Pacific Grove 2014

 

What a great trip again this year. We have had such good weather over the last ten years of golf trips to the Monterey Bay area. We drove in Thursday night even though we had planned to drive in Friday morning. We are trying hard to get our budget in order and are committed to it, but getting up at 5 AM and driving all morning to Carmel only to jump out of the car and have to play 18 holes wasn't pretty. I took to the internet and Hotwire and found a three star hotel in Marina for $59. They wouldn't show us the name of the hotel. It was a chain hotel like Best Western, Rodeway Inn, Hilton Garden Inn or Ramada. We decided we could handle whatever it was for one night. It turned out to be the Best Western Dunes Inn in Marina. The guest comments were mixed, some claiming bed bugs, other claiming the hotel was old and moldy, others loved it. We drove in and were pleased to find a clean, well decorated room with a hot shower and a good hot breakfast. The bed was not a Westin bed like ours, but acceptable for one night.

 

We arose Friday morning to a cold, wet fog that enveloped the entire area. The forecast was for 66 degrees and sun later in the day, but it was COLD early on. The breakfast was excellent with eggs and waffles, cereal and fruit. We met the guys at Rancho Canada in the Carmel Valley at about 9:30. The fog had lifted, but the sun wasn't out when we got there. The wet fog was gone and the overcast actually left us with warmth and I was able to play without a jacket. It turns out Friday was my best round of golf with a 41+39=80. The course is fun and challenging with several holes that cross the creek that runs throughout the property. We had a great time together and everyone played pretty well, leaving us all thinking about great things to come for the weekend.

 

Friday night, we decided to meet at Steve and Brenda's hotel room in Pacific Grove for appetizers, adult libations and pizza. Darla and I were supposed to meet everyone at 5:30 and after my shower and some rest, we went rogue and headed over to the Fishwife restaurant for clam chowder and some alone time. We met up with the gang about six and Big John had stopped and picked up a bottle of Crown Royal, so we brought some diet soda for Darla and some Canada Dry Ginger Ale for me. Neil and Lilly showed up shortly after us and brought a bottle of Canadian Mist and a bottle of Canada Dry Ginger Ale. I had a glass of Crown and quickly moved over to the rye. Dad and Shirley, I never thought anyone could get Neil off of Cabo Wabo tequila and perhaps he's just added a new drink to his arsenal. We have ordered pizza from Dominick's the last two years and it is nice for visiting and the pizza is excellent.

 

We played Poppy Hills on Saturday and Bob Pando came in and joined us for breakfast at the course. I love the new design of Poppy Hills, but like I said last time, those are the WORST greens that I have played all year. The greens are all brand new and just haven't matured. They are both hard and fast and almost impossible to hit a ball onto and have it stop on the green. They are better than they were in May when we played it, but still dismal overall. I shot a 47+43=90 with a net of 75. To give you an idea of how hard the course was, my 75 was fifth best on the day for all players and there were 41 players. I also had a closest to the pin at 11 feet 8 inches. I don't know how I got that one to stop.

 

We had our annual Vito's dinner with 24 of us in the back room. We had a good time, but Darla and I have decided it is our last year of planning a big dinner there. People love to complain and there were complaints on service and food selections. We even had complaints that the server didn't bring wine glasses soon enough after we had Vito waive the corkage fee. Basically it was wine that they brought and the guy was whining that it took so long to bring the glasses so they could enjoy their own wine and not pay the restaurant anything. It was BS. Next year we will be back, but will make a reservation with a few of our friends.

 

Sunday was Pacific Grove and we woke to a beautiful morning sun and a temperature near 70 degrees at 7:30 in the morning. Morning sun is great anytime, but especially welcome at the coast in October. It was a hot day for the area with temperatures in the mid eighties. There was also a giant surf and there were surf advisories up in the area for waves upwards of 20 feet. The surfers showed up en mass and Pacific Grove golf course is along Ocean Avenue and we got to see the waves, the surfers and the huge crowds as we made our way around the back nine. I shot a 45+41=86 and had a chip in birdie on number 11. Unfortunately, in our frugal budget mindset, I decided to only play net skins and it was the number 16 handicap hole that I birdied. I was the only one to birdie it, but someone with a handicap of 16 or above parred it and tied me for net. Oh well.

