First Golf of the Year, and Other Random Thoughts

It is April 15, and at 9:30 this morning, it started snowing to beat hell on our street.  No, none of it is sticking, and, yes, we know it is a freak thing, but as Ralphie said when he realized that his Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring was nothing but a commercial vehicle for Ovaltine, "Son of a BITCH!"

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Yesterday afternoon, I took a creaky back and six months worth of rust on both my body and my golf clubs to Clover Hill for my first round of the season. It was about what you would have expected.  Duffed fairway shots, a lot of eight foot putts that came up three feet short, and crappy chip shots.  On the other hand, I was driving fairly well.  Still, the four to six strokes those new grips on the clubs I had put on this winter were supposed to take off of my score were not in evidence yesterday.  Also on the other hand, it was cold and windy and the greens were in poor condition, so THAT must have been the problem.

It started to drizzle as I played the eighth hole, started to rain fairly hard on the ninth tee, and was pretty much pouring as I stood over my approach shot to the ninth green with a nine iron in my hand.  When my shot airmailed the green and disappeared over the bank behind the green, I had the perfect excuse to put an "X" on my card for number nine, and head straight for the parking lot.  

Through eight holes, I had shot 40.  Not a good effort, but it was the first time out, the weather was bad, the greens were crummy and yada yada yada.

It will be better next time.

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The FX Network will premiere "Fargo" tonight.  It is a so-called limited series. There will be only ten episodes covering a single theme.  No cliffhanger ending and no plans for a second season (unless, of course, the ratings are great, then we'll see).  It is based on the Coen Brothers' excellent movie "Fargo" of some years back.  Loved the movie, and am very interested to see if the folks at FX either enhance that movie experience, or just plain muck it up completely.

Reason to be positive: FX has produced some good shows, notably "The Americans".

Reason to be negative: Frances McDormand and Steve Buscemi will not be in the TV version of "Fargo".