Another weekend in the books

Autumn has arrived and with it, a sore throat and runny nose. Darla had suffered with a similar malady just a week or so ago and now it has hit me. I never handle the change of seasons well and the problem is I'm warm when we go to bed and freezing in the morning. I had been leaving the fan on over the bed and the window cracked open, but closed the window and shut down the fan last week as I was waking up cold in the morning. I guess I didn't do that soon enough as I sat amid a growing stack of used kleenexes yesterday and watched football. The outside temperature was still in the mid and upper eighties, so I can't blame the weather. I am stuffed up with a runny nose (if that is even possile) and have a sore throat. I'm drinking alot of water and living on Nyquil right now.

Darla and I are off to the last golf trip of the season this coming weekend, when we will join 23 other golfers and their significant others for a trip up to Angel's Camp to play the Greenhorn Country Club on Saturday and then on to Valley Springs to play La Contenta on Sunday. I have never played Greenhorn and we will stay in a three bedroom condo at the resort with two other couples and two stragglers, Boyd Robertson and Greg Wanee, who will leave their wives behind. We will have a big barbecue on Saturday night, play cards and party. I told Darla that I'd take her out to dinner on Friday night in Angel's Camp. Angel's Camp is in Tuolumne County and is the site of the annual Frog Jumping Jubilee that Mark Twain wrote about so many years ago. Twain (Samuel Clemmons) grew up in this area and was a newspaperman for the local paper.

Darla and I had Daniel's football banquet (dinner dance) on Saturday night. This is the annual fundraiser for the football team with silent auctions, live auctions and a chance for the 40 something woment in the crowd to strut their middle-aged stuff and embarass their 16 year old football players or cheerleaders. It is always fun for Darla and I to watch these siliconed wonders with their low cut tops and low self esteem try to act twenty again. It is pathetic in reality and we always go home firm in our resolve to be ourselves, tight waistlines and all. I always manage to buy some bargain at this event. Last year, I got a $100 gift certificate to La Provence restaurant for $90 and this year I got a $100 gift card to Fat's (a local chain of six fine dining Chinese restaurants) for $85. When you are trying to feed the six footers in our house, you need all the help you can get.

Daniel continues to prowl the sidelines at his games being little used and much forgotten. He did get into his second game when they were in a blowout 46-6 and he played most of the second half. They squeaked by in this last game 42-36 and Dan did not see the field.

I played golf this weekend and shot a 43+40=83 at Diamond Oaks. I had the reservation for two weeks and had trouble getting anyone to come out and play this weekend. The club had an elite event on Saturday for the members who pay an extra $60 for the Diamond membership, so many of the guys were otherwise disposed. I finally got my old partner, Dave Armijo to join me and we played as a twosome. Dave shot about a 93 and I had a birdie on 17 to help me keep my handicap in tact. I look forward to the coming weekend and two days of golf in the foothills.

Darla and I have been struggling with the boys' lethargy at home. Both of their rooms are nightmares of clothes and junk strewn all over the room. I have an agreement with them that I won't bitch about the condition of their rooms during the week if they keep their door shut so I don't have to see it (or smell it) AND that they have the room clean, vacuumed and dusted by Sunday night when they leave. They have been pretty good with the first rule, but have completely lost interest in the second rule. They like to come back on Monday afternoon and cram everything back away in ten minutes and call it a week. Their bathroom is atrocious, rarely if ever cleaned, the mirrors are filthy and the tub and shower a nightmare. I had a small fit yesterday and told them to have their rooms clean by Sunday night and they both blew me off and didn't get it done. Daniel has some puppy dog crush on an older gal who has graduated from college and is leaving today or tomorrow for a year in Africa doing missionary work. They had dinner last night and he spent all day worrying over a going away gift and the card he was going to give her. He was so distracted and smitten that he got even dopier than usual and couldn't concentrate on anything. I was really mad last night and told Darla she needs to deal with this situation because I am at my wit's end. She doesn't understand how I can yearn for the day that they are both out on their own and soiling their own homes instead of mine. Neither of them do chores around the house anymore. Last week I was trimming trees and working on the outside of the house. Darla had fixed a roast and came out to say both boys were hungry and could I hurry up and come inside. Did either of the boys come out and offer to help me? God forbid that they do anything to help out around the house. I'm very frustrated with this and really crave the weeks that they are out of the house.

Well pray for me as I suffer through this family problem. It will really take Darla and I having a united front to deal with this. Daniel thinks that his football practice is everything and he should be able to come home and lay in his sty of a room and watch cartoons on television and demand dinner at a certain time and David is just as bad as he gets home from work or school and can't see outside of himself. Personal accountability has always been a missing element with these kids. I can't seem to get them to see how selfish they are and how you have to pitch in to be a part of a family. I happily do the lawn every week, but when I'm raking leaves or trimming plants it would be a pure joy to have one of them ask if they could help me. Usually they walk by and try not to make eye contact with me lest I corral them into helping. It's tremendously frustrating to me. Neither one of them has been bitten by the "work ethic" bug and it won't serve them well as they go on in life.

Jennifer and John got moved into an apartment in Walnut Creek this weekend. They picked up the trailer on Saturday while I was golfing and took it to Walnut Creek and loaded up their new apartment. I am not in favor of them living together, but that is my conservative bias. Jennifer is 26 and makes her own decisions and I understand that. I won't let them stay in my house together and the same rules will apply to the boys as they get older. Jen and John have about a 15 minute commute to work and their apartment includes a gym membership. She is happy and I'm happy for her. Living out of a suitcase gets old and even if the apartment sits empty for months on end, at least they'll have a place to call home when they get back. So far, there are no plans for her to return overseas any time soon.

Well, that's it. Sorry to go on a rant, but that is what the blog is for. Sometimes I just need to sort out my emotions on electronic paper. Take care. Ciao.

Back from a quick vacation in Lake Tahoe

Yes, we are back from a relaxing and restful vacation. The Mexico trip was fantastic, but sometimes the sheer gravity of such a big vacation can be overwhelming and you end up back in the United States tired and, in some ways, even more stressed than you were before you left. This vacation was long on relaxation and short on any structured activities.

As you can see from the first picture, we had some fun at the casinos. Darla and I enjoy gambling, but we are really pretty tame when it comes to spending money gambling. I've said before, that we play nickle machines and almost exclusively video poker. We had a decent run at the machines on Saturday night, but still gave up $80 to the billionaire owners of the casino. Darla and I enjoy the Lakeside Inn in Tahoe. It is a small casino away from the main strip of Harveys, Harrahs and the new Mont Bleu casino. The Lakeside Inn is favored by the locals and has the best $8.95 Prime Rib in Nevada (I had 3 of the Prime Rib specials in four days in Nevada). Sunday we stayed away from the casinos and just relaxed at the resort, reading books and relaxing at the pool in the 80 degree temperatures. Darla was nice enough to sit with me and watch the Dallas-Washington NFL game Sunday night. We started out at a small local pizza joint and then moved back to the big screen in the game room at the resort. Monday we returned to the Lakeside for dinner and some gambling. We lost our shirts gambling and were down about $200 by midnight when we decided to have breakfast and decide if we wanted to call it a night. We went back up to the casino from the downstairs restaurant and played some 5 cent Wheel of Fortune. Darla won over $100 and got us going again. I quickly lost $20 and went back to video poker. Within ten minutes I hit on four aces and a two for a $100 jackpot. The funny thing is, the combination was dealt to me! Not a bad payout for a 25 cent bet. Darla finally gave up on the Wheel and came over to join me about 1 AM. I was getting tired, but stayed on for a bit and had a Ten, Jack, King and Ace of clubs dealt to me. I held those and the Queen of clubs came up for a 4000 coint payout on a 25 cent bet. All told, we finished the night with $495 in our pockets and two smiles on our faces. It was my fourth Royal Flush and as nice as it was, one of the Progressive nickle machines paid out over $600 for a Royal Flush earlier that night, so my luck was good, but my timing not so much.