 

Part of what is going on with the club is a changing of the guard with the board. Neil will be replaced next year and the guy coming in as the new Tournament Director has trouble working with the current Tournament Bookkeeper so they are looking to replace him as well. The problem is the person that the new TD wants to have as his bookkeeper is a person that  has not been a member of the club for four years. The bye laws are a little fuzzy on appointed positions. We are clear on elected positions and you must have been a member of the club for the previous one year and have played in at least six club events. There is no bye law for appointed positions and we need to fix that. I had a meeting with our President and our VP (the incoming President) and gave them my opinion on the issues as I will be out of town (in Detroit) at the next board meeting. I asked the incoming President if he would listen to the board on making any decisions on bringing in a guy who is not a current member of the club after letting both of them know that I am in direct opposition to doing it. The VP said that he has the right to make his own decision on this. I told him that he was absolutely right, but that if the vote was 11-3 against bringing in a non member to the board that that is also the likely vote that would come if we decided to impeach him. I THINK he got my point, but it remains to be seen. I told him that he could do whatever he wants, but that I feel so strongly about this issue that I will resign my position if he pushes it through. He also let Neil know about his being replaced by e-mail and I told him he needs to sit down and have a conversation with Neil and give him the respect that he deserves after so many years of hard work and dedication to the board. The guy is in his mid thirties and we need the young blood on the board, but we also need to teach them about honor and respect.

 

Darla and I were supposed to go on to Solvang today and tomorrow, but unfortunately, the course that we were playing has an NCGA event going on and isn't available until Wednesday. I have some personnel issues going on at work and need to get back. Darla also has been offered a contract job with one of the social work agencies and she has an orientation meeting with them tomorrow morning and will likely get her cases then. We were up early today and I handled payroll remotely and then we drove down to the beach and saw the waves and then had breakfast at Toasties in Pacific Grove, one of our favorite breakfast restaurants. We drove back and got into town about 2 PM and I slept for 90 minutes before getting up and cleaning up the leaves and acorns in the front yard from a windstorm that apparently rolled in after we left. I know it was a windstorm because one of the umbrellas from our pool had lifted up and was laying on the side yard of our neighbor. I cleaned the leaves out of the pool and took down the umbrellas and took the lounges out of the pool for the year before taking care of the chemicals.

 

As we were driving back into town I pulled up at the stoplight behind a middle aged guy driving an Audi. The back window of his car was plastered with stickers about liberal issues, including two stickers saying that there is POISON in our drinking water. FLUORIDE. I just assumed he was another Obama Democrat with a skewed brain. That was confirmed when I pulled around him and saw him smoking a cigarette! Yep, look out for the silent killer Fluoride while you suck down your cancer sticks. What a moron!!

 

Well that is our weekend in a nutshell. I hope you are all well. I had planned to add to this last night, but Darla vetoed that idea. We had arrived back at our hotel about 9:30 after a late dinner with Rick and Jan and Neil and Lilly. Be well. Love the picture of my granddaughter. She is quite a beauty. Ciao. 



Indian Summer here in Norcal

Heat. It is something you can count on in early October in the Sacramento Valley. It is 97 degrees here which is not a surprise, but it is also 90 degrees in San Francisco. We are off next weekend to Carmel, Pacific Grove, Monterey and Solvang. I'll play golf four days out of five with Carmel Valley on Friday, Poppy Hills on Saturday, Pacific Grove on Sunday and Alisal in Solvang on Tuesday. I'm hoping the good weather will hold for the coast areas that we are heading to as well.

 

Darla and I are both having a tough time reconciling this trip with our new budget and luckily I have three paychecks this month, which is softening the blow a little bit. We built the trip into our budget for this month, but it is quite a cost. I've paid for all of the golf and three out of the four nights in the hotel ahead of time, so we are set up pretty good for the trip, but the meals out will put a small dent in our budget. I'm looking forward to the trip. Rick, who has been struggling with pancreatic cancer and is just finishing up his third round of chemo will be there and plans to play both Saturday and Sunday. He stopped golfing in May and started up again in August. He has lost weight and muscle mass. His current handicap is 12.5, but he has shot rounds ranging from 92 to 100 and played 7 rounds since starting playing again. I worked with my Handicap Committee to calculate a new Medical Exemption handicap of 22.5 for Rick, which will hopefully allow him to enjoy his games down there.

 

I played golf on Friday in one of my service company's golf tournaments at Timber Creek here in Roseville. I played with Gary, Chad and John, all agents of mine locally. It was a scramble and we played really well, shooting a smooth 56, 16 under par. We birdied 14 holes and eagled one. We didn't even finish in the money. Second place shot 52, 20 under par which seemed unbelievable. The whole dinner crowd booed lustily when they announced the winning score of 49, 23 under par. Somehow this group birdied 13 holes and eagled 5 holes. Safe to say, that no one bought that score. The purple picture above is of Gary, myself and John after they both got a t shirt from one of the vendors. I grabbed one for Darla to wear to bed. The other picture of Elvis and Marilyn is from the course. They had one vendor that was giving free massages and when we got there, Elvis was getting a massage while Marilyn waited for him. The theme of the tournament was American Idols of the past. Elvis and Marilyn were driving around handing out drinks. 

