Filthy

I’m in the midst of sniffing a massive amount of fumes from heavy duty cleaning products as I attempt to do a major clean up of my bathtub which has acquired a serious layer of grime over the past year for which I’m very guilty of being careless.

It’d probably be easier if I would just clean it once a month with some Tilex and Comet, maybe a 15 minute job but instead I’m engaged in a 45 minute battle involving layers of cleaning product to chip away at the grime so that I get back a nice white bathtub.

Let that be a lesson to you. Rent, don’t buy. Then it’s not your goddamn problem.

Afghanistan

Over the weekend I walked by the Vancouver Art Gallery on my way to ringing up nearly $700 at Banana Republic (new job, new clothes) I saw that the protest du jour was an anti-Afghanistan/Iraq protest.

Normally I would assign the protesters to the radical left-wing portion of our discontent but if you’re against Afghanistan the case could be made that you’re of the isolationist Conservative wing of our society.

So if you were there and part of the protest perhaps you can clear it up with me – are you with Jesse Helms or are you with pot smokers?

18 holes of a fine walk

It rained heavily for the last 3 holes, it was windy, and it was cold (although I did take my jacket off to go short sleeve). I lost about 10 balls and managed to 4 putt for the first time in 3 years. The greens were in terrible condition and the fairways were muddy. My driver decided that instead of going straight that it preferred to give me a cut fade all day long.

All in all though it was great to get back out on the course for the first time this year.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Professionally speaking, I’ve done pretty well for myself particularly over the past few years but I have to consider myself pretty darn lucky to have had things work out the way they have for me. If you turn the clock back 8 years and looked at my qualifications at the time you’d have a good laugh if I told you 8 years later what the resume would say – there is simply no evidence 8 years ago that I was capable of doing what I do now and that I would end up doing it.

I’ve now got enough under my belt that I get asked often how I did or how someone can end up where I ended up as I’ve worked with a lot of people in their early-20s and they’re trying to figure things out. I also have a slew of young cousins who are finishing high school who have concerned parents standing behind them who see me as a role model for their kids.

I don’t know what the “right” way to do it is but I certainly wouldn’t recommend the route I took which was to get a degree in an unemployable major then go to an overpriced private institution for more training followed by a number of jobs that I don’t think I was all that qualified for until finally finding my place after about 4 years wandering around and even then my place had a minimal connection with what I learned in school. I was just lucky that things fell into place so well such that I’m not a total bum.

Every time one of those young un’s asks me what to do my internal monologue goes, “For Fuck Sakes, don’t do what I did!”. Parents, I should be an example of what not to do – alongside the guy who dropped out of high school (Levi Johnson), the girl who got pregnant at 17 (Bristol Palin) and the dude who decided dealing drugs was a good career.

Balls

Proof that I’m both out of shape and that golf works your muscles in a different way than the gym are the muscles that are sore on me 24 hours after hitting my first bucket of balls (60 of them)

- Left deltoid (all)
- Right deltoid (middle)
- Abs
- Whatever muscle is down the sides of your torso
- Left forearm

Even when I am in shape, the first bucket always leaves me stiff for a couple days.

Savings

Is there anyone out there currently saving 10% of their salary (gross or net) for retirement? If not, what are you saving and how is it going? Just curious.

FWIW, I lost 32% last year.

1st Bucket

Inspired by the Tiger and Phil show today at Augusta I went out and hit my first bucket of golf balls of the season. Starting my hitting this late in the year is now a rare occurrence but one dictated by lousy Vancouver weather and the necessities of finding a new job. Now that one is resolved and the other is likely pending it’s nice to be be able to swing freely.

And no matter how much the game of golf comes downs to putting (40% of my strokes last season were putts) there’s still little that beats taking out the driver and giving it a mighty wack. While my irons and hybrids were actually hit and miss (1 good was followed by 1 bad), my driver was like Dirty Harry’s revolver (en fuego!).

I stayed loose and didn’t overswing and the result were some big, long drives that looked better than any mid-season form I’ve ever had. It didn’t matter which driver I was hitting or what tee height the ball was set at, the ball was going to be taking a long ride to the middle of the range between the 200-250 markers with better ball flight than I had all of last year (flatter with more carry).

It feels good to be hitting balls again.