Muckhead's Chronicle

Sucking the Big One

At golf that is!

I can't seem to get in a decent round this year. Oh sure I have had tremendous shots, even some fabulous ones, but just can't seem to put it together.

I missed a putt last men's night for what would have been about $150. They have a double deuce pot going; anyone who gets two "2's" in a row wins it.

So, this afternoon, Clayton and I stopped at number 12 and fished out about 30 golf balls out of the pond. Sometimes the sun hits it just right and you can see them, and of course there was nobody behind us for a few holes so we scooped away.

New Driver

Apparently big is better!

I just had to put this one up, I saw it this weekend in a golf mag and I was laughing for quite awhile.

As far as golf goes this weekend you could say the weather held us off. Tee times were booked but I had a garage sale to deal with Saturday, and it started pissing any way. Sunday was wet as well, maybe next week seems more promising.

Bin Golfin

Well thought I'd bring ya'll up to speed on the start of the golfing season. Played my first Men's Night at The Club last Wednesday, nothing too spectacular, I couldn't even stick around for the steak dinner as I had some stuff to take care of at home. I did however pull of one incredible shot (and for those who have played with me I have tried this with little success in the past), with my 3 wood and hit the green. I thought for sure I would get KP, but apparently there is a guy playing the men's nights this year that can put it on the green from 364 yards.

My take on that: I only hit the green on 9 maybe 3 or 4 times a year, and hardly ever on Men's Night. If there is going to be approved ringers out regularly I might not be showing up as religiously as I did last year.

Picked up a new Driver on the weekend, I always wanted a Ping Driver to go with my 3 wood, even better I always wanted to only pay $150 or less for it, there was one at GolfTown on the weekend so I grabbed it. I haven't tried it on the course yet, but it is the same series (i/3) so I think I should do well with it, plus it is a 9 Degree so I should get more distance if I connect( that is a NON-slice hit).

It's looking a lot like Golf

It’s looking a lot like golf out there, although once I step outside it feels otherwise. The sun is shinning and it is absolutely beautiful outside.

Maybe I will dust the clubs off and be on the ready side of things. I could just go hit some balls at the driving range, or just go up and have a cold one at the club so I acclimatize myself to the surroundings for yet another season.

The Falls

What an afternoon! I am still in awe, this afternoon was not about a score, but rather all about an experience, and what an experience I had. The first picture I have is of the signature Falls found on the 18th hole; I thought it was of good enough quality to make it a wallpaper in my desktop, but you can be the judge of that. We teed off at about 1:20pm, and after a long drive in the cart (they do not let you walk this course), I managed to par the first, bogie the second and par the third and fourth. Just what was all the hype about the Falls seems easy enough.

The next pic is of a green where you are almost as far up over it than you are away from it, you can see the group ahead putting below (about 120 yards out and then 120 down). I soon realized and was humbled by this type of terrain.

Next is a picture is of an awesome par 5 that you tee off and it is about 300 yards down. SO you do the math, the ball goes far! The next one is of the view from where it lands back up to the tee.

I can't post them all ( I took 50 pictures but this is a taste of The Falls . I would suggest to anyone to golf here if for anything the experience. I mean the elevation changes and the wide open space that seems to be carved from the mountainside is just awe inspiring to say the least.

A Great Golf Season Winding Down?

Last night was the windup for the club's men’s nights, which ended up being another round of golf in rather wet conditions. I really enjoyed myself this year attending these Thursday Night events, which we a heck of a deal; $15 for members for a round of golf and a steak dinner. I ended up with over $300 in winnings over the year putting me in the top 5 on the money list and in the top ten in the points overall. The thing to point out here is that I am not one of the best golfers out there, but the way it was designed everyone no matter the handicap could win, very kewl.

Oh well, I guess the golf season is winding down a bit, however the club is open year round and many people golf on boxing day there, providing there is no snow. Despite this, I am preparing for Fishing season which is just starting on the Vedder/ Chilliwack River. I plan to get out and have Tyler hook into his first Salmon; I will have pictures of the event of course so stay tuned.

I'm Golfing in the Rain...

