Chance School Jump Rope Exhibition

At the end of the last summer season Erin could jump rope.  But I'm sure she couldn't jump more than just a few times before messing up.  Maybe getting 5 or 6 jumps in before missing. Not anymore.  I believe she could jump all day.

She jumps on one foot, two feet, turns around, jumps with rope going backward.  Those pigtails were really flying!  It was fun to watch.  All those kids did a good job, and looked like they were have a ball!

The she jumped with one of her friends, Morgan.  Morgan turned the rope and jumped while Erin came in, jumped a few jumps, ran out and around to the back and joined back in again. She did this several times.  It was neat. They missed a couple of times, but went right back into the routine.  Their teacher said they'ed only practiced it once, but wanted to do it in the exhibition.

Then they did the Skip-it.  That's a rope with a loop you put on one leg and the rope has a ball on the other end.  As you spin it around you jump the rope.  Easily one of those things that would cause me grave injury if I tried it.  But, Erin does it with ease.









It was a lot of fun to watch. In this age where so many kids sit in the house on their tails watching TV and playing video games, it was great to see youngsters having fun and getting some great exercise.  And with the skill they exhibited, you know they spent a lot of time learning and practicing.....getting a lot of exercise and having fun while doing it.

Tuesday Golf at Shawnee GC for Round 10 this Year

I find golf to be rather rough this time of year.  I've said before that my goal is to play a round with nothing worse than a bogey.  This time of year I find it impossible.
Today I shot a 42 - 45 = 87.  I don't think I had any triple bogey's today, but I had enough doubles.  Each part of my game is bad, only at different times. The only part of my game that has been consistantly good this time of year is my drives. But, because of the cool air and soft fairways, they're not as long as they would be in the summer.  But they've been solid and down the middle. Once again, the Shawnee fairways are very barren and many areas are dried mud from the flood with a little grass sticking through. The greens were better this week.  They'd been able to take care of them now that all the debris has been cleared.
I don't know why I get so frustrated with my game this time of year. But I do. I hit so many 'good' shots, that I expect them all to be good. I guess I just need to take a deep breath, relax, and chill out. But this time of year sure is frustrating on the golf course.

It was nice to enjoy a basketball game again

It's been a few years since I've enjoyed watching basketball.  I've never watched NBA games, and for the past several years I haven't watched much NCAA basketball. Only checking in on them every once in a while to see the score.  But today I watched the Bellarmine-BYU Hawaii game for the National Championship. I watched it all the way from tip-off to final buzzer.  It was the first time in a long time I really cared who won, and the first time in a long time I really, really enjoyed watching a basketball game.  Thanks Bellarmine Knights! You made my day. And Congratulations!

Spring golf - Who knows what the weather will be.

Tuesday I played in shorts for the first time this year and it was hot.  Today, I don't think it ever got out of the 30's......and I was cold!  But I walked 18 at Shawnee for round 9 of the year.  I shot a 41 - 46 = 87.  Once again, I really hit a lot of good shots, but can't get rid of those clunkers that fatten up the score.  I think I play this way every Spring, though.  My short game isn't sharp enough to overcome the few really bad shots I make.  But, overall, I'm pleased with how I'm hitting them for this early in the year.  Shawnee GC was pretty rough, having been covered by the Ohio River just a week ago.  The greens needed to be blown off, but I think all the workers were busy cleaning up driftwood and other debris from the course.  The greens were full of leafy debris and handn't been cut or rolled for awhile.  This made for pretty 'tricky' putting, not knowing how slow or fast each green was going to be and on long putts you couldn't clean all the stuff out of your way.  Just putt and hope for the best.  I did have 2 birdies today.  Hole #6, nice shot and about a 12 foot putt.  Then a chip in for a birdie on 18 from off the front of the green.  As the season goes on I'll get those big number holes under control and start lowering my score.  Just you wait!

