Tuesday Golf at Shawnee....

Played round 24 for the year at Shawnee GC today. Shot a 43 - 39 = 82. This is a par 34 - 36 = 70. So my back nine was a whole lot better than my front nine. I missed 2 short putts on the back nine or I'm look'n at a 37, one over par. I love this weather! Walking 18 is so much easier than when it's 94 degrees with 85 percent humidity. We played behind one of the slowest groups I've been behind for quiet some time now. One of our groups played through them on the 10th tee. After 6 holes they were 3 holes ahead of them. Of course, we were still behind them. I can't understand what takes people so long to hit a ball. Watching them out in the fairway they seem to go forever before someone gets ready to hit! On the par 3's, we would finish the hole, walk to the next tee, and wait for them to finish teeing off! There were three holes open in front of them, so we know they didn't have to wait. What takes so long? It drove me Nuts!

Willow Park Boogie

Mary Lynn and I went to Willow Park last night for their Sunday night concert series. I know Mary Lynn already posted about this on her blog, but I have my angle of coverage. I wanted a picture of the crowd. Last night was "Blair Carman and the Belleview Boys" and they were very good. Blair Carman plays a rock'n piano in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis and plays a lot of his songs. The place was really rock'n and the park as you can see was packed. I wanted to post some video we took of the dancers, but I can't figure out how to do it. When I get some technical help, you might be able to watch a little of it. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and the first Sunday night in a while that wasn't extremely hot! This picture was taken looking out at the crowd from the left side of the bandstand.

Semi-Annual Slyder Cup Championship

One of the major championships was held today at Long View GC in Georgetown, Ky.

The Slyder Cup. The losers have to buy the White Castles. J. R. and I are partners against Harold Goad and Barry Rahn. We get two strokes a side. Front nine played as a two man scramble and the back nine played alternate shot.

J. R. and I fell down two holes early and tied it up by the eighth hole. The ninth hole turned out to be the pivotal hole of the match. We had a poor tee shot, short and left of the fairway. They had a nice shot down the middle. We pushed our second shot over the cart path making a lob shot over the bunker our only choice. They hit the green. Our best shot turned out to be a ball about 4 feet off the front of the green. We're off the front of the green in 3, they're on in two. We're looking at losing this hole. J. R. drills the putt from off the green and they three putt to lose the hole. We go to the back side 1 up. We won the match 2 and 1. The golf was fun, the match exciting, but the crowds were kinda down this year.

The next Slyder Cup will be this Fall, late September or early October. Get your tickets early!

Penn Run GC Scramble

I played in a scramble at Penn Run GC today with J. R. Harris, Bobby Flood and Don Roby. None of us are 'A' players. None of us are 'B' players. I would say some people would have a hard time confirming us a 'C' players, but that's what I'd call us. So, our team wasn't stacked. We played pretty good for a bunch of hackers and finished 3 under. I think 12 under won. But looking at the scoreboard I saw a lot of 70+ scores so I think we finished in the top half. We all screwed up a lot of shots but took turns hitting good shots. We scrambled! I hit a driver on a par 3, #8, dead at the pin. It hit the green and backed up 2 feet!. A Driver! If it had jumped forward 2 feet I could have won a TV! Bobby Flood had his name on one of the Closest to the pin holes, #11, but it was only our second hole so it didn't hold up. Well, we won door prizes, anyway. J. R. won and oil change, Bobby won a small 6-pack cooler and I won a $20 gift certificate at Penn Run. I don't think Don won anything, except the fun of playing a round with us. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Your age determined what tees you hit from. Don had to hit from the Blue, Bobby from the white and J.R. and I from the Red. So J. R. and I were able to help with our tee shots when we had a pretty good advantage on the hole.

This is why I don't understand the media....

I've never understood how or why the media reports what they report and the priority they give stories. It seems that what I think belongs on "Entertainment Tonight" is the lead story on the nightly news. I ran across this little item and thought it represented how I feel.

