A Season to Remember

We rang out the old and toasted the new in fine form with old friends at Bix - a San Francisco institution and one of our favorite eateries.

It was a little bittersweet, as Lee, Joanne and company are moving out of our Northern California neighborhood to a strange and foreign land - Southern California. Very brave of them. I wish them the best, but I don't think they even speak the language.

We'll miss them, but it was a fitting finish to our most socially active holiday seasons EVAH! Not sure what it was about this season, but Sigrid and I felt like a couple of socialite swells flitting from one party to another.  Lots of friends, lots of good food and lots of good cheer. Some might suggest all of this holiday celebration was needed to distract us from current events, but in retrospect - if you ignore the politics - 2017 was really a pretty good year, with fantastic travel, astronomical extravaganzas, milestones, great fishing, diving and of course - bad golf.

With the holiday celebrations sprinkled amid other responsibilities and projects, this blog was sadly neglected. But we didn't want the good feelings to pass without marking the memories. So without further ado - one big compilation post of too much fun. We'll start at the official beginning of the holiday season...

Thanksgiving with Paul, Sandy and Abigail...

December  6 - The Landsmen Dinner at St. Francis Yacht Club with Lee, Joe, and Don

December 8 - Christmas Party with Paul, Sandy, Lee, Joanne, Mary, Michael and Harlan

[For reasons that I cannot explain, there were no photos taken at this event. Lesson learned: Never listen to your host when they say no postings.]

December 10 - Big Band Bash at The Great American Music Hall with Roy, Sharon and Kristin

December 13 -  Summit HOA Holiday Party with the neighbors.

[Another one where I didn't get any pictures. No excuses. My bad.]

December 17 - Hanukkah at the Summit with Juliet and Leonard

December 21 - Holiday Whiskey Tasting with Bo at the Embarcadero

December 24 - A quiet Christmas eve at home with caviar and champagne.

December 25 - Christmas and Boxing Day with Lee, Joanne, Joan, Chris, Rod

 And that brings us back to New Years (Return to the top of the post and play again). We're grateful for our friends, family and the life we've found here. Looking forward to a great 2018, as soon as I finish my diet and get out of detox.

New Year's Eve at Clint's Place

We spent New Years Eve with Jim, Joni, and Allex at Tehama in Monterey. Never played here. This is Clint Eastwood's home and vision for a sustainable golf course and development. He didn't join us for the round.

Stunningly beautiful setting. Great course. My usual bad game. But I got in one last round on my 2015 golfing resolution.

Jim fared better...

... here he retreives ball after holing out from 50 yards on 11...

...but then it's his course. On other holes he did not do as well.

This one went into the lake

This one didn't go into the lake

A great way to ring out 2015 followed by...

... a fine dinner. We made it all the to midnight to greet the new year. After some good luck black-eyed peas on New Years Day, we'll be ready for 2016.

Graduation Day & New Year Golfing Resolution

Dr. Bill explains my shoulder

"Congratulations!  You graduated."  Dr. Bill shook my hand.

He had just put me through the paces - reaching, stretching, pulling, pushing, testing the right shoulder he repaired last July.  

"You are doing great. The shoulder is healed. It's not quite back to 100% strength and range, but that takes a year after a massive tear like yours."

He wrote another scrip for continuing physical therapy and said we did not need to schedule any more appointments.

"That's great news." I said. "Thanks Doc. You did a great job. But I need to show you this..."

I pulled out the scorecard and handed it to him. As we had discussed before, I had three goals for my rehabilitation: One - fishing in Michigan in September; Two - abalone diving in November; Three - Golfing in the low 90's in January.  Two down, one to go.

The scorecard was from my round the day before at Sharp Park.  It was my first round since surgery. My score was 107.

"I am disappointed in your performance here." I said.  "I told you I expected to be shooting in the 90's and I shot a 107."

He studied the card. "Did you shoot in the 90's before the surgery?" He asked.

"Not often. But I expected this surgery to improve my game."

"I see." He nodded sagely.  "But you beat your playing partners. Steve had 110 and Roy had 113." He looked back at me. "I can't do any more for you." Then he studied the card and pointed.

"This guy. Roy. He really shot 3 eights in a row?" Concern was written all over Dr. Bill's face.

"Yes he did. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hole. Then two more 8's on the back."

He shook his head.

"Have him come see me. I think I can help him."

Postscript:
Before Sunday's round I'd not played since March. My NCGA handicap revision e-mail arrived.  It included the recent round. My Handicap Index increased to 30.2

I can't live with this humiliation anymore.

My 2014 New Year Golfing Resolution is to get my Index down to a 25 handle.

I did it before. I can do it again.

Yes I Can! Yes I Can! HOPE! CHANGE!

I mean, that hopey, changey thing worked out for the president, didn't it? 

Not Live Blogging Sharp Park

We were planning to spend New Year's Eve with friends in Carmel, but Sigrid woke up with the flu or bubonic plague or something, so we had to beg off.  This created a problem.

My 2012 New Year's golfing resolution was to play more rounds of golf  than the POTUS. As of this morning I was locked in an 18 round tie with President Obama, leaving me one short of accomplishing my goal.   Roy agreed at the last minute to meet me at Sharp Park for a twilight round to play out the old year.

No time to Live Blog. Even with a lot  of creative course management randomly switching holes to avoid the slow groups in front of us, we almost did not get all 18 in and finished the last hole in complete darkness.

I did not play well, but at least I kicked Erickson's and Obama's ass.

MW - 105
RE - 109

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

ADDENDUM - The Final MW vs. BHO 2012 Golf Rounds Final Tally

Year of the Dragon - Chinese New Year Parade

Chinese New Year is a very big deal in San Francisco. An estimated half million people watched the parade culminating the two week celebration.

In the almost 30 years we have lived here, we've watched the parade once. It was rainy and cold and we couldn't get close enough to see much. That one time was enough for Sigrid.

Kearney and Columbus

This being the Year of the Dragon, and considering your loyal blogger was born under the sign of the Dragon* and this the first year we elected a Chinese-American mayor, I thought I should walk down the hill and try again. FWIW some shots and clips:

Hizzoner

The weather was better, but still found the crowds a bit much...

... so I finished the night watching the Chinese New Year parade on TV at a North Beach Italian eatery drinking an Irish beer. San Francisco Values at their best.

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* SPECIAL NOTE: While researching this post, I learned that I was born under the sign of the Water Dragon. This is what the Chinese Zodiac says about those born under the sign of the Water Dragon:

"Force and power are the symbols attributed to the Dragon... those born under the influence of the Dragon are considered the luckiest of all and good fortune simply follows them wherever they go... Indeed, whether male or female, Dragons are libidinous and score quite a hit with the opposite sex."

This note has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post. I just thought it important to take note of these facts for the enlightenment and edification of The Reader.