Golf Game Kaput

I crawled from bed just before 7am. I felt well rested and had little to no leg or groin pain. Downstairs, I prepped some coffee and started my exercise regiment. In between sets, I watered all the houseplants. Soon, Ykraps and I set out for our morning walk.
And what a lovely morning it was. I was impressed with just how nice our lawn looked after cutting it the day before and then watering all afternoon, not to mention the brief storm that passed through dumping some much needed rain.

I wanted to be back from my run no later than 8:45am and hopefully sooner. To that end, I was careful not to spend too much time on the PC. I left for a run at 7:55am. Once again, I ran along Trabue and Hague. It was a lovely run with little to no traffic to contend with. I beat the church traffic. I was back home by 8:30am. I took Mindy a cup of coffee before getting into the shower. She planned on attending church, so she got up with me as I headed back downstairs.

Before leaving, I made myself a breakfast sandwich. I offered to make Mindy one but she declined. I left for golf at 9:08am. Our tee time was slated for 10:22am. I wanted to be early to afford myself time to putt and swing. I arrived by 9:45am and took my time getting my gear all together. Tom wasn’t yet there. After practicing some putting and chipping I gave him a call on his cell. After cutting through his weak wrap I determined that he was close by. I found a bench in the shade where I sat patiently awaiting his arrival. He showed up with no more than five minutes to spare. I got a bit nervous, I’ll admit, with his lack of organization. He needed a hat, balls, and a towel all of which he purchased in the pro shop. They told us we were up next on the tee. Off we went!

I could tell that it was going to be slow play. There were several groups in front of us and they were struggling to get off the tee. They were rowdy too. No biggie! Tom and I hadn’t golfed together for more than three years – maybe longer. His game went about the same as always. I started out OK. I bogeyed the first two holes. Play was slower than slow. We had to wait at each tee. What’s worse, the group behind us was already waiting at our tee by the time we could hit. Meanwhile, Tom lost most of the expensive Titleist balls he bought on the front nine. I did my best to keep him upbeat. At the same time, my game began falling apart. I was struggling to get off the tee, pulling several iron shots, and putting poorly. I shot a fifty on the front and that was after finishing with two pars. Yikes!

We hoped that we could get in front of the two foursomes playing so slow in front of us. We didn’t take a break at the turn, at least not immediately. Turns out, we beat one of the foursomes to the tenth tee box, but were eventually joined by the other group who told us that those guys were their buddies. We let them play on and retreated to the clubhouse for a much desired snack.

Back at the tenth tee, the twosome that was behind us was already on the tee. They offered that we play the final nine together. We introduced ourselves to Bill & Marshall. Tom stopped keeping track of his score on the back nine. And honestly, I struggled too. I took a nine in there somewhere. And then on the finishing hole, I hit three in-a-row into the water on my approach to the green. I finished with a 103 – my highest score of the season. Tom apologized for dragging my game down. I quickly retorted with only I can drag my own game down. His play had nothing to do with my score. I certainly couldn’t blame another for my poor play. And besides, despite the poor showing, I had a decent time on a lovely Sunday afternoon. It was 3pm when we finished – 4.5 hours later.

After packing up my clubs and heading toward the exit, I tried phoning Mindy, who didn’t answer her phone. I was certain that she would be home from the birthday party her and the kids attended. Oh well. The drive home was fun in the BM’er. I took 104N all the way to Frank Rd. where I eventually jumped on I-71N and then I-70W. I was home by 3:30pm.

After woofing down half of a leftover hamburger, I headed up for another quick shower in preparation for Sunday dinner at Gloria’s. We left the house at 4pm. Once we arrived at Mindy’s mother’s I wasted little time getting on the drywall repair task. First, I trimmed away the rough edges from the work area resulting in a fairly clean rectangle. Next, I transferred the measurements of the opening onto the 2X2’ piece of drywall and cut the piece to size – 14”X16”. I had to remove some wood trim around the wall to expose enough of the floor joist to mount the patch. After trimming a ¼” off both sides of the patch it fit into the opening snuggly. Four drywall screws later, we were cooking with gas. Before taping and mudding I sanded the stippling away from the existing ceiling edges that surrounded the patch to make for better, smoother bonding. I brought my old roll of drywall tape. It has lost most of its stickiness. I should’ve brought the new roll but made do. I applied the first coating of joint compound quickly. Looking good. Mindy fetched her mom’s vacuum to suck up all the debris I left behind. Dinner was ready a short time later.

As I predicted, we had meatloaf. Somehow I can predict with uncanny accuracy what Gloria’s making most weeks. In addition, we had pasta salad, garden salad, cheesy potatoes, and rolls. Everything was delicious. As usual, I ate too much. Not wanting to sit around, I excused myself from the dinner table and headed for the basement to begin ripping down the paneling that is showing signs of moisture damage in Mindy’s old bedroom. I took down only one piece today, but plan to take it all down eventually. The bare block walls appeared nicely drylocked, but when rain water collects around a foundation and has no where else to go it will find its way in. I gathered that it’s been there a while, too. It’s already rotted away the bottom inch or two of the paneling and the bottom two feet of each furring strip. Jacob helped with the clean-up. We saw a couple big centipedes, which love moisture. Jacob sprayed for bugs. We washed our hands and then headed up for dessert.

Gloria made gingerbread cake with cream cheese icing. I love that stuff. I had two pieces! Before leaving, I returned to the basement to apply a second coat of joint compound to the ceiling patch. I’ll need to stop by my Dad’s to see if I can borrow his stipple brush so that I can attempt to blend the patch with the rest of the ceiling.

We left for home just after 7pm. The kids talked to Jimaken on our drive home. We all walked Ykraps, the kids on their bike and scooter. Bella hurt herself on the scooter. As usual, she screamed loud enough for God to hear. Once we were home, Mindy gave the kids a few extra minutes to ride/play before showers. Jacob came asking if he could join neighbor David for a bike ride. Apparently David invited him. But Mindy already had his shower running thus was completely against it. Besides, it was already after 8pm. Jacob threw a fit, to be sure. Oh the noise! He pouted through the entire shower process, and even some time after.

We tucked the kids into bed by 8:30pm and then took to the deck to sit quietly under the summer evening sky. At one point both kids got up and out of bed and came out to sit with us. Mindy sent them both back in after about five minutes. We stayed out for just a short time longer before heading in and to bed ourselves.