The sun is out and warming the landscape. It should be mid-eighties today and we have a picnic planned with our life group from church. The nice thing is that the picnic starts at 4:00 PM and even better, it is at the park across the street from our house.
I'd like to offer a prayer of thanks to the men and women of the military, the ones who bravely serve us now and the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives for this country. There was a story in the paper of a 22 year-old soldier who served in Fallujah and threw his helmet over a live grenade at a checkpoint and then covered the helmet with his body. He was a platoon leader and saved his squad from injury, but died when an eraser sized piece of shrapnel pierced his skull. He was home at Christmas and told his parents that he was going to extend his four years of service until his unit finished it's tour in Fallujah. His mom asked him if he wanted his dress blues at his funeral and he said, "Yes". The amazing thing is that his little brother, who is 17 wants to be A Marine as well.
Darla and I enjoyed the San Francisco Giants game on Saturday at SBC Park in San Francisco. Our inspection company invited Anthony and I and our significant others to the game. We met for lunch at Amici's across from the ballpark and then walked across the street and watched the game. It was about 68 degrees in SF and the Giants lost. We hiked back to our car to find our front right tire flat. Our host had left and Anthony and Erin were leaving for Santa Maria. We sent them on their way and called AAA. AAA was not helpful in that they directed us to the services booth at Lot A. The Giants run a tow truck service and they unlock cars and change tires and tow if necessary. We hiked all the way back to lot A to find that the tow truck had not shown for this game. We called AAA back and they argued with us, before Darla finally let them have it. They finally sent a truck and he changed our tire. The tire had a large bolt in the tread. We got home about 7:00PM. It was a long day.
Today, we took the tire in to Firestone. I was afraid that they wouldn't repair the tire due to the fact that we have 49,000 miles on the tires and, true to form, they called to say that the tread was too thin to repair. So, now we sit waiting for the $550 worth of tires to be installed and balanced and a front-end alignment to be done. Hey, it's only money.
Work has turned into a chore with not only Gwen, one of the Commercial Underwriters having quit, but Dinda, my Accounts Receivable person having given her two weeks notice. Dinda has had health issues and now has a tumor in her stomach about the size of a softball. She will work until June 15th and then fly to the Phillipines for surgery. Dinda is the sister of Cora, Mel's wife, and an Underwriting Assistant in the office. I'll miss Dinda and wish her a speedy recovery. It was like piling on this past week after Gwen gave her notice. Dinda felt so bad, but I told her I was numb and I was only worried about her. Not true, I'm worried about replacing her, but it will all work out in the wash.
On the positive side, I did meet with Peter Morrison and I think we will nail him down this week. Pete worked for me at Republic Western. It is a frustrating experience, in that I will be paying Peter more than I make, but my bonus situation is much more lucrative. It's just frustrating in that I have to beg, plead and cajole to get anything for myself and it seems they bend over backward for others. Pete will be a great addition to the office. Gwen was the least engaged Underwriter I had. Her territory is beginning to take off and Pete should be able to keep the momentum going as he is a new business machine. He knows the agents so well in the territory and is very well liked.
David's graduation went pretty good on Friday night. Destanie even joined us and watched the boredom as 460 seniors were graduated. I know it is a rite of passage for the kids, but the ceremony lasted two hours in the blazing sun and we had to listen to the valedictorians quote Hercules, Cinderella and even Alladin. I thought I'd fallen asleep and awakened at an 8th grade graduation. Both of the female speakers quoted Cinderella and Hercules. What's up with that?
David and Destanie then went out with some friends bowling. I got to know Destanie a bit better over the interminable two hours of the ceremony. She is a very responsible young lady from a close Christian family. She will graduate next year and then enter a one-year missions program, where she will train for four months in Hawaii and then travel overseas for eight months on a missions trip.
I will update this blog but one more time before we head off to Hawaii. The trip cannot come fast enough especially with the problems at work. I just want to get away and relax on a beach and forget about the problems of dealing with employees. People just tend to care about themselves and my only joy in the Gwen situation is that I know the guy she is going to work for and he overpays his people because he is a tyrant. He is a rager and tends to blow up in the office about once a month. He is the nicest guy other than that problem, but he usually loses an employee every time he has one of his fits. He ends up screaming at an employee and then apologizing and trying to buy them off with extra vacation or a gift. Good luck, Gwen. Will I miss her? Well, I didn't try to match her salary or keep her if that's any indication.
Take care and be well. Ciao.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
Graduations and Proms
I am exhausted as I sit and write on a Monday morning. The trials of work are such that I'd like to get on that plane and fly to Hawaii right now and just stay there. I was out last week in Philadelphia after Tuesday and I had five of the eleven staff members either sick or out during the time that I was gone. I'm not happy with that and then I open my e-mail to find not only a note from one of the underwriters to say that she will be off a month in July for a hysterectomy, but an e-mail from another resigning as of June 3rd. Hey, welcome back.
The trip to Philly was much too short and much too rushed. On top of everything, I got hit with a horrible case of food poisoning (And I'm not suggesting that there is a tremendous case of food poisoning out there). I flew out at six am on Wednesday and stopped in Phoenix for an hour. I then boarded another plane to Philadelphia and arrived at 5:55 PM. Our Phoenix Branch Manager was on the same flight and we were met by one of the Marketing Managers at USLI, the company hosting our meetings. The problem was that the manager called us on the cell phone and told us he'd be driving a green pickup. It turns out it was a green Suburban. The fellow is Irish and he considers any SUV or truck a pickup truck. We finally met up with him after about forty-five minutes of waiting. He took us directly to dinner at a country club in Villanova. The dinner was nice and we finally got to the hotel at about nine-thirty. We had a full day of meetings on Thursday and then gathered for dinner at the CEO of USLI Tom Nierny's estate again in Villanova, near the University. His house is a five-level mansion with eight bedrooms and over 12,500 square feet. Dinner was stuffed shrimp, stuffed chicken and stuffed filet minon. It was the latter animal that caused my heartache. The only thing I drank that night was a glass of Amstel Light, a glass of Pinot Noir with dinner and a Bailey's coffee after dinner.
I woke up with a horrible stomachache at about twelve-thirty and went ten rounds with the devil over the next three or four hours. It was brutal and dehydrating (if you get my drift) and there was even some good that came out of it. I lost eight pounds in the ordeal (imagine the exorcist). The worst part was that I had a six-hour flight the next day. I took the morning round of meetings off as I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I got up about eight-thirty and showered and drank half a bottle of water. Big mistake. (Think out-of-control fire hose). I finally roused myself at eleven after going back to bed and called over to the meetings for a ride. I sat in on the afternoon sessions, sore and tired and completely uncontent.
The flight home was brutal as I sweated and tossed and turned on the five-hour flight from Philly to Phoenix. I arrived and had a few odd stares as I walked off the plane. I walked in to the men's room and saw my hair worked into a spike from leaning against the window and trying to sleep. The sweat and tears caused my hair to spike up like Martin Short's. I combed myself back into simply a weary traveler and was able to slowly coax a half sandwich down and it stayed put. I drank some Sprite and walked to the next plane. I arrived back in Sac at 11:50 PM and waited for my luggage. One piece showed up rather quickly, but my main case did not show. I called Darla to warn her that I'd pulled the bonehead traveler move of packing my car keys in my suitcase and could she drive down with the other set of keys? I waited in line at the baggage counter of America West for twenty-five minutes and finally put in my claim. My bag was found at the carousel in Phoenix and would be on the next plane out in the morning.
Darla showed up none too pleased with her oafish husband and I got home about 1:30, which was 4:30 Philly time. Nice trip, eh?
David had a fun filled weekend with his prom and several dates with Destanie. I sent some pictures to family and will post a picture on my blog today. They had a great time and danced the night away. David took our Explorer and brought another couple from his Church youth group with them. They ended the night at Josh's house in the spa...under adult supervision. Destanie brought sparkling cider and snacks for the trip and a change of clothes for the dance. Her long gown didn't allow her to dance, so she changed into a short skirt and was able to have some fun at the dance. She is a lovely Christian girl and I'm very happy for David. Darla asked if she was his girlfriend and David said, "If that happens, there will be an announcement." (Typical David) He spent Friday night at a youth event with her, Saturday at the Prom and Sunday they went to see the new Star Wars movie. An announcement seems imminent to me.
No golf this weekend, but that's a good thing as I was convalescing. I won't play in the tournament next weeknd either, but have one of my suppliers with tickets to the
Giant's game on Saturday May 28th at SBC Park in SF. We will have lunch in SF and then go over to the game. Darla is going, along with Anthony and his girlfreind and the supplier and his girlfriend. It should be fun.
The weather has heated up here (90 degrees) and I have a bit of a sunburn. I need to get a base tan before we head to Kauia. Well, that's it, folks. Not much news, but I've got a small ton of work awaiting me and now I need another underwriter. Will the joy ever stop? Keep your eyes on the Lord and your heart will follow. Ciao.
The trip to Philly was much too short and much too rushed. On top of everything, I got hit with a horrible case of food poisoning (And I'm not suggesting that there is a tremendous case of food poisoning out there). I flew out at six am on Wednesday and stopped in Phoenix for an hour. I then boarded another plane to Philadelphia and arrived at 5:55 PM. Our Phoenix Branch Manager was on the same flight and we were met by one of the Marketing Managers at USLI, the company hosting our meetings. The problem was that the manager called us on the cell phone and told us he'd be driving a green pickup. It turns out it was a green Suburban. The fellow is Irish and he considers any SUV or truck a pickup truck. We finally met up with him after about forty-five minutes of waiting. He took us directly to dinner at a country club in Villanova. The dinner was nice and we finally got to the hotel at about nine-thirty. We had a full day of meetings on Thursday and then gathered for dinner at the CEO of USLI Tom Nierny's estate again in Villanova, near the University. His house is a five-level mansion with eight bedrooms and over 12,500 square feet. Dinner was stuffed shrimp, stuffed chicken and stuffed filet minon. It was the latter animal that caused my heartache. The only thing I drank that night was a glass of Amstel Light, a glass of Pinot Noir with dinner and a Bailey's coffee after dinner.
I woke up with a horrible stomachache at about twelve-thirty and went ten rounds with the devil over the next three or four hours. It was brutal and dehydrating (if you get my drift) and there was even some good that came out of it. I lost eight pounds in the ordeal (imagine the exorcist). The worst part was that I had a six-hour flight the next day. I took the morning round of meetings off as I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I got up about eight-thirty and showered and drank half a bottle of water. Big mistake. (Think out-of-control fire hose). I finally roused myself at eleven after going back to bed and called over to the meetings for a ride. I sat in on the afternoon sessions, sore and tired and completely uncontent.
The flight home was brutal as I sweated and tossed and turned on the five-hour flight from Philly to Phoenix. I arrived and had a few odd stares as I walked off the plane. I walked in to the men's room and saw my hair worked into a spike from leaning against the window and trying to sleep. The sweat and tears caused my hair to spike up like Martin Short's. I combed myself back into simply a weary traveler and was able to slowly coax a half sandwich down and it stayed put. I drank some Sprite and walked to the next plane. I arrived back in Sac at 11:50 PM and waited for my luggage. One piece showed up rather quickly, but my main case did not show. I called Darla to warn her that I'd pulled the bonehead traveler move of packing my car keys in my suitcase and could she drive down with the other set of keys? I waited in line at the baggage counter of America West for twenty-five minutes and finally put in my claim. My bag was found at the carousel in Phoenix and would be on the next plane out in the morning.
Darla showed up none too pleased with her oafish husband and I got home about 1:30, which was 4:30 Philly time. Nice trip, eh?
David had a fun filled weekend with his prom and several dates with Destanie. I sent some pictures to family and will post a picture on my blog today. They had a great time and danced the night away. David took our Explorer and brought another couple from his Church youth group with them. They ended the night at Josh's house in the spa...under adult supervision. Destanie brought sparkling cider and snacks for the trip and a change of clothes for the dance. Her long gown didn't allow her to dance, so she changed into a short skirt and was able to have some fun at the dance. She is a lovely Christian girl and I'm very happy for David. Darla asked if she was his girlfriend and David said, "If that happens, there will be an announcement." (Typical David) He spent Friday night at a youth event with her, Saturday at the Prom and Sunday they went to see the new Star Wars movie. An announcement seems imminent to me.
No golf this weekend, but that's a good thing as I was convalescing. I won't play in the tournament next weeknd either, but have one of my suppliers with tickets to the
Giant's game on Saturday May 28th at SBC Park in SF. We will have lunch in SF and then go over to the game. Darla is going, along with Anthony and his girlfreind and the supplier and his girlfriend. It should be fun.
The weather has heated up here (90 degrees) and I have a bit of a sunburn. I need to get a base tan before we head to Kauia. Well, that's it, folks. Not much news, but I've got a small ton of work awaiting me and now I need another underwriter. Will the joy ever stop? Keep your eyes on the Lord and your heart will follow. Ciao.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Everybody's Having a Birthday
It is mid-May and what that means in our world, is that it is birthday time. Today is Darla's birthday and the birthday of her five-year younger twin, Alicia. Tomorrow is David's eighteenth birthday. For Daniel and I, we just try to stay out of the way this week. I am taking the gang, including Alicia, to dinner at Buca Di Beppo tonight in Roseville. Daniel and I are the only ones not having a birthday, so I guess we are picking up the bill.
The weekend just passed was one of intense heat (88 degrees) on Saturday, followed by a drizzly, humid rainfest yesterday. I got rained on in the last day of the three day tournament, but managed a spirited 83. The effort was for naught, as I had laid a huge egg on Saturday with a 92. I had gone from a gross 80 to a net 80 in one week. I was coming off a week of illness. I suffered from chills and fever during the middle part of the week and almost missed a day of work. I probably should have stayed home, but the work doesn't do itself. I was feeling fine by Saturday, but the lethargy hit during the round and I slogged around in the heat to a 45+47=92 which effectively ended my bid for a win in the tournament. I was pleased with my comeback in poor conditions yesterday and shot 42+41=83. The theme of a three day tournament is consistency and I didn't manage that at all. C'est la Vie.
I have been working with my dentist on a crown for one of my rear molars for over a month now. He has twice ordered my crown from the lab. The first attempt had a pinhole in it, which wasn't discovered until the crown was in my mouth and the adhesive was bleeding through to the top of the crown. The dentist wiped it off twice and finally pulled the crown and looked at it under the light and found the hole. On the second try, I didn't even make it to the dentist's office. They called to tell me the crown was in and I jokingly told the dentist to check the crown under an intense light before I came in. They called later to say the doctor wasn't happy with the casting and was sending it back again. I'm getting a little anxious as I wait. I'll be in Philly on Wednesday-Friday at a Manager's meeting with one of our carriers and I'm wearing a bottle cap on my back tooth. The doctor is off this week as his daughter is graduating college down in SoCal. I'll have to wait until next week and hope the temporary stays put.
Today is breezy and the clouds have departed for the moment. We have a chance of rain and isolated thundershowers this afternoon so the weather is not over yet. We have had a very rainy Spring thus far and I fear that we will jump from Winter to Summer once the weather changes. Saturday was a taste of the heat and it was a little too much too soon. I'd like about a month of 72-77 degrees for awhile. Fat chance.
Darla is off today and will scrap book and paint her nails and sleep and do anything that fits her mind. She is a believer in taking your birthday off, because no one else gives a rip that it's your birthday, so you might as well indulge yourself. Good and accurate attitude.
Darla got me again on Saturday. I came off the course tired and sweaty and frustrated and came home to the news that she had a racquetball court setup for 6:15 PM. I sunk into the spa for a few minutes to let my joints relax and then sat in a lounge chair and dried off in the sun. I then did some chores..clearing out the gutters in preparation for the next round of rain. I also trimmed the hedge beside the shed as it was growing above the level of the shed again and looking scraggly. I also trimmed some bushes in the back yard. By then I was completely miserable because of the heat and my own weariness and we went to the gym. I managed to squeak out the first game 15-11 and was toast. Darla beat me 15-8 in the second game and I had no juice left for a third game and we left tied 1 game a piece. Darla loves to set up those racquetball games after I golf. She knows that I won't dare say no to playing. The exercise is great, but I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was very low on energy.
Work is progressing nicely. Management has finally come back and offered me some additional compensation for all of my extra work in the office. It's about time. I'm off to Philadelphia this week and then will take Darla with me to Eureka the end of this month. I'll be there for a golf tournament and we will stay at the Red Lion hotel in Eureka. It's a long drive from here and it will be nice to have Darla's company on the trip. Hopefully the weather is good. The Pacific Northwest can be a bit tricky weatherwise, especially on the coast of far Northern California in late May. We'll be able to enjoy some good meals together and have some quality time away.
We leave for Hawaii in 26 days; three weeks from this coming weekend. I am really looking forward to the vacation. I will not bring my golf clubs this trip, but told Darla that I will probably still play once or twice. The Makai club where we have our condo is part of the Princeville golf club and there is an 18 hole Makai Club course that backs up to our condo. The club has a nine-hole tournament weekly and I think I'll sign up to play in one of the tournaments while we are there.
I only have one golf tournament left before we leave. I've decided NOT to play in the Memorial tournament and will spend some time with Darla. We may go out of town or just to the beach if the weather is good. I will, however, play in the Net Amateur tournament on June 11th. I've already arranged with the handicapper to play in the 1st group of that tournament. We leave for San Francisco that afternoon, where we will stay overnight prior to our Sunday morning flight from SF to Kauai. The hotel will put us up for the night, transport us to the airport and hold our car for up to two weeks, all for $129.99. Not bad. The airport charges $30 a day to garage your car alone. Darla and I stayed at the same hotel on our honeymoon, when we flew to Mexico. We will take the boys to a Chinese food restaurant that we like down the road from the hotel.
I was able to make it to church yesterday before my golf tourament, which was a blessing. It was the Global day of prayer yesterday and perhaps God smiled on me as I regained my abilities after imploding on Saturday. Jackson Sonyonga, the African missionary, said that we are lazy in America. He said that we all get together as churches and have a National Day of Prayer. He said it is like ganging up on the devil, collectively punching him and then running away to hide for another year. We need more prayer in this country and you will never stand so tall as when you kneel to pray. Is God calling you to pray more? Think about it? Ciao.
