Tiger's Got A Brand New Putter

So Tiger’s got a brand new putter. He ditched the Scotty Cameron Newport 2 he has used for years in favor of the new Nike (surprise) Method 003 in the last tournament of the year. Wonder if the change will stick this time.

Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover are already using this model and looks like Tiger thought he needed to give it a try. It has a different look than the Scotty Cameron, might take some time to get used to how it looks at address. I thought Tiger looked pretty comfortable on my TV screen with the new putter. Changing from the more conventional looking Cameron to the semi-mallet is a huge for the greatest golfer on earth and may take more than one tournament to find the correct feel.

The putter is a little pricey for this old guy (who once putted great with a fourteen dollar K-Mart putter) and at two and a half bills I will pass. I think for most of us a putter in a mid price range will look and feel good. If you want to compare brands, prices and styles before going to the shop or range, I like this site—GolfPutters.net.


Oh by the way-Think Tiger will put a Ping grip on this new putter like he always did with the Newport 2?

More Snow in the East

Wow-more snow in the east. Living in Wyoming we get lots of snow and we get used to it. Record snow all over the east and it has been mostly warm, for 7,200 feet, here the past few days. The snow is melting and I am starting to think spring.

Too Much Snow

Is it really only the middle of November? Here in the high country of Wyoming I have already scooped 30 inches of snow. Okay, I lied, I used my snow blower, sorry extremely green people but I am getting too old to shovel snow.
So—this begs the question, don’t you love it when someone says, “this begs the question?” Why do we still live here---Answer, because the rest of the year, it is fabulous.
So—how do I cope? Easy, I wear shorts and sandals year round.
* I turn up the thermostat to 80 degrees.
*I mow the grass even when it is covered with snow.
* I turn the heat on high or ultra high if I can find it, and drive the pickup around town with my windows down.
* I build snowmen and put sunglasses on them so they look cool and summery. Is summery really a word?
*And last of all (note how I cleverly did not say, last but not least) I go to Wyoming football games, set in the student section, take off my shirt, paint WYO on my chest and pretend like it is not cold.
No-Forget the last one—it was a lie.

Snow and Green Grass

Well—it’s October and that means snow in Wyoming and green grass underneath. I really hate this time of year, the constant scooping of snow from the lawn and garden so that I can mow and weed. Then more snow, more scooping and more mowing and weeding. I tried something a little different this year I duct taped (or is it duck taped—you know the gray silvery stuff) anyway, as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself. I taped with that gray shinny tape my snow blower to the front of my lawn mower, looks a bit funny when I do the driveway but works like a charm on the lawn.
Despite the snow (three times so far for a total of a foot of snow) my garden still looks pretty good. Why do the weather people on TV and radio now refer to snow storms as snow events? Despite three separate snow events my garden still looks pretty good. Of course most of it (tomatoes and onions) is in the garage. I pulled some carrots today and they were quite tasty, thank you. The rest of the garden really does not look so good, its mostly dead beans, dead peas, dead radishes, dead strawberries, dead herbs of all kinds (don’t like most of them anyway) and lots of dead flowers. And so as I started—Well –it’s October and so much for gardening this year.

Keynesian Economics

We hear so much today about the economy and the trouble we are in world wide, reminds me of my old college days and my study of John Maynard Keynes, and his Keynesian Economics. All I remember is raise taxes when times are good to cool off the economy and lower taxes when times are bad to heat up the economy. If Keynes was right, he is dead now so we can’t ask him, then we should not have cut taxes during the high times we were all living with our MasterCard’s and Visas and times were good. Hummmm—Keynes also believed that government deficit spending might be okay in times of recession or especially depression. Maybe we are doing the right thing running around bailing everyone but me out of financial despair.
So I have been sitting around thinking some, I am good at thinking, and I believe I can solve this countries and maybe the worlds economic woes by doing the following.#

