Good Friends, Brett Favre, and Golf

I was up by 715am after a more than restful night’s sleep. Because it was Sunday, I didn’t plan to do any sit-ups or push-ups, this being my scheduled day to rest. It was raining outside and fairly hard, too. By the looks of the weather there wouldn’t be any golf come 1pm. After walking Ykraps I checked the forecast more in-depth. Turns out, they were still calling for an end to the rain mid-morning then partly sunny skies and temps near 75. I told myself that if it cleared by 10am I would do the golf outing. If not, I would bag it for something else. I spent the next hour reading headlines covering Saturday’s college football results. Mindy was up around 9am. We sat quietly in the kitchen sipping coffee and talking. Mindy planned on attending church with the kids, the first such visit in a number of weeks/months. It would figure that the kids weren’t yet up. It seems that they always sleep-in when there’s somewhere to be. Sometime near 9:30am the sky started to show signs of clearing. I left for a run a few minutes later. It was noticeably cooler than the last several mornings. It wasn’t but 57 degrees. And by the time my 3 mile run was completed the sky was much clearer. Looked like we’d be golfing after all. Mindy and the kids were still at home, but practically on their way out the door whe n I returned. They left around 1015am. I logged on Willow Run’s webpage and then called the course to make sure playing conditions were decent. The club pro told me that they were open and in good shape despite nearly 2 inches of rain. I called Tom Clark around 10:25am to confirm our plans then headed up for a shower. He agreed to drive. I decided to wear my contact lenses for the first time since Mexico. They went in easy and felt comfortable. However, I planned to take my glasses just in case I needed to rip the contacts out later. With 30 minutes to spare, I cleaned my golf clubs then ate a hot dog. Tom showed up a few minutes early. We loaded up my clubs then left for golf. As we often do, Tom & I got into a debate during our 30 mile drive, this time over college athletes leaving school early for the pros. I’m convinced that he takes the opposite position from me just because. He can be such a contrarian. My position is this. Colleges have the responsibility to teach these athletically gifted kids how to be well-rounded productive citizens, not just good athletes. That’s far more important than simply winning football games. Tom doesn’t subscribe to that. I am also of the opinion that when they take a 4-year scholarship it should be thought of as a binding agreement. Again, he sees it far different than I. In his world, there would seemingly be no ethics – only what’s best for me right this minute. Of course, I also realize that there is no right or wrong here. Thanks in no small part to our engaging debate, we arrived at Willow Run (Rt 161 & Rt 310 in Pataskala) quickly. I ran into one of the Weese brother immediately. He wished me a happy belated 50th birthday. I couldn’t remember which one he was. Yikes! I hate that. I then introduced Tom to John Vereb and Joe Dooley, my two good buddies. John & Joey run the outing so after a brief chat we left them alone. We weren’t sure if we’d be golfing with them or not. We partook in some of the food and drink. I had soda and water. Tom enjoyed a beer. John & Joey sought me out around 1250pm and let me know that they worked it out so that all four of us could golf together. Cool! We’d be teeing off on hole number 10. It was a shot gun start, meaning there were groups teeing off from each hole. Good thing. There were about 132 players, or 33 teams of four. Playing in a scramble one can never get a good measure of their own game, but that’s not the intent either. None of us played particularly well. We ended up shooting par, or one over. I can’t readily recall. My biggest problem throughout, were my second shots. I couldn’t buy a good one. Despite the poor score, we had fun. I don’t get to see John and Joey that much these days. Like me, both of them turn fifty in the next couple of weeks. We’ve always marveled about how close in age all of us were. We finished just before 6pm. Tom didn’t want to hang out for too long. It was his 47th birthday and he was looking forward to moving on and out. I understood, and I don’t like hanging out afterwards that much either. Again, I don’t like to mix golf and drinking. I called Mindy once we were on the road. She was at home alone seemingly enjoying some quiet time. I called back a few minutes later after Tom & I agreed to make a brief stop at Barley’s thinking she might want to meet us there. However, she was expecting Jimaken to bring the kids home around 7pm. She declined but offered that I could still go. We did just that. We arrived at Barley’s around 6:35pm. The place/bar was sparsely populated – about what I expected for a Sunday. I purposefully avoided catching any football scores while at the golf course earlier, although I heard folks talking about the Browns getting pounded. More specifically, I didn’t want to hear about the Vikings results until I was ready. I considered myself ready now. Tom & I bellied up to the bar and ordered beers, me an IPA and Tom one of their new Wedding Ales. Playing on the screen in front of us were the Bengals and Steelers. With just under 5 minutes to go, the Bengals trailed 15-10. During the final minutes the Vikings score finally crawled across the bottom of the screen. We won 27-24! Not only did we win, but it was in dramatic last second fashion, too, a 32 yard TD pass from Brett Favre with 2 seconds left. Meanwhile, the Bengals Steelers game was getting interesting. Somehow the Bengals got the ball back with a couple minutes remaining and were driving towards the winning TD. But you just knew they would somehow self-destruct. After all, isn’t that what the Bengals and Browns always do? Not today, though. The Bengals scored a TD upsetting the Steelers. The crowd in Cincy went crazy! All totaled, Tom & I hung out for about an hour and fifteen, long enough for him to eat a burger and drink two beers, and me to drink 2.5 IPAs. Monica topped me off - gratis. I arrived home around 8pm. I checked with Mindy. She had already walked Ykraps saving me the trip. I shared a little about my day golfing and the Vikings big victory. I was extremely eager to see the highlights. Mindy had the kids bathed and ready for bed over the next 15-20 minutes. I tuned into the Sunday Night football game – Phoenix vs. Indianapolis. We headed to bed at halftime. Mindy offered to turn on the game from bed but I didn’t care that much since I was already dosing from the sofa. Good night.