The weekend just passed was one of intense heat (88 degrees) on Saturday, followed by a drizzly, humid rainfest yesterday. I got rained on in the last day of the three day tournament, but managed a spirited 83. The effort was for naught, as I had laid a huge egg on Saturday with a 92. I had gone from a gross 80 to a net 80 in one week. I was coming off a week of illness. I suffered from chills and fever during the middle part of the week and almost missed a day of work. I probably should have stayed home, but the work doesn't do itself. I was feeling fine by Saturday, but the lethargy hit during the round and I slogged around in the heat to a 45+47=92 which effectively ended my bid for a win in the tournament. I was pleased with my comeback in poor conditions yesterday and shot 42+41=83. The theme of a three day tournament is consistency and I didn't manage that at all. C'est la Vie.
I have been working with my dentist on a crown for one of my rear molars for over a month now. He has twice ordered my crown from the lab. The first attempt had a pinhole in it, which wasn't discovered until the crown was in my mouth and the adhesive was bleeding through to the top of the crown. The dentist wiped it off twice and finally pulled the crown and looked at it under the light and found the hole. On the second try, I didn't even make it to the dentist's office. They called to tell me the crown was in and I jokingly told the dentist to check the crown under an intense light before I came in. They called later to say the doctor wasn't happy with the casting and was sending it back again. I'm getting a little anxious as I wait. I'll be in Philly on Wednesday-Friday at a Manager's meeting with one of our carriers and I'm wearing a bottle cap on my back tooth. The doctor is off this week as his daughter is graduating college down in SoCal. I'll have to wait until next week and hope the temporary stays put.
Today is breezy and the clouds have departed for the moment. We have a chance of rain and isolated thundershowers this afternoon so the weather is not over yet. We have had a very rainy Spring thus far and I fear that we will jump from Winter to Summer once the weather changes. Saturday was a taste of the heat and it was a little too much too soon. I'd like about a month of 72-77 degrees for awhile. Fat chance.
Darla is off today and will scrap book and paint her nails and sleep and do anything that fits her mind. She is a believer in taking your birthday off, because no one else gives a rip that it's your birthday, so you might as well indulge yourself. Good and accurate attitude.
Darla got me again on Saturday. I came off the course tired and sweaty and frustrated and came home to the news that she had a racquetball court setup for 6:15 PM. I sunk into the spa for a few minutes to let my joints relax and then sat in a lounge chair and dried off in the sun. I then did some chores..clearing out the gutters in preparation for the next round of rain. I also trimmed the hedge beside the shed as it was growing above the level of the shed again and looking scraggly. I also trimmed some bushes in the back yard. By then I was completely miserable because of the heat and my own weariness and we went to the gym. I managed to squeak out the first game 15-11 and was toast. Darla beat me 15-8 in the second game and I had no juice left for a third game and we left tied 1 game a piece. Darla loves to set up those racquetball games after I golf. She knows that I won't dare say no to playing. The exercise is great, but I hadn't eaten since breakfast and was very low on energy.
Work is progressing nicely. Management has finally come back and offered me some additional compensation for all of my extra work in the office. It's about time. I'm off to Philadelphia this week and then will take Darla with me to Eureka the end of this month. I'll be there for a golf tournament and we will stay at the Red Lion hotel in Eureka. It's a long drive from here and it will be nice to have Darla's company on the trip. Hopefully the weather is good. The Pacific Northwest can be a bit tricky weatherwise, especially on the coast of far Northern California in late May. We'll be able to enjoy some good meals together and have some quality time away.
We leave for Hawaii in 26 days; three weeks from this coming weekend. I am really looking forward to the vacation. I will not bring my golf clubs this trip, but told Darla that I will probably still play once or twice. The Makai club where we have our condo is part of the Princeville golf club and there is an 18 hole Makai Club course that backs up to our condo. The club has a nine-hole tournament weekly and I think I'll sign up to play in one of the tournaments while we are there.
I only have one golf tournament left before we leave. I've decided NOT to play in the Memorial tournament and will spend some time with Darla. We may go out of town or just to the beach if the weather is good. I will, however, play in the Net Amateur tournament on June 11th. I've already arranged with the handicapper to play in the 1st group of that tournament. We leave for San Francisco that afternoon, where we will stay overnight prior to our Sunday morning flight from SF to Kauai. The hotel will put us up for the night, transport us to the airport and hold our car for up to two weeks, all for $129.99. Not bad. The airport charges $30 a day to garage your car alone. Darla and I stayed at the same hotel on our honeymoon, when we flew to Mexico. We will take the boys to a Chinese food restaurant that we like down the road from the hotel.
I was able to make it to church yesterday before my golf tourament, which was a blessing. It was the Global day of prayer yesterday and perhaps God smiled on me as I regained my abilities after imploding on Saturday. Jackson Sonyonga, the African missionary, said that we are lazy in America. He said that we all get together as churches and have a National Day of Prayer. He said it is like ganging up on the devil, collectively punching him and then running away to hide for another year. We need more prayer in this country and you will never stand so tall as when you kneel to pray. Is God calling you to pray more? Think about it? Ciao.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Mother's Day is every day
The weekend has been recorded in history and a new week becons me. We had rain yesterday. In fact, it rained from Saturday night until early this morning, but today has dawned refreshed and new with a high blue sky and hardly a cloud in the sky to mar the landscape. This storm brought some wind along with the rain and there are branches and leaves down on the lawns and in the parking lot. The park across the street from our house, with its abundance of trees, left the street in front of our home littered with leaves and branches as well. This storm is destined to pass into the merest of memories after another supposed round of rain today as the forecast is for temperatures in the eighties by the end of the week. I have a busy week and chose the six-inch mug for my coffee this morning which is about a mug and a half. I have four mugs that are mine in the cupboard in the kitchen and often Mondays require the large mug.
I had a tremendous weekend bookended by poker on Saturday night and the celebration of Darla on Sunday night. The boys and I cooked a dinner of chicken and ribs last night and we each prayed a prayer of Thanks to God for the influence of Darla in our lives. We ended the meal by Darla reading the first chapter of Genesis. It was a great time of family togetherness followed by the boys cleaning the kitchen which was heaven to Darla as she lay on the couch and relaxed after dinner.
I made enough money (about $45) at poker to fund golf and lunch on Saturday. We had ten players at this game and had to split off to two tables. Anthony joined me along with his brother and Mel came along as well. Greg Wanee, a friend from the golf club, joined me as I picked him up and we drove over to the game together. Greg just got back from ten days in Kauai and I was picking his brain over activities that he and Carla did while they were on the island. Greg stayed on the Lihue side of the island, the "sun" side as it is known. Our condo is on the Princeville side of the island or the "rainy" side. The Princeville side is also the lush, garden side of the island and it is ripe with vegetation and small rivers and tributaries. The mountain on Kauai is the rainiest spot on Earth and it rains constantly at the top of the mountain. Like many of the islands in Hawaii, Princeville receives almost daily rain, usually in the morning and it clears off by late morning. The mountains above Princeville are so thick with vegetation and waterfalls (there are over 1000 waterfalls on the island) that it creates it's own weather systems and rain is omnipresent at the higher elevations. Greg and Carla will get together with Darla and I for dinner in the coming weeks to look at their pictures and talk restaurants and activities on the island.
Golf was great on Saturday. I played with Mel and Boyd Robertson. Boyd always has a good effect on my game and again, he settled me into a groove and I shot 38 on the front side with two birdies in the first five holes. I struggled a bit on the back and had a double-bogey 5 on the par three 12th after skulling my drive into the hazard and having to take a drop. I parred the next hole and then had four straight bogeys before finishing with a par on the tough 18th hole. I shot 42 on the back for an 80, my best tournament score of the year and a net of 67. The tournament is a three-day individual stroke play championship and it feels good to be out of the gate with a good opening round score. Where was this last weekend in the Amateur championship? I lipped out three putts on the backside that could have dropped my score to a 77. There is room for improvement, as always.
Darla and I had to dodge the rain puddles yesterday to get to church. The youth were putting on the service and it's frankly never my favorite day at church when the kids get up on stage and put their fingers in their mouth and stand there not singing. The Moms and grandparents loved it and the youth pastor had a strong message about coming to God with a childlike faith. Saturday night we had the showing of the DVD from the Mexico trip. The boys were highlighted in many of the clips and David stole the show in a game called "The Russian Elephant" where the kids would lean down and form a human table and they would then stack as many kids on the backs of the lower group as the could and then run across a finish line. David made a running start and landed on the backs of about seven other kids and was at the third level. He landed like a rider on an elephant and waved his arms like he was the Red Baron. The height that he got on takeoff was what was amazing. I got to see Destinae (it's pronounced Destiny, but spelled differently to fool you), although David didn't think to introduce her to me. I also saw her father, who is about 35 and looks like one of the actors on Summerland. He has longer hair and it is bleached blonde and he plays lead guitar in the youth band. I don't think we'll be hanging out. Destinae's family is very involved in the church and her father was the lead contractor on the Mexico trip.
Jennifer called yesterday.!! Yes, my daughter called to wish her step-mother a happy Mother's day. I hadn't talked to her in at least two months and we had a nice, long visit. Jennifer has decided to skip coming home in July and cut her tour in Kuwait short by 44 days. She will be home for good in late September. Jennifer is still contemplating what to do with her life, she's not sure if she's going back to school or getting a job or both. She's not even sure that she'll be living in California. One of her girlfriends is housesitting a home in Las Vegas that is owned by the former piano player for Frank Sinatra. It is a small castle and Sara has invited Jennifer to come and live with her and her daughter there. I know that Jenn will at least go and visit Sara when she gets home. She will need to blow off some steam before settling into her work life. The nice thing is that she'll be paid by the Army through November. I suggested to Darla that Jennifer could work as a recruiter with the Army and go to school at night. She still has designs on being a teacher. As I've said before, the world is Jennifer's oyster. I think she should go up and visit Dad and Shirley in Canada when she gets home. Relax. Recharge and make some decisions on the course of her life. It's an exciting time for her.
Well, the gang is all here and I need to set a good example for the troops by hoeing into the work on my desk. I have to leave early today to get the final setting of a crown in my mouth at the dentist. I've been living with this bottle cap for about three weeks and I'm ready for the final product. Be well. Learn to approach God with a childlike faith and childlike need for security and comfort. He is the ultimate source of Love, strength and security. Ciao.
I had a tremendous weekend bookended by poker on Saturday night and the celebration of Darla on Sunday night. The boys and I cooked a dinner of chicken and ribs last night and we each prayed a prayer of Thanks to God for the influence of Darla in our lives. We ended the meal by Darla reading the first chapter of Genesis. It was a great time of family togetherness followed by the boys cleaning the kitchen which was heaven to Darla as she lay on the couch and relaxed after dinner.
I made enough money (about $45) at poker to fund golf and lunch on Saturday. We had ten players at this game and had to split off to two tables. Anthony joined me along with his brother and Mel came along as well. Greg Wanee, a friend from the golf club, joined me as I picked him up and we drove over to the game together. Greg just got back from ten days in Kauai and I was picking his brain over activities that he and Carla did while they were on the island. Greg stayed on the Lihue side of the island, the "sun" side as it is known. Our condo is on the Princeville side of the island or the "rainy" side. The Princeville side is also the lush, garden side of the island and it is ripe with vegetation and small rivers and tributaries. The mountain on Kauai is the rainiest spot on Earth and it rains constantly at the top of the mountain. Like many of the islands in Hawaii, Princeville receives almost daily rain, usually in the morning and it clears off by late morning. The mountains above Princeville are so thick with vegetation and waterfalls (there are over 1000 waterfalls on the island) that it creates it's own weather systems and rain is omnipresent at the higher elevations. Greg and Carla will get together with Darla and I for dinner in the coming weeks to look at their pictures and talk restaurants and activities on the island.
Golf was great on Saturday. I played with Mel and Boyd Robertson. Boyd always has a good effect on my game and again, he settled me into a groove and I shot 38 on the front side with two birdies in the first five holes. I struggled a bit on the back and had a double-bogey 5 on the par three 12th after skulling my drive into the hazard and having to take a drop. I parred the next hole and then had four straight bogeys before finishing with a par on the tough 18th hole. I shot 42 on the back for an 80, my best tournament score of the year and a net of 67. The tournament is a three-day individual stroke play championship and it feels good to be out of the gate with a good opening round score. Where was this last weekend in the Amateur championship? I lipped out three putts on the backside that could have dropped my score to a 77. There is room for improvement, as always.
Darla and I had to dodge the rain puddles yesterday to get to church. The youth were putting on the service and it's frankly never my favorite day at church when the kids get up on stage and put their fingers in their mouth and stand there not singing. The Moms and grandparents loved it and the youth pastor had a strong message about coming to God with a childlike faith. Saturday night we had the showing of the DVD from the Mexico trip. The boys were highlighted in many of the clips and David stole the show in a game called "The Russian Elephant" where the kids would lean down and form a human table and they would then stack as many kids on the backs of the lower group as the could and then run across a finish line. David made a running start and landed on the backs of about seven other kids and was at the third level. He landed like a rider on an elephant and waved his arms like he was the Red Baron. The height that he got on takeoff was what was amazing. I got to see Destinae (it's pronounced Destiny, but spelled differently to fool you), although David didn't think to introduce her to me. I also saw her father, who is about 35 and looks like one of the actors on Summerland. He has longer hair and it is bleached blonde and he plays lead guitar in the youth band. I don't think we'll be hanging out. Destinae's family is very involved in the church and her father was the lead contractor on the Mexico trip.
Jennifer called yesterday.!! Yes, my daughter called to wish her step-mother a happy Mother's day. I hadn't talked to her in at least two months and we had a nice, long visit. Jennifer has decided to skip coming home in July and cut her tour in Kuwait short by 44 days. She will be home for good in late September. Jennifer is still contemplating what to do with her life, she's not sure if she's going back to school or getting a job or both. She's not even sure that she'll be living in California. One of her girlfriends is housesitting a home in Las Vegas that is owned by the former piano player for Frank Sinatra. It is a small castle and Sara has invited Jennifer to come and live with her and her daughter there. I know that Jenn will at least go and visit Sara when she gets home. She will need to blow off some steam before settling into her work life. The nice thing is that she'll be paid by the Army through November. I suggested to Darla that Jennifer could work as a recruiter with the Army and go to school at night. She still has designs on being a teacher. As I've said before, the world is Jennifer's oyster. I think she should go up and visit Dad and Shirley in Canada when she gets home. Relax. Recharge and make some decisions on the course of her life. It's an exciting time for her.
Well, the gang is all here and I need to set a good example for the troops by hoeing into the work on my desk. I have to leave early today to get the final setting of a crown in my mouth at the dentist. I've been living with this bottle cap for about three weeks and I'm ready for the final product. Be well. Learn to approach God with a childlike faith and childlike need for security and comfort. He is the ultimate source of Love, strength and security. Ciao.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Reality Stinks
Another weekend has come and gone and we are another week closer to our trip to Hawaii. The weather was awesome over the weekend, not overly warm, but I embrace Spring and 72-75 degrees is wonderful this time of year. It was closer to 77 degrees yesterday and it got a little warm as I sat out in a reclining chair on the back patio with a glass of iced tea and a book and relaxed in the afternoon.
I did play in the Roseville City Amateur this past weekend and the truth of the matter is that reality bites. Both golf courses were set up with the tees at the far tips and the pins in the toughest positions on the greens. Not on one or two holes, mind you, but on the entire course. The best golfers from the region (myself NOT included) were all there and some came from the Bay Area and Reno to play in the tournament. I shot 45+40=85 on Saturday at Diamond Oaks and came in with a net 73, good for third place in my flight. I was happy to be able to turn around my front side and felt confident going in to Sunday. Well, in spite of a tremendous day, I struggled out of the gate and shot 47+44 for 91 at Woodcreek. The group that I was playing with shot 98, 94, 91 and 89 and the 89 was a 4 handicapper. The course was just brutal. I took fifth in my flight and finished out of the money, but had a great time and would do it again. One of the guys in my group hit a wicked slice on one hole into the hazard. We all went down and were helping him look for his ball and I came across a group of rattlesnakes out sunning themselves on an outcropping of rocks. I walked rather quickly out of the hazard. The guy said, "Hey, I still have three minutes to search." I wished him good luck and walked to my ball. The day started poorly when I skulled a shot out of the hazard on number one and over the green, over the sand trap and into someone's back yard. I had to settle for a triple bogey 8. Ah, well, I play in a three day tournament starting next weekend and the normal set up of the course will feel easy after this weekend.
I played early both days and was able to get home in the early afternoon and spend some time with Darla. Saturday we had lunch downtown and then went over to an art studio that is run for some of her clients. They were having an art sale and we bought a bird house and some trivet style tiles that we will use as coasters. Some of the artwork is a little crude, but some show real talent. I mounted the birdhouse on a pole and set it in the garden in front of the house. We then went over to the park in downtown Roseville with some drinks, chairs, a blanket and our books to read and enjoy the nice Spring day.
Sunday I missed church which is the hardest part for me of a two day weekend tournament. Our church is so large now that the pastor was able to limit the services to two Sunday morning services. We still have about 4400 members, but the church holds over 3000. We used to have a Saturday night service and a Sunday night service, so choices were abundant back then. Darla arranged for a racquetball court at 4:30 and I limped over to the gym after two days of walking the golf course. The racquetball is great exercise and Darla is very competitive at just about any sport. I think my cardiovascular condition is probably better now than any time since I used to play regular Saturday games of basketball when I lived in Fresno back in the mid-eighties.
I did break down and buy a new golf cart. I haven't used a pull cart in 20 years and the new carts are so nice and I get so tired carrying my clubs that I decided to invest. I got a Sun Mountain Speed cart, which is a three-wheeled push cart and a marvel. The tires are pnuematic tube tires and the cart resembles a baby stroller used by runners. I have always preferred to walk the course. As Darla says, golf isn't much exercise to begin with and if I take a riding cart, it's next to no exercise. Walking the course also gives me a chance to relax and think about my next shot and line it up before I reach the ball.
We talked to Dad and Shirley last night. They are doing great and just finished another car show in Abbottsford. They didn't win anything in this show, but learned a valuable lesson about the car show circuit. Like any closely knit group, car show people are very cliquish and this show was judged by the contestants, not by judges. The big car clubs stuffed the ballot boxes and their members won the prizes. Dad and Shirley said it was a good experience, but they will make sure they stick with shows judged by a panel of impartial judges. Dad said the prize for the top Chrysler went to a guy who showed a 2005 Chrysler PT cruiser. Big whoop, you can find three of them at any Wal Mart parking lot. Dad and Shirley do plan to join Darla and I and Jennifer in Puerto Vallarta next year. It should be a fun trip. We may try to bring the boys, but costs may compel us to make it an adult trip.
