Two Old Guys Get Together

One never knows. We blog, we form friends with other bloggers, and we often never meet them face to face. Yesterday I had the great privilege to meet Tom of "Sightings Over Sixty." He was in Florida, down at Ft Myers, and we had arranged to get together for a round of golf on his way up to Orlando.

Golf is our second common denominator, blogging our first. Being fairly new at being old is our third. What more do we need in common?

They paired us up with two slightly older gentlemen from Iowa... "northern Iowa", they mentioned a few times... Fair golfers, it turned out. One was also named Tom and the other was Cliff. They asked us about blogging and what we wrote about and we told them it would be about them this time. Only it isn't.

We had no bets on the game. I don't mind betting but it's best not to if you haven't seen how the other guy plays. Since, essentially, Tom and I were strangers and neither of us knew the other Tom or Cliff (though they knew each other), I didn't relish the idea of betting on the game. Whenever strangers meet on a golf course, they always seem to claim they have no talent or play "bogey golf" (shoot in the low 90's) until after the bets are made and then they get up on the tee and smack the ball 250 yards or more down the middle. So I am reluctant to make, or take, a bet.

We still all maintained we were not very good. But that proved not to be the case. At least, not so much. Tom (our blogger Tom, not Iowa Tom) did quite well for not being familiar with the course and shot a respectable 86. I shot a slightly more respectable 82 but Blogger Tom had two birdies to my none. And he could hit it farther than I. The boys from Iowa (northern Iowa, that is) hit the ball pretty well but the fast greens ate them up.

I think blogger Tom and I hit it off fairly well. It's a pity he doesn't move down here to Paradise. I could have him corrupted in no time.

How did that stay out of the hole?

I have a confession to make. I have no idea what I have done wrong lately but there must have been something. You see, I can't putt. I have lost the ability to determine speed and break and so the ball often rolls well past the hole. Far enough past that I am in great danger of missing that putt also. This creates the dreaded 3 putt green. I had several of those yesterday.

These are not good. I played better on Friday and better last Wednesday because my putting was... well... adequate.

I have written before about how putting amazes me. Good putting, that is. Bad putting only amazes me when I do it. I go around thinking I can putt decently and then I have one of those days. Like yesterday.

I have decided that I must have done something wrong and some supernatural being decided to punish me.

How to atone? That's the question. I am open to suggestions.

 

And just what would I do with that extra energy?

I don't drink much of anything other than iced tea and green tea and coffee. Water is the pretty much it and that's only at the golf course... more so in summer than in winter. 

I drink only two cups of coffee (on rare occasions, I'll drink a third one) in the morning; most golf mornings, just one cup. 

I cut back to two cups many years ago when I realized I had a caffeine addiction of sorts. That is, too long without caffeine led to really nasty headaches. So I cut back.

But I read that these energy drinks are the Big Thing with teens and that they are causing problems. Visits to the emergency room type problems.

Enough of a problem to cause this column:

 
Treat Energy Drinks Like Drugs 


When I was a teen, the only legal stimulant was No-Doz (basically the caffeine in a cup of coffee in a little pill) but I believe I only took that one time. I was drinking plenty of coffee then and had sufficient youthful energy anyway. Later I discovered illegal stimulants and indulged in those from time to time.

I'm not sure why there is a problem with these energy drinks. They are basically a load of vitamins (primarily B-12) and caffeine. Apparently, they are causing a lot of irregular heartbeats and that is leading to an increase in ER visits.

I am puzzled. I often had insomnia as a teen and would rather have slept than been buzzing around.
 

Hail, Bloggers and Bloggees

I have been an advocate and fan of Freedom of Speech for many years. As you might have noticed, when I write about it, I capitalize freedom and speech. I have done so since the day in eighth grade when a teacher told us that it did not apply to students. I was stunned. And she was quite wrong... as subsequent events and court rulings have shown.

I was reminded of that when I was in the Navy and got into trouble for voicing my opinion in an answer to a question about a hypothetical situation by a shipmate. It turned out that those in the military have a very limited right to Freedom of Speech. It is ironic and understandable that those charged with defending the Constitution and the nation should not enjoy all of the rights that Constitution protects.

And bloggers and those who read their posts should be as supportive as possible of that specific right.

I often preach about how people should read blogs and listen to networks with which they disagree.

Apparently the president does not agree. This may be old news, as it goes back a week or so, but the president has made statements against Foxnews and conservative radio. He seems to feel that these two entities are exerting influence on Congress and impeding bi-partisanship and compromise.

Perhaps he is right that they influence politicians. But he is wrong in seeing it as a bad thing. It is exactly what Freedom of Speech is all about. Maybe he just thinks they are exerting undue influence, that they do not represent a significant portion of the citizenry. If so, he is wrong about that also.

If they did not represent a significant portion of the populace they would have withered away and gone out of business.

The left likes to shout about speaking truth to power. But isn't that just what conservative media is doing?  What is a national dialogue or a national discussion if only one side has a voice?

Winter Sucks

The expected high for today is 69, the low (which actually is tomorrow around 4 or 5 AM) is 42. It is what we call breezy (which means use thumbtacks to fix your hat to your head).
This is seen as "brutally cold" hereabouts.
 
People think we don't have seasons here in Florida. These are people who do not live here year round. Some who live here, but do not like it, say there are only two: summer and swelter. This is also untrue. I had a co-worker in Jacksonville who looked forward, eagerly, to the first cold fronts to move through. I thought he was nuts. If he wanted cold weather, there are plenty of places he could move to. I suggested Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North (or even South) Dakota immediately. He claimed he didn't want to leave. I was just trying to be helpful.

But we do have seasons... primarily "hurricane" and "no hurricane" seasons. We also have tourist season each year, during the "no hurricane" season.

At one time, when tourist season ended, many motels and hotels shut down. I remember those days. Then some idiot decided it would be a great idea to attract tourists during the "hurricane" season. After all, families could come down in the summer and would not have to take the kids out of school. While I (when I reached my teens) appreciated the nubile young ladies who accompanied their parents and bratty little brothers and sisters, I did not appreciate the beach crowding, the traffic increases, and the idea that air conditioning should be set at 70 degrees F.

Those of us fully acclimated to south Florida do not like temperatures below 78.