Old Penny, New Penny

I was talking to my son Mark last night about getting a 1959 penny in change yesterday.  And how it's hard to believe that it's already 53 years old.  1959 was the first year of the "Lincoln Memorial" back penny.
Well, today, I got a 1958 penny in change from the grocery.  This was the last year for the "Wheat Back" penny.  No, it's not rare and valuable, but you just don't get those "Wheat Back" pennies in change very often. 
I'll save it.  Those of you who read my blog know that I save all kinds of things, and pennies 1982 and older are one of the things I save, because 1982 was the last year they made copper pennies.
Just thought this was neat.

Playing Poker

I've played Poker all my life.  I've said many times that I learned my numbers from playing cards.  I thought when you counted, once you got to ten, next came Jack, Queen, King.
This is the earliest picture I have of me playing Poker.  That's me in the front on the right.  Hidden behind my head I thought it was Jean, but now I really can't tell.  Does it look like they don't have a shirt on?
Anyway, the other people, on my left is Susie, and across from me is Willie.  Both of them are my Double Cousins.  Standing is Janet, my Cousin. My best guess is that I am about 11-12 years old here.
I know at home, Jean, Joe, and I would often divide out the poker chips and start playing cards.  We never played for any money, just for chips.  Beside Poker, we played almost any other card game you could name.  Hearts, Spades, Canasta, Rummy, Black Jack, Pinochle, Cribbage, and of course, War.

Trying to find a bench on the Golf Course

If you can find a bench on the Golf Course they're usually right by the cart path, by the ball wash, and by the garbage can.  Nice and convenient.  ..........For who?  Yep......the people who are riding a cart.  I have to ask you, who gets out of their cart to sit on a bench?  Benches are very seldom convenient to the people walking the course.
OK, I admit some happen to be where you would walk up to the tee, but I think that's just a coincidence.
I don't know why when the benches are put in they don't look to see where the people will be walking from the previous green. 
I like to walk the course.  But lately, I find being on my feet for 4 and a half hours begins to wear on me.  But, if I could just get off my feet for a minute or two every couple of holes, that would really help.  In my opinion I don't know why they can't have a bench on every tee box.  I don't mean 18 benches, I mean if you have 4 different tees, each should have their own bench, for a total of  72 benches!
You might think this is a little extreme.  But wait.  Around here they are constantly having storms that blow down branches, or whole trees.  The Parks Department comes around, saws them up, and hauls them away.  There go the benches!  A couple of tree stumps per tee?  Two stumps with a log stretched across them?  Benches!  Mulch around them, no grass trimming worries.  Mulching with the smaller branches you had to run through the shredder.  Just a place to sit for a minute waiting for the fairway to clear.  What a difference it would make when you walk 18 holes!

"The Hunger Games', Book and Movie

I'd never heard of "The Hunger Games" when the movie was released.  I decided to read the book.  It was an interesting book, but after starting to read the 2nd book, "Hunger Games 2", I've gotten to like the first book more.  When reading the first book there seemed to be a lot of things that happened that I thought "so what?", but they have a purpose as the story continues.  So, overall, I like the book "Hunger Games" quite a lot.  It is different.
The movie followed the story as well a a movie can follow a book story.  Impossible to put in every detail, and some things happen a little different to allow the story to flow a little better on the screen.  But, overall, they did a good job with the movie.
I would recommend reading the books.  But, I believe this is one movie made from a book that you don't have to read the book before seeing the movie to get the most out of it.  The movie does a very good job of setting up the plot.

Another Round of golf at Shawnee GC

If it's Tuesday, this must be Shawnee!  It was a nice day to play golf.  The breeze was a little cool, but the sun was out, the wind wasn't howling, but seemed to always be in your face.  Really!  It seemed like it was in our face on a hole, then we'd go to the next tee, with the hole going the opposite direction, and the wind would be in our face there!  I'm not kidding.