The resort was very nice and we had a studio in the building on the beach and located next to the main pool. Our building has the fitness center in it and the game room with the large screen television. The game room sits empty most of the week, but was jammed on Sunday afternoon for a free wine and cheese gathering. The blue haired brigade showed up in force for the freebies. It was an ongoing joke with Darla and I as the senior crowd was mostly invisible at the resort until something was free. We never saw these people unless there was a free barbecue at the beach or the wine and cheese event and then they were like ants on maple syrup. I mostly stayed out of the way at these free events for fear of breaking a hip (mine or theirs). They had free apples at the front desk and if you saw a senior outside of the freefests, it was usually walking with an apple from the office.

The resort was noisy this time. We awoke Saturday morning to a group of hispanic maids (Darla and I termed them "Lupe and Maria") arguing about something loudly in Spanish. They finally finished that argument and Lupe decided to vacuum the hallway rug outside our door, banging the vacuum against the door several times to make sure we knew it was 8:00 AM and the world was awaiting us. Finally, Lupe broke out into full throated singing, a Spanish serenade something about her "corazon". We finally decided to get up and join the world. Saturday night found Darla awake at two AM to some inebriated neighbors arguing in the hall about who had "paid for the room" and "get out of my face" and other boozy proclamations. I slept through the whole thing. Tuesday morning we both awoke to hammering on our roof as a roofing crew was there to do a tear off and rebuild. We both really like the facility and would like to stay there one week a year, but we will trade in as opposed to buying. The resort is about thirty years old and the maintenance costs are escalating. We did sit through a time share presentation, but took the $75 Visa gift card and weren't tempted to buy in, especially after the money spent in Mexico.

Jennifer's boyfriend, John, did get his transfer to California and arrived back in the state on Sunday morning. He had packed up his apartment in New York on Thursday and drove cross country in his Tacoma hauling a UHaul trailer with his possessions. It is now sitting on the side of our house as he is trying to get an apartment in the Bay Area, near his work in Concord. Jennifer is happy to have him back. I played a little joke on Jen. She'd called us in Tahoe and asked if it was okay for John to leave his trailer at the house. When we got back, there was the trailer on the side of the house. I called Jen and asker her why the trailer wasn't there, did they bring it to Concord with them? She started to freak out, but I let her off the hook. Very funny, Dad.

Well, work awaits like a dull ache in a bad tooth, so I'd better hitch up my britches and get on with my day. I hope your day is a Royal Flush. Ciao.

Strange Goings On in The River City

Darla and I had a strange experience this weekend as we attended the wedding of my ex, Diane, to her new husband Bob. We have a good relationship with Diane and I'm glad that we were able to attend and see Jennifer act as the Maid of Honor for her Mom, but it was still a bit strange to be a part of the wedding, knowing very few of her friends and, obviously, none of Bob's relatives or friends. Jennifer was beautiful and we sat with Sara (Jennifer's best friend) and E, her boyfriend, and Sara's daughter, Sierra. Sara only knew Jennifer and John so we were able to visit with them and enjoy the day. The wedding was held in the courtyard of one of Sacramento's nicest restaurants and it was a first class affair. The only real problem with the setting is that there are wild chickens that inhabit the grounds and they got a little loud during the ceremony and walked up on the wedding altar and there were quite a few people tittering as the two wedding participants were declaring their undying love for each other. If you couldn't see the chickens, you'd think they had RUDE friends.

Diane had reconciled with her sister, Elizabeth, who was part of her wedding party. I got to visit briefly with her and the girl has a screw loose. She shared with me that Diane is estranged from her brother Phillip and how she was hating being at the wedding, that Diane's friends are pompous and uppity. We later heard that she made a scene back at the house and drove off squealing her tires and leaving a vile message on Diane's phone. Jennifer had to settle her Mom down as she was pretty shook up over her sister's actions. I think it is safe to say that the reconciliation is history. It is sad to see how that family imploded after the death of their parents. Jennifer says good riddance to all of them as they are kooks.

Diane came over and asked me to dance during the reception. I think Jennifer enjoyed it as we danced with her. I had a nice dance with Darla afterward. It was a bit odd dancing with my ex, but Diane is a good person and I wish her well in her new marriage. Again, I appreciated the opportunity to see Jennifer in the wedding and to spend some time with Jennifer and John when they were both dressed up.

I had poker this weekend followed by the wedding, a 60th birthday party for one of my friends (I'm getting OLD), and then the club championship on Sunday followed by an afternoon of jet skiing at Folsom Lake. Poker was nice, but after winning $85 last month, it was sure to be a losing proposition and I gave about $25 to the cause after a night of cards. It was great to see the guys. I did miss Daniel's first football game of the season. His team got whacked 48-21 and Daniel did not see the field during the game. Dan is just not "in" to football this year and I think his coaches realize that. He is a large benchwarmer at 6'3" and 235 pounds.

The golf was great this weekend, although I got hit by a buzzsaw in the form of our current President, Joe Santone, who shot a 36+39=75 to my 42+41=83. It was match play and I lost 4+3 to Joe. I went out and bogeyed the first three holes to his three pars and was quickly three holes down and never caught up. He had me five down after 9 holes and I crawled back winning number ten, losing 11 and then winning 12 & 13 with birdies, but quickly lost another hole on 15 to fall four down and then splitting 16 with pars to close the match out 4&3. I can't be upset as I played a good match, but just got beat by someone who was on their game. As it turns out, Darla and I have a condo reserved in Tahoe for this upcoming weekend and had planned to stay there from Friday through Tuesday. If I'd won my match, I would have had a second match on Saturday with the finals on Sunday. This way we can head up to Tahoe on Friday after Daniel's game (we'll probably leave after halftime to get up there). This was an extra week that we had with the Puerto Vallarta timeshare and we would have lost it if we didn't use it now. I know we are just coming off the Mexico trip, but things are soon to intensify at work (I have six reviews to complete, I have the Manager's meeting in October in Detroit, I have the budget process to complete, I have an audit with our sister company USF in two weeks and we have the Insurance Day at the community center on October 10th.) I can use a few days away with my wife. We plan to sleep, eat good food, read some books and relax at the beach and the pool.

It is the fifth anniversary of 9/11 and I still remember my experience flying to Phoenix that day. I wrote about my experiences on one of the anniversaries and it is in the archives of this blog somewhere. In short, my plane was grounded in Las Vegas and I had to rent a U-Haul and drive back to Sacramento. To this day I have seen very little footage of the crash and the horror of the towers collapsing as I was on the road for twelve hours driving home. I did hear about it on the radio, but those images that were burned into the minds of so many have escaped me. One of the good things to come out of this tragedy was Jennifer joining the US Army and finding her calling in life with the Network Installations and fibre optics specialty that she developed over that time. She is in a much better place now than she was before the tragedy of 9/11.

Well, the denizens of Burns and Wilcox are slowly filtering in on a Monday morning. I just went through a policy with our new typist and the "good morning" gang continues to flock by my office, so I need to get back to the task of running the office. Jennifer starts work in Concord this week and John flies back to New York where he will wrap up his job there before joining Jenn in Concord later this month. I hope all are well. The blog will be late again next week as we will be in Tahoe. Take a look at God's How to manual this week. It is called the Bible. Ciao.

Hola..we are back from Mexico

Yes, we are back from a great vacation. I feel a little tired, but we spent a good week making memories and even doing some vacation planning for the future. The weather in Puerto Vallarta this time of year is rainy, but we saw little in the way of precipitation. Any of you that were paying attention know that Hurricane John was making a nuisance of himself in Alcapulco and did threaten the coast of PV, but turned out to sea and was never a factor in our weather. We saw some cloudiness, but the promised 70 mile an hour winds never materialized and we saw only some high clouds and some drizzle out of the hurricane warning. The locals took the warning to heart and boarded up windows and put tape across the windows in a big "X" pattern. I actually played golf that morning and the hurricane was supposed to hit around 2 PM. There were a total of 13 golfers on the course and it was eerily calm and quiet.

