 20 minutes and we had blessed air conditioning. He also ran a pressure test and cooling test and the 12 year old system is working fine. Nice to have friends in the business as someone else might have tried to sell me a new system. Aaron installs new systems, but said that his joy is in diagnosing and fixing problems.

 

I will be at the Tournament for the rest of the week. We are sponsors of the tournament and have a big ad in the program featuring Jimmy Walker. Nothing like good timing. Darla and I went to the Welcome Dinner tonight at the Double Tree Hotel and Kevin Sutherland spoke. He was a tremendous speaker and told the story of growing up as a junior golfer and idolizing Jack Nicklaus. He played in Jack's tournament (The Memorial) as a rookie and was mad after the second round to finish with a double bogey on the closing hole. He was steaming and fretting over it, right up to the point that he got a call from his agent telling him that he was paired on Saturday with Jack Nicklaus in a twosome. He called it the best double bogey of his career. He also told the story of his flirtation with shooting a 58 in a tournament in Endicott, NY. He was 9 under after 8 holes and 14 under after 17. He told the kids about being in a "bubble" when he played and shutting everything else out. He told the kids that when you are in the "zone" you have to work hard to stay focused and shut out everything but the next shot. He teed off on number 18 needing a par to shoot the first 58 in a PGA event. As he approached the green, the gallery gave him a standing ovation and he got emotional as their praise flowed over him. It was then that he hit a 30 foot putt 45 feet and missed the comeback putt for par and shooting 59. The kids were enthralled with his stories and watched clips of his 23 year career including several hole outs and hole in ones. We left and they were lined up to get pictures with him. His son is 15 and playing in the tournament as an incoming sophomore.

 

They had the qualifying for the long drive event today and the fifth place girl's drive was 261 yards. The winner was 277 yards. The fifth place boy hit the ball 312 yards and the winner was 323 yards. These are 17 year olds!! The finals will be on Wednesday with all ten of the qualifiers each hitting three drives and taking their best of the three. The national director was announcing the qualifiers and said that the number one boy told him that he had "thinned" his 323 yard drive and hit a second shot that went 335, but landed in the bunker (it had to be in the fairway). The finals are Wednesday afternoon and we look forward to that.

 

Well, it is late in that we were at the dinner until 9:00 PM and then talked to Jennifer and McKinney. Darryl starts his new job in Dallas tomorrow. He took a job with the Southland Corporation which is the parent company of 7-11. They went through bankruptcy a few years ago and the controlling family was bought out by a group in Japan. It is solid financially and I'm sure he's thrilled to be closer to his family and grandkids. Hopefully, you all have a good week. My next update will be from our vacation in Lake Tahoe next weekend. Ciao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The HEAT is On

Another weekend is sliding into memory, although at 6:40 on Sunday night it is still 106 degrees. This was a really HOT weekend and for one of the first times that I can remember, the heat had an ill effect on my golf game Saturday morning. I've suffered some dizziness and shortness of breath before on really hot nights of our twilight league and we have had some teams quit after starting because it was just too uncomfortable for them and they felt it was unsafe to play. Saturday morning it started out pretty warm at 8:30 (there was no breeze). It was maybe 85 when we teed off, but it just did a number on me. I felt lightheaded and dizzy on the back side and was drinking water like a madman. I shot 44+45=89, but was lucky to finish the round as the heat just did a number on me. I will play on Thursday night in league and then take a three week break from actually golfing as I have the National Junior Golf Tournament starting next weekend and running until Thursday of the following week. We then leave for Tahoe and ten days up in the cooler environs of the Sierra Nevada, where the daytime highs hit about 90 on a really HOT day, but average mid 80's in early August with overnight lows a sweater-inducing mid forties. I look forward to that.

 

We are in a stretch of weather that will hit seven straight days over 100 degrees and then, amazingly drop into the lower 90's for the start of our tournament. We have kids flying in from all over the United States, the furthest from Rhode Island. Of the 156 golfers, 23 will be from California. They begin arriving on Friday night and we have kids who range in age from 14-18. The qualifiers have to be 17 on March 15th. There will be 84 kids that are coming without their parents and being housed in homes mostly on the course at Del Paso Country Club. The Club Members have been great about stepping up and opening their homes to the kids, but the superintendent out there told the homeowners that they were required as a club to provide host housing. A little fib, but one that worked impressively. I will be at the course from Saturday until Thursday, arriving each day of the actual tournament by 6:30 and 9 AM on the weekend. This weekend we have to prepare the course, put out the trash cans and set up the grandstands and the score boards. Sunday is a day of practice for the kids and we need to be on the course to monitor the play. Monday starts the actual tournament and I am in charge of fore caddies and scoring. I have a total of 52 fore caddie spots and 54 scoring spots for the week and we have about 40 fore caddie spots filled and 48 scoring positions. I will fill in where I can and give bathroom breaks to the scorers and fore caddies and there will be more of the committee available to fill in the spots that we are thin. It will be a busy week and I will find some time to work on the blog perhaps later in the week next week. I have a dinner for the kids and sponsors on Sunday night at the Doubletree Hotel in Sacramento and our speaker will be Kevin Sutherland, the PGA golfer from Sacramento. His brother was on the tour as well and is now the golf coach at my alma mater, Sacramento State University.

