Summer, Day 28

Father's Day was great. But my family missed out on getting me the perfect gift -- a driver. However, they wouldn't know that until the afternoon.

Lori made pancakes for breakfast, and after a quick trip to Kohl's and Harmons, we went to Mulligans, which offers a driving range, a par-3 and an executive course, mini golf and batting cages. I thought this would be a cool Father's Day adventure: letting the boys swing a golf club for the first time. Ben managed to hit a few with the kids iron Mulligans loaned us. Michael was trying my irons, but when he switched to the kids club, he had more control and hit the ball well (not far, but straight and in the air) about one in every four shots. He keeps wanting to step into his shot like he's hitting a baseball (which, by the way, he rarely does while hitting a baseball ...) but I think with practice he will catch on quickly. We practiced putting -- Michael did well right away, while Ben was impatient -- and I showed Michael chipping, which he kind of got, too. I was almost tempted to take Michael and shoot nine on the par-3 course, but we'll save that for another day.

My shots on the range were terrible. I haven't played in a few years, I was wearing Keens instead of golf shoes, and I was wearing my knee brace. Yes, the excuses keep coming -- I am a golfer, after all. The knee wasn't hurting me, but I wonder if it affected my motion a little, because I barely lofted anything, much less hit anything straight. I finally did get a couple good shots with my driver, but only a couple. On my last good drive, the club suddenly felt lighter. I looked at it to discover I was only holding a shaft -- the head had sailed away into the range. We think we found it out on the range at least 50 yards out. I laughed for five minutes at the absurdity of what had just happened. The driver was old, so I'm not upset. My juices are now flowing to golf again, if not only to prove that I can hit a ball straight.

We played miniature golf afterward, with me winning by one stroke over Lori. The day was hot and Ben seemed a little overheated, so we just relaxed for a couple hours when we got home. The boys and I had a water fight, then I grilled a flank steak for dinner. We watched "Iron Man 2" on Netflix, and I took Popcorn for a walk. I wanted to get outside sooner to write, but got sucked into the two-hour season premiere of "Falling Skies." It's past midnight, and Father's Day is over. I loved every minute of it, especially driving my driver 50 yards.

For Day 29, click here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Nine days after the solstice

Vacation finale