Golf

It just occurred to me that I have not gone out for a round of golf yet this year.  I’ve never gone this far into spring without playing nine holes somewhere, or at least hitting a driving range.  I still have no plans to go, though I am going to try for next week some time.  By the way if there’s anyone that would like to get out there, let me know!

It’s amazing what life can throw at you.  Ten years ago I was of the opinion that golf was an inalienable right that I would be exercising every weekend from May until October, with a special emphasis on a week in Myrtle Beach or Phoenix at some point every summer.   Fresh sweet air, a noble pursuit, freedom from the annoyances of everyday life for a little bit, a few beers, friends, what more could one ask for?  

Then I had a daughter.  I got married.  Bought a house.  Had a couple more daughters.  Now I’ve got another kid on the way.  And I haven’t touched my golf clubs in almost nine months.  Life changes in many ways, and I can’t say that the changes I’ve experienced are bad.  I wouldn’t trade my wife and kids for anything, I managed to quit smoking and drinking and lost some weight lately and none of that is bad, right?  On balance,  I have nothing to complain about.  So this is not a rant, just an observation, maybe brought on by the beautiful weather and the quizk glimpse of one of my coworkers showing of their new driver this morning.  Oh, well.

But man, I miss golf.

Off The Leash

A couple times a week, I just write whatever first comes to my mind.  Kinda taking the leash of the mind and seeing where it goes, you might say.  I’ve never actually published those posts.  Until now.  I thought it might be an interesting series, called Off The Leash.   And here’s how that goes:

I saw a picture of Patrick Swayze on the cover of some tabloid or other this weekend.  He looked thin, sick, and old.  The same day I read part of an interview with Ryan O’Neal about Farrah Fawcett where he talks about her being bedridden and having lost her hair.  Both are suffering with – and will likely die sooner than later from – cancer.  In the last year, I’ve lost friends and family to cancer.  Cancer scares the shit out of me, scares me to no end because with every passing year it just seems so inevitable that someone else I know is going to get it.  Hell, right now someone I love might have it and not even know.  Not even know.  The healthiest people in the world can get cancer, and people that practically put out a welcome sign for it are never afflicted.  Even though we know a lot of the causes and risk factors and choices that can increase the likelihood of cancer, it’s still so random.  And terrifying.

I think the reason I wanted to write this was some sort of cosmic vaccine.  It seems that the things we don’t explicitly acknowledge – whether through ignorance or conscious denial or whatever – are the things that tend to bite us in the ass.  Maybe by acknowledging cancer I can somewhat inoculate myself against it.  Dumb thought, but what the hell.  I already quit smoking, drinking, and I eat a whole lot better than I ever have.  No sense in not taking another precaution, regardless of the validity…

I Miss You, Playoffs

I just got done watching two NHL playoff games; Washington vs. Pittsburgh and then the end of Carolina vs. Boston.  Both games went into overtime, and bothe ended rather early in that overtime period.  The Caps/Pens game was the main game broadcast on Versus, which is fine with me.  That was one hell of a good game.  Tight checking, scoring, hitting, skating, excitement, and everything else you want a good game to be.  Then, at the last, the Penguins scored on a shot from the point and the place went absolutely insane. 

It was at that moment that I realized how much I miss the Sabres being in the playoffs.  For a fleeting second I thought of how nice it would be to be a true Pens fan, like a good friend of mine is. and how awesome that would have felt to witness that win.  Now, any time that I think of myself as a Pittsburgh fan is a good time to slap myself straight.  And so I did, and now I’ve got a red spot on my face.  But anyways, that fleeting second has me wondering what it is going to take for the Sabres to return to that heralded tournament, to play for the Cup.  What has to happen?  Who has to go, who has to step it up, who needs to lead these guys?  

The sooner the Sabres get back to the playoffs the sooner I can start rooting for them and not trying to talk myself into rooting for the Caps because after all their star is cooler that Pittsburgh’s star and blah blah blah….

Alice In West Seneca

This evening I went to a stage performance of “Alice In Wonderland” that a couple of my cousin’s kids were in. I didn’t quite know what to expect; my oldest daughter is still a little young to be in plays at school so I don’t really have experience at these events. 