I need to add this laser putter to my bag.  My putting was killing me today.  When you're on the fringe, you'd think you could maybe make the putt, or least, two putt. Noooooo!  That's the kinda shot that was killing me today.  I ended up shooting a 41 - 42 = 83.  One triple bogey on a par 3.  That really hurt.  I mean, when you're the kind of golfer I am, short hitter, throw in a terrible shot every couple of holes, you need to really have a sharp short game.  Well, my short game needs a little honing.  I missing short putts and not getting my long putts close enough to the hole.  That's where I'm missing my short putts.
I've just got way too many bad shots in my game right now.  I can live with so-so shots.  And I know I'll never be good enough to get rid of all my bad shots.  But I really need to cut them down a whole lot.  That's my goal.  Concentration.  That's the key.  A couple of my 'bad' shots today were really poor course management.  Hitting the ball where I should never have been trying to hit it.  Oh well.  It's early in the year.  This is only round 15 for the year. l Plenty of time to get it together.

Earth Day at the Zoo!

Working at the Zoo on Earth Day, showing the Argentine Black and White Tegu to my G-Daughter Erin, with Jillian (Little Red Riding Hood) in the background.  The crowd was huge today, with $2 admissions.

I like this picture.  Erin and Jill were standing on a stool to look over the top of the water tank.  They were watching this Red Eared Slider Turtle, which just started to swim away.  My angle wouldn't let me see Jill, but she leaned out for me.  That in itself is unusual, for her to want to be in the picture!

We went over to the Orangutans and Jill tried on a coat with arms as long as an Orangutan.  Now, I'd like to get a hug from Jill with her arms 'that' big.

We had fun at the Zoo and then headed across the Street to the Mighty Kindness Day Hootenany!

Let's Play Marbles!

Monday, I went out to Mark and Kim's to watch Erin, who was home from school sick. After playing a few games with her it was time for her to lay down and rest for awhile.  While she was lying there, I told her about the things I used to do when I was a young boy.  I told her about marbles.
This is one game from my childhood that you just don't see played any longer.  I can't imagine how many hours I spent playing marbles, but it filled a lot of the Summer.  We basically played 3 different games.  'Ringers', 'Pig-Eye', and 'Chasers'.

RINGERS  This game was started by drawing a circle, and each player putting in the stated amount of marbles.  For us, this was usually 5 marbles each.  We would then draw a straight line and get back about 10 feet and 'lag' to the line with our 'Taw' (Shooting Marble).  The closest to the line went first followed my the next closest, etc.  A player would shoot his marble from the edge of the circle trying to knock a marble out of the circle.  Any marble knocked out would be his.  If a player shot and knocked a marble out he got another turn.  He continued until he missed, and then it would be the next players turn.  The game continued until all the marbles where knocked out of the circle.







PIG-EYE  This game was similar to 'Ringers'.  But, you drew an  'Eye', instead of a ring.  This was an oval, really football or eye shaped, much smaller than the ring we would draw for 'Ringers'.  The game started the same way, with a lag to a line to see who went first.  Then the stated number of marbles was put in by each player.  The difference in this game was that wherever your 'Taw' ended up after you shot, that's where you shot from the next time.  You didn't always hit from the edge of the line as in 'Ringers'.  Hitting a marble with another marble, or really any ball with another ball, the ball that's hit flies away, but the hitting marble usually stops at contact.  So, if you played your cards right, you could wipe out all the marbles from 'Pig-Eye' with a good run.

CHASERS  We probably played this game more than the others.  It may be hard to explain, and may seem the silliest, but we enjoyed it.  We usually played in the grass.  Each player would shoot their marble out into the grass and we would take turns.  You tried to hit the other person's marble, and each time you hit him he had to give you a marble.  We had a '3 marble limit' on each series of hits. When you hit another marble, you got a marble and another turn.  So, if you hit him and stopped right by him, you could bump him again, then again, and then shoot away, winning 3 marbles.  The strategy was to shoot close enough to another marble that he would try to hit you and miss, leaving his marble close enough for you to hit. 

As you can see, the best marble player in the neighborhood usually had a lot of marbles, and the poorer shooters, like me, spent a lot of their allowance buying marbles. I wonder if they could make a marbles "WII" game?

Raking in the Dough playing golf!

Wow!  This golfing and raking in money is a lot of fun!  I found out today that I won the back nine Tuesday and got $20!  Then, today our team won low team and we got back $9 each.  So a whopping total of $29 today for me.
First, let me thank all my readers for responding to my little reference about not reading my blogs about golf.  Mary Lynn informed me, when I asked her if she saw my Tuesday golf blog, said, "Well, when I see it's about golf I just skim through it."  I know my 'True' blog followers absorb every word I print!
Well, today I shot a 42 - 39 = 81.  Not bad, but I still don't feel I'm very close to shooting a good round.  I mean, today, a couple of shots here and there and I'm down to a 77-78, but I'm still not hitting the ball like I should.  Throughout the round I hit a lot of good, solid shots.  But I feel like to play well I should be hitting good solid shots 80% of the time, with the other 20% not great, but decent shots.  Right now I think I hit good, solid shots about 40%, decent 40% and pretty bad 20%.  So, I've got a lot of improvement to make before I feel like I'm playing the way I should be playing.  I had one double bogey today, the rest bogeys and pars.  Not a single birdie or triple bogey.  I should be able to throw in a birdie in 18 holes.  I had the opportunity a couple of times today, with makeable putts,  but couldn't make the putt.  So, I'm still a work in progress!

Blast from the 'Distant' Past

My Grandmother with her parents, my Great-Grandparents.  With the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I just thought this was neat because this picture was taken 2 years before the Titanic sunk!
I was named after Lawrence Burch, Lawrence being my middle name, so I'm kinda partial to him.  He was a Railroad Engineer, and I have his watch and his employee boarding pass which allowed him to ride the train anywhere and anytime he wanted.
And I have to think of Erin and Jillian.  This is a picture of their Great-Great-Great Grandparents with their Great-Great Grandmother!

And, we can go back one more generation.  This is a picture of Lucinda Green Burch, Lawrence's wife, in the lower right hand corner.  She is sitting next to her mother, with her two sister's.
So, the lady on the lower left is Erin and Jillian's Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother!  Do you see any resemblance? 
I just thought I'd post a little something different.  I found out some of my readers don't even bother to read my golf posts!

Lucky Round '13' for the Year

Well,....how about 'Unlucky' round 13 for the year.  My score today was 46 - 39 = 85.  Now, I'm very satisfied with the back nine score of 39.  That has a chance of winning me some money.  I'll find out Thursday.  But, the front nine, I played terrible, and I'm pretty sure I shot a 43 instead of a 46.  I didn't keep my own score on the front, but after looking at the score and what he put down on each hole, I decided to keep my own score on the back nine.  I know for sure he had the wrong score on 2 of the holes.  I bogeyed #4, a par 3, and he had be down for a '6'!  And I'm sure I had a par on #8, a par 3, and he had me down for a 4.  But, I played pretty bad and I know I didn't win the nine, so let them give me more handicap!
The biggest difference from the front nine to the back nine was my putting.  I couldn't make a putt on the front.  After 3 holes I had 8 putts.  Just not making a good first putt, then unable to make the 2nd putt to save me.  I really didn't play much different from back nine to front nine, but I just started making putts.

'KISS', The New Generation

I read that Jillian, after seeing 'KISS' on 'Dancing with the Stars' said: "What? Are...Those?!".  She was told that her Uncles Kevin and Brian dressed like 'KISS' on Halloween one year.  Just thought I'd show them.  You can only tell the difference because there are four in this picture and only two in the other.

Pretty scary, isn't it?

Golf Round 12 for the Year

I'm still waiting for my game to come around.  I didn't play that bad today, but just can't seem to put 18 holes together. 
One thing, it was a complete opposite from last week in that the course was dry and we got some roll on our drives.  Last week the fairways were mostly 'casual water'.
I was pretty disappointed when I finished because I double bogeyed the last hole.  I shot a 41 - 41 = 82, which netted be a 72 after my 10 handicap was deducted.  Just a couple of shots and I could have broken 80, but I don't feel like I'm close to playing well, as I felt last week.  I just hit way too many bad shots today to think I'm close.  When you can look back on a round and see 2-4 shots that if hit well would have made a good round, then you're getting close.  I hit a lot more bad shots than that.
I left before I found out if our team won low team today.  I know that nobody on our team won low man.  Our team averaged 73.6, which won't be real far off the winning team, but doesn't look very promising to be the low score.

