such small hands

Spring Sprang

April has been a chaotic month, weatherwise. Sunny and warm one day, thunderstorms and cool the next. Resulting in a bursting of vegetation. The trees are out, the grass is lush, early spring flowers are in bloom. Ken mowed the lawn last weekend for the first time.

I'm a derelict blogger, alas. And if it weren't for a few people who check in here occasionally to find out if we're still alive, I probably wouldn't post this often. What am I going to add to the chatter on the Internet over the news -- swine flu, the torture memos, Obama's first 100 days, the fates of GM and Chrysler?

I've been getting a little work, but not enough to keep me really busy. Slow, but pretty steady. Part of my time is spent working on Stewardship Board things for church. This is not a fun time to be talking about stewardship in the church -- if what you mean by stewardship is the usual shakedown for money that many people associate with church. Instead, we've been trying to use this time to minister to people with layoff fears and other financial concerns. Next month, we are starting a 6-week workshop on biblical money management. I am praying that many people will take advantage of this free opportunity to learn some new skills.

Amy finished her next-to-last term at Western Michigan. Her grades were the best ever -- a 3.72 GPA for the semester. After sweating bullets over her yearlong project for her PR class, she came out with an A and glowing reviews for her team's presentation to Cityscape Events of Kalamazoo. With God's grace, maybe this will also turn into a summer internship for her. She has been polishing her resume and sending it out to some prospects.

It wouldn't be a blog post without talking about golf, would it? Ken and I have been playing pretty regularly for the past two weekends, despite some pretty soggy course conditions. I've also signed up to play on his golf league for the summer; our first match was Monday evening. Ken and I are not partners; we play together so often, we thought it would be fun to play with other people. It also gives us more to talk about when we get home. My partner's name is Dan; he's 30-something, quiet and reserved, and a pretty good player as well. I was pretty happy with my score, so I hope Dan doesn't think I'm a drag as a partner.

Close Encounters of the Florida Kind

Ken and I returned Tuesday from our last Florida trip of 2009. I'm just now getting caught up enough to post.

Golf has also turned us into something of casual bird watchers and wildlife observers. On our first afternoon to play, we were pulling the golf cart up to the green on the 8th. I heard a scuffling through the leaves to my right, as if a squirrel were scampering away. I turned around just in time to see it was NOT a squirrel, but an alligator we had startled! I emitted a colorful exclamation ... probably close to what the gator was also thinking. Sheesh. Was I glad that we weren't walking. The gator won't be straying so far from  his pond anytime soon, I think.

We also spotted a spectacular pileated woodpecker on the course at Plantation Inn (Crystal River). I only know that because by now we know to pack the Peterson Field Guide so we can go back to the room and identify what we've seen that day.

What's really cool is that there are a pair of nesting ospreys in a tall tree next to the 18th green. The mother sits on the nest all day, while Papa Osprey goes out to hunt. He stays in a nearby branch overnight. Mom doesn't dare leave the nest, as there can be as many as 10 crows in the tree, waiting for her to leave so they can eat the eggs. Yep. "Nature, red in tooth and claw."

Plantation Inn was hosting a college women's golf invitational during our visit, so on Sunday we played a neighboring course, El Diablo Golf and Country Club. The name is fitting. Wow. It's a beautiful course; don't get me wrong. But it's a bitch to play. LOTS of sand. LOTS. The carts have their own rakes, which ought to tell you something. I survived. That's all I can really say. I didn't shoot a 180. There.

Actually, the golf was just about average for me. I thought, because of the lessons, that I was just going to burn up the course and have noticeably lower scores. Not so. I still struggled off the tee, to the point where I just quit using my driver after a while. Inconsistent in the fairways. Much better at pitching and chipping however. Shot my very first chip-in. Made some very good, difficult putts. Hit my irons better than anything else. Made several pars --- one on a par-4 hole. So, what do they say? My play was better than my score reflected.

Found a wonderful little obscure Italian restaurant nearby in an anonymous-looking strip mall. La Casa di Norma. Ken had pasta in white clam sauce, clams still in the shells. My orange roughy was outstanding. Gotta go back.

Next vacation won't be until June in Lost Lake. Meanwhile, we should be able to play some golf here. Golf league starts at the end of April, and the church golf outing is May 9. I am hoping to be better by then. As Alonzo Mourning says in the G2 ad, "If I keep playing golf the way I play pool, I'm gonna get better at it. If I keep drinkin' that G2, watch out Tiger."