 

The pictures above are of Darla's burgeoning pot garden. Every time I come home there are more pots and plants. It looks great and she is out hand watering the garden every day. The other picture is of my view of the pool from my float.

The picture of the fire of our neighbor's house was from Monday night. Darla and I were sitting watching a recording of the RNC Convention and Melania's speech at 10:10, when someone came to our front door and banged on the door three times and then rang our doorbell twice. Darla and I looked at each other and I cautiously approached the darkened front door and turned on the light. I could see someone standing on our porch, but see emergency lights on the street. It was the brother of one of our neighbor' down the street and he informed me that our neighbors house was on fire behind us. Darla and I hunker down at night and have all of the window coverings shut and we were clueless as to the glowing blaze in the home one door down from our rear neighbor. There was an electrical fire in the attic and it spread to the roof and then to the wood frame itself. There were five fire trucks on scene (this is a big deal for the Roseville Fire Department) as well as six police vehicles. They were pouring water onto the roof of the house and keeping neighbors back. Izzy behind us had noticed the fire from her back kitchen window and her husband, Dwight, ran over to bang on the door. When he got no response, he broke the sidelight window and opened the door and started yelling. The woman who owns the home was asleep in an upstairs bedroom and Dwight got her robe and hustled her out of the house. He went back in to search for her cat who ran from him, but out the front door.

We stood in the cul-de-sac and visited with our neighbors as the fireman did their job. The police approached us and asked us to move back to the end of the street as the firemen were going to "vent" the house. I had no idea what that was, but the firemen took axes and chain saws and cut holes in the garage doors and broke windows to let the ash and smoke out of the house. As soon as they did a huge billow of smoke poured out of the house and into the street. It makes you realize how tightly these houses are built as the smoke and ash was trapped in the house and rushed out when it was vented. Everyone was okay, but the work is just starting for the investigators and insurance adjusters as the home will have to be rebuilt.

This unfortunately is not the first tragedy visited on this family as the woman was married to a San Jose policeman who became involved with a drug trafficker and had an affair with her and was fired. He committed suicide and she ended up moving with her two kids to Roseville. Both boys are jd's and drove their cars like maniacs through the neighborhood. The older son got involved in drugs and pcp in particular and on a bender was pulled over by a policeman in West Sacramento and pulled out a gun and shot and killed him. He was surrounded at a motel in Sacramento and arrested and was convicted to life in prison without possibility of parole. It was a mess and we had the media all over the neighborhood asking us what we thought of the young man. Usually you say they were a quiet family that kept to themselves, but not in this case. The woman has seen more sorrow in her life than one person should have to endure and I wish her well. Hopefully God will work in her life and show her a bigger purpose for her going forward.

Well, this is short, but it's late and I have some chicken breasts waiting for the barbecue and I plan to roast them up with barbecue sauce and enjoy a hearty meal. Darla and I had a nice day on and in the pool and the heat remains for the rest of this week. I will be in the pool each night when I get home from work. Hope you are all doing great. Ciao.

Summertime and the Living is Easy

 

A good and relaxing Summer is in full swing. This weekend was made up of poker, golf, church and hanging out with the love of my life. It was a good week of work and I was able to make some headway on setting up our continuation plan following my retirement. I have Wendy in my office nominated to join the next KAMP class. Kamp is Kaufman Accelerated Management Program and is designed for the future leaders of our company. Wendy is 29,  has a degree from UC Davis and an MBA from Sacramento State University. She has shown the ability and desire to be a leader in my office. She has helped set up several "lunch and learn" sessions in my office with the Underwriting assistants. She has also worked on a college intern program for my office and meets weekly with my Operations Manager to work on ideas for training and employee development. If she is chosen for the program I hope to promote her to a Management position whereby she will work on sales development in the office and set goals for each of the teams and be the resource in my office for each of the employees to look to for their own individual development within the company. I am comfortable with her as the heir apparent in my office.

 

You can see some pictures of Jennifer, McKenny and Samantha above. Jennifer has been home all Summer with Sam and they have had an awesome time together. All good things must end and Jennifer has taken a new job working with Cox Communications and starts work on Monday. Sam is not thrilled with the new development, but will get over it. We have a family vacation planned in August (in Lake Tahoe) and that new job will throw a kink into the machinery. Jennifer now hopes to come Thursday to Sunday and be there when David, Daniel and Becky are there. McKenny has stepped up and will be there all week with Sam so that her vacation doesn't get cut short. Unfortunately, we have a four bedroom condo all week and there will likely only be four of us there most of the week. We do plan to have Junior come over from Graeagle and Darla's parents there for part of the time. One way or the other we will have a fun week and enjoy our time with everyone while they are there.

