He that hitteth the ball into the long grass doth suffer to take a penalty stroke; but he who maketh many putts shall rejoice with delight. Hezekiah 17:2

Had a cup of coffee at the house before Dave and I walked down to the clubhouse for a breakfast of toast and jam. And soon we were on the first tee. We’d played about 4 holes when someone on the fairway beside ours called out to us. It was Michel, the retired fighter pilot from Ottawa whom we’d golfed with yesterday. He was by himself today — his wife Angela was busy doing some accounting — and so he hooked up with us for the rest of the round.

It is a LONG course. And with the sun shining down on us, it was a LONG walk around that course. Hard on the old Plantar fasciitis! There will be ice packs on some aching feet tonight! And we actually skipped hole #6 which was getting a bit of a do-over on the tee-box. And sure, there was a nice breeze by the time we’d made it to the back nine, but the wind was warm. And it isn’t a very ‘easy’ course either — I’ll be happy to break a hundred golfing here.

It was around 1:00 by the time we were back at the clubhouse. Time for lunch — hotdog for me, cheeseburger for Dave. And some cold Modelo Especials.

Back at the house I was expecting our friend Mario, the landlord, to come by. I’d sent him a text in the morning, reminding him that we still needed some ‘repairs’ and supplies here — and he’d replied that he was going to look after those things today. Well, I think we’re learning that in Mexico ‘today’ doesn’t necessarily mean that it will happen on THIS day. Mario never showed up.

I showered and did a load of laundry. The Driedgers went to the minimarket to see if they could straighten out their phone card business. When they got back things were not much better than when they’d left an hour ago — the guy at the store spoke no English and the phones still couldn’t phone me or each other. Manana.

We went back to the clubhouse for the third straight evening, hoping to get supper there. Today it was open, and so was the kitchen. Fish tacos and salad. Not bad.

Then back to our place to watch the hockey game. Again, that super-cool TV thingy we have gets us access to EVERY NHL game in the universe, EXCEPT the one going on at the BellMTS Centre in Winnipeg. Thank goodness that a guy can still find a couple of decent streaming sites on the web. And so we watched and listened to the Jets beat Las Vegas.

After the game it was time for our nightly movie. My turn to pick. We have so many great new movies available, how could I go wrong? How about if we watch “The Favourite” tonight — it’s getting a lot of Oscar buzz and I’ve only heard good reviews. Hmmm… I’m not sure what the Driedgers thought of it, but I’d say this movie missed the fairway by quite a bit. Out of bounds! Two stroke penalty.

It was midnight by the time I found the appropriate Bible verse for today’s devotional and summarized the day’s events. Tomorrow we’re going to the city centre; we’re signed up for a historical (hysterical?) walking tour of Merida. I’d better head on upstairs and rest up my weary feet.