Touching a Ball Python at the Zoo

I presented a Ball Python today at the Herpaquarium for Visitors to learn about and be able to touch.  People, kids especially, love to be able to actually 'touch' a real, live, snake!  I had a few people I know drop by.

Here, Erin Tabler steps up and touches a snake.

And, Jillian Tabler steps up.

And, we have proof!  Here's Kim Tabler touching the snake.

And the third generation, Nana, Judy Bowman also touches the snake.


It's fun educating people on the Ball Python.  This Ball Python, 'Stevie', is very well behaved yet likes to explore his surroundings, so he moves around a lot.  I think he is more entertaining moving around than if he was still.  I'm constantly having to re-adjust my grip and make sure I keep his head away from the hands that want to touch him.  Not that he would bite anyone, but just like you would be, I'm sure he doesn't like people reaching for his head.

Golf at Shawnee GC on a Tuesday

This is a picture of me on the Front Nine.  Well, it certainly could have been.  I played golf like I'd never been on a golf course before.  There wasn't any part of my game that was good today. 
I shot a 43 - 44 = 87.  I'd really been hitting good drives lately, and I hit some today.  Just not as many as I had been.  I let the ball get away from me several times off the tee and it cost me.  My fairway shots and my putting was terrible today.   I don't know how many short putts I missed.  The only part of today that was good was that I found out my team won last Thursday and I got $5!
I believe my 87 today will be so bad that they may throw it out and not count it towards my handicap.  I'd really been feeling that I was just a few shots away from having a really good round.  Now, I think I've taken a big step backward.  My only hope is that the cooler than it has been temperature today, and the wind, may have bothered me more than I thought it did. 

Big Crowd at the Zoo today

With tomorrow being Easter and the family coming over here for Dinner, I thought I'd spend a little time at the Zoo today.  Judging from the cars in the lot I believe this was the largest crowd they've had this year.

I took our Rhino horn up to the Rhino Exhibit and talked to people as they came by and let them touch a 'real' Rhino horn while I told them a little about our Rhino's.  The horn we have the the smaller of the two horns, it came off one of our Rhino's when she damaged her horn.  I believe the people enjoyed it, and I know I did.  I find that to be a lot of fun.  I was at the Rhino exhibit for about an hour and a half.



When I took the Rhino horn back to the MetaZoo, I talked to two other Docents who had manned a table with a Tegu for about an hour and were getting ready to go up to the Glacier Run Exhibit.  They mentioned the Penguin exhibit, which has been closed for cleaning for about 2 weeks, and how nice it looks now.  So, I decided to swing by and see it on my way out of the Zoo.

They were right.  It does look nice, and I'm sure it's close to being open again.  But, I found it interesting walking through the Islands Exhibit, with my Docent shirt and ID tags.  Most people believe you are an 'Employee' of the Zoo, and ask "Do you work here?"  I tell them, "Well, I'm a Volunteer, not an Employee."  But people, seeing the shirt and tag, will ask you all kinds of questions.  "What kind of bush is that?"  "Is this statue Life Size?"  "Where are the baby animals?"  Plus, I think one of the most asked questions when you're doing an interpretation at an exhibit is "How old is she?", or whatever kind of animal it is.  But they always seem to be interested in the age.  So, I'll have to make sure I know the 'age' of the animal I'm going to be near.  They won't let me spin any yarns.  But, I don't care how much you study and know about the area you're going to be around, somebody will stump you with a question.

The Red Azalea Bushes are Blooming

Around my back walk I have Azalea bushes.  I alternated  red and white blooming Azaleas.  But they just won't bloom at the same time!  When my red ones are in full bloom, the white ones are full of buds, and will open up about the time all the red flowers fall off the Red Azaleas.  Go figure!