Work continues to go very well and we just concluded another month that brought in a Net income of over $108,000, which will work out to about $38,000 in profit to the branch. Things are going well and we have a group of agents that are looking to us as their number one choice for surplus lines business. The employees are engaged and we are hitting our stride.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile. Jen...call your Dad. I think they are getting ready to move their base of operations soon if they haven't done so already. Jen will be home for a few weeks in July and we look forward to seeing her. November will be here before long and she will bid adieu to the Army and start to live her new life back here in the U S of A.
David and Destiny have been seeing a lot of each other as they get ready for the Senior Ball later this month. David went to the movies with her this weekend and took her to a dance recital on Saturday night. Destiny seems like a nice young lady and comes from a good home. David and Destiny will double date to the prom with another friend from their church youth group. He is now dating a girl from the group as well, so it is a natural for them. David is doing really well and both David and Daniel are very involved in the youth group at church. They will both be going on another trip to Los Angeles in July. This trip is more fun than work as they'll spend a day at the beach and two days at Disneyland. The cost of the trip is $500 and they are both working at Earl's farm to earn the money for the trip.
Well, that is all the news that's fit to print. Have a great week. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there and a big thumbs up to my Mom who blessed my life so much in her all too brief time here on Earth. Ciao.
I did play in the Roseville City Amateur this past weekend and the truth of the matter is that reality bites. Both golf courses were set up with the tees at the far tips and the pins in the toughest positions on the greens. Not on one or two holes, mind you, but on the entire course. The best golfers from the region (myself NOT included) were all there and some came from the Bay Area and Reno to play in the tournament. I shot 45+40=85 on Saturday at Diamond Oaks and came in with a net 73, good for third place in my flight. I was happy to be able to turn around my front side and felt confident going in to Sunday. Well, in spite of a tremendous day, I struggled out of the gate and shot 47+44 for 91 at Woodcreek. The group that I was playing with shot 98, 94, 91 and 89 and the 89 was a 4 handicapper. The course was just brutal. I took fifth in my flight and finished out of the money, but had a great time and would do it again. One of the guys in my group hit a wicked slice on one hole into the hazard. We all went down and were helping him look for his ball and I came across a group of rattlesnakes out sunning themselves on an outcropping of rocks. I walked rather quickly out of the hazard. The guy said, "Hey, I still have three minutes to search." I wished him good luck and walked to my ball. The day started poorly when I skulled a shot out of the hazard on number one and over the green, over the sand trap and into someone's back yard. I had to settle for a triple bogey 8. Ah, well, I play in a three day tournament starting next weekend and the normal set up of the course will feel easy after this weekend.
I played early both days and was able to get home in the early afternoon and spend some time with Darla. Saturday we had lunch downtown and then went over to an art studio that is run for some of her clients. They were having an art sale and we bought a bird house and some trivet style tiles that we will use as coasters. Some of the artwork is a little crude, but some show real talent. I mounted the birdhouse on a pole and set it in the garden in front of the house. We then went over to the park in downtown Roseville with some drinks, chairs, a blanket and our books to read and enjoy the nice Spring day.
Sunday I missed church which is the hardest part for me of a two day weekend tournament. Our church is so large now that the pastor was able to limit the services to two Sunday morning services. We still have about 4400 members, but the church holds over 3000. We used to have a Saturday night service and a Sunday night service, so choices were abundant back then. Darla arranged for a racquetball court at 4:30 and I limped over to the gym after two days of walking the golf course. The racquetball is great exercise and Darla is very competitive at just about any sport. I think my cardiovascular condition is probably better now than any time since I used to play regular Saturday games of basketball when I lived in Fresno back in the mid-eighties.
I did break down and buy a new golf cart. I haven't used a pull cart in 20 years and the new carts are so nice and I get so tired carrying my clubs that I decided to invest. I got a Sun Mountain Speed cart, which is a three-wheeled push cart and a marvel. The tires are pnuematic tube tires and the cart resembles a baby stroller used by runners. I have always preferred to walk the course. As Darla says, golf isn't much exercise to begin with and if I take a riding cart, it's next to no exercise. Walking the course also gives me a chance to relax and think about my next shot and line it up before I reach the ball.
We talked to Dad and Shirley last night. They are doing great and just finished another car show in Abbottsford. They didn't win anything in this show, but learned a valuable lesson about the car show circuit. Like any closely knit group, car show people are very cliquish and this show was judged by the contestants, not by judges. The big car clubs stuffed the ballot boxes and their members won the prizes. Dad and Shirley said it was a good experience, but they will make sure they stick with shows judged by a panel of impartial judges. Dad said the prize for the top Chrysler went to a guy who showed a 2005 Chrysler PT cruiser. Big whoop, you can find three of them at any Wal Mart parking lot. Dad and Shirley do plan to join Darla and I and Jennifer in Puerto Vallarta next year. It should be a fun trip. We may try to bring the boys, but costs may compel us to make it an adult trip.
Work continues to go very well and we just concluded another month that brought in a Net income of over $108,000, which will work out to about $38,000 in profit to the branch. Things are going well and we have a group of agents that are looking to us as their number one choice for surplus lines business. The employees are engaged and we are hitting our stride.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile. Jen...call your Dad. I think they are getting ready to move their base of operations soon if they haven't done so already. Jen will be home for a few weeks in July and we look forward to seeing her. November will be here before long and she will bid adieu to the Army and start to live her new life back here in the U S of A.
David and Destiny have been seeing a lot of each other as they get ready for the Senior Ball later this month. David went to the movies with her this weekend and took her to a dance recital on Saturday night. Destiny seems like a nice young lady and comes from a good home. David and Destiny will double date to the prom with another friend from their church youth group. He is now dating a girl from the group as well, so it is a natural for them. David is doing really well and both David and Daniel are very involved in the youth group at church. They will both be going on another trip to Los Angeles in July. This trip is more fun than work as they'll spend a day at the beach and two days at Disneyland. The cost of the trip is $500 and they are both working at Earl's farm to earn the money for the trip.
Well, that is all the news that's fit to print. Have a great week. Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there and a big thumbs up to my Mom who blessed my life so much in her all too brief time here on Earth. Ciao.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Ruminations and Lamentations
The weekend has come and gone and we are on to a new week. Darla spent the weekend at a women's retreat with the church and left her men behind to fend for themselves. We ordered pizza on Friday night and then I decided to cook on Saturday night and made a couple of frozen pizzas for dinner. You could say it was a GUY weekend.
They told a story at church this weekend that I was not aware of. If my grandfather on my Dad's side was still alive, he would have known it. They told it in the context of Faith and Hope. Eddie Richenbacher was the ace of World War I. He had more kills than most pilots and won many medals for his bravery and his markmanship. Eddie volunteered to fly special missions in WWII specifically for the Pentagon and it was on one of these missions in 1942 when his plane lost all radio control and Richenbacher became totally lost in the Pacific. He finally ran out of fuel and had to ditch his plane in the ocean. His crew of 8 climbed into an 8 foot raft and spent the next eight days hoping and waiting for rescue. On the eighth day, the crew, near starvation prayed together and prepared to die. A seagull landed on Eddie's head and slowly he reached up and grabbed the legs of the bird. They were able to fashion the intestines into fishing line and were able to catch fish and survived for another 15 days when they were finally rescued. After Eddie retired and moved to Florida, he would go to the ocean every Friday and feed shrimp to the seagulls, his way of thanking the seagull for saving his life. He did this faithfully until he died in 1979. Do you think that God intervened in Eddie's life? I do.
I've been invited to a special marketing meeting in Philadelphia in mid May. It is being hosted by USLI, one of Warren Buffet's insurance companies. We will be in Philly from May 18th-20th. I look forward to the trip and lament that I will not be able to do any sightseeing while I'm there. Most of the Branch Managers will be there from Burns and Wilcox and several of the Vice Presidents will also be in attendance. Our President and CEO will be there and I hope to have an opportunity to talk to him about the future of this office.
I played golf twice this past week, once on Thursday and then in a tournament on Saturday. Thursday was a beautiful day in the 80's and I shot 38+40=78, my best round of the year. I played against three agents and won $28.50 out of a pool of $31 in skin money. Did I feel bad? Uh...no. I didn't think it was going to be a good round, especially after the first hole. It is a 300 yard par 4, but you can attempt to cut the corner of the driving range and the green is about 265 yards from the tee. I took the corner and landed on the green about thirty feet from an eagle. I proceeded to three putt the green for a par. I then played in a 2 man best ball tournament on Saturday at Diamond Oaks in a driving rain. Most of the players really struggled with wet grips and wet conditions, but I managed a 40+43=83, which given the conditions, I'm even more proud of. My partner struggled and we finished tied for fourth with a 65. I play in the Roseville City Championship this coming weekend and look forward to it. My game is finally starting to round into shape and my index of 11.5 is at it's highest since July of last year. In other words, I'm playing better than my handicap right now and have a chance to do some damage.
David is still struggling with his decision on college. He was accepted by Cal Poly Pomona as a Construction Management student. David wants to take an Architectural degree and be a Computer Assisted design engineer. He is toying with going to Sierra College in Rocklin for two years and then seeing if he can transfer to Cal Poly SLO, his first and only choice for college. He did not get in, but Darla has a friend who knows a Dean at Cal Poly SLO and they are trying to work out something. (The old "it's not what you know, but who you know"). Hopefully they can work it out. David is so focused. IF he goes to Sierra, he can continue to work at the engineering firm where he interns and they will hold a position for him. I'll keep you informed.
The office continues to do very well and we are following up our biggest month in a year with another solid month. I may be buying the staff lunch again in May, which would be GREAT. Our turnaround is turning heads in Home Office. The President is not convinced that I am the right candidate for the job as Branch Manager, which is frustrating for me, but all that I can do is continue to run the office, make money and have a staff that is engaged in their jobs and growing our book of business. I think perhaps I have some of the stink of my predecessor on me as I weas hired by him. The bottom line is what matters and they won't make a change while things are doing well. The only fly in the ointment is that I will not continue to be an "acting" Branch Manager indefinitely. They will have to fish or cut bait soon. I've given them until the Branch Manager meeting in October to make up their minds.
My old underwriter at Republic Western, Pete Morrison, continues to call me. He turned down my job offer and went to work for a competitor. I think eventually he will end up working for me over here. I've heard through the grapevine that he is struggling over at Crouse. Their corporate culture is one of large accounts and moving paper, whereas our culture is defined by developing relationships with agents and is more of a marketing oriented workflow. We, frankly, fit Pete's strengths much better. We have the pen with four carriers, which allows us to respond on the smaller accounts quickly and efficiently. At Crouse, they are 100% brokerage and have to send everything out for quote. There, they are at the whim of a company underwriter. Here, about 60% of our business is contract business where we are the underwriter. The only thing holding us back is ourselves.
Speaking of that, I need to get on with my day. I hope you are all engaged in the sport of life and follwing the true King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
They told a story at church this weekend that I was not aware of. If my grandfather on my Dad's side was still alive, he would have known it. They told it in the context of Faith and Hope. Eddie Richenbacher was the ace of World War I. He had more kills than most pilots and won many medals for his bravery and his markmanship. Eddie volunteered to fly special missions in WWII specifically for the Pentagon and it was on one of these missions in 1942 when his plane lost all radio control and Richenbacher became totally lost in the Pacific. He finally ran out of fuel and had to ditch his plane in the ocean. His crew of 8 climbed into an 8 foot raft and spent the next eight days hoping and waiting for rescue. On the eighth day, the crew, near starvation prayed together and prepared to die. A seagull landed on Eddie's head and slowly he reached up and grabbed the legs of the bird. They were able to fashion the intestines into fishing line and were able to catch fish and survived for another 15 days when they were finally rescued. After Eddie retired and moved to Florida, he would go to the ocean every Friday and feed shrimp to the seagulls, his way of thanking the seagull for saving his life. He did this faithfully until he died in 1979. Do you think that God intervened in Eddie's life? I do.
I've been invited to a special marketing meeting in Philadelphia in mid May. It is being hosted by USLI, one of Warren Buffet's insurance companies. We will be in Philly from May 18th-20th. I look forward to the trip and lament that I will not be able to do any sightseeing while I'm there. Most of the Branch Managers will be there from Burns and Wilcox and several of the Vice Presidents will also be in attendance. Our President and CEO will be there and I hope to have an opportunity to talk to him about the future of this office.
I played golf twice this past week, once on Thursday and then in a tournament on Saturday. Thursday was a beautiful day in the 80's and I shot 38+40=78, my best round of the year. I played against three agents and won $28.50 out of a pool of $31 in skin money. Did I feel bad? Uh...no. I didn't think it was going to be a good round, especially after the first hole. It is a 300 yard par 4, but you can attempt to cut the corner of the driving range and the green is about 265 yards from the tee. I took the corner and landed on the green about thirty feet from an eagle. I proceeded to three putt the green for a par. I then played in a 2 man best ball tournament on Saturday at Diamond Oaks in a driving rain. Most of the players really struggled with wet grips and wet conditions, but I managed a 40+43=83, which given the conditions, I'm even more proud of. My partner struggled and we finished tied for fourth with a 65. I play in the Roseville City Championship this coming weekend and look forward to it. My game is finally starting to round into shape and my index of 11.5 is at it's highest since July of last year. In other words, I'm playing better than my handicap right now and have a chance to do some damage.
David is still struggling with his decision on college. He was accepted by Cal Poly Pomona as a Construction Management student. David wants to take an Architectural degree and be a Computer Assisted design engineer. He is toying with going to Sierra College in Rocklin for two years and then seeing if he can transfer to Cal Poly SLO, his first and only choice for college. He did not get in, but Darla has a friend who knows a Dean at Cal Poly SLO and they are trying to work out something. (The old "it's not what you know, but who you know"). Hopefully they can work it out. David is so focused. IF he goes to Sierra, he can continue to work at the engineering firm where he interns and they will hold a position for him. I'll keep you informed.
The office continues to do very well and we are following up our biggest month in a year with another solid month. I may be buying the staff lunch again in May, which would be GREAT. Our turnaround is turning heads in Home Office. The President is not convinced that I am the right candidate for the job as Branch Manager, which is frustrating for me, but all that I can do is continue to run the office, make money and have a staff that is engaged in their jobs and growing our book of business. I think perhaps I have some of the stink of my predecessor on me as I weas hired by him. The bottom line is what matters and they won't make a change while things are doing well. The only fly in the ointment is that I will not continue to be an "acting" Branch Manager indefinitely. They will have to fish or cut bait soon. I've given them until the Branch Manager meeting in October to make up their minds.
My old underwriter at Republic Western, Pete Morrison, continues to call me. He turned down my job offer and went to work for a competitor. I think eventually he will end up working for me over here. I've heard through the grapevine that he is struggling over at Crouse. Their corporate culture is one of large accounts and moving paper, whereas our culture is defined by developing relationships with agents and is more of a marketing oriented workflow. We, frankly, fit Pete's strengths much better. We have the pen with four carriers, which allows us to respond on the smaller accounts quickly and efficiently. At Crouse, they are 100% brokerage and have to send everything out for quote. There, they are at the whim of a company underwriter. Here, about 60% of our business is contract business where we are the underwriter. The only thing holding us back is ourselves.
Speaking of that, I need to get on with my day. I hope you are all engaged in the sport of life and follwing the true King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Blue Skies...smiling at me
Good morning, Vietnam. It is another tremendous Northern California morning with a high blue sky and shadows that give evidence of the light breeze that is blowing as the trees sway and shake in the early morning air. The day invites me outside to play golf. Alas, work awaits me and the siren song of paychecks and responsibility trumps the call of nature. I seem to be in a somewhat whimsical mood this morning.
It was a great weekend filled with golf, yardwork, dinner out with my bride and a visit yesterday to the town of Auburn, where Darla and I wasted away a few hours while three bug bombs were busy wasting some moths in our house that have proven to be quite a project to rid ourselves of.
I played golf with my assistant (soon to be former assistant), Anthony, Anthony's brother and Mel at our course in Roseville. The city had just aerated the greens on Monday and they are still recovering. We struggled around the course, hoping to get a good bounce out of the sand filled holes on the green as we bumped our putts along toward the hole. Anthony doesn't play much golf and asked that we play the white tees rather than the blue and I managed a 41+42=83 on the day in spite of the bumpy greens. Anthony shot 47 on the front, but came on fire on the back side and shot 43 which is a great round for someone who doesn't play much. He even trundled in a putt from about 40 feet on a par three for a birdie. He was pretty thrilled. His brother shot 86 and Mel shot 87, recovering from a tough 47 on the front side with a 40 on the back. I've decided to sign up for the Roseville City Amateur which will be held April 30 and May 1st. I figure that I play so much golf, I might as well give the City Championship a try. I'll play in the handicap division and give it my best. It should be fun.
Jennifer called on Saturday while I was on the course and talked to Darla for about a half hour. It was two in the morning in Kuwait and Jenn was up and felt like checking in on the home front. Jenn, if you want to call me, do it M-F at night and call me at the office. Of course, I'll be out Wednesday afternoon this week getting a crown on one of my molars and out Thursday afternoon marketing... on the golf course. Jennifer is doing great. She can't wait to come home in July and is anxious to hang up her combat boots and join us here in the civilian world. Darla and I are taking Jenn to Puerto Vallarta in 2006 and I'm inviting Dad and Shirley to join us. We will likely go in March of 2006 and we will stay at the Sheraton Buganvillas resort. You can either trade your time share for rooms there or the resort will put you up in the hotel side of the resort at $59 a night as guest of a condo owner. Put it on your radar. Anyone else that wants to join us, let me know as we can get you the $59 rate as well. The resort is on the beach, has two pools, five restaurants and two night clubs. Nice. I'll give you the exact dates as the time draws a little closer.
Darla and I went out to Bella Italia on Friday night. Bella is slowly becoming one of our favorite restaurants, although it is a restaurant located in a storefront close to our health club. The ambience actually isn't bad, but it is a little tight in the restaurant. The food more than makes up for the inconvenience. I had a lasagna and Darla had their award winning gnocchi. We then went over and worked out on a full stomach, which I don't recommend.
I played golf on Saturday afternoon in the sun and was exhausted after the round. Darla, however, was antsy waiting for me at home and had set up a reservation for a racquetball court and I limped over to the health club and played three games with Darla. I just about fell asleep in the shower after that. We watched movies that night and it was nice to relax at home. We saw Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle which is a pretty intense film.
