Author: Rudy

A lazy morning today, especially after my personal trainer decreed that we’d forego the morning hike so that we wouldn’t be too tired to golf in the afternoon. Okay. Dave had booked us for a 1:45 tee time at Apache Creek Golf Course, a course that Sue and I had golfed a few years ago when we were just learning how to golf — and all we remember about it is that it is one huge gopher patch where we lost quite a few golf balls. Dave had golfed there a couple of weeks ago and his review of the experience was about the same as ours. While Sue sat at the pool and read, I went out to the driving range just before lunch — and who shows up? Ed. He’d manage to cancel his tee time at Gold Canyon and had booked the fourth slot at 1:45 at Apache Creek. He tells me that when he had mentioned where he was golfing to his neighbour earlier that morning, the neighbour had said that course was one of the few on his list that he should never golf again. Oh oh. Looks like we’re in for a long afternoon.

After lunch we picked up Dave and Ed and Val (who’d arrived in AZ last night and would come along for the ride while the rest of us scattered golf balls among the gopher holes) and headed to the golf course, just down road on Hwy 60. Our first sign that the game would not be a quick one (like we’d had a few days ago at Mountain Brook) was when the four old guys ahead of us on Hole #1 all took two shots off the tee — from the Professional/Black tees, no less! and then drove their carts 80 yards, down just past the red tees, and circled around the thorn bushes looking for their balls. We’d be spending a good part of the afternoon sitting in 80 degree heat waiting for them at every tee.

But Dave gave us a little lecture about patience on the golf course, and once we’d “adjusted” our attitudes, we had a fun afternoon in spite of the long waits. The weather was beautiful. The views of Superstition Mountain were unobstructed. The greens on the course were as well maintained as they were tough. The gophers did their best to stay out of our way. What’s not to like about that?

Sue and I didn’t play all that well, but we had a fun. Somehow my ball managed to find water (WATER?) on the first hole, and on my worst hole I whacked the ball back and forth ACROSS the green, scoring 8 on a par 3. Sue got into a rhythm on the back nine, shooting a six on EVERY hole! By the time we finally arrived at Hole 18 it was ten minutes after six and the sunset on the mountain was already fading. Quite a few golf carts passed us on their way back to the clubhouse — they would not finish today. But we did. And then we piled our golf bags back into the van and headed back to Gold Canyon.

After dropping everyone off, Sue and I went back to Bashas, the grocery store, to pick up a couple of steaks. We barbecued them and had a late supper. After Sue had cleaned up the dishes we poured ourselves another glass of wine and sat down to watch TV. I cued up another episode of “Suits” and fell asleep. Probably I’d had a little too much sun. Too much fun.

This morning we went for an hour and a half long walk, out to the Fairway Grill on the highway, just to check it out. It wasn’t open yet.

After lunch Sue went to the pool and I worked on the computer. At 3 o’clock the Driedgers were here to pick us up to go see a movie. We had one last ‘big’ movie with lots of Oscar nominations left to see, but ‘Foxcatcher’ was only playing in a few theatres and none of them close to our place. So we had to drive out to the theatre at Talking Sticks. The theatre was very nice, and very empty. Right up until the actual start of the movie (so that’s about 30 minutes of previews and advertising first) we were the ONLY ones there. And the movie was pretty good — eerie story with great performances by the actors. After the movie there was some question about whether we should stay and have supper at the ‘pavilions’ and watch another movie. The Driedgers hadn’t seen ‘Whiplash’ and really wanted to see it, but Sue did not — and anyway, I have it downloaded and we could watch it at our house.

So we headed back to our house. That was good too, since we had a fridge full of leftovers and this way we could start fresh on Friday. Sue warmed up supper. After supper I decided NOT to watch ‘Whiplash’ again, but rather force the Driedgers to watch that ‘Letter to Zachary’ movie that Sue and I had enjoyed a few days ago on Netflix. Which we did. So we sat there sobbing away and eating cookies and grapes. After the Driedgers left we watched the CBC News and went to bed.

