Well, It Happened...

our bedroom fireplace

...heating season has arrived. 

It took awhile, with a summer resurgence followed by some meteorological dithering - hey, it's warm!  nope, scratch that - it's cold! - but now it seems late October weather has settled in for good.

Ergo, all three fireplaces are operational once again.

the bonus room fireplace, keeping Sir Kitschalot toasty...

...and ol' faithful warming the cockles of our hearts (along with other body parts and the rest of the living room).

Good thing, too, because the power company informed us of a planned overnight power outage on the time change weekend, from 11 pm until 7 am.

That means the furnace won't run and with temps dipping into the high 30's / low 40's at night, we're thankful we'll be able to keep the home fires burning.

And of course we'll have our emergency backup plan in place...

...just in case they don't have the juice turned on by 7 am.

I like warm fires on cold mornings, but wish this was March heading into April instead of October into November.

Heavy sigh.

Speaking of the end of October, we're less than a week away from All Hallows E'en:

In spite of the spooky pic, we shan't be leaning into the graveyard theme on the big night.

We'll opt for a lighter vibe as we have ever since I handed a treat bag to a little tyke and he told me earnestly, "I decided this year I wouldn't be scared".

Karen and I agreed the very last thing we want is to scare kids away, so Vintage Halloween (jack-o-lanterns, black cats, full moons) -

- that's the look we're going for each year.

To be fair, some low key, non-threatening spookification is ok, even desirable.

Most kids like being scared just a little bit - y'know, the kind of "there's he is!" fright you feel when the monster finally appears on screen...

...not the "crazed lunatic with a chainsaw who's trying to kill me!" garbage - or worse - that we see everywhere today.

Given its roots, I understand why there are Christians who have a problem with Halloween.

I went to Bible college with a man who escaped a Satanic cult and trusted Christ as his savior.

Based on his personal experiences, he'd never celebrate Halloween.

For most people, however, it's just a day for kids to dress up, ring doorbells and get candy.

They're excited for the fun and adventure, and you know what?

Parents are going to take their kids trick or treating whether we participate or not.

So we decided, why not use it as an opportunity to spread some fun, enjoyment, and the Gospel?

We strive to make their brief time at our place memorable for all the right reasons.

Elsa and that frozen snowman guy, Ooloo...uh, I mean OOgly...eh, Oddball?  Whatever.

When they leave, we want them to have a treat bag in their hands, a smile on their face and the good news of Jesus Christ in their hearts.

And maybe just a slightly elevated heart rate.

Happy Hallows.

After a summer and early fall of serious drought conditions, the heavens have suddenly opened - and remained open - for an extended period of steady rain, much of it lake effect.

Over the last several days we've gotten more than twice the rainfall of June and July combined.

We definitely need the rain, but it has put the kibosh on my end of season golf plans.

The deluge finally relented, so I ventured forth on Saturday.

It was too wet for featheries so made a slight change to my playset...

l to r: long spoon (20*), short spoon (25*), lofting iron, putter

I wanted to swing my W. Dunn spoon (far left), made by club maker Kelly Leonard from Canada.

Typically don't hit quite as long with that one, but love the feel of the club and when I swing it correctly, they're high, straight shots that are really quite enjoyable.

Took me a few holes to get warmed up, but my scrambling skills were in good working order and I ended up winning the first 2 holes.

#3 tee - a slight fade on this narrow fairway resulted in a lost ball in the brush.  I did find 3 balls in my hunt, none of them mine.

Got in trouble on #3, righted the ship on #4, then stumbled again on #5.

thanks to the recent deluge we have a new, unplanned water hazard in the middle of the fairway on #6 (which happily I avoided)

Thankfully after that I found the groove and won out the rest of the way.

the sandtraps now double as water hazards; managed to avoid them, too

decent tee shot on #7 left me with a reasonable lofting iron shot to the green...

...which I pushed to the far side of the green, but chipped close enough to the hole to save par and win the match, 3 and 2.

It was sunny and mid 40's, just the way I like it.

Hoping to get 1, maybe 2 more outings before this season's in the books.

<insert muffled weeping sounds here>

And finally...it's that blessed time again when we all embrace mass hysteria and storm the exits...

don't blame me...all I said was, "free pumpkin spice lattes for the first 50 customers!"

But first, let's 23 Skidoo...

Some spectacular October sunrise pics, courtesy of Larry from his cottage "up north":

no editing involved, that's the actual mirror effect of the smooth as glass lake

rising mist on the water

...followed by some amazing sunset pics:

love the fire in the sky...

...and waving farewell with a little <nachtmusik>:

Switching gears now...

a recent study revealed 1 in 6 pregnant women in Michigan smoke pot.  in a related study it was discovered that 16.67% of pregnant women in Michigan are morons.

not a great pic, but that's a black squirrel branch surfing while munching red berries

staging area in the bonus room...Karen informed me the heady days of "Occupy Living Room" are over

the stars in their dressing room, practicing for their "one night only" performance

I'm amazed by Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12.

That's the Bible prophecy that tells in remarkable detail about the Servant of the LORD - the ministry and sacrifice of Christ, hundreds of years before it happened.

