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What's on your mind?


Apoc

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I haven't played a round of golf in years and I was never much more than a hack, but if my mood is less than great when I start I'm useless by about the 5th hole. Swinging like a mad man, lifting my head, not thinking, getting shitty when the ball doesn't go where I want. I still hit a few balls around the paddock here occasionally but I have to be in a good clear mind to do anything more than hit and hope.

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I took my students to a county recreation center. I'm have them compare the offerings from various community resources (libraries, rec centers, etc.) They had two pool tables. It's been years....nearly forgot how effing fun pool is and that was sober haha....even though I can only reliably hit the most basic straight shots, occasionally making a  bank shot or if the stars align what Google tells me is called a double shot.

Luckily since I'm a Special Educator, my students sucked worse than I did which gave me a false sense of superiority. That's pretty much all I need in life to keep going. "Dang Mr. M!" A lot like kayaking, every so often I need to paddle with beginners to boost my fragile ego. Worship me, bitches.  That's like therapy, right? Convince me I'm worth more than road kill. 

Navy, I suggest you find people to play golf with who suck significantly more than you do. Trust me,  you'll feel like the six million dollar man. 

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Boosting the ego works wonders. Many years ago I coached a bunch of kids in Indoor Cricket, the guys I played with 2 nights a week laughed at me, the worst player in the team trying to teach kids how to play a game I could only just play myself. But those kids who had been denied games in every other team didn't give two shits that they didn't win, they didn't care that their coach was terrible and often turned up Saturday morning with a hang over, because they were getting to play the game they loved and were pushed out of by the teams with a win at all cost attitude. When they did win it was a huge thing and a massive ego boost for me because they kids thought it was something I did.

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6 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

I haven't played a round of golf in years and I was never much more than a hack, but if my mood is less than great when I start I'm useless by about the 5th hole. Swinging like a mad man, lifting my head, not thinking, getting shitty when the ball doesn't go where I want. I still hit a few balls around the paddock here occasionally but I have to be in a good clear mind to do anything more than hit and hope.

Good clear mind and golf in the same sentence. I know you didn't type that with a straight face 😄. Never has a more frustrating game ever been invented. I'm a respectable hack, meaning I can play with most anyone and not categorically embarrass myself. That's about it, but it's a great way to spend time with the boys on the weekend while talking trash, drinking, and blowing off steam. It is bloody expensive though and I have thought quite a bit about giving it up all together and finding a more reasonable hobby to accomplish the same end.

 

5 hours ago, markm said:

Navy, I suggest you find people to play golf with who suck significantly more than you do. Trust me,  you'll feel like the six million dollar man.

And that's the reason I keep going back. All my homies suck worse than I do. I love those guys, but it's the reason I always choose to play with them. Makes the trash talking and occasional moments of brilliance even better!

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46 minutes ago, navybsn said:

Good clear mind and golf in the same sentence. I know you didn't type that with a straight face 😄. Never has a more frustrating game ever been invented. I'm a respectable hack, meaning I can play with most anyone and not categorically embarrass myself. That's about it, but it's a great way to spend time with the boys on the weekend while talking trash, drinking, and blowing off steam. It is bloody expensive though and I have thought quite a bit about giving it up all together and finding a more reasonable hobby to accomplish the same end.

I suppose it depends how clear the mind is. I can't play golf in a bad mood, I'm much more productive getting an axe and taking it out on some firewood. But going for a walk to chase a little white ball can be quite soothing to some less than shitty moods. I got my last set of golf clubs about 20 years ago and I've never really felt that spending another $2000 on clubs was going to improve my game enough so with old clubs my only real cost for golf would be balls and if I don't start in a grumpy mood I can do 18 holes, most of the time, without loosing one.

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4 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

I suppose it depends how clear the mind is. I can't play golf in a bad mood, I'm much more productive getting an axe and taking it out on some firewood. But going for a walk to chase a little white ball can be quite soothing to some less than shitty moods. I got my last set of golf clubs about 20 years ago and I've never really felt that spending another $2000 on clubs was going to improve my game enough so with old clubs my only real cost for golf would be balls and if I don't start in a grumpy mood I can do 18 holes, most of the time, without loosing one.