We had a late breakfast. After skyping with JP, Sue and I went for a long walk out on Sleepy Hollow behind our place. After lunch I worked on my photo website while Sue went to the pool to read. At around 2pm I headed to the driving range across the road. Ed Peters was already there. I hit a few drives and then it was time for us to get to Mountain Brook to make our 2:52 tee time. Dave, Ed, and I teed off pretty much right on time. Then on the second hole the group ahead of us waved us onto the green so we could play through. Nice! Now there was no one ahead of us, and no pressure from behind us. And although it was warm, I didn’t think it was uncomfortably warm. We had a great nine holes, finishing in 90 minutes. Dave had a great game, finishing with one over par. I parred a couple of holes too and finished with a 42. Ed and Dave came over to our place for drinks after the golf. Then we all headed into Apache Junction to the Handlebar Pub & Grill, where we met Hans and Chris. They’d made a reservation there a couple of weeks ago already — and a good thing, because it was a full house for ‘Bluegrass’ night and the “String ‘Em Up Band” was already in full stride. We ordered our burgers and drafts and enjoyed the music, even singing along (loudly!) with the band at times. By 8pm we were satisfied and tired and headed home. Back at the ranch Sue and I did our best to stay awake for another episode of “Suits” and even started watching one of my cued up documentaries. I believe we had some ice cream for ‘dessert’ at some point in the evening, but that was about as much fun as a guy like me can take in one day, and I have no idea how I made into bed, but that’s where I found myself when I woke up (for the first time) at around 2am.

It’s getting busy at the golf courses now. Great weather today, and the forecast for the next week is more of the same. Sue and I thought we’d maybe like to go to Mountain Brook and walk nine holes late this afternoon. Last time we did that we teed off at 3 o’clock but ended up waiting for golfers ahead of us at every hole. So today, when I called in to make a reservation, the earliest I could get was 3:45. Well, that’s okay — the days are getting longer and that way we’ll probably be the LAST ones on the course and we’ll finish at about the same time as if we started at 3. Oh no, not today. We were paired up with another couple and there were golfers ahead and behind us, waiting to tee off. So it was NOT a fast round. In fact, we had to text Dave and Marylou that we’d be LATE for our own dinner tonight. We’d invited the Driedgers and the Neufelds to come for supper at 6. We didn’t get home until 6:20. But they were good sports about it and we had a fine evening with them. Sue had prepped all the food in the afternoon while I went to the driving range. Not that I actually practiced — no, an old guy next to me wanted to visit the whole time, telling me all about his various vacations. So I went home without even taking out my driver. Sue and I went for a bike ride ‘around our loop’ this morning, stopping at Bashas so Sue could pick up some things for her dinner tonight. I stopped at the driving range on our way back and said hello to Ed and Brian, who were about to golf Dinosaur. Brian’s going home late today, leaving behind some pretty fine weather. Speaking of which, today was ‘Groundhog Day’ so now we all know what to expect weather-wise. I guess a rodent’s forecast is probably about as accurate as that Yahoo weather app on Sue’s iPad. Well, that’s probably enough rambling for one day. Tomorrow I’ll work on that crazy photo gallery script for my website again — so that will be fun. And that’s the news from here. Adios.

Not really a day to recover. We went to bed early last night and we didn’t wake up until 7:30 this morning. But when I checked my email I got a note from Redbox (the DVD rental kiosks) asking me if I “NEED HELP RECOVERING FROM LAST NIGHT’S GAME AND GUAC FEST?” And with the special promo code I got a FREE movie rental. My lucky day.

Sue and I went for a long walk — first to Mountain Brook Golf, and from there to Walgreens to pick up my free movie, and home again. I spent most of the rest of the day working at my computer, trying to get ‘pagination’ on my photo gallery script. Sue read at the pool — finished the book she’d borrowed from Marylou and started on the next one. At 3:30 I took a few clubs and cycled across the road to the driving range at Gold Canyon. The sun was warm, the drives were mostly straight. When I got back I had a shower and then we had happy hour. Sue made another great meal: shrimp and pasta and a salad, while I tried calling my folks — no answer, no surprise — they’re always going out for birthday parties or funerals.

After supper we watched our ‘free’ movie rental, “Calvary”, which had pretty good ratings on RottenTomatoes. It was okay. We switched to the News after that, and the late night comedy/talk shows after that. Then, after Sue went to bed, I went back to my computer project and wrecked and fixed it about ten times until it was WAY too late and I too headed off to bed.

We got up at 7 and started watching ‘Sunday Morning’ on CBS. We switched over to Fareed on CNN at 8 o’clock. The sun was shining — we’d not seen that for a few days. After breakfast I cycled across the road and hit a few balls on the driving range. I went back home for lunch. Susan, the homeowner, stopped by to drop off a suitcase of her clothes — she’s heading home tonight because of a sick grandmother.

Shortly after 12 we drove across the street to Gold Canyon Golf Course. We registered and then went to the driving range for a bit. Dave was there early too. We asked and were permitted to head to the tee blocks about 15 minutes early. The group ahead really never kept us waiting and we felt that we were making great time. We would probably have preferred to make great shots, but you can’t have everything.

