Golf is a hard game to figure...
One day you'll go out and slice it, shank it, hit in to all the traps and miss every green...
The next day you go out and for no good reason at all you really stink...
Life...
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
DOWN IN THE (WEST TEXAS) TOWN OF EL TORO
Normally on Holiday Weekends we stay home as we did over Memorial Day…if we need a long weekend we can take off almost any time we please…it was a great time to catch up on movie(videos) which is what we did when not watching golf, playoff hockey and basketball, and of course Dodger and Angel games…
Donas got in her share of CSI’s, Law and Orders and a TV movie, while I got to finish a book and begin a new one…
And, we ate out for almost every meal except for a Rib Eye steak BBQ’d at home, smothered with crumbled blue cheese and asparagus spears…and a chilled bottle of Chardonnay…
The next day, with a craving for BBQ’d chicken and ribs, we started off for Lucille’s but half way there spotted a joint called Texas BBQ between Sizzler and the Post Office on Raymond Way and decided to eat there…we'd seen the place before and thought we might go there someday...
what a big freakin mistake that was…upon entering a youngish and chubby guy, with a kerchief around his neck and an apron around his pot belly asked if we wanted food to go or to eat there…
we decided to eat there…as he walked away a weather-beaten looking waitress took us to a table…then dropped a menu on us...she left and sat down across the aisle from our table and began eating with the fat guy…the TV show, (which was to our back) was a remodeling type show from the South, I think Texas, and it featured the remodeling of a mobile home! All the while we all could have watched the Lakers and Spurs…
The waitress kept on watching us and finally came over and took our order…we decided to share a combo plate with chicken, ribs, some shredded meat and corn bread...we had no idea it came with hot dog meat cut up in little pieces…oh, and cole slaw in a plastic container like you’d buy at the market…
The ribs had little or no meat on them, had no BBQ taste at all…fortunately, or not, there was ketchup and BBQ sauce on the table…
The corn bread was hard as rock and cold…the shredded meat was fairly good, but not enough to share…the non-BBQ’d hot dogs were cold and ugly…
While we shared this crappy food the two across the aisle looked only a few time at us, it seemed waiting to see when we would fall over dead, throw up or just leave…the bill came to $17, I left $20 on the table and left without saying a word…they didn't say a word and kept on laughing at the TV show...
Lucille's is like Heaven
Texas BBQ could be Hell
Donas got in her share of CSI’s, Law and Orders and a TV movie, while I got to finish a book and begin a new one…
And, we ate out for almost every meal except for a Rib Eye steak BBQ’d at home, smothered with crumbled blue cheese and asparagus spears…and a chilled bottle of Chardonnay…
The next day, with a craving for BBQ’d chicken and ribs, we started off for Lucille’s but half way there spotted a joint called Texas BBQ between Sizzler and the Post Office on Raymond Way and decided to eat there…we'd seen the place before and thought we might go there someday...
what a big freakin mistake that was…upon entering a youngish and chubby guy, with a kerchief around his neck and an apron around his pot belly asked if we wanted food to go or to eat there…
we decided to eat there…as he walked away a weather-beaten looking waitress took us to a table…then dropped a menu on us...she left and sat down across the aisle from our table and began eating with the fat guy…the TV show, (which was to our back) was a remodeling type show from the South, I think Texas, and it featured the remodeling of a mobile home! All the while we all could have watched the Lakers and Spurs…
The waitress kept on watching us and finally came over and took our order…we decided to share a combo plate with chicken, ribs, some shredded meat and corn bread...we had no idea it came with hot dog meat cut up in little pieces…oh, and cole slaw in a plastic container like you’d buy at the market…
The ribs had little or no meat on them, had no BBQ taste at all…fortunately, or not, there was ketchup and BBQ sauce on the table…
The corn bread was hard as rock and cold…the shredded meat was fairly good, but not enough to share…the non-BBQ’d hot dogs were cold and ugly…
While we shared this crappy food the two across the aisle looked only a few time at us, it seemed waiting to see when we would fall over dead, throw up or just leave…the bill came to $17, I left $20 on the table and left without saying a word…they didn't say a word and kept on laughing at the TV show...
Lucille's is like Heaven
Texas BBQ could be Hell
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
'Activity Guide’...
Something for everyone…maybe only in the I.E.
We’ve recently been commissioned to be on call for the next three years to design parks for the City of Riverside. The Activity Guide features summer activities for the public. They are headed up by the Parks and Rec Dept. who will be our official client when work begins... following is a(partial) list of fun and far-out programs offered by the City ...
Trampoline and tumbling…
Beginning break dance… (once upon a time this was good for learning how to steal hubcaps from moving cars)…
Beginning Belly dance…kind of scary…didn't say it was for women only...
Tap dancing…could be good… (I could retire as a street dancer )…
Hip Hop…maybe for some people…
Beginning ball-room dancing, Cha-Cha, Salsa and Country two-step…all good…
Baby sitting basics… (good for grandparents)...
Paper fun… (followed up with a first aide class for paper cuts?)…
Yoga…not now…too passive…
Drivers’ Ed…For newbies and very old folk…
Brazilian jujitsu and kickboxing…good for when I may have to park on side streets far from City Hall…
Senior sensations…swimming classes with really old floating people peeing in the pool…ya think?
Intro to golf…could be good if you’ve never touched a club…
I was semi-disappointed when I discovered you had to be a citizen of Riverside and couldn't sign up for anything…
We’ve recently been commissioned to be on call for the next three years to design parks for the City of Riverside. The Activity Guide features summer activities for the public. They are headed up by the Parks and Rec Dept. who will be our official client when work begins... following is a(partial) list of fun and far-out programs offered by the City ...