Well, I was absolutely amazed at the ability of some of these kids to perform!  They acted well, sang well, and barely seemed nervous at all.  In fact, it some of the humor that they wrote into the production was the funniest stuff I heard all week.  In short, these kids had a ton of talent!  I shouldn’t be shocked by this, but I think I was just a little surprised maybe that it was that good. 

And then the whole family – me and my wife and three kids and my parents – went to Antoinette’s in West Seneca for ice cream.  Now that’s a good night indeed.

New Extensions

This week my place of employment has begun upgrading our phone system from the best technology that 1985 had to offer. We are moving to a VoIP system that should enhance our capabilites to a level that befits a company with annual sales approaching 9 digits.

The first part of this migration has been changing everyone’s extension from 3 digits to 4 digits by adding “8″ to the beginning of each extension.  I don’t know why this is, but we have to go with it.  And so every internal phone call I’ve made this week has been dialed twice, first the old 3 digit extension – which of course results in me hearing the busy/idiot signal - then the correct 4 digit extension.  Miraculously, I have not smashed the phone in frustration, but it’s only the first couple days. 

So does anyone know what I can expect from this new VoIP system?  Or should I not even ask?

Unrelated Thoughts

I have a few things that I’d like to get off my chest, so let’s go!

The presence of Perez Hilton as a judge at the Miss USA pageant says all I need to know about the event.  I can also say without reservation that a woman’s position on gay marriage has no bearing on my calculation of her beauty, poise, or intelligence.  I may not agree with her, but I also think it’s completely irrelevant.

The weather in and around Buffalo, NY at this time of year is absolutely maddening.  Tomorrow night there will likely be a mix of snow and rain with temperatures around 35 degrees.  Saturday is supposed to be 72 degrees and sunny.  Of course it won’t be 72 at my house, since I live within 800 feet of the 38 degree Lake Erie.  It will probably be more like 60.  Oh well.

This time of year also brings the joy of the NHL playoffs, but there are two drawbacks this year.  One is that the Sabres aren’t playing, which decreases my interest in general and makes it difficult to find my true rooting interest.  The second is that since I have DirecTV I don’t get CBC – the Canadian TV channel that carries Hockey Night In Canada and airs a couple playoff games every night.  I don’t have a strong enough antenna to pull it in from across the lake over the air, either, so I’m SOL.

 

because you care

This morning I fired up the computer to see what was going on in the world, and my Yahoo home page was headlining a story about the Obamas and whether or not they broke a campaign promise by getting a Portugese Water Dog from a breeder.  I don’t want to get into the story, but you can read all about it if you wish.

In fact, that’s the point.  We all will.   I’ll even bet there are more people out there that can name Barack Obama’s dog than could name his Treasury Secretary.  Priorities, people!  Is there anyone out there that voted for Obama because they really thought he was going to get a shelter dog?  Was that your deciding factor?  I wish that everything else in my world was so well taken care of – like the economy, wars, terrorism, you know, boring shit like that - so I could completely immerse myself in such a meaningless issue as the president’s dog.

I for one couldn’t care less what kind of dog the Obamas have gotten for their kids.  Based on what the media reports, I’m in the minority.  My personal opinion is that the media is like any other vendor of products or services; they provide a product that people want.  So if people really didn’t care about the damned dog, we wouldn’t be hearing about the damned dog.  But obviously the damned dog matters to enough people that the media is running with it.  I just happen to think that’s really messed up.

/rant over

yard work time is with us again

Hallelujah, spring is upon us!  Unless, of course, you live in or near Buffalo.  Then you get interesting weather patterns that give you a 65 degree sunny day in the same forecast that warns of the possibility of accumulating snow in a few days.  But oh well, that’s for another day.  Today is for bitching about yard work!

This past weekend I began the annual clean up of 3,657,772 or so leaves that collect in my yard from my neighbor’s trees.  This year through procrastination, strange weather, and the tendency for a lake to form in my back yard, many of the leaves left over from last year (see: procrastination) began decomposing.  After I had raked them all into a big pile and then herded them into a bunch of garbage cans, there remained a large area of my lawn that was black from the remains of the lower levels of leaves.  What a pleasant sight.  Also black were my formerly white socks; ok, they were dark brown by the time I got done raking, because they were not only muddy but also sopping wet.

