Happy Anniversary...

...to us!   21 amazing years - on the first official day of Fall, no less -

- so we threw a big shindig at Alley's in Douglas...

...but no one came.

Could be because we didn't send out invitations; we had fun anyway.

Enjoyed some great pizza, then knocked around the Saugatuck / Douglas area - returning to the scene of the crime where we tied the knot lo, these many years ago.

Here's to 21 more!

Turning now to current events:

You'll never guess what happened after the state dinner Trump hosted for China's Xi Jinping.

<click here> to get the full, behind the scenes story; you won't believe your eyes!

And if you're looking for a reason get all teary eyed, here’s just what you need:

Justin Verlander pitched his last game for Detroit.

Grab a tissue, and <click here>.

Uninspiring HGU this week; only got out once - on Monday - and scratched out a sloppy 5-4 win.

Won the match with a bogey on 7, giving me a 3 and 2 win (read: up by 3 holes with only 2 left to play, so I won).

BUT - played the last 2 holes (of course) and managed to make a hash of things.

In spite of a good tee shot on 8, followed by a better fairway wood, I then foozled a lofting iron to the green, eventually losing the hole.

And on 9 I botched my tee shot, so it was over early.

When straggling off the course, my paltry 5-4 victory felt like most of the Lions wins recently...

...an escape from a burning building.

Yep, made it, but what a mess.

Then I moved my 2nd round to Friday, since it was time for a shingles shot Thursday morning.

Alas!  Forgot about the fun side effects of that vaccine: spent the next 36 hours combating fever and head / muscle / joint aches.

But tomorrow I'm trying something I haven't done in decades:

Golfing with a partner.

One of my former coworkers and his wife stopped by yesterday, and apparently we tossed back one too many sarsaparillas...

...because he's meeting me tomorrow at 7:45 am for an 8:03 am tee time.

He likes golf, but has never played hickory before, so I'm outfitting him with a 1920's hickory playset...

...and I'll use my pre-1900's.

Stay tuned.

Let's put an end to this pointless palavering and 23 Skidoo:

bought a trail cam and installed it near the bird feeder...mr. G made an appearance...

...and even faced the camera for his portrait

ever get that strange feeling...

...you're being watched?

hate it when that itch is just out of reach

nothing like mowing the lawn on a cool fall day

spotted this guy on our anniversary, lounging around lake michigan

last daisy of the summer

speaking of lounging around...

A little while ago I shared a post...

...about <a pastor friend of mine>.

Sadly, his wife recently passed and so they held a Celebration Of Life, remembering and honoring her many years of faithful service to the Lord at her husband's side.

I saw Peter in the church, surrounded by dozens of his friends and family, all there to show their love and support in his time of grief.

He's a strong Christian man and I know he'll soldier on as he always has, but heaven's gain is his earthly loss, and it won't be easy.

I'm reminded of David's assurance in times like this:

¹⁵ Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.

    - Psalm 116

There will be sorrow and tears, tempered by the certain knowledge his wife is now enjoying the glories of heaven with Christ her Savior.

later, mcm fans...

Can Hardly Believe...

...it's been 20 years already...not sure where the time went, or how it passed so quickly.

But I do know I'm incredibly blessed to have spent the last 20 years with my lovely wife.

wedding day, 2005

And of course, she feels exactly the same about me, right my darling kumquat?

I said, right?

Sweetheart?

Yes...well, she's probably busy counting her many matrimonial blessings, so we can come back to that later.

How did we celebrate?

By returning to the scene of the crime:

The shores of Lake Michigan in the Douglas / Saugatuck area where we honeymooned.

It was a beautiful day, <muy agradable> with just a touch of melancholy, casting back to those times when our love was new and the vigor of youth still throbbed in our veins.

I'm very thankful to have spent these years with the love of my life, and am reminded of God's description of The Virtuous Woman:

"10  Who can find a virtuous woman?  for her price is far above rubies.

"11  The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

"12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life...

"...28  Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

"29  Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

"30  Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain:  but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised."

    - Proverbs 31

Such great memories we've shared, and we're busy making more for the next 20 years.

So what do you think...is TDS* real or not?

My vote is it's so real it's actually dangerous, not just to the half-wits who have it, but also to those around them.

Case in point:

In 2017 Tylenol posted this on line.

Why do we care about this?

Recently the Trump White House, in conjunction with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, <advised against taking Tylenol during pregnancy> due to an increased risk of autism.

Get that?  They didn't say "if you take tylenol while pregnant your baby will have autism".

They advised against taking it while pregnant because some studies have shown a possible link between the two.

So what do you suppose the immediate reaction was among the morons with TDS?

You guessed it: <Pregnant Women Taking Tylenol> went viral.

A part of me doesn't care.

Stupidity is God's way of thinning the herd, so yeah...go ahead, take the whole bottle, destroy your liver, sayonara, and the collective IQ of the world just ticked up a notch.

But - and this is the kicker - there's another life involved here, an innocent one who depends on the brain dead idiot carrying them in the womb.

And you would think if there was even a chance - no matter how small - that ingesting acetaminophen (or any other substance) might harm their baby, they would be - if not smart enough, then at least caring enough about their unborn child - to NOT take it until AFTER they're born.

But no...this is their "wonder of me!" viral moment in the spotlight when they get to prove to the world:

Trump doesn't tell ME what to do!

Imagine the videos we'd be seeing online if he'd told them not to drop acid and snort cocaine while pregnant.

Lord have mercy on those poor babies.

*TDS - Trump Derangement Syndrome

Had another applicant for this year's "Walk Of Fear", due to open for a one night only engagement on Friday, October 31st.

