I apologize to my three faithful readers, but I was helping out as a rules official at our golf club's annual junior golf tournament. This was our 40th annual tournament and it was named for David Oxley, Jr. who died in 1967 at the age of 15 on a camping trip up to the Mokelumne River. David was a cart barn kid who, at age 15 was a scratch golfer and likely headed to the pro tour. He died while walking along the river when he slipped and was pinned below two rocks on an outcropping at the river's edge. His father was a founding member of the Roseville Golf Club and the tragedy so affected the members of the club that they founded an annual junior golf tournament that is now the third longest running junior golf event in California. The golf as usual was high calibre with the two low scores of 70 in a playoff for low gross. I had to leave at four o'clock for a dentist appointment so I didn't see the results of the playoff. The two playoff participants were a 16 year old boy and a 17 year old boy. They played from the blue tees and shot two under par. The other exciting score was 35 for nine holes from an eleven year old boy. Cameron Champ has been playing golf since he was 18 months old and turns 12 next week and will finally be able to play 18 holes on the junior golf circuit. He played in the State Fair championship last year as an 11 year old and shot 77-79 from the blue tees at Alister McKenzie Golf course in Sacramento. He also played in the Roseville City Amateur and shot 78. Remember the name. The kid is the son of a black father and white mother and has incredible talent (sound vaguely familiar?). He is also (so far) just a great and genuine kid. He came up to me after playing and shook my hand and thanked me for helping out at the tournament.
The day was not without it's problems, mostly caused by parents. On one of the par threes a young man of 9 years of age hit his ball into the water hazard. He quickly re teed his ball and hit another in the water. The other two guys teed off and he then re teed his ball and hit another into the water. He said he wanted to quit, but one of his playing partners told him he could drop up by the water. His Dad approached me and started berating me for not telling him that he could drop up by the water hazard. I told him that the rules are clear. My role is to interpret rules and to make sure that the kids are playing by the rules of golf, NOT to give advice. The kid finally asked me if he could drop the ball up at the water and I then gave him his options..re-teeing the ball, dropping two club lengths from the water hazard, picking a spot on the line from where the ball last crossed the water hazard and the pin and as far back as desired (no nearer the hole), or a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole. The father kept on me and I told him if he didn't zip it, his kid would be disqualified. He then backed off, but I heard him refer to someone as an A**hole. I'm sure he wasn't referring to me. I also had several parents challenge me when I told them to stay off of fairways and near the green. They are a gallery and cannot give advice or help their child in any way. Most of the problems occurred around greens when the parents wanted to stand at the green and watch their child putt. One father said, "I have a real problem with the way you interpret the rules." I told him that their was no interpretation, the rules state that spectators must stay off of fairways and 25 yards from the contestants. I explained to him that 25 yards equals 75 feet, not 25 feet. He asked me for my name and I asked him for his. He quickly backed down. Golf parents are like any sporting parent. Most are great, some are jackasses. The funny part is that most of the really good golfers have parents that know and respect the rules and they wouldn't endanger their child's chance at the tournament by breaking the rules or questioning a tournament official.
Neil, who is the RGC President this year, couldn't believe that I scheduled both a Summer tune-up of my jet ski and a dentist appointment on the day of the golf tournament. I told him that I'm a working man and have to take advantage of my days off. We had plenty of help, almost too many volunteers, and the day turned out great. It was about 90 degrees, but the tournament started at 9:00 AM and it was still 80 degrees at noon. I will be running the tournament next year and won't have jet ski maintenance and dentist appointments on that day.
The dentist appointment was to have a crown installed and a filling replaced. The tooth cracked under the filling and he had to chisel it out and refill it. That was not pleasant as he used the high speed drill to carve out the old filling and I was climbing the walls. He had to numb both bottom sides of my mouth and my whole bottom jaw, tongue and chin were numb with Novocaine. When I was finished, the dental hygienist told me to rinse, but to leave the bib on until I was finished. I shrugged and rinsed and saw the water run out of my frozen mouth and down the front of the bib. I came home and laid down on the bed and slept for two hours. I got up, took two Excedrin, hand watered several sections of the lawn and some plantings of ground cover where I took cuttings and replanted it this weekend. I then moved into the study and the writing of this epistle.
It is quiet around here as Darla is in Hooterville, Idaho for a family reunion camping extravaganza. She flew out with Alicia at two yesterday and they flew from Sacramento to Boise and then boarded a puddle jumper from Boise to Lewiston, ID. From there they were forty-five minutes by car up to a campground devoid of power and facilities. I guess people from Idaho call that living. I have another name for it.
She took my cell phone and called me today to let me know they made it to their destination. I had tried calling her and the phone bounces right to voice mail. I think the reception is spotty. She couldn't talk long because she was perched in the top of a tree to get good reception.
I had a fence repair company come out last week and fix the automobile gate on the side of the house. He took one look at the job and tore it down to the posts and rebuilt it. One of the posts had warped and pulled the gate out of alignment. He rebuilt the gates with the proper support and I'm ready to put the jet ski away in the backyard. In fact, I pulled it up to the gate and backed it into the side yard. Unfortunately, I couldn't swing the ski by hand into the spot as the driveway is too slanted, so backed it into the garage to await some help from Darla or the boys. I suppose if I'd worked at it, I could have got it, but Neil was waiting for me and I didn't want to get run over or pinned by my own jet ski. I'm including a picture of the side driveway so you can see what I was facing. This is before the gates were rebuilt, so you can see the bow in the gate.
The Pastor is continuing his series on Love and he continued on the theme of gender for household items. He mentioned that a Glad freezer bag is male, because a man wants to lock things away and keep secrets, but you can see right through him. A vacuum cleaner is female, because it keeps everything around it neat and tidy, but it's a mess inside. The groans were audible by all of us as well.
I did get out and play golf this weekend and shot 42+40=82 at Diamond Oaks. I will play Woodcreek on Wednesday afternoon, Diamond on Thursday in my twilight league, the putting championship Friday night and Diamond Oaks on Saturday. Darla gets home on Thursday and has a party that night for Silpada. She is still hoping to qualify for the trip to Maui in January.
My new front desk clerk that showed up for her first day seven weeks pregnant has missed three of her first six days and I think I'll be firing her tomorrow. Her child was sick with diarrhea today. For some reason, my staff always wants to be specific when calling in sick..."I've been up all night puking, or I have a really bad rash and have to go the doctor", or some other much too personal set of circumstances. I looked back at the blog and can't believe that I didn't mention my new employee. I had interviewed for two solid weeks and hired a 23 year-old single girl who is engaged to be married. She seemed very responsible. She showed up her first day and told me she is seven weeks pregnant, has two other children and that she'd be late on Friday because she has a pre-natal appointment. I was devastated as I certainly couldn't renege on the job offer. Well, her attendance is enough to write her ticket out of there. She even said to me that she understands if I have to replace her. I will let the professionals in our Human Resources department get me out of this one.
Jennifer is gainfully employed in Las Vegas, now working for a Home Audio specialty company that builds and installs in-home theater systems, security alarms, security cameras and even in-home movie theaters. The average home that they work on is $10 to $15 million and their portion is often $500,000 to $1,000,000. She interviewed with the President of the firm in an $18 million mansion that is next door to Celine Dion's house in Vegas. She is thrilled to be working again and will be flying to Los Angeles to attend a convention of home electronics companies in a few weeks. Check out her blog at the link above and on the right.
Well, that is news to the minute. Stay well and keep turning the important decisions in your life over to God. Ciao.
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