Another Season

For most people, autumn is a welcomed season.

Cooler weather (eventually).

The start of another school year.

And, of course, football season!

For me, however, fall is my least favorite season. For one, I'm not a big fan of cooler weather.  As I've previously stated in my postings, I'm one who actually ENJOYS the heat and humidity of our south Louisiana summers.

Call me crazy (like THAT hasn't been done before)!!!

But it's true.  I'll repeat it just to make sure you didn't miss it:

I enjoy the heat and humidity of our south Louisiana summers.

So there.

Secondly, although I do enjoy football as much as most of you, the arrival of football season marks the beginning of another LONG sports season for me in my job with LSU Athletics.

I have now begun my 22nd year with LSU Athletics - and all that comes with it.

Work.

Travel.

Long hours.

Time away from my family.

Lots of working nights.

And weekends.

LOTS of weekends!

And, most importantly, the start of another sports season marks the end of my golf.  The 3rd week of August each summer I play in a tournament that effectively ends my golf for the year.

Once that tournament is over with I reluctantly carry my golf bag, shoes, hats and other assorted golf paraphernalia upstairs to the closet of one of our guest rooms.

And there it resides until the following May when things finally slow down at work and I can once again get back out on the golf course.

May, June, July and August are my favorite months.

The sports season is winding down.

The heat and humidity are back.

And my lonely golf clubs are calling my name and inviting me back out to the golf course.

Where I belong.

May can't get here soon enough !!

Until next time...

Water Oak

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, Hurricane Gustav toppled several of the huge trees on our property in south Louisiana on September 1, 2008.

We lost a huge oak tree, a pine tree and a sweet gum tree that sat pretty much in the middle of our front yard.  Fortunately when the trees fell, they fell across our front yard and driveway, missing our home by about 6 feet or so.

However, one other tree - a giant water oak - which was located just a few feet from the southeastern corner of our home somehow remained in the ground. 

The thing about water oaks is they have a massive root structure, but the roots are very shallow. These are the trees you see completely uprooted during high winds from hurricanes and other storms - the ones that are literally pulled completely out of the ground.

As Hurricane Gustav tore through our property on that day, my son-in-law and I stood and watched our one remaining water oak swaying back and forth AT THE BASE OF THE TREE.  Why it didn't fall on that day, I'll never know.

What I DO know is the tree had to be removed before the next major storm hits south Louisiana.

Like many of us, I'm sometimes guilty of procrastination.  Since that September day in 2008, I've had good intentions of having the tree removed.  Fortunately, south Louisiana was spared the wrath of any hurricanes last summer.

But I knew I was pressing my luck !

So this past week we finally hired a crew to come in and remove the giant water oak that sat precariously close to the front of our home.

We hated losing the one beautiful oak tree that remained on the front of our property, providing LOTS of shade, beauty, and a safe nesting place and playground for squirrels and birds - but we simply could no longer afford the risk it posed to our home.

Once the tree was stripped of all its limbs - leaving one giant trunk - the tree removal crew brought it to the ground.  When it fell, the tree absolutely came apart - breaking into 3 huge pieces!

The bottom 15 feet of the tree was completely hollow and apparently extremely stressed from previous damage - likely from high winds, lightning and insects.

Obviously we made the right decision to bring down our giant water oak.

And apparently at just the right time. 

Tropical Storm Bonnie will soon be making its way into the Gulf of Mexico and is plotting a course directly for south Louisiana. 

It appears the storm will not materialize into a major hurricane, but judging from the condition of the tree that once stood guard over our home, it wouldn't have taken much to bring it to the ground!

And the loss of a beautiful oak tree is certainly a better option than the inevitable risk it posed to our home and our family.

Until next time...

Conner's Birthday

Not unlilke a lot of kids his age, our grandson Conner wants to be a fireman when he grows up.

So, for his 5th birthday this past Saturday, we took Conner to our local fire station so he could get a first-hand view.

The group included Conner (of course); his 2 sisters, Kaleigh and Kyndal; his cousins, Randy, Tanner and Carson; his mom; his dad; his Aunt Ally; his Mimi and his Paw Paw.

The two local firemen who led us around on Saturday were absolutely awesome!

First they showed us one of their trucks, which the kids found pretty amazing!

It's not often we find our grandkids so quiet, but they were mesmerized by the firemen, the trucks, the various equipment, and all the gear the firemen wear to a fire.

They even let the kids put on their helmets, sit in the driver's seat of the firetruck, turn on the siren and pull the horn (which was extremely LOUD and scared the hell out of both of our young grandbabies)!

Our thanks to the Denham Springs firemen for their help in making Conner's 5th birthday one he'll remember for years to come - whether or not he EVER becomes a fireman himself !!

Until next time.....

Uninvited Guest

I love animals.

Dogs, outdoor cats, gerbils, dolphins...

