With an absence of more than a month, it should come as no surprise that Sam has been a very busy guy lately. During that time, there were several mileposts achieved, and I'll pass along three of them here, in no particular order.
First, the dock has been built, the boat is in the water, and little Bea came out to go on her first fishing trip with Grandpa Sam. The first order of business was to make her safe, and that was accomplished by Bea donning the little "boat coat" that Dorothy got for her. I was happy that she put up no fuss, even though it was very hot and muggy, and the coat restricted her movement somewhat. So after wishing everyone a bon voyage, Bea went out with Mommy and Grandpa Sam to find some bass. We were only able to find one, in part because it was so hot that we decided to go back after only 10 or 15 minutes in the water. Bea was a great boat mate, and it's obvious that she likes being on the water. We'll get her back out this fall after the weather cools.
The second milestone relates to golf. I've been out 15 or 20 times this year, but on most occasions, my back hurts so much that I can hardly swing a club after a few holes. Twice I've had to cut the round short, and other times I stuck it out, but my scores reflected the state of my back. I can swing the club pretty well when it doesn't hurt, but it seems to hurt more often than not these days.
Two years ago, I set a golf milestone by scoring a 78. That is still the lowest round I've ever played, but I came close yesterday -- I shot a 79.
The reason this is a milestone is that I am prouder of this 79 than the 78 I shot two years ago. My back started to get to me around the 12th hole, and I ran off a series of bogeys, which marred what had been a stellar round of golf. But they were bogeys and no worse...on 3 occasions, I got into some serious trouble, but in all cases I managed to keep my cool and salvage the bogey. It's a rare day when I have nothing worse than a bogey on my scorecard. And I simply played better yesterday than the day I shot the 78 -- had I made a few easy putts (one from 2 feet) and avoided that one bad fairway wood, this could have easily been a 73 instead of a 78.
The third milestone is the biggest.
You might remember the first Wyndanwood post, in which I described meeting Dorothy for the first time after a round of golf. That was June 29, 2000. So on June 29, 2010, I took her back to the scene of the crime, got down on one knee, and proposed. After ten years, you get to know your partner pretty well, and she has been the most consistently...well, just about anything good that I could insert here...woman I've known. I knew that once I committed to buying Wyndanwood with her that there was no backing out, but I wanted to wait for a special moment to ask the question.
So those are the milestones in my life over the past month...and summer isn't even halfway over yet. I'm curious to see what's coming around the bend.
(By the way, she said "Yes!")