Sunday we ventured to church and heard that the special collection for the orphans in Uganda had exceeded $200,000. The power of our large congregation is mind numbing. We have it so good in the US and stories like the one that Jackson Sonyonga told and the movie Hotel Rwanda showed makes us realize just how great it is here in the Western world.
We studied the 1st chapter of the book of Ruth on Sunday and the story of Naomi is so close to that of my Dad, it is strange. Naomi lost her husband and then her two sons and began to question God. Not that I know Dad questioned God, but I can imagine when he lost his wife and parents all in the course of a year. The love that Ruth showed to Naomi was her saving grace. When we are hurting God will put special people in our lives to help us through. Shirley is Dad's Ruth.
Darla and I did set off three bug bombs in the house after church and we had to skeedaddle for four hours. We had breakfast in Auburn and then strolled the shops in the old town of Auburn. We bought six books at a small book store and I bought a new wallet, which was 50% off. Darla said my wallet was a joke and she wasn't convinced that the new wallet was the answer. It is soft leather and very nice, but is a Jack Daniels brand wallet and she wasn't sure that sent the right message. For me, I just need something to hold my license and my credit cards and a picture of my wife. Darla tried on some wild clothes, which I convinced her not to buy. She then bought some supplies at the bead store and we headed back to the park across the street from our house for some reading and a bit of sleep.
Work awaits. I have four people out this week, two attending a training class and two in home office at a personal lines seminar. I've already had two others call in and tell me they are not feeling well. Both plan to be in later this morning, but it is obviously a Monday morning. Take care. Look around you for your Ruth. She is there, you just have to look. Ciao.
It was a great weekend filled with golf, yardwork, dinner out with my bride and a visit yesterday to the town of Auburn, where Darla and I wasted away a few hours while three bug bombs were busy wasting some moths in our house that have proven to be quite a project to rid ourselves of.
I played golf with my assistant (soon to be former assistant), Anthony, Anthony's brother and Mel at our course in Roseville. The city had just aerated the greens on Monday and they are still recovering. We struggled around the course, hoping to get a good bounce out of the sand filled holes on the green as we bumped our putts along toward the hole. Anthony doesn't play much golf and asked that we play the white tees rather than the blue and I managed a 41+42=83 on the day in spite of the bumpy greens. Anthony shot 47 on the front, but came on fire on the back side and shot 43 which is a great round for someone who doesn't play much. He even trundled in a putt from about 40 feet on a par three for a birdie. He was pretty thrilled. His brother shot 86 and Mel shot 87, recovering from a tough 47 on the front side with a 40 on the back. I've decided to sign up for the Roseville City Amateur which will be held April 30 and May 1st. I figure that I play so much golf, I might as well give the City Championship a try. I'll play in the handicap division and give it my best. It should be fun.
Jennifer called on Saturday while I was on the course and talked to Darla for about a half hour. It was two in the morning in Kuwait and Jenn was up and felt like checking in on the home front. Jenn, if you want to call me, do it M-F at night and call me at the office. Of course, I'll be out Wednesday afternoon this week getting a crown on one of my molars and out Thursday afternoon marketing... on the golf course. Jennifer is doing great. She can't wait to come home in July and is anxious to hang up her combat boots and join us here in the civilian world. Darla and I are taking Jenn to Puerto Vallarta in 2006 and I'm inviting Dad and Shirley to join us. We will likely go in March of 2006 and we will stay at the Sheraton Buganvillas resort. You can either trade your time share for rooms there or the resort will put you up in the hotel side of the resort at $59 a night as guest of a condo owner. Put it on your radar. Anyone else that wants to join us, let me know as we can get you the $59 rate as well. The resort is on the beach, has two pools, five restaurants and two night clubs. Nice. I'll give you the exact dates as the time draws a little closer.
Darla and I went out to Bella Italia on Friday night. Bella is slowly becoming one of our favorite restaurants, although it is a restaurant located in a storefront close to our health club. The ambience actually isn't bad, but it is a little tight in the restaurant. The food more than makes up for the inconvenience. I had a lasagna and Darla had their award winning gnocchi. We then went over and worked out on a full stomach, which I don't recommend.
I played golf on Saturday afternoon in the sun and was exhausted after the round. Darla, however, was antsy waiting for me at home and had set up a reservation for a racquetball court and I limped over to the health club and played three games with Darla. I just about fell asleep in the shower after that. We watched movies that night and it was nice to relax at home. We saw Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle which is a pretty intense film.
Sunday we ventured to church and heard that the special collection for the orphans in Uganda had exceeded $200,000. The power of our large congregation is mind numbing. We have it so good in the US and stories like the one that Jackson Sonyonga told and the movie Hotel Rwanda showed makes us realize just how great it is here in the Western world.
We studied the 1st chapter of the book of Ruth on Sunday and the story of Naomi is so close to that of my Dad, it is strange. Naomi lost her husband and then her two sons and began to question God. Not that I know Dad questioned God, but I can imagine when he lost his wife and parents all in the course of a year. The love that Ruth showed to Naomi was her saving grace. When we are hurting God will put special people in our lives to help us through. Shirley is Dad's Ruth.
Darla and I did set off three bug bombs in the house after church and we had to skeedaddle for four hours. We had breakfast in Auburn and then strolled the shops in the old town of Auburn. We bought six books at a small book store and I bought a new wallet, which was 50% off. Darla said my wallet was a joke and she wasn't convinced that the new wallet was the answer. It is soft leather and very nice, but is a Jack Daniels brand wallet and she wasn't sure that sent the right message. For me, I just need something to hold my license and my credit cards and a picture of my wife. Darla tried on some wild clothes, which I convinced her not to buy. She then bought some supplies at the bead store and we headed back to the park across the street from our house for some reading and a bit of sleep.
Work awaits. I have four people out this week, two attending a training class and two in home office at a personal lines seminar. I've already had two others call in and tell me they are not feeling well. Both plan to be in later this morning, but it is obviously a Monday morning. Take care. Look around you for your Ruth. She is there, you just have to look. Ciao.
Monday, April 11, 2005
A Powerful Weekend
Wow. This weekend was really one for the books. We had a visit by a Christian Evangelist from Uganda that was life changing. This man showed us how the power of Jesus Christ has transformed his country from one of famine, blight and poverty. From a country ravaged by an epidemic of AIDS, it has been transformed into a country on the brink of political, cultural, economic, and health-related revival. Uganda was torn apart by the rule of Idi Amin, a tyrant equal to Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in his disregard for human life and his quest for ultimate power. The country was left torn and broken, with an incidence of AIDS that reached 33% and an economic crisis so bad that the country was almost bankrupt. The country was also left with an epidemic of witchcraft and demon worship that threatened the moral fiber of the country. It was through the power of prayer and hope that comes with the emergence of Jesus Christ in a community that saved the country. Jackson Sonyonga is a powerful speaker that is a world crusader for the power of prayer. His country holds monthly prayer meetings in large stadiums throughout the country where millions of Christians come together and pray from 6 PM to 6 AM and ask for Jesus Christ to intervene in their lives. Through that power of prayer, Uganda is the only country in the world that has seen a decrease in the incidence of AIDS to the point that it is now less than 5% in the country and dropping.
Uganda is still very poor, but many of the demon worshippers and even the witch doctors have seen the power of our Saviour at work and have come to Christ. It is an amazing story and he is preaching the power of prayer and how we need to become a church who is committed to prayer. How we need to have a set time in our homes to pray as a family and not just as a blessing over our meal or a token prayer before we go to sleep at night. We went to church yesterday and were blown away by Jackson and returned Sunday night at six PM to the largest turnout in our churches' history. The 3000 seat church was filled to capacity and every classroom was filled with video monitors. There were people standing in the aisles and double parked in the parking lot. It was an awesome sight to behold. Our life group will meet at church tonight and sit together to watch and listen to Jackson speak further on how to turn our country around through the power of prayer.
It is amazing to see the work that God is doing in our church as we had a special offering last week to help bridge the gap in Ajai Lal's church in India to help build orphanages. He was $40,000 short of his needs and we raised $62,000 in two services to humble Ajai and his family. Jackson is also building some orphanages to house the orphans of AIDS who number over 1.8 million in Uganda. The orphanages will each be manned by a Christian family and will house up to 36 children who have lost both of their parents to AIDS. I'm anxious to see how much money our church donates to Sonyonga. He will be here tonight and tomorrow still to finish his series on prayer.
I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won about $40. I sat and listened to a story of how 6 Roseville teenagers, several of whom played youth football with David, have been charged with the rape of a 15 year old girl in Folsom. The girl was so badly injured that she required 23 stitches. This follows the revelation that nine Woodcreek students have been implicated in a theft ring at the local Best Buy electronics retailer. One of the students worked there and allowed his friends to go through his register and he would not charge them for their electronics purchases. They would come through his line with an MP3 player or a car stereo along with a CD and some gum. He would charge them for the gum and the CD and give them the large item without charging them. Most of the students implicated are Seniors and Juniors and most played on the varsity football team and are friends of David. Our community is morally bankrupt and it is being filtered down to our kids. It was good to see David and Daniel at church praying for the ills that affect our society.
Both David and Daniel were baptized this past week at the home of one of the youth directors at church. They chose Earl to baptize them and there we were on a cool and cloudy Wednesday night gathered in the backyard of a home overlooking the 2nd tee of my golf course, Diamond Oaks, and eight students were baptized and made a stand for Christ. With all that is going on around them, it is so encouraging to see the boys choose a path that is so different from their peers.
The boys are locked into the youth group now, so much so that David has invited one of the girls in the group, Destiny, to his Senior Ball next month. Destiny is a blonde gal who stand almost six foot and is a leader in the youth group. They became friends in Mexico and David has eyes for this young lady. She is a committed Christian, but also a beautiful girl. I'm happy for the choice the boys are making and doubly happy that they resisted the group that stole from the local store. It is so easy for these kids to justify it in their minds. I'm just glad that they got caught and glad that the main offenders are all over 18 and get to be tried as adults. Reality will smack them in the head. Mom and Dad can't save them from this.
I played golf twice this week and I struggled on Thursday at Northridge Country Club. My driving is what sets my game apart. I'm usually long and straight, but I picked up a slice on Thursday. I managed to shoot 43+44=87, but was beside myself after the round. I went to the driving range early on Saturday and realized that I was standing too close to the ball. I stepped back about a foor and was again drilling the ball down the middle. it didn't help me score on Saturday in the wind and wet. I shot 44+44=88, but was glad to figure out my problem on the tee box and look forward to getting back down in the low 80's and upper 70's as the weather improves.
Well, work awaits. Jennifer has updated her blog. She is still a little studette soldier and continues to set personal bests in her Physical Training. She is homesick and looks forward to coming home in the next couple of months. Jen, did you get our package? E-mail me. Be good, hit your knees and pray for our country and for your loved ones. We need the power of Jesus Christ in our lives. He will sustain us and help us to prosper in a world gone bad. Ciao.
Uganda is still very poor, but many of the demon worshippers and even the witch doctors have seen the power of our Saviour at work and have come to Christ. It is an amazing story and he is preaching the power of prayer and how we need to become a church who is committed to prayer. How we need to have a set time in our homes to pray as a family and not just as a blessing over our meal or a token prayer before we go to sleep at night. We went to church yesterday and were blown away by Jackson and returned Sunday night at six PM to the largest turnout in our churches' history. The 3000 seat church was filled to capacity and every classroom was filled with video monitors. There were people standing in the aisles and double parked in the parking lot. It was an awesome sight to behold. Our life group will meet at church tonight and sit together to watch and listen to Jackson speak further on how to turn our country around through the power of prayer.
It is amazing to see the work that God is doing in our church as we had a special offering last week to help bridge the gap in Ajai Lal's church in India to help build orphanages. He was $40,000 short of his needs and we raised $62,000 in two services to humble Ajai and his family. Jackson is also building some orphanages to house the orphans of AIDS who number over 1.8 million in Uganda. The orphanages will each be manned by a Christian family and will house up to 36 children who have lost both of their parents to AIDS. I'm anxious to see how much money our church donates to Sonyonga. He will be here tonight and tomorrow still to finish his series on prayer.
I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won about $40. I sat and listened to a story of how 6 Roseville teenagers, several of whom played youth football with David, have been charged with the rape of a 15 year old girl in Folsom. The girl was so badly injured that she required 23 stitches. This follows the revelation that nine Woodcreek students have been implicated in a theft ring at the local Best Buy electronics retailer. One of the students worked there and allowed his friends to go through his register and he would not charge them for their electronics purchases. They would come through his line with an MP3 player or a car stereo along with a CD and some gum. He would charge them for the gum and the CD and give them the large item without charging them. Most of the students implicated are Seniors and Juniors and most played on the varsity football team and are friends of David. Our community is morally bankrupt and it is being filtered down to our kids. It was good to see David and Daniel at church praying for the ills that affect our society.
Both David and Daniel were baptized this past week at the home of one of the youth directors at church. They chose Earl to baptize them and there we were on a cool and cloudy Wednesday night gathered in the backyard of a home overlooking the 2nd tee of my golf course, Diamond Oaks, and eight students were baptized and made a stand for Christ. With all that is going on around them, it is so encouraging to see the boys choose a path that is so different from their peers.
The boys are locked into the youth group now, so much so that David has invited one of the girls in the group, Destiny, to his Senior Ball next month. Destiny is a blonde gal who stand almost six foot and is a leader in the youth group. They became friends in Mexico and David has eyes for this young lady. She is a committed Christian, but also a beautiful girl. I'm happy for the choice the boys are making and doubly happy that they resisted the group that stole from the local store. It is so easy for these kids to justify it in their minds. I'm just glad that they got caught and glad that the main offenders are all over 18 and get to be tried as adults. Reality will smack them in the head. Mom and Dad can't save them from this.
I played golf twice this week and I struggled on Thursday at Northridge Country Club. My driving is what sets my game apart. I'm usually long and straight, but I picked up a slice on Thursday. I managed to shoot 43+44=87, but was beside myself after the round. I went to the driving range early on Saturday and realized that I was standing too close to the ball. I stepped back about a foor and was again drilling the ball down the middle. it didn't help me score on Saturday in the wind and wet. I shot 44+44=88, but was glad to figure out my problem on the tee box and look forward to getting back down in the low 80's and upper 70's as the weather improves.
Well, work awaits. Jennifer has updated her blog. She is still a little studette soldier and continues to set personal bests in her Physical Training. She is homesick and looks forward to coming home in the next couple of months. Jen, did you get our package? E-mail me. Be good, hit your knees and pray for our country and for your loved ones. We need the power of Jesus Christ in our lives. He will sustain us and help us to prosper in a world gone bad. Ciao.
Monday, April 04, 2005
A New Beginning
The day has dawned with a bright blue sky and a freshness to the air that is electric. It is the day after a cleansing rain and there is something mystical about the shadows that the trees cast across the dew strewn lawns. The streets are all dry, but the parking lot still has traces of rain water in the parking spaces. There is a lone white bird that is walking along the curb looking for worms in the morning light.
My commute this morning was disrupted by an overturned big rig that spilled fuel onto the roadway on the major thoroughfare that I use to cross town from Roseville to Rancho Cordova. Luckily, I sensed that there was a problem and cut over to a side street before getting caught in traffic. I was able to slip around the logjam and get into the office close to my regular arrival time of 7:10 a.m. Cora, our typist, has been promoted to an Underwriter Assistant position and she was not here this morning when I arrived. She worked an alternate schedule of 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, but will be assisting the two ladies in Modesto and I assumed was changing her schedule to at least 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but she rolled in at 7:30 and had forgot to set her clocks ahead. I asked her to check with the gals in Modesto to see what schedule they want her to work as she is their conduit to the Sacramento office. We have our new typist....or more correctly, our Technical Services Rep I beginning this morning. Her hire is a bit of a coup for me as she is graduating from Sacramento State University next month with a degree in Insurance. I was skeptical of hiring her at such an entry level position, but she wants to learn the insurance job from square one. My goal would be to quickly move her up the food change with the ultimate goal of making her an Underwriter within 4 years. I could see her in an Assistant Underwriter position by year end as we continue to grow. I was able to pay her about 15% more than the position called for because of her degree.
The Sacramento office had our best month since I joined in 2003 and we beat our budget by 30% in March. I took the staff out on Thursday and we celebrated the results at a big lunch at Chevys. I have a great staff and Anthony, my former assistant, is already writing new business in his first month. He was so proud to point out that he was ahead of me as of Friday. Bear in mind it was April 1st and he is still my de facto assistant. He had booked his premiums while my renewals sat waiting his touch. I truly want him to experience early success as it will motivate him for the tough months and weeks ahead.
We had a missionary from India visit us yesterday. He is a third generation Christian born in India. Bear in mind that India is a country of 1.6 Billion people and less than 2% of the population is Christian. He had some very interesting facts to share, the most alarming is that the Islamic religion is growing ten times faster than the Christian faith and at it's current growth rate will be the world's largest religion by the year 2015. He also told us that the name Osama Bin Laden is known by almost 90% of the world's population, but only 70% of the world's population has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. It is appalling and although his call was for additional funding for the world's misiionaries, his points were hammered home in his message. We need to be World Christians insrtead of American Christians.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. I was supposed to play golf, but my friend, Mel is from the Phillipines. He called Wednesday and invited me to play golf on Saturday. I said, "Sure, what time?" He said, "Well, I don't have a time, why don't you set something up?" I said, "No. If you want to play, set up a time and let me know when." Mel is a great guy, but comes from a very privileged existence in the Phillipines and I have to try to retrain him in how we do things here in the US of A. He called me late Friday and asked if I'd set up a time. I told him, "No. You were supposed to make us a time." He said he'd look into it and let me know. He called me Saturday at noon and said he couldn't find anything and we'd play next weekend. No kidding. Perhaps he'll learn. Perhaps not. We play on Thursday at a Country Club in town with his boss and then again on Saturday in our Masters tournament. We will have dinner at Mel and Cora's on Saturday night and the boys are invited. They are becoming Americanized.
Darla and I firmed up our Airline travel to Hawaii last week before the latest increases due to fuel prices. We fly out of San Francisco on Sunday June 12th and have a direct flight to Lihue in Kauia. We will stay in San Francisco at the Best Western in Milbrae. They will keep our car for the ten days we are gone and the cost with the room is just $125. We will also stay over on Wednesday the 22nd when we return as we get into SF at 9:00 PM. The cost for that night's stay is only $79. It is exciting as it feels real now. We leave in about nine weeks and it will be a great vacation. I'm just a little sad that neither Darla's folks nor Dad and Shirley could join us. We'll have to plan a trip perhaps late Summer up to Vancouver.
