Work Has Begun!

I see only one person had the guts to touch that last post. Much props to Meg for throwin' in her two cents. Anyway, work has begun on the miniature golf course at the Boys and Girls Club. I've attached a couple of before pictures so you can see the difference. We ripped up all the old carpet this week but the glue stuck to the concrete on several holes so we ended up spending most of the two hours scraping the concrete. However, we did paint a test hole and raised the wood around a couple holes. I found that teenage kids have about the same work ethic as our homeowners. We had three good kids that worked pretty hard and four kids that were worthless. We have three different color paints, yellow, blue, and orange. Our test hole got painted orange. It didn't come out too bad but will definitely need at least three coats and most likely three. I got my first donation already, and unfortunately Nathan, you shouldn't expect to see windmills and clowns (unless you want to add a zero to your donation). I would like to recognize Kim for her generous offer to sponsor all of the "Demo Day" supplies for sanding and painting the course as well as for ant killer, which was critical in being able to work on that thing. I'll keep you updated on our progress in the weeks to come.

Speaking of the weeks to come, all of the AmeriCorps here will be heading to Dallas in 3 weeks for a week of house building with all the 270 other AmeriCorps members working at Habitat affiliates across the country. I don't know how many houses we'll be working on but it should be a good time (I hope). At the least I'll get to check out the Big D. I'm just interested in the sleeping arrangements there. Hopefully, it will be better than at AmeriCamp back in September.

It looks like I'm going to get to watch a lot of the Wings in the playoffs. I saw the double OT game on OLN the other night and I think today's game is on NBC. I was a little nervous for a while in Game 1, it could have got ugly if they had lost game one at home. I think they should cruise through the rest of the series now. Elsewhere in sports, tough break (ha ha) for you Cub fans out there. I'm going to say I don't like their chances with D. Lee out for almost 3 months. They are really going to need Prior and Wood to come back strong to carry them into the second half when Lee comes back. Sox are rolling as expected and the Tigers are making a solid showing. Take it easy. Peace out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Golf Weekend.

It was a great weekend for the MRO golf extravaganza. Sunny and mid-80s all weekend. Travis ("T-Bag") and Brad ("Kart-hole") were in town for a weekend of golf and that's what they got. We played 4 rounds in 3 days but it only took T-Bag 1 round to get blisters on his hand. Needless to say he was crying about it for 3 days. But we didn't give him anymore strokes. Well, I did give him an extra stroke one round but that was as a result of my poor poker playing ability. The golf betting was pretty well handicapped with no-one really shelling out too much. I proved to the boys that being able to play year round really doesn't translate into lower scores. You just get more opportunities to practice your mistakes. Aside from golf and poker we snuck in a little gambling at the dog track which is what hit Brad's pocketbook most over the weekend. What he would typically spend on drinks he generously donated to the Orange Park Kennel Club, which I'm sure they are quite grateful for. Unfortunately there was no time available to get the guys out swinging the hammer but maybe next time. We also weren't able to get a picture of the famous MRO pig at a Habitat worksite but we did get a shot of him substituting for my tee on the 199 yard, par 3, 11th hole at Cimarrone Golf Course. He did a hell of a job as the ball landed on the fringe in the front of the green about 25 feet from the hole. None of us would have believed such a thing had we not been there to see it. It was hilarious. It was just about the best shot I hit all weekend. I also want to take this opportunity to thank American Airlines for delaying the guys' flight 3 hours so they got in after 12:30 AM Saturday morning because it gave me a halfway legitimate excuse for calling in sick on Saturday. Don't worry, I was scheduled to work with two other very capable AmeriCorps who easily handle the group of volunteers that day.

Time down here just keeps ticking away, in fact a whole hour flew by so fast this past weekend it was almost like it never existed. Wow, that was a bad joke. Anyway, since Dragan's visit in late February there has been someone visiting almost ever other week with another one schedule to arrive a week from Thursday. And we have the Masters this weekend. I'm having a great time and really appreciate the visitors. This past weekend may have been the best so far. Take it easy.