Darla and I decided to take a trip up to Nuevo Vallarta on Monday. Nuevo Vallarta is about thirty minutes from the downtown of Puerto Vallarta and is a resort area with expensive condos, timeshares and homes set on a strip of beach and cove area. We signed up for a tour of the Grand Mayan resort, which consists of two timeshare resorts, a hotel and two permanent condo towers for full time residents. The resort is first class and the Grand Mayan is the crown jewel of the resort. Darla and I bought two weeks at the Grand Mayan (We actually bought one week and they threw in the second week). I had no intention of buying another timeshare as we have every other year in Kauai and Puerto Vallarta, but several factors made our decision for us. The first is that the resort corporation owns 11 resorts, eight in Mexico and three in the US (Orlando, Las Vegas and Mauai, HI). Each of the resorts have a guaranteed week for us any time we want to travel as owners of the Grand Mayan. All of the resorts are five years old or newer and each has the exact same layout of the rooms. We bought a two-bedroom with separate bedrooms and a central living area. The patio area has a small pool at each unit. The piece de resistance for me is that each resort has it's own golf course and I also have ownership in the golf facilities and will pay $50 for golf at any of the resorts. The facility in Cabo has three golf courses designed by Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus and the public pays $280 to golf at each of the courses. Darla and I will likely sell the Puerto Vallarta time share and may well hang on to our Kauai property.

We ended up moving from the Sheraton facility to the Grand Mayan on Monday. The funny thing is that the salesman who sold us the timeshare gave us his Hummer H2 to make the move. Debbie and Bob, who traveled with us also bought a week at the Grand Mayan and I think the salesman hit a bonanza. Bob drove the Hummer through the streets of PV with all of the crazy Mexican drivers and we loaded up our belongings from the Sheraton and returned back to the Grand Mayan for the balance of the week. The resort itself has ten restaurants and 11 bars and you literally don't need to leave the resort. We bought a meal plan that provided 6 breakfasts and six dinners for $235. It sounds pricey, but the restaurants had lobster and steaks that went for $50, so it was a great deal. The dinners included appetizers, the main course and dessert. Breakfasts included the main course and drinks. The resort also has eight interconnecting pools, a lazy river ride that takes you around the perimeter of the Grand Mayan, a water slide, two wave pools, three swim up bars, boat taxis, a train and a mile long stretch of beach with white sand.

The golf was great and we cancelled our reservations at Marina Vallarta in order to play the course at the Grand Mayan. They paid for one round and Bob and I paid $50 each for the other two. It is resort golf with alot of water and sand and I hoped to break 90 the first day and gradually get better as I learned the course. As it turned out, I shot 40+39=79 on the first day and a pair of 83s the next two. On Friday I struggled with a 45 on the front, but came roaring back with a 38 on the back side for my 83. That was probably my favorite round as I was so out of sorts on the front side and made up my mind to play well on the backside and did.

The trip was not without its problems as we lost Darla's new Canon Rebel digital camera to a taxi driver. It was my fault as I had taken charge of the camera when we left the Vista Grill in PV for the ride back to Nuevo Vallarta. I set it down on the floor of the cab in the front seat and left it when we got back to the Grand Mayan. Darla realized it immediately and we should have been able to stop the taxi at the front gate of the resort, but the bellmen all speak "Spanglish" and we couldn't seem to communicate to them to have the cab stopped at the gate. By the time they reached the cabby, he claimed there was no camera in his cab. Yeah right. That camera was probably two months salary for that guy. The sad thing is the camera is $900 and he will probably pawn it for $50. Bastardo. Obviously, I won't be adding any pictures from the vacation any time soon. The hard part was losing our pictures.

Darla and I had a chance to meet Jennifer's boyfriend, John, and we are both very impressed with his manner and especially with how Jennifer is with him. She seems much more settled and focused with John. She has always enjoyed partying and being at the bars late. Now, she gets tired and calls it a night early. Nice to see. We took John and Jennifer to Folsom Lake yesterday, but the ski wouldn't start. Daniel wasn't able to install the spark plug wires that I bought and we are taking the ski into the shop today to have it looked at and tuned up. Hopefully they can have it ready this week and we can get John out on the water sometime this week.

I had 139 e-mails waiting for me when I got in this morning. I only had two voice mails as my voice mail was very specific that I was on vacation and would NOT be returning calls and to contact my assistant, Connie.

Writing this has been difficult as my staff each stops in my office to talk to me as they arrive. I will leave this for now and attend to them. I hope all are well and I'll write more soon. Ciao.

The BLOG is going on Vacation!!!

I think I will join the BLOG and take a week off in sunny Puerto Vallarta next week. It is a bit rainy there this time of year, but low 90's with plenty of sunshine as well. We are going with our friends, Bob and Debbie Hand. Bob and I will golf a couple of times and the ladies will shop. Bob and I plan to play early in the day before the expensive shops open for the day..we aren't completely out of our minds. Darla and I met Bob and Debbie for dinner last night on our way home from Almanor. We met in Lincoln at one of Darla's and my favorite restaurants, Buonarotti's. It is an Italian restaurante and serves excellent fare. I had a flat iron steak that melted in my mouth and Darla had scampi and pasta. It was a nice stop after two and a half hours on the road. We visited with Bob and Debbie and laid out some tentative plans for our trip. They fly in on Sunday and Darla and I arrive Saturday afternoon.

You can see I added a picture of my former assistant, Anthony, in the jalapeno bobbing contest last weekend. It amazes me what twenty-somethings will do for our entertainment at these parties.

It was a great, though jam packed weekend. Darla left friday afternoon for Almanor and I stayed behind to play golf on Saturday. Darla and I sort of had our wires crossed on the weekend plans and I had already set up a golf game for Saturday when she told me that she'd booked a cabin for the weekend at Almanor. We arm wrestled over that one and finally agreed that she would drive up Friday with her sister and I'd join them after golf on Saturday afternoon. Of course, that left me with a free Friday night. I decided to take $120 to Thunder Valley in Lincoln, have some dinner and see what kind of luck was in store for me. I play nickle slots (video poker) and I sat down when I arrived and got a royal spanking. I lost $80 in about 55 minutes. I limped away from the machine and went over to the Gordito Burrito in the food court and washed away my sorrows with a large iced tea and a small shredded beef burrito. I resurrected my self esteem and filled my gullet and headed back to the same machine. Luck had reversed it's course and in the span of about two and a half hours I turned 400 nickles into over 6000 ($300). In that span I hit two straight flushes (one dealt to me), three four-of-a kind aces, two with a 2-3 or 4 kicker for a 2000 coin win on a 5 coin bet. It was magic and I left the casino with $200 in winnings.

Saturday morning I played golf with Boyd, Bob Pando and Bob Hand. Boyd had just returned from his golfing trip to Scotland where he'd played five times in six days, including stints on Royal St. Andrews and Prestwick (the sight of Tiger's recent victory at the British Open). A reporter from the Sacramento Bee interviewed Boyd and another of the travelers on Thursday in the paper and when Boyd started to tell his stories, I stopped him and told him that I'd read all about it already. I shot pedestrian golf on Saturday with a 42+43=85 that included three double bogeys. My chipping needs work and I'll concentrate on that in practice for awhile until I can straighten it out. Boyd and I won the skin money Saturday.

I left for Almanor right after golf and arrived about 4 PM. I barely got settled in the cabin and was whisked off to visit some friends at another resort. We went over by boat and part of the allure of the visit for Darla and Alicia was to show their parents an RV park where they might set up their 5th wheel next Summer. Darla and I took the gang out to pizza on Saturday night in Westwood, one of the dinky little resort towns nearby. Westwood was a company town back in the thirties with a large sawmill. The homes were all built by the mill and are small two bedroom homes that all look alike. The mill burned down in the late forties and the town is like a time warp with the small homes all still standing and small businesses catering to the retirees and resort workers that live in the town. It is a town that is all but dead in the Winter months as the resorts all close down for the Winter and the economy dries up until Spring.

We went to church Sunday morning and then returned home for barbecue hamburgers. We got about two hours in the sun and then packed up for our trip back home and dinner with the Hands. It was a hectic weekend that will make my lounge chair by the pool in PV feel so much better next Sunday.

