Thursday, June 26, 2008

Brotherly Influences

Brotherly Influences

Standing in the wings, observing well.

While our older son and his family visited with us the past few weeks, he carted his golf clubs out here fully determined to play daily at a golf course nearby. Yes he thought, it was a vacation after all, so why not? He hadn’t had time to golf for several years and used to be a “scratch player”, whatever that means for me, not sure, though something good I hear from others.

Each day our son would wake up and look at the summer sky, immersed in thought about shooting a bucket of balls and practicing on the putting green, or perhaps taking in a game. He seemed to hit the jackpot the first week, but was incredibly frustrated with our weather. It was highly unusual as I’ve mentioned on this blog all week long, not our fault it interrupted golfing times. Hee hee

Each day something significant occurred where the golf pro shop handed him either a free game pass for another day, or several coins for free buckets of balls. He would return home all smiles, thrilled at first with his good fortune, that is, until the following second week when game after game seemed to leave him and and his younger brother either trapped on the golf course when a severe storm hit hard, or the golf course staff commanded them to stop from weather concerns.

Back property golfing follies...

The day before he left, he purchased his two older children their own golf bags complete with a club set for more time together with the children on the golf course this summer. They already each had their own club to use while they were here, but a complete golf set was offered in the pro shop at a tremendous savings for them. The trick was getting them home on the plane, but all ended up just fine. But, I never got a photo of them, so Therese, please snapped one and send it to me with each of them and their clubs please. :-)

No cable, the computer worked just fine for watching the golf open and catching Tiger Woods in action.

I suppose one thing our older son never figured on was the influence he would have on his two younger brothers when living and breathing golf during his vacation. The computer was tuned into the golf open daily to watch Tiger Woods play. Our property was transposed into a golfing range for daily shooting and golfing fun, AND tag alongs followed him to the golf courses locally.

I decided to take the children to town to “window shop” for golf clubs this week, soon after everyone left town, just to check out pricing as our thrift shop golf clubs were either too big for some, or right handed when everyone seemed to be lefties. Perhaps it was meant to be I took the drive this week because we came upon a “doorcrasher” special and golf bag club sets prices were slashed half price. Maybe they weren't pro golfer type clubs, so what, they would suffice for the summer and until they entered the pro status ranks (wink) or outgrew them.

Can you believe that? Woohoo!

Our other daughter has exclaimed she is quite content with her horses. Thanks but no thanks to golf. But the other three have decided summer should be filled with golfing opportunies aplenty.

Not only did we purchase a set for our two boys, our young daughter got into the act and rightly so, for she could shoot the ball quite nicely like her siblings.

The three of them are very proud owners of their own sets now, and days since have been filled with pretend nine hole golfing round and round the backyard, range shooting before hand to warm up, and time at the golf course putting and getting out of sandpits. What fun they’ve had and how well they have slept all this week!

There is only one downfall to such a great sport opportunity, and hubby if you’re reading this, please don’t freak out (LOL). Just think of it as something akin to when our older son took out the bird feeder, amends were made during the visit when he performed an act of service for us right?

Making amends for the bird feeder golf ball blowout

One of the three children, when shooting on the family driving range out on the back of our property, smacked a ball hard which hit the clothesline pole, and then careened backwards towards the house, landing with a bullseye (!) directly onto the water tap handle in the back of the house, snapping it off at its base.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Me thinks I need to call a plumber now because we can’t turn the tap on. Sorry hubby. The children are deeply sorry too and said they’ll pay for the plumber... LOL So, when you return home from work, please think about paying extra attention to all their puppy dog eyes and sweet faces, okay? I would imagine this is your own saying thrown back to you when the bird feeder blew out, it's the cost of encouraging another great sport to flourish at home, huh? Ah, those darned golf balls anyway! (snicker)