I Figure the Odds be 50-50 ...

Happy Fiftieth Birthday, Glennie! After a restful night’s sleep, I was pretty much up on time and ready to get after my morning calisthenics. Meanwhile, the morning’s coffee was already brewing and the sun was just about to rise over the roof tops. Ahh – summer! Ykraps and I took our walk towards the west. As we walked over the pond I remembered that I needed to fetch my sprinkler pump from the water’s edge (never did fetch it). I don’t really like leaving it out overnight. I was back from our walk by 6:01am pouring the day’s first cup of coffee. The taste was sweet, decadent, & very satisfying. From my PC I spent the next 15 minutes reading the Daily OM and checking the morning’s headlines. I’m beginning to worry about the stock market. It’s lost more than 1400 points over the last month and more than 2500 points from its early summer 2007 highs. From a market stand point, the news seems bad on almost every front. That and the price of gas are killing me! My prescription for tolerance? Don’t think about it or look at my retirement fund too often. After ten minutes of meditation, I readied and left for a run. It was after 6:40pm by the time I stepped off the front stoop. I felt really good, but there was little wonder. I took an 800mg Ibuprofen the night before. I ran four miles. I was back at home just after 7:20am. I returned the trash can to its proper stowage spot prior to going in. I had no need to prep any lunch since we were having a potluck at the office. I just focused my attention on making eggs. I made a cheese omelet and warmed two leftover sausage links from last Friday. Breakfast was good. I was heading up for a shower at 7:45am. I had to turn around and head back down to fetch Mindy’s coffee. I remembered once I saw her still snoozing away in bed. Although a rare event, I chose to wear shorts today. This was golf league Wednesday so I saw no reason why not. After all, my team does all the time. I wished Mindy well from bed. Before leaving the house I had to load my clubs into the BM’er. I knew there was a risk of afternoon/evening rain but I didn’t care. I was driving the BM’er regardless. Why wouldn’t I? It was a lovely morning. Work was busy, but tolerable. We didn’t have our usual Wednesday staff meeting. I skipped a formal lunch to offset my expected early departure. We had our potluck. This month’s theme was “cookout”. We grilled burgers and brats. I gave $20 towards the meat. As usual, the food was terrific. Lots of good eats! I was practically comatose after eating much more food than I typically do at lunch. Sometime near 3pm I gazed out the window and noticed dark purplish clouds looming just to the west/northwest. I immediately set out to put the top up on the BM’er. Just as I was heading out, my buddy Bill asked if I would be so kind to help place his gas grill back into his pick-up truck. I did, of course. I wasn’t back in my office fifteen minutes before the sky let loose. It rained so hard we couldn’t see five feet in front of us. It was blowin’ sideways too. According to the radar, most of the inclement weather would track along and north of I-70. That left our regular golf outing intact. I emailed Bob I. just the same to make sure. But as expected, we were still on. There were a few small cells still coming our way but again, most appeared headed towards the NE. I left for golf at 4:30pm sharp. We were slated to play Split Rock which is well south of town in Orient off of RT 762. Traffic looked heavy heading out but I ran into few if any major slow downs. Still, it took a good 35-40 minutes to get there. Bob was waiting with cart as I pulled up. By then, the sky was looking iffy. We tee’d off on the back nine. Hole #10 is a short par 5. I was 25 yards out in two, but chunked a chip shot just short of the green. Making matters worse, once on I ended up three putting. Not pretty. I got a seven when I easily could’ve pared or even birdied the hole. Hole number #13 is a par 3. I had the tee box. But just as I was preparing to tee off, lightning struck nearby prompting all of us to duck for cover. Minutes earlier, it started to rain. We waited for about ten minutes and even allowed two crazy teenagers to play through. It got worse so we figured we’d clubhouse it for a few and see what the weather would do. But while we were carting back the sky began to clear. We stopped and returned to the tee box. But low & behold, by the time we got back, it began to rain and lightning again. Geesh! We waited patiently for another 15 minutes before finally teeing off. Along hole #16 the sky broke loose again and it rained really hard. Lucky for us it was brief. It was beautiful, too. At the same time, the sun busted out even though it was pouring rain. Liquid sunshine! We spotted a vivid rainbow just to the east. Should’ve brought my camera. Shux! We finished at 8:10pm. I shot a less than respectable 50. Bob & Bob shot a 44 & 45. I called mindy from the lot. She was already home from visiting her ailing aunt in Springfield. She’s 83 years old and was slated to have a triple bypass surgery on Thursday. Mindy and her Mom wanted to see her ahead of the procedure for fear they might never see her alive again. Apparently she’s having lots of health related issues. I figured a 30 minute drive home. The drive home always goes smoother – less traffic. And because the sky threatened more rain, I kept the top up. That rarely happens! I made it home in 30 minutes. Mindy was in the kitchen. She’d had the house sparkling clean and Ykraps already walked. Cool! The kids were still out playing at 8:45pm. I was surprised. However, it wasn’t long before she called them in. I helped Jacob with his shower and we tucked both into bed by 9:20pm. We spent about 40 minutes talking about the coming weekend’s plans, our next vacation, and a few household matters. We headed to bed before 10:30pm.