This, that, and a couple other things.

The sun peaks out a bit yesterday morning and the course phone rings.   An older man was on the other end of the line and he sounded like Alfred Hitchcock without the British accent.  He said, "I have sort of a strrrange requessst."    I said, "Yes? How can I help you, would you like me to book you a tee time?"  He breathed in deeply and responded, "Well no, I was actually looking for the telephone number for Evergreen Golf Course and am unable to locate it. I wondered if by chance you happened to have it?" (Evergreen is one of our competitors) I said rather nicely I thought, "Oh no I don't, I am very sorry. I don't keep a list of the local courses phone numbers on hand."  

 But then get this! The dude copped a 'tude with me about it!  

He said in a sarcastic tone, "Oh.. reallllly? Hmph.  I will remember that."  Now... that last bit of rude-ballsy-smartassness was just a hair past my limit.  I said  "Good... you do that" and hung up. 

I am such a help to David.
 

Later that morning I had to do some shopping and first went to Tar-jay. (For those who don't speak french that is Target.) After I finished I loaded up the truck and sat there for a minute drinking some water.  A few cars across from me and down a couple rows there was a young mother in the process of unloading her little children so that she could go inside herself.  It took her a good 20 minutes and made me tired just watching her.  She got the baby backpack harness on adjusting it all right, got the stroller out and unpacked and unfolded it.  She then went back around and got the 8-ish month old girl out of her baby chair and then took a bit to wrangle her into the backpack. I was smiling to myself as the little girl was dressed so cutely with a little elastic band and bow around her head and she was just kinda looking around dazed as her Mama got her all situated.  

Next she goes to the other side of the car and helps a 3-ish year old boy out.  He is talking the entire time and again I giggle.  She is talking to him as well and she gets him in the stroller and is just about to finish and FINALLY go in to START her shopping.  I smile to myself and think "the poor woman, I bet she is pretty damn tired at the end of the day." Then while still talking to the boy she turns quickly back to the car and grabs a little box of goodies or a toy or something and turns back and JAMS it at him into the stroller.  To be fair... I did not see where exactly she angrily jammed that box.  However, it was into the seat part where the child was sitting.  Had she shoved it at an adult like that she might have gotten the box shoved right back in her face.  This shove was hard enough I went from smiling at the scene to saying out loud inside my truck, 'what the hell?..." and opened my car door to see if it was going to continue.  The mother then took a deep breath,  blinked a couple times, probably counted to three, and then.. looked around to see if anyone saw what she had done.  

She saw me staring at her and quickly looked away.    She continued talking to the boy and looked like she was feeling a bit better... and she was behaving better... but I watched until she was finished and headed towards the store.  

Oh dear.  

Take a deep breath Mama, you have a long way to go.  Just wait until he is 14 years old and 6 feet tall and tells you that you are ruining his life and you don't have a clue and everyone else in his class has a tattoo, drinks wine, and smokes!

 

After leaving Tar-Jay I treated myself to a Whole Foods shopping trip.  We needed some veggies and it was close by so what the heck.  Whole Foods is wildly expensive but I was only after sale veggies and a couple of kitchen staples and its a fun place to wander the isles.  Before starting my shopping I visited the restroom (now don't be embarrassed by that please, I am sure you have been there once or twice) and while in there I heard two young sisters come in.  I would guess one was 7 and the other close to 4 years old.  The younger one just chattered and chattered the whole time and the older one was taking good care of the younger one.  Big Sis was very much in charge, and was being a very good sister.  In case you did not know, Whole Foods bathrooms are equipped with very loud and I am sure eco-efficient automatic flushing toilets.  The girls finished and the toilet went SWOOSH.. but all I could hear was the little girl hollering "WOW! WOW! WOW!"  She was pretty impressed with that...  I was surprised it did not pull her down inside and shoot her out to sea somewhere to swim with the not-so-mercury free dolphins.

And now for completely unrelated golf news:

One of our long gone snow bird golfers is back for the year.. well for the summer anyway.  His name is Von.  That's a good sign, it means summer must be coming and we were very glad to see him.  Von goes to Arizona for the winter, golfs like mad down there, and then comes back to golf with us with a couple of friends.  One of his golfing partners here in Mulino is named Al.  

 Al has been golfing here for more than a few years and he is 95 years old.  His golf buddies call him Big Al and Big Al walks the course while he plays.  No golf cart for him!  Al claims that when he can not walk the course anymore he will be done with golfing.  I hope not. We love to see him.

Von said he gave Al a call as soon as he got back into town and we were pleased to hear he got a answering machine.   Phew... that is probably a good sign.  Von was worried he might have 'kicked the bucket' as a lot of other snowbirds friends of his in Arizona seemed to have done this last winter.

If it had been disconnected we all would have been worried.  Hope to see that crew golfing out here very soon.