Trampoline and tumbling…
Beginning break dance… (once upon a time this was good for learning how to steal hubcaps from moving cars)…
Beginning Belly dance…kind of scary…didn't say it was for women only...
Tap dancing…could be good… (I could retire as a street dancer )…
Hip Hop…maybe for some people…
Beginning ball-room dancing, Cha-Cha, Salsa and Country two-step…all good…
Baby sitting basics… (good for grandparents)...
Paper fun… (followed up with a first aide class for paper cuts?)…
Yoga…not now…too passive…
Drivers’ Ed…For newbies and very old folk…
Brazilian jujitsu and kickboxing…good for when I may have to park on side streets far from City Hall…
Senior sensations…swimming classes with really old floating people peeing in the pool…ya think?
Intro to golf…could be good if you’ve never touched a club…
I was semi-disappointed when I discovered you had to be a citizen of Riverside and couldn't sign up for anything…
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens…
This week the chief astronomer for Vatican City, the Rev. Jose Funes, declared that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. He said that an ‘extraterrestrial brother’ would still be part of creation.
Ironically 375 years ago Galileo was persecuted by the Catholic Church for his theory that the sun was the center of our solar system...The Church’s teaching at the time placed Earth as the center of the universe.
Rev. Funes said the church recognizes its mistake. In 1992 Pope John Paul declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from “tragic mutual incomprehension” …I’ve got to remember that phrase when one of our project managers has a problem that could be our fault…
The Rev also said something about God being the creator of the universe and we are not the result of chance. He quoted that the Big Bang theory is the most reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. I believe in God, his creation of the universe, the Big Bang theory maybe, and Adam and Eve…what about Darwin…can we believe in both his theory and the Bible’s?
I’m a recovering Catholic and have hardly read the Bible…
Ironically 375 years ago Galileo was persecuted by the Catholic Church for his theory that the sun was the center of our solar system...The Church’s teaching at the time placed Earth as the center of the universe.
Rev. Funes said the church recognizes its mistake. In 1992 Pope John Paul declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from “tragic mutual incomprehension” …I’ve got to remember that phrase when one of our project managers has a problem that could be our fault…
The Rev also said something about God being the creator of the universe and we are not the result of chance. He quoted that the Big Bang theory is the most reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. I believe in God, his creation of the universe, the Big Bang theory maybe, and Adam and Eve…what about Darwin…can we believe in both his theory and the Bible’s?
I’m a recovering Catholic and have hardly read the Bible…
Thursday, May 8, 2008
An easy game…hard to play…
Imagine finishing up a round of golf…
If you’re ever slightly depressed with your score after 18 holes, and I’m certainly one of those, I go to the bar, get a tall cool beer, go back out to the patio, light up a cigar and watch other golfers coming in on the 18th hole…
I softly shake my head and smile while watching others miss their putts, try to hit out of sand bunkers or look for their balls in the lake…I enjoy the view and the moment… we’re all the same…it's what brings us back the next time… and I often think about these golf truisms…
- Golf is the perfect thing to do on Sunday because you always end up praying a lot.
- It takes longer to learn to be a good golfer than it does to become a brain surgeon. You don’t get to ride around in a cart, drink beer, smoke cigars and eat hot dogs if you’re performing brain surgery.
- Golf balls are like eggs. They’re white. They’re sold by the dozen and you need to buy fresh ones every week.
- Every time a golfer makes a birdie he must subsequently make two triple bogies to restore the fundamental equilibrium of the universe.
Sometimes playing nine more holes helps brighten the day or, depending on how many beers you’ve had, playing nine more and not keeping score is very cool…
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
A PATTERN LANGUAGE
We’ve been spending a day a week or so cleaning out the storage place we rented when we moved our office to Riverside a year and a half ago…after filling the new office quickly in order to continue working, a lot of our stuff was packed and stored away.
In an unmarked box in the back I found some old books including one called ‘A Pattern Language’. I’ve had it since 1977 and remember using it to look for ideas in designing outdoor and indoor spaces…
One of the main premises of the book is that people should design for themselves, their houses, streets and neighborhood. Languages, like the language we speak, allow people to articulate and communicate a multitude of design patterns.
Patterns, the units of this language, are answers to design problems…(How high is a window sill?, How and what kind of space should in a house, or how much space should be devoted to grass and trees in a neighborhood ?)
In our design profession we're forever looking for ideas on how to design outdoor spaces as fully as indoor spaces…
In our design profession we're forever looking for ideas on how to design outdoor spaces as fully as indoor spaces…
It'll be fun reviewing this book, and just when I thought I knew it all…
Monday, May 5, 2008
If you were around in 1919
( just before prohibition started) and you came upon this poster...I mean, seriously, would you quit drinking?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
May Day
May 1 has become a day of political protest and not at all like it was celebrated in the ‘olden’ days…today in downtown L.A. illegal aliens will be walking and marching to City Hall in protest of their ‘rights’…
May 1 used to be a day celebrating the advent of summer when English people woke up at daybreak to gather flowers in the woods, take them to the center of town where a Maypole was set up decorated with flowers…the people then ‘did a little dance’…I don’t know what they did after that…
Mayday is still an emergency code word for distress…
the word comes from the French ‘venez m’aider’, literally meaning come and help me…
May 1 used to be a day celebrating the advent of summer when English people woke up at daybreak to gather flowers in the woods, take them to the center of town where a Maypole was set up decorated with flowers…the people then ‘did a little dance’…I don’t know what they did after that…
Mayday is still an emergency code word for distress…
the word comes from the French ‘venez m’aider’, literally meaning come and help me…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)