Thanks for your help Bobby

Mark and Kim's van had the handle broken on the back door which wouldn't let them open the door at all.  This wouldn't do, especially with Kim and Erin hauling all those Girl Scout cookies around.  So, I called Bobby Flood to see if he could help me.  Bobby has been an Auto Body man for years, and I knew he could handle a job like this.  So, Bobby ordered a handle for me, and called me Saturday morning to come out to his house in Shepherdsville so he could put the new handle on.  This required taking off the inside door liner so he could access all the necessary screws to change out the handle.  While the job didn't take very long, maybe half and hour, it does require more than just taking off one handle and putting on the other.  Thanks for your help, Bobby. I keep saying Bobby helped.  What I mean is, I held the flashlight while he did the work.  I don't know if I can throw off enough on the golf course to let you beat me next time, but I'll throw off enough to let you keep it close!

Jillian continues to amaze me

Jillian was sitting at my desk in the basement looking at coins through my mangifying glass.  She was reading a penny, " L - I - B - E - R - T - Y, Liberty!. What does Liberty mean." So, I told her it meant freedom, and what that meant. Then I asked her who's picture was that on the penny.  "I don't know," she said.  "Well, " I said " it's Abraham Lincoln."  Jill,  "Oh!  He was the 16th president!".  So then I asked her who this was on the quarter.  Jillian "Roosevelt?" " No, Jillian, but that was a good guess.  It's George Washington".
Now, I have to ask you.  How many pre-schoolers would know that Lincoln was the 16th President, or ever heard of Roosevelt?  I showed her Roosevelt on the dime. Jillian, my sweet girl, you are one smart cookie!

And then a little more metal detecting

I started out at Champions Park metal detecting today, but all I found were a few nails. I moved over to the Water Tower Soccer Fields, on the west side of the driveway.  Around the small field all I found was a few pennies, but when I moved to the large field I started finding quarters.  I guess bigger kids lose larger coins.  I found a total of $3.16, which is one of the larger totals I've had metal detecting in one day.  I've found more coins, but not in large denominations like today.  Those quarters add up to dollars a lot faster than those pennies do.

More Metal Detecting

 

I metal detected again for a while this afternoon.  I found about 70 cents  and this St. Christopher medal.  It's marked 'sterling' on the back.  The printing on the front I'm sure says "Saint Christopher Protect Us", but it sure is weird printing.  I guess it's English and the letters are printed weird.  Check it out and tell me what you think.

Round 4 for the year

Played Seneca GC today with Brian and Mark W.  Didn't play well at all, but I played from the white tees, which makes a lot of par 4's unreachable in 2 for me.  I shot a 46 - 48 = 94.  I forgot to take my pills before I played.  My knees and ankles started aching on the back nine and I really got tired walking the course.  Seneca is a hard course to walk.  Oh well, bad golf, good work-out, and fun round with good company.  Can't complain about that.  If I remember right Brian had an 80 and Mark had a 92.

Well, well, well......a little metal detecting

It's been a long time, but I finally got out to do a little metal detecting today. I went down to Champions Park.  They tore down the old Clubhouse and filled in the Pool.  I remember there being a wooden deck on the back of the pool and I tried to figure out exactly where that used to be.  I thought that might be a good place for coins to fall through the boards of the deck. I wasn't real sure of the deck location, but I checked all around the area where the pool and deck used to be.  I didn't find much, about 60 cents.  I found this 1944 penny and a swimming medal. There were a lot of nails.  I guess from when they tore down the building and ripped up the wooden deck.  I wish I knew where they brought all the fill dirt from.  If they just filled that area in, the ground below the old wooden deck could be under 3 feet of dirt. 
It was nice to get out again.

Windy Golf for Round #3 of 2011

I don't like to play golf in the wind.  But, it beats not playing golf at all.   I played Iroquois GC today and shot a 45 - 42 = 87.  How I played:  Driving 'A', Fairway shots 'F', Chipping 'C+', Putting 'B'.  I've been getting off the tee well, but my fairway shots have been killing me.  I'm pulling out of my shots and hitting them off the toe of the club.  Either making for weak shots or shots way right of the target, sometimes getting into trouble.  My chipping has been decent, and my putting stroke has been good.  However, reading of the putts have been a little off.  I've been reading more break into the putts than there has been, causing me to make good putting strokes but missing the putt  on the high side.  There were a few greens today that some of the balls after coming to rest started rolling away.  Even some of the putts while rolling you could see the wind take the ball off line.  I didn't stay around to see who won today.  There were 4 teams and we were the first in and the second team in beat us.  No since staying around when the last team wasn't even in site yet.  Even if I don't sound like it, I enjoyed the round.

Collecting Pennies

Since I've been metal detecting, I've started saving pennies 1982 and older.  These pennies are 98 percent copper, while since then they've made them 98 percent zinc.  Yesterday at the Golf Course J. R. gave me a bag of coins to go through at home to see if there was anything there I'd like to keep.

The bag only had about $11 worth of change, about $3 of it in pennies.  None of the other coins were worth keeping, but I did find 71 pennies that were '82 or older and 2 of those were 'Wheat Pennies". 
Collections?  I guess this is another one of those things I collect.  I probably have about $20 worth of pennies older than 1982.

