Eventually, The Rubber Band Snaps

This title is just what it says. No matter what the condition one the rubber band, it eventually snaps. A rubber band can be new, pliable and have ability to as flexible as anything we know. But stretch it too far and it will snap. 

And so it seems that when the rubber band gets older it becomes less resilient and brittle. It takes less to create the snap. 

Almost like playing with fire, so goes it with playing with a rubber band. If you play with fire at some point you will get burnt. If you stretch the rubber band, eventually it will snap. Question is really just when!!!!

Fathers Day

This where I will be spending the bulk of my Father's Day. Not that it matters where you spend it, that's not the point of the day. To me it is to remember our fathers of the past and to say thank for doing a thankless, at times, job!!! So dad, thanks for everything you did. I sorry it took me 51 years to understand and appreciate it!

The Animals

These are the animals I have freely accepted into my home. I'm kinda fond of both of them. How could you not be. Since my wife and I married at an age after kids, other than the two teenagers we have, we have Jack the dog and Jill the cat as our babies. We got both from friends who either had too many pets or couldn't care for them and boy did we get lucky.
Jack came to us with long matted hair and was very shy and afraid. It seems that the house he was in had several other dogs, large and small, puppies and mature and he was small and scared. The matting of his hair also led to him being very uncomfortable. When he came into our home he was a momma's boy, literally! He would sit in my wife's lap, he was scared of a leash, and he would not interact with me our the kids. That night as we were going to bed I was trying to find a warm comfortable place for the pup to sleep when into the bedroom, with dog in arms, walked my wife. She informed me that the dog would be sleeping with us!! What could I say. This was on a Friday night.
The next Monday we had a mobile groomer come by give him a once over. Bath, clipping, massage, steam, sauna....the dog works. Not knowing what to expect after this doggie torture I anxiously awaited hid return. The door bell rang and in came "Jack"!!!!! Yes he was a new dog and he came in strutting snorting and grunting as if to say, thank you for my new haircut and I think I am gonna like it here.
Those first two days I thought he was going to be a girls dog, but after the haircut I found out he was daddy's boy. Yes he is a manly dog!
The cat was NOT my idea. Actually I fought it as long as I could. When Jill came to us she was tiny. Literally the runt of the litter. I was scared how the dog might react seeing how earlier he had run down a chipmunk in our back yard. After introductions and careful observance we found that Jack had accepted her as she did him and they really are bother and sister now. It's funny that although Jill is a cat, she was raise by a dog and has many of the dogs traits.

Bowl Season 2102

WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN!!! Boy I really hate to start an entry this way. College football, a tradition in the south. Something that I wait for every year to roll around has come and is almost gone. Now all that is left is bowl season and the crowning of the national champion. Well hu-fricking-rah!!!! As I write this and I am not sure of when I will post it, there are 40 days until the title game. 40 long, cold damp winter days to endure until the pinnacle game of the 2012 college football season is played. 40 days, really!!! They could play the damn thing this week and it would make more since in light of the excuses that would be doled out if asked. So we need not bother asking why and just accept as is for now. So now before we are treated to this crystal ball celebration, lets consider what the NCAA, the BCS, and college football has in store for us that will ease our with drawl from the overload of games, most of which had some meaning, and allow us to survive these long winter days. Trumpets and drum roll please, ITS BOWL SEASON 2012!!!!! Hot dam am I excited! Lets just get right into it and not delay the magic which we are to witness in the upcoming weeks. Starting on December 15th we jump right in with not one but TWO games. That"s right, TWO games. Its kinda like getting to the party late or anticipating the party so that when you get there you get two drinks and drink them fast to catch up with the crowd. Well slow down cowboy. On this fine day we are treated to the: Gilbon New Mexico Bowl and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Please get we to the bar quick because there is nothing to see here and I need another drink!!! Maybe tomorrows line up will be better. Oh shit, I realized after studying the rest of the schedule that I just can't go on writing anymore about this. I was going to list the bowls and point out the absurdity of it all and the way that they all have just become meaningless but I have lost interest. So here is what I think the bowl schedule should be this year to make it a very happy Christmas for all. All games played between Dec 27th and Jan 1 with the National Championship Game to be played at 7:00 Eastern time on the 1st. Now the rest of the times I will leave to the TV people but all games will be televised and no two games can be played at the same time. Here are the match ups: Alabama vs. Notre Dame for the obvious reasons, Florida vs. Ohio State, Oregon vs Kansas St., Georgia vs. Oklahoma, Stanford vs. LSU, FSU. vs. South Carolina, Clemson vs. Texas A&M. This would much more exciting and interesting

than the San Diego Health and Welfare Office Upkeep Bowl featuring two well matched 6 win 6 lose teams. I give up and I gotta pee!