Darla called me on Friday and told me that she had a special mandatory meeting that she HAD to attend at work during our vacation and wouldn't be able to go with us. I didn't fall for her little April Fool's joke, but only because I had just called a meeting to announce that the girls in Modesto had quit. Cora was telling everyone that and they didn't believe her until she cajoled me into calling a special meeting to announce that they had decided not to run the Service office. I made a big deal about how rude it was of them and how telling me on April 1st was the kicker. Everyone laughed and Cora got the biggest kick out of the ruse.
The boys have decided to be baptized this week at their High School life group. The were both christened as infants, but the Bible says that we must announce our decision as Christians and be baptized in the faith. They have decided that they want Darla's Dad, Earl, to baptize them and will call him tonight to see if he will do it. I'm sure Earl will be touched and perhaps humbled that the boys look to him as their example of a Christian man. The boys have really ramped up their involvement in the church and I'm proud of them.
Well, work is a constant and I need to get at it. I hope your week is full of family, friends, laughter and you look to the Lord for your decisions in life. Ciao.
My commute this morning was disrupted by an overturned big rig that spilled fuel onto the roadway on the major thoroughfare that I use to cross town from Roseville to Rancho Cordova. Luckily, I sensed that there was a problem and cut over to a side street before getting caught in traffic. I was able to slip around the logjam and get into the office close to my regular arrival time of 7:10 a.m. Cora, our typist, has been promoted to an Underwriter Assistant position and she was not here this morning when I arrived. She worked an alternate schedule of 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, but will be assisting the two ladies in Modesto and I assumed was changing her schedule to at least 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, but she rolled in at 7:30 and had forgot to set her clocks ahead. I asked her to check with the gals in Modesto to see what schedule they want her to work as she is their conduit to the Sacramento office. We have our new typist....or more correctly, our Technical Services Rep I beginning this morning. Her hire is a bit of a coup for me as she is graduating from Sacramento State University next month with a degree in Insurance. I was skeptical of hiring her at such an entry level position, but she wants to learn the insurance job from square one. My goal would be to quickly move her up the food change with the ultimate goal of making her an Underwriter within 4 years. I could see her in an Assistant Underwriter position by year end as we continue to grow. I was able to pay her about 15% more than the position called for because of her degree.
The Sacramento office had our best month since I joined in 2003 and we beat our budget by 30% in March. I took the staff out on Thursday and we celebrated the results at a big lunch at Chevys. I have a great staff and Anthony, my former assistant, is already writing new business in his first month. He was so proud to point out that he was ahead of me as of Friday. Bear in mind it was April 1st and he is still my de facto assistant. He had booked his premiums while my renewals sat waiting his touch. I truly want him to experience early success as it will motivate him for the tough months and weeks ahead.
We had a missionary from India visit us yesterday. He is a third generation Christian born in India. Bear in mind that India is a country of 1.6 Billion people and less than 2% of the population is Christian. He had some very interesting facts to share, the most alarming is that the Islamic religion is growing ten times faster than the Christian faith and at it's current growth rate will be the world's largest religion by the year 2015. He also told us that the name Osama Bin Laden is known by almost 90% of the world's population, but only 70% of the world's population has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. It is appalling and although his call was for additional funding for the world's misiionaries, his points were hammered home in his message. We need to be World Christians insrtead of American Christians.
We had a nice relaxing weekend. I was supposed to play golf, but my friend, Mel is from the Phillipines. He called Wednesday and invited me to play golf on Saturday. I said, "Sure, what time?" He said, "Well, I don't have a time, why don't you set something up?" I said, "No. If you want to play, set up a time and let me know when." Mel is a great guy, but comes from a very privileged existence in the Phillipines and I have to try to retrain him in how we do things here in the US of A. He called me late Friday and asked if I'd set up a time. I told him, "No. You were supposed to make us a time." He said he'd look into it and let me know. He called me Saturday at noon and said he couldn't find anything and we'd play next weekend. No kidding. Perhaps he'll learn. Perhaps not. We play on Thursday at a Country Club in town with his boss and then again on Saturday in our Masters tournament. We will have dinner at Mel and Cora's on Saturday night and the boys are invited. They are becoming Americanized.
Darla and I firmed up our Airline travel to Hawaii last week before the latest increases due to fuel prices. We fly out of San Francisco on Sunday June 12th and have a direct flight to Lihue in Kauia. We will stay in San Francisco at the Best Western in Milbrae. They will keep our car for the ten days we are gone and the cost with the room is just $125. We will also stay over on Wednesday the 22nd when we return as we get into SF at 9:00 PM. The cost for that night's stay is only $79. It is exciting as it feels real now. We leave in about nine weeks and it will be a great vacation. I'm just a little sad that neither Darla's folks nor Dad and Shirley could join us. We'll have to plan a trip perhaps late Summer up to Vancouver.
Darla called me on Friday and told me that she had a special mandatory meeting that she HAD to attend at work during our vacation and wouldn't be able to go with us. I didn't fall for her little April Fool's joke, but only because I had just called a meeting to announce that the girls in Modesto had quit. Cora was telling everyone that and they didn't believe her until she cajoled me into calling a special meeting to announce that they had decided not to run the Service office. I made a big deal about how rude it was of them and how telling me on April 1st was the kicker. Everyone laughed and Cora got the biggest kick out of the ruse.
The boys have decided to be baptized this week at their High School life group. The were both christened as infants, but the Bible says that we must announce our decision as Christians and be baptized in the faith. They have decided that they want Darla's Dad, Earl, to baptize them and will call him tonight to see if he will do it. I'm sure Earl will be touched and perhaps humbled that the boys look to him as their example of a Christian man. The boys have really ramped up their involvement in the church and I'm proud of them.
Well, work is a constant and I need to get at it. I hope your week is full of family, friends, laughter and you look to the Lord for your decisions in life. Ciao.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Happy Easter
I normally add to the blog on Mondays, but I have a dentist appointment for a routine cleaning at 8:00 am and won't get into the office until nine, so I will get to this now. Happy Easter, by the way. We've been to church and opted out of dinner with the family in Linden to let Darla rest after her ordeal in Mexico last week. She is fast asleep on the couch as I work in the office.
Darla and the boys made it home about ten last night. They had stopped with the group in Elk Grove at a coin wash and cleaned out the car inside and out. They return the rentals tomorrow and had to clean them (I've never cleaned a rental before, maybe they get a discount or something). They had rain most of the week and actually left Tijuana a day early as a big storm was coming in. The rain was so bad at times that they had to be up every half hour to knock the rain off the tent to keep it from collapsing. Strangely, it rained at night, but they were able to work every day on the houses without any rain. David and Daniel both had a great time and came back committed to getting more involved with the youth at church. They made some great friends and have some tremendous memories. They built a 22'x 11' two room house and the group built six of them in a week. Darla said that the youngest daughter of the single mother who would take possession of the house was there when they raised the walls. The little girl started clapping and saying, "Mi casa, mi casa!" when they tied the walls into the roof. The homes are very basic with flat roofs, no plumbing or electricity. But they have windows and flooring and provide some relief from the elements. The family that will occupy the home have been living in their mother's candy store which is smaller than the home.
We had a guest speaker at church this morning, Ruthie Bolton, the Olympic Gold medalist and Professional Women's basketball player for the Sacramento Monarchs. Ruthie was the sixteenth of twenty children in her family and her father referred to all of them as "son" or "daughter" because he couldn't remember all of their names. She is a PK, or Preacher's Kid and her father has passed on now. Her story was one of overcoming obstacles as she is only 5'9" and was not recruited out of high school. She won two women's championships and played on two gold medal winning olympic teams and has been a WNBA All Star three times.
The Pastor talked about the power of Christianity and told a story of how a missionary family was working deep in the heart of Africa in a small tribe, when a plague hit and several of the tribesmen's children became sick and died. The missionary had not made much headway in sharing his faith with the tribe and decided that he would pray for Jesus to spare his kids and told the chief and elders of the tribe to watch how Jesus would spare his kids. He figured this would make an impact on the tribe. Unfortunately, God works in his own timing and soon the missionaries' children each became ill and finally died. Not only did the missionary suffer the pain of losing his children, but his job was now irreparably damaged by the claim that he'd made. He was in emotional pain and embarrassed professionally. As he packed up his belongings in preparation to leave the tribe and return home, there was a knock on his door. He answered it to see the chief at the door and the main tribe elders behind him. The chief asked if the missionary would tell him about this man Jesus. The missionary was shocked and asked the chief why after years of trying to share his faith, that the chief would want to hear about it now after Jesus did not save his children from the plague. The chief said that the tribesman's children died and they buried them knowing that they would never see them again. They then watched as the missionaries' children got sick and died and how the missionary buried his children with the hope that he would see them again in Heaven. It was the hope that the missionary showed that made the tribesmen want to know about Jesus. It is what sets us apart from other religions. Hope. And that hope comes from the promise that Jesus made to us when he was crucified and died on the cross..for our lives and for our sins. It is an amazing gift.
Jennifer called me last night to wish me a Happy Easter. It was Easter morning in Kuwait. I hadn't talked to her since Super Bowl Sunday and it was great getting caught up with her. It turns out that the Army, in its unending wisdom, has raised the promotion points and Jennifer will not be promoted until May now. She and Ryan have called it quits. It was just too hard to carry on a relationship from Georgia and Kuwait. Jennifer was hoping to go to church yesterday and is doing great. She has a buddy in Kuwait who is really pushing her to get in the best shape of her life and she is getting really buff, with big arms and legs, but she still weighs just 106 pounds. She may be tiny, but she's no pushover. It was really a delight to talk to her. She wants to start college when she gets home and is determined to be a teacher. She hates to throw all of her fibre optics training away, but she feels lead to be a teacher. I think it's great to have your life ahead of you at 24 and make of it what you want. More power to her.
Work is excellerating as I've now hired a new Underwriting Assistant. Anthony (my assistant) has taken the empty window office next to Gwen and we are ready to hire a new typist as our typist is being promoted to be the Underwriting Assistant for the Modesto service office. Gail is doing the screeneing interviews and I will meet the screened candidates this week and make an offer. The new Underwriting Assistant comes from Progressive Insurance in the building next door to ours. I had to pay her a little more money than we budgeted, but she seems to be a real sparkplug. She will be able to hold her own with the other assistants in the office, who are all strong headed women. Natasha will work for Gwen and I will have Gwen's assistant Connie assist me. I don't have time to wet nurse a new assistant with my production responsibilities as well as my management responsibilities. Connie is the most knowledgable assistant in the office and I will help train her to take over an underwriting desk in the future.
I did play golf this weekend. I had an extended weekend with Good Friday off and played golf at the Hiddenbrooke Resort in Vallejo on Friday. I shot an 84 and had a solid day of golf. My host is not much of a golfer, in fact he only kept score on the three holes that he shot par or better, so he beat me 13 to 84. I think I hit the ball a little better than him overall.
Mark Konrad invited me to play golf yesterday at 6:36 a.m. I was in a funk all morning and shot one of my worst rounds in recent memory, shooting 48+44= 92 and paying Mark $12. I won $1 from our third player, but it was a bust for me. I was cold in the morning and had to play with a coat on and I hate that. Friday was 75 degrees and sunny. Saturday was a bit breezy and cool. I was quick to post the round when we finished as that 92 may knock out a round in the seventies.
It is a pleasure to have my wife home and the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is so true. I hope you cherish those around you that you love. Until next week, stay strong in the Lord and He will sustain you. Ciao.
Darla and the boys made it home about ten last night. They had stopped with the group in Elk Grove at a coin wash and cleaned out the car inside and out. They return the rentals tomorrow and had to clean them (I've never cleaned a rental before, maybe they get a discount or something). They had rain most of the week and actually left Tijuana a day early as a big storm was coming in. The rain was so bad at times that they had to be up every half hour to knock the rain off the tent to keep it from collapsing. Strangely, it rained at night, but they were able to work every day on the houses without any rain. David and Daniel both had a great time and came back committed to getting more involved with the youth at church. They made some great friends and have some tremendous memories. They built a 22'x 11' two room house and the group built six of them in a week. Darla said that the youngest daughter of the single mother who would take possession of the house was there when they raised the walls. The little girl started clapping and saying, "Mi casa, mi casa!" when they tied the walls into the roof. The homes are very basic with flat roofs, no plumbing or electricity. But they have windows and flooring and provide some relief from the elements. The family that will occupy the home have been living in their mother's candy store which is smaller than the home.
We had a guest speaker at church this morning, Ruthie Bolton, the Olympic Gold medalist and Professional Women's basketball player for the Sacramento Monarchs. Ruthie was the sixteenth of twenty children in her family and her father referred to all of them as "son" or "daughter" because he couldn't remember all of their names. She is a PK, or Preacher's Kid and her father has passed on now. Her story was one of overcoming obstacles as she is only 5'9" and was not recruited out of high school. She won two women's championships and played on two gold medal winning olympic teams and has been a WNBA All Star three times.
The Pastor talked about the power of Christianity and told a story of how a missionary family was working deep in the heart of Africa in a small tribe, when a plague hit and several of the tribesmen's children became sick and died. The missionary had not made much headway in sharing his faith with the tribe and decided that he would pray for Jesus to spare his kids and told the chief and elders of the tribe to watch how Jesus would spare his kids. He figured this would make an impact on the tribe. Unfortunately, God works in his own timing and soon the missionaries' children each became ill and finally died. Not only did the missionary suffer the pain of losing his children, but his job was now irreparably damaged by the claim that he'd made. He was in emotional pain and embarrassed professionally. As he packed up his belongings in preparation to leave the tribe and return home, there was a knock on his door. He answered it to see the chief at the door and the main tribe elders behind him. The chief asked if the missionary would tell him about this man Jesus. The missionary was shocked and asked the chief why after years of trying to share his faith, that the chief would want to hear about it now after Jesus did not save his children from the plague. The chief said that the tribesman's children died and they buried them knowing that they would never see them again. They then watched as the missionaries' children got sick and died and how the missionary buried his children with the hope that he would see them again in Heaven. It was the hope that the missionary showed that made the tribesmen want to know about Jesus. It is what sets us apart from other religions. Hope. And that hope comes from the promise that Jesus made to us when he was crucified and died on the cross..for our lives and for our sins. It is an amazing gift.
Jennifer called me last night to wish me a Happy Easter. It was Easter morning in Kuwait. I hadn't talked to her since Super Bowl Sunday and it was great getting caught up with her. It turns out that the Army, in its unending wisdom, has raised the promotion points and Jennifer will not be promoted until May now. She and Ryan have called it quits. It was just too hard to carry on a relationship from Georgia and Kuwait. Jennifer was hoping to go to church yesterday and is doing great. She has a buddy in Kuwait who is really pushing her to get in the best shape of her life and she is getting really buff, with big arms and legs, but she still weighs just 106 pounds. She may be tiny, but she's no pushover. It was really a delight to talk to her. She wants to start college when she gets home and is determined to be a teacher. She hates to throw all of her fibre optics training away, but she feels lead to be a teacher. I think it's great to have your life ahead of you at 24 and make of it what you want. More power to her.
Work is excellerating as I've now hired a new Underwriting Assistant. Anthony (my assistant) has taken the empty window office next to Gwen and we are ready to hire a new typist as our typist is being promoted to be the Underwriting Assistant for the Modesto service office. Gail is doing the screeneing interviews and I will meet the screened candidates this week and make an offer. The new Underwriting Assistant comes from Progressive Insurance in the building next door to ours. I had to pay her a little more money than we budgeted, but she seems to be a real sparkplug. She will be able to hold her own with the other assistants in the office, who are all strong headed women. Natasha will work for Gwen and I will have Gwen's assistant Connie assist me. I don't have time to wet nurse a new assistant with my production responsibilities as well as my management responsibilities. Connie is the most knowledgable assistant in the office and I will help train her to take over an underwriting desk in the future.
I did play golf this weekend. I had an extended weekend with Good Friday off and played golf at the Hiddenbrooke Resort in Vallejo on Friday. I shot an 84 and had a solid day of golf. My host is not much of a golfer, in fact he only kept score on the three holes that he shot par or better, so he beat me 13 to 84. I think I hit the ball a little better than him overall.
Mark Konrad invited me to play golf yesterday at 6:36 a.m. I was in a funk all morning and shot one of my worst rounds in recent memory, shooting 48+44= 92 and paying Mark $12. I won $1 from our third player, but it was a bust for me. I was cold in the morning and had to play with a coat on and I hate that. Friday was 75 degrees and sunny. Saturday was a bit breezy and cool. I was quick to post the round when we finished as that 92 may knock out a round in the seventies.
It is a pleasure to have my wife home and the saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" is so true. I hope you cherish those around you that you love. Until next week, stay strong in the Lord and He will sustain you. Ciao.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Back from the Land of the Sun
I'm back and this will be but a quick update to the blog as we are off tomorrow for Good Friday. We get next to no holidays and this Jewish company takes off Good Friday? The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Darla and the boys are still in wet and rainy Tijuana. I've got a feeling it's been a bit miserable living in tents and working all day in wet and muddy conditions. They will be exhausted when they get home. I almost feel guilty about my trip to Phoenix and the 78 degree warm and wonderful weather. I said Almost. What I can't understand is how Dad and Shirley gave up the luxury of the warm and sunny confines of Phoenix and Sun City. I know the family is in Vancouver, but the weather is so ideal in Phoenix this time of year.
I was able to catch a Spring Training game between San Francisco (my team) and Oakland at Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Spring Training home of the A's). I was further pleased to see that both teams had their ace pitchers starting. Jason Schmidt for the Giants and Barry Zito for the A's. The only conclusion from the game is that Zito is closer to ready to start the season than Schmidt. Jason gave up three home runs and the Giants went down to defeat 17-6. It was sunny and hot and I relaxed out on the grass in left field. Well, not "in" left field, but close to it. I left in the fourth inning and returned to the hotel to get in some pool time. I brought a book, but it turned out to be no more than a prop as I was quickly asleep and slept away a good portion of the afternoon on Sunday. The sun felt good and the weather was absolutely ideal. I stayed at the Scottsdale Resort and Convention center.