It is one of the driest summers ever and the day of the Rob Bahnman Memorial Golf Tournament at the club , and it rains. Well it was rain or shine so there was staying home and whining about it. I was paired up with these fine golfers (Myself, Don, Earl and Harold from left to right), and we managed to post a 58 (-5 under par). With the conditions as they were and the talent pool (speaking for myself of course) this was an awesome round (Texas Scramble format). We needed one more putt or two to be into the trophies but we had a great round and I got to play with some great guys!

The rain actually stopped for the back nine and the sun came out for the presentation. For those of you that don't know, Cultus puts on this event yearly since the passing of the founder of the Club Rob Bahnman from cancer. All the proceeds go the Cancer Foundation, and they raise a lot of money every year. It is great event and for a great cause. I am proud to be a part of it. This year Shaaron worked as a volunteer and I donated some of my winnings from Men's Night back for the prize table. Giving of yourself to others can be a very satisfying thing, especially when it is for such a good cause. The bonus here is that it was also a great time!

Not Par for the Course

Bruce, Bear, and I all headed out for an early round on Sunday. I will have to say it was not exactly par for the course in more ways than one. Let's just say it was a shity round, but one of the most fun ones I have had this year. The atmosphere was what made it so, with joke after joke coming one after another. Most of which was too bent or nasty to share with others (lets just say most of the subject matter wouldn't be brought up at the family dinner table).

I think I shot an 85 or something like that, I was hitting the ball like a wild man, but it was a lot of fun. Thank you Bruce and Barry, it is rounds like that which make golf fun!

Sunday Bear's Dad Roy joined us to make up what is the usual foursome that I play in. (I joined as a member of this group a few years ago). I had a most excellent round, and although not everyone else did this is golf.

I will say that I am damn glad to be playing the game with such good people!

It was a nice walk, but that's all

Not much to say about yesterday's men's championship at the club . I had the worst game I have ever played at Cultus, so bad I finished in last place, and they just happened to have a prize for that, so everyone knows I finished last. It is things like this that set me back in life, I know that it is only a game, but coming in last, and not being able to post a good number really bothers me. I have been shooting some really good numbers lately, so why not yesterday. And to beat all why the worst game ever at Cultus at the men’s championships? Hell I would have felt less embarrassed about the whole thing if I instead I had to wear pink tights.

It is a humbling sport even at the best of times but yesterdays performance leaves me thinking if I shouldn't move on to something else.

Lets just say it was a SHITTY weekend!

Were In

It wasn't pretty, but all of our foursome made it into the championship. It just seems to be the way that when you are trying to make the score it is far from being attainable.

Tomorrow I am just going to go play a fun round of golf and see where it leads me.

It was a night out

Last night's golf was Ok, but not anything to really write much about. Bear made some awesome shots which had him sitting with KP on 2 holes, and under normal play he would have won on at least one of them. Unfortunately Kevin Kleibe was playing last night, and for those that don't know him he is a local kid that was attending college down in the states on a golf scholarship. He shot a 5 under 28 on the front 9 to set a new men's night record low. He also drove the green on the 4th (playing about 320 last night). The long and the short of it, Bear didn’t win the KP's he held.

Highlight of the night, seeing a guy hit the outhouse located off the 6th tee box with his shot from the 3rd tee, almost a "bole in one".

Early Night

Called it an early night and left after dinner was served. Not exactly a birdie making machine tonight, actually I find it to be so weird how I can hit such beautiful shots on the range and fail to hit one on the course. This is the case for many others so I don’t let it bother me this year.

I took a few pictures of the ball, from the perspective of what the club should see before impact, and of course in some strange places (ok this is about as far as I go to becoming artsy or creative). I did however drive the ball and embed it into a stump, but forgot to take that one (figures).

All Caught Up

I took the camera out to the golf course but forgot to USE IT. Tyler did very well, he started out a little rusty being his first time out this year, but soon warmed up. The round finished with me knocking it on the green on the 18th and Tyler putting in for a bird ( we were playing alternate ball).