What else? Bad golf for round 2 this year

I finally got out to play golf again this year. I didn't play well, but didn't expect to.  It was a little cold when we first started, but the back nine was comfortable.  I played a little better on the back nine.  I shot a 44 -43 at Shawnee GC.  It was really hard to club yourself today.  The ball just didn't seem to carry.  I ended up deciding to hit 2 more clubs than normal from the fairway.  Even then sometimes I came up short.  The greens were hard to putt. Some were fairly fast, others were shaggy and slow.  Some were frozen, others held pretty good.   The fairways were wet enough so that you didn't get any roll on your drives.  So, with the ball not carrying and no roll, having the tees moved up to winter positions didn't help that much.  I hit good drives today, poor fairway shots, poor chipping, average putting.  It was fun, felt great to get out.  We'll play again Thursday, this time at Iroquois GC.

Golf Clubs

I have a lot of golf clubs in the basement.  With the age of new technology, golf clubs are outdated after one year.  I would imagine that with most of these clubs being 30 or more years old, they're pretty outdated, too.  I used to buy clubs at yards sales.  My thoughts were that, being poor, if me or my sons lost a a club, say a 6 iron, we could replace it with one in the basement.  Not a match for your set, but a cheap replacement. 

Now that my son's have grown up, they not only can take better care of their clubs, but can afford their own and buy the replacements they need.  The picture shown  are the clubs I have left over.  I've gotten rid of over half the clubs I used to have.  Most of them went to Shawnee GC for the 'First Tee' Youth golf program.  I took a lot of clubs along with some bags, balls, and golf tees down there early last year to get rid of them.  I checked with them first and they said they'd be glad to get them.  So, now, all I have is what you see.  Anytime we have a yard sale I put a few out.  They usually don't sell.  So, if you'd like to try out a different putter, I've got about 20 old putters stored away.  I don't care how much technology advances, putting is 99 percent confidence.  Maybe one of these old putters might just 'feel right' when you stand over that ball.

In my Defense.....

In the past week or so I've posted a lot of the 'Collectibles' that I have stored in the basement.  Now, I haven't pictured half the stuff I have in storage.  But I wanted to show you the ONE thing Mary Lynn mentioned, and how much room it takes up.

The hubcaps.  Note in the picture on the left I have '7' hubcaps stored.  They are behind the blue bag on the top shelf at right.  I have 3 of these 3 tiered shelves in the basement and they are all full of items we need to store, not just collectibles.  Items stored are a Christmas Tree, garbage can, chairs, wagons, CD shelves, camping equipment, etc.  The hubcaps take up very little room in comparison, don't you think?  And, they do come in handy now that hubcaps cost about $80 each. 
You'll note if you make the picture at right larger, the 5 cases of Coca-Cola bottles behind the garbage can.

One thing I didn't collect....they just multiplied

We had Kathy and Jerry Norrenbrock over Saturday night, and decided we'd play pinochle.  I haven't played for over 30 years and Mary Lynn had never played.  But, I knew I had cards, but wasn't sure if I had pinochle cards.  For those of you who have never played, pinochle cards are different in that they just have 9 thru Ace.  Anyway, I had two sets of pinochle cards. I knew I had decks of cards stored in a box in the basement closet.  I didn't realize how many decks of cards I had.  I had 53 decks in that box!  All of the cards are in good shape, many of the decks new.  I would guess that around the house, in drawers, I would be able to find 5 or 10 more decks of cards.  Anybody need any cards?  My favorite deck of all time is in the box on top, with the Ace of Clubs and Ace of Hearts on it.  Julie made that box and gave it to me for Christmas many years ago, with two decks of cards inside with "Make Checks Payable to Bob Tabler" printed on the backs.  Many of the decks of cards came from Horseshoe Casino, where they only use them a few hands and use new ones.  I got those from Chuck Tate, who worked there for awhile.  He's in the poker club with me.  I also had 5 or 6 decks of Coca-Cola Cards, and  one set of Jockey cards.  As far as I know, none of them are marked!

Derby Glasses by the Score

Many items in my basement I don't really collect, I just accumulate over the years. But Derby Glasses has been one item I have actively collected.  In my display case on the wall I ran out of room to put one of each year.  The last one I had room for in the case was the 2004 glass.

The top left glass is a 1960 Derby Glass, and I have one for each year after that in the case.  The 1974 Glass, which was the 100th running, is the 4th from the right on the second shelf.  The glasses since then are not worth much money because that year started the collection craze.  But, the glasses pre-1974 are all worth pretty good money.  Usually between $35 - $60 each.  Of those glasses, I only have a couple extra other than the ones I have in the case.  However, the glasses since 1974 I have more than one of most of them.  For awhile I bought six glasses each year and stored them away.  The past few years I've just bought two glasses.  I would guess that I have between 200 - 300 glasses.  That's about as close as I can come to a guess without counting them.  I know I have about 20 of the 1974 glasses because I bought 3 sets of 6 at a yard sale about 10 years ago. 
This is part of the Derby Collectibles that will be Kevin's when I'm gone, or he can have them whenever he wants them.  I'll even throw in the cabinet!