The convention was put on by Scottsdale Insurance and is a first class affair. They hire singers, comedians, magicians and performers to keep us entertained. This years' theme was "Catch a Rising star" and they had celebrity lookalikes throughout the crowd. I saw Red Skelton, Tootsie, Jim Carey, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader. It was fun and very well done. The juggling act played on a theme of juggling people and they actually took three people and suspended them from harnesses and wires and juggled them like you would balls and eventually had them moving in sync and juggled balls between them. It was great. They also had a full blown casino with slots, roulette, blackjack, craps and poker. It was, as usual, a really fun event. Burns and Wilcox was able to get all of our people together on Monday afternoon for a special meeting and we went over negotiation skills. I had to pass on an invitation to play golf at Twisted Stick golf course to meet with the Burns and Wilcox folks, but then they do pay my salary.
I am in the process of hiring two new people for the office and getting Modesto set up. The problem is that I'm having trouble keeping up with my production responsibilities as well. I've shared some of my frustrations with Management and we've agreed on a date of October for the company to either move me up to Branch Manager or move in another direction. It is a formality as far as I'm concerned as I've earned the job, but I couldn't continue to work as the acting BM without additional compensation. The Branch Manager gets paid a bonus based on the branch results whereas I now get paid on my own results and production. Doing the Manager duties is hurting my production and I'm getting a little frustrated. They know where I stand and the office is running so much better now than it was under Bill's leadership. The only negative feedback I got from the Branch Development Director is that people in my office seem too happy and I need to grow a tougher exterior. I took the input as what it is, but I'm proud that the staff is engaged in their work and happy to be here. That was not the case under Bill Sousa. The atmosphere has changed and I can be tough when it is called for, but I prefer to treat my people as professionals and let them do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
The Modesto office just got keys to their facility on Monday and will get furniture and phones tomorrow. Their computers will get there today and they will have the IT wiring done by Wednesday of next week. They are anxious to get working, but we are still getting them up and running.
I have two interviews this afternoon for the Assistant Underwriter position and I finally turned the hiring of the typist position over to Gail in the office and she is taking the ball on that project.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile, but I know that she is getting ready to physically move with her unit from one base to another in Kuwait. Her new base will be closer to the pool, so she is happy with the arrangement. She is getting ready for her promotion ceremony and has been working out like a little fiend. Jen.... call me. Pretend my name is Ryan.
I did play golf in Phoenix, but it was a scramble and I was the only golfer in the group. I was hitting the ball well, but the weight of carrying three non-golfers was too much. We shot a 75 and the winners had 60. They, of course, were a stacked team with two players that played college golf. Nice for them. I had a good time.
Well, that was short and sweet and I was interrupted about ten times with employees either saying hello or wanting to go over accounts that need my attention. I need to get on with my day. Be well and embrace the gift that is celebrated this weekend. The gift of eternal life in our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Darla and the boys are still in wet and rainy Tijuana. I've got a feeling it's been a bit miserable living in tents and working all day in wet and muddy conditions. They will be exhausted when they get home. I almost feel guilty about my trip to Phoenix and the 78 degree warm and wonderful weather. I said Almost. What I can't understand is how Dad and Shirley gave up the luxury of the warm and sunny confines of Phoenix and Sun City. I know the family is in Vancouver, but the weather is so ideal in Phoenix this time of year.
I was able to catch a Spring Training game between San Francisco (my team) and Oakland at Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Spring Training home of the A's). I was further pleased to see that both teams had their ace pitchers starting. Jason Schmidt for the Giants and Barry Zito for the A's. The only conclusion from the game is that Zito is closer to ready to start the season than Schmidt. Jason gave up three home runs and the Giants went down to defeat 17-6. It was sunny and hot and I relaxed out on the grass in left field. Well, not "in" left field, but close to it. I left in the fourth inning and returned to the hotel to get in some pool time. I brought a book, but it turned out to be no more than a prop as I was quickly asleep and slept away a good portion of the afternoon on Sunday. The sun felt good and the weather was absolutely ideal. I stayed at the Scottsdale Resort and Convention center.
The convention was put on by Scottsdale Insurance and is a first class affair. They hire singers, comedians, magicians and performers to keep us entertained. This years' theme was "Catch a Rising star" and they had celebrity lookalikes throughout the crowd. I saw Red Skelton, Tootsie, Jim Carey, Joan Rivers, Joan Collins, Marilyn Monroe and Darth Vader. It was fun and very well done. The juggling act played on a theme of juggling people and they actually took three people and suspended them from harnesses and wires and juggled them like you would balls and eventually had them moving in sync and juggled balls between them. It was great. They also had a full blown casino with slots, roulette, blackjack, craps and poker. It was, as usual, a really fun event. Burns and Wilcox was able to get all of our people together on Monday afternoon for a special meeting and we went over negotiation skills. I had to pass on an invitation to play golf at Twisted Stick golf course to meet with the Burns and Wilcox folks, but then they do pay my salary.
I am in the process of hiring two new people for the office and getting Modesto set up. The problem is that I'm having trouble keeping up with my production responsibilities as well. I've shared some of my frustrations with Management and we've agreed on a date of October for the company to either move me up to Branch Manager or move in another direction. It is a formality as far as I'm concerned as I've earned the job, but I couldn't continue to work as the acting BM without additional compensation. The Branch Manager gets paid a bonus based on the branch results whereas I now get paid on my own results and production. Doing the Manager duties is hurting my production and I'm getting a little frustrated. They know where I stand and the office is running so much better now than it was under Bill's leadership. The only negative feedback I got from the Branch Development Director is that people in my office seem too happy and I need to grow a tougher exterior. I took the input as what it is, but I'm proud that the staff is engaged in their work and happy to be here. That was not the case under Bill Sousa. The atmosphere has changed and I can be tough when it is called for, but I prefer to treat my people as professionals and let them do their jobs to the best of their abilities.
The Modesto office just got keys to their facility on Monday and will get furniture and phones tomorrow. Their computers will get there today and they will have the IT wiring done by Wednesday of next week. They are anxious to get working, but we are still getting them up and running.
I have two interviews this afternoon for the Assistant Underwriter position and I finally turned the hiring of the typist position over to Gail in the office and she is taking the ball on that project.
I haven't heard from Jennifer for awhile, but I know that she is getting ready to physically move with her unit from one base to another in Kuwait. Her new base will be closer to the pool, so she is happy with the arrangement. She is getting ready for her promotion ceremony and has been working out like a little fiend. Jen.... call me. Pretend my name is Ryan.
I did play golf in Phoenix, but it was a scramble and I was the only golfer in the group. I was hitting the ball well, but the weight of carrying three non-golfers was too much. We shot a 75 and the winners had 60. They, of course, were a stacked team with two players that played college golf. Nice for them. I had a good time.
Well, that was short and sweet and I was interrupted about ten times with employees either saying hello or wanting to go over accounts that need my attention. I need to get on with my day. Be well and embrace the gift that is celebrated this weekend. The gift of eternal life in our Lord and Savious, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Unhappy with Myself
I had a friend pass away on my birthday this weekend. Sid was the ripe old age of 92 and I'm ashamed to admit that my friendship had lagged with him over the last few years. Sid was suffering from the onset of Alzheimers and it was difficult to visit with him in his last few years. I would have to repeat stories 3 or 4 times. We would set up to have breakfast together and he'd have already eaten when I got there. That sort of thing. I still enjoyed seeing Sid, but the visits were fewer and far between as the years lingered. Sid had a knowledge of our Lord, but I'm not sure of his walk and for that I should be ashamed. He was a great friend and mentor for me in my insurance career and he outlived his beloved wife, Jeanne, by seven years (almost to the day). I last saw Sid in January and I hate to admit, but I looked for his name everyday in the obituaries. That's where I found him this morning. I'll miss him and hope that he is in the embrace of our Saviour.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Golf, Golf and...more Golf?
What a weekend. The temperatures hit 86 degrees on Friday and I was on the golf course with good friends and a cold bottle of Corona. You can't beat that with a stick. I went and visited a new agent in Turlock on Friday morning and then went to Oakdale, a small retirement enclave east of Modesto, and played golf at Oakdale Country Club. The locals would argue with my description of Oakdale, they have a Hershey chocolate plant and a large PG&E plant. The thing is, the town is west of Sonora and a favorite retirement spot for Bay Area transplants, who sell their tract homes for $850,000 and buy a 4,500 square foot dream home for $750,000 in Oakdale. I shot 40+46=86 on Friday and won all of the money from Jerry and Trent, who struggled to 93 and 97 respectively. The back nine falloff had more to do with the sun and the brews than any thing else. I had a great time and we sat in the bar afterward and played dice for an hour. I left my 8-iron at Oakdale and had to use Daniel's Ben Hogan 8-iron over the weekend. I'll be in Modesto Thursday or Friday meeting with the service center employees and will take a side trip up to Oakdale to pick up my club.
Friday night, I met Darla and the boys at Earl and Frances' house in Linden. Earl needed some help on the farm pruning the trees and our two six footers fit the bill. He paid them $100 each for a day's labor. We ate pizza and relaxed. We left the boys and our Explorer at the house and headed back to Roseville.
I played in the 54 hole tournament Day 2 & 3 on Saturday and Sunday. Don Pangburn and I teamed up to shoot a net 58 in the scramble (14 under) on Saturday and 63 (9 under) in the scotch tournament on Sunday. We made up a lot of ground after our first round 66 and finished in the top third of the field and in the money. Daniel's 8-iron even got me second closest to the pin on Sunday at 9 feet, 7 inches. The temperatures stayed warm over the weekend and we had 84 degrees on Saturday and 80 degrees yesterday. There is a slight breeze today and it expected to top out at 78 degrees. Nice weather.
I didn't realize how much sun I'd had over the weekend until Saturday night when I slipped into the hot tub to soak away the muscle strains and pains of two days of golf. It was like slipping into a large vat of scalding hot oil as the pins and needles of my sunburn made themselves evident. I made sure to coat myself liberally with SPF 30 sunscreen on Sunday to aver further damage.
One of the drawbacks to the early Spring is an early bout with allergies. My allergies are to grass pollens and tree pollens and they are rampant. Friday I was suffering itchy, watery eyes and a dripping nose. I pounded Chlor-Trimetron and still the tap was running in my eyes and nose. Saturday, the drill started again with sneezing, watery eyes and the works. Don, my partner, gave me a couple of shots of his prescription allergy medication, a nose spray called Durnaze and it was magic. The draining stopped, the sneezing stopped, and I was fine. On the golf course in the middle of growing grass and a forest of blooming trees. Don has several bottles of the prescription and gave me one for my golf bag and I will take it to my doctor and demand that he write me a prescription for this golden remedy.
We had Cora and Mel over for dinner on Saturday night, barbecued tri-tip and all of the fixins. Mel and Cora are from the Phillipines and have very defined boundaries for their kids. It is basically old school discipline and the children are to be seen and not heard. Their kids have grown up in the United States and are rebelling. We had such a refreshing visit with them and had Daniel and David at the dinner table with us. Cora has been singing the praises of our boys ever since. She thinks they are so well behaved and grown up and wishes that she'd brought her kids on Saturday night. We told them to bring them, but again it is culturally not something that they are comfortable with. Suddenly, Cora wants to get the families together now. The boys absolutely loved Cora and Mel and found their stories of the Phillipines and the Marcos regime fascinating. One of Mel's best friends in the Phillipines is Marcos' oldest son.
My only regret of the weekend was in not getting to talk to Jennifer. She called to wish me a Happy Birthday, but of course, I was on the golf course. She left a nice message and seems to be doing well, although she is rather homesick. She has updated her blog and you can access it at the bottom of this page.
Darla and the boys are off to Mexico this weekend to build houses for the less fortunate. I, in turn, will fly off to Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday for some sun, golf and a little business on the side. This epistle will be late as I will be away from my keyboard until Thursday. I will update you then on the ongoing saga of Life with the Lyons in Northern California. I hope you all are hale, hearty and in touch with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Friday night, I met Darla and the boys at Earl and Frances' house in Linden. Earl needed some help on the farm pruning the trees and our two six footers fit the bill. He paid them $100 each for a day's labor. We ate pizza and relaxed. We left the boys and our Explorer at the house and headed back to Roseville.
I played in the 54 hole tournament Day 2 & 3 on Saturday and Sunday. Don Pangburn and I teamed up to shoot a net 58 in the scramble (14 under) on Saturday and 63 (9 under) in the scotch tournament on Sunday. We made up a lot of ground after our first round 66 and finished in the top third of the field and in the money. Daniel's 8-iron even got me second closest to the pin on Sunday at 9 feet, 7 inches. The temperatures stayed warm over the weekend and we had 84 degrees on Saturday and 80 degrees yesterday. There is a slight breeze today and it expected to top out at 78 degrees. Nice weather.
I didn't realize how much sun I'd had over the weekend until Saturday night when I slipped into the hot tub to soak away the muscle strains and pains of two days of golf. It was like slipping into a large vat of scalding hot oil as the pins and needles of my sunburn made themselves evident. I made sure to coat myself liberally with SPF 30 sunscreen on Sunday to aver further damage.
One of the drawbacks to the early Spring is an early bout with allergies. My allergies are to grass pollens and tree pollens and they are rampant. Friday I was suffering itchy, watery eyes and a dripping nose. I pounded Chlor-Trimetron and still the tap was running in my eyes and nose. Saturday, the drill started again with sneezing, watery eyes and the works. Don, my partner, gave me a couple of shots of his prescription allergy medication, a nose spray called Durnaze and it was magic. The draining stopped, the sneezing stopped, and I was fine. On the golf course in the middle of growing grass and a forest of blooming trees. Don has several bottles of the prescription and gave me one for my golf bag and I will take it to my doctor and demand that he write me a prescription for this golden remedy.
We had Cora and Mel over for dinner on Saturday night, barbecued tri-tip and all of the fixins. Mel and Cora are from the Phillipines and have very defined boundaries for their kids. It is basically old school discipline and the children are to be seen and not heard. Their kids have grown up in the United States and are rebelling. We had such a refreshing visit with them and had Daniel and David at the dinner table with us. Cora has been singing the praises of our boys ever since. She thinks they are so well behaved and grown up and wishes that she'd brought her kids on Saturday night. We told them to bring them, but again it is culturally not something that they are comfortable with. Suddenly, Cora wants to get the families together now. The boys absolutely loved Cora and Mel and found their stories of the Phillipines and the Marcos regime fascinating. One of Mel's best friends in the Phillipines is Marcos' oldest son.
My only regret of the weekend was in not getting to talk to Jennifer. She called to wish me a Happy Birthday, but of course, I was on the golf course. She left a nice message and seems to be doing well, although she is rather homesick. She has updated her blog and you can access it at the bottom of this page.
Darla and the boys are off to Mexico this weekend to build houses for the less fortunate. I, in turn, will fly off to Scottsdale, Arizona on Saturday for some sun, golf and a little business on the side. This epistle will be late as I will be away from my keyboard until Thursday. I will update you then on the ongoing saga of Life with the Lyons in Northern California. I hope you all are hale, hearty and in touch with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Monday, March 07, 2005
Shorts, Sunscreen and Smiles
It was a Spring Fever weekend with blue skies and warm temperatures bringing out the shorts, tank tops and shark meat white skin to the park across the street and to the golf course, tennis courts and bike trails of Sacramento. After all of the rain that we've seen (122% of normal to date), the sun and the warm temperatures were a welcome respite. It was 72 degrees on Saturday and 75 degrees yesterday and it should continue to warm up to the point that it will top 80 degrees by Thursday and Friday. I have golf planned on Friday, Saturday and Sunday next weekend. Normally I wouldn't get away with it, but it is my birthday weekend and I'll play that trump card for all it's worth.
It is also Dad's birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday, Dad. I'm glad you had a second chance at happiness with Shirley and she has been a blessing not only to your life, but to ours as well. You don't need any presents as you have the ultimate one that you are sharing your life with, but Darla and I have sent a little something something your way. The gift is a reminder of my passion in life and will likely arrive late as I ordered them on the internet and we haven't had much luck with you and technology as I recall.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in several weeks, but again, I will play the birthday card and expect to hear from her one day this week. I am so proud of her accomplishments in the military and I know how tough it is for women in our military. There is a an article in today's paper entitled "Sexual Combat" and it talks about the real war that female soldiers fight against innuendos and the real threat of rape by one of your own people. Jennifer talked about it when she was home, how you have to make sure you are in a group at all times and be aware of the real threat of being preyed on by the male soldiers. It's a shame, but a reality that every female soldier has to face and the problem is much worse in Iraq, Kuwait and Aghanistan. I look forward to her coming home this year. The link to this article is: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/women_at_war/story/12523663p-13379149c.html
Darla's Grampa, Andy, and his wife have sold their home and moved into a retirement village in Ripon. Darla, Alicia and their parents have been working hard to get him moved, having garage sales and working to clean up the house after the move. Like many of the older generation, Andy and Liz had cabinets full of food, cleaning products, supplies and stuff. Many of the older generation live with extras that could be used to supply a bomb shelter. Darla brought home boxes of cleaning supplies, many of which are not even manufactured anymore. They were in the back of the cabinet with all of the newer supplies jammed in front. Daniel was finally able to discard his old twin bed which barely contained his 6'2" body for a new queen sized bed that was in Andy's guest room. Andy and Liz are now in an apartment and it will take some adjustment as Andy loved his garden and tinkering at his home. He is in his mid-eighties and has had health issues recently (as has Liz) and we all feel better that they are in a home with supervision, regular meals and some supervised activities. They will learn to truly enjoy it over time as Gramp Lyon did when they moved from their home to the condo. I think Gramp had some of the best years of his life at the condo complex.
I did play poker on Friday night and golf on Saturday. I lost about $40 at poker ( I was due to lose having won the last three or four games). We had a blast. Saturday I played in the first round of a three day tournament. The tournament is two man teams and we play best ball the first day, a scramble the second and a scotch (alternate shot) the last day. I'm playing with Don Pangburn and we managed a 66 on Saturday with neither of us playing our "A" games. The leaders are at 59, but the toughest part of the tournament is Sunday, so we are still well in the running.
As I mentioned, I will play golf Friday with my old friend, Trent Davis, at his country club in Oakdale (outside of Modesto). I'll go see an agent in Tracy on Friday morning and meet Trent for lunch in Oakdale and play golf in the afternoon. We are both tremendously competitive and for some reason I always agree to play him at his home course.