 

I did not play on Saturday as I wanted to get some work done. I've had continuous problems with a neighbors' tree behind us. He had a "volunteer" tree spring up on his side yard and he just let it grow right into the side of his house and up over the fence and into my yard. I've ended up with leaves, buds, and debris of all types landing in my pool. I decided to shave his tree straight up from the fence line and spent about two hours on Saturday with a set of pruning shears and a lopper and pulled down a full 80 gallon garbage can full of trimmings into the trash. you can see the tree above and a shot of it along the tree line. It is half a tree now, but won't cause a huge mess in my pool this Fall.

 

I've got a busy week ahead before we leave for Carmel. Tuesday is our Big I Day at the Community Center in downtown Sacramento. The companies are all in town for the event and I start with AIG tomorrow morning for breakfast at 8 AM. I have one of our program underwriters, WKFC , in for lunch and then go down to the Community Center to help set up our booth mid afternoon. I'll then meet Markel and one of our professional lines underwriters from Detroit for dinner at PF Chang's at six tomorrow night with Pete and Matt. Tuesday, we are hosting one of the continuing education classes at the event in the morning with our Professional Lines guy (Taras) doing a cyber liability class and Markel doing a class on Professional Lines. Dad will remember that I was dealing with Taras trying to cancel his trip while I was in Canada. He said in a note to me, "I hope this doesn't cause any inconvenience". Well, I called Harvey and blew a gasket as we have over 1000 people coming to the I Day and over 65 signed up for the cyber liability class. Taras had forgot to set up his travel and when he went to set it up a week before, the trip was going to cost him $800 and Alan balked. Harvey stepped up, explaining to all who would listen the harm this would do to the reputation of the company if we cancelled the class and got it back on track. Thank God.

 

The build out is in full swing and we are now working with a visqueen shield over the work area after they broke out the wall behind Shawna's desk. She had to be moved over about ten feet. On Friday morning we had our furniture vendor in and they were working on moving two more of  my employees over from the wall that used to be outside my old office. It is a lot of upheaval, but the final result will be well worth the hassle we are going through now. The work will be completed the week of October 27th and I will have home office IT and real estate folks in that week. That is the week after the Leadership meeting in Detroit.

 

Darla and I had dinner with friends last night at their house. It was a fun night and the food was great as well as the company. Randy, the host, served me a Barrel Rye with Ginger Ale after dinner which reminded me of Dad and Canada. He served the drinks with Ice Balls. These are solid ice balls about the size of a small rubber ball and slowly melt in your drink unlike ice cubes, which melt rather quickly. Now, I'm on a quest to find the molds for these. Randy had been looking for these for awhile after seeing them in a Food Network show on cocktails and found them at TJ Maxx of all places. I'll check with Amazon.

 

Darla was at a street fair in Lodi, California today and was up at 4 AM to get to the event by 6 AM to set up. She did well today (almost $1000 in sales) and she got home at 5:30. She is fast asleep on the couch next to me. I have to make hamburgers for dinner soon as I sit and watch the Sunday night game. This isn't near as much fun as it was last week with Dad and Shirley and the Dallas game. Dallas won again today to keep me smiling.

 

I will likely bring my laptop with me and try to upload some pictures from our trip and get a blog entry in next Sunday night. No guarantees as my bride will have some say in that, but that's my plan as of tonight. I hope you all have a GREAT week and I'll check in again next weekend. Ciao.

 



We are just back from Canada, eh?

Had a great trip with Dad and Shirley. We got home about 7:15 last night and had to do our homework for the Financial Peace University Class that we are in. Funny story there. Darla and I are both 100% in on this class and getting our finances in order so that I can retire at a relatively young age. We get to the class and listen to the lessons by Dave Ramsey and get all fired up. The last class was on Dumping Debt and the Debt Snowball and how to become debt free. We were so inspired, we came home and cut up all of our credit cards. Oops, we had a trip to Canada and I had to rent a car. The last time I rented, they wouldn't let you use a debit card to rent. I didn't realize the error of my ways until Friday and it was too late to get a replacement card. We went off to Bodega Bay and returned Friday night and pieced the card back together and taped it on a copy of the bill.

Luckily, when we got to Seattle, the rental car industry has recently changed and will not put a hold on your debit card as long as you show them a return flight reservation. I didn't have to go through the embarrassment of handing them a credit card that had been cut up. Live and learn.

It was a whirlwind weekend, with Darla and I leaving for Bodega Bay and the Links at Bodega Harbor on Thursday afternoon. We stayed in the small town of Valley Ford in an Inn built in 1869. It was all of 7 rooms with no televisions. The Inn was quaint and the rooms were surprisingly comfortable with newer decorations, beds and bathrooms in the hotel. They had a bar on the first floor that we availed ourselves of before heading in to Bodega bay and dinner at the Tides Restaurant. We met Neil and Lilly and Bob and Vicki at the Valley Ford Inn and had a great time getting caught up.