Hitting good shots but not scoring well

I think I played golf sorta Jekyll and Hyde today.  I really hit a lot of nice shots but my score doesn't show it.  I played Iroquois GC today because Shawnee GC was still littered with debris from the high water.  I shot a 47 - 40 = 87.  Three or four really ugly shots, a couple of almost good shots, then a 3 putt from 2 feet, lipping out two putts, and the score seems to baloooooooooon!  But, overall, I was happy with the way I played.  Just need to fine tune some of those really ugly shots. 
It was still very wet out there today and windy.  Not my best playing conditions.  I don't think the ground will dry out until the first part of June, so I can't expect to get any roll on my drives.  I played in shorts today for the first time this year.  White legs and all.  It's supposed to cool off again, so it'll be in the  50's Thursday, when I play again. Even though it was windy today, the temperature was in the 70's and it was really nice to walk 18 holes in warm weather.  I believe this was round 9 for the year.  Nope, just checked.  It's round 8 for the year!

Looking at both sides of the coin

I thought I would post a picture of both sides of the these tokens.  I looked them up and I believe the Lincoln one is worth a little bit.  It's in good shape as far as being very 'readable', just has the rusted look from being in the ground for many years.
The American Legion token is in good shape, also.  It seems to have a value of several dollars.  I would venture to guess that they have both been in the ground for close to 70 years.

Yard Finds

I metal detected with Mark today.  We detected in two yards in Clarksville, and one in Louisville on Highland Avenue.  Pictured above is what I found, less a lot of other garbage I already threw away. When detecting in yards you find a lot of pieces of aluminum trimmed from gutters, siding, soffet undersides, etc.  And I found a lot of that today. 

I found this big Lucky Charms coin.  I don't know what that was used for.  Also, beside it is an American Legion medallion commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Armistace in WWI.  The date on it is 1938 so I guess that's when it came out.  Next to that is some type of Readers Digest Stamp. The other honorable mentions are the Lincoln coin.  I don't know what that was from, but it just has written on the back that Lincoln was the 16th President, and served all during the Civil War.  Next to that, 2 Wheat Pennies, a 1934 and 1935.  They're neat.  I found a total of $1.42.  I don't know how much Mark found.  I know he found a 1940 penny.  We detected for probably 5 hours.  It was fun and I really liked being able to get out and detect with Mark.  We don't get to do that nearly enough!

Finding medals

I went back to the little lot off Barrett Avenue today.  Didn't find much, just 90 cents and a Religious medal.  On one side it was St Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, and on the other side was St Paul of the Cross.  It's not silver because it was a little corroded, but it cleaned up pretty good.

The field is full of bottle caps and other metal junk.  I wish it was a little cleaner field so I wouldn't have my detector pinging in my ears on every sweep.  I have to pass up a lot of things I think is garbage, but I always wonder what it really was.  I have to believe everything I pass on digging up was a bottle cap! 

More Bad Muddy Golf - Round 7 FTY

It was a beautiful day for golf.  The temperature got up into the mid 70's. However, this time of year I play my worst golf.  They've moved the tees back to the summer station, the air's still cool so the ball doesn't fly as far, and the ground is soft and muddy so your drives get NO roll.  That means my drives, my GOOD drives, go about 160 yards.  You go out to your ball and the ball mark in the fairway you made is about 3 inches in front of your ball.  Then, trying to hit iron shots from casual water is tough!  Oh, you can move it out of casual water?  I'd have to move it to Florida.  Then, walking 18 holes.  It's good exercise to walk about 4 miles.  It's really good exercise walking 4 miles on your tiptoes, which you have to do walking up those muddy,sloshy fairways at Iroquois GC.  I shot a 45 - 43 = 88 today.  I hit a lot of bad shots out of the mud.

 My handicap keeps going up, so I might be ready to win some money when the courses dry out and the weather is warm.  I guess I shouldn't complain.After all,I am playing  golf when a lot of other people are working.  But, I enjoy golf less this time of year than any other.  The only rival for less enjoyment on the golf course is mid-summer 95+ days.  But even that's not so bad when you ride a cart.  Not so with today's conditions.  Cart Path Only!