Another fun part of my past weekend was the first trimming of the hedge along the south side of my yard that runs from the street, up past the side of the house and behind my shed.  It’s sort of a mess behind my shed, as it’s where three yards come together and my neighbor’s shed is situated, as well as a telephone/power pole and of course the fence.  This rather jumbled area is also home to some rather annoying vegetation.  Intertwined in the hedge is some sort of fast-growing vine-like plant that twists around branches or just about anything else.  I swear to God this stuff grows about 10 feet a week.  I pulled out one section of this that was no shit 45 feet long.  And it’s still freaking spring!  I hope I got a lot of it out, but I know I didn’t get it all and it will be back.

After all my hard work, I can say with certainty that the 10 feet of the yard furthest away from the house in back looks awesome now.  I can walk behind my shed again.  And now that those two things are done, I might finally get to the front yard and clean up something that the nieghbors across the street can actually see. 

not losing enough

This past Sunday, I weighed in for my Biggest Loser contest.  Turns out that over the last three weeks I have lost 3.5 pounds.  I am gratified that I lost weight over that period; some of the folks in the contest gained a little while others lost less than a pound.  I just feel like I should be losing it faster.  I know I need to exercise more, but I’ve been doing really well with my diet.  I cut out the late night snacking, the enormous lunches, any sort of soda, and added more veggies and fruits and fiber.  For some reason, I think that at 6′ 1″ and 250 pounds, the weight should come off faster.

I guess I just want this to go faster.  But, what the hell, six months ago I was 288 pounds, so I can’t really complain too much.  I started the contest at 267.2 pounds, and I am now at 251.4.  That’s 15.8 pounds since January 4th, and more than 35 since last Thanksgiving.  I just hope it keeps going.

strange music

I noticed something weird out of the blue yesterday – I like old music.   I don’t mean classical music, which I like as wel, but I’m really talking about popular on-the-radio my-parents-saw-them-when-they-weren’t-nostalgia-acts pop and rock music.  I like some newer stuff, and I’m always catching a new song here and there, but it’s kinda freaking me out that 75% of the music I really like was recorded from 1965 – 1984. 

I am not sure what this says about me, but I’ll bet a lot of people out there have some really good theories.

win one for red

As I mentioned before, I have just about given up on the 2008-2009 Buffalo Sabres.  I pretty much skipped out of watching the game this past Saturday.  In fact, for the first time this year I was making plans to NOT watch any more games. 

Then my Father-in-law gave me tickets for Friday’s game against the Maple Leafs.  It will be my first game of the year.

So now, for me, the season comes down to this – win Friday, and I’m as OK as I will get this year.  The Sabres beating the Maple Leafs and not losing anyone to a career-threatening injury is about all I am asking out of the rest of the year.  Beat the Maple Leafs in front of about 8,000 of their fans so that I can laugh at them all the way out of the building.  Beat them so I can say that the only game I went to this year was  a good one. 

I don’t know if they’ll even be in the playoff race anymore by Friday, but I’m not exprecting it, so that would just be icing on the cake.  And if they pull out the improbable and actually sneak into the playoffs, God Bless America and all hail the Blue and Gold. 

But for now, please, no matter what, beat the Leafs Friday.

casual friday

I have just finished watching the Buffalo Sabres fall in spectacular fashion to the Philadelphia Flyers.  In fact, I may have just finished watching the Sabres for the rest of the year.  I have been a Sabres fan for my entire life, and I know that next year I’ll be back, and the year after, and the year after that.  But as of now, I can’t take it anymore.  I can’t watch them lose.  I can’t watch them defile the uniform I love.  You know how I know that the Sabres have lost me?  Casual Friday.

Every Friday is “Casual Friday” at work.  For all of the sports fans around the office, it’s almost mandatory to wear the team colors.  Well, for the first time this year, I couldn’t bring myself to wear my Sabres gear to work.  In fact, the number of people wearing  jerseys, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. has been dwindling down to almost zero.  ZERO.  And when I can’t even get myself to don a Sabres hoodie, I know it’s over.  Oh, sure, there are times in the middle of the year when the team might be haaving a rough spell, but somehow we all get through it with the colors flying.  But I know that it is time.  Time to cut bait and move on.  If by some miracle they win four in a row, I might come back.  But until that happens, I’m not going to put myself through the pain.

On the plus side, I can probably break out my Bills gear until they completely implode.  Ought to give me a good few months, anyways…