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?