Hi! Vancouver here too. Sparkly weather we are having, eh? Are you in Vancouver proper or one of the 'Burbs?
Le Ministre, any chance of seeing you around here a little more this year?
Happy New Year All! With any luck we will have a better year than last!
It’s cold as hell here in Montreal. And yes, when you live here, you believe that Hell is cold.
We have lots of snow, and lots of complaints about how the snow removal process hasn’t yet been completed. Some areas are worse than others.
Yeah, I’m hoping to drop by a couple of times a week at least. I only meant to cut back a bit; I didn’t mean to go cold turkey.
How are you, m’lord? Did you come through Toronto last summer and I just missed you? Hoping all’s well…
It snowed in Vancouver overnight. It is mostly gone now, but it was pretty out this morning.
My son was excited to go back to school and “concede” that this was snow. Like October snow in Thunder Bay, ON. Not much, and not going to last. He gets indignant when his school mates “play in the slush”.
I went down to the beach briefly to try to take pictures of driftwood in the snow but I forgot my camera AND my phone.
Tomorrow is my back to reality day. I spend part of Tuesday mornings re-shelving books and helping out at my son’s school library. That is one of the highlights of my week…
I’m doing well, thanks. Hope you are too!
To answer your question about coming to Toronto–well, yes I did; and no, I didn’t really. In fact, I was in the city for all of about two hours–just long enough to drive in and get some things I had in a storage locker. Then, I left the city and went up near Lake Simcoe to play some golf for a couple of days, before heading back west.
Don’t worry–if I make it to Toronto for a few days next time, I’ll let you and the other Toronto Dopers know. It would be great to catch up again!
First day back to school for my daughter. I’ve completely lost the rhythm of things over the holidays. It is -29 with the windchill and I’m scrambling to get her winter jacket, snowpants, and snowboots together before the bus comes. Crap, I forgot to get a lunch ready! The first week back from vacation sucks!
Hmm, golf by Lake Simcoe - that wouldn’t have happened to have been The Briars, by any chance? We used to go every summer until the kids outgrew the kids’ club…
Hey, great little café here! I’ve gone by a few times and said to mysel, “Gotta check it out!” Love the title!
Happy New Year everyone! Cyros, I sympathise; yesterday was the Cub’s first day back and it was a bit of a rough re-entry for us all, after 10 days off.
On the deer front, the good news is that SGI will pay for the repairs to Piper Car, rather than writing it off, which I’ve heard is quite common for deer strikes. I think it’s because Mrs Piper’s intrepid piloting meant we hit the deer square on, instead of a glancing blow, which tends to cause twisting to the frame.
And the kicker? The bus was 45 minutes late (which was announced after mini-me was out waiting for the bus for 10 minutes already).
I read about your deer encounter with interest. I remember driving back from my grandparents place in the late 80s with my family and having a herd of deer cross the road. Dad had quick reflexes and managed to slow down while swerving between the deer but even that close an encounter really gets the adrenaline going.
No, I was more easterly, and was playing Cedarhurst GC, near Beaverton. Although I did get to Jackson’s Point for dinner at a pub (the Simcoe Arms) there. Nice place; if you’re up in the area, you might want to check it out.
I’m planning on taking the Cub to the local par 3 in the spring. Any tips for teaching a little guy to whack the ball around?
Let’s see. I guess I was about the Cub’s age, give or take a year, when my parents introduced me to golf, so maybe I can offer a few tips.
See if you can get some child-sized clubs; or lacking those, the shortest clubs you can find. My Mom had a set of what was called in those days, “ladies’ clubs,” which were shorter than Dad’s men’s set. Mom’s were what I used, even if they were still a little long for my height. But they worked well enough for the first time out.
In the back yard, teach him how to swing an iron–I’d suggest a 7-iron, which is much shorter than a driver, but will still get the ball off the ground and give it some distance. Let him practice with practice whiffle golf balls, which (should he hit a good shot), won’t go over the back fence, or break the neighbour’s window. He’s going to chunk the ground behind the ball, and he will “top” the practice balls, but we all do when we learn; and somewhere between those two extremes, he will hit a few good shots. High five!
Then, you might try the driving range with real golf balls. Stick with the 7-iron for now; you want him to get comfortable with one club, rather than having to contend with clubs of varying lengths. More on this below.
Let him stick with the 7-iron when you get onto the Par 3 course. Note here that I played my very first round using only Mom’s 7-iron and a putter. My score was ridiculously high, but by the time we hit the course, I was very comfortable with that club, and could keep the ball going reasonably straight, which did wonders for my enjoyment of that first game.
As for putting, why not play a few games of mini-golf? Unlike real greens, mini-golf courses are perfectly flat (a lot of them anyway), but they are great places to get the basics of putting down. Besides, mini-golf is fun!
And that’s key, in my experience–at the Cub’s age, make it a fun day out with you. That first time out, I think if I had been concerned with “which club for this distance?” and had to deal with a driver that was too long for my height, and had thus lost numerous balls in the woods or the ponds and creeks, I would have given up on golf right then and there. Rather, I had a lot of fun with my parents that first time out, which would be followed by yet more fun days on the golf course with them. And Mom and Dad were wonderfully encouraging that and subsequent days–Dad could hit beautiful 200-yard drives right down the middle, and if all I could do was to manage 50 yards, but more-or-less in the direction of the green, he still said things like, “Nice hit! That’s the way to do it.”
There will be plenty of time to learn how to use the other clubs, how to chip, how to pitch-and-roll, and how to do all the things the pros do on TV. For now, let him have fun playing and learning.
Hope this helps, NP. If I can help further, let me know.
I agree with you on the first week back blues. Making my son’s lunch is something I dislike at the best of times. The first day back he had kielbasa, cheese, crackers, shirt bread and an orange. Then we ordered pizza so that was next day’s lunch.
I am just grateful I font have to deal with- 29 or lost mitts and so forth. I say only half jokingly that what you lose in rent you make up on in mittens here.
Here’s a CBC story about the refugee family that my church sponsored - things are going very well for them now.
Thanks for sharing that, **Ministre. **
Thanks for the tips, Spoons - will check your post out in the spring to remind me.
Try dragging your spouse who’s a kindergarten teacher back…
“No, Honey you can’t take wine to school…No, you can’t go back to bed…Get back here and put your boots on! No, I don’t know where your car keys are…”
The kids were easy.