And tigers (of course).

I love them all.

Maybe even bears and zebras.

SNAKES, on the other hand, don't qualify !

Snakes aren't animals.

Snakes are creepy, slithering, creatures with no shoulders.

I don't like critters that have no shoulders.

Like this guy...

The one with the crushed head.

I took this picture Sunday afternoon.  At this point, the creepy, slithering creature with no shoulders was in my front yard.

However, just moments before this picture was taken, he was....

IN OUR KITCHEN !

Yes, I said

IN OUR KITCHEN !

I was minding my own business Sunday afternoon, enjoying what was left of Father's Day.

Sitting in the den watching the final round of the U.S. Open.

My Better Half walked through the den, rounded the corner and headed into the kitchen.

And screamed like a little girl !

Scared the crap out of me !

But I don't blame her.

THERE WAS A SNAKE IN OUR KITCHEN !!

Just as Graeme McDowell rolled in another par putt on #12 at Pebble Beach.

A SNAKE IN OUR KITCHEN !!

Now, I don't know very much about snakes.

I can't tell from looking at them whether they're poisonous or non-poisonous.

I can't tell form looking at them what kind they are.

I can't tell from looking at them whether they are indigenous to Cameroon.

Or the tropical rain forests of south America.

Or south Louisiana.

I don't care.

What I CAN tell from looking at them is they certainly don't belong in my kitchen !!

IN MY KITCHEN !!

I wasn't real sure what to do at that point.

The last thing I wanted was to startle it and have it slither into a cabinet, or under the refrigerator.

By the same token, I wasn't about to reach down and grab the shoulder-less little creep and turn him loose in the yard.

So I went to the store room and grabbed a hoe.

Not one of Tiger Woods's ho's.

(Sorry, couldn't resist the golf joke).

What I grabbed was a standard, garden-variety hoe.

By the time I got back to the kitchen, our little uninvited friend was curled up in a ball of creepy,
cold-blooded, shoulder-less reptile.

Darting his little fangs in and out.

And hissing.

Oh, hell no !

Not in my kitchen !

I pinned him behind his creepy little head with the hoe.

And pressed down.

Hard.

Cut off his oxygen.

Rendered him dead.

Then I scooped him up on the blade of the hoe and took him outside.

Where he belongs in the first place.

And rendered him even deader.

THEN and only then did I wonder what kind of snake he was.

Yes, I said WAS !

Turns out he was more than likely a non-poisonous Prairie Kingsnake.

 Again, I don't really care.

The important thing is that he was no longer living.

And no longer in my kitchen.

In my mind, there's only one kind of GOOD snake.



And that's a DEAD snake !

Until next time...

Dog Days

HOT doesn't even begin to describe the weather we're having in south Louisiana this week.

95 degrees with 60% humidity.

That translates to a heat index of somewhere between 105-115 degrees!

Now don't get me wrong - I actually am one who ENJOYS the heat and humidity.  I really do!  I MUCH prefer heat and humidity to cool weather - and most certainly prefer it to cold weather.

I don't like anything about cold weather.  In fact, I HATE cold weather.  I hate everything about it !

But what we've had here in south Louisiana the past several days has just been downright nasty.

I played golf yesterday.  We have a group of about 20 guys who play regularly.  Most of our group plays just about every day.  Then again, our group is made up largely of retired men who having nothing else to do but play golf.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of my job, I can only play about 3 months out of the year:  part of May, all of June and July and part of August.  Then football season begins and my golf clubs literally go into the closet for the next 9 months.

It's sad ... it's really sad.

Anyhoo, a group of 12 of us teed off at high noon yesterday.  Before we even teed off I was sweating like a whore in church!

Or a BP executive on the Gulf Coast...

I somehow managed a birdie on #9, but by the time we made the turn and headed down #10 fairway, I think I was beginning to hallucinate. Of course I also hooked my drive into a ditch on that hole, so I was hot not only from the obsessive heat but from the horrible tee shot as well !

I double bogeyed that hole.

I drank a lot of water while I was on the course, but the water couldn't keep up with the amount of sweat that was pouring off me in buckets!

By the time we reached #16, I'm pretty sure I saw the Care Bears dancing in the fairway!

Numbers 17 and 18 are now a blur.  I know I made a par on 17 and made bogey on 18, but I recall very little about those two holes except for the heat.

When I finally got home around 4:00pm, my body was absolutely drained.  It's as tired as I ever remember being after playing a leisurely round of golf !

I took a long, COLD shower and drank a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade. Gradually I began to recover.

But my muscles (what few I still have at my age) were cramping up all night long.

I'm not playing golf today or tomorrow. 

But I am playing on Friday.  Then on Monday a group of 12 of us are leaving to play golf out of town on Monday, 36 holes on Tuesday and again on Wednesday.

