Oops

Sorry about yesterday's post. I originally drafted it in three paragraphs but when I pulihed it it came out as one big paragraph. I tried to correct it but there must be gremlins out there. Anyway I hope you didn't have too much trouble following my thoughts. In retrospect publishing problems fit right in with the day's subject matter. The SD has called a golf luncheon on Thursday and Friday. That is if the weather allows it. I'm off to G-town Thursday for Miss Emma's 6th birthday, but will be there Friday for lunch at a minimum.

No Good Idea Goes Unpunished

We've all heard the saying refereed to in the title of this post in many variations. Here's another example of it in practice. Late last week I got the bright idea to move an old program I use to track my golf game from an old laptop to the one I use for most everything in my office. Mind you the old laptop works fine it just takes up space on my credenza. Actually it was my first laptop and must be at least 11 years old (A Sony Viao running Windows ME). Well the problems started when I tried to install the software. Windows Vista doesn't like golf and wouldn't install the program, plus it must have corrupted something in the process. It gave me a message that it wouldn't reboot and would I like it to find the problem and fix itself. Well of course I would and instructed it to do it's thing. After a lot of blinking lights it said it couldn't fix the problem and maybe I needed tech support. We all know that's about the last thing you want to do is call some customer service center and talk to "Peggy". So instead I called my local Computer Geek who came by the house for a look see. After about a half an hour of punching keys he pronounced it as having a real problem that may require a hard drive reformat ( translated - a lot of time to fix). Not something I wanted to hear since my tax return was sitting on that hard drive. The only good thing was I had recently backed everything up to an external hard drive the day before this all started. Well two days later the Geek called and said he had found some "computer black magic" and was able to lift the evil spell and I was back to normal. But he did caution me to keep my fingers crossed and to think about upgrading to Windows 7. I said OK, but I'm not doing anything until the tax return is done. Saturday night at the club was fun. We met several new members (all potential JR/SRS), and based on the number of people I didn't know there seems to be interest in a lot of others. There was a good band and we may have a Twinkle Toes 2 in our group. TTS was seen to be spending a lot of time with St Gwen tripping the light fantastic. Wonder what his body felt like on Sunday? Plus he stayed late ( I left before he did). We starting to get sunny skies but no real warmth yet. Maybe later this week. See ya at the training table. Remember posting season starts April 1.

It Is Now Official

Yes the season has officially begun. We had our first SOTD at lunch on Friday and as usual there were no winners. Based on how fast Dr. J got his money out he must have really missed this ritual throughout the winter. Of course he has been a big winner in the past and has probably got high hopes for this year.

We did have a short business meeting during lunch and confirmed the Executive Committee recommendation to appoint TTS as the chair of the Memorial Committee. This is the result of an idea floated last year and now has much more importance with the passing of JL. Several ideas were briefly discussed. To TTS's credit he has done preliminary investigation, and his ideas merit thoughtful consideration. We all agreed we need to seek approval of the club board before we go much farther. I'm sure we all have our ideas on what we would like to see, but remember this really about remembering our friends. But at the same time what ever we decide on should be of benefit to the club.

The weather hasn't quite gotten to the point for golf. Maybe next week. I checked my records and our last official round was 11/20/2010. That seems like such a long time ago. Thinking of golf, Brad told me he has the JR/SR Championship and the Mars/Venus (aka Pig Outing) on the calendar for the same relative dates as 2010 for this year. Planing has already started. Stay tuned for details as they become available.

Hope to see everyone this next week.

PS - The BS has already started. Our lovable LR Dr. was trying to get strokes. Now understand he has been playing all winter in Arizona (using his lost ball index to gauge his game). If he's any indication Gilhooley's (he also winters in Arizona) crying should bring new meaning to 1st tee negotiation. Even Twinkle Toes was trying to work the group. But, frankly I'm not buying any of this.

A Cheap Drum

The Nurse and I went to visit the Rabbit Wrangler and Miss Emma yesterday. The WR wanted shot some hoops before he went off to baseball practice, so we did. It became quickly apparent that he was way to quick to play one-on-one with so we settled on HORSE. Bad idea. He beat me my like a cheap drum! First of all I've been sitting around most of the winter hibernating while he has been playing basketball. Second of all it was his court. I thought I was OK until he started throwing them in from downtown. Three shots and I had HOR (two straight games) and not a chance to catch up. I didn't know a nine year old could get so much pleasure from beating up on his Gramps.

How's your bracket doing? In the family pool I'm only ahead of Miss Emma (who picked based on mascots). I guess this is pretty typical for the NCAA Tournament. I'm not out of it yet, but there can't be too many big upsets in the next round. Again the WR was getting great glee from being ahead of yours truly. This keeps up and I may write him out of the will.

Too bad I missed the Friday lunch at BCC. I didn't get any phone calls asking for the SOTD money, so I guess there were no winners. Maybe next week. See ya.

