Comp Day / Golf Day

Despite having the day off, I was up at 5:40am. Hey, didn’t want to sleep my day away. In the middle of the night, my stomach burned and I had a mild headache. Just to be safe, I took three Advil and a Tagament right after brushing my teeth. Now set, I headed downstairs to get my morning underway. I whipped out my morning calisthenics then checked the weather. It was cold and clear – about freezing. I put on my fleece and running gloves for our walk. The cold morning air felt good – invigorating. I was in a great mood. Back at home I sipped coffee and delivered Mindy’s at 610am. She asked if I planned to run before or after seeing the kids on the bus. I wasn’t yet sure. Having my run out of the way early like a normal work day was appealing, but so was the prospect of chilling out a little bit. I decided to chill out for a while and use the time to update my blog. I had five days worth of postings to publish. I worked in my blog until 7:30am. After that, I did some sanding and touching up on the drywall repairs. I know I’m spending what seems like a lot of time mudding the repair but I don’t want to see any imperfections later that could be attributed to laziness. And believe me, when you paint with dark colors, the flaws really show up. The kids and I headed out to the bus stop at 7:55am. It was a frosty wait. Chrissy wished me well golfing with her husband later in the morning. Back at home I sipped more coffee before finally setting out on my run. I had originally planned to run four miles but ended up ratcheting it back to three. I wanted to keep my legs as fresh as possible for golf. I was back from my run some time between 9-930am. I spent about 30 minutes messing with the new trim, testing more stain and then cutting a 45 degrees angle on the existing vertical 1”x2” piece that I’m saving. It looks like the closest color is golden pecan. Kenny phoned around 10am to share that he and Mike were just laving Reynoldsburg and heading towards home. Instead of meeting at Player’s Club, they agreed to drive. I planned to walk down to Kenny’s near 1045am. It was bright and sunny, but still somewhat chilly. I wore a thick wicking shirt under a wicking golf polo. Last minute I decided to grab my Viking pullover just in case, and threw it in my golf bag. We arrived at Player’s club around 11:20am. There couldn’t have been 15 cars in the lot. It seemed kind of strange, that and all the barren trees. The green fees with a cart were winter rates - $39 each. Just as we were practicing our putting we noticed a group of six old men teeing off hole #1 together. They were walking too. We decided to let them get out in front of us a bit, not wanting to find ourselves on their heels all day long. I was hopeful that my break from golf (golfed only once in the last 5 weeks) would leave my growing list of bad habits behind. That proved untrue very quickly. My tee shot on one went just left, but not too much. My second shot I planned to use my six iron, the one club I used to strike with near precision every time until this summer. But just like every other since, I yanked it hard left and low. I didn’t get upset, because I almost expect it now. Player’s Club is one of the nicest courses around town, and it’s got some monster holes. To sum it up, I played poorly but still had fun. Without a doubt, my golf game is damaged and I’m not sure why. I’ll fix it calmly over the winter at the practice range. Well, at least I’ll try. As requested, I phoned Mindy as we headed towards the green on hole #16 to let her know that I wouldn’t be home by 4pm to get the kids off the bus. She appreciated the heads up and would take care of it herself. I think we got home around 430pm. It was fun, but wish I had played better. And like always, golf eats your day in a hurry. I could hardly believe that it was early evening already. Mindy had a spiral sliced ham in the crock pot. I warned that it should be placed on ‘warm’ other wise we’d be chewing dried ham come dinner time. It was delicious just before I left for golf – warm, tender, and juicy. She called and invited my dad for dinner. He accepted. Just before dad arrived Bella and I applied a cot of primer to the drywall repair. I let her do most of the rolling but with help. She did OK and definitely enjoyed it. I was somewhat nervous placing a loaded roller in her hands. J At least at first pass, I was impressed with the repair – no obvious imperfections jumping out at me. Dad arrived just as we were cleaning up paint supplies. He gave us an update on his progress after the recent back surgery. Said the cane is almost unnecessary save for going up and down steps. He seemed in excellent spirits. It wasn’t long before Mindy had dinner on the table: ham, stuffing, and green beans. The ham was delicious and still fairly moist. When given the opening, I commented that next time we should reduce the warming to just a couple of hours to help it further retain moistness. These spiral sliced hams come fully cooked and only need warming. After dinner and clean-up Mindy, Jacob, and I played 2 rounds of Apples to Apples. Dad opted not to play but watched on from the kitchen table while Bella played with her Barbie dolls in the family room. The game comes with six large decks of red and green cards. I made a joke about having a large green deck. Everyone laughed, including Jacob whom I wrongly assumed wouldn’t have a clue. Of course after that he wouldn’t let it go and ran with it himself. I shared that he should tell his teacher first thing tomorrow that he’s got a big red deck. Much to his mother’s dismay, he kept the joke going throughout play. I won both rounds. Dad left for home just before 8pm, but not before Mindy loaded him down with some leftovers. After Dad was gone, Mindy hurried the kids upstairs for baths while I printed off some photos for Bella's school project, a lifetime storyline.

As a family, we watched part of the Thursday night football game and then some Science Channel programming, although I can’t readily recall the details. We tucked the kids in bed around 8:30pm, and then at 9pm Mindy & I tuned to Fox to watch Fringe, one of the few TV shows we routinely try to catch. I dosed for a couple minutes but somehow got my second wind and was able to watch the program through to its end. We headed to bed as soon as the news came on.