The Potato Truck

Today we went down to Dap's, the local ice cream and burger shop, to see the Idaho Potato Truck that is in the TV commercials. It was passing through town.

I was hoping to see the dog and the Studebaker truck, but was told: "they haven't found us yet!" Hence my thumbs down in the picture.

By the way, the potato is fake if you didn't know it.

Golf

I've been thinking about golf a lot lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe because of the time of the year - the Masters was played last month, the PGA Championship is this month, the US Open is in June and the (British) Open will be in July. Maybe it's because what some people call boring, I find soothing and enjoyable to watch. Maybe because of all the beautiful locations. And maybe l just like to see players I like.

I started to play in 1970 at Ft. Knox, where I was stationed after Vietnam. I learned on a Par 3 course and had a good friend, Bob, who was in Vietnam with me teaching me the basics. He had his work cut out for him since I was left-handed and he was right-handed. I bought a small set of clubs and a red bag. I don't remember what brand of clubs I had, but I can vividly see that bag.

I progressed to the regular course at Knox that year. I remember one early hole was close to the gold repository. If you overshot the green to the ball would get close to a wire fence that marked the off-limits area surrounding the building and grounds. Of course, if you hit it over the fence, then you had to take a penalty shot - which I did sometimes.

In 1971 I was sent zx to England for about 14 months to a British Armour school. I took my clubs with me, but I am not sure which clubs they were. Sometime during the period from late 1970 to 1973, I bought a good set of Ben Hogan clubs and a very nice bag. I either bought it at Ft. Knox before I went to England or once I got to Germany in 1972. I think I bought it at Ft. Knox.

Anyhow, I played with them until about 1980 when I sold them to a gentleman who worked in a bank in Newark, Delaware, where I was assigned to the University of Delaware  ROTC department. I had been running by then for two years and decided I was never going to golf again.

Little did I know but I decided to take it back up again in 1986 in New York when I was assigned to a Readiness Group in the Finger Lakes. It was a cheap set again with a cheap bag. I used it until I bought a fourth set - again, a nice set and bag - when I retired and moved to New Jersey.

I don't have it anymore. I haven't played in several years -  maybe eight or nine - plus I injured my rotator cuff about three years ago playing pickleball (which I don't currently play). But lately, I have been enjoying watching golf on TV. 

Maybe, I'll play miniature golf. Or maybe even Par 3 with rented clubs. Or maybe just buy a putter and find a putting green. But I can't play a regular game. Not anymore. Besides, four sets are enough. 

Anyhow, the PGA is coming in a few weeks. 

Close Call

We've got our TV reception back again. It appears all I had to do was to reset - unplug and plug back in - the monitor. 

We had been having trouble with the cable link all last week so I decided to just keep the monitor, and the cable box, on around the clock. Anyhow, Friday night it somehow shut down.

I went through the cable box reset like Lumos showed me, but no go. The strange thing was that I couldn't get the monitor to shut off. But it wasn't displaying anything either. So I called Lumos. They talked me through a "Grand" reset, but it didn't take, so they scheduled a technician to come out this morning.

When he got here I reviewed everything with him. He was puzzled by the lack of display on the monitor as well. We discussed the possibility of replacing the TV (it is over 15 years old). Then he decided to pull the plug on the monitor - it is behind the wall-mounted screen. After a few seconds he re-plugged it in, and voila!

While it works fine now, we still may have to replace the TV. I think I'll begin to look around.

And one more thing: before I did that "Grand" reset I was told I would erase all of my saved programs. Thankfully, I didn't.  

Old Cars

Last Sunday we went to Dab's, the local ice cream & burger place across from our development. It was having a local classic car show in its parking lot. This was the first of monthly shows thru November. There were several that I liked but only two I kept photos of.

I had a 1956 Chevy Belair hardtop once belonging to my mother's father. Grandpa had it painted black with a white top. I wrote about it before I believe. Anyhow, this photo is of a 1955 model, but the color scheme is exactly the same as Grandpa's before he repainted it.

This is a 1951 Ford which is the first car I remember we owned. Pop would take us on a Sunday drive every week.

Reading Update

I finally finished a couple of books and am now moving on to others. It has seemed like I wasn't getting anywhere, but actually, I had several large books to read. The last two, one fiction and one nonfiction, were done this past weekend.

The Indian Clerk is historical fiction. It is about the story of G.H. Hardy, a famous English mathematician, who becomes a mentor and collaborator with a young Indian self-taught mathematics whiz, Srinivasa Ramanujan. I had read about the story before, and actually saw a movie based on it - "The Man Who Knew Infinity", starring Jeremy Irons as Hardy. I enjoyed the book.

The nonfiction book was written by a psychiatrist who has written similarly titled books about Obama and George W. Bush. It was applied psychoanalysis of Trump. It was interesting.

So what am I reading now? Still the Leonardo book; I only have about 100 pages to go. It's interesting, but I don't know how much detail I will remember. I am also reading a philosophy book which I am finding rather interesting.

book

I've read the author before. I don't usually read philosophy, but Klein is a good writer. As for fiction, I am reading the latest by Longworth. It takes place in Aix, France, and it is about a magistrate and his wife (they just got married in the previous book). I enjoy reading them because the author spends a great deal of time talking about food, wine, and cigars.

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I just received another book by Jon Meacham in the mail today. I ordered it from Barnes & Noble. I haven't decided if I am going to begin it as well or not.

I'll give another reading update in a few days