Darla and I went to the park across the street from our house yesterday. We took a blanket and books and some sodas. I no sooner got there than I fell asleep in the sun. I woke up to the sound of baseball players yelling at the diamond behind me. The coach was having the kids run the bases and he was yelling for them to "pump their arms" as they ran. Darla was nowhere to be found and I soon saw her in the distance being pulled along by Buddy, our Golden Retreiver. Darla had thought that Buddy would come over and lay down quietly on the blanket and be a perfect dog. In truth he was hyper, wouldn't sit down and she finally took him back home after he spilled a bowl of water on me as he jumped around uncontrollably.
Darla starts teaching a scrapbooking class tonight at the local community college extention center. She sells scrapbooking supplies, etc on the side and thought this would be a good way to increase her customer base. It is a three week class that will help her students organize their pictures into a scrapbook. I will be on my own at the 40 Days of Purpose life group for the next two weeks. We will take a one week break over Easter. Darla will be in Mexico with the kids and I will be in Arizona.
You should have listened to me and bought shares of USTT, the company that manufactures internet kiosks, cashless vending machines and VendingMiser energy efficient vending machine technology. I touted the stock at $.105 and it hit $.24 today. It's not too late, but I've more than doubled my money on 25000 shares. Penny stocks are risky, but can sure pan out. Of course if you bought Krispy Kreme at $12, it is now at $7.55. I have 1000 shares at an average cost of just over $7. Hey, it's the stock market. Like riding a roller coaster.
Well, I better get to work. I have the two ladies from Modesto starting today and will be training them this week. They are opening a new service center office in Modesto and they will report to me. Be well. Ciao.
It is also Dad's birthday on Wednesday. Happy birthday, Dad. I'm glad you had a second chance at happiness with Shirley and she has been a blessing not only to your life, but to ours as well. You don't need any presents as you have the ultimate one that you are sharing your life with, but Darla and I have sent a little something something your way. The gift is a reminder of my passion in life and will likely arrive late as I ordered them on the internet and we haven't had much luck with you and technology as I recall.
I haven't heard from Jennifer in several weeks, but again, I will play the birthday card and expect to hear from her one day this week. I am so proud of her accomplishments in the military and I know how tough it is for women in our military. There is a an article in today's paper entitled "Sexual Combat" and it talks about the real war that female soldiers fight against innuendos and the real threat of rape by one of your own people. Jennifer talked about it when she was home, how you have to make sure you are in a group at all times and be aware of the real threat of being preyed on by the male soldiers. It's a shame, but a reality that every female soldier has to face and the problem is much worse in Iraq, Kuwait and Aghanistan. I look forward to her coming home this year. The link to this article is: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/projects/women_at_war/story/12523663p-13379149c.html
Darla's Grampa, Andy, and his wife have sold their home and moved into a retirement village in Ripon. Darla, Alicia and their parents have been working hard to get him moved, having garage sales and working to clean up the house after the move. Like many of the older generation, Andy and Liz had cabinets full of food, cleaning products, supplies and stuff. Many of the older generation live with extras that could be used to supply a bomb shelter. Darla brought home boxes of cleaning supplies, many of which are not even manufactured anymore. They were in the back of the cabinet with all of the newer supplies jammed in front. Daniel was finally able to discard his old twin bed which barely contained his 6'2" body for a new queen sized bed that was in Andy's guest room. Andy and Liz are now in an apartment and it will take some adjustment as Andy loved his garden and tinkering at his home. He is in his mid-eighties and has had health issues recently (as has Liz) and we all feel better that they are in a home with supervision, regular meals and some supervised activities. They will learn to truly enjoy it over time as Gramp Lyon did when they moved from their home to the condo. I think Gramp had some of the best years of his life at the condo complex.
I did play poker on Friday night and golf on Saturday. I lost about $40 at poker ( I was due to lose having won the last three or four games). We had a blast. Saturday I played in the first round of a three day tournament. The tournament is two man teams and we play best ball the first day, a scramble the second and a scotch (alternate shot) the last day. I'm playing with Don Pangburn and we managed a 66 on Saturday with neither of us playing our "A" games. The leaders are at 59, but the toughest part of the tournament is Sunday, so we are still well in the running.
As I mentioned, I will play golf Friday with my old friend, Trent Davis, at his country club in Oakdale (outside of Modesto). I'll go see an agent in Tracy on Friday morning and meet Trent for lunch in Oakdale and play golf in the afternoon. We are both tremendously competitive and for some reason I always agree to play him at his home course.
Darla and I went to the park across the street from our house yesterday. We took a blanket and books and some sodas. I no sooner got there than I fell asleep in the sun. I woke up to the sound of baseball players yelling at the diamond behind me. The coach was having the kids run the bases and he was yelling for them to "pump their arms" as they ran. Darla was nowhere to be found and I soon saw her in the distance being pulled along by Buddy, our Golden Retreiver. Darla had thought that Buddy would come over and lay down quietly on the blanket and be a perfect dog. In truth he was hyper, wouldn't sit down and she finally took him back home after he spilled a bowl of water on me as he jumped around uncontrollably.
Darla starts teaching a scrapbooking class tonight at the local community college extention center. She sells scrapbooking supplies, etc on the side and thought this would be a good way to increase her customer base. It is a three week class that will help her students organize their pictures into a scrapbook. I will be on my own at the 40 Days of Purpose life group for the next two weeks. We will take a one week break over Easter. Darla will be in Mexico with the kids and I will be in Arizona.
You should have listened to me and bought shares of USTT, the company that manufactures internet kiosks, cashless vending machines and VendingMiser energy efficient vending machine technology. I touted the stock at $.105 and it hit $.24 today. It's not too late, but I've more than doubled my money on 25000 shares. Penny stocks are risky, but can sure pan out. Of course if you bought Krispy Kreme at $12, it is now at $7.55. I have 1000 shares at an average cost of just over $7. Hey, it's the stock market. Like riding a roller coaster.
Well, I better get to work. I have the two ladies from Modesto starting today and will be training them this week. They are opening a new service center office in Modesto and they will report to me. Be well. Ciao.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Urban Renewal
It is Monday morning, the day after a good soaking rainstorm. The sun is out, the sky is blue, the grass is green and the trees are blooming. I have two fruitless cherry trees (a misnomer if there ever was one) that are in their pink and white glory right now. I drove into the office this morning albeit a bit late by my standards and the sun was already out and I had to use my sunglasses instead of my headlights. It is true that the dead of Winter is ready to give way to the hope and the beauty of Spring. I was just recently getting to work and leaving work in darkness and now I leave for work at sunrise and leave for home at sunset. Soon I will have sun on both ends of my day and I look forward to it. I have seen some awesome sunrises recently with the clouds on the horizon as well as some incredible sunsets with purples, reds and golds to light up the sky. Nice.
We had a great weekend with the boys. David's basketball team won their first round playoff game with an inspired effort. That win bought them the opportunity to play Natomas for a third time. They are the league champions and beat us twice in the regular season, although we had sizable leads in both games only to lose to a better coached and more athletic squad. This time was different, but we still lost. Natomas played solid basketball from the opening tip and lead almost the entire contest. They had a 7 point lead with just over five minutes left before Woodcreek went on a furious rally lead by a great defensive effort. We scored the next eight points to take a one point lead at 41-40 with under a minute left. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and Natomas scored twice to win 44-41. Our center, Ike Okouye had a layup fall out that would have given us the lead. They stole an inbounds pass after they scored to go up 42-41 and hit both free throws. Our effort to tie with a three pointer at the end ended up short and the game ended and David's Senior season and high school career came to a sudden and abrupt end. There was a nice picture of David driving for a basket in the game in the local paper, but the online version doesn't include pictures. Here is the story: http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles/2005/02/26/sports/01third.txt
Darla and I took the boys to dinner at Buca Di Pepo on Saturday night. It is an Italian restaurant that serves family style. We enjoyed Chicken Marsala, Lasagna, and a medley of baked pasta dishes. We had a gift certificate that we won at the RGC Christmas party, so it was even better for me. Darla had a CPR class all day on Saturday and got home in time to go to dinner with us.
I, of course, played golf on Sunday. I won't say who I played with because of an incident that happened while we were playing. All of the guys that I played with are good friends and it was nice to get together again and play some golf. One of the guys had a stellar front nine and won most of the money....in fact he won skins on the first seven holes. Unfortunately, his day turned bad from there and he went on to have a horrendous round of golf. He shot 42 on the front and 52 on the back. He was pulling putts and on one hole he decelerated on a three- foot putt to win a skin and hit the ball about one foot. He was not happy and muttering to himself as he walked off the green. One of his best friends told him that he needed to stop "choking". The guy went off and started yelling at his buddy. I had to step between them. He said it was horrible to tell a guy that he was "choking" in the middle of the round and dropped a few expletives. Again, I told him to settle down, that we are all friends out for a fun round of golf. He asked me if I thought it was okay to tell someone they were choking in the middle. I'd about had it with him by then and told him that it was okay to say IF it was true and it was. He muddled his way throught the end of the round, three putting all three of the last holes. When it came time to settle up, he decided to go off on his friend again, literally screaming at him. It was embarassing to watch this guy melt down on the golf course. I stepped between them and put my arm around his back to move him away and he slapped at my hand. I got right in his face and told him to settle down. We've all had bad rounds and he needed to get over it. He didn't and I had to calm his friend down afterward. He was really upset over the way he was treated and needed to vent. We talked out in the parking lot for about ten minuts and left. I expect an apology from this guy this week. He was out of control and obviously has some anger control issues. His anger was misplaced at his friend, when he should have been upset with himself. I was fine, I birdied the last hole and won $16 in skin money from the group. I struggled on the front side with the wet conditions and shot 45, but pulled it together on the back and shot 41 for an 86. It's the third straight time I've shot 86 and I'm anxious to get that down closer to 80 in the near future.
I've had a sore muscle between my shoulder blades and running up to my neck for about a week. I first felt it last weekend when I played golf in the two day tournament. God forbid that my back problems return. It hasn't been too bad, but golf exacerbates the problem. I was so looking forward to the hot tub last night after golf, but the rains came in about 5:30 and by mid evening it was a torrent. Darla suggested that we go in the spa and take a golf umbrella and it took no arm twisting to get me out there. We no sooner got settled in the tub when a hard squall hit and we sat there under the Wilson umbrella trying to stay dry and keep our towels from getting soaked at the same time. I am blessed to have an adventuresome wife. We had a good laugh as the rain was pounding off the umbrella and we sat enjoying a good soak in the tub.
Work continues to be a source of stress, but also of some accomplishment. We close February today and we will again make a small profit this month. The home office is just closing a deal to bring two of the underwriters from Richter Robb over to Burns and Wilcox as a satellite office. I worked at Richter Robb for three months before jumping ship to Burns and Wilcox. Their office will be in Modesto and they will be a satellite office reporting to the Sacramento office. The two women that are coming over are the two main producers in the home office and handle over $19,000,000 in premium volume. I talked to Dad and he expects Richter Robb to counter, but I just talked to our Underwriting Vice President and he told me that the two women are primed to move. They have already picked out office space and will quit tomorrow. The kicker here is that the owner of Richter Robb has repeatedly lowballed these gals on both salary and income and they know what kind of money they can make here at BW.
I did talk to Dad and a big congratulations to him on taking 1st and 3rd place with his two cars at the Abbottsford Custom Car Show. He said he made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up the cars and even in classifying the '39 in the modified category rather than in the stock division, but 1st and 3rd in a show that had over 300 cars, not bad. Like a hole in one in your first round of golf. He has been invited to bring his cars up to the Custom Car show in Spokane, Washington the end of March and will do so. The promoter of the show was in Abbottsford and wants Dad's cars for his show. Big props to the old man. Nice job, Dad. Shirley had helped decorate the cars putting a cooler of Cherry Cola and a bowl of plastic cherries in the trunk of the 39 for atmosphere. Funny, but Dad saw Noreen, our cousin and his niece at the show. She didn't know that Dad would be there and saw his name as the owner of the '39 and '46. They were able to catch up and she was with her husband, Brent and some friends, just out for a day at the car show. Small world.
I just checked Jennifer's blog and she passed the promotion board. You go, girl. We'll be soon calling her Sergeant Lyon. Iknow she's frustrated with her role as primary armorer, but it kept her out of Iraq. She volunteered to return to Iraq, but they turned her down as they need her on site to issue the weapons. Dad here is thrilled that they wouldn't let her return to the site of car bombings and insurgents trying to kill all Americans. Stay put there in Kuwait, Jen. In the sunshine and out of harms way. Congratulations, Jennifer. You are my hero.
Well, I've got to get on with my day. We close the books at noon today and I've got to see if I can get some more money booked before we close. I hope all is well with each of you. Give a thumbs up to the Lord. As they say, if you were born once, you'll die twice, but if you are born twice, you'll die but one time. Praise God. Ciao.
We had a great weekend with the boys. David's basketball team won their first round playoff game with an inspired effort. That win bought them the opportunity to play Natomas for a third time. They are the league champions and beat us twice in the regular season, although we had sizable leads in both games only to lose to a better coached and more athletic squad. This time was different, but we still lost. Natomas played solid basketball from the opening tip and lead almost the entire contest. They had a 7 point lead with just over five minutes left before Woodcreek went on a furious rally lead by a great defensive effort. We scored the next eight points to take a one point lead at 41-40 with under a minute left. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and Natomas scored twice to win 44-41. Our center, Ike Okouye had a layup fall out that would have given us the lead. They stole an inbounds pass after they scored to go up 42-41 and hit both free throws. Our effort to tie with a three pointer at the end ended up short and the game ended and David's Senior season and high school career came to a sudden and abrupt end. There was a nice picture of David driving for a basket in the game in the local paper, but the online version doesn't include pictures. Here is the story: http://www.thepresstribune.com/articles/2005/02/26/sports/01third.txt
Darla and I took the boys to dinner at Buca Di Pepo on Saturday night. It is an Italian restaurant that serves family style. We enjoyed Chicken Marsala, Lasagna, and a medley of baked pasta dishes. We had a gift certificate that we won at the RGC Christmas party, so it was even better for me. Darla had a CPR class all day on Saturday and got home in time to go to dinner with us.
I, of course, played golf on Sunday. I won't say who I played with because of an incident that happened while we were playing. All of the guys that I played with are good friends and it was nice to get together again and play some golf. One of the guys had a stellar front nine and won most of the money....in fact he won skins on the first seven holes. Unfortunately, his day turned bad from there and he went on to have a horrendous round of golf. He shot 42 on the front and 52 on the back. He was pulling putts and on one hole he decelerated on a three- foot putt to win a skin and hit the ball about one foot. He was not happy and muttering to himself as he walked off the green. One of his best friends told him that he needed to stop "choking". The guy went off and started yelling at his buddy. I had to step between them. He said it was horrible to tell a guy that he was "choking" in the middle of the round and dropped a few expletives. Again, I told him to settle down, that we are all friends out for a fun round of golf. He asked me if I thought it was okay to tell someone they were choking in the middle. I'd about had it with him by then and told him that it was okay to say IF it was true and it was. He muddled his way throught the end of the round, three putting all three of the last holes. When it came time to settle up, he decided to go off on his friend again, literally screaming at him. It was embarassing to watch this guy melt down on the golf course. I stepped between them and put my arm around his back to move him away and he slapped at my hand. I got right in his face and told him to settle down. We've all had bad rounds and he needed to get over it. He didn't and I had to calm his friend down afterward. He was really upset over the way he was treated and needed to vent. We talked out in the parking lot for about ten minuts and left. I expect an apology from this guy this week. He was out of control and obviously has some anger control issues. His anger was misplaced at his friend, when he should have been upset with himself. I was fine, I birdied the last hole and won $16 in skin money from the group. I struggled on the front side with the wet conditions and shot 45, but pulled it together on the back and shot 41 for an 86. It's the third straight time I've shot 86 and I'm anxious to get that down closer to 80 in the near future.
I've had a sore muscle between my shoulder blades and running up to my neck for about a week. I first felt it last weekend when I played golf in the two day tournament. God forbid that my back problems return. It hasn't been too bad, but golf exacerbates the problem. I was so looking forward to the hot tub last night after golf, but the rains came in about 5:30 and by mid evening it was a torrent. Darla suggested that we go in the spa and take a golf umbrella and it took no arm twisting to get me out there. We no sooner got settled in the tub when a hard squall hit and we sat there under the Wilson umbrella trying to stay dry and keep our towels from getting soaked at the same time. I am blessed to have an adventuresome wife. We had a good laugh as the rain was pounding off the umbrella and we sat enjoying a good soak in the tub.
Work continues to be a source of stress, but also of some accomplishment. We close February today and we will again make a small profit this month. The home office is just closing a deal to bring two of the underwriters from Richter Robb over to Burns and Wilcox as a satellite office. I worked at Richter Robb for three months before jumping ship to Burns and Wilcox. Their office will be in Modesto and they will be a satellite office reporting to the Sacramento office. The two women that are coming over are the two main producers in the home office and handle over $19,000,000 in premium volume. I talked to Dad and he expects Richter Robb to counter, but I just talked to our Underwriting Vice President and he told me that the two women are primed to move. They have already picked out office space and will quit tomorrow. The kicker here is that the owner of Richter Robb has repeatedly lowballed these gals on both salary and income and they know what kind of money they can make here at BW.
I did talk to Dad and a big congratulations to him on taking 1st and 3rd place with his two cars at the Abbottsford Custom Car Show. He said he made a lot of rookie mistakes in setting up the cars and even in classifying the '39 in the modified category rather than in the stock division, but 1st and 3rd in a show that had over 300 cars, not bad. Like a hole in one in your first round of golf. He has been invited to bring his cars up to the Custom Car show in Spokane, Washington the end of March and will do so. The promoter of the show was in Abbottsford and wants Dad's cars for his show. Big props to the old man. Nice job, Dad. Shirley had helped decorate the cars putting a cooler of Cherry Cola and a bowl of plastic cherries in the trunk of the 39 for atmosphere. Funny, but Dad saw Noreen, our cousin and his niece at the show. She didn't know that Dad would be there and saw his name as the owner of the '39 and '46. They were able to catch up and she was with her husband, Brent and some friends, just out for a day at the car show. Small world.
I just checked Jennifer's blog and she passed the promotion board. You go, girl. We'll be soon calling her Sergeant Lyon. Iknow she's frustrated with her role as primary armorer, but it kept her out of Iraq. She volunteered to return to Iraq, but they turned her down as they need her on site to issue the weapons. Dad here is thrilled that they wouldn't let her return to the site of car bombings and insurgents trying to kill all Americans. Stay put there in Kuwait, Jen. In the sunshine and out of harms way. Congratulations, Jennifer. You are my hero.
