The weather here is hot. And it’s going to be hot for the foreseeable future. So what are we going to do about it? We’ll do our ‘exercise’ activity BEFORE the hottest part of the day. (And I know the Steinbach forecast is for a high of 17 next Sunday — I just don’t think forecasts are any more useful — or accurate — than horoscopes.)

We went for our long talked-about bike ride 9:30ish. First, a LONG stop at the Wells-Fargo bank where Sue put in more money (what else is new?). Then ‘our loop’, with a ride past our old haunts at Las Animas Trail — yep, the big red truck is on the driveway at Jill’s house — whew! at least they’re using their house — makes us feel a bit better. We cycled around 30kms and came home just in time for lunch. Well, just in time for ‘MY’ lunch — Sue thought we should wait a bit until she was hungry too.

I called Mountain Brook to see if I could get a tee time — not today, how about tomorrow at 3:45? Okay, book it. I was waiting for Sue to finish her second load of laundry so I started up the Netflix — and began watching this cool documentary about the singer Paul Williams. Wow! It’s a pretty good movie! (I sang a Paul Williams song to Sue at our wedding — and I remember buying his albums and seeing him on TV — and in the movie “Phantom of the Paradise”) and it even has stuff about WINNIPEG in it (see the first 5 minutes of the documentary just to check that out — it’s called “Paul Williams Still Alive”). Well, anyway, we watched about half of it and then I got this idea that we shouldn’t be sitting around inside all day, and why don’t we go check out a couple of golf courses with the word ‘Queen’ in the name. So that’s what we did.

We got into the bake-oven that is our van sitting on our driving, and headed down to Queen Valley Golf Course. It’s about 35 minutes southeast of our place. We pulled into the parking lot — all full — and went into the clubhouse. Any chance the two of us can golf here this aft? Nope, all booked. How much would it cost to golf here? $38 each, but you need to call ahead. Well, actually, we’ve golfed here a few years ago — the front nine is outright DANGEROUS, with fairways lined up parallel to each other — you can get your teeth knocked out by golfers on the next hole! Okay, we’re outta here.

I punched in ‘Golf Courses -> Queen’ into our Honda GPS. Queen Creek Golf Course is 35 minutes from here. Let’s go check it out.

Which we did. And the nice man in the clubhouse didn’t laugh us back into our car. I’ll book the two of you at the 3:30 price, but you can get on right after these women who are lined up at the first tee. Cool! Well, let’s have a cool Amber Bock draft while we wait for the tee.

We get paired up with Paul, a single guy who is walking with a pull-cart. And we stand at the first tee and wait for the group ahead. And wait. And wait. And then we see a cart and golfer coming down TOWARDS us on the first fairway — he’s missed the ninth fairway and is playing AT us on the first. He lines up his shot. He swings. Sue, who is standing on the tee, squints into the sun to see if she can see his ball coming in our direction. She can’t see it. The guy we’re golfing with throws his golf ball so it lands right at Sue’s feet. She JUMPS! Hey, that guy almost hit me! She’s pissed off! Paul and I are killing ourselves laughing. All good.

Well, not ALL good. We wait FOREVER at the second tee. These ladies in the groups ahead of us are TERRIBLE and S – L – O – W. Sue is getting very upset. We should go ask for our money back! Calm down. It’ll be alright. But we are NOT really golfing — after one hour we are still waiting at the second tee! But once we get moving things seem to be going a bit better. The course has no bunkers, but quite a lot of water. And those water magnets get me at the second hole. Finally, after we’ve played the first five holes, the course marshall comes around and invites us to follow her to the 10th tee — we’ll play the back nine first and not have to wait at every hole. Which we do.

And that makes all the difference! Now we’re golfing! Hardly any wait for the next hour and a half! Not only that, I’m hitting the ball well — nearly 300 yards on one par 5 hole — and I finish the back nine with a couple of birdies and a score of 40. Yes! We’ll come back here again.

We went home and had happy hour while Sue prepared supper. I barbecued chicken to go with the scalloped potatoes, corn, and brussel sprouts Sue made. What a nice evening tonight! Looks like all our neighbours are barbecuing in their backyards too.

After supper we finished the Netflix movie about Paul Williams that we started before we went golfing. Good show! And we followed that up with another documentary about a washed-up musician from the eighties: Harry Nilsson. That was okay too.

By now it was almost eleven o’clock — time to watch the Daily Show. And we’d better get to bed early — we have an early appointment with the dentist tomorrow.