The equipment isn't the trouble, it's the greens fees and consumables (balls, gloves, grips, etc). I don't know what it costs down there, but a round at the club I belong to is $40 (cheapest in the area with most rounds coming in between $75-250), sleeve of balls is $12-15, gloves run $20-30 and don't last more than a few rounds in a Florida summer. Grip a full set is $100+ even if I do it myself. I only buy used gear and maybe have $500 total in my bag, but I easily spend that in 2 months when I'm playing every weekend. As I get closer to retirement age (15-18 years out), I'm reevaluating. Every penny counts and I have several expensive hobbies (golf, audio gear, and metal shows requiring travel) along with 3 houses (mine, the kid's, and my wife's parents) and 3 on the payroll. Deciding what stays and what goes is the hard part. Does golf bring me more happiness than my classic Marantz (what's the plural of that anyway)? Not sure. New driver or a set of Klipsch Heresy?

I already ditched fishing, my car obsession, and woodworking. Just excuses to spend money. Don't get me started on cycling, that went years ago. Could I do these things on a budget, probably, but aside from money, it was the amount of time required that I just don't have. Too much clutter didn't help either. Only took me 30+ years to figure that out, but at least I finally did.

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Because we live in the boonies green fees aren't that high. The last time I played on our local course we started at 6am, before the pro shop is open, therefore we used the anonymous pay in system. No idea why the course allows it but if you start before the pro shop opens and put your fees in an envelope  through the door they accept just about anything. I think full price is about $30 but the early start bonus can be as low as $10 because they never chase anyone.

For me golf isn't really a hobby it's an occasional thing. I've hit the ball around the cow paddock more often than I've been on a course in the past decade, mostly because my shoulder limits me but also because it's easier to stay home. My back yard might not have sand traps, but it does have water hazards (and other hazards), it also has no putting greens or holes so there is less to get angry at!

Golf for me has always really just been one of those things the males in my family have done. We weren't pushed or forced to play but we did go out for weekend games when everyone was younger. My grand father died at 92 and was a scratch golfer at Royal Melbourne until he was in his late 80's. My uncle was nearly as good, both have/had accolades I could never hope to achieve. I've got a framed picture here of my grand father holding Ian Baker Finch's British Open mug with the round 2 scorecard under it which my uncle took as the press photographer of the event and Ian's friend. I can only bask in such glory my golf wouldn't earn me the frame the picture is in! :)

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COVID continues to kick my ass.  Finally gave up trying to sleep at 4am.  I don't mind the cough or the head to toe aches (I am getting old - my joints are fucked anyway as soon as the temperature drops each year) but the fucking pain in my nose that shoots up into my brain every time I blow my nose can fuck right off.  Even when I am not blowing my hooter like it is some fucking war horn declaring an invasion of the heathen hordes it burns like a bitch if I try to breathe through my nose.

Awaiting delivery of some paracetamol that does not contain caffeine as if I have too much of that it counteracts me sleeping, but because the whole of the country is on strike and we have had snow the entire infrastructure of the UK cannot get me simple drugs delivered to my door in a reasonable timescale (coming up for a week). 

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1 minute ago, Dead1 said:

Total fucking suck.  How long have you had it?

 

Hope you start recovering soon.

Since Friday last week (at least that's when the test went positive - but felt off for about a week overall).  On the plus side, I am sat here at 05:30 eating party rings and choc chip cookies just so I can take more paracetamol.  Every cloud...

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12 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

Since Friday last week (at least that's when the test went positive - but felt off for about a week overall).  On the plus side, I am sat here at 05:30 eating party rings and choc chip cookies just so I can take more paracetamol.  Every cloud...

Take care.

 

48 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

Golf for me has always really just been one of those things the males in my family have done

Thatguy hates golf. Tried it with some mates when I was at school - totally uncoached - and of course we sucked and the pro told us not to come back at the end of the term. My brothers-in-law and plenty of mates love it...to each his own.