Gary and I have made it into the finals for our twilight golf league this Thursday night. We will take on a team that I really don't like for first place. The team is made up of two retired guys and one of them is a crotchedy old man who is older mentally than his birth certificate reads. I had a confrontation with him a couple of weeks ago when I arrived late for my tee time. I have a standing agreement with my partner that if I'm running late, I'll call him and he can let another group go ahead of us. I made my call as I didn't get out of work until 4 PM and we had the 4:40 tee time. I drove to the course and puttered around getting my bag together and finally walked in to pay about 4:40. Gary came running in and said, "Hurry up, we're on the tee." I said, "Give me a second Gary." He said, "Take your time I'll tell the other group to go." That meant to me that he'd have the foursome behind us tee off. But no, in Gary's mind, that meant he'd tell the twosome playing against us to tee off. I paid and went back out to my car to get a water I'd left in the console. Gary came flying out in his cart and said, "C'mon, everybody is waiting for US!" I jumped in the cart with him and here was Bob Tucker standing like an old goat with his arm crossed across his chest next to the tee. "About damn time, you idiot!", he said. I jumped out of the cart and walked over to him. "Did you say something to me?" He turned his head and walked away. I followed him. "Listen, pal, if you've got something to say to me, say it." He was beet red and mumbled something about me being a rude sob. I said (and God forgive me), "Listen, Grampa, I've got a job with twenty people depending on me for their jobs. I'm not a retired old bastard who has this golf league as his sole point of excitement for the week!" I let Gary have it big time. I told him to never set me up like that again. If I'm running late, I don't need to jump out of my car and run to the tee. So, it should be interesting to play the old goat this week. I just hope I can kick his scrawny butt.

I talked to Randy last night. He just celebrated his 46th birthday last week. We will all be together next March or April for a family reunion and a celbration of Dad's 70th birthday and my 50th. It will be great to see every one again and Jennifer will get to join us this time around.

Well, that's it for TWO weeks. I will be back refreshed and restored with pictures and stories about my vacation. Until then, stay grounded in the Lord and he will set your path before you. Ciao.

Jet skiing at Folsom Lake

August weather here in August

I had wanted to add some pictures from our trip to the lake this week and sent those to my work e-mail last night, but the firewall here at work is delaying the pictures from passing over. Hopefully they show up later today and I can add them. We have been enjoying Jennifer's visit home and have been to the lake twice with the jet ski including yesterday. Just Darla, Jennifer and I were able to go to the lake and it was a nice relaxing day. The boys were with their dad and Jenn's friend Sara had child care issues as her daughter was with her dad (Sara's ex), and she had to pick her up at 3 PM. Jennifer is becoming quite a daredevil on the ski as she is doing 360's and really running the ski hard. The boys always laugh at me as I usually get on the ski with a hat and sunglasses and take a leisurely run around the lake. I have been trying more daring runs with more fast turns and spins. I leave the hat and glasses on the beach now. I took a nasty fall yesterday as the wake was huge and the wind was up a little. The lake was busy and the waves by midafternoon were pretty choppy. I spun out and hit one of those waves and found myself flying off the ski. Unfortunately I hit my hip on the side of the ski on my trip into the water. I'm pretty sore today. The ski continued with the wave and when I came up out of the water, it was about thirty yards from me and drifting in the swells. It took me about five minutes to swim back to the ski and I was so tired when I got there that I just hung on the back of the ski until I could catch my breath and have enough strength to pull myself up out of the water. Darla and Jennifer saw the result of my wipeout with me in the water thirty yards from the ski, but neither of them saw the spill.

It was a pretty awesome weekend for me with poker on Friday night (I was hosting), golf saturday morning, a company barbecue Saturday afternoon and evening and church followed by jet skiing yesterday. I won $80 at poker, shot 43+39=82 on Saturday at Woodcreek Golf Course and thoroughly enjoyed the picnic and skiing. Church was great.

We had the Seniors' pastor, Wayne Bigelow, speak on marriage and family and relate that to our relationship with Jesus Christ as his bride. It was well done and he punctuated his remarks by introducing three couples from his senior's group that had all celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the last couple of months. One couple are golfers and have played golf in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. Nice. Wayne also told the story of two medical students, one a doctor and the other a dentist who decided to join forces after graduation and open a joint practice. To save money they hired a shared receptionist. Over time, both Doctors began to develop romantic feelings for their receptionist and it became a heated battle for her affections. The dentist had a one week meeting at the American Dental Association that he had to attend and he was concerned that his rival would win her heart while he was gone. He racked his brain to think of how to keep his interests safe while he was gone and he finally hit on a plan. The day that he left for the week away, he put seven apples on the receptionist's desk. Think about it. Wayne then shared the story of the Indian who sat on the cliff watching the sunset. He couldn't figure it out until several hours later when it dawned on him.

Dad and Shirley will be on the road this week on their way to California and the car show in Pleasanton the weekend of August 25th-27th. They will stay with us on the 24th and then drive in to Pleasanton. Darla and I are off to Puerto Vallarta on the 26th for a week and Dad and Shirley will return to our house on Sunday night and stay until Wednesday. We will leave our SUV for them to drive and take a trip in to San Francisco and perhaps Monterey/Carmel depending on their whim. Unfortunately Jennifer will be in Vegas and San Diego while they are here and will not return until September 1st. Darla and I fly back on September 2nd.

Golf this weekend was fun, although I awoke at 6:15 AM on Saturday with a pounding in my ears from the diet of cards and Heineken from the night before. I took a couple of aspirin and was teeing off by 7:25. I played surprisingly well and parred the first three holes. I followed that up with a 6 on the par 3 fourth hole. I finished the front with a double-bogey on number nine after hitting my second shot in the water in front of the green protecting the short par five. I got into a groove on the backside and shot par golf with five pars, a bogey and a birdie through 16. I then went double-bogey/bogey to finish the round and shoot a 39. I shot six over par on the four par threes and ten over (82) in total. It could have been a great round instead of a good round. I played with Bob, a new friend from our life group at church. He played on his high school golf team and shot an 85. Mel also played with us and shot 86.

The barbecue was also great as most of the characters from work showed up. Kathy, one of the underwriting assistants opened her home and we had tri-tip, chicken, brauts, salads, chips, dip, desserts, etc. and had a ball. Dana, Kathy's husband, acted as the emcee and they had a jalapeno bobbing contest which the younger crowd was a part of and Heather, our personal lines underwriter, was able to pluck 17 jalapenos out of the tub of water with just her mouth in 30 seconds. It was hilarious and we got pictures for the office. They have a beautiful home in Rancho Murieta and a wonderful backyard with a pool and a "poop deck" off the back of the house with a hot tub and a great view of the rolling hills around them. The backyard has a nautical theme. The home itself is a tri-level custom with an upstairs master suite with a private office off the bathroom that looks out over the pool. They had karaoke and pool volleyball. It was a great afternoon.

I will take Wednesday afternoon off again and take Jennifer out on the ski. Darla will of course go as well and we hope to have Sara join us again. In the meantime I need to get to work. Stay well and, like the Indian, I hope your mortality has dawned on you and you are living in the light of our Saviour. Ciao

Jennifer returns from Korea

Yes, Jennifer returned home from 7 months in Korea. I don't know how her job calculates time away from home as her contract calls for overseas travel up to 75% of the time. In my calculations that would be 9 months out of the year overseas. She has a month off and then will start her job in the Concord office of Das Net. Jennifer and John, her boyfriend, both work for Das Net and they are having second thoughts about their career choice as they want to be together and there is no guarantee that they will be deployed to the same region. John's office is in New York and Jennifer's is in California. John, who lives in Las Vegas, has asked to be transferred to California, but that request has been denied. It remains to be seen how this all shakes out. They are both committed to sticking with Das Net until they can find other jobs or until they can work out the logistics of work and their relationship. We will get a chance to meet John later this month as he will come to California for two weeks.

Jennifer surprised her Mom at her bridal shower yesterday. She had told her that she was flying home on Monday and Diane bought it. Jennifer actually flew home on Friday, actually leaving Korea at 8:00PM Friday night, flying twelve hours and arriving in Sacramento at 7:30 PM Friday night. International travel can be bizarre. Jennifer coordinated with the hostess of the shower and arrived about twenty minutes after her Mom and surprised her. Jennifer called her on her computer through Skype, A VOIP (voice over internet protocal) Sunday morning from my house and acted like she was still in Korea getting packed to leave. Diane will marry for a third time and here's hoping this one sticks.

