Bad Golf, New Toys, and Jack Daniels -- wahoo!

I woke in a cold sweat on two different occasions during the night. However, it wasn’t unexpected given my feverish disposition before bed time. In addition, to the sweaty sleep, I had several strange dreams. Come 5:15am I could sleep no more so I decided to get up and moving. After finishing my calisthenics and walk with Ykraps I felt surprisingly better. I sipped coffee in front of the PC before delivering some to Mindy. I had plenty of time to read the Daily OM, the morning headlines, and sports, too. 

By the time 6:30am rolled around, I was ready for my run. Almost as if it were planned, this first day of October was much chillier than it’s been all season. It was 50 degrees and breezy. I decided that it was cool enough to dawn my fleece running jacket on top of a winter running shirt. That ended up being a good call. I was quite comfortable throughout my run. 

While all of us ate breakfast, Mindy asked my intentions for Wednesday golf. Despite a bleak forecast - high’s only in the 50’s with a strong chance of afternoon showers – Bob was looking forward to getting out. I expressed my desire to do the same. She didn’t mind, but just wanted to know how to plan. She had a hair appointment (7PM) and wanted to ensure that I’d be home to greet the kids when Jimaken dropped them off. Knowing my intentions, she’d ask him to bring them back after 7:30pm. 

Mindy& Bella headed out at their usual departure time – 7:25am. I headed off to the shower while Jacob holed up in his room. I was ready to go by 7:45am. I am getting more efficient at this with each passing week. Prior to school starting, I was barely in the shower by then. Jacob and I tossed the football while waiting for the bus. Kenny & Jake were there, too. After the bus scooped up the boys I hustled back home to finish my prep. I moved my golf clubs from the BM’er to the Trooper and headed off to work around 8:10am. 

Work was eventful. I had three planned meetings; one at 10am, another at 11am, and then a third at 2pm. Sandwiched in between, my peers and I hosted a pizza potluck for our teams. As one might expect, the day flew by. I received a golf confirmation email from Bob Imber mid-day. Meanwhile, it looked the the weather was improving by the hour. There were scattered showers around but by and large the sky was partly sunny with temps in the mid 60’s. Because of the limited daylight, we agreed to seek a course closer to our work venues. He first tried Phoenix, but they have fall leagues for another three weeks. Thornapple was our next choice. We typically play there once or twice each year, but hadn’t so far this year. They had leagues on the back nine only. We could get off any time after 4:30pm. Cool! Thornapple it was. 

After a hectic but productive day, I left work at 4:30pm on the nose excited about the prospect of golf. Golf is a wonderful way to unwind after hump day. I had a little extra hop in my giddy-up after getting my Friday comp-day approved just before leaving work. So, Thursday would in effect, be my Friday. Yahoo! 

I arrived at Thornapple at 4:50pm. Bob Bolyard was already there. The course, meanwhile, wasn’t crowded at all. We chose to share a cart. We practiced our putting and chipping while waiting on Bob Imber to show.  We tee’d off on the front nine at approximately 5:05pm. I started well. I bogeyed #1 and pared #2. Thornapple is still one of the longest courses in the city, and has a couple of their front nine greens protected by beautiful frog ponds. There’s no easy lunch here. I double-bogeyed #3, and then struggled to get a bogey on the par 3 #4. I hit a poor tee shot with my 5-iron. I was playing bogey (Jimmy) golf. Still, not bad. But after the signature par three, my swing fell apart. I started hooking all of my shots, t-shots & approach shots. I have no idea what I was doing differently/wrong, although lately I tend to be prone to that when my muscles fatigue. Not sure why. I suspect that I might be trying to compensate with body English for power, but who knows for certain. I try not to let it effect me, but it does. Score-wise, I recovered on the par 3 #8 with a par, but still hit a crappy 5-iron into that 175 yard green. I just got a little lucky. 

The finishing hole is a fairly long par 5, which unless you hit a monster drive almost forces you to lay up 100 yards out just this side of a creek. My tee shot hooked right out about 200 yards. I had another 175 yards to the creek so I chose to hit a 6-iron thinking I’d lay up and go for the green in three form approximately 100 yards. Well, I hit the 6-iron a little too strong and it rolled into the damn creek. With the penalty, I was hitting my fourth shot into the green from 100 yards. I hit that shot poorly and short meaning I was now hitting five and wasn’t on the green. I ended up three putting and taking an eight. Even before putting I was irritated and had all but given up on my swing.  

 A noteworthy point… The course isn’t marked that well making judging distances to the hazards a crap shoot. Still, I’ve played the course enough times that I should know better. In addition, it’s not that I don’t cheer for my buddies to play well, because I do. But their games seemed to improve, especially Bob B’s just as mine went in the shitter. That made my situation feel even worse. Crap! 

Before parting ways, Bob Imber measured my interest in Saturday golf. Given that this would be a  Jimindy weekend, I declined. I might’ve pushed for it if I was playing better but the truth of it is, I probably need not play for a couple of weeks. That often helps my game – not sure why. We each headed our separate ways around 7:10pm. By then the sun was setting and it was quite cool. It couldn’t have been but 55 degrees. Even still, it turned out being a lovely evening for autumn golf. 

I got home around 7:20pm. I hurried and walked Ykraps then prepped the next day’s coffee. The kids weren’t yet home, so I spent some quiet time playing on the PC. They pulled up around 7:40pm. Jimaken didn’t hang out long. The kids, especially Bella, were happy to see me. I allowed the kids to play until 8:05pm before encouraging them to head upstairs to get ready for bed. More for my benefit, I allowed them to skip a bath. They appreciated it, and they weren’t sweaty or smelly. After PJ’s, I permitted them to stay up hopefully until their momma got home. They watched Zack & Cody on the Disney channel. However, my limit was 9pm. She wasn’t home by then, so I declared it bed time. Suddenly I was haunted by their bedtime antics from two years ago when I first attempted to put them to bed while Mindy was off practicing choir. Nightmare! This night, however, they were much better – resistant at first, but alright with it after some gentle nudging. I promised that I would send Mindy up once she got home. They were both incredibly sleepy. 

After the kids were down, I used the extra time to write in my blog. Mindy got home around 9:40pm, much later than I expected. Her hair was supposed to be cut, colored, and highlighted with deep reds – risky/ edgy by Mindy’s standards. However, if anything, it looked more conservative than ever. Apparently the red didn’t grab hold. Both she and her stylist acknowledged as much and agreed to schedule a redo soon. 

We stayed up chatting for while. Oh, I forgot to mention that both Home Styles pieces we ordered last Saturday arrived via FedEx today (a coffee table and glass-doored book case). Not only that, but the 4gig microSD card that I ordered for my new Blackberry arrived too. Damn! It’s Christmas! Memory’s getting cheaper by the day. I got the 4gig card for just $6.48. Now that’s a bargain. And to think, I paid $80 for a 1gig card about three years ago. I am still waiting on two Deepak books I ordered the same day – one hard cover and the other an audio CD. 

I enjoyed a Jack & Coke while relaxing on the sofa. We were surprised to find Wednesday Night Football on ESPN – Boise State and their blue field. We watched from the sofa for a while and then later from our bed. We killed the TV around 10:30pm.