"You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the La Drang Valley, 11-14-65, LZ x-Ray, Vietnam. Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 - 200 yards that your own infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it....

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back....13 more times...And took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman, died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise, ID....

May God rest his soul....

I bet you didn't hear about this hero' s Passing, but we sure were told a whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his "girlfriend".

Medal of Honor Winner

*Ed Freeman*

Shame on the American Media".

What other newsworthy stories will fall off the table so "Michael Jackson's" death is covered 24 hours a day.

Penn Run GC Round 23...

I played Penn Run GC today with J. R. Harris and Bobby Flood. I played a very good front nine and shot a 40. I had a little trouble on the two par 5's on the back nine and shot a 44, for a 84. Bobby shot a 94 and J. R. shot a 101.

We're playing in a scramble at Penn Run this Saturday and we played today to see who the "A" player was going to be. We decided after the way we played it had better be Don Roby, our fourth for Saturday. He won the position by default.

Extra-Extra Golf Clubs

I have my set of clubs. Mary Lynn has her set of clubs. I have an extra set I keep as a back-up and Mark will use one time each year when he plays in the Coke Scramble. I have one more back-up set just because I do. I have clubs that I want to keep other than that. Old ones, possibly antiques. Some extra clubs, putters, sand wedges, and unique clubs that I just don't want to get rid of. But I need to get rid of all the other extra-extra clubs and bags sitting around in the basement. I think I'll check with Shawnee GC to see if they have a use for them. They have a Youth Program there and may be interested in having them. But first, I need to have Kevin and Brian come by and check to see what clubs or bags they may want to keep. I'm hoping to avoid the infamous "10 iron" incident that occured a few years ago when I inadvertently gave Julie a 10 iron that was Kevin's and he wanted to keep it. So, Kevin and Brian, come by when you can and check out all the stored golf items and put aside anything that you think we need to keep.

Tuesday Golf

Played my Tuesday golf at Shawnee GC yesterday. I shot a 42 - 43 = 85. I really hit my 3-wood good and chipped extremely well. However, I once again couldn't convert those nice chips into MADE putts and bogied a lot of holes I should have parred. On the front nine I had 1 par and 8 bogeys. While I feel good about not having any big numbers, There were a lot of pars I should have converted. Over the 18 holes I also had about 4 drives that were terrible. We put up $3 when we play and they pay the lowest front nine, back nine, and 18 holes, with handicap. My handicap is 14. The problem with me winning any money is that I'm too consistant! I shoot within one or two strokes of my handicap every week. I usually play with J. R. Harris, whom I've mentioned before that I don't feel I've played well unless I beat him by 10 strokes. I shot a 42 - 43 this week. He shot a 41 - 51! He wins a lot of times because he keeps his handicap up while shooting one good nine, one bad nine! He doesn't throw off, that's just the way he plays. Several of the guys play like that and they're the ones that usually win the money. Maybe I need to work on being a little more inconsistant!
Oh, by the way. This is round 22 for the year!

And the Winner Is.........

Park's Whopper is the winner! I pulled 2 tomatoes off this vine this morning. Not quiet ready to eat, but I wanted to keep them from the squirrels. In second place, with a tomato just starting to turn orange is the Red Beefeater. First tomato on June 23rd! I missed my prediction by 2 days. Mmmmm.....fresh garden tomatoes the rest of the summer!

Damage to houses on our street

****************This is a follow-up to Mary Lynn's post on the tree that went down between two houses on our side of the street. I took a couple of pictures today to show the damage. The picture of the two houses shows the damage to the roofs of both houses plus the damage to the chimney to the house on the right. Also, I took a close-up of the house on the right to show the "Go Away" sign by the front door. Very friendly neighbors. Click on it for a close-up.

Father's Day

I had a very nice Father's Day. I'm very proud of my three son's, Mark, Kevin and Brian. I love my two Daughter-in-laws, Kim and Beth. And my two grandaughters, Erin and Jill. Such a great family any man would be proud of. My day started with my lovely wife treating me to Breakfast. We found out our nearest "Bob Evans" Restaurant was closed and transformed into a parking lot.