Dave was hitting the ball really well. And even though I was not golfing as well as I’d hoped, we had a very good time. The sunshine, the temperature, the pace. By 4 o’clock we were finishing up the last few holes on the back nine. A coyote ran across the fairway — I tried to get a photo of that — the first time we’d seen that here this year. We finished up on 18, tallied up our scores, and then hurried back to our house to watch the Superbowl on TV.

We missed the first five minutes of the game. No score. I didn’t really like either the Seahawks or the Patriots, but I we decided to cheer for Seattle. The score was tied at 2 touchdowns apiece at halftime. I hurried outside to barbecue the pork chops while Sue made rice, corn on the cob, and broccoli and cauliflower. Delicious. We watched Katy Perry’s halftime show while we ate.

The second half of the game was more of the same — a good, penalty-free, close game. The Pats pulled ahead halfway through the final quarter. But Seattle came back, just like they did 2 weeks ago against the Packers. Then, just when it looked like the Seahawks were going to win the game with a last-minute score, THEY LOST! Most people would blame Pete Carroll’s asinine call for a PASS when they could have easily scored a running touchdown, but I knew the Seahawks’ fate was sealed when I decided to cheer for them! Oh well, two weeks ago the Packers GAVE the Seahawks a win; today the Seahawks ‘paid it forward’.

We didn’t waste any time switching over to PBS and another episode of “Downton Abbey” after the Superbowl. The highlight of that show was the chocolate-peanut-butter ice cream we had for snack during the hour. Then the CBC News. Sue sat on the couch and played Scrabble on her iPad while I wrote my journal entry.

Saturday. Cloudy and looks like more rain. Coffee and bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sue wanted to finish her book today. I wanted to go to the driving range. Neither of us managed to attain our goals.

I worked on trying to build a dynamic photo gallery and having PHP extract the geo EXIF data from the file so I could plot the photo on a map. I didn’t finish that project either, but I had fun trying. That is, AFTER I thought I’d fried my drive and would need to buy another one — but I was able to restore to a previous backup and (so far) I’ve not had an issue since.

After lunch the Bishops stopped by — they are leaving for home two weeks ahead of schedule due to a grandmother’s illness. So I guess the car will be back in our garage. We watched a bit of the Phoenix Open on TV before heading out to the Superstition Mall to catch a movie at the ‘cheap’ theatre. “Nightcrawler”, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, is nominated for Best Original Screenplay. It was enjoyable — funny and violent in a ‘Coen brothers’ kind of way.

We came home and Sue made supper. Then we watched “Virunga” on Netflix. It’s about the efforts to protect mountain gorillas in Eastern Congo, and is nominated for Best Documentary. We were going to go to bed after the movie, but I clicked on another Netflix ‘suggestion’ and we ended up watching another documentary — “Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father” — about a child custody battle in Newfoundland that was won by the father’s ex-girlfriend and accused killer. It was heart-breaking and very well made. And so it was midnight when the timer on the dishwasher finally kicked in and I shut down.

It rained today. It rained all day, and it rained hard. Maybe a record rainfall. The dry gully across the street is now a lake. My putting green is a quarter under water. We turned on the Golf Channel just to see if the Phoenix Open was even on today — yep, those guys are playing in the rain. Well, as it turned out, not ALL the guys were playing — Tiger had his worst score EVER today, shooting an 82! That had the commentators talking all day.

Sue went grocery shopping in the morning — to Bashas and the Fruit Market. I tried sorting out our photos from our Danube cycling trip — Sue is on my case to put them online for posterity. I got a bit distracted when I started looking for downloadable movies that are still on our Oscar list.

Sue came home and put away a van full of groceries. Then, after lunch, we watched the first of 3 movies today, all with subtitles. First we saw Ida, a Polish movie nominated for Best Foreign Film and Cinematography. It’s a black and white movie, quiet, no shooting, about a Jewish nun. Pretty good. After the movie we switched back to the Golf Channel to see all the news about Tiger’s debacle, and even Mickelson missed the cut.

Sue made a fantastic curry dish for supper while we watched the news. Then we watched “Two Days, One Night”, a Belgian-Italian-French film starring Marion Cotillard, who is nominated for Best Actress. It’s a good performance, but I can see why it wouldn’t be a big hit in theatres — it’s another slow drama with subtitles. We followed that up with the movie “Tangerines” from Estonia, also nominated for Best Foreign Film. It’s in Russian, so once again we were reading along with the dialogue. But it was a good story and we had no trouble staying awake for it (especially once Sue made popcorn and later coffee and ice cream for us to enjoy during the movie).

