Sunday, June 18, 2023

Happy Father's Day!

7:27 am - Sunday - June 18th - LPG&RVR - 53° F, 61% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest......heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 69° F, and rain forecast for this evening.  On this date in 2015 I was watching the U.S. Open with a cup of coffee and cold pizza.....I will be doing the same today, 8 years later, sans the cold pizza....lol.....↴ 


I has occurred to me that I often mention I am driving down to the entrance to 'flip the sign', and that perhaps you may not know what that means, or why I am flipping anything.  So, to illustrate what this means I took a few pictures yesterday.  The saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words"....well, here are 3 thousands words worth of pictures......




.....the first sign points to the left, and directs those arriving between 8 am and 5 pm to the Clubhouse where they must check-in before parking.   At 8 am, and 5 pm each day I flip tat sign so the arrow is pointing in the appropriate direction.  At 5 pm the Clubhouse closes for the day, so late arrivals must self register at the 'RV Night Office'.  So, now you know what I am doing, and why I am flipping that sign.

I left for work at 7:30 am so I could be off work by 4 pm (taking a 30 minute lunch) to attend the weekly putting contest.  It was overcast, and a little chilly as the day began.  I had 6 golf carts to wash and stage left over from Friday afternoon.  As I left for work (TLE followed 10 minutes later) TLE advised me to stage 15 carts to begin the day, which I did.  Ultimately, we would rent out 21 golf carts....another good day for LPG&RVR.

We don't, as a rule, mow, or do any weed whipping on the weekends, so after making my early morning round of the golf course I decided to 'drag' the golf cart paths.  All the cart paths are gravel, and over time they get a little 'washboardy', and need to be smoothed out.  We accomplish this dragging a large steel mesh screen behind one of the utility carts until the gravel is spread out and smooth again.  There are 4 problem areas which need special attention.  The first begins near employee site #51, and runs all the way across the meadow to holes 9 and 18....probably about 2,000' feet in length.  We 'drag' them back and forth 7 to 8 times to smooth them out.  Next  up is the cart path which runs from holes 2 and 11 to holes 3 and 12....about a thousand feet of cart path.  Next there is the steep hill running from the 4th hole up to the 5th tee where the restroom is.  It is only about 150 feet long, but steep, and it really gets bumpy over time.  Finally there is the switchback cart path which runs from the blue tee box for hole #16 (the elevated 3 par tee boxes, which I mow around each week).  It's about 1,000 feet long, and has 3 switchbacks as it snakes down the hill to the 3rd hole.

After driving the golf course counter clockwise checking on the morning's golfers, I was back at the Clubhouse around 9:30 am, at which time I began dragging the aforementioned cart paths.  I was just finishing the fourth cart path (#16) when I got a call from TLE advising she needed more carts staged beyond the initial 15, so I began the long drive back arriving around 11 am to find the final two carts leaving the staging area.  I staged all 9 Club Car round nose carts, plus one of the original Club Car square nose carts for 10 in all.  After doing that I dragged the gravel which surrounds the golf cart shed, and one of the parking lots.  It was around 11:30 am when I finished so I made one more round of the course in my 'marshaling' capacity, arriving back in time to give TLE her lunch break.  During that time I decided I would not take my 30 minute lunch, but go right back to work at 1 pm so I could get off at 3:30 pm, take a shower, get a snack, and change clothes prior to the putting contest. 

I managed to get all the golf carts washed, and put away by 3:30 pm except for 3 carts, which went out late.  I headed home, showered, changed clothes, and was back just before 4 pm, and the start of the contest.  I had a feeling this would be a good day for me, and it was.  I managed to get through 7 rounds before succumbing on the 4th hole (we were tied after 3 holes) to a hole-in-one by my opponent.  I came up just short of a hole-in-one on the 4th, so entering the 5th hole I would have to either sink my putt for a hole-in-one, or hope my opponent 3 putted.....neither of those things happened, so we tied the 5th hole giving him the victory.  All that being said, my putting was so consistent, and I made all but one of my second putts, even getting a hole in one in the 5th round.  Had I won the 7th round I would have been in the final.  It was a very satisfying contest for me.

TLE and I were home around 5:30 pm, and happy to be entering our 4 day weekend.  The 4th round of the U.S. Open is Sunday, which is also Father's Day, so you know where I will be most of the day.  Coverage begins at 9 am, and will run to almost 7 pm, with the final pairing not teeing off until 2:30 pm.  Happy Father's day to all the amazing fathers out there.  The most important fathers in my life are my sons  Chris (father of Cynthia and Christopher) and Tim (father of Crosby and Bowie), my sons-in-law Rod (father of Brayden) and Nick (father of Elijah, Charlise, Jolene, and Levy), and Daniel (father of Daniel and Jameson), the husband of my grand daughter Cynthia.  You all are amazing men, husbands, and fathers, and make me proud every day!

Thanks for stopping by!

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