So after supper I took this one of Tyler holding up one of his lucky balls. Of course if one child gets into the fun the other just has to be involved so I took the next one of Tweetybird holding up her favorite balls.

Hacking Away

I quit after only nine holes today, it was that bad, I was just hacking at sod! So I am home early, and thought I'd put up the pic of the day. Today I give you "Surounded". Tyler took this one last night and I was impressed due to the fact that he actually gave the figure some character with it's stance and it looks surprised as if it is surrounded (to me anyway). Taking the camera out today to try and get capture something outdoors.

I picked up a 120GB Hard Drive last night and I am picking up a stick of DDR RAMM (min 256 maybe another 512) this afternoon and a copy of Simply Accounting (latest edition needing this for TyMar). Beefing up my system a bit as I am almost out of room and want to partition my code separately and create a redundant partition on the other drive for backup purposes. Planning to wipe out what I have and do a clean XP install and reload only that which is needed for Software. I have a bunch of junk on the system at the moment.

So, I might not be back up until tomorrow morning.

Fore!

OK, so I forgot the camera last night, but it was nothing pretty anyway, my only good shot was on the 7th hole where it miraculously held up for closest to the pin. Bear would get my vote for the best shots on the 6th by all but reaching the green in two on this par 5, with two most excellent shots! He took closest to the pin in 3 shots on that hole! I did however yell FORE more than him. :P

So for today's pic, I give you Tyonicle (my son's creation and nick online), he likes to swap different Lego sets (in this case Bionicle Lego) together to come up with his own original creations. I remember he went into detail on this ones specific attack and defense mechanisms, but this early in the morning they elude me. I just can't wait until he gets to high school and college, he possesses a really good out of the box way of thinking that will take him far.

Well I am heading out for a early game of golf today as it was WAY TOO HOT last night at mens night. This way I can get back before noon and settle into an air conditioned artificial environment to code in this afternoon and evening. :)

Note To Self

Note to self, after being horizontal for three days with the flu, don't expect to have enough energy to play a great round of golf. Actually it wasn't that bad, I played men's night tonight at the Club . It was a weird night, all the scores were high, everyone I know had a pretty crapy game. I just couldn't get any tempo going, and ran completely out of steam on the back nine, maybe should have quit after 12 and called it a night.

Oh well, the good news is that around the game of golf I got some very productive coding done, more so than in the last week or so. I was getting some feedback on a few things on one of my products and had told the client that I would document it (have no documentation for it that product at this time), so the can follow along until they learn how it's done. Well I decided that instead of documentation, change the way it is done so that it is more automated. The whole idea about the stuff I am doing is that it is easy to use. So when I told them about the change(about 80% coded today, will finish it off in the morning), they were impressed, and said something like "wow, you really are making this thing so easy to use". It is always a plus when the person having the problem turns around and praises the situation.

Nothing Like a Good Reach Around & Good Golf

Just for pleasure sake I am performing a reach around to my good friend Arcterex. He has a funny little picture of a dog so big that it literally was moving cars.

Last night I went to the Club for Men's Night, and they had it set up for "IronMan" competition. For anyone who has been there before (those who haven't bare with me for a sec), this was the story:

• 1st Tee - you tee off from the practice putting area right outside the clubhouse making the first shot a little longer to say the least, but very intimidating.



• 2nd Tee - basically the same hole only the pin was on the hill, you either get it in or it rolls right back to where you started



• 3rd Tee - moved back across the 6th fairway behind the normal tee, so it is now a 270 yard par 3, and the flag was tucked behind the sand on the 5th green.



• 4th Tee - at the back and not really any different



• 5th Tee - the cleared some brush and put the tee 10 yards behind the normal tee area, in the BUSH.



• 6th Tee - at the back nothing special, although they did add 10 yards to this hole this year.



• 7th Tee - you normally walk off the 6th to the left to this tee area, last night they moved it to the right in the trees along the road, across the 6th fairway making this par 3 normally about 95 yards, almost 160 yards.



• 8th Tee - in the trees across the 10th fairway, adding another 30-40 yards.



• 9th Tee - up on the hills at the back of the practice hole, making it almost impossible to reach the green.

