I decided to add some of the scenery pictures as I am still coming down off the high from the trip. I was looking at some of the 143 pictures that Greg took (he's part Japanese) over the weekend and I walked out and gave Darla a big hug. She looked at me with a smile and said , "What was that for?" I said, "For letting me live my dream at Pebble Beach." She just laughed and pushed me away. Non-golfers really don't get it. Boyd's Mom never understood how he could waste time out on the golf course. I'd implore anyone to take a look at these pictures and imagine yourself out on this course playing a game that you love. It is pretty awesome. These pictures alone prove that there is a God.
The weather this weekend which was heavy rain Saturday followed by heavy winds on Sunday make me realize how lucky we were at Pebble. You set something like this up way in advance and pay your money and just pray that the weather cooperates. We had some heavy wind in the afternoon at Pebble, but overall as you can tell from the pictures, it was great weather. Saturday was our Masters tournament at Diamond Oaks and we awoke to drizzly rain. It wasn't too strong, but the rain was incessant. I had a late tee time as they wanted me to work the table checking the guys in and I got to the course about ten o'clock to relieve Bob Pando at the table who was there at nine o'clock. Our tee time was 11:06 AM.
The rain actually slackened between ten and eleven and had stopped raining by the time we teed off. I thought we had skirted the rain as the forecast was for showers in the morning with partly cloudy skies in the afternoon. I birdied the first hole with a chip-in from off the green and felt like a good day was ahead. The rain, however, had other plans and started up again on the second tee box and stayed with us the rest of the day. I ham and egged it and even managed to finish par- par for a 41 on the front nine, but it was pouring by the time we finished nine and the tournament director called for a one hour suspension of play. Several of the holes on the back nine were under water and as we sat in the bar alternately watching the golf on TV and the weather channel, it was apparent that a heavy cell of rain was over us with more to come. Reluctantly the tournament was called off. I went in to the pro shop to get a nine hole rain check and the pro said, "nope." I asked him if the course was open and he said, "well, we'd prefer you not to play." I told him we'd prefer him to give us a rain check and trudged out to the number ten tee and played the back nine in a slight monsoon. I shot 45 on the back, but there were about four holes with a half inch of water covering the green and the flagstick under water. We played a two putt maximum, but there were holes where if you were six feet away from the flag, you couldn't move the ball two feet. We were crazy, but it beat going home and sitting inside and watching someone else play golf. Boyd's Mom was turning over in her grave.
Today is sunny with nothing but a light breeze blowing and great golf weather. Our twilight golf league starts on Thursday night and Bob and I are partners.
I was able to get the wires from the low voltage lights buried yesterday and I had to move the automatic sprinkler control for the back sprinklers from the garage out to the wall by the actual controls. Somehow, in the construction, the wiring was cut from the sprinklers to the control box and rather than rewire the whole thing, I simply moved the box out to the back yard. I added some more topsoil to the planter as the soil had settled over the couple of weeks since I had planted back there.
The grass seed is coming in slowly on the side yard by the new driveway. The weather over the weekend will help as a good soaking is great for new grass seed as it helps it settle deeper into the soil. I fertilized on Friday night in anticipation of the rain and it was perfect.
I am dropping some serious cash today on my tax bill. Darla's three jobs combine to really impact our tax bill. She has not paid any taxes on her two part time jobs until this year. We will have her pay estimated taxes this year to help keep us out of this predicament next year.
Darla, Daniel and I will leave Friday for freshman orientation at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The events will be Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We will stay over until Sunday as the hotel requires a two night minimum and we want to get a look at SLO and the Pismo Beach area. We will drive home on Sunday. This will be an expensive school, but it will set Dan up for a very good job down the road. His Dad and Darla and I will pay for a piece of his schooling, but we will make him pay for part of it as well with student loans. He needs to understand that a great education is expensive and be engaged in the process.
Daniel did finally land a job and will be working at Togo's, making sandwiches and minimum wage all at the same time. The nice thing for him is that he lives in California where the minimum wage is $7.50 an hour and will increase to $8.00 an hour on January 1st of next year. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Dan will be working for a friend of ours. Darla worked with his wife for years and Chris has played in my poker group before. He is the manager of the store. It will be good experience for Daniel and give him some pocket money.
Bob Pando had to bring his dog to church yesterday. It was interest group Sunday and they had bikes and horses and an ATV and some dogs all on stage. I asked Bob how his dog did in rehearsals and he said fine until the horse took a dump on the stage. They called the janitor over to clean it up and he said he didn't think that was in his job description. One of the ladies said to get some paper towels and the janitor said that the job wasn't a "paper towel" job.
Well, on that note, I have to get back to work. I hope you all have a great week. Ciao.
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