San Francisco values, Halloween and Critical Mass

What could go wrong?

Walking back after meeting a friend for a drink. Stumbled across this run-of-the-mill SF spectacle.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Wente Results

The phone ran out of juice as we finished up in the rain on 18. This was the last shot before we ran out of juice. As I recall, the final scores were something like this:

Ringer - 78
RE - 103
MW - 106
RZ - 112

Good enough to win the last event of the season. I attribute the victory to my pep talk on 16th tee. No 19th Hole pic, so this note from the Club will have to suffice...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

---

From: Oracle Golf Club
Date: Oct 25, 2010 4:08 PM
Subject: Wente / 2011 / Thank you
To: Oracle Golf Club

Wente Vineyards Our thanks to those who participated in the final event of the 2010 season at Wente Vineyards in Livermore. The first two groups avoided the rain - the remaining six groups had to deal with the rain to one extent or another. But we all survived. Here are the winning players from Saturday's event: 1st Place Team: 55+67=122 (-22) Erickson, Wallach, Zwicker and "Ringer" Hower (Wallach's confession) 2nd Place Team: 58+69=127 (-17) The Wiley's, Fenton, Sekigahama 1st Place - Individual Low Net 78-9=69 Arcoleo (net 35 on back nine) Honorable mention runner-up 86-17=69 Lisa Wiley (net 36 on back nine) Closest to the pin #3 Cullivan at 17' 6" Closest to the pin #11 Malatesta at 15' 1" Long Drive #15 Russell McDonald Well done everyone. Congratulations!! 2011 Membership renewals will begin shortly. Look for Brian's email to sign up for next season. Courses we're contacting for events next year include: Poppy Ridge (Livermore) Poppy Hills (Pebble Beach) Callippe Preserve (Pleasanton) Eagle Ridge (Gilroy) Tilden Park (Berkeley) Eagle Vines (Napa) Del Monte (Monterey) Sharp Park (Pacifica Coyote Creek - Tournament (San Jose) Wente Vineyards (Livermore) Thank you!

One last note - I confessed nothing. I was bragging.

Jon takes us home in the rain

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Dick out

Rick is working his way to the womens tee on 17th tee. I  waited until he complete his turn before taking the picture.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

15th tee

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Rick picking grapes.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Somewhere after the turn

Ringer 40
MW 53
RE 53 
RZ 58

Roy misses his birdie putt on 11, but gets the par.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Our ringer's provisional on 9

Maybe he'll find the first.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

My 2nd shot on 6

40 yard pitch to the green and a par. Tees in dustance on left.. Perfect drive.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Jon tees off on 6

Scenic.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Unlike Roy...

Rick only needs one stroke to get out of this fairway bunker on 5

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Roy's 2nd and 3rd shot out of trap

Or 3rd and 4th... I'm not sure.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Roy tees off on 3

The team is off to a rough start.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Live blogging Wente in Livermore

OGC event. Roy Rick and our ringer.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Landsmen Dinner

Attended the Landsmen Dinner again this year. Norbert Bajurin, Commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club was a featured speaker, and the America's Cup the Featured Attraction. But nothing started until the Giants won the playoff game. Some pics from a fun evening.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

14th 19th hole....

We skipped ahead. Done for the day. 9 Hole results will stand as the score of record. Which is good, since I had a seven and two eights between 10-13.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Out of the trap on 13

Things are not going well on the back. It is still raining. After 13 we are passing close to the clubhouse. It is warm and dry in the clubhouse. They have beer and food and football there.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

At the turn

MW 45
BP 45
RE 48

It's raining harder.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Missing my birdie putt on 7

Got the par.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Under the watchful eye of the golf gods...

Bob tees off on 6

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bob out of the trap on 5

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Bob and Roy still putting on 3

I'm done, having chipped the pink lady in for a two.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Roy's 2nd shot on 1

And it is raining. He says this is his last round at Lincoln. No geese were harmed in the making of thid golf shot.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Getting to Lincoln was tough today

Live blogging Lincoln with a late start...