More metal detecting

I metal detected in a lot between  'The Altenheim' and a church to the north of it off Barret Ave.  I've passed the field a number of times lately, mainly on my way to Rubel Park and thought I'd check it out one of these days.

I think a couple of house used to sit there because there's stille some steps from the sidewalk up the little hill beside the walk.  I found a lot of twist off metal bottle caps, which I hate.  But I found a total of 71 cents including this 1946 penny and this 1968 Shell Oil Presidential Coin.  I'm going to go back there and look a little more one of these days soon.  I detected for about and hour and a half and got tired.  Digging up bottle caps wears you out.  Those caps are mashed and read like a coin on the detector, so you have to dig.  It was a nice day to be out detecting.

Down by the River Side

Mary Lynn and I took a little walk today.  We drove down to Champions Park at Zorn and River Road and parked the car there.  River Road was flooded in both directions from Zorn, but the intersection was still above water.  We walked back to the Water Tower and took a few pictures.

This was looking East at the intersection.  When we got back to the river we could tell the water had gone down a little bit.

Kingfish Restaurant is behind me.  You can see the driftwood on the driveway to my left up above the water line.  So, I'd say the water had dropped a little, not much.

Walking back out the Water Tower Driveway I took this of the soccer and softball fields.  It might be a little while before I can metal detect there.
Today was an overcast and dreary day, but the rain was sporadic and mistly drizzle.  So, we didn't take an umbrella with us.  On the way back to the Water Tower is started sprinkling, and from then on just kept raining harder and harder.  By the time we got back to the car it was coming down pretty good and we were soaked!  It was my idea to go down to the Tower for a walk.  Bad Idea!  But, neither one of us thought of taking an umbrella, just in case.

Check the cards before you play!

I hosted my monthly Poker Club game last night. In a previous blog entry I wrote about all the decks of cards I have and showed a picture of the box of cards.  For the game last night I pulled out 2 decks of cards to use, just opened them to make sure they were 'very' new looking.  Now, a lot of those cards I got from Chuck Tate when he worked at the Casino.  These cards are used by the casino for a few hands, then taken out of play, packaged, they drill a hole through them, and sell or give them away.  They're good cards, only used for a very short time, and, basically new.  We've used these casino cards a lot during our years of playing together.  Well, last night before dealing the first hand and shuffling the cards, I happened to turn them over and fanned through the deck.  I'm glad I did.

I happened to notice 2 Kings of Diamonds.  So, we set the deck aside and used the other deck, which I 'really' checked.  It was OK.  Only after the game and everyone had gone I checked the deck further to see if there were any other abnormalities.  Wow!  This deck was really screwed up.  I wonder now if I'd have just dealt the hand how long it would have been before we noticed a problem.  With the number of duplicates, I don't think it would have been long.
One other time in our history of playing did we have a 'bad' deck.  We were well into the game before we found 2 cards of the same suit.  And this was from a brand new deck of cards we'd broken the seal on before play.  So, always check a deck of cards before the game begins....you never know what kind of mistakes may have been made or what problems it might cause when you get into the middle of a hand and there happens to be 5 aces in the deck!

More detecting at Rubel Park

I detected at Rubel Park today for about an hour and a half.  I found a total of $1.11, but found my first Kennedy Half Dollar.  I also found this other pin, I guess, even though I can't see anything on the back of it that looks like something broke off.  It looks flat on the the back.  It looks to me like cards fanned out in a hand.  It's pretty worn, so I can't really tell.  My best guess would be some type of "Bridge" pin.

The Flooded Ohio

Just a few pictures to post of the River:

This is the playground behind Kingfish.  Jill liked looking at this picture because she remembers sliding down this sliding board and swinging on the swings.

The restrooms in Cox's Park.  As you can see, another foot and it'll be on the road.  It's supposed to rise another 3 feet or so tonight and tomorrow.

This is the parking lot at Captain's Quarters.  This is not just standing water in the parking lot, it's how high the river is.  As you can see, as the river rises another 3 feet, the parking lot will be gone. We were planning on eating there tomorrow night, but have revised our plans.

