OMG

Is it okay to use that as a title? It has been an interesting few days. What just pushed me over the edge were comments regarding a certain political party who had their convention this weekend who I will say nothing against because that might bite me in the butt if I was actually concerned about that. Okay, that was a mouthful. I used to have aspirations of being a politician but am glad that feeling passed. As often as I put my foot in my mouth the opposition would have a heyday. Now it is up to you to figure out who the opposition is. Go for it.

Believe it or not I got up at 6:00 Sunday morning to watch hockey. Why?? I have no idea. Never thought that would happen. However there were some folks in this house that thought they should watch the game. Who am I to argue? After all, I just pay the mortgage around here.

So I watched the game. Canada won. It was exciting. Kind of. I called an offside against Canada at one point and got an earful for that. I didn’t know why. It was explained to me that we were cheering for Canada and therefore not calling any infractions against them. I had to make it clear to the others that I am a mediator. I call things the way I see it. I am impartial. I am neutral. (That probably explains why I could never be a politician.)

Then there was golf. From the deserts of Arizona. The more I watched the more I missed my golf outing from a year ago. All the holes looked familiar. Looked like the courses I played on last year. From the cacti to the sand to the rocks and the rock hills in the background. Wish I could go back. I will. Someday.

It was a weekend for match play. That simply means that whoever wins the most holes wins the match. Not a total score game as per usual. Anything can happen and trust me, it did. I was rooting for two players. One made it to the finals. He was up 3 holes going to the back nine. All things being equal, that should have been enough. However the lead slipped away. It went to a playoff. That is when the fun began. To watch a playoff in a match play format is fun. Anything can happen. And it did. Impossible shots from amongst the cactus and rocks to a few feet from the pin. But at the end my guy won. Really that is all that matters.

What I learned is that one should never give up. Regardless of what lies in front of us. Regardless of our odds. There is hope. Sometimes we just need to think less and act more. Give it our best. Close our eyes and hit the ball. And if everything else fails we still come in second. In this case second place was still worth in excess of $900,000. Significantly less than the $1.5 million for the winner, but still a substantial amount. Not a bad return for spending time in balmy temperatures, enjoying green grass, gentle breezes, hitting golf balls. It could be worse. You could be mired in a winter that won’t quit near Winnipeg. Need I say more? Make it a good one.