Catching Up Again . . .

It has been a couple of busy weeks here – and I have actually been here for most of it.  For the first time since Spring, I finally have green grass at home – not that brown crunchy stuff like you folks in Texas experience most of the year.  But I had almost forgotten what it was like to have to take three hours and mow it every week.  For the first time I can remember, I did not mow the entire month of August.  I actually took my mower in to be serviced, and when I was told it might be two weeks before I got it back my response was “I don’t think that will be a problem.”

September was different.  Twice during the month, I announced high school football games that began on Friday, were suspended by lightning, and were completed on Saturday.  As I was leaving the second one, one of the spectators asked me if I could remember a season where we had two suspended games.  I can’t remember it happening twice in the 33 years I have been announcing.

But Mother Nature was kind enough to cooperate while I was traveling last week . . .

This was the view from in front of the lodge at Dale Hollow State Park on the Kentucky/Tennessee border.  I was there on a golf trip Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I didn’t take another picture – I was having too much fun.  The weather was glorious, the golf course was glorious, the company was glorious – and I played the best golf I have played in years.  After the first day, all 12 of us said we want to come back – soon.  I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t play golf or enjoy boating – it’s in the middle of nowhere – but if you do . . .

Got home Thursday evening, worked Friday, and Saturday morning was off again . . .

The Ryder Cup has always been on my bucket list, and it was in Chicago this year.  For the uninitiated, the Ryder Cup is a golf event – the best 12 players from the United States against the best 12 players from Europe, a three-day competition held every two years.  So my brother and I bought tickets for the last day, and since Blake hadn’t been to Chicago since he was ten we went up a day early and drove along Lake Shore Drive and walked the Magnificent Mile on Michigan Avenue.  We decided that a perfect weekend would have been Ohio State playing at Northwestern in the afternoon, Cincinnati playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field in the evening, followed by the Ryder Cup on Sunday.  Alas, Ohio State was at Michigan State and the Reds were in Pittsburgh.

Sunday, Blake and I arrived at Medinah Country Club early so we could walk through the merchandise tents and walk the course before 40,000 other spectators showed up.  While we were wandering around, we saw a long line winding back from a tent – we found out that American Express was loaning free little TVs to cardmembers.  Good thing – we saw a lot more of the play on TV than we did in person.  I hadn’t been to a golf tournament since 1978 – that was a little tournament at Kings Island and we walked around and followed groups all day.  Not here . . .

Here’s the view of the 17th green at 8:30 in the morning, and the same green from across the pond at 4:00 in the afternoon.  Some of the people sat in or near the grandstand all day waiting for the 12 groups to play that hole (which is why we were watching from across the pond when they finally arrived).

We spent most of the morning along the third fairway, where we saw the players come through, visited with interesting people (especially the Europeans), and even had a brush with greatness when Michael Jordan (who was an honorary captain for the U.S. team) walked right up to Blake and me and asked if we would hold up the ropes to let him through so he could go to the hole next to us.

We had a really good time, even though the U.S. team lost (I referred to it as the “Meltdown at Medinah”).  It took almost two hours to get from the course to the shuttle buses and out to the parking lot, so we got home about 2:00 a.m. and were back at work on Monday morning.  The next time the Ryder Cup is in the U.S. in 2016, we’ll probably watch it on TV, but we had to experience it once.

One final image from last week, which many of you will find much more interesting than everything I did . . .

Last week, Mom got her first perm since starting chemo almost a year ago.  It looks great, she looks (and feels) great, and they will be heading to Arizona next week.