All entrances to the course were blocked for this Nike women's running event.

No notice from the city. Had to park on street and hike in with clubs. Everyone is kind of pissed off.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Where's Morpheus?

We'll be playing "Where's Morpheus" for the next few years. This morning Jim, Deb and Ita took Morpheus under the Golden Gate and out to sea on a journey that will take her to Block Island on the East Coast. In between - the Central American coast (both sides), the Panama Canal, various Caribbean Islands, Florida and the Eastern Seaboard.

Received this e-mail from Jim as Morpheus set out on her grand journey:

Finally!!! We are within an hour of departure!! Block Island here we come.

Too tired to type much at this point, but we are off to LA and the Cal/USC game! It’s a 50 hour trip and we plan to stop in Santa Barbara to pick up Patrick, so we’ll be moving along

Best way to track our progress….

• 1) Our Blog
  
• 2) Our SPOT webpage
• 3) AIS – find the online AIS ship tracking site (Bob Gregory provide link) and track us via our callsign wda7721 or boat name.

Ok, that’s it. Time to hit the road!!

-Jim

This is a screenshot of the SPOT website as Morpheus did a flyby between us and Alcatraz on her way out of the bay:

After a brief SMS text exchange:

Smooth transition - Coffee to beer - we must be cruising!!! - JG

And I'm not. - mw

...Sigrid got some good shots on the fly-by:




Under the gate:

... And out to sea.

No telling when we will next see Morpheus in San Francisco Bay. I'll see if I can get the SPOT widget in the sidebar to track their journey as we intend to join them along the way.

Someday and somewhere down the road down the coast the Google Latitude "Where Am I?" widget should intersect with the SPOT "Where's Morpheus?" widget. I love technology.

Bon Voyage my friends.

Home again, home again...

In time to catch the Blue Angels practicing in clear blue skies for the weekend Fleet Week airshow.

At O'Hare early

Had to walk the length of the "B" Concourse to find a bar with with a seat. As it turns out - fortuitous. Found Lou's corner bar and the friendliest bartender in the airport. Sam Adams in the glass. Halliday with a no-no through 7 for the Phillies on the screen.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Last bonfire of the 2010 season

For our last and only bonfire of the trip, Brian built another of his one match masterpieces out of scrounged wood in limited time. Tomorrow we leave for the season with an uncertain renovation. Family and friends from around he country joined the campfire via laptops comforably seated around the fire.

Brian kisses his girlfriend goodnight.

Hunting with Grandpa's '97

As requested by The Reader, we are documenting the first firing in this millennium of Grandpa's Winchester 1897. We were not sure when this gun was last fired, possibly on HDW's 1990 walk in the woods, so exhibited an abundance of caution before pulling the trigger.

When last seen on this blog, the '97 was inspected by Ishpeming Wilderness Sports, where we learned it's identity and age. The gun was proclaimed in excellent condition, but we decided to ignore their advice to hang it on a wall as a collector's item. We just don't think grandpa would have wanted it that way. We did take their advice and procured low pressure ammo appropriate for a vintage century old shotgun. Polywad was our on-line source for the "Vintager" hand loads. Good outfit, good ammo.

After a thorough cleaning, we took the '97 out to our Escanaba River property to shoot clay pigeons and hunt for grouse. This was the first proper firing of the shotgun.

I did shoot one round into the air earlier (with my arms wrapped around a tree and the gun butt wedged in a tree branch). I didn't think that particular shot was suitable for documentation. No worries - the gun works and fires like a dream. Time for some target practice:

My gun bearer brings the pigeons


Hitting a hand thrown skeet proved to be difficult

We had better luck with stationary targets.

Then off to hunt for grouse

We flushed 4 or 5, but...

... hitting a moving grouse proved to be even more difficult than a thrown skeet.

But a great day for a a walk in the woods and hunting with a piece of history.

Next time - more practice with this...

At some point I'll update this post with some more edited clips of our afternoon in the woods.