Thursday, September 13, 2007

Eagle Sticks - not a 70's-80's rock concert




I wanted to be up as close to my usual time as possible to help facilitate an aggressive morning agenda. Starting from my goal, which was to leave the house at 8:00am I had little wiggle room on the actual wake-up time. I got out of bed at 5:40am (some vacation day – huh). The early morning sky was a pretty as predicted, and once again, it was darn chilly. It was 49 degrees. I returned from walking Ykraps at 6:15am. I poured some coffee then spent only a few minutes playing on the PC.

Like usual, I dressed for a run at 6:30am. For the first time this season, I wore a pull-over fleece on top of my long sleeved running shirt. Something a little thinner would’ve been ideal but I knew without it I would be too chilly. I was comfortable out the door, and for me that’s critical. In fact, I was comfortable through the entire run. I made it back from my run at 7:15am. I poured Mindy some coffee before heading up for a shower. She was snuggling with Bella.

Thus far the morning bore little resemblance to a vacation day. Instead, it mirrored most work days. But that was all about to change. First, I dressed in shorts and a polo shirt - attire for a day of golf, not work. From there I loaded my clubs and gear into the Trooper. Mindy & Bella joined me in the kitchen just as I was readying to depart. I ate some strada and threw together a bag of nuts to stuff in my golf bag. I was out the door just as Jacoby’s bus was pulling up. Only trouble was, he wasn’t going to school again today.

As I departed I motioned for Mindy to lean out the door. When I rolled down my newly repaired passenger window it quickly reverted to being broken – again! ugh! I pulled away a little frustrated but all along I had stated that I had little confidence in the gorilla glue. I mean, hell, it broke loose from the old window clips too. Still, I’m never one to want to fix something twice. I went on to Bob’s driving down Cambridge Ave. through Arlington. I arrived 5 minutes early. Bob was just about ready. I spoke briefly with Mary Ann who just lost her grandmother of 94 years. I wished her well and expressed my sympathy. Soon Bob & I were on the road.

We had little trouble in traffic. In fact, we made excellent time. It felt kind of like driving to Salt Fork. The golf course, Eagle Sticks, sits on the south end of Zanesville – about 60 miles from home. The directions were easy as the first 55 miles were all freeway (I-70E). We were all anxious to play this course, which is rated in the country’s top 100 public venues. We arrived at 9:30am – a full 24 minutes before tee-off time. Bob I and I carted together. And unexpectedly, Bob picked up my green fees – a birthday present. Thanks Bob!

My golf. My God! I played poorly, although I did have a few decent holes. But as most golfers will tell you, if you’re not driving well you can’t get too excited about your game. My driving has been suspect the last two times out. I even hit one of the golf course workers delivering a new cart to the group in front of us. Now, if they were directly in front of me I wouldn’t have felt so bad but they were nearly 90 degrees off target. But I still hit ‘em - at least their cart! My score was 101. I had three pars, no birdies, two 8,s and two 7’s, and a whole lot of double bogeys. As luck would have it, all of my shots began to shape up on the last few holes. That’s just enough to keep me coming back for more.

We finished at 3pm – where’d the day go? Because Bob & Mary Ann needed to head to Wadsworth for her grandmother’s funeral, Bob made arrangements for Mary Ann to pick him up at the golf course. He said that they’d just hit I-77 which is about twenty miles east of Zanesville. OK. I headed west alone.

It was a very nice afternoon and a nice drive in. I decided to stop at Lowe’s to get the garage cabinetry I’ve been eyeing for some time. I stopped at the Brice Rd Lowe’s. Not only did I buy the cabinetry but also bought the accompanying counter top, and then some additional black wire shelving. Also, I picked up some non-mixing epoxy glue for my passenger window. I’ll give that one more try before throwing in the towel. I called home once I was within eyeshot of downtown. I told Mindy that I’d be home by 5pm.
She reported Jacob feeling much better and outside playing. Hmm?

After settling in at home we took Ykraps for his evening walk. And as I have for the past two weeks, I decided to check the hot tub’s water level. Holy shit! Are you kidding me? Damn! Once gain, the water level was down over a foot! Now I’ve just about had it! While Mindy cooked dinner I spent time watering the flowers and then refilling the hot tub. I still contend that there’s an issue with the air hoses siphoning the water out. I was slightly agitated that both the hot tub and my car window broke again on the very same day. Geesh! Can a guy get a break?

Mindy did her best to remind me of all the good in my life. That’s her job. I expect her to try and bring me back when I hit a bump in the road. I’ve never done well managing troubles such as these. The irony runs too deep! Rains it pours… bah, blah, blah!

We ate our dinner. It was good. We had boneless chicken breasts fried in a grill pan. I helped clean-up before carrying on with my evening. I was a day or two behind on publishing my blog. I started working on that. I didn’t get too far before neighbor Mike stopped over with the kids. He had two six packs of Buffalo Bill’s pumpkin Ale for me. It was a gift for allowing him to borrow the slit seeder a couple weekends ago. Too cool!
I offered him one. He said that he’d meet Mindy and I on the deck after a few minutes on the bridge with his kids.

Mike joined us ten minutes later. We sat and chatted for about an hour all the while enjoying a beer. Turns out Mike’s fire unit was at our friends, Thad & Monica’s, house fire recently. Scary! Mike left just before 8pm. At the same time, Mindy hollered for the kids to come in and get a bath. I tuned into the Thursday night football game on ESPN, and then went to the garage and brought in one of the new cabinets in hopes of putting it together while watching the game. It took a full 1.5 hours to assemble the cabinet, but the directions were pretty good at least compared to other do-it-yourself directions I’ve had the privilege of working with in times past. Mindy helped a little, too. We went to bed just after 10pm even though I wasn’t tired when we headed up. However, generally speaking, once my head hits the pillow all bets are off!

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