......And Then!!!!!

Just a few short years ago these were our young en's. You can scroll down and see how they have grown. New phases of all of ours lives are looming closer now. Ya gotta love life!

The Love of the Game

This is something I wrote sometime ago about the game of golf and its true meaning. Sometimes I have to read it just top bring myself back to why I do what I do for a living. Enjoy!!!! "The Love of the Game Just over a year ago at Chesley Oaks we lost one of our most beloved employees. Bobby Lepard was a hulk of a man with the heart of the sweetest of grand mothers. Bobby always carried a smile that automatically would befriend to him. When anything was ever asked of him he would always respond with unbridled enthusiasm and would give more of himself than asked. In the golf business, the days start before the sun comes up and end after the sun goes down. For the year that I worked with Bobby it seemed that I couldn’t get here before he arrived and I would always leave before he left. I would see something that needed to be done a before I could ask anyone he would have it done. Plainly put he just loved being around the golf course. His interest was not solely on just working for the golf course, Bobby had been bitten by the bug that so many before him had already encountered. He had a true love for the game. His enthusiasm for the game was like that of a child coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Every new part of the game that was reveled to him he greeted as if it were a gold nugget. Ask anyone who frequents Chesley Oaks and they will offer you one hundred stories of Bobbys’ plain love and respect for the game of golf. My personal favorite story with Bobby is one I have mostly kept to myself. One day I was watching Bobby hit balls on the driving range and as most know golf can be a very humbling game. He was having no success at hitting the long perfect shot and was becoming quite frustrated. Shortly after we talk briefly about the short game and how a three foot putt counted the same as a 300 yard drive. He quietly went about working on his putting instead of the labored search for the long ball. A few days later he told me how he had beaten someone he earlier could not compete with just because his short game had gotten better. In his eyes was a twinkle I will never forget. Whether it was hitting a good shot, playing a few holes with anyone, learning the rules of the game or about the maintance of the course, or just finding a ball someone had lost he was always at home on the golf course. And that became so very clear after he passed away. A few weeks before Bobby became ill he spent many hours clearing and cleaning part of the golf course between our second and third holes. It was not necessary and it was not asked of him, he just seemed to be on a mission. With the job completed he seemed to be at peace with himself. Within days Bobby suffered a massive heart attack and stroke and was taken into Gods arms. We later found out that he had requested to be cremated and placed with a memorial on the spot that he had worked so hard to clear, and forever become a part of the course and game that he love so very much.

Bowl Season???

It is hard for me to believe that for the first time that I can remember, college football bowl season has so far held no interest for me. Looking back I have fond memories of the Gator, Peach, Sugar, Cotton, Rose and Rose Bowls. My family annually would go to the Gator Bowl and watch two teams that had somewhat respectable seasons play for pride and the love of the game. Today I am sure that there is a game being played, for there are only 83X10 to the nTh bowl games this year. But for the love of me I couldn't tell you who it is. Equally I am sure that there have already been that many bowl games already played this year for which I can name no match up. I am not going into reasons, politics, or solutions for the ridiculousness of the bowl situation that we have now. I do want to talk about just one game that was played last night. Arizona State and Boise State played in the whatever it was bowl. And that could have been the name, I just don't know. This game matched a senior laden Boise team that was 12-1 and ranked 7th in the nation against a talent laden ASU team that had a season record of 6-6. Boise had all of the intangibles in its favor, ASU none! And it showed. Boise wanting to send its QB out as the winningest QB in college history, true team spirit, and high regard for the school and coach played with class and style while a uninspirited ASU team came out and barely went through the motions of playing. But who could really blame them! They were playing for a coach who had been fired, they had fallen short of their expectations for the season,and its Christmas! With really no incentive after a disappointing year who could blame them for not being at their best. Most of them are young men who are not going to make a career of football so why should anyone expect any differ ant. Even the most highly regarded ASU player who is going to be a first round NFL pick played like a Division III player!

All of this brings me to my point. Somehow a motivated 12-1 team got matched against an I don't want to be here 6-6 team in the I don't know bowl on the Thursday night before Christmas for what reason???? I think we all know and it very saddening to me that its has gotten to this point.