Verse 12 is the astounding summary:

"12  Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

    - Isaiah 53:12

Written 700 years before His advent.

later, mcm fans...

I Think We Need A Break...

...from all things political.  

I know I do.

Most politicians are toxic and should have warning labels tattooed on their forehead so you know to avoid direct contact.

I could spend every blog entry delving into their constant lies and misdeeds, but it's just too depressing.

So instead of focusing on the dregs of humanity ↴

top row: the wicked witch and cryin' chuck
bottom row: dumb and dumber

 

↳ today we're going to embrace happier themes.

You're welcome.

We're less than 2 weeks away from the big day...

...so time to crank up production again at our seasonal treat factory headquarters.

word to the wise: avoid working the graveyard shift.

Off to a slow start but never fear...we'll be fully operational before you can say "what the heck were we thinking?"

We also interviewed our final candidate for this year's Walk Of Fear™:

A grim looking fellow, I didn't hold out much hope.

"Must have been a very good pumpkin harvest this year," I suggested.

"You're the 11th pumpkin we've had applying for this opening.

"Why should we use you?"

He tried to explain...

...but as you can hear, didn't really say much.

"Thank you for not talking with your mouth full," I told him, "but you might want to see a dental surgeon about that...um, problem.

"We'll be in touch."

We also contacted Big Frank who kindly agreed to grace us with his presence again...

...but only if he was under the flag.

Who knew?  Big Frank's a patriot.

Still have to check on the rest of the gang, currently hibernating in the garage.

More to come...

As I've delved into the history of feathery golf, an interesting mystery has presented itself:

It seems golfers of old were whacking the little leather spheres quite a bit farther than us, their modern day counterparts.

While there are only 2 current versions of featheries being produced today, there have been various iterations that have come and gone over the last 50 years or so.

All of them have (or had) the same issue: they don't measure up in terms of distance achieved.

So what was a good drive with featheries in the early 1800s?

While there are records of ridiculously long drives exceeding 350 yards (think flat frozen ground and a stiff tailwind), it seems 150 to 200 yards was not unusual.

Our friends Down Under at the Authentic Feathery Golf Ball Co. claim their balls can be hit 160 yards.

Intrigued, I shelled out for 2 of their LION (OS) - OverSized - balls and gave them a try.

Here they are after 9 holes:

The one on the right barely survived 5 holes, then I switched to the one on the left for the last 4 holes.

I did strike them 100 to 110 yards from the tee, but you'd need a cannon to achieve their spurious claim of 160 yards (and a garbage bag to pick up whatever was left of them afterwards).

On the other hand, Lane Co. claims 80 to 100 yards is about average for their featheries...

...which matches precisely my experience with their ball (and it's MUCH more durable than the LION ball).

So what was the secret ingredient present in yesteryear's featheries that's missing from today's versions?

To date, no one seems to know.

Apparently manufacturers back then did not leave detailed instructions behind re: their process, probably for the same reason industries keep secrets today:

The basic idea with featheries is simple enough:

Both the leather and feathers are wet during production; as they dry, the leather shrinks and the feathers expand, making a solid ball.

It's possible they just stuffed more feathers into the leather spheres than they do today, thus producing a higher compression ball.

Or perhaps they treated the ingredients with something that caused them to expand - or the leather to contract - more than normal.

Whatever their "secret sauce" was then, it remains secret today.

Those of us who still perform the black arts of hickory golfery...

...do care about historical accuracy, but that includes results.

Purists may object, but in my world the "must haves" to qualify as a feathery golf ball are limited to a leather cover and feathers inside.

Beyond that, anything else required from a methods and materials standpoint is fine with me as long as I swing and it lands 140 or so yards away.

Neither of today's feathery golf ball companies are there yet, but at least the LANE ball is durable.

And Hickory Lane keeps working to improve performance, with recent word of a promising breakthrough.

For now, my plans for what's left of this rapidly disappearing season remain the same -

- continue playing feathery golf on my local par 3 course.

Next year?  Time will tell.

Perhaps the good folks at Hickory Lane will indeed have improved their featheries to within spitting distance of their ancient forebears.

I hope so; 'twould be lovely to spend the rest of my days playing feathery golf.

Time for everyone's favorite oddity, 23 Skidoo:

the continuing saga of Chippy: he pokes his head up from his hole in our wall and wonders, "what's that delightful smell?"

"Ah," thinks he, "lunch!"

we leave our diminutive hero to his delicious repast.

some colorful mid-october sunrises from Larry's cottage "up north"

not quite as "sour grapes" as it sounds.  a recent review of multiple games involving KC showed clear evidence of penalties not called on KC when infractions of the same kind were called on opponents.  this is known as "the michael jordan effect", where the league 

shamelessly protects and promotes whatever's making them money. (think millions of swifties who don't know the difference between foozeball and football tuning in for every KC game.)  in other words, this ain't a sport, folks; it's a business and the bottom line is still the bottom line.

Turns out Mom and Dad were right after all when they kept after us to get up off our butts and get busy doing something useful:

"10  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

"11  So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man."

    - Proverbs 6:10,11

later, mcm fans...