At ten o’clock we watched the news. The rain had stopped, at least for now. Sue’s iPad says a 60% chance of rain tomorrow.

We got up at 7. Sue made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Then we were out the door and at the Driedger house by shortly after 8 to pick up Dave and Marylou and Hans. Off to the Waste Management Phoenix Open at the TPC Scottsdale.

The drive up to Scottsdale was no problem, but things slowed down a bit once we turned off the freeway and made our way to the parking lots. S – L – O – W. We parked the van and decided to leave our jackets in behind — although it was cloudy and not hot, the day was supposed to be warm and no rain. Not so for tomorrow and Saturday — the forecast is for rain. So today was THE day to go watch the golfers. And we were not the only ones who were thinking along those lines. No, the LINES of people waiting to get onto one of the many free shuttle buses that would take us to the gates at the golf course were very long, and getting longer. We were given clear plastic bags to put our stuff into as we went through the security check stop. In fact, no cameras, no backpacks, no firearms were allowed in so we had to leave that behind in the van.

The bus driver needed a little navigational help from the passengers to get us to the gates, which were about a mile straight west of the parking lot. (I guess the organizers had to scramble a bit to find drivers and other services for the expected record-breaking crowd at this event.) Once we got there we quickly bought our entry tickets ($30 each), walked through the big tent of souvenir shops and golf merchandise, and there we were at the 18th hole. We agreed to meet back there at 3:30 and then we were off.

Sue and I ended up going past the big noisy ‘arena’ that is the famous 16th hole (no chance of getting into there — the balconies were already full (and boisterous), and the long line-ups to get in seemed to be not moving at all. We ended up on a grassy knoll from where we could see holes 6, 7, 8, and 12. We were too late to see Mickelson who had teed off at 8, but we DID see lots of big-name golfers, including Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson. Tiger was already at +3 by the time he putted out on hole #6, but there was an enormous crowd following him around the course. By the time he got to the 10th hole, which finished just below the giant stadium around the 16th, crowds were so thick that it was actually hot! People were fanning themselves with their programs. The poor old guys whose job it was to hold up the ‘QUIET’ signs when the golfers were putting or teeing off looked hopelessly ridiculous. There was no ‘quiet’ on this golf course! The only places where it wasn’t crowded on the course were downwind from those big fat cigar smokers with their big fat cigars. This was more of an ‘event’ than a ‘golf’ tournament. It was more about the ‘audience’ than about the golfers. And WE were part of the story — WE were part of the record-breaking 118,461 attendees.

We met back at the 18th hole at 3:30 and decided to avoid the long lineups for shuttle buses and WALK back to the parking lot. We got into the van and wound our way back onto the freeway, joining the parade of cars crawling south on the 202. There had been a few very light sprinkles of rain in the afternoon, but not enough to dampen our spirits or our programs. Now, as I did my best to finagle my way into the far left ‘HOV’ lane, the rain started to come down more seriously. Good timing. We made the right call.

We got back to Gold Canyon at around 5:30 — not too bad. We dropped off Hans and the Driedgers and went home. Sue made supper. I switched on the Golf Channel and watched highlights of the day. Alex and Max skyped with us for a bit. After supper Sue and I watched a few more episodes of ‘Suits’ before going to bed.

Sue did a few loads of laundry today after breakfast. I spent an hour or two replacing all the FAKE text and google images with the REAL info and photos on that website I worked on all yesterday. Sheesh. Why don’t they send me the info in the first place — it takes as long to do fake pages as it does to do real pages.

I spent a few minutes at the driving range again, before coming home for a quick lunch. Then at 1:00 we picked up Dave and drove out to Power Road to the Superstition Springs Golf Course for our 2 o’clock tee time.

Don Hoeppner met us at the course. We teed off at 2 and played a bit of a slow round — waiting for the players ahead of us on every hole. None of us played particularly good, probably because it was hard to stay focussed when we had such long waits between shots. Sue had good drives and some good putts too. I actually parred a couple of holes on the back nine, but my putting continues to be my downfall.

We finished a little after 6 o’clock, almost too dark to golf, really. Then we drove back to Gold Canyon, dropped Dave off at the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant while Sue and I went home to shower and change. We picked Dave up and went to the Driedgers’, where we joined Hans, Chris, and Marylou for supper. Lots of food, but most of it got eaten! We decided that all of us except Chris would take off bright and early tomorrow morning and go to the Waste Management Open Golf Championship in Scottsdale.

Sue and I got home at around 9:30. I wrote my journal and Sue read for a while. Then a bit of news on TV and off to bed.