Darla and the boys went up to Lake Almanor this weekend and I stayed home to visit with Jennifer. We invited her up, but she was loathe to spend six hours in a car (to and from Almanor) on Saturday a day after spending twelve hours on the plane. I couldn't blame her. As it turned out the jet ski battery was drained again and they never got the ski into the water. I will stop and pick up a trickle charger from Kragen Auto Parts tonight and get the battery fully charged for our trip to Folsom Lake on Wednesday afternoon. David is taking a half day due to some computer changes at work and Jennifer and her friend, Sara, will join Darla and I at the lake for an afternoon of relaxing and jet skiing at the lake. Daniel starts school that day and will have to miss the outing.

Today is a bit overcast and breezy. The temperatures have remained in the upper eighties and low nineties since the heat spell. Today is supposed to top out at 90 degrees and Wednesday should be 95 degrees at the lake.

The hot weather took a huge toll on the course at Turkey Creek where I played the NCGA qualifier on Thursday. I was shocked on Tuesday when I saw how bad the course was. We'd just played there three weeks ago and it was in great shape. One of the course maintenance guys told me that they had sprayed a fungicide on several of the greens on the morning of the 116 degree day and it absolutely burned the greens up. They have about seven holes where the fairways are all but gone due to the sun baking the grass. The NCGA officials apologized for the conditions and said that if they had been informed earlier, they would have moved the tournament. Steve and I struggled to a best ball 68 which we thought was terrible, but they ended up taking four teams that shot 63, 64 and two at 67. We missed the boat by one stroke. The sad thing is we had shot a combined 62 three weeks ago albeit in wholly different conditions. The twosome that we played with had an even worse experience as they shot four under par for the first six holes and four over par for the last 12 holes to finish at 72. One of their players started the first hole by walking all over my line on the green and almost knocking my ball marker out of position. Both Steve and I jumped all over him for that. Three holes later, he played MY ball in the fairway and I coiuldn't find my drive and took an "X" on the hole. Steve parred the hole for a net birdie and I could have gone back and played my ball from where he hit it, but we were in with a net birdie already. This guy was obviously not used to tournament golf. I ended up with a 92 and Steve shot 91 in horrible conditions. Steve almost lost it when an NCGA official told him that he had to move his ball off of some newly laid sod and he went from inches off the green and a 15 foot putt for birdie to a 25 yard chip which he shanked. I told him to not take it out on the official lest we get DQ'd for his attitude. I went back to Diamond Oaks that night and shot a 39 in my twilight league to realize that all really was right in the world. It is too bad that my first experience in an NCGA qualifier was so poor, but I really enjoyed the experience and look forward to more in the future.

Work continues at a fairly frenetic pace. I hit a large renewal on August 1st to the tune of $215,000. My normal month is about $250,000-$300,000 in premium volume, so here it is the 7th and my month is made already. That's a good feeling.

Darla and I are hosting our life group at a dinner tonight at our house. We are barbecuing shish-ke-bobs and the group is bringing salads, drinks and dessert. We are trying to do a social event once a month and Bible study the rest of the month. This is our first time to host. Jennifer and the boys will join us for dinner. The group spent a lot of time praying for Jennifer while she was in the Army and it will be nice for them to meet her and hear some of her stories.

Jennifer talked to Jesse yesterday and he is doing better. He has plans to get well enough to attend a concert in Austin next month. Perhaps that is "pie in the sky", but it is a goal for him and he is working hard to rehab and get well. As soon as his neck is stable, he will undergo surgery to repair his broken shoulder. I talked to him briefly and he is such a positive kid. His outlook on life will help him to heal faster. Keep praying for him as there are costs associated with the surgery that need to be covered. There are doctors who will donate their services, but there are hospital costs that will have to be borne somehow.

I'll try to get some pictures from our trip to the lake on Wednesday to add to the blog next week. Jennifer was able to go to church with me on Sunday and it was a blessing to me. Pastor Rick came over and welcomed Jennifer home, which was nice. I hope all are doing well and leading a quiet Christian life. Ciao.

Cooler Temperatures Rule the Day

Relief arrived in the form of some cooler Delta breezes late last week and we set a record with twelve straight days of temperatures over 100 degrees. I remember living in Texas and enduring 22 straight days of 100 or more, so this was cake. The temperatures over the weekend cooled to the low nineties on Saturday and 87 degrees yesterday. Today is expected to top out at 85 degrees. Our overnight lows have dropped back into the low sixties and upper fifties and the sleeping weather has been ideal. The hot weather took a toll on some of my plants and trees as sun burned leaves and stressed plants are in evidence. I've been hand watering the plants and the lawn and will see the landscaping start to come back.

Darla and I went over to one of our neighbors' last night and looked at his pool. He sits a block behind us and has the same floor model as us and also is a corner house facing the same direction. His backyard is actually smaller than ours and he had a pool put in two years ago. Challo (his name, he's from Nicaragua) actually acted as his own contractor and had each of the subs individually contracted to dig, lay the iron, do plumbing, electrical, gunite, plaster and cement and deck work. He also had a pool design contractor. Doing the pool himself saved him almost half the cost of a pool company. There isn't a warranty on the pool and he had to make all of the calls and line up all of the contracts himself and pull all of the permits with the city, but his pool was finished in three weeks, start to finish and it's beautiful. I'm considering doing the contracting myself as well to save money and to have better control over the process.

Jennifer will be home next week and will be here until at least the 11th of September. She will finally get all of her gear and clothes out of storage in Travis AFB in Vacaville. She was going to move the boxes and footlockers into storage locally, but I told her to store it in my attic instead. It will be great to see her and spend some time with her. We hope to get her up to Almanor one weekend to see Darla's parents and to spend some time on the lake.

Unfortunately, Jennifer will be here until August 18th and then she will fly to Las Vegas to spend time with her boyfriend, John, and his family. They will fly from there to San Diego and then back to Sacramento on September 1st. I say unfortunately as Dad and Shirley will be here from August 23rd until August 30th or 31st. Jennifer will just miss them. We've offered Dad and Shirley our home while we are in Puerto Vallarta and the use of our Explorer. Dad will have his '44 here for showing at the Pleasanton Car Show. We've encouraged them to stick around after the show and go and see Carmel/Monterey and the San Francisco area. Darla and I will be gone and Shirley said it had been years since she had been in San Francisco. Hopefully they take us up on the offer and even stay to the following weekend when we get back and they can see Jennifer. It will be the Labor Day weekend, so we will get a long weekend to enjoy with them. We'll see. They'll be gone from home starting on August 13th, so it will be a long time away from home. Dad is beginning to worry about driving the '44 as it doesn't have air conditioning and it tends to be pretty hot in Northern California in August. They will be here in Sacramento on August 23rd and we will visit with them and perhaps go out to dinner or just do a barbecue.

We are scheduled for a work barbecue a week from Saturday at Kathy Hardy's home in Rancho Murieta. She has a pool and a large backyard and offered it for a barbecue. The company will buy two large tri tip steaks to barbecue and each family will bring a salad, dessert or side dish to share. It should be fun.

I did play golf this weekend and it was one of the silly tournaments we play every year. It was the annual three club tournament where you have to choose three clubs and play the entire round with just those three clubs. I chose the driver, putter and eight iron. My biggest fear in the tournament is getting into a greenside bunker and sure enough, I not only found a greenside bunker, but the steepest bunker on the course, on hole number five. I was able to open the clubface and make a descending blow into the sand and get on the green for a sandy par. After a start of bogey, double-bogey, bogey, I went one over the last six holes to shoot 40 on the front. I followed that with a two double bogey backside, including a tough six on the final par 4 18th where my putt stopped on the uphill lip of the cup. My 82 was good for second place, but I would have won with an 81. The guys that cut the holes on our course are not golfers and often leave what we call a "volcano" effect, where they pull the dirt out of the green and leave the sides of the hole mounded, so a slow putt always falls away from the hole. It's frustrating, but it is what it is.

I will play in the four ball qualifier on Thursday at Turkey Creek. I have invited two agents to play golf with me tomorrow afternoon at Turkey Creek. This is a "marketing" outing that will also give me one last look at the course before we play on Thursday. The Thursday match will determine whether we move on to play two days at Spyglass Hill in Pebble Beach. It is so close, I can taste it. There are 72 teams playing and only 4 will move on to Spyglass Hill in September. There are 14 area qualifiying tournaments with four teams each that will qualify to play in the championship on Sept 14-15. There will be 54 teams or 108 golfers from Northern California.