We took our truck on the ride over to the restaurant and it seems that Jennifer or Sam had spilled some sort of chocolate drink on the third row of seats and Neil sat in it and said nothing. On the ride back, Darla took the back seat and was appalled to find the spill. We got that cleaned up post haste when we got home. The third row of seats aren't used very often, obviously. we had a great meal and then headed back to the hotel.

Friday, we were up early and the guys all piled into our Explorer and we drove out to Bodega bay for breakfast. The restaurant at the golf links were only open on weekends, so we headed back over near the tides and found a little place called the Dog house and had breakfast before heading to the course. The Links at Bodega harbor is a tough course built along the shores of Dillon Beach and stretching up into the hills above. It is tight and narrow and rewards good shot making. Alternatively, it penalizes wayward shots. I managed a 43+42=85 on the par 70 layout. Bob shot 92 and Neil had 97. Ken Olmstead, who drove up from Sac that morning and met us at the course shot 39+42=81. He had an accident about 18 months ago with UPS and just got a settlement from them and is still suing the driver of the car that ran a red light and hit his truck. He has had lots of time to work on his game and it shows. We had a quick drink after golf, meeting back up with the ladies and Darla and I were off for home.

We were up at 3:30 (or Darla was) for our flight to Seattle. We used our air miles and had to fly through Phoenix, change planes and then on to Seattle. Our flight out of Sac was 6:00 AM and I was out as soon as my head hit the seat on the plane. I woke up on descent in Phoenix. Darla and I grabbed some breakfast and jumped on the next plane for Seattle arriving at 1:45 PM. It was a turbulent flight and the captain never did turn off the seat belt sign as we were rocking and rolling through the sky. When I got to Seattle, I nearly sprinted to the men's room. A stall opened up before the urinals as I danced in line and I dove in there. The guy before me had left his i Pad behind, but by the time I saw it I was beyond the point of no return (so to speak). I had hoped he'd realize it and be waiting by the stall, but no. I took the i pad and turned it into the US Airways Customer Service counter.

By the time we got our luggage and shuttled over for the rental car and got that all squared away, it was after 3. We drove through Seattle, stopped for a quick bite in Everett and were in Dad's driveway by 5:20 PM. The border patrol agent asked me why I didn't have a Canadian Passport and looked none too pleased when I told him I was a US Citizen. He told me, "You know, you can have both as you were born in Canada." Yep, I could pay for two passports or punch myself in the nose, too.

Dad and Shirley had set up a meal for the ages with Roast Turkey AND Roast Ham. I felt like the Prodigal Son in the Bible, but I'm sure I haven't squandered any inheritance. I told Dad to plan on spending his last dime right as he breathes his last breath. Randy, Darryl and I are all in good places in our life and don't need any inheritance to live well. Both Cam and Sherry and their whole families came over to have dinner with us. I was honored, although if they had been invited after dinner, we likely wouldn't have seen any of the boys. They are all great kids and we had a ball with everyone.

Dad was still in his boot and hobbling around in his short pants like one of the boys in Oliver. He had a doctor's appointment on Monday and I'll get to that.

Sunday, we woke to a huge breakfast made by Shirley with eggs and ham, a huge cinnamon bread concoction called Crazy Bread, toast and fruit. We over ate the entire weekend, but didn't complain until we both got on the scale when we returned. They have rye and ginger each afternoon with appetizers and wine with each dinner and it all caught up to us rather quickly. I really enjoyed Sunday watching the NFL games with Dad. He doesn't really have an interest in the NFL, but his cable provider has nearly every NFL game on you could wish to watch. We watched the Baltimore- Carolina game followed by the Philadelphia-SF game. We had dinner (leftover turkey and loved every bite) and then sat down to watch the Saints take on Dallas on Sunday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but especially watching it with Dad. That was FUN.

Monday, we were up, had another too big breakfast and took Dad over to his doctor's appointment in Surrey. He had another x-ray and was in with the doctor for awhile. Dad was hoping to get out of the boot and brought his tennis shoe in a plastic bag. When they came out of the doctor's office he was carrying his boot and kind of limping along. After little use of his foot for six months, he was a little tentative and it took some walking to get him comfortable on his feet. He has to wear the boot off and on and do some walking to strengthen his foot and ankle before they leave on their cruise in two weeks.

We headed home, relaxed, had more appetizers and drinks (I ate more cheese this weekend than I have in two months), and then got ready for a trip in to town and dinner at the Keg restaurant. Both Darla and I and Dad and Shirley split an entrée, but we had soup and salad and tons of bread. No cheese, though. We complemented the meal with a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and then Dad out arm wrestled me for the bill. He said I can pay when he comes to California. The dinner was great and we got some nice pictures. I uploaded them to the computer last night, but I can't find them today. I will add them later.

