One Grand Disc Golf Tour

01-23-12

An interesting day.

I’m still working on maps for the new course at Picnic Island Park.

I had to take a break to make some calls for da biz.

I called the parks director for a nearby county. We met him at the FRPA convention. Sold him on the idea of disc golf, although he had been considering it for a while. We went out assessed the property and gave him plenty of feedback.  And then he ordered the targets directly from Disc Golf Center and, even though he doesn’t play the game, he’ll be designing the course himself.

Because the people in the position to approve the budget weren’t aware of the game, they assumed that there couldn’t possibly be any degree of skill to designing a course.  A direct quote, “Why should we pay a guy to walk around and just point to where we should put the targets?”

If you’ve got an hour…I’ll explain.

On the positive side, we have a verbal confirmation for a course in the panhandle! It’s only a recreational 9-holer, which seems to be about 80% of the jobs we get. But the area is very conducive to huckin’ da platters.

Several other projects are creeping along.

We had hoped to do a clinic at the FL Rec & Parks Assoc convention in September, but it’s already too late to get on the schedule for 2012.  Geeez.

I got an email saying that a tee sign had been yanked out of the ground at River City Nature Park in DeBary, so I headed out there, moved the sign post (and two others) over a few feet and taped the sign back together.

I stuck around for night golf and had a chance for a 3-way tie for 1^st, but missed the 25 footer on the final hole!

Tomorrow: I just got a replacement phone because the phone company feels that the AT&Trocious service I have at my home/office is the actual device. We’ll find out if my phone has been screwing up or just AT&T in general. I’m leaning toward the latter.

01-22-12

I hadn’t actually planned to quit writing posts. Apparently, I am susceptible to my own suggestions.

I think the key may be truncating them for a while. Here goes…

01-09
Knee doc: Miniscule tear. “Take care”. “Wear the brace when you go for ace”.

01/08-12
Gym: startin’ to feel it.  Thinking I lost few lbs since a couple of weeks ago. I don’t own a scale.

01-13-12
Got cash before stepping on stage. (Got more for 7 minutes than I usually got for an hour) Earned most of it.

01/14-15
Swilled up the Tocobaga course at Maximo.

01/16-19
Wandered Picnic Island in search of the best natural fairways and ways to get them to play nice with cuzzin “Flo”.

01-20
working up maps of the various layouts at PI

01-21
Orlando Disc Golf Club member appreciation party: Arrived with 2011 bag tag #57 …left with 2012 bag tag #1!… After a few rounds of short-range golf at one of the club officer’s house.  Once I shot an even par, 12 on the 6-hole par 2 course playing lefty and got a +1, 13 playing righty…d’oh!

01-22
More time on the maps.

Got antsy. Decided to zip to Barnett for a quick round of speed golf with my replacement putter. Started by 3-putting.  Finished –3 on the short tees in 17:57.

More time on the maps.

Tomorrow: You guessed it… More time on the maps… and bills and biz calls.

01-07-12

I’m finding that the key to keeping up with backlogged posts for this blah blah blah’g is to stop writing the blasted things…or at least less of them.

Also paramount to the process… have something worth rambling on about.
Not sure I’m going to fill those specs, but here it is…

I had the MRI…and paid for it out of pocket, since I was told that there was “zero” toward my deductible in Dec. I should have known that was BS, but my head wasn’t in the game… anyway, I have another torn menisci in my right knee and something floating around in there. The appointment with the knee doc is on Monday. Already had a throat doc appt, and a dermatology appt since returning home.

I’ve been tethered to the desk for most of the remainder of the time, trying to catch up to the myriad tasks involved with making people want to pay us to design and build a disc golf course for them.

Phone calls, proposals, 2nd, 3rd & 4th drafts, invoices, analyzing company practices and attempting to revise and streamline them, figuring out how to please the customer without screwing ourselves…

Meanwhile, 2 more 18-hole courses were just ordered for Alachua County. Courses we had nothing to do with. We have a few fans within the sport that will refer us, but the majority of players want to design and build their own courses. As often as not, they fall pretty far short of their potential.

I still feel as if we are making a difference and that our rep is solid with the people we’ve worked for.

We have several courses in N. FL that are ready to pop. (see paragraph 4) We just have to be diligent and work through the process. The most infuriating part of this is that almost everyone we deal with only wants to go with 9 holes.

My roomie was invited out to play the Rock Springs Ridge course and he, in turn, invited me. We met up with an old friend that used to be heavily involved, but now plays recreationally. I had expected to play the short tees this time around but we did the longs. The short tees, in most cases, aren’t short enough to make a difference for the players who need them to make a difference.

I had a reeeeeaaaallllyyyy roller-coaster sort of round. 3 & 4-putting on some easy par 3s and bagging haaa-yuuuuge deuces on others! This is the first time I’ve worn the metal-reinforced knee brace on my right side, which definitely felt awkward. The lumpy carpet tees did little to improve my comfort level.

I have a show next Friday. It’s a short set. Only 10 minutes. But I haven’t done the bit I plan to do for over a year and frankly, I have no clue if I can still pull it off. It’s not easy.

I’ve been going to the gym most nights to hit the elliptical and /or weights and then juggling for 20-30 minutes but I’m just as concerned about remembering the routine.

Tomorrow: probably more practice and watching old videos of the routine.

01-02-11

OK, well the “early” part of my plan to be ambitious backfired a bit….sort of…

I spent some early time at the desk futzing around, but I also got the last 3 blah blah blah’g entries posted, which means I’m finally caught up. Resolution #1 accomplished and only the 2nd day of the year. (The key to life is creating attainable goals)

I DID get to the gym and got some aerobic in and hit the weight machines. I did not practice juggling as intended.

Instead, I drove up to DeBary for my first round of glow golf for 2012. Nearly all of the discs in my bag felt sticky, as if a soft drink had been spilled on them. I cleaned a few but my hands were sticky by then, so I just dealt with it.

I drew Cory for a partner. Starting on #4, we birdied the first 5 holes, including a big 70’ putt on #1 (by moi) and a 3 on the par four #6, and finished the short 9 @ -6 (on the 3s).

Duncan, from the other team in our group, earned the moniker “Slam Duncan” because he also nailed a 70 footer and 4 or 5 from 40 or so. We followed up with a –4 on the longs (which included a 5 on the par 4) to finish –10 (on the 3’s) to edge out Slam Dunc and his pard for the “W”. (League wins don’t count toward my tourney win tally)

The big money went to the Bfunky1, who hit 2 CTPs and a $99 ACE on the new pin position on #3.

To be honest I’m pretty surprised we got the “W”, since I sort of tweaked my right knee while parking #9 long. I have an MRI scheduled this week.

Tomorrow: Diving back into the biz and preparing for the show in 10 days. Egads!

01-01-12

Happy New Year, y’all!

Just in case, we set two alarms for this AM. We definitely overshot the first, but the 2nd got us in “go” mode. I showered and packed while JL got ready. We got out the door right at 8am and made it to the Worcester airport at exactly 9:30. Not much time for the dreaded goodbyes, before having to deal with the ticket counter, TSA and the inevitable flight delay.

Upon arrival at home, I won a bet without even knowing I was involved with one. My room mate, whom I turned on to disc golf well over a decade ago, bet his 15 year old son that I would mention disc golf within the 1st 3 minutes of being in the car. I didn’t talk about disc golf or disc sports the entire 45 minute drive home. I guess we all know what (who) was on my mind on that long drive home.

2011 has been an interesting year…
I played 55 new courses… 1112 lifetime.
I played 1257 new holes… 16,904 lifetime.

I had 8 tourney wins… 1 Major (GM), 4 Master, 3 open… (plus 4 league wins)… after hip and knee surgery in late 2010.

World Champion Disc Golf Design designed and installed 5 courses, 1 of which is a rental that is, as of now, beyond the contracted end-date. We’ll have to pull the course out of the ground in Jan to move it about 20 miles away. Our 2nd Rent-A-Course also went permanent.

I recuped from knee surgery, then screwed it up again the day after it was deemed “healed”.
I had only 1 entertainment performance the entire year.
I lost a world title.
I had two of my all-time lowest rated rounds and two of my best rounds of the year were not in a PDGA event.
I won the FL disc golf championship for the 6th time, 29 years after my 1st time.
I had a visit from a long-lost Swedish friend and I visited a long lost girlfriend who is now my woman.

Resolutions: #1 is to catch up completely with the blah blah blah’g, which this post should accomplish.
#2 is to lose the 15 pounds I’ve gained since the surgeries. (This may require more knee surgery in order to become athletic again)
#3 I’d like to see WCDGD design & install at least a dozen courses this year.
#4 I’d like to see WCDGD expand outside of Florida.

More goals: Start a book about disc golf, disc sports.
Start a book of photos. (and a couple of posters that should sell at least marginally well ….if we offer them on the proper venue.

Tomorrow: Hopefully to the gym, juggling practice to start the day out and get some biz work done.

12-30-11

I had hoped to hook up with Todd Brodeur for an indoor jam with a German jammer who is in the area, but that didn’t quite pan out. Instead Todd & I met at the Hyland Orchard & Brewery (#1112) to play the disc golf course.

It was a cool, pleasant day hovering around the high 40’s to low 50’s. Some of the open holes were a bit repetitive with holes that required a full-on 360 turn-around. Using the 4 expendable discs I brought, along with a couple loaners from the disc golf shack, I think I only managed to convert a single decent drive into a birdie (and I think that’s the hole that Todd forgot to score). I’ve said it many times, the Aviar is the highest selling golf disc for a reason…it’s a very versatile disc, but I can’t do much with it, because I have other discs that I can rely upon for upshots and putting.

Todd gained a stroke on me on the 2nd hole and we managed to demonstrate world-class mediocrity for the remainder of the round. It was another course that probably would have been at least 50% more enjoyable were it a tad warmer and I had my bag of plastic.  The flow was intuitive enough that we only had doubts about the next tee direction once, but still walked right to it.

There were some nice attempts at ambitious course design features. I love private courses for their personality and the pride that is usually taken with these projects.

JL and I headed back to Narragansett, expecting another of her friends to meet us for drinks, which fortunately, fell through, giving us more time to spend alone.

Tomorrow: The end of 2011

12-31-11

I spent most of the day inside plinking away at some menial tasks on the laptop. JL went to the airport to pick up her son, who had been off visiting his father over the holidays… and then we kicked him out for the night.  We cooked a bit, shopped and prepared for a very low profile evening together, away from the crowded parties to close out the year.

Tomorrow: 2012

12-28-11

As predicted, we lollygagged profusely this AM. It has been unseasonably warm (by northerner standards, definitely NOT mine) as of late. In fact, it is warmer than when I was here in Nov.  So, I wanted to get out and about. JL is on vacation from her arduous school schedule and needs more recharge time than I do, but I managed to get her out of the house long enough to take a hike around a preserve/lake about 15 mins from her abode.

We hit an Olive Garden, using a couple of gift cards I’ve collected over Christmases past. Then to see the American version of “The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo”.

Once home, we put on one of my favorite comedies, Super Troopers. There’s a scene in the flick where, they pull a guy over and the troopers make a challenge that one has to say “meow” 10 times while reaming out the driver.  Pretty funny scene. Meanwhile, JL’s cat wanted in our room and several of her real “meows” were perfectly sync-ed up with the trooper saying it on the screen.  Guaranteed, it was far funnier in the moment than it is recounted for your vicarious pleasure on this blah blah blah’g.

The rest…you don’t get to read about.
(Although I’d really like to write about it)

Tomorrow: Had hoped to arrange a jam but may not be able to find an indoor venue.  May be running to a course at a brewery.

12-24-11
Narragansett to Baltimore

Apparently, the recycling folks don’t come to residences in this portion of RI. It probably costs the community considerably less, having people bring their recycling to the collection center, which we did. The really amazing thing (to me…being easily amused, if not impressed) was the recycling center also had a LIBRARY; a FREE, ‘take-what-you-want’ library, or book repository.

It had the potential to be a complete disaster area, (and, in Florida, I have no doubt, whatsoever, that it would have been) but was, in fact, very tidy and organized. We actually snagged an accordion that was in really great shape, because JL thought one of her students might have an interest in it. Hey, if not…back it goes.

The really amazing thing is that…last time I flew up here to see JL and help JS (Jason Southwick of the Marshall Street/Pyramids fame) I was reading a book called “Selling The Invisible”, which is all about providing customer service in your chosen work-field. In my typical fashion, I left it on the airplane on my flight up…and because the flight had been delayed for over 3 hours, no one was available to clean the plane before they reloaded the passengers and sent it off to Ft. Myers.

I never bothered to call the Ft Myers airport to find out if they had it in their lost and found. Well, today, I found the EXACT same book in the recycling library. Bonus!

We made our way through RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE & eventually got into MD, arriving in Baltimore about an hour before Santa’s scheduled B&E (via chimney) where I met JL’s sis and family. Her sis is an Episcopal priest and her husband plays trumpet in the Navy band at Annapolis. I was expecting a fairly rigid family, but everyone was very cool and accommodating.

12-25-11
We shot up north into PA ‘to Grandmother’s (hers) house (condo) we go.’, for Christmas dinner. I was relegated to the kiddy’s table, but at least I ate like a man.

JL & I spent our 2nd consecutive night on a blow-up mattress, which seemed to leak air at a slightly slower pace than myself. We had a little role-reversal tonight. She slept great and I didn’t, whereas, last night, I dropped out pretty quickly and JL was very squirmy.

12-26-11
A slow start to the day, having a late lunch with even more family…some of the older, more traditional family… whom I probably didn’t impress, but at least held my own during the passive-aggressive inquisition. Once the party broke up, we took off as to a nearby hotel for a night alone. We were upgraded to a suite, followed by more fantastic details that you are not privy to.

12-27-11
Smithsonian

Feeling anything but ambition, we dragged ourselves out of bed and met JL’s sis & her hubby for a wonderfully decadent breakfast at Miss Shirley’s. Somehow we got on the subject of misused words and I quoted a Foxworthy “Redneck Dictionary” entry: Raconteur. “Woah, look at her chest. She aughta take that rack-on-tour.” The two ladies sitting two tables over simultaneously looked up from their respective coffees and gave me the stink-eye, which softened slightly after they saw that I realized that I still don’t possess an inside voice.

We went back to the room long enough to pack up and head further south to DC. It took a while to find a parking spot in the rain. We found a spot and then found a parking garage a few blocks away, so we went back for the vehicle and paid the convenient $22 charge after walking around the Air & Space Museum for a few hours until the 5 pm closing. I’ve heard that there are Frisbees on display somewhere in the Air & Space museum but didn’t have enough time to stumble upon them.

What followed was a very long and drowsy 7.5 hour drive all the way back to RI, where we crumbled into bed shortly after our post-2AM arrival.

Tomorrow: Don’t know, but I expect much of it will be horizontal and devoid of ambition.

12-23-11

I tried sleeping on the full sized mattress in front of the couch, instead of the lumpy futon in the extra (laundry) room. I likes me some flannel sheets in the wintertime! A bitch named Bella tried to get into bed with me. Sorry, but as sweet as she is, she has a big nose and is too hairy for me. But that’s not uncommon for a pet.

BTW…Bella is doing great after being hit by a car a couple of weeks ago and undergoing surgery to put her guts back in the correct locations & positions.

Up at the obscene hour of 5 AM to make a 6AM Bikram Yoga class. These are the yoga classes with the room at 100-105 degrees. As adept as I was at walking wire and slack rope, I was amazed at how bad I am at some of the balancing poses. I had to drink a lot of water, though Jason plowed thru 2- 32 oz bottles and I only got thru 3/4 of one.

About 45 minutes into the 90-minute class, I was feeling woozy. I hadn’t eaten, which is not good for “Mr Metabolism” when trying to do exercise. For me, it’s pretty simple… “No Gas, No Go”.

I stepped out of the class and used the restroom. It felt like everything I had eaten in the previous month decided to stage an exodus. (TMI is my life) Eventually, I made it back into the room and finished the class.

Afterward, the outside temperature (40-ish) was a welcomed change.

I had hoped to help Jason out with another day dedicated to course development, but he was having a party at his home this evening and had to blitz the house. He sent me out to the course to get a round in with some locals. The place actually looked quite habitable, even cozy, upon my return.

I grabbed the 4 expendable discs that I brought, along with a few used discs from the Pyramids collection and joined Jeff, John, & Eric (hand model) for another fun round on the Silver course.