Flooded Golf at Shawnee GC

No, this is not Shawnee GC, but it does look like hole number 7 from #3 tee box.  We had to alter our play of Shawnee today because of the high water.  We couldn't get to holes number 3, 4, and 5.  We played the sixth green from #3 tee box, then when we finished on #9, played 1,8 and 9 again, for our nine holes.  Then we played the back nine, playing #10 as a par 4 teeing off from up at the culvert by the big tree on the right side.  Those familiar with the course will know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, I played terrible.  I shot a 45 - 48 = 93.  I really hit the ball well at times, but hit a LOT of really terrible shots.  Combined with the ball not carrying, soft fairways and poor putting, the score got high in a hurry.  I was afraid he wouldn't count this round on the handicaps, but found out this round will count.  At least that's some consolation.  I don't know why I bother to play golf in cold weather...I never play well.  I should take off from Nov 1 thru April 1.  I think it would help my confidence.  Rounds like today just impress upon me how bad a golfer I am.  I tell ya, golf at 64 was a lot easier than golf at 65!

P - U - T - T - E - R - S !

I got a new putter from Judy on my Birthday.  It's the purple one with the white shaft. She thought I needed a purple putter.  I have to admit, I didn't have one.  I told her I thought I had about 20 putters in the basement.  I was wrong.  I have at least 27!  This was a quick hunt and gather...so there may be more if I looked hard.  The short one with the red grip I cut down for Erin and Jill to use.  The one with the red plastic ball pick-up on the end of the grip is the putter I use.  I've always thought technology has advanced golf clubs and if you have a set more than 5 years old you are sacrificing distance and accuracy.  I don't feel that way about putters.  I think you can putt just as well with a 50 year old putter  as you can with a brand new one.  It's all skill and frame of mind.  The putter I use I bought at a yard sale close to 10 years ago for $1.50.  I like the feel.  Each putter has a flat blade, and how that flat blade meets the ball determines what direction the ball goes.  I don't care what kind of bells and whistles the putter has or what kind of metal it's made of or how much you paid for it.  If you don't hit it on the right line with the right speed, you won't make the putt.  80 percent Skill, 20 percent confidence, 0 percent technology.  My opinion.

What a great Birthday Party ! !

Another year and another great Birthday Party. Being good this past year was worth it.  I had a stack of presents all the way to the ceiling.  The bag I'm holding was made by my '6' year old granddaughter, Erin, in the pink top.  She's quiet the little seamstress on her own sewing machine.  It's a bag to hold my pocket items, wallet, keys, etc., while I play golf.  I love getting gifts from my granddaughters.  They work so hard on them and put so much love into it.  Jillian, next to me, made me two pretty designs made from straws, and both girls colored a picture for me.
Kevin took me and Mary Lynn out to Breakfast this morning for my birthday, Brian and Julie gave me the Ken Burns Civil War DVD set, and Mark and Kim gave me the book "True Grit", which I was wanting to read, and a birdhouse Mark made from one of his gourds he'd grown last year, decorated by Erin and Jillian. Judy gave me a "Purple" putter, that I'm sure has a little 'magic' in it.   Mary Lynn gave me a book of pictures of old Louisville.  If I left anything out, I'm sorry.  I loved it all.
It's great having the family together.  I could just sit back, not say a word, and just watch everyone, and listen.  To me, that's living.

How about another 'Favorite's' List?

