New Habit? Not Quite!

Mindy bought both these vases at the Ohio State Fair.

The last time that I checked the clock it was 5:20am. I figured I’d sleep another ten or fifteen minutes. Wrong! The next thing I knew, it was 6:07am.I popped out of bed and headed downstairs to begin my day. The extra sleep was no big deal, however, because I had made plans to stop at my doctor’s office on the way in to work to pick-up a prescription, and they didn’t open until 830am. It did, however, remind me that I hadn’t yet beat this new habit.

I exercised, walked Ykraps, and still spent some quality time meditating. When I finished I jumped into food prep. By 710am I was done eating breakfast and back on schedule. I went out to water the backyard flowers.

After my shower and while Mindy repaired my glasses, she asked if I planned to golf after work. I’m glad she reminded me because I would’ve forgotten to take a pair of shorts as well as my clubs. I left the house at 8:10am.

I arrived at my doctor’s office sometime after 8:15am. Even though they don’t officially open until 8:30am the receptionist was nice enough to greet me at the door and tend to my needs. They had my script all ready to go. I simply had to have them modify it to reflect “90-day supply”. They did just that, and soon I was on my way to work.

Work went well. It was kinds quiet, at least for the first half of the day. I left for a run around 12:50pm. The sky was overcast preventing the sun from making it oppressive. I ran up a pretty good sweat even still. We had a meeting right after lunch that lasted until 3pm. And because of golf league, I readied for a moderately early departure – 430pm. But as luck would have it, things got really dicey from about 330pm until I left. Never fails!

Traffic on I-270 heading towards Groveport was quite a snarl for the first few miles. I called brother Tommy while driving to catch up on what he’s been up to. I got angry just listening to the antics that his soon-to-be ex-wife is pulling. What a mess! We talked for a while. In fact, we were talking as I zoomed right past my preferred exit- Alum Creek Dr. Instead, I had to take 33east to Hamilton Rd. I’m now convinced that it’s much further going that way. Still, compared to most weeks, I was making decent time. Bob called around 5:15pm checking on my whereabouts. He, Bob, and Chuck were already there. I pulled up moments later. Bob was waiting with cart in the parking lot. I didn’t take me long to prep. Five minutes later we were teeing off.

Like a broken record, I shot a 7 on the opening hole. My drive, a rather long one, went a little left and ended up actually inside of a large tree root cavity. I was already hitting number three. And like happens often, I shot bogey golf for the next handful of holes but leaving several legitimate scoring opportunities on the table. On hole number eight I hit a very poor tee shoot way right and into the creek. My next shot, another drive form the tee box, went only about 100 yards. Next shot, a duffed 3-wood. Nothing seemed to go right despite my willingness to shrug it off. I did hit a nice up & down (chip & putt) to save an 8!

Hole number nine is a long par three over a creek, about 240 yards. Like the hole before, my tee shot was errant and went in the nearby creek. It was a terrible shot. My next tee shot was a low line drive about 40 yards short of the green. I salvaged a 5. Bob I. didn’t play that last hole well either. He couldn’t find his somewhat errant tee shot. After we finished, Bob I. and I were determined to play number nine over again. There was no one behind us for several holes. Bob B. took Chuck back to his vehicle.

I tee’d off first. My driver was back! I hit a relatively low and straight drive right at the flag. It bounced on the green and looked like it rolled possibly even in the hole. I doubted that it truly went in but figured that it could happen. Bob hit a tee shot similar to his prior. Bob B. returned after dropping Chuck to play it again too. We all went towards the hole. I couldn’t see a ball on the green, so as you might expect, I got excited about the possibility of striking a hole in one. But as I walked up to the green I saw my ball setting directly behind the pin - about nine feet out just on the edge of the green and thick cut rough. Wow! Still a great shot, and certainly an exciting way to finish.

Bob dropped me at my Trooper and we parted ways. We briefly discussed Friday night and whether or not either of us would be at Barley’s. Not sure. I checked a waiting VM on my phone. It was Lisa Shultz calling for Mindy. I called Mindy to let her know that Lisa called back. Mindy was in the middle of something – can’t recall. I arrived home around 8:15pm. I was prompted to tuck in the children who were patiently awaiting my arrival. After the tuck I attacked the Chipotle nachos leftover from Mindy’s dinner. I encouraged Mindy to have neighbor Becky pick some tomatoes. We have a large bounty of nice ones! It turns out that she was already doing so.

I thought about watering all night but opted against. There was a minimal chance of rain and quite honestly, I just didn’t feel like going out and getting that whole operation underway. Mindy and I sat and chatted for a few eventually succumbing to sleepiness and going to bed very close to 10pm.