Words to live by...
"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."
[Spanish Proverb]
(The right to looseness has been officially given)
"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."
Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.
I don't write much about my day to day adventures. Mostly because I do not see them as adventures. Partly because they are boring. I could talk about playing golf with friends and acquaintances and so I shall. Of course, I'll have to do a little creative Bowldlerizing or perhaps just [bleep] some words since I try to keep this site "family friendly" and avoid profanity.
It is early morning; the sun is shining, it is warm and a bit humid, as I drive into the parking lot of the golf course. Plenty of places to park since it is summer and the heat will soon be oppressive. Only the core of our group will show up to play. It is summer and we have few "mad dogs and Englishmen" around here.
Joe runs the group in a lackadaisical manner. That is, he collects the betting pool money and keeps tabs on handicaps but rarely assigns players to groups. Joe is what you might call "not tall" (if you were trying to be nice), "short" (if you wanted to be accurate), "dwarfish"(if you wanted to be mean). He smiles a lot, tells dirty and/or corny jokes, and is lots of fun to be around.
As I amble over to the cart he is standing beside, he smiles and says, "Mornin', doo-doohead, glad you showed up..."
Before he can go on, I counter with "Why? You're still gonna be the ugliest guy here." If you do not interrupt Joe, he will go on. And so I often do.
I am not late nor early, I am just dependable. I show up if I say I will. Joe knows this, maybe even appreciates it, and takes it (and me) for granted. I usually ride with Joe. Our conversations while traversing the course are never deep or argumentative. We agree on most things political and so those conversations are rare. It's mostly about golf, the other players in our group, cars, and our childhoods. Childhoods are a common theme for folks in our age group. We probably lie about them, of course... Call it the False Nostalgia Syndrome.
The advantage of being here is most everyone grew up somewhere else and only came here after retirement. No one in our group ever knew any other in the group in their childhood days. Like on the internet, anyone can claim to have been anything, or done anything, in their lives. We accept all stories as true, though, it's the polite thing to do. Besides, what difference does it make?
Conversations on the golf course are heavily laced with profanities. In a way, it reminds me of the Navy.
"Gosh darn it! I have no idea where that went... anyone freaking see it?"
"Yeah. You're in deep poo unless that bounce off the tree was blessedly kind."
"Dash you, poopy drawers! Let's see you do any darn better."
"OK, froglips,watch this bleeding shot!" "Drat!!!"
Profanities are excellent as adjectives. And adverbs. And exclamations. Especially as exclamations. And they truly express the emotions of the moment.
Joe regales me with his repertoire of dirty, and not so dirty, jokes as we try unsuccessfully to stay within reasonable confines of the course. I have heard them all. Many times. Sometimes, I rattle off the punchline just as he comes to it... just to press that point. He ignores this and repeats the punchline anyway. And tells me more of the same old jokes he always tells.
We play a form of golf that most amateurs would recognize. I call it "creative cheating" but I am pedantic. Amateurs in informal games tend to "roll it in the fairway". This is, of course, forbidden by the rules of golf, and is called "improving your lie." We go a few steps further. In our games, we also allow each other to "fluff in the rough." And, of course, we invoke the "root rule" when necessary. The "root rule" is simple: if the ball is on, or near, a root then you can move it. The reason is obvious. We are not pros who make millions of bucks at this game and we have to buy our own clubs. Avoiding damaging them is seen as "proper" and "fair." As is avoiding wrist injuries. We are old and do not heal easily or well.
Joe has, of late, expounded his newest theory of how to improve the game. It's simple, he thinks courses should be set up so that anyone can shoot par. I counter that there are already courses like that, they are called "executive" courses. The par is lower than the normal 70-72 and the holes are shorter (by quite a bit) and easier. I would say Joe is onto something if he modified it to "anyone has a decent opportunity to shoot par."
His theory actually started from a suggestion I made about a local golf course. There were two really long holes that gave almost everyone fits. One was a par 4 in excess of 400 yards, the other a par 5 in excess of 512 yards. Most of us old guys have a great amount of trouble hitting a tee shot over 200 yards. So I suggested we move up to the senior tees on those two holes. This brought the par 4 down to 330 or so and the par 5 down to 460. Some were reluctant to go along but soon embraced it as they started making pars and birdies more often (much more often) than they had been on those holes.
The next step was to apply this to other courses we played. The idea was to modify the courses so they were under 6100 yards for our players. A few holes are shortened but not all. We did it because course management wouldn't put in new tees. And we justified it under the PGA and USGA "tee it forward" initiative.
It really cuts down on the profanities, too. Alright, that was a lie.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any sillier, the election year attains new heights. Rahm Emanuel, Chicago's mayor, pleads with the gang bangers who are making Chicago the murder capital of the world to "leave the kids alone" (thereby jamming "Another Brick in the Wall" by Pink Floyd into my head and pinning it there) and then tops it a couple of weeks later by threatening Chick-Fil-A franchises over the political opinion of the CEO.