We were up at 6:00 AM on Tuesday, had a quick meal with Dad and Shirley and were on the road with a bag of almonds to keeps us company at the long wait at the border. It turns out there was NO WAIT at the truck border and we pulled right up to an empty booth and were out of there in minutes. The traffic was light until we hit Everett and then it picked up. We were able to use the HOV lanes and cruised into Seattle, where we switched to the Express Lanes. All went well, until I stayed in the HOV lane and was forced to exit on 5th Avenue in Seattle. I realized it too late to move over, but we were able to make a quick left and then a right and were back in business.

We were at the rental car lot by 9:00 and at the airport by 9:30 for our 11:20 flight to Phoenix. We had an early lunch of a pepperoni Stromboli and then caught our plane. The flight was fast and I slept again as Darla talked and made friends with her seatmate who complained about her marital problems to Darla. Darla told me this later as I mercifully slept thru it, but perhaps her eagerness to spill her marital problems to a complete stranger might have some effect on the quality of her marriage? We grabbed an early dinner in Phoenix and relaxed at  the large table and rested, finally ordering a cheesecake s=dessert as we had been sitting for an hour after our meal was complete.

It is a small world and I was reminded of that by the sight of Theresa from my office in the airport. She was returning from a company seminar that I sent her on and was on the same flight as us heading home. She couldn't quite wrap her head around what we were doing in Phoenix if we had flown out of Seattle, but, hey, free is free.

It was a whirlwind weekend, but I am so glad we made the trip. Dad is healthy and happy and he and Shirley make the perfect couple. She is pretty good at making sure he eats well and toes the line from a health standpoint and that is all good. I hope you all had a good week as well and we will meet again at the Blog in a week's time. Ciao.

The Last Post of Summer 2014 :-(

 

It is extremely sad to me. I should live closer to the equator because I love Summer so much. I like Fall and Spring and I am no fan of Winter. Darla and I went to Folsom Live last night, a concert series in Folsom that consists of five stages and 15 bands all in one night. We also spent this afternoon with Charlie and Frieda at an End of Summer party at their house. It was extra nice because Rick and Jan joined us. Rick has pancreatic cancer and has been handling the chemo really well and seeing a lot of encouraging news, including the reduction of lesions. He is weakened by the chemo, but is able to put on a little weight between sessions. He came over about 2:30 and stayed until about 5 and was getting tired when he left.

 

The picture of the red sun above was Friday morning as I left the lab after having blood drawn. The fire up in Pollock Pines has grown in size and now threatens over 70,000 acres. The wind shifted Thursday night and blew some of the smoke our way and gave the sun a red glow.

 

 I sat and watched the Niners lose with all of my friends and tried to keep my mouth shut, but it was difficult. The San Francisco  49ers have continued the pattern they set in the Cowboy game of playing a really good first half and completely disappearing in the second half. It is a combination of bad play calling and I think Bad JuJu caused by their ignorant decision to continue playing a 300 pound man that beat his pregnant girlfriend. Their excuse is that they want to let due process run it's course. At 1-2 I'd think due process is in full display right now. Do the right thing, make him inactive on game days while his case is worked out and continue to pay him. Once the truth comes out, cut him and move on. Any man that puts his hands on a woman is scum in my book. The Niners, by the way, gave a two game suspension to one of their broadcasters that does the games for two days for inappropriate comments on the Ray Rice case. It's easy to suspend a 155 pound talking head than a 300 pound defensive end ( I guess).

 

Darla and I got tickets to the Folsom live event on Thursday. We write the insurance for the event and our agent gets 16 Sponsor Passes to the event. We had Sponsor parking, entrance to the Sponsor building and fajita buffet and 20 drink tickets. Darla and I showed up at 5:00 PM and had a great dinner, had a couple of drinks in the air conditioned lounge and then wandered out and saw the bands. Our favorite group that played was Garratt Wilkins and The Parrotheads, a band that is a tribute band to Jimmy Buffet. I guess "tribute band" is a synonym for" rip-off group". They put on a good show and do songs from Jimmy Buffet, The Greatful Dead, The Beach Boys and others. Most of their music is Jimmy Buffet and boat songs with steel drums and acoustic instruments. We had fun, but were out of there by 8 O'clock and back home to relax.

 

I played golf at an insurance event on Thursday. Two of the guys we were playing with aren't serious golfers and we were one over par by the second hole we played. We worked hard to get 5 birdies and no bogeys the rest of the way and shoot 68. I also played at the crack of dawn on Saturday. We were the third group off at 6:45 AM and I was very happy to get a chance to play with Boyd. We haven't seen each other much lately as he won't play later in the day because it is too hot for him. He's also been busy with family commitments and doesn't like playing weekends because its too crowded. We rode together and got caught up and he and Paul really pushed me on Saturday. I shot 38 on the front, but struggled a little on the back and finished with an 81. Boyd shot 77 and Paul shot 80. Kevin played with us again for the second week in a row and shot 83.

