Feeling the heat
Summer has not yet come to central Kentucky, at least not officially, but judging by the thermometer over the weekend, it's gonna be a long, HOT summer!
I had a good weekend despite the temperatures, and hope that you did, too.
My weekend began by driving back from a most-of-the-day work meeting in Louisville (a little more than an hour away, for those unfamiliar). There is a great deal of road construction in the downtown area there, and, as you'd expect, paving and other less involved projects along the path from and to Lexington. But I managed to sail through all of it without delays and made it home early enough to watch the Cincinnati Reds win in Chicago against the Cubs.
The following morning began a little early, as I met friends for breakfast and then proceeded to Garrard County, the home of the Peninsula Golf Resort. This consists of what was once a very nice and challenging golf course, designed by the legendary Pete Dye, and now villas for travelers to come and "stay and play." This option appears to be very popular, as the parking lot was nearly deserted but the course was not, as most of the players who started before and after our group were among the travelers.
I played here semi-frequently when the course first opened a number of years ago, but over time it lost some appeal, largely due to distance and the difficulty of getting a weekend tee time. This tee time was easy to get, and inexpensive due to GolfNow, a service that pre-sells tee times for a small handling fee. But now I know why this was the case:
- Some greens have been afflicted by a fungus of some sort, causing them to have pock-marks on them
- Most every sand trap on the course was missing any sand at all, which meant they consisted of a hard dirt surface
- A number of the fairways were as hard as the parking lot
- I don't remember a single tee box that was not slanted in one direction or another, and most were bare or patchy
As I say, we got a good deal on our round, and the company was good, but all hands agreed that the course could have been much, much better.
So we wrapped that up, and after I drank a quart of a sports drink afterward (very hot throughout the back nine) I was ready for something else. I arrived home and my wife was ready to go to church, but I wasn't really ready for anything yet. But we talked a bit about our evening's plans and I decided to go to the local butcher shop for some ground beef and made hamburgers.
Keeping with our theme of high temperatures, I lighted our grill to pre-heat it and brushed off the cooking grids. Even though I turned down the heat, the grill temperature must have been too high when I began, as the fat in the beef melted almost instantly and caught fire! So I quickly moved everything around and after a couple of minutes moved the burgers off the grill, and put out the fire with a little water. I was then able to cook them without incident, and, despite a charred outer appearance, they were pretty tasty!
Yesterday we had breakfast and decided to go see "Jurassic World," which had been our tentative plan from the middle of the previous week. We picked out a showtime at a cinema complex that we don't visit often, but one that advertised it had installed reclining seats. Arriving about forty minutes before showtime, we were told that all but the very front row of the theater was sold out, so we would have to settle for that if we wished to sit together. Not acceptable, so we went to another multiplex closer to home and got tickets and waited about thirty-five minutes for our showing.
As you'd expect, the theater was eventually full and a family to our right crossed in front of us FOUR TIMES during the movie. My wife told me afterward that the wife/mother actually removed her shoes each time she sat down, and she stepped on both of our feet at least twice each. A different family sat to our left but were well behaved, so no issues there.
The movie was entertaining and well-made, if a little predictable. The leading male actor is a former TV actor named Chris Pratt, who apparently has changed his appearance considerably over the past couple of years. He was OK, but I felt he was a little blah. I have read a rumor that Disney plans to reboot the Indiana Jones film series with him playing Indy, and I can tell you now that he's probably not up to it, unless something changes between this film and that project.
We ended up our weekend by joining our son and his family for a minor-league baseball game, where a friend's family had access to a suite. It's a small room with a food serving counter, small sink and fridge and seating for about eight inside and ten outside. But it was on the sun side of the field, so more heat and discomfort. And the home team lost, too.
So we begin another week. Lots of meetings and stuff this week, but not much travel, fortunately. Hope it's a good one for you!
I had a good weekend despite the temperatures, and hope that you did, too.
My weekend began by driving back from a most-of-the-day work meeting in Louisville (a little more than an hour away, for those unfamiliar). There is a great deal of road construction in the downtown area there, and, as you'd expect, paving and other less involved projects along the path from and to Lexington. But I managed to sail through all of it without delays and made it home early enough to watch the Cincinnati Reds win in Chicago against the Cubs.
The following morning began a little early, as I met friends for breakfast and then proceeded to Garrard County, the home of the Peninsula Golf Resort. This consists of what was once a very nice and challenging golf course, designed by the legendary Pete Dye, and now villas for travelers to come and "stay and play." This option appears to be very popular, as the parking lot was nearly deserted but the course was not, as most of the players who started before and after our group were among the travelers.
I played here semi-frequently when the course first opened a number of years ago, but over time it lost some appeal, largely due to distance and the difficulty of getting a weekend tee time. This tee time was easy to get, and inexpensive due to GolfNow, a service that pre-sells tee times for a small handling fee. But now I know why this was the case:
- Some greens have been afflicted by a fungus of some sort, causing them to have pock-marks on them
- Most every sand trap on the course was missing any sand at all, which meant they consisted of a hard dirt surface
- A number of the fairways were as hard as the parking lot
- I don't remember a single tee box that was not slanted in one direction or another, and most were bare or patchy
As I say, we got a good deal on our round, and the company was good, but all hands agreed that the course could have been much, much better.
So we wrapped that up, and after I drank a quart of a sports drink afterward (very hot throughout the back nine) I was ready for something else. I arrived home and my wife was ready to go to church, but I wasn't really ready for anything yet. But we talked a bit about our evening's plans and I decided to go to the local butcher shop for some ground beef and made hamburgers.
Keeping with our theme of high temperatures, I lighted our grill to pre-heat it and brushed off the cooking grids. Even though I turned down the heat, the grill temperature must have been too high when I began, as the fat in the beef melted almost instantly and caught fire! So I quickly moved everything around and after a couple of minutes moved the burgers off the grill, and put out the fire with a little water. I was then able to cook them without incident, and, despite a charred outer appearance, they were pretty tasty!
Yesterday we had breakfast and decided to go see "Jurassic World," which had been our tentative plan from the middle of the previous week. We picked out a showtime at a cinema complex that we don't visit often, but one that advertised it had installed reclining seats. Arriving about forty minutes before showtime, we were told that all but the very front row of the theater was sold out, so we would have to settle for that if we wished to sit together. Not acceptable, so we went to another multiplex closer to home and got tickets and waited about thirty-five minutes for our showing.
As you'd expect, the theater was eventually full and a family to our right crossed in front of us FOUR TIMES during the movie. My wife told me afterward that the wife/mother actually removed her shoes each time she sat down, and she stepped on both of our feet at least twice each. A different family sat to our left but were well behaved, so no issues there.
The movie was entertaining and well-made, if a little predictable. The leading male actor is a former TV actor named Chris Pratt, who apparently has changed his appearance considerably over the past couple of years. He was OK, but I felt he was a little blah. I have read a rumor that Disney plans to reboot the Indiana Jones film series with him playing Indy, and I can tell you now that he's probably not up to it, unless something changes between this film and that project.
We ended up our weekend by joining our son and his family for a minor-league baseball game, where a friend's family had access to a suite. It's a small room with a food serving counter, small sink and fridge and seating for about eight inside and ten outside. But it was on the sun side of the field, so more heat and discomfort. And the home team lost, too.
So we begin another week. Lots of meetings and stuff this week, but not much travel, fortunately. Hope it's a good one for you!
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