Meet Goose

Today Anna and Caleb picked up their new puppy, Goose. Our lives are changed forever.

Finished the book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”. A tough read. How teaching kids how to work through challenges more positively can derail later violence and other truancy issues. I’ll count it as one of my two educational books that I have to read for work this year.

Up early Tuesday to play golf. Teed off at 6:10 am. Hit two balls most of the time (or three).

1. Hit a good drive. Thought it went left, but found it in the middle of the fairway. Popped up a mulligan to the right. Accidentally pulled out a 3 wood for my fairway shot. Popped it up to the right. Drove the mulligan low and left, but it didn’t roll far in the wet grass. Three poor chips. Three great lag putts. “Bogey”.

2. Hit two decent 7 irons off the tee. Both left, but I didn’t think they were that far left. Couldn’t find either. Two poor chips. Three good lag putts. “Bogey”.

3. Hit a good 8 iron that bounced off the green. Popped up a mulligan short. Decent chip that also bounced off the green. Two poor chips, then a better one. Two good lag putts. “Double”.

4. Skidded a 7 iron off the tee. Mulligan was better. Tailed off to the left. Never found it in the high rough. Weak chip. “Double”.

5. Decent hybrid off tee that caught knocked down by the branches on the left side of the fairway. Skidded the mulligan. Hit a great 9 iron from my second ball, past the hole to the fringe. Good lag putt. “Bogey”.

6. Skidded my first two tee shots, then drew a great hybrid past the big oak to the middle of the fairway. My best tee shot ever on that hole. Then I hit a 6 iron onto the green – my best second shot ever on that hole. I wasn’t sure where my first shot had ended up, so I hit a mulligan. Low and not as good. Hit two good lag putts, then drained my third attempt for a “birdie”. I should’ve stepped off the distance. Well over 20 feet, maybe 30.

7. Sliced a drive off the tee, but not too bad. Popped up my mulligan. Flubbed a 6 iron, then hit two decent mulligans. Poor chip, better chip. Two more passible chips. Two putt. “Double”.

8. Decent drive. Hit one wedge just short of the green, then a mulligan to the fringe. Three putt. “Bogey”.

9. Okay 3 wood off tee. Drove my mulligan right. Poor chips. Two putt. “Double”. Finished at 7:32 am.

Stopped by Taco Bell on the way to work for a free breakfast crunchwrap.

Wednesday: Ceil cooked pizza. M took several carloads down to his new house but still has more to pick up, including his cat. We watched some Hallmark-type movie.

When my kids were young we bought them a lot of Duplo sets, that had to be put together like on Christmas Eve. Larger than Lego but still pretty small. A castle. Pirate ship with sails and netting and cannons. Even the fire truck had lots of pieces to put together. Every fireman (several) had a fire hat. Lots of accessories. Things for their wrists. Capes. Swords. Guns. An ambulance. We have piles of that stuff still in our attic.

A month or two ago I drove to the bank and went inside because I wanted to deal with a person face to face. A young man said hello and asked if he could help me. I told him I wanted to make a cash deposit, and he directed me to an ATM machine. Couldn’t get a teller to take the deposit !!

French journalist Anatole France: “If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

New York Times columnist David Brooks is right: “People don’t behave badly because they lack information about their shortcomings. They behave badly because they’ve fallen into patterns of destructive behavior from which they’re unable to escape.” 

Saw this cool "car" at Avalon tonight. Mag wheels. 

PETE ROSE [SABR Bio] played 24 years, retired with 1,314 RBI, but never had a season with as many as 85 RBI. He had 100 or more hits in each of his first 23 seasons (1963-1984). Had ten seasons with 200+ hits. Hie led the majors in doubles four times: 1974 (45), 1975 (47), 1976 (42), and 1978 (51).