Golf, the Universe, and Everything

America has had itself one hell of a week / month / year / decade... Maybe it's the (failed) writer in me, but I agonized over how to properly articulate this post. I wanted to bring my own personal experiences with racism, but they felt like simple inconveniences compared to what is going on now. I also wanted to point out the hypocrisy of the NFL , but they already called themselves out, albeit years too late (but could have mentioned Colin Kaepernick by name). I also wanted to use clever literary devices to point out the disingenuous representation of the Black Lives Matter movement by those who lean right, but couldn't decide between a hypothetical or disjunctive syllogism. But in the end, I'll just go with recent history. The cynic in me can't help but to think we've been down this road before. Police brutality didn't start with Rodney King , but the global awareness did thanks to the advent of video. This was 1991... We all know how that ended (acqui...

The end of May for the first 19 or so years of my life meant Memorial Day and my birthday (and every now and again, they would be the same day). Then a special lady came into my life and it just so happened that her birthday was only four days away from mine. Over two decades later, through some very detailed planning and interesting timing, we decided to get married on the day between our birthdays. So for one week out of the year, we have both of our birthdays, our wedding anniversary, and a holiday (my eternal thanks for all who died for our freedom). It is without a doubt, my favorite time of the year. Christmas is fun but it is usually cold outside and there's so much holiday stress, shopping, eating, travelling. The same with Thanksgiving although it's usually a little less chilly and even more food. With the last week in May, we usually get great weather, the restaurants are all open (including our favorite anniversary spot, The Purple Patch ), and it's usually a l...

Anyone who has visited our house in the past few years may have noticed a not insignificant hole in the left side of our sidewalk near the stairs. It was home to a family of groundhogs. Over the years I've allowed them to stay due to a combination of being too lazy to get them out myself and all of my attempts to call Critter Control (the professionals) went unanswered or had no follow-up. So finally, after I noticed a few too many cracks in the base of my steps, I decided it was time to evict the little critters. So I called a local professional, The Wacky Bug Man . And like any good local professional, he returned my call the same day. #supportyourlocalbusinesses Long story short he gassed the groundhog lair only to find they were probably out getting some food or visiting some friends (hopefully practicing good social distancing). He filled the lair with rocks and dirt, dug a trench, and put chicken wire in the trench to prevent them from digging back in. He then put down some...