Monday, August 23, 2010

Golfing or shopping, shopping or golfing

When Dad was young he lived to golf,  36 holes a day was the norm for him.  In high school, in the spring and summer, we never went out until after 8:00 p.m., at the earliest, because he was golfing.  I think I spent more time waiting for him to get done golfing than I actually did with him.  I tried to love golfing since my boyfriend loved it but I just don't.  I would get out to the course and see people coming in and think, look at those lucky buggers, they are done and get to go home and I have 9 holes to go.  I would rather wait for him to get done than go with.  He was good enough to get on the golf team when he was in college.  Then a terrible thing happened.  He was hitting a 3 wood off the fairway and his shoulder just fell out of the socket.  He was a freshman and the season hadn't even started yet, they were still in preseason practice.  His golfing career was done before it ever got started.  He did however, have the honor of being the only golf injury the university has ever had.  His shoulder still falls out every once in a while, sometimes even from rolling over in bed.  He just twists his shoulder  and puts it back in, no sling or going to the doctor anymore.   Turns out his shoulder socket isn't as big or deep as it should be and the only way to fix it is surgery.  Not being really interested in that option he resorted to being a recreational golfer, then when Dancer was born he pretty much just stopped because of time constraints of being a dad. 

Fastforward 13 plus years to next week, his unit at the  hospital is having a golf tournament and he got put on a team.  His parents live in a place where they have a free private golf course.  He ventured way to the back of the garage and came out his dusty, grimy clubs and went down to his parents today to practice.  He said he did pretty good.  The funny thing about golfers is they never think they play good enough,  how is this a fun game? 

Since Dad was golfing with Grandpa, the kids and I picked up Grandma and went shopping in the Twin Cities.  There is a reason I don't like to go there and I really don't like to go there on the weekend.  I must have forgotten that today, we saw so many near misses with cars and also almost had two crashes ourselves.  To add to the frustration it is hard to drive in the traffic and look for the stores we wanted to go to.  I don't go there often enough to know exactly where things are, thankfully the kids have great memories and they know their way around better than I do.  I was never so happy to pull into Grandma and Grandpa's driveway in one piece. To make it even more sweet, Dad and Grandpa had dinner all ready and waiting for us, brats on the grill, and the kids took a swim in the pool until the mosquitos drove us out. All in all, a bad day shopping is better than a good day golfing.

No comments: