Chasing Sunsets: A Week of Uncharted Paths and Golf Course Resurrections
It's been quite a busy week…partly due to me acting on my previous Friday post where I committed to stop being complacent around the house and actively meet needs as they arise. I was very productive this past week, both in housework and my own personal projects, turns out objects in motion do indeed tend to stay in motion, I found a workflow in going from one task to the next. In the day-to-day, I helped do the dishes, clean the kitchen, do laundry, set & clear the table and included the remarkable feat of keeping my bedroom clean instead of piling up with clutter. For house projects, I helped replace key fob batteries, program Alexa, repair birdfeeders, repair kitchenware, repair eyeglasses, and assist in finding programs and shows on the TV. That last one may not sound like an actual task to some of my similarly aged readers, but believe me in 2024 where even our vacuum cleaner is controlled via an app, technology problems and questions arise nearly daily. Usually simple ones, but also ones where if I wasn’t here to help in person, they would have a much harder time as sometimes it’s not exactly something you can communicate instructions over the phone. Replacing the battery in the key fob for example. The dash on the car came up with a message saying the battery was getting low and would need to be replaced soon. If I wasn’t here, my mom would likely have to take my dad and drive to the dealership to have them change it, it’s not a job that requires a dealership, but if you aren’t familiar with how key fobs are put together you can easily break it and then you are likely out a few hundred dollars to replace and reprogram a key. I was able to remove and replace the battery and have it back together in a matter of a few minutes.
My biggest project of the week was to build an elevated platform for the washer and dryer. This had been a project on the “list” for some time now, and after kicking myself in the pants last week, I decided it was time to get it done. Our washer and dryer are front-loading however they sit on the floor, so when you are using them you have to bend over quite low to use them. You can buy these elevated pedestals to solve this problem, but they are well over $100. After doing some research into different designs, I found one I liked, took the measurements, and went to Lowes to purchase the wood. If you buy wood at Lowes, they will usually cut it for you and I had a list of measurements for what I needed. I had the top piece of plywood cut and then I had 4 2x4s I needed to cut, but the employee informed me they were only allowed to make 4 cuts per customer and I already had two done with my piece of plywood. I do not own a circular saw so getting the pieces cut for me would be a big help in getting this done. I called Home Depot which is across the street and asked about their wood-cutting policy, they said they would be happy to help once I told them I only needed a few 2x4s done so I was able to come back to the house with all the wood cut and ready to assemble. Within a couple of hours, I had the platform assembled and painted, it came out rather well at a perfect height, strong solid design, and space underneath for storage. My mom was very happy with the finished product and so am I.
I also did some traveling for work this week. Last year I did a little bit of contracting for a sports data company that pays people to attend sporting events and to call the action as it happens. Due to the explosion in sports betting in recent years, live betting on games has become more popular as well. Well, live betting only works if the lines are efficient, and TV broadcasts can be 30-90 seconds delayed so sportsbooks need actual live information to keep their lines current. This gig can pay rather well, potentially over $2,000 per game plus traveling expenses and the expense of the ticket. The group I had been working for was rather small and getting in consistent work has been difficult, but on Wednesday evening I received a phone call asking if I was able to call a soccer game tomorrow evening, in Cincinnati. A quick Google Maps inquiry showed the stadium to be 450 miles away. After checking a few things, I agreed to make the trip. Thankfully my van was still clean and ready to go after working on it last week, so I packed an overnight bag and went to bed around midnight with my alarm set for 3 am.
I woke up to my alarm and solved the puzzle on the app to turn it off. (My body and mind rarely agree on the right time to get up, I have to force myself to do something more difficult or I will always hit the snooze button). Driving up to Ohio requires traversing over the smoky mountains, and I would be doing that portion in the dark. Many blind corners and 3 deer in the road later, I made it through without incident. I got gas at the famous Buccees gas station in Kentucky. On my way to turn in, there were two turning lanes, I was in the outer one and the van beside me failed to stay in their lane and started to come dangerously close to my van, I swerved slightly to the left, striking the curb pretty solidly. I pulled up to the pump and inspected the wheel for any damage, you could definitely tell where the wheel had stuck, but the tire and rim looked ok, and nothing was broken on the other side of the wheel that I could tell. So after grabbing a breakfast burrito and 20 gallons of gas, I continued on, it became apparent quickly that the wheel at the very least had been thrown out of balance. Thankfully though this was mostly noticeable at low speeds and highway speeds it was mostly smooth so it seemed safe enough to continue onward.
I arrived in Cincinnati around noon and proceeded to head north to visit my grandmother. She is 91 and still lives alone but is starting to have some neurological problems so my mom and my uncle have both done a lot in the last 6 months to insure she has people checking in on her and making sure things such as groceries and bills are taken care of on time. My uncle was just finishing up a visit when I arrived, and I stayed for lunch and a couple of hours after, played with her dog and talked with her. She reminds me of where my dad was a year ago, she is not as engaging now, sometimes does not respond to comments, and often repeats the same things or stories she has told me before. But it was still a nice visit, I left and went to a coffee shop to get some work done on the computer before the game started at 7 pm. When I got pack from the coffee shop to my van, I went to open the door and the door handle came off in my hand much to my surprise. Thankfully, my other doors all work perfectly and I was able to still get in the van, I ordered a new handle from Amazon that I will install on Sunday when it gets here, travelling is always an adventure.