Mallards In The Yard

Another sure sign that Spring is coming is the day the Mallards show-up at our bird feeders. Such was the case yesterday. We have one or two pairs that show-up every year and one pair was here yesterday. We've been seeing geese for about a week. They may be local ones or some just passing through. I just hope they keep going. No nesting , please.

The ice is moving around the lake and should be gone by the end of the week. I have an annual ritual of trying to hit a golf ball across the lake (using the ice). I've gotten close but have never made it. Yesterday was no different. But, I came close using a hybrid. In fact it was a hybrid I don't really use. I may have to put it back in the bag this year.

Speaking of golf, Twinkle Toes was seen out playing the loop last week. He said he was in mid season form even thought the course was a little wet (do ya think?). I guess we'd better watch out for him early in the season.

Lunch Friday and happy hour that eveining. Hope to see ya there. Oops, forgot I'm off to see the Rabbit Wrangler and Miss Emma that day. But you all can have fun.

A Gold Star

LTG gets a gold star for answering all parts of the rules question from the previous blog posting correctly. In fact he even brought his rules book to lunch with the appropriate sections highlighted. True to form TGWH had a a variation on the situation we discussed which the six of us could not agree on. The next time you see him ask him and you be the judge.

Remember Daylight savings time starts tonight. Set your clocks ahead 1 hour. Gold season can't be far off. The Masters is only a month away.

The earthquake, resulting tsunami and devastation is hard to comprehend. Then toss in a reactor problem and you have the basis for a Hollywood production. Next thing you know Godzilla will pop out of the sea. The only problem is this is real. I can't imagine what those people are going through. With all the weird weather and natural disasters the Nurse said she didn't want to see tornado season this year. Maybe last year was our turn in the barrel.

With some luck we'll be at BCC this Friday for lunch. Watch your email for the SD's instructions.

Almost Out

I'm not talking about the flowers or the trees budding. No, I'm talking about our supply of hot chocolate. Every Fall we buy one of those big boxes of instant hot chocolate at one of the warehouse club stores and it lasts until Spring. Well Spring must almost be here since we are almost out. Funny how this seems to be coincide with Fat Tuesday this year.

The Golfer's Glossary: Men's Warehouse - When your partner sticks his approach close: "you're going to like the way you look."

Rules Question - The GWH and the SD were playing a friendly game when the GWH hit his tee shot on #6 close to Charlie the dog's property. The ball was within one inch of being out of bounds (and the property line) but still in play. Since Charlie has been known to retrieve errant golf balls his owners had put up a no trespass sign. The GWH took his stance while standing OB and the SD complained he couldn't do that and he should go back to the tee (the old stroke & distance penalty). Was the SD correct? We'll talk about this at lunch on Friday. Bring you rules books. This is a multi part question and could involve the services of LTG. What if Charlie stole the ball?

See ya later.

The Wet Foot

Due to the stars aligning in a weird way I agreed to to go to the Toledo Symphony Pops concert featuring Lead Zeppelin with The Nurse (normally she goes with one of her girl friends). Being the thoughtful hubby I am I dropped her off at the door and went to park the car (it was snowing like crazy). Well on my way from the parking lot I stepped where I shouldn't have. The next thing I knew I was in slush over the top of my shoe. When I jerked my foot back my shoe stayed in the muck and I stood there perched on one foot. A Good Samaritan retrieved the shoe and I managed to get it on and squish my way inside. The Nurse thought it was pretty funny (along with those standing close by). It took the most of the concert for my sock to dry out. I will say the program worked pretty well as a wick and absorbed a lot of the wetness. The concert was pretty good in spite of the way things started.

Friday lunch was held at a different venue. TTS threatened to hide out in Oak Harbor if we didn't go somewhere different. So we all caved in and went to the French Quarter for a change. Basically it was the same crew except the SD was back from the Left Coast. Lively conversation and Betty salads were had by all. I'm not sure where we are going for the last Friday before the club reopens. Watch your email for the SD's instructions.

For all you techies out there I saw the new Motorola tablet (i-pad competitor) and it is pretty cool. While it it is early in the product intro it could definitely be a good alternative to the Apple. If you haven't tried one the're like a laptop and Kindle combined with your smart phone (only on steroids). Pretty cool if you have a spare $500 plus.

Wasn't it great to wake up and see all the white this morning? At least the long range trend is for warmer temps and I think daylight savings time is due to start next weekend. At least then we can see the snow longer.

A True Sign Of Spring!!

Forget all the nonsense about ground hogs and their shadows. Flowers are always going to break through the ground no matter what. The true sign of Spring being close is when they take down the plywood at Mr. Freeze! That's right the plywood is gone and the opening can't be far away. The only downside I can think of is the long line to get an ice cream cone.

See ya Friday.