1. Every Thursday is free day at Wal-Mart.
#2. All fast food, everything is .99 cents.
#3. Congress recesses until 2012
#4. Network and Local news shows—all cancelled—replaced by Looney Tunes.
#5. Take peanuts and pistachios off the endangered foods list
#6. Instead of giving millionaire CEOs a big bonus, just let them give each other a big hug and wish each other well and then let the stockholders have the bonus money.
#7. A chicken in every can of chicken noodle and a cracker in every barrel (I have no idea what that means)
#8. Slash Green Fees on every golf course in the world by 50% (this one is personal)
#9. This one seems simple—a jobs program that works. Jobs for those that can—where, maybe in some of the failed businesses the government may eventually have to operate.
#10. Some businesses will fail, let them fail and reorganize, if they are worth their salt they can make it. Not everyone is happy all the time—and everything does not have a happy ending.
-BONUS-
#11. To save everyone a little money, let us, as consumers, choose what TV stations we want and pay for those. Skip the rest of the fluff.
#12. Required in every school—classes in manners, common courtesy, self sufficiency, basic economics, and appropriate language and dress. WOW I am showing my age on that one.
#13. Elect me, “the old guy that got to thinkin’,” President—I’ll take care of you—after myself of course!

Well there you have it; I may have been sitting and thinking too much.

The Income Tax Return

I wrote on another site that I got a big Income Tax Return this year and was not sure how to spend it. I got several questions,,,,,, actually one,,,,, as to how I spent it.

I love it when I get a tax refund—but what to do with it? That is the Question? Sorry Mr. Shakespeare!

Now in the right hands $26.00 can be quite a chunk of change and in the wrong hands it can be used for great amounts of very evil stuff. So when you are talking, or is it just me talking, might be those voices only I hear coming back again? It takes more than just a little thinkin’ and decidin’ before time to do the spendin’. My spell checker hates it when I leave off the g at the end and use the ‘ instead. Well, just to keep Mr. Fancy Pants Spell Checker happy I will put the Gs back. GGG, there all three of them. Oh, great now it’s telling me that - GGG, there all three of them, is a fragment not a sentence. Well I like it as a sentence and will not be changing it. Please feel free to change it if you want to forward this blog to someone with good spelling and grammar skills.

Please find below the way I spent my $26.00 Federal Income Tax Return.


A down payment on a new house, Freddie Mac was happy to get the cash
-Or-
I bought a thousand shares of General Motors
-Or-
I washed my pick-up
-Or-
Took a spring break trip to Nebraska—Oh, forget that one, we really did-family was well
-Or-
Buried it in my back yard in an old Prince Albert Can (do they still sell Prince Albert)?
-Or-
Bought my wife a rose and put it in a borrowed vase
-Or-
Splurged and hired someone to mow the lawn—that one kind of backfired on me, it took all day to shovel the snow off first
-Or-
This is the last one—no kidding—bought a new tire for my Pee Wee Herman style bicycle; they tossed in the air for free.
-Or-
Hey a bonus humorous sentence. I spent it on dinner for four--------------At McDonalds.
-Or-
Now I can hear you asking for more. I spent it at the circus. I know that is not funny but –get this—there is no circus here! Now that makes it very funny.

Number 44 Our new President

Today we have a new president number 44. I watched the inauguration and much of the additional coverage and was highly impressed with everything. If we could keep that same feeling of patriotism, togetherness and usefulness all year long everyone on earth would think—wow, they really are the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
Good Luck President Obama and God speed.

Our New Vice President will be --

I’m watching the Vice Presidential Debate as I write this blog so if I end in the middle of a sentence I must have had a heart attach.

“What could cause a wise old guy like you to have a heart attach,” you ask.