 

Daniel and Becky are moving from Pasadena to San Jose this weekend and David is down there helping them with the move. They will come up to the Tahoe condo on the last weekend of our stay. We will be there August 6th thru the 13th. Hopefully they get settled in. I think Becky starts her new internship in early August.

 

Shirley is setting up a family reunion in Mexico for her 80th birthday in 2018. Dad sent us some information and Sherry found a 15 room private villa in Puerto Vallarta that comes with a chef and our own pool and media room, bars, etc. It looks very nice. I talked to Jennifer and she is ready to leave next week. The boys sort of view it right now as pie in the sky as it is so far away. David could be married by then, who knows. If that is the case, I'm guessing the plot plan showing David in with Chris would likely have to change. Heck, Chris could be married by then. It is a ways off yet for people in their 20's. Same situation with Sherry and Cam's kids.

 

Friday night was poker and I took a pretty good beat down from my buddies. I got there at 7 PM, won the first of my six pots at 8 PM and ended up losing about $55. It would have been worse, but I won one of the larger pots late in the night that brought me back from about $80 down. We played at Carl's house. Carl and Danelle were friends of ours when the boys were in school and David and Adam were both quarterbacks on their high school teams. Carl and Danelle split up and divorced about 8 years ago. Carl told me on Friday night that they have been dating and plan to get re-married this Fall. He has his house up for sale and she is selling hers and they are buying a house together in the country with acreage. I'm fine with that as long as Danelle allows poker about twice a year. He seems happy and was not a good single guy. He needs to turn his damn a/c on when we are playing poker in July though.

 

Saturday was golf at Cherry Island, one of the tougher tracks in town and one I enjoy and play well on. Paul came out along with Bryan and Trey. They are all single digit handicappers and played the blue tees. I played the white as it is 6100 yards and plenty long for this graybeard. I shot 42+39=81. Bryan had 79 and Paul shot 84. Trey struggled to an 88. We had a great time and I found a Groupon for $65 for two with carts and range balls. Groupon had a 20% off day last week, so we got the golf for $52, or $26 a player. Excellent for that track.

 

I am taking a day off on Tuesday and playing in our weekday Roseville Golf Club tournament. I try to play in one or two of the weekly tournaments a year. There are four weekday tournaments through the Summer months. I'll play with Boyd and Andy on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to it. I will also be recruiting for volunteers for the Junior tournament at Del Paso CC August 1 to 4. We are still in need of volunteers and I will at least fill in the volunteers for my scoring and fore caddie positions. I'm responsible for those positions. The tournament will have 156 junior golfers from all over the United States. The top 4 golfers from each state's championship event automatically qualify and all of them cannot attend as it costs a fair amount of money to fly in for six days and play golf. It will be an event and one where my vacation the next week will be well deserved as I'll be at the course every day Saturday thru Thursday and there at 6 AM Monday thru Friday and staying until the evening.

 

Darla and I watched movies last night and did the whole popcorn and snuggling thing. We watched an older movie with Kevin Spacey called the Shipping News. We gave it a B. It was a fun night. We were up late this morning and missed early service. I was watching the Senior Open and enjoying a slice of egg pie that Darla whipped up and we decided to head to late service late. It started at 10:30 an we got there at 10:45. We missed the singing, but got the full sermon, which was good. I stopped and got my haircut on the way home and then we relaxed on the pool this afternoon. I did get out and do some trimming of the hedges and bushes and Darla fed the palms, but it was a nice relaxing end to our weekend.

 

The pastor did talk about Tony Dungy, the NFL coach and commentator now on ESPN. Tony has a young son, Jordan, who has a rare genetic disorder that affects only one in 125,000 children. Jordan cannot feel pain and is completely fearless. Pain is one of the first lessons that children learn. If something is hot they stay away from it or if it is sharp, they feel the pain of a sliced hand. Jordan feels none of that and was caught by his Mom at the age of six pulling a hot pan of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and eating them. He had third degree burns on his hands, and blisters and swelling on his lips, tongue and throat. The pastor talked about Fear as a blessing in our lives if we can learn to conquer it, but at the same time learn from it. Jordan would walk outside into the snow in his diaper and roll around in it not feeling the cold. Tony and his wife had had to watch Jordan closely his whole life, because he would fall over and hit his face on the ground and the only way they knew something happened is when his face would swell up. Jordan is an adult now and unfortunately in a wheelchair because he broke both legs in an accident. No pain, though. Amazing story.

