80 degrees and I tell that ditch please..

So this morning I woke up and realized it's going to be a heck of a great day! Don't you just love waking up, and hearing the birds chirping almost like they are sitting in your window sill? (I have birds that have made a nest above my window at my apartment, which just so happens to be 3 stories up, so its next to impossible to get them to leave, quite annoying they can be)

Anyways, moving on I woke up this morning, and heard yesterday that today was going to be in the 70's with a tad bit of wind. So I googled the closest golf course and driving range. ZING! I'm hitting driving range balls at around 9am.. I found a brand new range facility that's about a mile from my apartment...(last summer I was traveling pretty far to a crappy facility to get some practice in..) So I get to this nice place and they're rocking laser guided distances. So you can track which pin is what yardage, and which ditch(sand less bunker) was at what yardage.. It was actually pretty cool. I've played golf for numerous years, and never once have I been to such a tech'd out driving range.. Even the ball dispenser was technologied up... You have to go inside the pro shop, and pay for whatever amount you want, then you go out to the machine type in the code, and the balls go into your bucket that's hanging on a hook.. It was pretty cool. I also wanted to know what this little clubhouse was all about that was perched about 100 yards in the air on the other side of the fencing?? The owner said he pays kids to sit up there and lookout for other kids that try to hit balls over the fence, and into traffic or the nearby ditch.. I laughed, and told him numerous stories of my rangering days at Ray Richards.. I think I'm a fortunate kid who was able to grow up playing golf at one course looking up to all the college athletes that worked their as a "Ranger". (aka A person who slept in a golf cart most days on the golf course nestled behind some trees nursing a hangover that they got at some huge house party on campus the night before..)

I only know of 1 guy who actually was fired from Ray Richards in all of my years of being there everyday from ages 8-14... That man was Chad B. (to disclose his identity) I don't remember his story but all I remember were the days he'd ask me to drive him out to the trees behind #2's tee so he could sleep, while I was able to go and look for golf balls along the trees.. Needless to say he would show up late a lot, and one day or two he missed his whole shift, and then good 'ol Nancy had to give him the axe.

Through the numerous years of growing up there eating Subway daily (it used to be the clubhouse's only food next to the pro shops delicious Pugsley's sandwich's) we became basically free workers for the staff doing almost anything for something free like soda, range balls, golf, old rental clubs, or free clubs out of the "$3,$5,$10" bins that were actually lost clubs that have been lost for more then a few weeks so in turn they sell them!! (What a great racket that's got to be)

Moving on, I remember the numerous amounts of putting tournaments with all of us kids gambling, and then the winner would take on the ranger on duty at the time, and the stakes could be very high, for an example: If the kid lost, he had to pick the driving range fence alongside #1, BUT if the kid won he could be entitled to a bucket of range balls, or free use of the chipping range ball pickers, or maybe a golf club from the aforementioned bins? One never knew what was on the line.. But every put was a PRESSURE COOKER..

Ahhhhh yessss, this morning up until about noon I sat on the driving range stroking balls out into the range remembering many things in the past like the great child rivalries we had to the stupid things we did as kids at the course (hitting balls at rail cars, to dumping rocks into the stream) every memory in the past, but smiling all day today I couldn't help but think about the past and the future.

TONIGHT's Sports Docket:
Sioux vs Badgers:
My friends piled into a bus this morning at 6am to make the trek east to the Cheesehead state. Visiting the Kohl center is a must on anyone's list. Tonight's game will have more people in the stands watching then the Blues game in Tampa Bay, not because it's the Blues fault see below..
The Sioux will win at least one game this weekend to win the Cup, whether they do it today or tomorrow doesn't bother me..

Blues vs Lightning:
The Blues have sold out 22 times at 19,806 people in the Scottrade, BUT because it's Hockey in Florida tonight's attendance might be 12,000!! LOL, look at what's in Florida right now, the MLB, radio shows in Orlando, and all that stuff, way too many distractions.. Only the die-hard Lightning fans are going to be in attendance to watch the surging Blues take on the bottom dwellar Lightning.. My thoughts are the Blues handily beat the bolts, and hopefully solidify there run towards making the playoffs.. Only 2 points out with a win tonight!