A Christmas Eve Tradition

I had never touched a golf club until we moved to Florida a little over 3 years ago.  Once fully settled in with the palm trees, Lincoln Continentals, and two-for-one drink specials, I decided that I would become a golfer.  It wasn't hard.  Hit the white ball, say a string of poetic profanity, rinse and repeat for 4 hours.  Then follow that by rewarding myself with cold beer.  My kind of sport!  Couple that with the fact that I have some limitations due to a couple of fused ankle joints, and this sport allows you to drive around to get to the next  point, well, it's a win-win!

Today marks my first golf outing post sub-talar ankle fusion, and I am so excited!  I could barely get through my last round of golf, 5 days pre-op almost 9 months go.  The love of my life have golfed every Christmas and New Year's Eve for the last three years, and I didn't want to break that tradition.  I feel strong enough to get through the round, and believe that my ankle will hold up nicely.

We'll be golfing at the world renowned World Woods Golf Club that's just a few short miles down the road from us.  They have beautiful grounds and friendly staff.  There are three courses to choose from, and even as a beginner there is something there for me.  

The weather is beautiful here in Florida today, and that will make my Christmas Eve round of golf that much better!!!


Edit:  The round wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible.  I survived without any major pain while hitting the ball.  I did have some pain/discomfort while walking around and general fatigue, but what do you expect when you have had a 9 month lay-off due to major ankle surgery?  I'm happy with the day.  And it was  beautiful!  The sun broke through the fog and turned my skin pink.  

The 5th Hole - one of my favorites.  Massive downhill with waste area to the right.

Golf Course Squirrel - a.k.a. fox squirrel or monkey squirrel.  These guys are so much fun to watch and they are totally fearless of the golf balls flying down the fairway.  

The Shed at MacRae's

This little gem on the Homosassa River is one of my favorite places to waste time.  An open air bar with friendly folks, cheap cold beer, great music, MacRae's is a destination.  On any given day you can find bikers, bankers, fishermen, and women dripping with diamonds.  The gentle mingle with the tough, and above the music all you hear is laughter. 
I spent Saturday afternoon and evening at MacRae's with the love of my life and our two best friends.  We had a few laughs, watched a cool Christmas boat parade, and enjoyed the beautiful Florida weather.
Perfect, bliss, memorable.

The Answer Machine

Oh, how far we’ve come.  Just the other day I was fondly recalling a family card game.  It was cutthroat, loud, and I recall some cheating going on by one particular person.  Conversations were ebbing and flowing, matching the game’s ups and downs.  Then, as certain as Christmas, a question would eventually come up that no one knew the correct answer to.  Well, at least two people were certain that they knew the correct answer as the challenges of the others in our family game night clutch besieged their notions. 

Then, without fail, the mad dash to the living room would divert our attentions from gaming to truth seeking.  Jostling and page shuffling would ensue as we groped the encyclopedia and ferreted out the answer.

Errrr, encyclo – what!?  Yeah, it seems that you either need to hit the correct ripple in time or step into the way-back machine to remember this...early 1990’s. Yep, a grand ol’ time when computers and their invasive technology weren’t in every home, much less at the finger tip. 

Yep, manual research was the way to find answers.  How those burning questions seared our hearts and plagued our souls during family game night. The correct answer must be found.  The repercussions for not finding the correct answers would result in casualties.  Correct answer—NOW!  The truth must be found for it seemed blackened eyes or, the much worse, bruised ego depended upon it.  Okay, that’s a little dramatic, but I do recall a particular Parcheesi game that got way out of hand one time, but I digress…

Then came the time, etched in my mind forever, the first time a friend “paid up” to find the answer to one of those burning question.  The place: Flying Saucer bar in Little Rock with the Internet on her new fangled cell phone.  Believe that?  Wow, Internet on a phone. The burning question: How old is Olivia Newton-John? Oh, the gravity answering that question.  Wagers in pints and drinking penalties were exchanged, and then silence fell as we all watched the phone “thinking” in the middle of the table. 

