Phones / golf / baseball

Remember when you decided to finally pull the plug and buy a cell phone?  Remember when you finally decided to buy a smart phone?   I remember both times like it was yesterday . . . . even though I rarely  remember what I actually did "yesterday".

I decided to buy a cell phone when I purchased my Vanagon.  I love love loved that vehicle with all my heart but felt that I really needed some insurance in case it fell apart.

I finally had to give it up when the master cylinder was about to die (or me with no brakes)  and I could not find ANY place willing to fix it.

One of the issues was just getting to the master cylinder  you basically had to tip the whole van upside down to get at it. Master cylinder issues is a common problem in vanagons because at some point somebody put the wrong type of brake fluid in.

Damn it - not ME!   The body was perfect but the engine was on it's last 100,000 miles as it already had 200,000+

Remember when a car was unsellable if it neared 100,000 miles . . .if it made it that far?

Then came the iPhone . . .who needs it.   Well, it was golf and a friend called The Black Cloud had an app that would tell him when lightning was near - AWESOME . . . . did not buy one though.  Then another friend, I will call him . . "Andy"  had a golf app that kept track of all his rounds.

That was the tipping point.

May 31 2010 was my first round at Kestrel Ridge that I recorded and I have recorded every single round since then.  I have a lot of stats LOL

ANYWAY - since my league is at The Oaks I created a spread sheet of every hole for every round, all 33 of them.

Last night, as I had mentioned I was in 1st place in our club championship,  not because I was good but because everybody else seemed to be worse them I. 

WELL . . . . that did not last long as a Aaron (I think . . . or Adam) who has the same handicap as I do CRUSHED the course with a 42 which included a 9 on the last hole.

So looking at my stats I'm actually getting better on that hole, a par 5 where my strategy is to use an 8i on the second shot as opposed to a 5W.  I would rather be 170 away from the green where I'm going length wise then a weird angle and 120-140 away.  You have a longer landing zone and more area to make a mistake and I can get the ball air born easier on the 3rd shot with a wood.

You have to use a Wood and an Iron and at and I turned them around.  It's a brain/comfort thing that seems to be working.

My average has dropped from a  7.3 to 6.7 . . .and yes - I still hate that hole.  It's not the most hated hole though.  #14 a LOATH!!!  Its a par 4 and I average a pathetic 6.7.  Took an 8 on it last night losing 2 balls after being only being 1 over par.

I did have one shot on the 11th from 100 yards.  Hit the ball great, went really high and lost it in the sun.  I was walking to the green and could not find the ball anywhere until I got close and it was literally 2 feet from the pin.  Missed the birdie putt. 

So long club championship.

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How can you tell when you house is on fire?

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We are trying to get our birch trees trimmed and it's been a problem.  When I was at Ron the bookie barber in Madison a few days ago we were talking and he said he called 4 companies in Madison to get a tree trimmed and only 1 returned his call.  Now I've been waiting for a few days for a call back.

Speaking of tree trimming - how the F* tall is that ladder.  I'm estimating 65 feet to the top of the ladder.

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So - thinking about cutting the cord to save money?  Well, your internet costs are going up.  64% in the last 9 years to be almost exact.  And 59% of internet used don't even know what speed they are getting.

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For the 3rd time in history there are four 40 home run hitters by game 125.  And one of them is a rookie.  Home Runs will shatter a record this year and yes - you can blame the ball for one thing, it's not how hard it is but the stitching that is giving the ball less resistance.

There are also 2 players with 30 homes runs and 14 more with 28. ding ding ding.

 My Strat-o-matic team will have two 40 HR hitters a 29 HR player and two players with 21 on next years Strat-o-matic team.  OH - since I might have the #1 or #2 pick of Free Agents I could get another 30+ HR hitter.  I could get Freddie Freeman (1B) or Anthony Rendon (3B). 

 I could have 3 guys with OPS over 1.000 (insert evil laugh). Yea - I'm changing ball parks next year (once every 3 years) from San Diego to I THINK Texas, a hitters park.  The league has way to many pitcher parks.

It's a pitcher league and it seems many teams have pitcher parks.  Their strategy is to have low scoring games where a manager has more input to strategy - YET - their opponents play the AWAY games (it's backwards) so "I" play their Home games so it is actually "I" that has the managerial edge. 

I want to take their bullpen and their micro managing of my home games out of play.  Best way? Score 8 runs!  LOL  YEA - I'll give up 7 but their bull pen micro managing will be a little tougher. 

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talk at ya later