Well, I've got to get on with my day. We close the books at noon today and I've got to see if I can get some more money booked before we close. I hope all is well with each of you. Give a thumbs up to the Lord. As they say, if you were born once, you'll die twice, but if you are born twice, you'll die but one time. Praise God. Ciao.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Signs of Spring Around the Corner
The sun is out today after another three day weekend of rain, wind, clouds, intermittent sunshine and even two tornadoes and a water spout hitting in Sacramento. I took yesterday off, President's Day here in the good old U. S. of A. Darla had the day off and we were given a floating holiday this year to use as we see fit. It seemed to fit for me. Darla had the day off. She basically gets every holiday and even some that they make up like Happy Monday and Mental Health Friday. I get seven days off a year and a couple of weeks of vacation.
I played golf in the two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Boyd, went to the event last year when he and his partner, Dave Armijo, qualified. I came to find out two days before the event that an obscure rule made Boyd and I ineligible for the qualifier. He went last year and cannot go this year. The rule in fact is not even in the rule book, it was decided back in the late '90's when the same group went three years in a row. I was fine with it and we were still eligible to win money, so we played. Boyd felt bad and offered to back out and let me get another partner. It was wet, windy, muddy and not the best of conditions for golf. Boyd and I ham and egged it on Saturday and shot a 66 to trail the leaders by 6 strokes. I shot 42+42= 84 and Boyd shot 35+41=76. We were 6 under after nine holes and six under after eighteen. The story of our weekend was poor play on the back side. We did birdie number nine and won a $40 skin, but could have scored so much better. Sunday, we again shot 66 and this time we were five under after nine and managed only one under for the back nine. I shot 42+44=86 and Boyd shot 35+42=87. We were 11 under on the front side and only 1 under on the back for the weekend. I had a blast and really enjoy playing with Boyd, who is a solid 6 handicapper and an even tempered, decent man and a great golfer. My only problem with him is that he is a Morman and I don't think we'll be playing golf together in the afterlife.
I took Darla to dinner on Saturday night at Shanghai Fat's, the new upscale Chinese food restaurant at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln. This is the Indian Casino run by the Station Casino chain out of Las Vegas. The casino now boasts 14 restaurants (8 of them in the food court) and even has a Non Smoking room for those of us that can't stand the smoke. Dinner was excellent and we even managed to leave the casino about $60 ahead of what we walked in with thanks to a video poker machine that produced four aces with a three kicker for a $200 jackpot before we left. As soon as they build the hotel on site, we may even be able to get Dad and Shirley to come out to California for a visit.
Darla and I were supposed to go up to Reno Sunday night, but the weather did not cooperate and the passes were covered in snow and chains were required. Not my idea of fun to slog about in the snow, so we stayed home and I again treated Darla to lunch at Thunder Valley. We used a coupon and had burgers at Fatburger (Dad and Shirley, this is the same chain as the burger joint on the strip in Las Vegas). With the coupon and gambling, our lunch only cost us about $140. We had fun but couldn't catch a cold on the machines. Luckily we don't hit the Indian Casino much as I think their machines are wound just a hair tighter than they are in Vegas and Reno.
David's basketball team did win their last game last week and entered the playoffs as the number ten seed and second place in their division. A number ten seed travels and our first game is against Downey in Modesto on Wednesday. David is still hurting from smacking heads with a teamate in practice. He got the stitches out yesterday, but the wound opened back up. It is right on his left eyebrow and they put surgical tape over it to hold it closed.
David also will begin an internship at a Sacramento Engineering firm. His job will involve working on the CAD system (Computer Assisted Design) as well as doing all of the "go-fer" legwork for the architects and engineers at the firm. The firm specializes in design and engineering of industrial items, including gangplanks and gangways for cruise ships. It should be a fascinating job and he gets paid to do the job. David wants to be a CAD specialist for a design and engineering firm when he gets out of college and this apprenticeship will allow him to get some hands on experience. Leave it to David to make his first real job such a good one. He's not about to bag groceries or fries for a salary. The kid is something else. How about your little (6'4") brother, eh Jen?
Darla and I are in our third week of the 40 Days of Purpose at church. One of the couples in our study is moving to Austin and I may hook them up with Darryl. They are still looking for a house and won't move until the school year is over, but have been looking in the Georgetown area.
I haven't heard much from Jennifer lately. She sent Darla and I a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a teddy bear forValentine's day. Very cute and very appreciated. She is now the full time Armorer for her unit. She will take the Sergeant's test on March 1st, so say a prayer for her. It means more money and more honor in the military and the girl deserves it.
I lost out in the sweepstakes to hire Pete Morrison. He was interviewing with a competitor and they ended up paying him a signing bonus of $15,000. I was willing to trade a first round draft choice, but the cupboard was bare for signing money. Amazing, when you get into a competition how a family run business can compete so much better than a national company because of things like that. Our salary was better, but they have a good ESOP program and a comparable bonus program. I hated to lose him, but told him that I would have made the same choice he did. I can't blame him. They wanted him and were willing to pay to get him.
Well, there is a ton of work waiting for me and I better get at it. I hope all are well. Keep your eye on the Lord and your feet on His path and all will be bliss. Ciao.
I played golf in the two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Boyd, went to the event last year when he and his partner, Dave Armijo, qualified. I came to find out two days before the event that an obscure rule made Boyd and I ineligible for the qualifier. He went last year and cannot go this year. The rule in fact is not even in the rule book, it was decided back in the late '90's when the same group went three years in a row. I was fine with it and we were still eligible to win money, so we played. Boyd felt bad and offered to back out and let me get another partner. It was wet, windy, muddy and not the best of conditions for golf. Boyd and I ham and egged it on Saturday and shot a 66 to trail the leaders by 6 strokes. I shot 42+42= 84 and Boyd shot 35+41=76. We were 6 under after nine holes and six under after eighteen. The story of our weekend was poor play on the back side. We did birdie number nine and won a $40 skin, but could have scored so much better. Sunday, we again shot 66 and this time we were five under after nine and managed only one under for the back nine. I shot 42+44=86 and Boyd shot 35+42=87. We were 11 under on the front side and only 1 under on the back for the weekend. I had a blast and really enjoy playing with Boyd, who is a solid 6 handicapper and an even tempered, decent man and a great golfer. My only problem with him is that he is a Morman and I don't think we'll be playing golf together in the afterlife.
I took Darla to dinner on Saturday night at Shanghai Fat's, the new upscale Chinese food restaurant at Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln. This is the Indian Casino run by the Station Casino chain out of Las Vegas. The casino now boasts 14 restaurants (8 of them in the food court) and even has a Non Smoking room for those of us that can't stand the smoke. Dinner was excellent and we even managed to leave the casino about $60 ahead of what we walked in with thanks to a video poker machine that produced four aces with a three kicker for a $200 jackpot before we left. As soon as they build the hotel on site, we may even be able to get Dad and Shirley to come out to California for a visit.
Darla and I were supposed to go up to Reno Sunday night, but the weather did not cooperate and the passes were covered in snow and chains were required. Not my idea of fun to slog about in the snow, so we stayed home and I again treated Darla to lunch at Thunder Valley. We used a coupon and had burgers at Fatburger (Dad and Shirley, this is the same chain as the burger joint on the strip in Las Vegas). With the coupon and gambling, our lunch only cost us about $140. We had fun but couldn't catch a cold on the machines. Luckily we don't hit the Indian Casino much as I think their machines are wound just a hair tighter than they are in Vegas and Reno.
David's basketball team did win their last game last week and entered the playoffs as the number ten seed and second place in their division. A number ten seed travels and our first game is against Downey in Modesto on Wednesday. David is still hurting from smacking heads with a teamate in practice. He got the stitches out yesterday, but the wound opened back up. It is right on his left eyebrow and they put surgical tape over it to hold it closed.
David also will begin an internship at a Sacramento Engineering firm. His job will involve working on the CAD system (Computer Assisted Design) as well as doing all of the "go-fer" legwork for the architects and engineers at the firm. The firm specializes in design and engineering of industrial items, including gangplanks and gangways for cruise ships. It should be a fascinating job and he gets paid to do the job. David wants to be a CAD specialist for a design and engineering firm when he gets out of college and this apprenticeship will allow him to get some hands on experience. Leave it to David to make his first real job such a good one. He's not about to bag groceries or fries for a salary. The kid is something else. How about your little (6'4") brother, eh Jen?
Darla and I are in our third week of the 40 Days of Purpose at church. One of the couples in our study is moving to Austin and I may hook them up with Darryl. They are still looking for a house and won't move until the school year is over, but have been looking in the Georgetown area.
I haven't heard much from Jennifer lately. She sent Darla and I a beautiful arrangement of flowers and a teddy bear forValentine's day. Very cute and very appreciated. She is now the full time Armorer for her unit. She will take the Sergeant's test on March 1st, so say a prayer for her. It means more money and more honor in the military and the girl deserves it.
I lost out in the sweepstakes to hire Pete Morrison. He was interviewing with a competitor and they ended up paying him a signing bonus of $15,000. I was willing to trade a first round draft choice, but the cupboard was bare for signing money. Amazing, when you get into a competition how a family run business can compete so much better than a national company because of things like that. Our salary was better, but they have a good ESOP program and a comparable bonus program. I hated to lose him, but told him that I would have made the same choice he did. I can't blame him. They wanted him and were willing to pay to get him.
Well, there is a ton of work waiting for me and I better get at it. I hope all are well. Keep your eye on the Lord and your feet on His path and all will be bliss. Ciao.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Pebble Beach Memories
Wow. The trip to Carmel and my visit to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am was nothing short of AWESOME. We got to Carmel about noon on Saturday and checked into our hotel. The hotel was small and only had a King bed. We brought sleeping bags for the boys and all managed to squeeze into the room for one night. Tami and Jerry had a reservation at the Carmel River Inn, but were able to extend their stay at the time share they rented in Pacific Grove over the weekend. It wasn't initially available and they were on the waiting list and it opened up. We grabbed their room at the Carmel River Inn, but couldn't upgrade to two Queens or a two bedroom as they were booked what with the golf tournament in town.
We met Tami and went into Carmel for lunch. We ate at a little European cafe in the heart of Carmel and ate outside in the sun. Saturday was a beautiful day with no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for golf and a perfect day to watch golf. Darla and Tami went shopping after lunch and the boys tagged along with them. I took a long walk down Ocean Street to the beach and down the beach to the golf course. I sat below hole number nine and ten and watched the golfers approach into the tenth hole. Little did I know, but Jerry and his brother, Bob, were set up at hole number nine watching the action. I was below them on the beach.
We met up with Tami and Jerry at their condo in Pacific Grove and had a drink with them and Bob. Bob is a prison guard and had to work Sunday so he made his goodbyes and headed back to Sonora. We walked over to a little Pizza place around the corner from their condo and had dinner. Last year's British Open winner, Todd Hamilton, was in the condo next to Jerry's, but he missed the cut and we assume he was packing up to leave. Dinner was great, but Darla had bought me some new Chaps jeans to wear and they were too tight. My clothes have been getting tighter of late and the jeans really bothered me. I'm back up over 200 pounds and need to lose some weight, so peanut butter on English muffins is off the menu for me and salads are in. I'd like to get back down around 190 pounds and I guess talking about it in my blog should give me the extra motivation I need to lose the poundage.
As we were enjoying dinner and laughing over things going on in our respective lives, a couple next to us asked if we were in town for the tournament. The owner of the pizza joint was just in and let everyone know that the busses to the course out of Pacific Grove would be limited on Sunday as they had some mechanical problems. Jerry had complained of long delays on Saturday (it took them an hour to get a bus out of there). We decided it would be better to leave out of Carmel and Jerry was to meet us at our hotel at 6:45. We got in to Carmel at a little after seven and there were three busses waiting . We grabbed coffee, boarded the smaller shuttle bus that turned out to be an employee shuttle. The driver took us right into the lodge at Pebble instead of to the equestrian center which is about a mile walk from the course where the public is dropped off. We jumped off right at the putting green and saw Mark O'Meara and Jim Furyk practicing. The first tee time was 7:40, so we were able to scout the course and find where we wanted to set up. I wanted to sit at a par three and we finally decided on number 12, which is the toughest par three on the course. We set up right at the gallery ropes and watched all of the competitors come through. The weather had turned for the worse and we endured a driving rain, wind and cold. Jerry had asked me if we should bring the umbrellas and I said no it wasn't supposed to rain until Monday. Oops.
A few observations..Bill Murray is a nut. A truly funny human being. He came to the green and started handing out mini Snicker bars, throwing them to the crowd like a peanut vendor. He missed his putt for par and then stood off to the side as his partner, Scott Simpson lined up a three footer for par. Just as he was about to hit the ball, Murray yelled, "Oh God, I hope he makes this!" Simpson backed off and went back through his routine. Then as he putt the ball, Murray threw a candy bar over his head to someone on the other side of the green. Simpson missed his putt and just shook his head. Chris Berman, the ESPN announcer is grossly overweight, I'd say pushing 280 pounds. He was sweating profusely in the 60 degree weather and dragging a bum leg behind him, probably no better off for having to cart around the side of beef that is his body. He was gracious, but is an inordinately poor golfer at an 18 handicap. I have no idea how his group made the cut. He swung at a ball in the bunker and completely whiffed it.
Most of the golfers were very gracious. Mickelson, who won the tournament, was extremely kind to the gallery and appreciative of the support he got. However, there were a few grumps in the crowd, including one who yelled at a father whose daughter of three was a little unruly. The father told the golfer to do something to himself that is a bit unnatural. There were a couple of golfers that you just hoped they'd miss their putt, they were so grouchy, but for the most part, the pros are just that and realize where their money comes from, the fans.
Friday night was David's game with number one, Natomas. We smoked them in the first half, taking a 30-19 lead and then went on one of those slow falls down the stairs where your head hits the wall, the steps, the landing and it all happens in slow motion. We ended up losing on a three pointer with time running out and it hurt. We are in the playoffs, but the team's confidence is not at an all time high. The goal is to win two games and get to Arco Arena for the tournament. I will have to miss the game on Wednesday as I have a meeting in San Francisco.
Well, that's a bit of a one dimensional view of our weekend and my week, but I have to get to work. Check out Jennifer's blog, she has added to it. Happy Valentine's Day. Ciao.
We met Tami and went into Carmel for lunch. We ate at a little European cafe in the heart of Carmel and ate outside in the sun. Saturday was a beautiful day with no breeze and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for golf and a perfect day to watch golf. Darla and Tami went shopping after lunch and the boys tagged along with them. I took a long walk down Ocean Street to the beach and down the beach to the golf course. I sat below hole number nine and ten and watched the golfers approach into the tenth hole. Little did I know, but Jerry and his brother, Bob, were set up at hole number nine watching the action. I was below them on the beach.
We met up with Tami and Jerry at their condo in Pacific Grove and had a drink with them and Bob. Bob is a prison guard and had to work Sunday so he made his goodbyes and headed back to Sonora. We walked over to a little Pizza place around the corner from their condo and had dinner. Last year's British Open winner, Todd Hamilton, was in the condo next to Jerry's, but he missed the cut and we assume he was packing up to leave. Dinner was great, but Darla had bought me some new Chaps jeans to wear and they were too tight. My clothes have been getting tighter of late and the jeans really bothered me. I'm back up over 200 pounds and need to lose some weight, so peanut butter on English muffins is off the menu for me and salads are in. I'd like to get back down around 190 pounds and I guess talking about it in my blog should give me the extra motivation I need to lose the poundage.
As we were enjoying dinner and laughing over things going on in our respective lives, a couple next to us asked if we were in town for the tournament. The owner of the pizza joint was just in and let everyone know that the busses to the course out of Pacific Grove would be limited on Sunday as they had some mechanical problems. Jerry had complained of long delays on Saturday (it took them an hour to get a bus out of there). We decided it would be better to leave out of Carmel and Jerry was to meet us at our hotel at 6:45. We got in to Carmel at a little after seven and there were three busses waiting . We grabbed coffee, boarded the smaller shuttle bus that turned out to be an employee shuttle. The driver took us right into the lodge at Pebble instead of to the equestrian center which is about a mile walk from the course where the public is dropped off. We jumped off right at the putting green and saw Mark O'Meara and Jim Furyk practicing. The first tee time was 7:40, so we were able to scout the course and find where we wanted to set up. I wanted to sit at a par three and we finally decided on number 12, which is the toughest par three on the course. We set up right at the gallery ropes and watched all of the competitors come through. The weather had turned for the worse and we endured a driving rain, wind and cold. Jerry had asked me if we should bring the umbrellas and I said no it wasn't supposed to rain until Monday. Oops.
A few observations..Bill Murray is a nut. A truly funny human being. He came to the green and started handing out mini Snicker bars, throwing them to the crowd like a peanut vendor. He missed his putt for par and then stood off to the side as his partner, Scott Simpson lined up a three footer for par. Just as he was about to hit the ball, Murray yelled, "Oh God, I hope he makes this!" Simpson backed off and went back through his routine. Then as he putt the ball, Murray threw a candy bar over his head to someone on the other side of the green. Simpson missed his putt and just shook his head. Chris Berman, the ESPN announcer is grossly overweight, I'd say pushing 280 pounds. He was sweating profusely in the 60 degree weather and dragging a bum leg behind him, probably no better off for having to cart around the side of beef that is his body. He was gracious, but is an inordinately poor golfer at an 18 handicap. I have no idea how his group made the cut. He swung at a ball in the bunker and completely whiffed it.
Most of the golfers were very gracious. Mickelson, who won the tournament, was extremely kind to the gallery and appreciative of the support he got. However, there were a few grumps in the crowd, including one who yelled at a father whose daughter of three was a little unruly. The father told the golfer to do something to himself that is a bit unnatural. There were a couple of golfers that you just hoped they'd miss their putt, they were so grouchy, but for the most part, the pros are just that and realize where their money comes from, the fans.
Friday night was David's game with number one, Natomas. We smoked them in the first half, taking a 30-19 lead and then went on one of those slow falls down the stairs where your head hits the wall, the steps, the landing and it all happens in slow motion. We ended up losing on a three pointer with time running out and it hurt. We are in the playoffs, but the team's confidence is not at an all time high. The goal is to win two games and get to Arco Arena for the tournament. I will have to miss the game on Wednesday as I have a meeting in San Francisco.
Well, that's a bit of a one dimensional view of our weekend and my week, but I have to get to work. Check out Jennifer's blog, she has added to it. Happy Valentine's Day. Ciao.
