Stormy Weather, Denver and Lost Golf Clubs

Denver was great and the hospitality by Darryl and Cheryl was first cabin. They have a beautiful home in Loveland, Colorado, two stories with a 2,000 square foot basement consisting of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a great room and a kitchen. The main living area has three bedrooms, an office, a living room and a small library/loft for reading. We were very impressed with their house, but even more impressed with their home (if you know what I mean). We had a few glitches on the trip, not the least of which was the disappearance of my golf clubs somewhere between Sacramento and Denver. We looked and waited and finally went to the lost baggage office. The guy there assured me that the lost luggage ALWAYS shows up. Darryl found a bag that looked suspiciously like mine and we took down the information and called the guy to see if he grabbed the wrong bag. We reluctantly left the airport without my clubs and a feeling of foreboding about the clubs. I decided not to let the inept handling of my clubs by United Airlines ruin the trip and Darryl and I headed off to Mariana Buttes to play golf. I was in tennis shoes and used Darryl's ten year old set of Tommy Armour 845 irons and teed off with his Callaway X Tour driver. Darryl beat me on the front nine 40-42 and I played very well on the back, shooting 39 to his 44. The guy who's bag we found Larry, called in the middle of the round and told Darryl that he had missed his flight and flew in later and that's why his clubs were still on the carousel.

The problem for me was that I'd just put a dozen Pro V1 balls in the bag, along with a new pair of Adidas golf shoes that had just arrived in my office on Wednesday. We headed home to a sumptuous dinner made by Cheryl and relaxed afterward on the couch watching the President's Cup golf from that day. The weather had turned cold from the sunny and 57 degrees when we teed off and the last two holes were COLD. It started to snow after dinner and snowed all night. we awoke the next morning to 4.5 inches of powder on the lawns, roofs, cars and everywhere except the streets and driveways, which I guess retain more heat from the day before. We had breakfast and made a run into Fort Collins, a college town dominated by the Colorado State University. We ended up going over to the New Belgium brewery, the home of Fat Tire beer. It was homecoming weekend and we couldn't get into the tour of the brewery, but sat at the bar and tasted several of the beers and just visited for the better part of an hour. We then drove back to Loveland and ate lunch at the Green Onion, a little deli. We walked to the front to order and the gal behind the counter handed us menus and said to look them over and decide what we wanted. I pointed out that we could do that or look at the 8 foot wall behind her with the same menu on it. She said that the menu included all of the ingredients of the sandwiches and she was just about to say that before "Mr. Smartass" interrupted her. I was taken aback by her directness and asked her how long she'd been in a "customer service" position.

We relaxed back at home and Darryl and Cheryl's friends form Austin, Pat and Pauline, drove in. They were there for the week. They had planned to stay at a timeshare in Estes, Colorado, but Darryl talked them in to staying with them instead. Pat was sick as a dog and was coughing and wheezing. He went to bed and skipped dinner. I fell asleep on the loveseat sized sofa as we watched the play from the President's Cup matches of Saturday. It was a mistake as my head and neck were stretched and my spine twisted.

I woke up Sunday and could barely move as i was listing to the right and having back spasms. We had planned to go up to Estes and have lunch, but after getting stuck in the shower where I couldn't lift my leg the 24 inches to get out of the tub, I decided to stay home and rest. I finished my shower and sat upstairs for 1/2 an hour trying to get my back to stop spasming. I finally manged to get downstairs and eat some breakfast and found the couch and ottoman. The phone rang and it was United baggage letting me know that my clubs had not been found and telling me to file a claim. One good thing Obama has done is raised the airline's liability on lost luggage to $3300 from $1500. Good thing as my clubs, bag, shoes, balls, wind suit, etc. will cost $2200 to replace. By the way, I see Obama won the Nobel peace Prize. What a joke. it is tantamount to Todd Haley of the 0-5 Kansas City Chiefs winning the NFL coach of the year because he has his players believing they can win games. Of course, they can't, but that's beside the point. So far, it has been an Obamanation in his administration. The era of entitlement has once again arrived in Washington.

I digress. I did manage to order new clubs. I got a set of Calaway x-18 tour irons 4- SW, a Callaway FT-9 Tour 8.5 degree driver, a Callaway X 18 degree hybrid, a Ping G10 7 wood, A Callaway Chevy 18 cart bag, another pair of Adidas shoes, 4 dozen Titleist Tour Prestige balls, and Darryl gave me a McLane travel bag that I brought home with me. The clubs should arrive next Monday. I do have a tournament this weekend and will see if I can borrow some clubs from a friend. Either that or I'll bow out of the tournament.

Monday arrived and there was still snow on the ground. We decided to just relax at home or so I thought. Darryl ended up calling Ute Creek in Longmont and they were open. We headed over at 11:30 and it was 39 degrees when we teed off. I shot 42+42 for an 84 and Darryl shot 42+46 for an 88. Pat played with us, but was not at 100%. I enjoyed his company. We had to walk the course and Pat ran out of gas by the 16th hole. He was still recuperating from his illness and the cold mountain air and high altitude ate him up. I helped Darryl find a wayward tee shot on 10 and ended up in the muck and mire as I thought I was stepping on solid ground to jump a creek, but sunk into the ground and didn't clear the creek with my poor purchase on my plant foot. I was a muddy, cold mess and had to play the back nine with wet shoes and socks. To make matters worse, Darryl duffed his recovery shot and lost the ball I'd found for him. Some brother, eh?

We had a wonderful trip and Darla said that Cheryl is the best hostess she has ever stayed with. The food was great, the conversation as good and the accommodations first cabin. We hope to be able to reciprocate with them in Sacramento soon. I look forward to seeing them again in a month at Nuevo Vallarta.

The flight home was delayed 1/2 hour and I got stuck (somehow) in Darla's middle seat and she took mine. I as next to a very large woman and felt wedged into place. I like to put the armrests down to give me my own space, but when this woman tried to accommodate me, the armrest was digging into her flab and she had to lift it back up. I spent two hours wedged into a seat next to Big Momma and my thigh was hot and sweated out by the time I got off the plane. Darla, of course, chatted up a storm with her seatmates, laughing and carousing like old friends, oblivious to my torment and discomfiture across the aisle.

We got home at 11:30 and I had to lower the umbrellas and bring in the table and chairs for the backyard as a storm was coming in overnight. It arrived with 50 MPH wind gusts and 2 1/2 inches of rain in 14 hours time. I got home this afternoon after my convention downtown and spent an hour removing downed limbs and branches and draining about 4 inches from the pool water. You can see pictures of the storm above and what our front yard looked like. This is a warm storm as it was 65 degrees this afternoon when I was cleaning up the yard.

Well, I'll add more next weekend. My wife awaits on the couch with many shows taped for us to watch. Thank you, Darryl and Cheryl, for your outstanding hospitality. Darryl even took me by his work after golf Monday and I'll talk about that next week. I hope you are all well. If you ever fly United, say goodbye to your belongings when you check them at the airport.