Desires, Energy and Efforts

I'm a new golfer by most standards. I started in 2009. Took a few lessons, bought some cheap clubs and joined a league. I was extremely embarrassing to watch. But I had the desire to learn the game, even though at 56 years of age I should have stuck to other activities.


Last year I missed a lot of golf due to work and community commitments. It bothered me a lot, but first things first. Responsibility can be a bummer sometimes. I got word that my league was informally starting a month early for those that wanted to participate and with the recent spate of nice weather I thought I’d give it a whirl. Never mind that we went from sunny and 80’s to windy and 50’s. I wanted to golf.

So I showed up, paid my fee and went out to play. Not totally miserable conditions, but 20 mph winds with 40 mph gusts are not the best conditions for a mediocre player like me. But I wanted to golf. So I did. My shots were not great and by the end of the 9-hole round I was ready for a hot shower, not happy with my effort and feeling a bit like I wasted that time.

I tell this story because sometimes we do things that maybe we shouldn’t. I really have been in a busy stretch of work and I could have caught up a bit on some of those things that we all defer with those two hours. But I wanted to golf. And by god, I golfed. Misspent energy? Perhaps. Mini-reward for working hard since last Fall? Maybe. But I didn’t really enjoy the round as much as I thought I would, even though it felt great to swing the clubs, see the familiar faces, and kidding around with the guys was fantastic.

I let my desire to golf divert my energy and efforts, even with poor playing conditions. That was the mistake. I will make a better decision next time and I believe that the golf will be sweeter and I’ll be more focused with my game. A good energy policy!

Which leads me to a whole different energy thought. How is it that there’s such a disconnect between crude oil prices (barrel) and gasoline (gallon)? I looked up crude oil prices on the Bloomberg website and gasoline prices on the U.S. Energy Information Agency website and got these figures:

August 2011	$100.46/barrel	$3.64/gallon
November 2011	$105.26	$3.37
February 2012	$112.71	$3.64
March 2012	$102.37	$3.84

Now, we’re seeing $4.00+ prices but the crude prices haven’t risen dramatically.  An acquaintance said that it’s all because of speculators.  I’m speculating, too - every time I buy a $10 worth to get me back to a place where gas prices are a nickel cheaper per gallon for a fill-up. It doesn't get me much profit, but I feel better about the effort.

News That Makes You Go hmm . . .

Hey, hey! Stolen cars are at their lowest rate since 1987. There's good news.  Guess the high price of gasoline is deterring more than the 'Club' and lowjac.  And better yet, Detroit's not in the Top 10 City list for stolen cars, either.

Verizon is doing away with unlimited data plans.  Might as well.  My Blackberry Curve chokes when using the IE web browser so often it's almost useless. I downloaded the BOLT browser (free) from the Blackberry store and it works much faster.

And what's with the price of coffee?  Are they making *that* from oil, too? I'm cutting back to half a pot for the family in the morning (one cup each) and skipping it at restaurants, too.  Analysts blame it on the demand for green coffee (green coffee beans are those picked, processed wet, dried and then milled, but not roasted. That  is usually left to the bean purchaser) and also to poor growing conditions in South America. I'm betting the speculators are driving prices more than anything else.

The FDA approved some new graphic warning labels for cigarette packages.  Now we need financial advisors to start advertising on them, too. (That might deter people more than image of a diseased lung.)  I was in a local store recently and saw a Marlboro pack price of $6.25!  No wonder the new 'growth' industry seems to be tobacco shops.  Rolling your own is more popular now than it was in the late 60's.

NPR covered a story about a facebook post from Lab42 that says of the surveyed men, 27 percent who judge themselves to be overweight ate at fast food outlets more than seven times a week. Crap! How did that happen! I just bought a new belt.  (The study group was composed of 500 men aged 18-35.)

I'm busy unsubscribing from all the things that I signed up for that sounded like a good idea at the time, but that have proven to have absolutely no value to me.  First one? Groupon. Nice coupons if you live in Metro Detroit, but at an hour away there was never anything that made me want to jump in the car and drive for.

I'm extending that to magazines, too.  I love golf but when you get all of these great 'ideas' about how to hit longer tee shots or make better chips, it just seems to confuse my game.  I'm actually hitting straighter and playing more consistently now that I quit reading golf magazines - and watching golf improvement shows. Tournaments are different. Let me know if you want to camp out in front of a TV to watch a tournament some time.