Wet Golf at Iroquois on a Thursday

While this picture is not Iroquois GC, a lot of the holes we played the fairways looked like this.  We had a downpour about a half hour before we teed off at 10:30.  It only lasted about 15 minutes, but the course was already wet, so this rain just helped to fill up the puddles.
I promised myself I'd be more aggressive today on my chips and putts.  But, that didn't happen.  Only a couple of times I ran the ball by the hole, but most of the time I was short.  The greens were wet and hadn't been mowed today, so they were always just a little slower than I was giving them credit for.  I would think I was being bold with my shots, but they just kept coming up short.  Also, I seem to never play very well on a really wet courses.  I find it tough to hit shots out of casual water.  I know, I'm allowed relief from casual water.  But, in most cases, there was no place to get relief.  Usually we just moved to 'shallower' casual water.
I didn't play  bad today.  Like normal, a couple of bad holes, or bad shots here and there.  I shot a 41 - 40 = 81.  I didn't stay around today to see who won.  I know I wasn't low man because I wasn't even low man in our group.  But, our foursome did pretty good so we may have won low team.  I'll find that out, probably next Tuesday.
I birdied #18 with a nice tee shot.  But that followed a triple bogey on #17 after '4' putting!  That was one of those holes that I had a long putt and left it about 6 feet short.  Then, got bold and ran it 3 feet past the hole and missed my putt coming back downhill.  So, the birdie on #18 helped ease the pain at the end of the round.

Picking up the Girls from School and going to the Park

Mary Lynn and I picked Erin and Jill up from school yesterday.  We had no plans other than doing what the girls wanted to do.  They decided they wanted to go to the Park.  So, we went to the Park down on River Road across from Cox's Park.  I don't know the name of it,  but it has a really nice playground.

Here the girls were playing 'Meerkat'.  Erin was the lookout while Jillian was snug in her burrow.

While I'm on the Meerkat subject, at the Zoo they follow a theme when naming groups of animals.  The Meerkats are named after commedians, mostly old time commedians.  Some of the names are:  Groucho, Harpo, Larry, Moe, Buster K., Chico, The Man, Chaplin, Stan, Ollie, etc.

I thought this was a nice picture of the girls sitting on the rock.  I can't get Jillian to pose for me very often, so this was a rare treat.  Usually, when the camera comes out, Jillian is out-ta here.

Working at the Zoo on Sunday

I went to the Zoo today.  I had signed up to work at the Lorikeet Pavilion from Noon til 2:00 today.  But, getting dressed in my Docent yellow shirt and sitting around waiting or the rain to stop, when 11:45 came I decided that there wouldn't be anyone at the Zoo today.  So, I decided not to go and went downstairs and changed shirts.
About 15-20 minutes later, it was clear and it looked like the sun was going to come out.  So, I figured I'd better get to the Zoo and see if anybody was showing up.
They had a pretty good crowd for such a poor start to the day.  Seeing quite a few cars in the lot I thought I'd better go inside, sign in, and get to the Lorikeets.  Well, the Lorikeets were closed!  So, because I was already there I thought I might as well make myself useful.
I decided to take our Rhino horn up to the Rhino Exhibit and talk to people about the Rhino's and let them touch a real Rhino horn.  It was fun, and I guess I talked to about 100 people.  They all seemed to enjoy it.  One of our Rhino's lost a horn a little over a year ago, so we have it to use at the Zoo.  Rhino horns are made of the same thing our hair and fingernails are made of, Keratin.  Rhino's don't normally loose there horns, but it will fall off if it is damaged much like our fingernails.  When we mash a finger, the nail blackens, and the nail will eventually fall off and another will grow.  Same with a Rhino horn.  The Rhino, Lulu, is growing a new horn.  This isn't a picture of her, just one I got on-line, but this is a White Rhino like the 2 at the Zoo.
It's fun to talk to the people, and I think it enhances their trip to the Zoo.  I always learn a few things myself that helps me the next time I do this.  There are always questions asked that I don't know the answer, so it makes me look them up when I get home so I'll have an answer next time.  One of the first things they told us in training was "If you don't know, don't make anything up!".  Mary Lynn says that it's taking away one of my best talents.