They finally announced the qualifying date for this year's Rose Cup tournament and it is on August 26th. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) I will be on a flight to Puerto Vallarta that day and will not be able to compete. One of my golf goals every year is to qualify for the Rose Cup team. I did win one of the NCGA qualifiers this year so that trumps the Rose Cup team. I still have the Club Championship next month to look forward to.

Jesse is doing well on his recovery track. He has a lot of pain and is bored just sitting around. He still needs to have his shoulder fixed, but they can't do anything until his broken neck heals, so he is in alot of pain. He was so bored, he went out to the local Albertsons that is closing shop and got a close-up view of the local Texans fighting over the 80% off cigarettes and booze. He sat in one of the "Lark" type shopping carts for old folks who can't walk. I'd pay for a front row seat to watch that. Better than IFC Pride fighting.

Well that is the news. Daniel is home today and I have him re-sodding the back yard in preparation for our barbecue next Monday with our life group at our house. David is doing great, working like a fiend at the engineering firm and excelling all the while. His company came out with a new brochure and it features one of David's designs on the front cover. He's tickled. Be good and stay in lock step with the LORD. Ciao.

HOT...HOT...Oy VEY, it's HOT!

There are four people in the office so far this morning and three of them (including me) are sporting haircuts. It's just too hot to survive without tearing off your clothes and cutting off your hair. We are in the midst of a heat wave that is going on nine days and the last three days have seen temperatures of 108, 109, 116 and today it will cool off to 108. The 116 was an all time record for the region and it was nasty HOT. I spent most of the day indoors in 78 degree air conditioned comfort, but spent an hour outside trimming trees and then loading up the jet ski to return to it's storage location in Alicia's garage. We got the ski repaired with a new mirror and I pulled and changed the spark plugs. Darla and I found some relief in the pool at Alicia's, but even her pool, which is perpetually cold, was at 88 degrees and not very refreshing. At least it was wet.

I had a call from Darryl on Friday night to inform me that my nephew, Jesse, had been involved in a serious accident, wherein he rolled his Explorer at 60 MPH and almost died. Jesse has a broken neck, a broken clavicle, a lacerated scalp, and various bumps and bruises as well as ligament damage where he rolled in the SUV. Jesse, at 24, and only a part-time worker did not have medical insurance and his friends have set up an account in Austin to help with his medical bills. He was in ICU for a day and a half, but is home now and trying to survive the headaches and pain associated with recovering from the trauma of a serious accident. I talked to Jesse on Saturday and he said that he felt that my Mom was looking down on him when the accident occurred and helped save his life. Actually, I think it was more likely the Big Guy (God) keeping watch over him. Please pray for Jesse's complete recovery and for his girlfriend and family as they help him regain his health.

I talked to Jennifer over the weekend and she will be heading home in early August for about a month. Her office is in Concord, California and she has never set foot in the building as she joined Dasnet and was off to Korea right away. Check out her blog at the link at the bottom of this page. She has some pictures from her recent project in Korea on the blog.

Darla and Daniel arrived back home safe and sound on Saturday. I was out playing golf (of course). I shot 43+41=84 in the 109 degree heat. I walked the front nine and then got a cart for the back nine. It was brutally hot. The temperature in Sacramento is generally in the 90s and near 100 this time of year, but the difference with this heat wave is not only the temperature extremes, but the fact that it is not cooling off at night. We generally see overnight lows dipping into the low sixties and even upper fifties. With this heat wave we have been seeing overnight lows in the upper seventies and 83 degrees Saturday night. It is supposed to moderate after Wednesday and be back in the upper nineties with normal overnight lows. It is a bit odd when the cooling trend is down to 98 degrees, but I look forward to it. Our electric bill will be about as high as the temperatures this month.

I'm getting close to seeing the need for a pool in our back yard. The koi pond is nice and the trees and plants are great, but a pond of water makes more sense. The spa has finally worn out and either needs to be replaced or junked and Darla and I will be shopping for a pool contractor over the next few months. I am very particular in what I want back there and it will be a pond style pool with no tile or cool decking, but stamped concrete and a black bottom. I love the waterfall in the pond now and will have a waterfall built into the pool and maybe a hot tub with a waterfall down into the pool. We have a neighbor with a corner lot like ours that had a pool put in and we want to take a look at his pool as well.

Well, as always, work awaits like an ever present smell in the air. I must abide by the call to labor. Be well, pray for Jesse, and stay walking in the footsteps of our Saviour. Ciao.

Barbecued ribs and all the fixins

This is what I do at Almanor if I'm not on the water, eating, or sleeping

David getting air on his wakeboard

Almanor Vacation Pictures

I am the black man in the center back row of the picture.

Back from Vacation at Lake Almanor

Back from a fun and relaxing five days at the lake. I have slowly moved up from the weekend to three days to four days and now five days. Next year I will spend a full week at the lake. The resort that we stay at is in escrow and is selling to a development company. This is the second resort to sell in five years and we've had to move twice. Next year we have rented a small cabin (two bedrooms, two baths and a living room and kitchen). The resort has privately owned bungalows that are rented on a weekly, monthly and annual basis. The resort is about twenty-five years old, but was remodeled a year ago and we will stay put there. This resort is about an 1/8th of a mile by lake and about a half mile by car from Lake Almanor Resort. LAR has been for sale for three years and finally sold. The problem is the owners have done repairs as needed and cosmetic repairs only. The cabins are old and musty and the appliances and plumbing are falling apart. We were in a cabin last year where the bathroom sink fell off the wall.

The new resort is located in Big Cove, a cove area with about a 1/5th of a mile of 5 MPH water. The new resort, Lakeside Resort at Lake Almanor, is the first resort inside the 5 MPH zone and we will not have to go through the agony of 5 MPH for too long.

The trip was not without it's mishaps. This time the jet ski was put into the water with one of its drain plugs screwed in cross-threaded and it took on water overnight filling the hull to over the battery with water. We had to pull the ski out, drain it and blow out the cylinders. It is 1200 cc and there was about that much water in the cylinder block. We thought it was toast as water kept shooting out of the cylinders, but we put the plugs back in and it fired right up. One of the boys ran the ski out of fuel and the next morning David tried to start the ski to no avail. Unfortunately he realized it was out of gas too late and had run the battery dry. We had to have it on a batttery charger for four hours and missed a day of skiing.

I was able to get in on the golf this year as I was in town long enough. There is a group from Reno-Sparks who have camped the same week as us for four years and they invite me to golf every year and I'm gone by the time they play. This year we played a championship course, Bailey Creek, at Lake Almanor. It is a tough course, about 6800 yards from the championship tees. I played against a 6 handicap, a 15 and an 18. We played 6-6-6, alternating partners every six holes. I won $11 and shot a 39+42=81 to win the skins and the overall. Steve, the 6, shot an 83, Bob, the 15, shot a 95 and Chris, the 18, shot a 105. I had a ball.

I also played golf on Saturday at Turkey Creek and shot a 40+42=82. This is the course that we will play the NCGA two man qualifier, (second round) on August 3rd. Steve Matthews, my partner, shot a 94 and we shot 10-under as a team. We figure we'll need to be 12-under to qualify. Boyd Robertson played with us and shot a very nice 76.

The boys had their two cousins, Shea and Taylor, come up for the trip to Almanor. They stayed at Alicia's cabin. Shea just started a new job and had to work Sunday and tonight, so she arrived Monday at noon and left this morning at six A.M. Her Ford Taurus was overheating and Earl flushed the radiator and added more coolant. She left early to beat the heat and her car boiled over just as she arrived at home. The hand of God was on her as she drove the 4 1/2 hours home to Willits from Almanor. Taylor drove up on Sunday and arrived after Dan and I. Dan was in SoCal on a CIY retreat until Saturday morning and I took the opportunity to golf. We arrived in Almanor about 5:00 PM and Taylor got there about 6:00.

Steve, one of the guys I golfed with has a wakeboard boat, a Mastercraft X-9 and he came over Monday afternoon and picked up David and Daniel and I. We brought Shea with us and she handled the flag. David was really able to get some air with a boat that has a tow rack and Daniel looked really good wakeboarding and wake skating. Steve came back over this morning and took David, Taylor, Alicia and I back out. Daniel was sleeping and Darla was up at the cabin. Darla was a little unhappy that I didn't walk up to the cabin and get her as she would have liked to go on the boat. Steve was supposed to be back this afternoon to take Daniel out and hopefully she got to go then.

