Sunday Golf Face Off

I slept about as late as I have in the last three weeks, not waking until almost 8am. Somewhere near 7am I heard a strong thunderstorm blow through. It was brief, but a real doosey. By the time I was up and downstairs, there were nothing but blue skies overhead. But unfortunately, they didn’t last. We weren’t expecting anymore rain, but instead partly cloudy skies. The clouds quickly returned and were moving by at a very fast clip. It was sunny for a few minutes then cloudy for just as long. It flip-flopped back and forth all morning long. By the time Mindy was up, which was somewhere near 9am, I had already been out with Frankie twice and had a belly full of coffee. We played out back with the dog before Mindy decided once again to head off for Sherwin Williams. While she was out after her paint, I readied and left for my run. I ran out along Trabue and passed Mindy, who was already heading back home from Arlington/Grandview. We were completely socked in under cloud cover when I set out for my run but under sunny skies by the time I made it back home. Mindy advised that Kenny called about the possibility of golf. Said I needed to call him back. After helping Mindy get set-up to paint Jacob’s new closet, I took Frankie and walked down to talk with Kenny. We made plans to golf at Split Rock around 130pm agreeing to leave the house around 1245pm. I would drive. Mindy & I had no formal plans for the rest of the day. She asked that I call her on my way home from golf. Kenny & I left at 1240pm. The sky continued to trade blue for gray all afternoon, although as the day wore on there was more blue than gray.  Split Rock was having an outing, but it looked like everyone was going off the back nine. We, of course, tee’d off from the front. I picked up both of our green fees since Kenny got mine last Friday. I bogeyed hole #1, a rather simple par 4. With the birdies and pars still largely alluding me, I put together a string of 5s and 6s. If nothing else, I was striking my irons about as good as I have all year. That felt good. No really bad mis-hits on the front. However, I did take an eight on hole #9 after hitting my drive into the woods and then some extremely poor chipping and putting. 49 on the front (Kenny shot a 45). The back nine went a smidge better, but not by much. I shot a 47 (Kenny 43). The one bright spot, I had only one bad mis-hit with my irons, and that didn’t hurt me too bad. For the day, my driving was marginal at best, and I’ll bet I left myself seven or eight 30’ putts from the fringe. Plus, I missed a few 5-6 footer’s too. We finished in record time, held up only once and that was on hole 18 where were finally caught the group that started well in front of us. We finished in just over 3 hours. It was only 435pm. Before heading home we stopped for a look at the new construction going in along the back nine. First two houses are finally being framed. Ashley phoned during our drive home. Shared that she and Olivia had been at the pound looking for Benji. No luck. At the same time, she received a call from a Pickerington resident saying she found a dog that met Benji’s description. She was very excited to get home and see the picture sent via email. Nope, not him. :( She also shared news of her landlord offering to sale her the house via land contract. I didn’t want to discourage her too much, but also don’t want her to do something she’ll regret later. I warned against being too eager, especially given the amount of work the home needs. She seemed to be aware of the home’s trappings as we talked through it. I think it’s fair to say that her biggest fear is that if the landlord sales, she’ll have to move again. My opinion, then so be it. Mindy was surprised when we arrived home around 5pm. Expected me gone far longer. Showed me her handy work then ventured the yard with Frankie. Asked what I wanted to do about dinner. I shared my intentions to plant the last of our flowers, put that phase of summer completely behind us. I headed out to do so. In the meantime, Mindy agreed to head off to Kroger to fetch a couple steaks for grilling. While she was gone, I planted the rest of the petunias and a couple impatiens then transplanted the sun flowers Bella and I started from seed. By then, Mindy was back with the steaks. She bought some giant shrimp too. Before starting the grill, I suggested she check with the neighbors. Mindy checked with Kenny & Chrissy. Made plans to grill together at their place. After a quick clean-up she and I took our steaks, shrimp, and pug down to their place. I took a fresh Jack & Coke that Mindy made for me minutes before. I took a little more in my ski flask. We chatted all the while the steaks grilled. I took the two pugs out back to romp around before we ate. They’d been going at it since we arrived. But that’s what they do. It’s constant. I had a nice little buzz going after my first Jack & Coke. I went home to fetch another Coke just before dinner. The steaks Mindy picked out were extra thick filets, about 2”. Kenny grilled them to perfection. Both Mindy and I agreed perhaps the best ever! Right up there with Mitchell’s. Great job, Kenny! During dinner, Chrissy put in the Alice & Wonderland Blu-Ray DVD. I had been looking forward to seeing that movie for some time. We restarted the movie after dinner. We missed some good parts not paying attention. I enjoyed it. Chrissy sent us home with the regular DVD of the movie. She bought the Blu-Ray, DVD, Digital copy kit. It was almost 10pm when we headed home. I stayed out with Frankie for a while. It was a star filled sky. Yeah!