You basically played an entire 18 with the front 9 being the men's night tournament. I was paired with my good friend Bear, and after a little bit of trouble on the first few hole by both of us we dug in and pulled off some most excellent shots. I really enjoyed the extra little twist they put to the course.

Busy Being Me

Been busy working on my Business Plan for TyMar Software, I have until next Monday to get it along with an executive summary in to the SEP people. It has been I guess you could say business as usual, my day usually consists of getting up, either working for about four hours then heading up to get a round of golf in at the Club ,then returning to work, or golfing first then back to work. Either way I usually fit a round of golf into each day, or at least 6 days of the week.

It has been a up and down season golf wise, I drove the green on the 11th hole (about 270 yards), the other day playing with Bear and Bruce(another golf buddy). The next time out I managed to banana slice it an entire 150 yards, there is something to be said about consistency. The good news is that I have not gotten mad enough for a helicopter(when you throw your club and it makes the woosh woosh sound as it flys into the trees). Oh well, I will never make the tour, but I always seem to have that one shot per round that is at that level which keeps me hooked on the game.

Today I have some running around to do in town so I better get at it. It is really nice to be able to this though. I don't get any breaks when it comes to the hours that I need to put in in order to make my business and success, I just get to choose when I work them, and thats the kewl part.

Fore!

It was time to get the clubs out and dust em off last weekend, and that is exactly what I have been up to the last 3-4 days. Played my first round Saturday, only 12 holes though, my feet were already pretty sore. I have bought new shoes late last year on sale, Nike all weather something-or-others, as my last pair wore out with all the golf I played last summer( about 150 rounds +). The new ones are not that comfortable, they are nice but lack the comfort that keeps up on the back nine.

Score wise I surprised myself the first two days but after shooting a Lindros( two eights in a row), on the first two holes yesterday I decided to not keep score and have a fun round. It is just nice to get out in the fresh air, and get some Vitamin D(sunshine).

Installed a bug tracking system called IssueView, that suites all of my needs for my program. They give away a one user version that allows for tracking unlimited products or issues, fit my pocket book just fine. Proceeding with the code, although lately I seem to be changing my mind so much I don;t get very far, I am my own worst enemy when it comes to " now does that look good enough". Oh well maybe I will go get a slurpee...

Happy Anniversary

Well it was our 11th anniversary on Friday(Shaaron and Mine), and since we are basically broke, we decided to book a tee time at the Club. Well it was absolutely nasty weather yesterday so we skipped the golf and went out today. It was a great game, it was cold and cloudy until we got in the car to leave and the clouds parted and we enjoyed a nice sunny (a little windy) round. Shaaron ended it with an excellent drive on the 18th landing only 10 feet from the pin( she missed the birdie but got the par).

Eleven years, it has gone by quickly, we have had our share of bad times. I believe that a good argument here and there is needed in a relationship, but as I look back I wouldn't change a thing. I have a very special woman, one that has been behind me no matter what happens, and I love her dearly. Our children, well I really can't complain, Marlee is a little bit more of a challenge, Tyler just seemed to do everything we wanted him to do.

Putting my present finances aside(flat broke, out of work for over a year) my relationship with Shaaron and the family that we have created is all a guy could ask for. It gives me reason to continue, and holds me together when things appear to be coming apart. I just hope my present effort towards improving the environment we live in succeeds, they deserve it!

Mike Weir is a Master

What a day for Mike Weir, and what a day for Canada. Mike Weir has won The Masters , one of Golf's most prestigious Majors.

Being an avid golfer, and a Canadian, I have followed Mike's career for a long time. I also have his one of his book's, and when playing Links on the PC I play as Mike( also being a fellow left handed golfer). IT was tense watching it on TV, which really puts it all into perspective and helps you appreciate what kind of guy Mike is. After bombing out when being in this position before, in the final grouping at the 1999 PGA Championships paired with Tiger Woods, he went to work, learning from the experience. There was no give up in his game today ! Mike you are Awesome ! ! ! The Green Jacket looks good on you Mike ! ! !