Yes, it will be hot - Africa hot !

But I'd still rather be hot than cold.

And I'd still rather be on the golf course than at the office !

Until next time ...

Milestones

Four of our INCREDIBLE grandchildren reached important milestones last week. 

(Yes, I'm biased, but they are OUR grandchildren so that's my right as a Paw Paw)... 

Our two oldest, Kaleigh and Randy, each finished their 1st grade year and were promoted to 2nd grade! 

 

Both made the honor roll with straight A's for the entire year. They also received various other awards for their academics!

(They obviously received their brain-power from someone other than their Paw Paw).

Needless to say, My Better Half and I continue to be very proud grandparents !!

In addition Kaleigh's little brother, Conner, graduated from pre-school last week and will begin kindergarten in the fall. 

Conner and his classmates donned traditional caps and gowns for the full-blown graduation ceremonies and did an awesome job of singing several songs they learned during the school year and telling all who were in attendance what they wanted to be when they grow up.

Conner wants to be a fireman !

Conner was also named "Most Humerous" and there's no doubt he is quite the comedian at times. Other times he's not quite as funny as he thinks he is!

(Conner may very well have received that trait from his Paw Paw).  

As a side note, Conner is at the hospital as I write this. He is having his tonsils and adnoids removed and having tubes placed in his ears.

Poor little guy... 

And then there's Randy's little brother, Carson.

Carson turned one year old and had his first birthday party last week!

A one year-old really doesn't understand birthdays and birthday parties.

They do, however, understand when a big fuss is being made over them! 

Carson had several of his neighborhood friends and LOTS of family on hand to help him celebrate the first anniversary of his birth.

Carson won't remember it, but the most fun he had was eating his chocolate birthday cupcake all by himself.

Believe it or not, SOME of the cupcake actually did make it into his mouth !!

So, it was a week of milestones for our family in south Louisiana. 

More milestones are coming up - Randy has a birthday this summer; Randy and Kaleigh begin playing T-ball games next week; and summer camp begins tomorrow for Randy, Kaleigh, Conner and Tanner.

I'm quite certain it will be another summer to remember as the grandkids continue filling our lives with joyous moments and milestones to celebrate !

Until next time ...

The Challenge

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine.

Travis is one of our assistant coaches for the LSU women's basketball program.  He is a graduate of tu in Austin, Texas.  For those of you unfamiliar with the institution I refer to as tu, its colors are Burnt Orange and its mascot is a bovine named Bevo.

Travis played basketball at tu.  Actually he didn't just play - he excelled!  He was an All-American in 1990, and was the first player in Southwest Conference history to earn back-to-back Player of the Year honors.

He is the second all-time leading scorer in tu men's basketball history and is the second all-time leading scorer in Southwest Conference history.

He was good - he was REAL good !!

Travis is also an avid golfer.  So am I.

Up until yesterday though, Travis and I have never played golf together.  Over the past few years there has been a lot of trash talking back and forth among us as to who is the better golfer.

We have failed on several attempts to align our schedules so we could settle this dispute.  Yesterday, our schedules finally aligned.

The Challenge was on !!

Carter Plantation, a David Toms golf course in Springfield, Louisiana was the site we chose to settle this long-standing dispute.

Following a quick lunch, Travis and I made our way to the driving range to loosen up and get ready for the match. It was a gorgeous south Louisiana spring day - 80 degrees, low humidity, and a slight breeze blowing out of the south.

An absolutely perfect day for golf !

Now I won't break the entire match down hole-for-hole, but I will tell you that Travis started out double bogey-double bogey-double bogey.

I started out birdie-par-par.

After 3 holes Travis was down 7 shots !

Travis did manage to birdie the par 5 fourth hole, but by the time we made the turn after 9 holes my lead was up to 8.

Unfortunately neither of us played real well on the back side - mainly due to the fact that we found ourselves behind a group of five buffoons - four of whom I believe had never seen a golf course, much less played on one!

It was slow going - we had to wait to hit every single shot on the back nine - sometimes as much as six or seven minutes.  For a golfer, that's frustrating.

REAL frustrating.

Travis spent some of those minutes talking on the phone - to recruits, to his head coach, to his sister.

 
 
 

He might should have spent some of those minutes talking to his swing coach or whomever he relies on to help him with his golf game.

I'm just saying....

In all fairness, Travis is a very good golfer.  And we had a great time on a beautiful day on the golf course!  This time of year there's not much else I'd rather be doing.

When it was all said and done, Travis lost by 8 strokes.

And he knows I won't let him forget it.

EVER!

I'm sure Travis will want a re-match one day soon.  And I'll grant him that.  After all, we had a really good time playing together.

In addition to learning that I enjoyed playing golf with Travis, I learned something very important yesterday.

Travis can't beat me on the golf course.

EVER!

Until next time...