 

Well, that is it for now. I will be back at the keyboard next weekend. I hope all are well. We will be in touch with Dad and Shirley either tonight or tomorrow. Ciao.

 

 

Touchstone Annual Meeting

 

Darla is out of town, another way of saying barbecue and take out for Ken this weekend. She has been in Newport Beach, Rhode Island since Thursday and she returns tomorrow. I have been a good soldier, watering plants, talking to the cats while she's been gone ("Quit licking yourself!"), playing golf and relaxing poolside. I had an "Oh, shit" moment this afternoon when I was cleaning up in the front yard, blowing off leaves from the yard and realized that her growing family of potted plants extends now to the front porch area. I guess I missed those plants and they looked a little stressed. I gave them a good soaking and will admit to my folly when/if asked. You can see the pictures from her trip most of which I stole from Facebook and also one of the wooden shoes that David brought home for Darla from Holland. Sam hadn't seen wooden shoes and I sent her a picture.

 

The weather cooled off here this weekend and we were in the low nineties and overnight temperatures have been very nice, good sleeping weather. The overnight low tonight will be 57 and I sleep with the slider propped open in our bedroom and actually feel a bit cool early in the morning with the overhead fan going. We had a spate of temps in the 100s that peaked at 108 degrees. We will nudge back over 100 for a few days midweek and settle back in the upper nineties by the weekend.

 

I did play golf Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I played in our regular twilight league Thursday night and shot 39 to go with the 38 I had last week. I should get 8 strokes on the front, but because of the chart we use on scoring, I am at a 6 and may go down to a 5 when we play again. We have the next two weeks off from league because of Charlie's vacation to Colorado and then our Open Meeting on the 21st. Ron and I are in the top three of teams with our bye still to come in August. I set up a game with Ron at Lincoln Hills on Saturday because he had a freebie that he won for closest to the pin, but he told me Friday that they hadn't sent him the certificate and were putting it in the mail. I got us a $49 deal that included a sleeve of Chrome Soft balls from Callaway and a drink. I had to scrounge for a couple of other players and ended up with Rico and Denny. Rico wanted to play from the blue tees and he shot a 35+38=73. The rest of us hackers struggled and I shot 42+45=87. Ron had 91 and Denny shot 89. There was a prevailing breeze all day that made it a little tough with the water on the course. We played early and I went over to the casino and had a Fatburger and played video poker for a couple of hours after golf. I left down just $25, but was up $150 at one point and was too stupid to take my winnings and go home.

 

I went to church this morning expecting to have breakfast there. They have been doing waffles every weekend with yogurt, OJ and coffee. No such luck today. I stopped at Safeway's deli on the way back and got a breakfast burrito and a mango orange juice and came home and had my breakfast. Paul and I teed off at 11:00 at Diamond Oaks. I had a freebie round that I used and shot a 43+45=88 from the blues. I really struggled on the greens today for some reason and was leaving putts on the right (amateur) side. I had a good time and we hooked up with a couple of older guys, one with a disability in his leg. They were fun to play with and we had  few laughs along the way. They both got a little tired toward the end of the round and struggled to finish.

 

After my rant last week, that gutless wonder, FBI Director James Comey, recommended that Hillary Clinton not be indicted. His reasoning was that she did commit a crime, but wasn't aware that it was a crime. I don't know, when did intent become part of the process? If you kill someone even if you didn't intend to, it's still manslaughter and a felony. I was not completely surprised because Hillary is so well connected and the rules don't really apply to her. What basically Comer said is that she is an incompetent that should not be allowed to be President of the United States (I'm paraphrasing).  Then Obama in Poland decides to weigh in on the tragedy unfolding in Dallas. He was blabbering a day before about racist cops, but when a black man who intentionally shoots white police officers intending to kill them, Obama blames guns. Wouldn't that be racism too? The man is a raving moron.

 

We did hit our numbers this month as I mentioned before and I will be taking the entire office out for some Italian food next week. I have been invited to play in the member-guest event at Serrano on Wednesday with Alan Smith, so will head over to the course after our sales meeting Wednesday morning. Pete is out this week on vacation in Alaska catching salmon. He promised to bring me back some salmon filets for barbecuing and I saw pictures on Facebook of the first salmon caught yesterday. It will be a relatively quiet week at work with Harvey in Ireland on vacation as well. I did hire another person for Pete's team. She is a young lady who was working for a competitor. She was a police officer and decided to move over to insurance. When Harvey asked her why she wanted to be in law enforcement, her answer, "I wanted to be a bad ass." We can use some of that attitude in the office. She is 27 and a friend of Leah, who left last month.

 

Well, that is it. I have poker Friday night and a weekend with my wife in store next week. I hope you all are well and enjoying the Summer. Say a prayer for our police officers, who work so hard and get so little respect, thanks in part to our President. Ciao.

 

 

Happy Independence Day

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

Yeah, I'm getting off the soapbox.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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