 

I will be in Vancouver next weekend so the blog will be late by a few days. I get back on Tuesday, but have one of the management trainees from our LA office in and I will join he and Pete for dinner that night. I will get my golf fix in on Friday as we leave Thursday afternoon for Bodega Bay and golf on the Bodega Harbour Golf Links along the ocean in Bodega Bay. We are staying at a little turn of the century (1900's) lodge in Valley Ford on Thursday night and will meet Neil and Lilly and Bob and Vicki there for dinner on Thursday night. It will be a quick turnaround for us as we will drive back Friday night and leave for Vancouver on Saturday morning.

 

Work continues to go well. We are setting new records as we go and are on track to finish the year at $27,500,000 in premium written. This compares to $13,000,000 that we wrote in 2010. The build out is back on track and I ran into our leasing agent at the grocery store Friday morning when I was picking up breakfast burritos for Matt and I. I asked him how we finally got past the impasse and he said that HE wrote a check for $3,000 and we finally got an agreement. My real estate department were adamant that we would not pay a penny for the build out and they stood strong.

 

Daniel and Becky are back from their honeymoon and have realized that they have nowhere to store all of the wedding gifts that they received, so will be bringing some of the items up to store in our attic. They had a great and relaxing time in Hawaii. I haven't had a chance to talk to them, but Darla has.

 

David has interviewed for a new position with a real estate investor in Sacramento. He purchases older buildings in Sacramento and develops them mostly as retail space on the first floor and apartments upstairs. He is looking for an executive assistant with a background in architecture to help him with acquisitions and the design of the new spaces. David's job would be mostly as the project manager at each of the jobsites.

 

Well, it is late and I need some time with my bride. Again, I will be late with the blog next week, but will return with pictures from our trips to Bodega Bay and Vancouver. I hope you are all doing great. Ciao.

 

 

Summer is Not Going Down without a Fight

 

It was 103 degrees both weekend days this weekend. Summer is hanging on like a dog with a bone. The pool water has cooled off due to the lower nighttime temperatures and we are beginning to see leaves falling from some of the trees. The sun is off of the pool by 5:00 o'clock and it is dark by 7 PM, all signs that Summer has reached its peak and is slowly giving way to Autumn.

 

A few pictures this week, one of my favorite granddaughter in the car with her Mom and one of her Mom's best friends, Beth. Sam has her hat that reads "Not All Who Wander are Lost." The second is of Scott and John at Poker Night at my house after Steve passed gas after eating potato salad for dinner. The others are all of Sammy Hagar. His namesake restaurant is reopening and will be run by his son, Aaron and his wife. Sammy will be up here a lot making sure the restaurant is a success. I'm guessing he is the financial backer for his son in this endeavor. The original owner of Sammy's had some financial issues and committed suicide last November and the restaurant closed right away.

 

Sammy helped his son by agreeing to do an outside concert as a benefit for the reopening of the restaurant. We received two tickets to the free outdoor concert by purchasing a $75 gift card to the new restaurant. there were 750 cards offered and they sold out in 45 minutes. The math is $56,250 to the restaurant before they even opened the doors. The restaurant officially reopen tomorrow. Gee, thanks Dad for the help with the opening.

 

I did host poker on Friday night and we had seven players. I couldn't catch a cold early in the night and did not win a pot, losing about $45 when I finally stopped to grill the Italian Sausages. I cooked the Brauts and Darla fixed potato salad. The break was good for me as I came back to the game after dinner and won three of the next four pots and ended the night with over $100 worth of quarters and up overall about $60.

 

The Roseville Golf Club is playing their Invitational today which is a two man scramble. I really don't like to play scramble golf because there is not a score to post at the end of the round. I offered to pay for Matt in my office to play and he was busy, so I decided to play a round at Cherry Island with Paul Gonzalez. We met out there at 10"00 o'clock and were paired with another guy from our club, Kevin who happened to be on the singles list. We also played with an older guy named Jack who is a member out at Cherry. I took a look at his score card on the second hole and he had written down "Paul, Kevin and Ken (Tall Guy)" on his card. Wow, 'Tall Guy", not a descriptive phrase that you'll hear to describe me very often. Kevin is an Asian guy and about 5'5" and Paul is about 5'8". I should definitely play with these guys a little more often. I shot 44 on the front side (it is a par 37) and a 39 on the back for 83. Paul shot 79, Kevin had 85 and Jack shot over a 100.

