I'm back from Thunder Bay Golf Resort, which is located on Hillman, MI - near to the top right of "the mitt", but more towards the center. I have aches and pains in my hands and fingers (from gripping the golf club in a bad way - I really need some lessons on that) in backs of my knees, the usual lower back pain, etc. etc. etc. I had a great time, and the fellas from church really are "the greatest bunch of guys on the face of the earth." They were patient as I, well, struggled. I have no idea why I so much enjoy doing something I do so poorly. Of course, that's part of the paradox of golf itself - you do the best you can, although the game is always the master in the end. Unless, of course, you're Tiger Woods, and some days even he isn't able to keep every little aspect of his game under control, though he's at his peak.
I wish I had funny golf stories to share, but I don't, unless you think the sight of me and my fairway wood inching up towards the green, duck by duck, is amusing. One fellow hit his ball into the water trap three times in a row, and he just had to laugh, as it was so pathetic (he's normally a strong player). Perhaps the saddest story is this one. When playing golf in a group you always have somebody who is tempremental, and when they get a bad shot, the club goes airborne, or is abused in some way. These guys tend to slow down the play as they let off steam, and some play worse as they get madder. There was a young fellow on our outing who has a decent job and some disposable income, and he just ordered a $700, custom made set of clubs. But he got a gander at one of the tempremental fellows, and I guess he started to follow by example. The young guy with the nice clubs hit a bad shot, and next thing you know his 3 wood is up in the air. Only when it came down, it snapped in half. It wasn't pretty - we found the shaft of this club sticking out of the ground and only got the story later
I sure got a nice welcome from my family when I got back after being gone three days, all save the cat, who was playing coy. It was almost like she was making sure I was really here. This morning she was affectionate though - like she realized I was back.
Sad news if you like to collect videos of silent films. Two minor distributors of mostly off-the-wall fare have announced that they are going to cease trading by the end of this year. Grapevine Video's Jack Hardy has announced his intention to retire, and Christopher Snowden of Unknown Video has decided to get out of the business as well. While there may be enough collectors to keep the larger, more mainstream concerns such as Kino afloat, there aren't sufficient number to ensure the survival of the little operations. Curiously, in the 16 and 8mm market in the 1970s there were "enough" customers in this market; the real challenge was keeping the owners of some these companies from winding up in prison (such as Tom Dunahoo of Thunderbird.)
Nonetheless I encourage the reader to check out the catalogues of these companies and see if there's anything you want - by November Grapevine will cease to trade entirely and the Unknown Video website will come down in May. Videobrary is already gone (as of January).
http://www.unknownvideo.com/
http://grapevinevideo.com/
Happy Huntung,
Uncle Dave Lewis