Golf is more fun than politics

Sorry about no post yesterday. I was just too tired to do much after the day I had on Thursday and we were in the car most of Friday. Plus there was a stop for gambling and lunch at Tampa's Seminole Hard Rock Cafe and Casino.

I lost. I was beaten into submission by the Golf Gods on Thursday. Just a reminder that I cannot play at a certain level. I should have insisted we play from the regular men's tees (aka the "whites") which would have kept the overall distance down to a tad over 6000 yards. Instead, we played from the green tees which added a mere 300 yards more. You would think that an average of 16.6 yards to each hole wouldn't make all that much difference. And it wouldn't. But it isn't added to each hole, you might have 50 or 75 yards added to some holes and nothing to others. The ones where it isn't added are the ones which are already very long. So I found myself hitting longer shots into the greens much of the time.

Speaking of greens, to say they were fast would be an understatement. More like pool tables. Very, very fast. I wouldn't have minded fast but very, very fast? No, not my cup of tea.

I had some ugly visions of a 3 digit score. I managed to keep it below 100, though. Wasn't good enough. Rick was better. When I used to play golf with Rick, I beat him most times. Maybe every time... the memory is not clear... we drank and smoked and those days are quite the blur now. He used to hit a wicked duck hook and he couldn't chip or putt very well. Imagine my surprise when he hit the ball right down the middle on most holes. I still only owed him for two holes when the torture was done.

And then we got back to the hotel, showered and all 4 of us went to dinner at Shula's Steak House. Very good food. Excellent, in fact. But pricey. I am used to $45 to $60 for a party of two. This was $100+ for Faye and I... and then there's the tip.

By the time we wandered back to our rooms, it was close to 10 PM and there was no way I was going to stay awake long enough to punch out a blog post.

This morning, I got up at "oh dark thirty" (6:15) so I could play golf again with some friends locally. A somewhat shorter course with slower greens. So I was back to normal.

I should mention something political since this is Saturday but I am totally burnt out and disgusted and I wouldn't do it justice. The political spin is dizzying these days. No one on any side can be trusted. Al Gore's comments during the 1992 campaign comes to mind "What's down is up, what should be up is down and what should be done is up." Or something close to that. We are now told that 9.1% unemployment is a good thing because the administration was actually projecting 9.3% at this point in time. There's an old truism that goes something like this:

A good economy is when both you and your neighbor have jobs, a recession is when your neighbor is out of work, and a depression is when you lose your job.

I'm retired... that makes me just a spectator.