 

We had tickets to the Sammy Hagar concert for Saturday night and my concern was parking and traffic. I got off the course and home by about 3:30 and hit the pool for an hour after cleaning it and doing the chemicals. The concert was 7 PM, but we had to exchange our vouchers for the gift card and arm bands for the concert. I got a shower and we were parked on this side of the tunnel and through the pedestrian tunnel and at the restaurant in Old Town Roseville by 5:30 PM. Steve and Brenda decided to get in line and get their bands and gift card before dinner and met us about 5:45 at Nella's Mexican Restaurant. It was crowded downtown and we finished dinner about 6:30 and walked over to the venue. They only sold 1500 tickets and there were about 2,000 people downtown. Many of them set up on the three story parking garage downtown and hung out to watch and listen to the concert for free. I included a picture of a couple of Roseville's finest from Fire Station Company 1 downtown out on their roof watching the concert. The show was a little brief with about 45 minutes for the opening act, "Day on the Green" and an hour set by Sammy Hagar and his band mates from Montrose, Bill Church and Denny Carmassi. It was pretty hot early on as we were on concrete watching the concert. The drinks were not well set up as they had two spots where you could get beer, two waters or rum drinks for $5 each. I stood in line for 45 minutes to get a beer and 2 waters. There were people cutting in line and jostling. With the age of the attendees, I was more concerned with someone breaking a hip than any fisticuffs. Sammy Hagar is 64 and Bill Church must be 70. Denny Carmassi is at least 67. At any rate, I waited in line all of that time and when I got to the front, they said they were OUT of water. I said, "What about that case on the ground?'. They said, "oh, that's for the workers!." WTH?

 

We had a great time and saw a lot of our friends while we were out there. I ran into two of my agents and we visited for awhile. Sammy had mentioned that he was relaxing at the restaurant (which was closed) and was going to walk to the venue. He instead got a police escort  and he joked that it was the first time he'd ever been in the FRONT seat of a police car. You can see the picture above with the two police officers that drove him over.

 

The dispute on the build out at work is over and the construction will resume tomorrow. We should be in the new space in about six weeks, which will coincide with the Leadership Meeting in Detroit. I have a 65 inch television, six computers and monitors, a microwave oven and a variety of computer cords, servers and switches sitting waiting for this all to come together. I also have two new employees sitting in our conference room as they wait for the build out. They are in training and really don't need a desk as they are shadowing other employees, but it is a bit irritating that the construction was delayed.

 

On top of this, my Operations manager, Shawna, was out Wednesday through Friday with her husband in the hospital. He woke up Wednesday with a blood spot in his right eye and his right leg swollen. They took him to the hospital and a cat scan showed a huge blood clot in his right thigh that was restricting the blood flow in his leg. He had three operations to clear out the clot and put a stint in and he left the hospital on Saturday. Shawna just texted me and said they were heading back to the ER, so I'm sure she'll be out again tomorrow. Shawna is the one that is supposed to be training the new guys, so it is a bit of a hassle having her out. I've had the guys finish all of the online tools that we have for new employees, they have learned how to do lapse letters and Friday they were shadowing two of my assistants. Shawna needs to get back to work and hire a nurse for her husband.

 

We are still working on our budgeting and Darla and I are meeting once a week to go over our new budget. We have determined so far that Darla is a Free Spirit when it comes to money and I'm a Nerd.  It has been fun so far and enlightening.

 

I had a lunch meeting in Sacramento on Tuesday and ended up hitting some debris in the middle lane of the freeway and it caused a leak in my tire. I didn't realize it and drove on it and completely tore up the inside of the radial. I took the car into Firestone and they told me I needed a new tire. They also told me it would be $300. I was shocked and had paid for road hazard protection for the tire. They told me that road hazard is for the repair of the tire. I asked about the warranty and that does not cover road hazards. I then asked them in a loud voice about the Les Schwab commercial that shows coverage for the tire when you drive over nails or glass. The manager came over and gave me a warranty adjustment and the cost was $44 out the door. I think my next set of tires may come from Les Schwab. I paid $1300 for these in 2012.

 

Well, that's it for this week. I hope you are all well. Have a great week. Ciao

 

Back to Work and Life

 

A few leftover pictures from our trip to the Bay Area for the wedding, Mystery Spot and San Francisco. A nice shot of David giving his speech/toast at the wedding and one of David and Daniel with one of their cousins and also Daniel's groomsman. Also one of Daniel in his new car which is a two year old Honda Insight as they leave the reception. Daniel realized that he could trade in the Explorer we gave him and actually pay for his car payment with the money he saves on gas. He is in commute traffic about 3 hours a day. Also a picture of the brothers in San Francisco.

 

Randy has invited me out to Dallas or Graford or whatever his town is named. I was ready to buy tickets, but Darla and I are taking a class at church called Financial Peace University and I'm working on getting my financial house in order. Randy, I think I'll take a rain check on your offer until the Spring. Darla and I will plan a long weekend with you in April or May.