When I had asked if he had something that was TL-like, Jason handed me a Latitude 64 “River”. I never actually threw it, but it did take a nice photo)

I had been feeling some shoulder strain last week. So I tried to throw smoothly, rather than try to crank it. Throwing a bag full of discs I’m not attuned to isn’t my favorite way to have fun on a course, but twas enjoyable despite the round containing equal parts genius and idgit.

On the newly revised final hole…(the one he rushed to complete before I arrived in Nov) I threw with mostly shoulder, which put my body out of sync and I sorta twinged my lower back.

Jason suggested the hot tub. I would like to think that he was truly being empathetic and offering up the hot tub for altruistic reasons. But, the truth is, his Christmas party was about to start and every party host knows, you need a guy in the hot-tub. Of course, every ‘good’ party host knows you need a woman in the hot-tub.

So I got in and, eventually, began noticing sudden large sporadic gushes of air breaching the surface despite the fact that I had not farted (for a change). Whatever could it be? My swimsuit was filling with bubbles from the jets and releasing every 11-12 seconds like clock-work. I had the hot-tub version of Old Faithful in my pants! (That’s definitely going on the resume!)

The party was a small affair this year, because Jason and Kelly didn’t announce that it was even happening until 2 days before hand. A few disc golfers and some family dropped by.

By the time JL had finished work and driven up from Rhode Island, the party was down to Jason and I.

We hung for a bit, then took the 1-hour drive south to Narragansett, RI for some greatly anticipated alone time.

Tomorrow: Another travel day south to Baltimore to spend Christmas with her sister and more family. (In other words, more ‘auditions’ for me)

12-22-11

Actually, today is my 3rd time flying into the Worcester airport, (Counting last year’s Vibram event)

I’m heading back up to assist with either the same course I worked on last time, or another new one. And I’ll be visiting my shiny-new girlfriend. I keep her up north, in the cold, so she won’t spoil. Hell, I’ll go sour before she does. She prefers the cold anyway.

If this blah blah blah’g was about my personal life, I’d elaborate. But it’s (intended to be) about disc golf, so, until I get a disc in her hands, you probably won’t be hearing an awful lot about her.

I expect I’ll only have a day or two to be a disc golf course designer while there. The rest of the time, I’ll be performing boyfriendish duties such as meeting everyone she has ever known. (How many people am I going to have to date on this trip?)

WCDGD business is grinding to a halt for the holidays. My biz partner has family in town and is MIA. I’ll be hanging with the GF, but will try to squeeze some biz in. It looks to be unseasonably warm where I’m going, for which I couldn’t be more grateful. My GF, we’ll just call her “JL”, is pissed because she likes the seasons to be well represented. Hence, December (should) = cold. Apparently, there’s a different formula at work at the moment.

I’m currently only working on 2 active designs, but we have several that are on the verge of committing to a course. One of the two is 9-acre stand of pines flanking two sides of a park, that came together very quickly, and I don’t believe that we, or anyone, could get much more out of the land allotted. The other is a bigger, more open tract with a few heavily wooded areas. I could easily slap 9 holes in there and be done, but this is a wonderful piece of land that is barely big enough for 18, but not 18 really good holes. I want this course to be worthy of traveling to. I could really stretch the 9 out but the land deserves more than 9.

I’m nearly caught up with the blah blah blah’g posts, with only two to go. (not incl this one)
I was able to achieve this tremendous feat by slacking on the writing part and posting 2 or 3 entries at a time.

The flight was delayed for an hour due to a couple of light bulbs, which is better than last time… 3 hours due to fog.

Jason met me at the airport in his backyard (Worcester) and got me home long enough to point me toward some leftovers and yak at me a bit until I finished em…then he went to bed around 8pm. I watched Donny Darko for the first time; complete with the special feature of auto-skipping several chapters due to scratches. (Library DVDs)

Before dinner, Jason told me about how he got hold of a plotter for ink artwork. He handed it to a local stoner who figured it out and started producing some pretty interesting inks on plastic…including the two on the right, which I liked enough to buy.  No…I’m not a Yoko Ono fan, but I thoroughly enjoyed that the inker-dude put her likeness on a STAR DESTROYER. Now, there’s one for the collection.

Tomorrow: ??? Looks like my first class of Bikram Yoga…at the unsavory hour of 6 AM.