Dave and I got home a little after six and I have mowed the lawn, sprayed down the sidewalks, driveway and gutters, watered the lawn, spot sprayed some weed killer and washed my car. Vacation doesn't allow me much time to practice my OCD tendencies, so I got them out of the way this evening. I called my assistant Connie on the road home as she is out Thursday and Friday and I was gone Mon-Weds. It sounds like things were hectic, but the desk is busy and we were leading the office in premium and income as of last Friday, so all is good.

Darla will be home Saturday by noon. I've got an early golf game Saturday and then we have been invited to a tennis match in Sacramento where Nicole Valdisova will be playing. She is some gorgeous 16 year-old tennis player from Russia. We will eat Mexican food, drink margaritas and watch tennis. Sounds like fun.

Well, it's late. I need to rest my weary bones. I will try to add some vacation pix to the blog next week. I hope all are well and in Christ. Ciao.

Our weekend fades into a New Work Week

The heat was on in Sacramento over the weekend and Darla and I spent the better part of yesterday at the lake. We left the jet ski back at home in Alicia's garage and packed up sodas, books, our beach umbrella, chairs, towels, our beach blanket and our books and headed to the beach after church. Summer is in full swing, as our church which seats 3000 has closed the balcony for the Summer and the upstairs gang is joining us in the main seating area for the Summer months. The church looks full again if you discount the fact that the upstairs is closed.

We arrived at the beach by 11:30 AM after stops for a bag lunch and at Longs for some new air mattresses and some sunscreen. I got a hammock style air mattress with a large pillow for my head and a smaller, narrower pillow fror my thighs. You end up sitting mostly in the water in a hammock style seat. It was an excellent way to beat the 104 degree temperature, but unfortunately it offered little support and I ended up with a sore back for my troubles. We usually stay at the lake for about three hours because the heat gets to us after time and we are ready to go. The air mattresses allowed us to mitigate the heat to the point that we stayed until 4:00 PM, neither of us really being aware of the time. We spent a fair amount of time in our chairs under the umbrella and were slathered with sunscreen pretty good so neither of us is sporting a burn today.

There was a couple on the beach near us that were a commercial for birth control. The woman was likely in her early thirties and the guy likely near the same age. He was a second husband and the woman had a daughter of about six. The guy was relentless in harassing the poor daughter. She was cranky and irritable and throwing a fit at the beach. The guy ran her out in to the water and splashed her and kept running at her and scaring her. He yelled at her constantly and when she kicked sand on him, he picked up a handful and pelted her in the face. It was brutal to watch and finally a couple next to us approached the lifeguard and asked him to call the police. The mother would not intervene and the guy was in the little girl's face. The mom started crying and the guy yelled at the girl and said, "look at what you did, now your Mom is crying." She was probably crying because she was married to this psycho. Darla said that his actions were close to reportable to CPS. The little girl was frantic when they packed up to leave, probably knowing that she was going to get a beating when they got home. You could hear her wailing as they headed to the parking lot. We packed up about twenty minutes after they left and saw them chasing her in the parking lot when we drove out. There was a lifeguard sitting in his truck watching the whole thing, hopefully waiting for the police. What a nightmare. I guess I've been lucky with David and Daniel. We had our battles over the years, but never anything that dramatic or that public. I would have been mortified.

The jet ski continues to sit in the infirmary. The repair was not successful as the seal was not set properly. I would need a clamp to hold the mirror tight to the deck. I am attempting to order a new mirror to replace the broken one and we will just bolt it to the deck and be done with it. We are off to Almanor next weekend and the blog will sit idle until my return on Thursday. This will be my longest visit yet to Almanor. I usually stay until Monday and head back to work. I will stay until Wednesday afternoon this time around and be able to play golf with the guys on Tuesday.

I will play golf at Turkey Creek on Saturday. Turkey Creek is where we will play the qualifier for the 4-man championship of Northern California that will be played in September for two days at Spyglass. We play the qualifier on August 3rd and I want to play Turkey at least two times between now and then. Daniel is away in SoCal with his church group for CIY. I'm not sure what the initials stand for, but I think the C is Christian and the Y is Youth. They will have a week in Southern California with messages each night and beach visits and sightseeing during the day. Daniel worked at the Christian radio station K-Love during their pledge drive to earn the trip. He returns home about ten AM on Saturday and couldn't drive up with Darla in the morning, so I will play golf and then Dan and I will drive up in the afternoon.

Jennifer, you need to get going on your blog. John was supposed to keep you on track and he's doing a lousy job. Let's see an update, girl.

I played golf on Saturday, struggling a little bit with a 43+42=85. It sounds like a normal round for me, but I had two birdies on the back side and still slid to a 42. You can see why I have a day job. If I had to earn my keep on the golf course, I'd be in the poor house. I did win the skin match, taking $7.50 from my playing partners, but lost the front- back- and overall to Mark Konrad on a $3-$3-$3 bet to lose $9.00 and a net loss on the day of $1.50.

I've been asked to rejoin the board of the Roseville Golf Club. They want me to reprise my position as VP, but I will either take an open position or run for President. I don't really have the time, but the board needs the help, so I'll likely be back.

Well, that is the news to the minute. I will be back in a week's time with news of our vacation. Have a good week. Ciao.

Jet Ski Boo-Boo

July 4th was a Blast!

The LONG weekend is finally over and I get to go back to work again. Praise God! Well, I thought maybe if I wrote it, I'd begin to live it. The nice four day weekend has drawn to a close and the new week and new month is laid out in front of me. The nice thing is..it's Hump Day already.

We spent the holiday weekend up in Lake Almanor. The trip could not have had a more inauspicious start. Initially, the resort had room for our jet ski, then Frank (one of the owners) called to say that his wife had spoken too soon and he wasn't sure. If we wanted to bring it up, we could always put it in and take it out as we used it. The problem is a 100 foot, narrow, crumbling boat ramp. The owners of the resort are in escrow with a developer and the resort will be raised to make room for new homes on the lake. Earl said to go ahead and bring it up and we'd be able to park it at the front of his slip. Friday night, David and I went over to Alicia's to pick up the ski. We attached the trailer to the Explorer and drove to the local AM/PM to gas it up and top off the Explorer. I'd had trouble filling the ski each time as the filler hose is a "S" hose with a sharp turn and it tends to back up when we are filling. It is best to go slow and be patient. David jumped in and filled the tank and had no trouble whatsover. In fact, he kept filling it and filling it. I was busy cleaning the windshield and doing other things. I looked up and he was at 25 gallons and going strong. The tank is 18 gallons with a two gallon reserve. He stopped at 32 gallons ($95.68). I was shocked, but filled the Explorer and drove home. We got the ski in the garage and I decided to check the capacity on the tank again. Sure enough, the tank is 18.5 gallons with a 2.5 gallon reserve. I opened the engine compartment and was shocked to see 30 gallons of gas floating in the hull! The S hose had come loose from the tank and the gas had poured straight into the hull. It was up to the bottom of the new battery that I'd bought and installed last month. I got David and Daniel and several buckets and we set about siphoning the gas out of the hull. It took us the better part of an hour to dip cups into the hull and drain out the gas. We also used a siphon and pumped the gas out. We wiped down the interior of the hull as best we could and parked the ski in the driveway to air dry overnight.

I was VERY concerned that the gas was ruined what with the water and the dirt in the hull. I talked to Earl and he said to let the gas sit overnight and the impurities would settle to the bottom and whatever water would separate from the gas and sit also on the bottom and we'd be able to salvage about 99% of the gas. We were up early on Saturday and the boys and I poured off the gas and refilled the ski and both 5 gallon containers. We still had a good ten gallons left over which I put in the shed.

We drove up to Almanor and the next big decision was who would sit on the jet ski and start it after the gas went all through the electrical. Daniel jumped on the ski and it was a hard start. It took a good ten minutes to get the ski started. The hard start was compounded by us being at 4200 feet in the mountains. The ski rode great once we got it on the water. David and I learned a valuable lesson and we will now watch the tank as we are filling the ski.