Another world, no, but certainly another time. Today answers are at our fingertips, literally.  I can answer burning questions, averting bodily and financial harm, on just about any subject my brain can conjure in a matter of seconds now. Easy, painless.

Recently, I discovered InfoBarrel while searching for truth concerning one of those burning questions. InfoBarrel? Why InfoBarrel?  Well, the question was an exact match, just what I was looking for.  The plain Google search is great, don’t get me wrong, but InfoBarrel was informative.  InfoBarrel employs “crowdsourcing” for information.

Crowdsourcing uses everyday people to find the answers to questions people are searching for.  People like you and me seek the information and write about it in our own way.  I find the articles on InfoBarrel to be both more informative and relevant in many ways.  There are some real gems there and sometimes the plain, efficient style of typical information sharing is thrown to the wind and an artist speaks.

The other reason I like InfoBarrel so much, is that I have a special place in my heart for aspiring and struggling artists.  I feel that someone who is working diligently at creating their art, and sure, trying to make a penny or two while doing it, really deserves the clicks and the link love. 

Now, I wonder what happened to those encyclopedias…as I recall, one game night we found a stash of Jackson’s in there….

Friendships in the Workplace

I have been working a full time job for over half of my life now, and the impact that these jobs have had on my life has varied over the years.  I've been the new person, the veteran, the middle of the pack, and the leader.  I've also made friendships along the way that have been maintained through many years in between each of these jobs.  Certainly, technology has helped those friendships with the creation of Facebook.


While I haven't had a lot of jobs in my working tenure, I've kept the ones I've had for long periods of time.  From a management perspective this is a very good track record.  When you work in the same place for an extended period of time you  tend to gravitate toward those people who are most like you, and those that you can relate to the most.  


I've been at my current employer for over 3 years.  For the first year I didn't make many "work friends".  My office was in a remote location, and it wasn't really possible.  Once I was brought into the  inner-circle of my current office, I forged two close friendships.  Both of these women are strong-willed, successful, outspoken and funny - kind of like me.


I've decided that as of this point moving forward that I will never make close friendships at work ever again.  Why that's just silly you are thinking.  Yeah, it probably is, but I like to think of myself as having a stony soul, but below the stone is a heart and feelings.  My feelings are of sadness this week.  


Those two friends are leaving.  One left on Thursday, one in three weeks.  Each friend has exciting and new opportunities that I am very happy about, but I can't help but feel sorry for myself, just a little bit.


My "girl gang" as we fondly call ourselves has become a party of 1 -- me.  These two women are rays of sunshine in a sometimes cloudy environment, they are the cool breeze in hell, and they keep me sane enjoying coming back each day.  


They both will be missed very much.

Ozello Arts and Crafts Festival

The "Festival" season here in  Florida kicks off around October.  Almost every weekend you can find an arts and crafts festival of some sort with a theme - from cooters to manatees to strawberries - you name it, we can probably find it.   This weekend we went to the Ozello Arts and Crafts Festival in Ozello, Florida.  

You start out on US Hwy 19, head down W Ozello Trail, along winding roads, across saw grass flats until you find the festival...they aren't very hard to miss.

While we were at the festival, we saw lots of interesting sights, such as:

You end up seeing the same vendors, the same booths, and the same crowd at many of these festivals, but each one is endearing in it's own way.  We did our obligatory lap, bought nothing, and instead of turning left to head home, we turned right.  This is where the road took us:

It was an enjoyable day, and we look forward to checking out more festivals as the season progresses.

No Thanksgiving Glut For Me

When it comes to holidays, the love of my life and I have spent our share of them being the perfect host and hostess.  We have had all family members and a few strays at our home more times than we can count.  No guest ever had to lift a finger other than bringing their fork to mouth.  Those times are memorable, but they do end up taking their toll in the stress department. 


When we downsized and moved to Florida we decided that we would do things different and make life easier for ourselves.  We've cooked one big holiday for the family each year and left the rest to chance.  Let someone else take the reigns, find a restaurant to eat at - didn't matter.  Last year's restaurant was over priced and crappy at best.  We had to find another alternative.

