Tag: golf

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #9,369

yeah I know you did not ask!

I’m a golfer.  Like every other golfer I know I have a love / hate relationship with the game.  It is the nature of the sport.  Round to round it is never the same.  About the time you have a glimmer of hope that you can play the game, the golf gods whack you up side the head and laughingly and not kindly say, “Silly mortal, you should know better!”

All that aside, there are a dumpster full of reasons of why I hate Gospodin Trump, but towards the top of that list is that he has made golfers and golf look so very bad. There is a time and place for everything… except, apparently if you are this POS POTUS.

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You do not have to do that, no one is watching

I frequently golf in Columbia, IL across the Mississippi River from my home in Chesterfield, MO. The courses are a little cheaper over there, and a little easier to get on.  Also, over there is a driving range that is the bargain of the century.  They charge $5 and you can hit all the balls you want.  Just to give you a little perspective, most places charge between $10 to $12 for a bucket of 90 balls.  If you are at a golf course and want to warm up before your round, they will charge you $4 to $6 for a bucket of 30 or so balls.

As you can imagine this is not the nicest place in the world, but it is sufficient for banging golf balls.  It is just on the other side of the Mississippi River levee and as such is very flat and sometimes very muddy.  It  is what we call Continue reading “You do not have to do that, no one is watching”

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Boys Will Be Boys

golf-cartI generally work a half day on Fridays which allows me to go golfing in the afternoon if the weather is nice.  At the course I generally go to, they have a senior scramble Friday mornings.  When I say senior,  I mean most of the guys appear to be in their 60s and 70s. They are generally in the club house when I get there between 1 and 2.  They are going over the standings, prizes, etc. If not that they are in the parking lot unloading their golf carts.

I check in, and go to the first tee.  As I am warming up I hear all this racket, gravel spewing, old men laughing hysterically  and cheering.  I look through the woods to the graveled parking lot to discover that they are having golf cart drag races.

Of course, at this point in the round, more than a few Budweiser have had their tops popped.  However, boys will be boys no matter their age.

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Southern friendly vs. Midwestern friendly

We were out with a group of folks a while back and I made a comment about southern folk being friendly.  It was not mlp_fim_luna_woona_by_atticus83-d4a5eximeant to disparage Midwesterners, but one fellow did take slight umbrage.  He replied that Midwesterners were friendly too.

All things are relative.  Compared to folks in the northeast Midwesterners are extremely friendly.  Having lived in all three areas I have some experience with the general friendliness of the denizens of each.

Perhaps the best example I can give would be the golf course.  I have lived and played golf in the southern states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Tennessee.  It is not uncommon for me to go to a golf course by my lonesome.  In the aforementioned states, I generally did not play by myself very often.  Generally if you were a single someone would ask you to join their group.  It was acceptable behavior to request to join a group that was smaller than a foursome.   In a new area after going to the same course a few times, you tend to bump in the same folks.  Pretty soon you have a group of golf buddies. Continue reading “Southern friendly vs. Midwestern friendly”

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Just do the Funky Leon

I have a dear friend whom I have known for 7 or 8 years.  His name is Leon, but I tend to call him many things.  Brother Leon or Brother J are two of my favorite, not that he is associated with a church in any capacity. It just seems to fit.

When I lived a little further south I used to golf with him at least once a week.  In the nice part of the year that once a week was usually  2 or 3 times a week.  Life being what life is.  And the economy being what it is, I have moved a couple times since I first met him.  I’ve gone from being a military brat to a computer gypsy.  Anyway you look at it I am not gathering any moss.

We do try to get together a few times a year to play golf and renew our friendship.  Needless to say, Brother Leon knows my swing well.  Since he does, I do not mind him giving me advice about my swing from time to time.  He is usually dead on as to my particular issue that day.  I could blame my mediocre golf game on lack of any real athletic ability!  Well, okay, I will do that.  One of my poorer tendencies in my golf swing is to get way too fast.  Fast in golf swing seldom equates to distance or a  good ball flight. Continue reading “Just do the Funky Leon”

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Buying Vehicles via Internet

I’ve bought two cars via the Internet now.  The first was a used car and the second was a new vehicle.

I found my 2006 Mazda MX-5 on Autotrader.com.  It was 9 months old at the time.  A guy about my age had it, but was marrying a younger woman with two kids.  He needed a family car, and was sadly selling his sports car.  She must have been quite a woman.  I checked the Carfax report and that came back clean.  The car was actually in Albuquerque and I was in St. Louis.  However, I have a cousin in Albuquerque who is a car guy and into sports cars.  He went by and took a look at the Mazda and drove it, and reassured me that it was in good condition.  I made a very good deal with the gentleman because as “they” say he was a very motivated seller.  That motivation and the fact that he had been having a hard time finding a buyer worked in my favor.  I hopped on a plane, Continue reading “Buying Vehicles via Internet”

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Robin, One Hot…

We are all products of time, place and the Darwinian lottery that selects our parents. Robin is no different.  Robin’s parents were not any different.

Robin spent much of youth practicing the piano.  She loves music, but she has talked about how she sometimes longed to be outside with other kids.  Robin has natural athletic ability, but in the 50s and 60s in the St. Louis enclave of Olivette young ladies were not encouraged in this arena.  While her brothers were encouraged to participate in sports she was forgotten.

Robin is short, but very strong physically.  She helped me move a while back, and it was all I could do to keep up with her.  Continue reading “Robin, One Hot…”

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The Garbage Man

Many moons ago when I lived in Ft. Smith, AR I went out to the golf course to play a round.  At Ben Geren if you do this they tend to group singles together.  This works out nicely for several reasons.  It keeps the pace of play better.  You can get more folks on the golf course.  Singles are not frustrated waiting on foursomes.  It also has the added benefit of allowing you to play with folks with which you might not otherwise share a round of golf. 

On this particular day they paired me with a young man, a twenty something.  He was obviously working class.  I put myself in that category, but white collar.  Continue reading “The Garbage Man”