Catch-up

Wow, I hadn’t really realized how long it has been, if anyone actually reads this blog I bet they would be pissed. Fortunately, it is only used for a squeezing of the cognitive sponge and I can return to my regular scheduled ranting knowing that no one really missed a drops. But let me catch you up on the happenings in the sundrenced world:

Golf Trip – It is truly amazing how the performance-to-inebriation ratio is conversely correlated, moving in opposite directions. But I blame it on sleep deprivation and exhaustion, hard to play well when you are tired from 3 rounds of golf previously. I’ll call it the time-performance diffusion half-life. Regardless, by all accounts good times were had, and keeping with a disturbing trend, only one person to the hospital this year to match last year's totals. For future note, golf is neither football nor nascar - it makes so much more sense sober. If only I had been sober enough to point out that fact in stead of laughing my ass off. Hey, at least I was sober enough to transport the patients to the emergency room. Must be getting wise in my elder age…speaking of which…

Birthday – That’s right, I turned another year older on the 23rd of June and my body is reminding me each time I finish a run. I may look younger than my age (as my middle school track team runners inquired if I was a senior in High School or I could pass for Prince William) but my mother insures that I was born on this day so many years ago and my joints concur. But I’m still young and nagging aches and pains come with running and I was fortunate enough to avoid major injuries in my running career so I can’t complain, at least I can still run and walk around without a limp, which is more than I can say for a few of my golf trip mates.

Boston – That ability to walk certainly helped for getting around the town of Boston. (These transitions make me feel like I am the emcee for the Price is Right’s showcase showdown). I was in Boston for my birthday and let me tell you, what a cool town. Probably helped that it was in the mid-70s and sunny, and a Saturday, and it was my birthday, and we weren’t rushed to do anything except wonder. We picked up the freedom trail around the city off and on, took a bunch of pictures, saw the façade of ‘Cheers’ and relaxed on the Charles River, which was bustling with runners, bikers, walkers, and pedestrians. I will have to hand it to Boston for incorporated large chain stores into the aesthetic of the city. A very historic city, like Richmond is to the Civil War, Boston is to the Revolutionary period. It felt familiar, although Richmond just can’t get the commercial foot traffic downtown, maybe we should get a “freedom trail” if we could only accept the fact that the south lost the war. Maybe we can call it the ‘walk of shame’ or to put a positive spin on it, ‘path of progress’ or something. Anyway, I will be curious to see how my opinion will change when I head up there anytime between November and April. See, we southern folk rarely see a river freeze over (a river!). As the cabbie told us, they have wagers on when the first person will fall through the ice trying to cross from Cambridge to Downtown over the Charles. Another talked about speed skating up river near Waltham. Umm…I think I’ll take the surface streets. Oh, and an additional word of caution for anyone moving for school up in that area (and there’s only about 100 of them, quite literally) watch out for the 10’ bridge clearance along the Memorial Drive – as our friendly local pointed out, don’t want to turn that moving truck into a convertible.

School – Well, I don’t have to move for school, I’ve been at it for some time already, but I see the light and I am closing in on completion, and the beginning of the end starts this summer. I am officially a graduate student (although I have taken a few grad school classes already). This next year will set the course for the next few years and shed some light on if this sacrifice was worth the time, money, and frustrations. To be honest, it hasn’t been that bad, school isn’t really all that difficult and there is no way I was going to keep doing what I was doing, too bad being a student doesn’t pay…can you believe you actually have to pay them? That’s crazy. So we’ll see how that turns out.

Work – Yes, I am reminded every day why I am changing my career. It is almost like they keep trying to make things more difficult when they think they are making it better. So, you remember that scene in Star Wars, the trash compacter walls squeezing in from both sides? Yeah, kind of like that except I don’t have R2-D2 to communicate with the computer system because our network is never working like it should be, firewalls up and down, passwords getting locked, - and R2 is down for maintenance anyway. So, I should get back to it, at least for about 5 minutes. That, too, has a time-performance decay half-life and is highly dependent on amount of sleep I get during the week. Hopefully I will get a chance to return to my regularly schedule updates over the next few weeks. Enjoy the 4th if I don’t post before then!

Golf Weekend

Let me tell you a little something about golf, no other sport can a wider range of citizens partake, enjoy, compete, and/or succeed than golf. From the First Tee to retirement communities, golf is enjoyed by every race, ethnicity, or nationality across the globe without discrimination or prejudice. The only limiting factor of golf, although a very large limiting factor, is cost. Cost to play and cost for courses, clubs, accessories, etc. But, and myself being an example, golf can be access by anyone…even if it means playing a municipal, $3, sand greens course with no fairways or really anything except tee mats and a hole with a flag in it. Driving ranges must have been designed by overworked middle management employees who needed to deflect their frustrations.

Golf is almost therapeutic - if it weren’t for the endless confusion of how a little white ball could go in all directions except straight - yet somehow still fairly relaxing. Imagine a sunny, warm day sitting in a small electric powered cart, looking out upon a (hopefully) plush green fairway, waiting for your partner to play into an open green, sipping on a beer, no worries, no thoughts of work or other issues. Just playing golf. Just hitting a little ball hundreds of yards that equals the same amount as hitting it 4 inches.

I am not sure if it really can be put into words or described it to someone who does not play golf. It is like watching NASCAR or playing baseball, maybe fishing for some of you…or shopping for shoes I would have to guess. For years, spring and summer reminded me of playing soccer as a kid and fall reminds me (still) of running cross-country. But more and more, summer is becoming golf. I have only really been playing for about 3 years, at least on ‘real’ courses, but there is something about golf that is addictive, you can always improve, always work, and you see the benefits of your efforts, and that is addictive. And in those rare occasions when you can save up enough money, you get the opportunity to head down to Myrtle Beach, SC and hit the links with 23 of your closest friends and get out of work for a couple of days. Now if I could figure out a way to get out of work indefinitely, or maybe just tomorrow, then I would be set. Pictures will be forthcoming, until then, have a very enjoyable weekend, I will be.