Until today I wasn’t aware Cincinnati even had a soccer stadium, but I was impressed, it was a very modern one very similar to those you see over in Europe. It was a clear night but the temperature was 38 degrees and dropping, I put in my headset and called the game action as Cincinnati FC, a heavy favorite, defeated their opponent 4-0.
Normally I try and make traveling to cities more of a short vacation, I enjoy Cincinnati and wanted to get some drone footage of the architecture as well as see some friends. However, when I looked at the forecast and saw the low was 23 degrees, I decided to begin heading south again, maybe next time I’ll spend more time when it’s not sub-freezing temperatures. I didn’t drive all that long, a little south of Lexington Kentucky, before I pulled into a Cracker Barrel to call it a night. Cracker Barrel has a nationwide policy of allowing people to stay in their lot overnight. This is a perfect solution as many Cracker Barrels are right off a major highway, next to hotels, and usually very quiet, on top of providing a good meal at reasonable prices. When I awoke the next morning it was 25 degrees outside, and inside the van it was 40 degrees. I do have a small space heater I use sometimes, but I had not brought it on this trip so I decided to go in for some breakfast and to warm up before getting on the road. After having my fill of biscuits and gravy, which for some reason was not up to the normal standard this morning, I continued to make my way back to South Carolina. Along the way I stopped and picked up a popcorn popper for the house, our family at one time would go through 100 lb. of popcorn a year, buying the same 50 lb. bags from Costco that movie theaters do. While we don’t go through it at that rate any longer, it is still a regular part of the diet, our popcorn machine had been broken for a while now and I found a brand new one on Facebook Marketplace for $15, quite a discount from the $50 it retailed for. I arrived back at the house without incident, covering 1,000 miles in about 36 hours. The manager of the group was pleased with my call of the game and wants to use me regularly for games in the future, this is an answer to prayer as it will allow to earn a salary while only requiring less than a week’s worth of work per month.
As far as my dad is concerned, he had a pretty good week overall. On Monday it was unseasonably warm and so I suggested we go to a par 3 golf course. Last year when I asked him if he wanted to play he said his back hurt too much and he could not play anymore, it seemed I had played my last round with my dad and I wasn’t even aware of it. Although he couldn’t play, I still thought he would enjoy getting outside and he could putt around on the practice green and watch me play the short 9-hole course. If this went well, my mom and I were considering getting a membership to this course in the Spring as this might be a good activity for him to do to get out of the house. My first shot from the tee box went over the green, and I had quite a bit of trouble putting the ball in the hole, marking an unimpressive “7” on the scorecard. I guess the Masters might have to wait until 2025 after all. Hole #2 did not fare much better, notching a 6 there, it had been several months since I had swung a club and it showed. When I was putting I asked my dad if he wanted to use his walker and walk around the green so he could get some steps in. At the house, he has continued to pace up and down the hall with his walker, and checks his Fitbit each time he sits down to see how many steps he is at for the day. On the back of the cart normally you secure two golf bags, we had one golf bag and one walker. He walked around and looked like he was sad so I asked him what was wrong. “I don’t have my clubs to play,” I told him I didn’t think he could play anymore because of his back, but if he felt good enough I had brought his pitching wedge and putter, intended to be used on the putting green but you could certainly get by with just those clubs on a par 3 course. So on the next hole, after my shot ricocheted off a tree and landed in the fairway, my dad hit his ball off the tee box. It was about half of what a full swing was, but he did it and the ball went straight. We played about 5 holes, with him walking most of them. He was very confused when playing, probably a combination of not playing golf in a while and just the fact of doing something outside his normal routine. He would nearly always forget where his ball was, I would show it to him and he would walk over towards it, walk a few feet past it, put his club on the ground, and take a swing as if there was a ball there, but it was a few feet behind him. I showed him where the ball was again, needing to coach nearly every shot and lead him directly to the ball. Once we got on the green he did a little better in keeping track, but sometimes he would be facing the wrong direction and I would have to remind him where the hole was and he would readjust. He never got upset or frustrated, I don’t think he even realized just how lost he was, as long as he was having fun and not in pain, that was what was important to me, I didn’t care if it took us 15 minutes to do one hole, we would get through it together. After about our 6th hole, he hit a tee shot into the water and declared he was done, the sun was starting to drop along with the temperature so we loaded up back into the van, not before I wiped away a few tears thanking him for coming to play and that I didn’t think I was ever going to play another hole of golf with him before today. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said, patting me on the leg. This wasn't about achieving a perfect game; it was about the unspoken connection, the shared moments that transcended the scorecard.
Meals this week continued to be a struggle, dinner in particular seems to be his worst. Over a year ago I got him some silverware designed for people with tremors and difficulty holding utensils as they are large with rubber grips much easier to grasp. At the time my mom suggested we hold off on giving them to him as she thought he might get upset that we thought he needed special utensils, but after eating with a butter knife and having multiple problems last week we decided to begin using them, and that has made a slight improvement, but he is still normally very confused and messy when he eats. Last night we had cornbread with our soup, he asked me to cut his pieces in half so he could apply butter to them. I did as he asked and laid them open for him, he then picked them up and ate them, never touching the container of butter and after he ate about half, he threw the pieces in the trash.
Stay tuned for the continuation of this captivating week, as the narrative unfolds into more chapters of unexpected twists and heartwarming moments.