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1 minute ago, Thatguy said:

Thatguy hates golf. Tried it with some mates when I was at school - totally uncoached - and of course we sucked and the pro told us not to come back at the end of the term. My brothers-in-law and plenty of mates love it...to each his own.

The first golf ball I ever hit was when I was about 12 and it came off the tee floated left into the car park through a car window and landed on the front seat of someone's car. How could I not want to keep going after that? :)

 

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1 hour ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I may have just seen the most Aussie thing in my life, a baby blue tongued lizard stuck in a red backs web as I took the bins out. As a side note the spider is now dead, the lizard scampered, and now some kookaburras are laughing.

Good work.  Red Backs are fucking horrid things - vicious as hell.  About the only "deadly" fauna Aussies are likely to encounter.

 

I usually let spiders live but red backs and white tails get atomised with the Slipper of Murderous Rage or gassed like so many soldiers at Monte San Michele in 1916.

Though if it's up to the wife, all spiders must die.  Luckily all my father in law's guns are stored under lock and key or she'd be blasting away at them with an Accuracy International sniper rifle or 357 Magum revolver.

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White tails are not the danger the media have made them out to be for the last few decades. Studies today show that apart from some swelling, itchiness and soreness white tails don't usually cause ulcerations. Further recent studies of 100 incidents where whitetails could be confirmed as the biter they have not found one case of necrotising arachnidism, which they were blamed for. #Whitetailslivesmatter!

 

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2 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

White tails are not the danger the media have made them out to be for the last few decades. Studies today show that apart from some swelling, itchiness and soreness white tails don't usually cause ulcerations. Further recent studies of 100 incidents where whitetails could be confirmed as the biter they have not found one case of necrotising arachnidism, which they were blamed for. #Whitetailslivesmatter!

 

 

I have read the same but I am not taking any chances.

 

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14 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Given I’m so arachnophobic I can’t even watch Shelob in LOTR, or even listen to the scenes with her in audiobook, I’m also inclined to say all spiders must die.

But they vuws you and just wanna be your fwiends! 🥰🥰

 

I actually like them.  Amazing creatures - we have ones called badge huntsmen who have amazing "pictures" on their abdomens.

 

Link to pics so I don't scare Relentless off:

 

https://steemit.com/nature/@mostly.nature/the-badge-huntsman-spider-underside

  

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1 hour ago, KillaKukumba said:

necrotising arachnidism

= infection. Which is common enough from any insect bite and occasionally disastrous.

I don't tolerate spiders inside since a few years ago I let one live behind a picture I have on the wall in my study. Some time later I was working at my desk when myriads of little spiders rained down on it and on my head. I was not impressed.

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I spray the house twice a year to keep spiders out and for the most part it works we only get a few daddy long legs and little garden spiders which are mostly dead. I've never tolerated the things in the house, despite living with a tarantula in a share house in Sydney 30 years ago. 

Out in the shed is a bit different, there is cobwebs everywhere and if those who made them don't touch me I don't touch them. I know there is redbacks out there, there is definitely white tails and without a doubt there will be hunstmans. I've found huntsmans crawling on my leg while going through the wood pile before, but they are pretty harmless. But any spider I have here is nothing on the funnel web up in Sydney or the massive dinner plate sized monsters I've seen in Merridin WA, so I feel lucky.

 

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I use the stuff the guy has in his truck but don the spacesuit and do it myself. In the shed I spot spray with something a little less lethal when I see them but generally the shed gets a free pass. It's kind of weird though because the tractor cabin is covered in cobwebs but I have never seen a living spider in the cabin, yet the bastards love making houses in behind the mirrors of the ute.

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I let our indoor spiders be. They make my skin crawl but they haven't taken any runs at the family yet and that has to count for something. I'm hoping to fatten them up enough that they can start catching the fucking mice in the ceiling.

Would probably feel differently about it if I was living in a treacherous hellscape full of lethal vermin, but thankfully I'm in kind, idyllic New England, a paradise on earth.

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