Friday, October 14, 2011

Punkin' Chuckin'

No, this will not be a funny blog, unless you laugh at stupid situations.  Last night my son and I were driving home from his band concert.  We had just made a right turn, when I caught something flying at the right side of our vehicle out of the corner of my eye.  It hit near the front bumper and was very loud.  We circled around to see if we could see anything, and all we could see was half a pumpkin lying in the street.

When we got home, we found the other half of the pumpkin lodged in the grill of our van.  One of the bars in the grill was broken, but thankfully there was no other damage.  The pumpkin was relatively small...and fortunately the people throwing it weren't too accurate.  I think there could have been real trouble if the pumpkin would have hit the windshield or any of the windows.

I'm sure it was stupid kids who did this.  I don't understand that...I never had the urge as a kid to cause damage to other people's property.  I just don't get what drives some people.

Luckily, no real damage was done.  A lot worse things could have happened so we're thankful that we got off as easily as we did.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Weirdest Round Ever

It's been an unseasonably warm October, and as such, I've been fortunate enough to still be playing fairly frequent rounds of golf.  I generally play well this time of year because I just don't care as much about my score...maybe I should find a way to take that into the rest of the season?

So, I've been playing quite well lately...no super low rounds, but a lot of consistently good rounds of golf.  Yesterday afternoon, in 85 degree temperatures, I played 18 holes with my friend Joe.  Little did I know when we tee'd off that it would be one of the weirdest rounds I've ever played.

I started off with a birdie at #1, but bogeyed the next hole.  After 7 holes, I was 2 over par.  Number 8 at my course is a 300 yard par 4, and I drove the green (it was playing down wind).  I had a 45 foot eagle putt, which I made for my 2nd eagle of the golf season.  So, I was back to even par.  I hit a really good drive at number 9, but screwed up my 2nd shot and my chip and ended up making a bogey to shoot a 1 over par 35 on the front nine.

As I've said before on this blog, my golf course is a 9 hole, par 34.  So, to play 18 holes you just go around twice, but play a different set of tees to make the course a little different.  The 2nd time around, the course plays a little longer. 

The 2nd nine, I started out with a par, but then bogeyed number 2...I really struggle with number 2.  On #3 I hit a good drive and a good 2nd shot and made a 10 foot putt for birdie, so I'm back to +1.  Number 4 is a 288 yard par 4 that was playing into the wind.  I don't always hit my driver there, but since it was into a 10-15 mph wind, I used my driver.  I hit the ball real hard and figured I'd be 10-15 yards short of the green.  As we walked to the green, we saw my ball sitting 6 feet from the hole.  I made that putt for my 2nd eagle of the day, and now I'm 1 under par for the day.

I parred #5, then hit a terrible tee shot on the par 3 sixth hole.  I chunked my chip shot into the bunker, blasted out and then lipped out my bogey putt, for a double bogey...back to +1.  I parred 7 and then made a really good birdie at #8, so I'm back to even par.  At number 9 (or 18), I hit a terrible tee shot, and had to punch out from behind a tree.  I had 100 yards left for my 3rd shot and hit a really bad shot, then a bad chip and lipped out my bogey putt for my 2nd double bogey of the day.

So, in summary, I had 6 pars, 5 bogeys, 3 birdies, 2 eagle and 2 double bogeys.  That adds up to the weirdest 2 over par round of my life.  What did I learn?  Well, there are all kinds of ways to get the ball around a golf course.  Oh, and I learned that I always make my eagle putts when playing golf with Joe on unseasonably warm days in October...it has now happened the last 2 times I've played golf with Joe on unseasonably warm days in October.