Return to Semi-Normalcy

The past 3 weeks were a crush of work -- literally working until 11pm or later and then straight to the office at 8am to start over, then working on weekends and traveling to Seattle for oral argument before the 9th Circuit.  I did not ride my bike at all during the week for the past 2 weeks.  I was able to ride on Saturday and Sunday, but those were not enough to even maintain fitness, just slowing the decline a little.

This weekend work had lifted, so I was able to start re-building my biking fitness, and re-building my relationship with my sons and wife, who had suffered the wrath of my stress and absence.

Saturday morning was supposed to be the last little league game for Liam/my team.  But non-stop rain Thursday and Friday swamped the field.  I got up a little late to catch the 7am ride, and called the County weather line to confirm whether the game was canceled.  The recording from 5:30am said it was so I figured I'd go for a 2 hour ride by myself, enough to get in a little work and remind my legs what they needed to do.  Before I left, however, I thought about whether we would have time to play 18 holes of golf after I got home.  I called Falls Road Golf Course, and they had an opening for 3 at 9am and 11-something.  I was shocked, but the times were less than perfect.  9am left no time for a ride, and 11-something would be too late for us to get back for the 4pm little league team party at the pool....  So instead I called Jefferson District Golf Course, and executive 9 hole course, and, again to my surprise, was able to make a time for 12:45, bingo. 

So I did my ride, on which I felt very so so.  Liam had generously pointed out that he was too tall for the "Blue" set of US Kids Golf clubs that he was using (hand me downs), so I made some calls and we were off to Golfdom, which had the "Orange" set in stock.  It was actually a good deal.  They were having a sale on Junior stuff, so the clubs were 10% off, plus we got a free glove and dozen balls.  I also grabbed Liam a Nike golf shirt that said $32, but rang up at $14, bonus. 

We stopped at a deli in a strip mall in Annondale on the way to the course to grab lunch.  Interesting little place.  Sort of hole in the wall.  Good sandwiches, local color (I had to explain to the boys what I meant by "local color" in describing the various folks that were sitting around us, of the type that one might find at a local hole-in-the-wall on a Saturday morning at 11am).

We scooted the last 5 minutes over the Jefferson and checked in.  The geese had a significant presence, with a bunch of goslings   The round went well.  Personally, I couldn't seem to hit my woods off the tee (not even my 5 wood), but I hit some crisp irons and made a few putts.  Jake started off really well, but melted down on number 7 (a trend).  Liam was the revelation of the day.  I was a little worried that the new clubs would be too heavy, but after the first hole he started to just crush them straight and pure.  I mean, to the point where by the final hole, it was to his brother's great irritation because Liam was out-driving Jake (who was in full melt-down). The single that was put with us was a very nice guy, very good (played essentially par).  He remarked that they were both very good and that they had the same swing, which I thought was interesting because I think they are fairly different.   the guy in the blue behind Liam was HORRENDOUS. 

Saturday evening we went to the team party at Overlee, which was nice.  Bill Porter (head coach and neighbor), when giving Liam his trophy called Liam "the spirit of the team," which I thought was both nice and an interesting observation.  He's not the biggest (or the smallest) but he's a scrappy player who was really hitting well, and who focused on trying to do well. 

So, Sunday I went on the Coppi team ride, which went fairly well.  I was able to stay with the front group all the way through the dreaded "rollers."  I was the last coming up out of Great Falls Park, however, and had been left behind.  Some guy who I don't know (apparently a Cat 2 or former Cat 2 from California) was really nice and valiantly tried to pull me and Dave Battan across the gap to catch the main group, but after a 5 minute effort over threshold I couldn't hold his wheel any longer (he fairly quickly bridge up to them at that point, he had been holding back).  So Dave and I rolled back into town together.  Had a nice talk along the way.

As soon as I got home, the boys were in the basement wanting to go play golf again.  We tried driving up to Falls Road to see if we could get slotted in to play 9 holes, but they were booked up all afternoon, so we drove back around the beltway to Jefferson.  They were busy, but we chipped for 30-45 minutes, and luckily the starter was able to squeeze us out at around 3pm.  The round went a lot like Saturday's.  We all played reasonably on the first few holes (ok, I played poorly, but at least I wasn't duffing my tee shots 30 yards in front of the red tees).  On the par 3 number 3, we all scored 4s after our tee shots were all right around the green. This of course is much more impressive for them than me; I birdied the hole on Saturday; Sunday I hit a nice shot out of the bunker but just missed the 4-5 foot putt.  On number 4, you hit out to the fairway and then can cut across a lake (the fairway goes around the lake in an L shape).  Jake again was able to easily clear the lake (going long over the green in fact).  I did the same, hitting too much Gap Wedge to the back of the green.  Liam wanted to have a go, so I told him he got one try and we pulled out an old ball.  He gave it a mighty wack that would have cleared, but was too much of a low line drive that hit smack into the bank of the lake at the other side.  On the par 3 number 7, Liam had a legit 3 for par (hitting his 6 iron, too much club, long over the green, then chipping down and making the 4 foot putt for par).  Jake and I butchered the very short hole (thus starting day 2 of the Jake melt down).

It was 6pm by the time we got done.  Tired and hungry.  It was a long weekend.  Lots of fun.  I think the bike in the morning golf in the afternoon plan will continue through the summer.  Loren did something while we were gone, who knows what, but I'm fairly sure she was happy with our extended absence so she could knit and tend her budding garden.

Now, I have to order Jake some new clubs.  He's very much outgrown the last set and I can pretty much see the shafts flexing.  No one has his size in stock, so I'm going to order them on-line, where he and I found a deal through the manufacturer.

Comments

[Grandpa Tommy]

Hang on Jake! Someday you will realize that you are only competing with your self on a golf course. It only took me over 50 yrs.
Hey, take me along someday, I would love to try to hit some golf balls again.
Looking good Liam. Keep up the good baseball playing and attitude.