Kevin stopped by and visited and brought some homemade Lasagna by, which I ate for Dinner last night. It was very good. My three son's culinary skills are just one of the many things I'm proud of. He had a 4:00 softball game so he had to leave for that. Mark and Kim and the girls came by and brought me my lunch and made me some pumkin chocolate chip muffins. Very nice. We then went to visit my mother in the nursing home. I was very glad to get over there with the girls. She's been wanting them to visit. Brian and Beth called. Brian had to work. Beth was on call and not feeling so good. But both wished me a "Happy Father's Day". Glad to hear from them. I'll see them later in the week, I'm sure. So, from start to finish, a very nice day. Plus, when checking on my tomatoes one of them is starting to get an orange color so my prediction of my first tomato on June 21st will only be off by about 2 days!

Dora The Explorer at the Zoo

We went to the Zoo today because "Dora the Explorer", Erin and Jill's Heroine, was going to be at the Water Park between 5 and 7 p.m. It was hot. I mean Jungle hot. Sun beating down, 92 degree, 90 percent humidity hot!
Time for Dora. You had to be in line to see Dora. The line was long. In the Sun. I said "Erin, wouldn't you be just as happy to walk up and look at Dora." "Yes, that's all I really wanted to do anyway", says Erin. So, we walked up, took this picture, things were fine.
Mary Lynn: "Erin, would you like to stand in line so I can get your picture with Dora?"
Erin: "No. This is fine".
Mary Lynn: "Oh, c'mon. Let's get in line so I can get your picture,"
Erin: "No. It's too hot."
Mary Lynn: "Erin, I'd really like to get your picture standing with Dora. Please!"
Erin: "But I'm hot and really tired."
Mary Lynn: "Please, Please, Please!"
Erin: "OK. Just because I love you".
Well, they waited in line. Over and hour. In 92 degree heat. In the Sun. Finally, Erin stands beside Dora. Mary Lynn aims the camera and snaps the picture. Ooooops! The camera is in "Review" mode. No picture taken. Opportunity lost.
Thank goodness Kim got a picture.

If it's Tuesday it must be Bad Golf Day..

Played my usual Tuesday round at Shawnee G.C. today. Rain in the morning and a threat of rain all day had us tee off about a half hour late and only about 6 people show up. Mark Wagner played with us today because he's on vacation all week. We teed off on the back nine first and I shot a 43 - 38 = 81. I had a spell on the first nine that all I could do was 'top' the ball and had a big score a a few holes. I chipped well today and was able to save a few par's that way. Mark shot a 77 and J. R. Shot a 83. As I said before, if I don't beat J. R. by 10 strokes I've had a bad day. But, today he played extra good. In our 'league' I have to give him 3 strokes a side, so if I don't beat him I know I can't win any money. And I didn't beat him.

My Challenge from Peggy.....

Peggy challenged me to list 6 things that are uninteresting that I do that make me happy. I never forward things on to other people, so I'm sorry I can't tag 6 others, but I'll list my six things.

** Laying back in my easy chair (Big Easy) and listening to my music.

** Sitting in the backyard swing with my grandaughters shelling and eating peanuts.

** Going to 'Ear Ecstasy' on Mondays to check their used CD's ($2 off used CD's on Monday)

** Watching Jeopardy and feeling smart when all 3 players miss 'Final Jeopardy' and I know
the answer.

** Watching my tomatoes grow.

** Getting up at 5:00 A.M. and fixing my breakfast, coffee, reading the paper and watching
the morning news.

I know this is pretty interesting stuff, but I like living on the edge.