Our problems were not limited to the gas debacle as Frank continued to hem and haw about whether we could store the ski at the dock and we took it back out on Saturday night. Sunday, he approached us and told us we could put the ski in front of Earl's boat. (Brilliant idea.) We tied it at a 90 degree angle to Earl's boat and had to make sure to tie both the ski and the boat tight against the dock to make sure that they didn't ram each other. We had some wind come in Sunday night and the boat and ski were rocking pretty good. Unfortunately the boat slipped one of it's ties and hit the ski popping off one of the side view mirrors. It knocked the mirror up and on to the dock, cracking the mirror in the process. We were luckily able to salvage the mirror and it is now sitting in Alicia's garage with gorilla tape holding the mirror down on it's base as the marine adhesive takes hold. The mirrors are about 90% decorative as it is hard to see out of them when you're on the water due to the spray and the vibration of the ski. It's much easier to swivel your neck and look behind you. It's a bummer that it broke, but it is what it is.

We went to church on Sunday in Almanor and they had a great July 4th service with the Battle Hymn of the Republic and a song about the two words "Under God" which is the foundation of the United States and our founder's faith. As much as the crackpots want to deny that God is alive, He is the rock that this country was founded on and perhaps this country will fall without Him there to sustain us. We walked out of church with a bounce to our step and proud to be Americans.

I talked to Jennifer from Almanor, although the reception was fuzzy at best. She and John were going to watch the fireworks at the base in Korea last night. They had to work on Monday, but it was dead with most of the base off on a long holiday.

Darla and I returned to Rosevile on Monday night to allow the boys to spend the holiday with their Dad. Neither Darla nor I have ever spent money on fireworks and get absolutely nothing out of watching $100 burn up on the pavement. We'd rather burn it up on the lake.

I did play golf Monday up at Almanor as I joined a friend, Bob, who has a fifth wheel at the lake. We played Almanor West, which is a nine-hole facility with different tees for each nine (front and back). Bob asked that we only play nine holes and it was the best decision he ever made. It took us three hours to traverse nine holes with a foursome of golf novices hitting the ball upwards of 20 times per hole per player in front of us. It was brutal to watch. Bob stopped keeping score when he accidentally hit into the foursome and they pocketed his $4 Pro V1 ball. He was livid, but I told him it wasn't worth ruining our vacation over some liver-spotted hackers with no sense of humor. I shot 43, but only by parring the last two holes. The course is very tight with alot of trees, but the pace of play was ridiculous and I'm amazed I broke 50.

We will be back up to Almanor on July 15th-22nd and I will play Bailey Creek with Bob. It is a championship course and costs $80 to play so the hackers should be back at Almanor West torturing some other foursome and we'll be free to play GOLF.

Well, work awaits. I will attach a photo of the injured ski when I get home tonight. I hope all are well and enjoyed a safe and serene 4th of July. Praise God that we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Ciao.

Anthony's Wedding

We got Anthony all Married Up

Wow, what a busy weekend. The heat was on in the valley with temperatures exceeding record levels for most of the weekend. The mean high temperature for the weekend was 108 degrees...and it was mean. Darla and I were handling video chores at Anthony and Erin's wedding on Saturday. We drove up early Saturday morning to the small town of Willows where Erin was born and raised, stopping in the larger town of Williams for breakfast at Denny's. Anthony asked me to be at the wedding site by noon for pictures. We arrived at 12:30 PM and I had Darla take still pictures, both digital and photos, but couldn't bring myself to film a photographer at work. Would there be any video more boring than watching a photographer work? I think watching paint dry on growing grass would hold more drama.

Anthony asked that I film the ceremony and told me that he'd have a tripod available. I was using his Sony Handicam and alas, on the day of the wedding, no tripod was proferred so I had to film the wedding freehand. The church has a small half-attic alcove space above the church and to the rear of the sanctuary. The room has a window and that is where I chose to film the wedding. It was a good venue, but the room is not air conditioned and did I mention the record heat we were having? The room has the window set at about waist level and I thought about shedding my pants and filming the proceedings in a state of Half-Monty as the temperature rose and my back began to sweat. The air conditioning from the church worked its way into the room via the window, but the room is used as storage for Christmas decorations and other bric-a-brac that piles up over time in a church. The room is accessible by a set of attic stairs that are located right above the entrance to the church and has to be pulled down by use of a pole and hook. Once I was in place, I was there for the duration. A simple bottle of water would have been nice, but I wasn't thinking when I mounted the stairs and the pastor closed the door behind me.

The ceremony was blessedly short and sweet and then Anthony and Erin had all of their guests gather around the altar and the photographer traded places with me and took a group photo of all of the wedding party and guests gathered at the altar. I told her it was really warm in the attic, and she said she'd be fine that she was raised up here. I assume she meant Willows, but perhaps she was raised in the church attic. The group picture was unique and genuine and could only be done because of the vicinity of the small half-attic at the rear of the church.

We all changed clothes into shorts and more comfortable attire and drove out twenty minutes into the foothills of Willows to Erin's parents' ranch where a large tent was set up on the side yard of the house with a large swamp cooler and misters. We drank lemonade, iced tea and Pepsi and Darla took the video camera (at my urging) and went to each table and got individual blessings and well wishes to the bride and groom from literally every guest at the reception. It was my job to do the video work, but Darla frankly has the personality to pull off that task as she cajoled everyone into giving a wish. Several said they had nothing to say or couldn't think of anything and Darla told them to give it some thought and she'd be back. True to her word, she was and got everyone to give some message to the bride and groom.

Our ex-boss, Bill Sousa, had found Anthony and Erin's wedding website and had RSVP'd to the wedding. He wasn't invited. Anthony and Erin were both upset and figured it was a joke, but right on time and in all his glory, Bill and his wife, Storma, arrived at the wedding. They sat with Darla during the service and I caught up with them after my stint in the attic. Bill kept asking about directions to the reception and I finally told him that it came with the "Wedding Invitation". He still didn't get the hint that he was crashing the wedding. In fact he made a comment about some neighbors who came to the reception late and joked that they weren't invited, but just smelled the food. I kicked Darla under the table and we shared a laugh.

Anthony and Erin are off to their honeymoon just outside of Cancun, Mexico for five days. I am exceedingly happy for both of them. The maid of honor told the story of how Anthony and Erin met. They discovered each other online at a social networking site and communicated online for about three months before they finally met. Erin brought her cousin with her on the night that she finally met Anthony at an ice skating rink in Sacramento. Her cousin was there in case Anthony was some predator or weirdo. She met him, shook hands and waved her cousin off. It was definitely a good first meeting and they were able to get to know all about each other's lives before they ever met face-to-face.

Darla and I went to dinner Friday night, saw a video, went to the wedding on Saturday, stopped at a casino on the way home and won $50 in about 90 minutes of playing video poker, went to church Sunday, went to the beach after church, and Darla had a Silpada jewelry party Sunday afternoon at 4 PM, and we watched another video (The Good Girl) last night. It was a jam packed weekend and I'm a bit tired now that it is all over. I finally opened my new water pressure unit Sunday afternoon and completely sprayed down the backyard stamped concrete, front walkway and washed both cars. I also sprayed down Buddy's Igloo doghouse on the side yard and realized why they call it an igloo as it is actually white under the years of dirt and grime built up on it.

My front desk guy, Ben, and I are off this morning to our storage unit to pick up two cherrywood desks and file cabinets to put into the office next to mine. We have been using the office as the underwriting library, but I combined the underwriting conference room and libraries and we will put both desks into this office and my accounting guy will move into this office. The second desk will be used as a spot for visitors to use a telpehone and computer while they are at our office. We get auditors and home office personnel as well as my Modesto underwriter who visit regularly. These desks have been sitting in storage for two years (unbeknownst to me) at a cost of $65 per month. I have decided to put them to work for us in a virtually empty office. Unbelievable. The billing on the storage unit was going directly to home office.

I did play golf last Thursday afternoon at 3:20 PM. Little did I know when I made the reservation that it would be 107 degrees on the day we hit the links. I shot 41+41=82 in the heat, finishing my round with a triple bogey 7 to leave a little blood on the course. It was unbelievably hot and I drank about two gallons of water while I was out there.

I hope you all have a good week. Check out Jennifer's new blog at the link below. I love you all. Ciao.