 

I'm enjoying the class so far. It is based on the ministry of Dave Ramsay, who is a man that was very successful early in life (He had a $4,000,000 real estate portfolio by the time he was 26). He lost it all and realized that his entire life was based on the use of credit and he spent the next 10 years studying the Biblical approach to money. He believes that credit is the single worst thing that has happened to Americans in the last 100 years. Believe it or not, people used to wait and save up to buy things like furniture and cars and even homes. A high percentage of Americans still spend more money annually than they make. Darla and I are working on putting together a 3-6 month Emergency Fund and then we will begin working on paying off our debt. The idea is to have money in the bank to pay for unexpected emergencies like car repairs, appliance repairs, health issues, etc. I expect to retire in 8 years and my goal is to be debt free by the time I do retire. I will pay off my rental in two years and really start doubling up on payments for this house. I need to pay off some credit cards and I'm working on getting our finances in good shape.

 

I just got our financials for August at work and we had another month with over $100,000 in profits. We are just shy of $1,000,000 profit for 8 months, which is outstanding. My biggest issue is space in the office. My real estate department is in a dispute with our landlord on the terms of our lease addendum. The specifics are that we were given $85,000 credit for the build out. It was bid by the contractor for $71,000 but they missed our spec sheet which lists all of our finishes and requirements that are standard in all of our offices and contained in our current office. We balked on the contract, asked for changes to the bid specs which came out to $14,000. (Do the math). We agreed on everything, they started the construction and then sent us a bill for $14,000 for the "changes". We balked, they stopped construction and we are in a heated dispute now. The landlord said that we agreed to the original bid specs which include finishes different  from those that we have in the office now. The last  I heard, our attorneys were sending them a letter demanding that they honor the $85,000 credit and start construction immediately. If not, we will litigate. It's all noise to me. I have two new employees starting on Monday (we were supposed to move into the expansion space last Friday). They will be in training and will work from my conference room.

 

One of the Real Estate people asked me WHY I hired someone when the space isn't completed. I calmly told her that it takes about two months to hire an employee with our company and about 6 weeks to do the build out. I started the hiring process about a week before the construction was supposed to commence and handled my part flawlessly. I told her that if there is any problem with my hiring, it was a lack of follow through by my Real Estate department. She had nothing to say to that. Hopefully, we get things going soon. In the meantime, I'm getting some sideways glances from our lessors.

 

I got out to play golf on Saturday. I tried to get some of the retired guys to join me. They are all annual pass holders and can't tee off for free until after noon on the weekends. I got crickets from most of the guys. Paul, who is still working, but has an annual pass, agreed to come out and play. I would have set up an earlier tee time, but it gave me a chance to sleep in. Paul and I teed off at noon and were done by 3:20PM. It was like a country club out there, there wasn't another group on the course until the seventh hole. I was a little rusty after taking last week off and shot 43+43=86. I did play on Thursday night and shot a 44.

 

Our twilight league finally ends on this coming Thursday night. Neil and I are in 6th place and will play for the fifth position. They pay the top 6 spots. We have $114 coming back to us based on sixth place and we have skins Thursday night with another $120 in the pot and we can make an extra $10 if we beat the 5th place team. We paid $120 to get in the league and we'd like to get over $120 back. It's been a good year, but a LONG year. We've been playing since May.

 

The Cowboys continue to self destruct and I can only hope that Jerry takes a hard look in the mirror and hires a General Manager. Bring in someone like Mike Holmgren and get out of the way. Jerry has already said that would never happen. They basically gave the game to the Niners. My takeaway from the game is how easy it would have been to beat SF. They scored on our turnovers, but had no sustained drives and did not score in the second half against arguably the worst defense in the league. Tony Romo had one of his worst games, yet still threw for 358 yards and DeMarco Murray rushed for 118 yards. If Niner fans are happy with this game, they were watching it through rose colored glasses.

 

Darla and I went to church today and it was the first day that our new senior pastor, Tommy Politz was giving the message. He called Rick up and they ceremonially passed the baton. Rick took our church from a card table in front of the Roseville Wal-Mart handing our pamphlets on "How to Drug Proof your Kids" to a huge church on the hill in Rocklin. He has been our pastor for 20 years. Tommy has hired Rick back on staff and he has also given him a one year paid sabbatical with a travel stipend. I was a little shocked, but look at everything that Rick has done for our church and he needs and deserves this time off. He will rest and come back refreshed and ready to serve the church.

 

Well, that it for this week. I hope you are all doing well. Thank you again to Darryl, Cheryl, Randy Cake, Samantha, McKenny and Jennifer for such a fun week last week. Ciao.