About a year ago I listed "Bob's Top 10 Movies".  This list was not my opinion of the best movies ever made, but my favorite movies.  Now, another list.  This time top five actors and actresses.  This list was a little tougher, I thought.  The actors list was a lot easier than the actress list.  On the Actors list I had to leave some off that I like.  I could easily replace a couple on my list with a couple I left out.  However, in the Actress category, it was hard to find five that I liked.  Thinking hard, it was hard to find two movies that an actress was in that I liked both movies.  So, a list of not what I think were the best performers, but those that made movies that I like to watch multiple times:

ACTORS                             ACTRESS

1.  Paul Newman                 1.  Shirley Temple
2.  John Wayne                    2.  Katherine Hepburn
3.  Jimmy Stewart                3.  Maureen O'Hara
4.  Clint Eastwood               4.  Dorothy McGuire
5.  James Garner                 5.  Sandra Bullock

What do you think?  Come up with your list.  Who has been in several movies that you like to watch?  Do you find it hard to come up with actresses the way I did? Or, maybe you're just the opposite.  Maybe you had a hard time coming up with actors you liked.  I'm sure your age will have a lot to do with what your list looks like.         

Pre-Metal Detecting Days

About 15 years ago, when I was still on 2nd shift at Toyota, I found a ring in the Toyota Parking lot on the way in to work one day.  It was a nice ring, many small diamonds, 14K gold.  But it looked like it had been run over several times and was mashed pretty good.  I called Security and informed them that I'd found a ring, and gave them my name and number.  I thought if anyone called them they could forward them to me and I'd let them identify it.  So, I did try to find the owner.
Today I decided to take it in to see what I could get for it.  I took it to Fast-Fix, in the Mall.  They told me the diamond chips weren't worth anything to them and that the ring was just worth what the gold itself was worth.  So I decided to sell it.  They gave me $86 for it.  On my way out there I tried to guess what it would be worth and I decided somewhere around $100, so I wasn't that far off.  Anyway, it's not bad finding $86 laying in a parking lot.

Thursday Golf at Iroquois GC for round 5 of the year

It won't be long before I get back into the routine of golf on Tuesday and Thursday.  The weather gets better every week.
We had four groups today, and my group won.  I got $8, my first golf income for 2011.  I didn't help my team a whole lot, but I don't think I hurt them much.  I shot a 46 - 40 + 86.  My 12 handicap netted me a 74.  I thought I played pretty good today but the course is playing tough.  The tees have been moved back for the summer, but it's still cold and the ground very soft.  So, the ball's not carrying and we're getting no roll, which makes the course play very long for a short knocker like me.  Several of the holes I couldn't reach in regulation with my best shots.  And a lot of the ones I could reach took a good fairway wood.  Also, I left 4 putts on the lip of the cup, like the picture.  Another half turn and they would have fallen.  The first two holes of the day I had long putts and went by the holes about 6-8 feet and the rest of the day I had just the perfect speed or just short.  I guess the first two putts got in my head.  Nothing the rest of the day was well past the hole.  Also, it's hard to get a good lie in the fairways this time of year.  Not much grass to be found.  I always did like my ball sitting up on some grass.  Anyway, it was fun, I walked the 18, and felt like a played better than I scored.

Metal Detecting a little closer to home....

 

I didn't get a chance to metal detect today like I planned.  I had to stay around the house making and receiving phone calls to try and get   insurance continued for Mary Lynn now that I'm 65.  It's been a real hassle.  But, because of that I thought I'd pop out in the backyard for a little detecting. I looked for about 10 minutes.  I found this child's play fork and an old Crystal Soap advertising medallion.  The penny is just for size reference.  I Googled Crystal Soap and found out the medallion was issued between 1926-28.  It's in poor shape, with a hole corroded in the middle of it, so it's not worth anything now, but it is an interesting piece.  I found it down in the lower level, by the fence near the old willow tree.

An hour or so at Rubel Park

I metal detected at Rubel Park for about an hour and a half today.  I found this 1957 Wheat Back Penny and a total of 74 cents.  There's not a 'lot' of garbage in the ground at that park, but more aluminum twist off bottle caps than I care for.  Trouble is, most of those type caps register as a coin on my detector, so I end up digging a lot of bottle caps.  Also, can tabs register the same as a gold ring, so I can't ignore those 'hits' when I get them.  So, I dig up a lot of can tabs, too.  Since I've had my metal detector, almost 2 years now, I've found a total of $121.66.  Plus, a lot of other things that are interesting.  It's been fun, and it gives be something to do on the days I'm not playing golf.