Happy 247th birthday USA!!!

6:38 am - Tuesday - July 4th  - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 56%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were riding bicycles around South Lake Tahoe with daughter Meredith, and her good friend Amy who drove up to spend the 4th of July with us.......↴

.....happy 247th birthday to the USA!!!

Mondays are range ball days, as you know, and even though the high for the day was forecast to be just 90° F, it was a hell of a day to be clearing the driving range.  Here's the deal.....the worst place for mosquitoes is the driving range.....since no one really spends much time out there they don't spray it for mosquitoes, however, the driving range tee boxes are sprayed.  At any rate, since the mosquitoes are so bad out there I always wear long pants, and a long sleeved t-shirt.  When it is in the 70's or lower wearing pants and long sleeved t-shirts is not an issue, but when it is in the 90's, and a tad humid, it becomes a trade off.....hot and uncomfortable, or lots of mosquito bites.....I'll take hot and uncomfortable over mosquito bites any day.

We don't close the driving range until 10 am, so I had other things to do like wash the 8 golf carts left over from Sunday, stage 15 carts for our customers (31 went out in all), then head out to the course to make my rounds, and while I was at that, change out the 18 flags on the flag poles at each hole.  Ours are yellow and black checkers.  The old ones are a few years old, and beginning to fade, so it is time to freshen them.....

3rd hole flag

....by the time I got back it was time to close the driving range, and thus began another 2.5 hour odyssey in clearing the range.  It used to be, when we were not so busy, that one would typically harvest a 1/3, or 1/2 a 55 gallon barrel of balls on any given Monday, or Thursday, which would take anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, but now we are going through 55 gallons of balls in 3-4 days.  By the time I poured the last of the balls into a 5 gallon bucket to soak in water for a couple of hours I was gassed, and ready to give TLE her lunch break.  I, in turn, took my entire one hour lunch, which involved a nap.  By the time I returned at 2:30 pm I was refreshed, and ready for the final two hour push.  During that 2 hour stretch I would wash, and put away 29 carts, and wash/dry over 2,000 golf balls (I don't hand dry the balls, they just go back in the wire baskets to air dry for a few hours.....usually until the next morning).

I was finished at 4:30 pm, but TLE was at least 45 minutes away from being done, so I retrieved my putter, and three balls from my locker, and practiced my putting.  At last I heard TLE locking the office door, and it was time to head for home, and a nice, hot, long shower then head to my recliner to estivate for a couple of hours whilst watching the end of Stage 2 of Le Tour de France......

Thanks for stopping by!