St. Pius X Hole-in-One Contest

St. Pius X picnic Hole-in-One Contest had it's finals at Woodhaven Country Club at 6:00 pm tonight. Brian Tabler and Mark Wagner each were one of the 24 qualifiers. The picture on the left is the hole from behind the green. It measured 155 yards to the pin. Upper left is Mark's ball being measured at about 43 feet. Upper right is Brian's ball, about 66 feet from the pin. I think both finished in the top 10, with the winning shot just 10 feet from the hole. Mary Lynn and I went out to watch and I was surprised at how few spectators there were. I guess the rain scared them away. I don't think there were more than 20 people there. It was fun to watch, and Mark ended up with a dozen Titlist golf balls and Brian won 2 tickets to the Reds baseball game on July 7th.

The trees on either side of the front of the green definitly came into play. I'd say 3/4ths of the shots hit into those trees. Be sure to click on pictures to get a good view of the hole.

Willow Park Concerts

We went to Willow Park last night for their Summer Sunday Night Concert . Mary Lynn had
a post about this but I thought I'd add my 2 cents worth. She mentioned the crowd and the dancers but didn't show pictures of that, so here they are. They always have a large crowd and the dancers really fill the floor. I'ts fun to watch them. There are some really good dancers and some that aren't so good. The guy in the black tank top is one of the best dancers. We believe he is a dance instructor here in the Highlands. This coming Sunday is the Tim Kreckel Band. Should be some good ol' Rock n' Roll!

Doe Valley Scramble

I played at Doe Valley GC today with brother Joe and two of his Mail Carrier friends from Indiana. Now, I would give Joe a couple of strokes a side if we played heads up, and his friends I would play even and not be afraid to bet a little money. So, you know how I play and can see we didn't have a great team. I thought we did pretty well finishing 7th out of 14 teams and 3 under par. We started on hole #7, the number 1 handicap hole and bogeyed it. Our only bogey all day. I didn't play very well but was able to contribute my share. This is the only time I ever get to play golf with Joe so it was a good time. I was surprised how poor the fairways were. The greens were in good shape, but the fairway grass was very sparse and hadn't been cut for a while. We've had perfect weather for golf course maintenance this year and there is no excuse for any course not being in good shape. I don't know what their problem is, but they'd better be looking for a new greenskeeper.

Fun Day at the Water Park

Tuesday was Grandparents Day at the YMCA Waterpark. Mary Lynn and I had fun with the girls in the water. Of course, Mary Lynn had fund "watching" the girls in the water. The water was a little cold when you first got in but warmed up pretty quick. For me, anyway. Erin shivered the whole time and had goose-bumps on top of goose-bumps. Jill and I went to the top landing on the big bucket Waterfall, which required going under several water curtains. Erin and Jill neither one likes to have water falling on their heads, so it was very brave of Jill to go with me. Erin and I went down the small water slide together. Mark and I went down the big water slides to check them out. The yellow one was good and fast, but I didn't like the blue one. I started down and stuck. I had to keep pushing myself until I was halfway down then finally got going. Just as I got started good someone else, a small boy, hit me from behind and we finished the slide down together. The guard at the top doesn't let another person go until the slide is clear, but I took so long to get down they must have thought it had to be clear by now. I went down the yellow slide first and when I hit the water I lost my glasses. I had to do a Jacques Cousteau dive to recover them. We had fun and there are several more Grandparent days coming up and I'm looking forward to them. Maybe as they get used to it Erin and Jill will get more courage and go down the small water slides.

Golf Round 20 for 2009...

I played my usual Tuesday round at Shawnee GC today. Didn't play very well but hit more good shots than I have lately. Still can't seem to get my poor shot number down to an acceptable level. I shot a 44 - 44 = 88. I didn't putt very well. Not terrible, but they just wouldn't drop. I gave myself a makeable par putt on a lot of holes but couldn't finish the job and ended up with a bogey. My worst hole was #8, a par 3. I hit my tee shot left of the left side sand trap then plunked it in the trap on my next shot. Not real terrible, it lacked 4 inches of clearing the lip. Then I proceeded to hit it from that sandtrap to the sandtrap on the other side of the green. Then hit it out, but short of the green. Sixes are made real easy that way on par 3's. I'm close to playing a pretty good round. Just need to keep that one bad hole out and make a few putts.