This year our Uncle Jack moved into an apartment at a retirement community.  This has been his first time being on his own, and what better way to celebrate the holiday and Uncle Jack's new found independence than for the family to descend upon his residence for the Thanksgiving Feast.  


After paying our 8 bucks per head, our party of 6 was ushered to our table.  We picked and climbed our way through the obstacle course of durable medical equipment while dodging power scooter mounted seniors, but finally found our table right next to the salad bar and within sight of the dessert cart.  Oh pumpkin pie how you tease me so!  There was only one tense moment when one of Uncle Jack's normal table mates seemed like she wanted to throw down because she was forced to sit elsewhere.  Come to find out later, she's a pretty big pro at being displaced, as she was a Hurricane Katrina survivor who was relocated to Citrus County.  


Dinner was simple and tasty, and while I think most of us at the table could have used another portion or three of turkey and stuffing, we didn't push back from the table wobbly and gorged, intoxicated with gluttony.  It was actually quite refreshing to feel normal knowing there wouldn't be a fight for the couch and control of the television remote.


I found this article on holiday weight management and thought it summed up some of my current ideas on how to deal with holiday glut.  Not that I would really follow any of these things, but in the spirit of the holidays I may give one or two a shot.  I mean, I already did tip number 3 in the article, but if I am perfectly honest with myself, I only did it because I am heading out to the bar to watch football today and eat greasy bar food and drink my weight in the hollow calories known as BEER!  Thanksgiving Friday is a Football Day!  Go Hogs, Beat LSU!

Time Flies

Time sure flies when you're not lying on the couch feeling sorry for yourself!  

It's been what, three, four months since my last non-follow through with pictures post.  Let me tell you, baby rabbits grow really freaking fast.  I mean, if we could insert the DNA of those critters into human babies...there might be a chance of people like me actually having a kid, especially since I won't need to deal with that 18 year commitment and all.

So much has happened in the last few months, that I don't even know where to begin.  Bullet points are best for situations like these, because I really don't think I have the time or energy to actually write it all down and do I want to take the chance that it won't even be read in its entirety.  

• I have pretty much been told by my surgeon to go forth into the world and do what I am able to do.  This doesn't leave me with a lot of options, but I do wear matching shoes to work, I am able to go shopping if I choose, I can do stuff in our yard, and I can walk my precious little snowflake of a dog.  I still have bad days, but my good days out number them.  I've also come to the realization that I'll never be able to do a lot of the things that most normal people can't, but hey, I've never really been normal (more on that in a bit).
• I took a whirlwind trip back to Arkansas and came to the realization that you can take the girl out of the city.  I swore for the last three years that living in the "country" was going to kill me.  I didn't like the bugs, the snakes, and most of all, I hated the sheer quiet of it all.  Well, this little trip back to The Rock, well, let's just say it was too loud for me.  I couldn't wait to get back to my quaint little house and my quiet little life in Florida.  Don't get me wrong, I miss my Mom back in AR and I miss my friends as well, but they really need to get their head's on straight and move to the land of the palm tree.
• I got married.  This probably should be the biggest bullet point you can find, but honestly, it wasn't anything big at all.  It wasn't really anything.  We found out that you can get married in Florida by a notary, and being the unconventional never do anything normal couple that we are, well this just seemed fitting.  But, we didn't just go to the Pack N Post, we found someone we trust, found a quiet corner of a beach, and said our three lines of vows and exchanged rings ceremoniously.  It was short, sweet, simple, and just how we really wanted it to be.  It pissed a few people off  (okay, it really only pissed one person off), but after knowing each other for almost 22 years and living together for almost 17, I think doing it any other way would have been a joke for us.  I will never regret the way we got married.  A wedding is a day, a marriage is all the rest of the stuff.

So, that's the highlights.  I'm hoping to get back into blogging again on a regular basis.  I have more time to do the things I want to do now, so writing is at near the top of my list.

I've actually missed my little blog...a safe place to be.