But Harry Reid couldn't stand being left in the shadows, apparently. So he got on the Senate floor and alleged that Romney hadn't paid taxes for ten years.
What's behind this charge? Nothing much, apparently... Here's a quote from the LA Times:
Reid has said he learned about Romney’s taxes earlier this summer from an investor in Bain Capital who, he said, called his office to pass along the information. The senator has refused to identify the investor and has acknowledged that he can’t be certain about the veracity of the charges he’s been spreading.
Here's some more:
“I don't think the burden should be on me,” Reid told home-state reporters. “The burden should be on him. He’s the one I’ve alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn’t he release his tax returns?”
I guess Harry forgot about the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" that operates in our judicial system.
You just can't make this stuff up... but apparently Harry can.
I used to be witty... and clever. Yes, I know this hasn't been evident of late. In fact, pretty much since I started this blog. But it is true, I was once considered a lot of fun to be around. I made as many enemies as I did friends, of course, because that is the result of unconstrained wit. Wit is dangerous and is often referred to as "sharp" or "rapier-like". In truth, it is a two-edged sword... causing wounds to both target and wielder.
But wit takes effort and brain power. And my brain power is ebbing. Either that or I am becoming more self observant. I notice more mistakes on my part. This means I am making more or that I am recognizing more. I strongly suspect the latter. Trying to use wit these days is, for me, like trying to juggle razor blades.... quite messy. And, like those razor cuts, the pain really hits later while you are squeezing lemons or tossing some spilled salt over your shoulder.
My wit often got me in a lot of trouble. Bullies do not like to be belittled. Neither do teachers... or am I being redundant? It did not impress my superiors in the Navy either. Well, not favorably anyway.
But my wit these days is much like my car keys. Something I can't find when I need it.
I'm in a funk. As I wrote the other day, with age comes not wisdom but pain. Pain in the joints, mostly, but not just in those joints. I get more headaches (even counting all those hangovers I used to suffer), I feel the heat more (and, believe me, it gets hot down here), and now I suffer from a bit of vertigo. I had to get a friend to come over and fix a sag in my porch ceiling. Because if I had to tilt my head back to put a screw in a ceiling panel, I'd likely fall.Yep, I had him over to screw my roof.
We are supposed to look forward to our alleged golden years. Trust me, if this is what they think we should look forward to... they don't know what they're talking about. Speaking of those "golden years", a friend remarked... "Yeah, they're golden, alright, you give the gold to doctors and dentists." He could have added handymen, tax collectors, mechanics, and the pharmacies. And gas stations... can't forget the gas stations.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I made it this far. There were more than a few times I thought I wouldn't; a couple of times when I was pretty sure I wouldn't. But I have. And I have a lot more years to look forward to.
That's another thing about becoming a senior citizen... you stop looking forward and spend a lot of time looking backward. Wistfully.
I'm not saying retirement hasn't been good to me. It has... so far. I have (mostly) my health, I have a decent (not great) pension, I have savings that should last, and I have a great partner (Faye) to share it with. Life has been good to me and it continues to be.
But that doesn't mean I don't feel the aches and pains of aging or don't worry about the future for my son and my grandchildren. That's probably why I harp on certain things like I wrote about yesterday. I failed to be active, I chose to just "go with the flow", and I look back and say... What the hell was I thinking???
Having nothing better to do and Faye having nothing better to do, we went to a political event Monday evening. They also offered free hot dogs which took care of dinner and, I suspect, was the reason Faye wanted to go.
Have you ever been to one of these events? This one had most of the local candidates vying for the opportunity to run in the general election in November. This event was called "meet the candidates" and was put on by the Republican Women's Club of Highlands County. I found it interesting.
Political primaries are where most candidates actually win the seat they seek. I know that is not the way it is supposed to be but that's the way it seems to work these days. Much depends upon where you live and the political division involved. When we lived in Jacksonville, the Democratic Party primaries ruled. Whoever won the nomination won the election. Here, whoever wins the Republican Party primary wins the general election. In Jacksonville, Republicans felt disenfranchised and here I suspect the Democrats feel the same. Some districts have open primaries when there are no candidates in the other major party. In other words when the winner of one party's primary will run unopposed in the general election.
As the candidates spoke, most all stated that the crowd was the largest they had spoken in front of. I was stunned. There couldn't have been a hundred people there and 15 of these were candidates and their spouses or connected to the various campaigns. If I had been a candidate, I'd have praised those in attendance and then asked "Now, where the heck are your neighbors???"
As I was chatting with one of the candidates for nomination for the office of County Supervisor of Elections, I liked something she said. She wanted to visit high schools in the area (we have three... it's a small county) and talk to the students in the last couple of years of school about registering to vote and about actually voting and also about being educated about the issues and candidates.
I was struck by this because I looked around and saw very few people under the age of SS and Medicare.
Did I learn anything at this event? Did it help me understand the issues and get a clearer view of the candidates? Not so much. Did it help me get a better understanding of why this country is in trouble?
What do you think?