Another Farm Report ......

My pumpkins are up! About a week ago I planted pumpkins on the steep hillside that drops down to the alley. I planted 4 hills. When the pumpkins start to grow I'll need to put a couple of stakes behind each one to keep them from rolling down into the alley. When they start to come in I'll take a picture of the hillside they're on so you'll know how steep this hill is. When I'm back there I feel like I'm taking a big chance with my life because one little misstep could land you down in the alley in the path of an oncoming car. I know, I've done it before! (Several times). Look for fresh pumpkins here in about 90 days.

The Tomato Race is On!

Place your bets..Place your bets. The Tomato Race is on. I have 3 tomato plants, each one a different kind. Upper left is a Red Beefsteak, Upper right is a Park's Whopper, and the lower right is a Better Boy. You see the sizes. Which plant will have a ripe tomato first? I'm putting my money on the Park's Whopper. There is no trifecta betting on this race.

Metal detecting season is over....

Metal detecting Season has come to a close. While the summer may seem like a good time to metal detect, it's not. When you dig a hole to find the object in the summer, the ground is so dry that when you try to put the sod back repair the ground, the grass there will die and leave a bare spot. If you metal detected in a field in the summer time, a week later you could go back and see every place you dug up by looking for the brown spots. In the Fall thru Spring the ground is wet and the sod patches you pull out will grow back readily when replaced.
Other than just the ground repair problems, it's HOT, the ground is HARD to dig, the MOSQUITOS are bad, and the SUN unbearable.
My short time detecting this Spring, having only gotten my metal detector March 6th,I have found a total of $28.33, multiple keys, 3 rings, two tokens, 1 soccer pin, and numerous other odd objects. I've really enjoyed this hobby for the past 3 months and look forward to the Fall and doing some more searching. Until then I'll have to write about my Bad Golf and other things I'm doing during the hot weather.

Bad Golf Round 19 for the year...

I played Penn Run GC today with Bobby Flood. I shot a 48 - 44 = 92 and Bobby had a 52 - 44 = 96. I always give him 3 shots a side and we play $1 each side and $1 for the 18. I beat him the front side but he beat be the back and for the 18 so I lost a Dollar. Bobby Flood is the only golfer I know who plays faster than I do. He's the only one I've ever played with that I don't ever have to wait on.

On the back nine I had a '10' on the first par 5. I hit my drive down the right side and under a hanging tree branch. When I went to hit it out I got caught up in the branch on my backswing and "whiffed". Then proceeded to try and punch it out and twice hit into a dirt bank that didn't move the ball 2 inches each time. Then finally punched it down the fairway about 40 yards! So 4 shots to move the ball 40 yards! So without that hole, with just a bogie, it would have been a pretty good round. I've said before that the front nine on this course is just a little long for my game. One of the par 4's today I hit a very good drive, very good 3 wood, and was in the middle of the fairway 100 yards out for my third shot.

Louisville Zoo Train

With the recent Train derailment at the Louisville Zoo with 20 something people injured, some seriously, I thought back to the many times over the years that my family has been on that train. I pulled up the pictures of our last train ride, which I think was last Fall. The adults seem to be perfectly content that this is a safe ride while Erin and Jill seem to have their doubts. Hmmm....maybe those little girls ARE pretty smart.

I've thought, too, of the train ride at Kings Island. I've always thought of that as a nice, slow moving, safe ride. I might start thinking a little differently about those type rides now.

Round 18 for 2009

I played my usual Tuesday round of golf at Shawnee GC today. Shot a 40 - 44 = 84. We played the back nine first so the 44 was really my front nine. I thought I hit the ball well today, only a few really bad shots. If I could have putted the round could have been in the 70's. I missed several short putts, and several of my long putts I couldn't get close enough to 2 putt, so I'm sure Putting well could have picked me up 4 - 6 shots, easily. At least I had part of my game starting to work well today. I removed my 4 iron from my bag in put back in my 9-wood. I think that will help my mid-range fairway shots.