I don't normally agree to interview applicants in abandoned factories at midnight...

...but he showed some real spirit in his application, and time is running short.

Hoping I'd be able to recognize him from his picture, I crossed all 9 fingers for luck and tallied ho.

The place didn't show any signs of life when I got there, and I was a little on edge when I couldn't find him.

Suddenly he just appeared out nowhere and spooked me.

"Well finally!" I said a little too quickly.

"I was starting to think you were ghosting me."

I could continue but it's all downhill from here with me struggling to fit words like "phantom", "wraith", "visitant" and "specter" into awkward sentences.

Suffice to say he and his pumpkin friends are still in the haunt for the job.

Howzabouts we HGU*, pic captions only, just for fun.

teeing off for the last time this year, at least on this course.  the drought was so bad they're shutting it down to overseed and repair.

birdie putt on 2 that morphed into a par

ditto on 5

"I think I'll chip in for birdie," sez I to myself on 7, just before I foozled it into a bogey

birdie putt on the par 5 8th hole that miraculously became an actual birdie

Remaining rounds this year will be with featheries on a local par 3 course which I'll play as par 4's.

More to come...but not too much more...

*HGU = hickory golf update

23 Skidoo, y'all...

Photographic evidence cats come when called:

Loki limbering up for the task at hand

biiiiig stretch...there's no rush here

getting the kinks out...it was so comfortable sleeping on the wall

"for cryin' out loud, the things I do for my subordinates.  there better be a big dish of food waiting for me that I can sniff and ignore."

a view from Lake Beautiful where Larry resides

ditto

"These are troubled times" is something that has been said all throughout history.

Pick any era you wish and it's guaranteed to have been punctuated by violence, corruption, greed, war.

We're fallen sinners (Romans 3:23); it's what we do.

So it's easy to get discouraged, but that's a mistake.

Instead of giving in to despair and panic, we should take comfort that God is in control of all things:

"10  Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

"11  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.  Selah."

    - Psalms 46  

later, mcm fans...

Let's Take A Break From Politics...

...and focus on something more important.

It's a Happy Anniversary!

Ever since I carried her across the threshold...

...lo, these many years ago, ours has been a truly blessed union.

Don't take my word for it; everybody who's anybody says so:

"He couldn't write his way out of a <sac en papier mouille>, but she's hot!"
- Biff Bifflemeyer, Literati Glitterati

"It's the eternal mystery:  why do dorks always get the hotties?"
- I.M. Yelling

"They say happy; I say delirious.  Who are you going to believe: me, or your own eyes?"
- Groucho Marx

"Uh...wut wuz da kweshtun agin?"
- Knucklehead Smiff

What more evidence could you possibly need than imaginary endorsements from faux celebrities?

Now go on, git!

In the "laugh so we don't cry" department, Kamala the Border Czar made a bold decision <to actually visit the border> for the first time...

...40 days before the election.

This, of course, is a bad joke from the woman who fought against more funding for Border Patrol, called to abolish ICE, and lobbied against construction of the border wall, all while millions of illegals and enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman and child in America flooded across our intentionally porous borders.

She's really, really, REALLY hoping you're as dumb as her VP pick...

...so you'll vote for her.

Not much shaking in the hickory golf department this week...

my birdie putt on #4...

...and where I left it.

...but that doesn't mean you're getting off scot free* - far from it.

In my never ending quest to get a little better at this maddening game, I happened onto something called...

...the "birdieball" (above).

It's exactly what it looks like; a hollow, beveled tube of hard plastic material (people slip them onto their club handles to carry several of them at a time).

So what do you do with a birdieball?

To show you, we borrowed a page from the DOJ playbook...

...brought in a S.W.A.T. Team to roust out an octogenarian from the local rest home, then forced the poor sap to give us a demonstration:

That's what you do with birdieballs.

They're ridiculously fun to hit, make a satisfying "tunk!" sound on contact, a whirring sound in flight, and do an annoyingly good job of telegraphing problems in your swing.

I.e., if you slice, they do, too...ditto for a hook.

So you know when you're hitting them right; they go straight.

(That might seem obvious, but I've learned that wiffle golf balls do NOT always tell you if you're developing a slice or hook.)

Happily, birdieballs only travel about 40 to 45 yards, tending to go up rather than out.

And surprisingly, they don't bound around crazily when they land (as long as you don't land them on hard surfaces like cement).

So far I've had no problem finding them after a poor hit.

They're a little pricey; $32 for 12 of them, and not sure how long they'll actually last.  So far so good, but it's only been a few days.

Don't know if they're really helping me build a better swing or not, but they sure are fun to hit.

*scot free - from ancient Britain by way of Scandinavia, "skat" - tax - morphed into "scot"...so "scot free" was an official declaration, granted by royalty, that you did not have to pay taxes on something.  now it means you're getting away with something, sans consequences...but not today.

We all took a vote before you got here and decided it's time to 23 Skidoo, so...

just in time for all hallows...recommended for low IQ adults (even if you don't know who you are, the rest of us do)

I'm told this is "cute"

the command center when it's raining; love the breeze block

all the "rose of sharon" bushes are done blooming this year...

...but there's always one in every crowd.  probably stays up late at night reading with a flashlight under the covers after bedtime, too.

just because I really like this pic

Almost ready to kick September off the stage and greet October.

As expected, we've lost about an hour and 20 minutes of daylight (from 13:11 on September 1st down to 11:48 when all the shoutin's done tomorrow).

A stark reminder while we trod this mortal coil we're subject to our ever present taskmaster, Father Time.

What to do?

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

 

"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

 

 - Ephesians 5:16,17

Make the most of it.

later, mcm fans...