Wednesday I played golf with The Punk and 2 other guys. They are much better at golf than I am, and they played the tees farther back than I would normally play. It made a tough course tougher. But we had a great time. It got interesting when it started raining, then pouring, during the middle of the round. At one point the clubs and our hands were wet, so it was hard to hold onto the club. That was all I needed, a CHALLENGE. Just as it became unplayable (Oh yes, we kept playing) the rain stopped, the day turned into a sunny perfect Kentucky afternoon.
But it was by far the worst round I played on the trip.
Next day I played one last round with the folks at the home course. My troubles continued on the front nine, and it got a bit frustrating. But I dutifully counted ALL the strokes and finished with a 60 for the front nine. Mom and dad did a LOT better.
But something happened when we started the back nine. Somehow I started with a rare par. Then a miracle as I birdied the next hole. It was the only birdie I had the entire trip. (Back in the good old days I tried to have one birdie every round.) The rest of the round went OK and I ended up shooting 44. 60, then 44. Pretty much says it all. That was the only nine I shot better than Joekentucky. We are not really trying to beat each other, but I feel I should somehow be able to beat an 89 year old guy. Not true. Pretty cool for JK!
That afternoon I flew out to Chicago. My connection was pretty tight in the first place to catch the next flight to Seattle. When the Louisville plane left a half hour late, it became very tight. About 20 minutes. But the next gate was very close and I had no trouble. I took off into the setting sun and headed west over much of the land I drove through just a week or two earlier. As I have seen in the past, I saw the sun pretty much set as I headed west, then come back a bit as I continued.
Landed in Seattle at 10 PM, found a hotel near the airport, and just went to bed. I had a 10 AM flight to catch to Anchorage. No overnight at the airport! Back to the airport early. The flight to Anchorage was awesome. Usually I take it at night. Make a note... SIT ON THE RIGHT SIDE if you fly this flight during the day. If the sky is clear, you get a great view of the Alaska coast as you fly north. The plane usually stays about 10 miles off shore, and you get great views of mountains and glaciers. This was the case Thursday.
I got many pics, hope to post some soon. Pics from a plane are not usually very good, but I think I got a few worth showing.
The first half of the Anchorage - Dutch flight was just as awesome. Great views of Knik Arm and the mud flats at low tide. Then it got cloudy and the view was gone. Must be getting near Dutch! It was very cloudy on final approach, with only a short period where we could see anything at all. When the plane was over the runway, it floated a bit and did not touch down. This is a short runway, with little room for error. I even felt we were going to go around for a second try. But they got the wheels on the ground and hit the brakes. We were now pretty well down the runway. When the plane turned right into the parking area, we were still moving pretty well. But it was all OK.
It was raining steadily. The snow is mostly melted at sea level. There are still patches on the mountains, and some small piles here and there in protected areas. That 15 foot pile in my driveway is gone. That truck across the street that was almost completely buried? Unburied.
Today it is in the low forties and cloudy. Light rain
The cats are fine. Dutchie came right out to me to say Hello. Fluff was semi-feral as usual and hid under the bed. I got her out a couple times, but she went back. Today she is fine. Early this morning they both went outside. I saw Dutchie chase a much bigger neighborhood cat back across the street. She probably was waiting a couple weeks to do that.
No sign of foxes yet.
Gotta go to work.
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Glad you are home safe and sound. Our flight to Anchorage starts in Dallas. Sure hope we move out over the water like you did. Get into Anchorage a little after 7:00pm. Stay over night and head for Homer the next day, Am really getting excited. We leave Tures at noon.
We are on the wrong side of the plane. Bummer. I knew we needed to be on the right side and forgot when making the tickets. Maybe we can do an early trade.
Do you happen to have some welding goggles about your person?
You will need some on Sunday to SAFELY watch this spectacular annular eclipse thingy that is going to make the Aleutians turn to dusk by 4.24pm. That's assuming the sun can be seen at all...
If not, it's just going to get dark early enough to have the wildlife freaking out. Fluff will be straight back under the bed again.
Lord only knows what will be happening at the Harbor View Bar...
No looking directly at the sun please, you know the rules. The local news service suggests poking a hole in a cardboard box to observe the image by shining it onto some white paper.
No need for all that in your case. You have plenty of options...
Just use that hole you've poked in the laundry room ceiling.
Or the hole you poked in the outer wall with the door handle in the storm.
Or the hole you burnt through the porch with burning charcoal.
Or the hole in your recently unsealed glazed window unit.
With your very white socks.
Obviously.
Come to think of it, if you do have some welding equipment there seem to be quite a few little jobs that need doing around the place.
Or you could just hope your landlord blinds himself on Sunday...
I'm glad you had a pleasant return flight.
BRAVO PUD.
This series would be outstanding in a coffee-table book!
I am sure you will have a great trip. Let us all know what you see.
SOLAR ECLIPSE NEAR MAXIMUM
I waited to try for a photo at maximum eclipse. Unfortunately, just as I was ready, I kicked the tripod! By the time I got the image back, the sun had descended into the top of one of my neighbor's trees. By the time I recovered, the eclipse was pretty much over and not worth a further effort.
Instead, I grabbed another camera and shot a photo of the shadows of the aforementioned tree's leaves falling on our front door screen. That pretty well captures the maximum eclipse at Livermore. We were just a little too far south of the path of annularity to get a nice full ring.
WEIRD LEAF SHADOWS ON SCREEN DOOR AT MAXIMUM ECLIPSE
The eclipse made a nice notch in the solar generation graph for the day, but only cost me a kilowatt hour of total production.
perfectly innocent remark, I am sure.
Dave's pic does look like the half moon that was cut in the doors for a bit of much needed ventilation and decoration.
What were you thinking, Arbie.
Remember this is a family friendly site!
It seems the only misadventure you had was dealing with the bugs at the Mackinac Bridge, that cut your visit short. Great photos too.
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