If one or the other says any of the following—

1. Anything about balancing the Budget
2. Something that would bail me out
3. Lower gasoline prices
4. That someone has figured out something about Iraq and Afghanistan.
5. I’m starting to think about turning to the Baseball Game—don’t count that one.
6. Start paying down the deficit***or is that too much like number one?
7. Lucky for me I caught myself, on number six above, I typed defecate instead deficit-wow- talk about a Freudian slip. Good thing I caught it before publishing, might have messed up my chance to win a blogging Pulitzer.
8. The guy I’m running with is a dud but elect me as VP and the country will be on the right track
9. We caught Osama ben Laden.
10. I will, we will, when elected—Bla, Bla, Bla *-* Bla, Bla –About ready to turn this stuff off.
Same old promises I will vote for the one that is telling the truth—now who is that?

Remember, regardless of how you feel, get out and vote, vote early and vote often.

One final note, be sure to …………………………

Football--New Rules

Tough time of the year for me, getting cold, fall heading into winter, nope. Lots of people in Wyoming call this time of year hunting season, but not me, it’s the end of golf and the beginning of football. There is some difference—I play golf and watch football. I like to play golf at this time of year. Not many people on the course and it’s really not that hard to find golf balls in the snow, they almost always leave a trail. This year I am going to limit myself to watching only five or six football games a week. That may sound like a lot to many people but about half of what I usually do. I even have a few suggestions for new rules to make football more exciting.

1. Use two footballs instead of one.
2. Allow holding—anywhere, anytime
3. Ten points for a drop kick field goal of over twenty-five yards
4. Let the soda and hot dog venders on the sidelines and into the huddle during time outs.
5. Have all teams wear white uniforms
6. Fine any network using a sideline reporter one million dollars—I really hate sideline reporters.
7. All music in the stadium must be from the band—no more obnoxious music
blaring from huge million dollar boom boxes.
8. All football games must be played outside
9. Instant replays will be sent to the nearest local sports bar with everyone in the bar getting three votes
10. Night games will be played without lights—players will be allowed flashlights and spectators are each allowed two glow sticks

Saving Money in 2008

-How to Save Money-

So you want to save a few bucks? First a few ramblings then the good stuff you really want to know.

The price of gas is going down— a station nearby has lowered prices twice in the past few days. All stations in our little city of thirty thousand are now under four dollars a gallon—whoop-e.
Two things stand out in my mind about gas prices, first when I had to raise the prices on the sign at the Texaco station where I worked in high school to thirty cents a gallon. Boss wondered if anyone would ever stop again. Second, when my dad said, “If gas goes over a dollar a gallon the highways will be empty, no one will go anywhere.”
Today we seem almost happy to have gas under four dollars. Everything is going up, except salaries it seems. The minimum wage did go, not sure what that means?
Now the good stuff—saving money, my six priceless money saving steps.

1. At the pumps—fill your tank only half full. That makes sense and will cost only half as much. And how do you really look at your gas gage are you a half full kind of person or half empty. Walking is good!

2. At the grocery store—carry one of the little baskets, no push cart for you and don’t go so often. Need more food, garden, what a concept exercise and food. Go on a diet and save money. All-ready to skinny, buy cheap stuff and exercise less.

3. Home mortgage—refinance with a lower interest rate. If you can’t do that don’t make any payments for a while and try to get into the governments new bail out program. If that doesn’t work buy a used RV for almost nothing and park in front of your neighbor’s house. Same neighborhood, nice.

4. Medical insurance—if you have it though the old job, great. If you are buying it on your own beware, there are a lot of scams out there. Pay by the month and don’t get insurance that wants all the money up front in unmarked bills. Don’t limp into an insurance office and expect a good rate. When you show up to an insurance office, suck in the gut, where larger than needed clothes, put your glasses in your pocket and talk endlessly about how much you like exercise and vegetables. It also helps to mention that mom and dad are both over one hundred and vacationing on a nude beach in Mexico, for a month.

5. Needing a new car—by large and save. If it gets less than twenty miles per gallon it will be on sale. Then carefully follow directions in number one above.

6. Investing or starting your own business—don’t. This is the wrong time and wrong place. Spend all the money you have take a vacation. No wait a minute that’s what I do, not always smart.

**** Want to know more about starting your own business and how bad you will fail? See my story at: http://www.helium.com/items/831316-satire-work?search_result=true