MORE BITS AND PIECES /REFUGE OF AN OLDER MAN

 

The golf vacation…

Having recently been fortunate at the time to purchase a 1986 911 Carerra we could hardly wait to drive up Hi Way 1 up the coast to meet three golf couples in Pebble Beach… Instead of battling the two lane road they had decided to drove up Hi Way 101… the curves and out of state traffic  followed the contours of the coastline were always congested and slow…the ocean views were and still are incredible and if you’ve never driven it, you gotta do it at least once…

For several miles we’d been following a car pulling a trailer, with Nebraska plates, if it matters, going about fifteen miles an hour…the driver and passenger had to be world class gawkers…I could picture the driver saying “Look Martha, on the rocks below, those must be California seals we’ve heard about”…first chance I had I dropped into 3^rd gear, stomped on it and before I noticed we were going 105 miles an hour…now THAT was a cheap and fun thrill!

After meeting up with our friends in Monterey and enjoying a fabulous dinner we made it to our hotel to get ready for the next day…

We played our first round at Pebble Beach then at two nearby seaside courses…I won’t bore you with hole by hole accounts even though some days we played through what seemed like all four seasons…the only thing tougher than escaping those seaside sand bunkers was the restaurants in town…

On our way back, having played three days in a row, playing golf was the least interesting thing for me…but with no regrets about the food and wine…

And, as we pulled into our driveway, I could hardly wait to play the next week…

BITS AND PIECES OF…

things our kids probably never knew…

When I was a little kid way back in Montreal, between ages of 8 and 12, I was an altar boy …Favorite time was sneaking sips of altar wine every chance we had…I never mentioned this ‘sin’ in the confessional for fear of having to say a bunch of rosaries for penance and alerting the priests of our behavior…at the time I thought tasting the wine was a cool thing to do and it was delicious even though it was probably made near Montreal by monks in the hills who had vowed an oath of silence…

Another favorite pastime, cheap thrills for me started at a young age, was ringing bells by hand at communion time waking up the dozing Catholics…the Mass was said in Latin in those days and we had to memorize responses to the priest…we had small cheat sheets and pretended not to look at them…our backs were to the parishioners who never said a word but followed the Mass in English or French in their missals...

 HAD A CAR REPOSSESSED…

• In 1963 we lived in Anaheim while I worked for an architect my father knew,only not that well…I’d invested in his company to discover he left town one day and left us moneyless and jobless…
  

Unfortunately we had just bought a new car, couldn’t make the payments and had it repossessed right out of our garage…About the same time JFK was assassinated…Julie was six months old at the time…

·        Left with no wheels was unreal…but God in his mysterious ways sent us a phone call from old friends who were looking for a babysitter for their kids…when we told them of our wheeless situation they offered us the use of an old Ford they even had and a room we could stay in…

·        We were loaned a 1958 Ford with only two gears…stick shift on the column…I bet some of you don’t even know what that means…the car made screaming noises in both gears but was otherwise OK…

·        I found a job working in Santa Ana for an architect and parked the screaming car a few blocks away from the office…embarrassing as hell to be caught driving it…

·        Soon bought next car, a old Opel station wagon…cheapest and oddest car, barely adequate for our family…we went everywhere in it…even up north to visit grandparents near Sacramento…one time, driving  back, hiway 99 was closed for whatever reason…we took a two lane bypass West to the 101…passed thru a huge gathering of Hell’s Angels on the way…loads of them piled in staked trucks and zillions of motorcycles…

·         I was ready to die protecting wife and daughter if they stopped us…but nothing happened… none of the men and ladies? even glanced at us as we passed by… this was in the 60’s hippie era and I hoped and prayed our family looked way too nerdy to fuss with…

·        Short hair, dorky glasses and a dumb-ass Opel…nothing happened with the Angels…or the priests! 

TO: JULIE, ROBIN AND SHERRI

NO MATTER HOW SERIOUS YOUR LIFE REQUIRES YOU TO BE, EVERYONE NEEDS FRIENDS TO ACT GOOFY WITH...

FACEBOOK FRIENDS WITH YOUR BOSS?

Facebook has creeped into the workplace and creating some sticky situations for employers and employees…We send friends quick posts and share photos…everything is instant…'instant!...I still haven't learned how to post pictures, thank God...

You may know someone whose postings got them in hot water with the boss, but it isn’t always what you post, it’s what your friends post…

Use privacy settings to block some friends and your boss…Think about it …

I don't have a boss but I'm thinking of blocking some of my 'unusual' Facebook friends...

Like the sergeant on Hill Street Blues always said: “Be careful out there!!!”

THE NEW CATHOLIC DUI: TEXTING DURING LENT

Italian Catholics are sacrificing texting for Lent!!!  

After beginning in three dioceses in Italy a campaign to give up texting, as well as social networking and computer games has spread to other parts of Italy...(too much wine?)

This effort, after earlier comments by Pope Benedict XVI's  praising young people 's ability to link new media with their desire to be connected to others as fulfilling our deepest need to become fully human...  He also added that loving is what we are designed for by our Creator...(at times the Pope knows what he's talking about)

But, the Pope "warned against an obsessive desire for virtual connectedness which may isolate individuals from real social interaction; it would disrupt patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."...

(I dig silence...isn't that why we text?)

For Lent I'm giving up John Wayne movies on TV...I've done it for years even tho it's almost impossible to live without those great old Western movies...

MARCH FORTH

Wouldn't it be great if we had the day off tomorrow to celebrate time to invest in ourselves by doing something important?

To make it a year round state of mind to continue to achieve personal and professional goals?

To make it a day to challenge ourselves to push the envelope?

To adopt a March Forth attitude all the time?

 

Time to March Forth back to work!