No More Makin' Fun of THIS Ol' Guy

We live on the golf course at our country club -- hole number five of the Bridges course, for those of you who are keeping score. I bought a golf cart when we first moved to Houston from a guy that lives across the way. I paid a grand total of $700 for the old ... 10-year old, in fact ... cart. It ran OK mostly, but was so slow it could hardly get out of its own way. I was embarrassed because the guys I play with would make fun of me and how slow I was. If I was first in a line of carts going down the path, I could fairly hear the people behind me sighing with impatience as we putt-putted toward the next hole ... or hum-hummed toward the next hole actually, since we have to use electric carts on our course. Basically I was a moving roadblock. Plus everyone knew it as "Jack's old cart" and they'd made fun of him too when he had it.

I dumped another $200 into the old cart when the solenoid went out a few months back. Fortunately it had crapped out on me right by the house, so I pushed it back into the garage and called for help. Got it fixed. No big deal.

Still, we could do better so we started looking at the two shops near us. One was a bit of a drive north up I-45 ... Golf Carts of Conroe. Gregg The Salesperson there was really nice. His prices seemed good. He was happy to work with us. Had good suggestions about what accessories we should get. Knew all about the carts. He sold EZ-GO and Club Cars.

The other place was nearer the house: prices were not as good and salesperson not too knowledgeable. He did however have a street-legal Star electric car[t] that we could use on the course. Looked just like a golf cart, but had seat belts, turn signals, etc ... and went like a bat outta heck. It looked really good too. Wife was sold, but I didn't want to hassle with insurance, title, registration, etc. even if the Prez was willing to give me a 10% tax credit for buying a (supposedly) "green" vehicle. Even with the credit it was quite a bit more expensive ... and we really weren't going to use it on the street anyway.

In the end we decided to go with the cheaper cart from Gregg. It's an EZ-GO Freedom RXV. It jumps when you put your foot down and looks great. You can see for yourself in the pictures at the end of this post. It has a ball/club washer, sand bottles, a cooler. We bought the "Sun-brella" package in maroon, white and black. The Club's carts are maroon, so we fit right in. I was going to feel like one of the real people. No more making fun of this old guy.

Gregg was even was going to give me $600 for my old cart. (The other place was only going to give $200.) I thought that was generous. The new cart was to be delivered in three weeks, after they put all the accessories on it. I could keep using my old cart in the mean time. And, guess what: I'm playing one night and blam, the old cart stops dead in its tracks. This time I'm quite a ways from the house. I walk back home ... it's 94F, by the way ... and hope that the batteries just need water. I carry back a couple jugs of water and try pouring them in. No go. Fortunately a buddy, Keith, comes by and agrees to use his cart to push me back to the house. Once home, I fiddle with some more things and can't get it to go. I call Gregg, who says, "Don't worry about it. We'll straighten it out. If we can't, I can only give you $300 trade." I'm still happy with that.

A few days later they drop off the new cart. The delivery guy finds a corroded wire in my old cart. He fixes it and drives the old cart right onto his flatbed and drives it away. I got lucky for once!

I'm happy; Wife's happy ... and so are the guys behind me on our course when we're driving down the cart path. What do you think? Cute, eh?

Hanging up the gloves - boring as it may be

I see retirement in my near future ... within the next four months. And I'm thrilled. People ask me, "What're you goin' to do? Won't you be bored?"

I look at 'em like they're crazy. Here's my list:

Write 1000 words a day on the way to publishing the great American novel. I've got ideas for loads of short stories, blog posts, and (really) a couple novels -- one sci-fi, one kids' book. (I wrote 1200 words today. It takes a while, for me at least, I should tell you.)

Take dance lessons. Wife and I love to dance. We are good salsa dancers, if I say so myself. We'd like to get equally good in other styles, especially, in no particular order, swing, hustle, tango, samba, chacha. Wife wants us to become certified instructors. I'm not sure I want to work that hard. I quit one job; I'm not looking for a second one.

Take piano lessons. Of course, it would help to buy a piano first, but never mind. I need to find an instructor that would be willing to circumvent the usual lessons and teach me to play blues and jazz.

Travel to all the places we've missed so far. Wife has not visited many places in US yet. Our US bucket list includes Niagra Falls (wife's pick), Yosemite (in my opinion, everyone needs to see Yosemite at least once before they die ... for what that's worth), Grand Canyon, Hawaii (I want to see an active, real live volcano), maybe Yellowstone, Miami, Key West, Southern CA beaches. I've not been back to the Bay Area for more than 10 years and that's WAY past due (but I'm afraid I'll go back and never want to leave). I suppose Wife should see New York and Washington, DC, but those are at the bottom of my list.

Internationally we have the whole Carribean to explore. (We're going to Cancun in September for 10 days, so we have that process kickstarted.) We want to get back to Italy, especially Rome and Venice and Sorrento. Wife's had her heart set on visiting Australia. We want to return to Thailand. And I'm going to visit Mauritius again before I die. Maybe in the future we'll spend August in our condo outside Moscow to avoid the Houston heat, but NOT this year: Moscow temps in the 90Fs, and no air conditioning anywhere. No thanks!

Get better at golf. I've started this process already. Wife bought me golf lessons, which of course screw you up at first but eventually really help. And with a golf course right outside my back door ... well ... this one's easy.

Pick up (doubles) tennis again. This assumes my knees will hold up. I used to be pretty good ... 35 years ago.

Build a personal website.

And this leaves out all the house chores and normal day to day stuff.

Bored? Yeah, it may be a while before you see that post on this blog.