On This Cold And Rainy...

<Memorial Day>

...we pause to remember and honor those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.

Speaking of military veterans, #5 son has gone from clean shaven soldier...

...to bearded cross fit instructor.

Either way, he's still kickin' it hard core.

Hoping to see him sometime this summer.

Hickory golf this week was a par, a bogey and...

...well, yeah...not quite that bad but pretty darn close.

The cause of all this pain and anguish?

My tee shots, per usual.

I've been hitting fairly well at the driving range, but that's with hybrids, not hickories.

Since hybrids are designed to be forgiving and are easier to hit, it's sorta like using a rifle for target practice then switching to a BB gun for the hunt.

At a loss for what to do, I finally decided to try my one and only modern hickory club at the driving range, a playclub made by <Tad Moore>:

It's still not a brassie, but at least it's a hickory long club.

Started off slow, but I was able to tweak a couple of things and ended up hitting 'em straight by the time I finished.

Problem solved?

Next round will tell, but what I really need is an open field where I can practice with my hickory brassie and super soft golf balls.

And a dash of Walter Hagen's attitude wouldn't hurt.

He maintained that 3 bad shots plus 1 good one makes par.

In his world there was only one shot that truly mattered: the next one.

Either way, it's probably worth remembering what Jack Nicklaus said about teeing off:

"A perfectly straight shot with a driver is a fluke."

It is in my world for sure.

Ok, enough palavering, it's time to cowboy up and ride into the sunset.

Let's 23 skidoo:

the fence #1 grandson built for us...

...and after Karen painted it...

...to match the house trim

Larry's got his dock in at his cottage...

...just in time for Woody to fly in for a visit.  That’s one big pileated woodpecker.

roses in bloom...

...as well as the rhododendron in the hardscape

believe it or not, he's sleeping, not stretching

That's a wrap for now, boys and girls, but tune in next week when Mr. Bolts will say:

Yeah, he doesn't talk much, more of the strong silent type.

Like me.

What's so funny?

later, mcm fans...

The Glory Of Young Men...

...is their strength...Proverbs 20:29

That's Benjamin, #5 son, practicing his Olympic lifts for cross fit.  That was 185 pounds on the bar for that Olympic style snatch.

Benjamin is my son who always surprised me...he weighed 260 as a sophomore in high school, and after the football season that year decided he wanted to lose weight.  By next fall he weighed 180.

Then he decided he would act in a school play...and tried his hand at stand up comedy in the school coffee shop...sang in a quartet where he saved a faltering routine in a talent show with a mellow rendition of sitting on the dock of a bay...decided to get into boxing, and boxed in an amateur bout in a casino in Traverse City...then announced he was joining the military during wartime...became a certified cross fit trainer, and is now attending Bible College on the GI Bill while he manages two gyms in Ohio.

He def keeps me guessing on what's next, but I know whatever he puts his mind to will become a fait accompli since he first commits his plans to the Lord and leans on Him for guidance.

Oh, the second part of that verse is "the beauty of old men is the gray head."  See?  I'm beautiful after all.

This is Mother's Day weekend...hope everyone did the right thing and honored their mother.

Karen's not my mom, but she is a mom, and a very good one...bought her roses for Mother's Day:

Our tree out front is blossoming now...it's gorgeous...too bad it only lasts for a few days:

that's Kitty photo bombing my picture of the tree...

Got a couple of radios back from Chase Electronics in Lowell...one of them is a 1949 Philco that's not just a radio...it also plays 78 rpm records...here it is playing Les Paul's "Dry My Tears"

Think I'm going to put a small - and I do mean small - goldfish pond in our backyard.  We had a pretty big one years ago, but I got tired of the constant maintenance of filters, pumps, waterfalls, etc.

This one's going to be a 50 gallon pre-formed pond and all it will have is one pump with a filter and a uv light for algae control...that's it...well, besides a few pond plants and some 50 cent goldfish you can buy at Meijer.

Drove Mr. T today...hopefully will tomorrow, too.

Later mcm fans...

post script:

we now have a small pond almost complete in the backyard:

still need a uv light, a few pond plants, then a half dozen goldfish and we'll be good to go.

now...later, mcm fans...