Monthly Archives: October 2013

by | October 9, 2013 · 6:51 pm

Golf season is ending

golf

It’s been three weeks since I lasted played and I am more than ready to play again. I’ve played Saddleback Ridge Golf Course exclusively this year.  I get about 25 rounds in per year and about 75% are at Saddleback. Now the season or year is coming to an end and good weather is disappearing.

So what do I like about golf? I love being outside. I love the challenge of each shot. I enjoy making good shots. And, I like the company.

I really haven’t tired of Saddleback. It is a great course with an open layout. You can hit a wild shot and not be penalized.

Some people don’t think golf is a sport. I can tell you that if I just walked on the golf course and didn’t stretch and warm up, I will tear a muscle. And, I am amazed that at some point in the round my body memory of golf wakes up. I just have the feeling that I can hit a great shot.

I’ve played 60 holes in one day on several occasions. 18 holes is nothing. It takes me 6 to 9 holes to warm up.

Saddleback is a great course. It has excellent greens. It plays fast because there isn’t trouble and people don’t lose balls. Hence, they aren’t spending time looking for balls.

My group plays games to make it fun. There is the Worm (last person to 3 putt pays everyone else a dollar). There is bingo-bango-bongo (points for being longest in fairway, first on the green, closest to the whole, longest put–and the mystery) I am not sure I can explain the “mystery”. It is a point for bad play. All the scores on a hole are added together, multiplied by 7, and the 1st digit of the sum is cross referenced with a list of bad plays like shortest drive, most penalties, or farthest right off tee. It makes things interesting. There is also the Wolf (teams are chosen for each hole). Low ball, Low total with handicaps. And we play as teams of two. Handicaps are an interesting point. Before we determine the teams on the first tee, each player indicates what handicap is appropriate. I take the handicap of 9 which is my established handicap but some of the players take as many as 25. It can be a sore spot–just kidding. You want to have a high handicap to help your team and even out the competition. But it can get ridiculous.

Once that is settled the players flip coins to make the teams. And the game is determined. About the worse you can do is lose the Worm and maybe 5 dollars. Not real big stakes but enough to bring out the competitiveness in players.

 

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by | October 3, 2013 · 9:52 pm

Listening to the House

DC

Today, I listened to the US Congress House debate the clean CR. Just as I tuned in, after a few minutes, the House stopped abruptly with little notice. I wondered what was the cause so I looked at a news site and the news was there was shooting on the Mall in Washington DC. I witnessed history. They ended because they thought they were in danger and wanted to hide. Some person rammed a barricade to the White House, resisted arrest, panicked and started a chase through Washington DC. The press reports clearly said there was an “exchange” of gun fire. It turns out there was “no exchange” of gunfire it was just the police shooting and killing the woman, the driver in a black sedan who had rammed the white house barricade and fled.

Anyway, this event or series of events was portrayed in the media as a “shooting” and there were preventive lockdowns on the Hill.

* Don’t believe the early reports about any event in the news.

Late today the media said it had information that the woman had mental health problems. At this point I treat that as disinformation. At least the media said that they didn’t have any information on the motivation of the woman ramming the barricade and fleeing the scene. Media reported the woman was from Connecticut. The irony is that the government has shut down and there are 800,000 furloughed federal employees. One media account this evening even interviewed a couple walking on the Mall that were furloughed federal employes coming to talk to their representative about the government shutdown. Another irony was that the capital police are working without pay. Another irony, which escapees me, is that Congress continues to get paid.

Washington was on edge after the Navy Yard shooting a few days back so I think many drew the conclusion that this was another shooting. It was not. Apparently, there was an infant in the car with the woman that somehow escaped injury. Apparently,one policeman was injured in the high speed chase when his police car ran into a barricade.

I might also say that the House debate was highly partisan. Each side blaming each other for the government shutdown. Since the House is controlled by Republicans they enjoyed a one sided debate where the Democrats were stifled by a procedural rule. It was quite the spectacle. Total dysfunction.

UPDATE: The media is now saying the woman was suffering from depression. “Relatives have said that she may have suffered postpartum depression.”-a quote from the news. And there was a report that the woman had a head injury about 1 year ago.

UPDATE: Some are questioning the use of deadly force on an unarmed woman and the need to escalate to a high speed chase. Others said that the police did the best they could given that it could have been a more dangerous threat.

UPDATE: At this point I still don’t know the details of the life of the woman. I feel sorry for her. It was so desperate. There is so little in the news as followup. Just the sensationalism of the day.

Who would want to be the police? Always having to deal with the public, always on guard and in crisis. And as Jo says, the police are shooting to kill these days.

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