Yesterday was one of those where you understand why people live in the Valley of the Sun. Temps were in the mid-70s (we’ll be above 70 all week), I heard the first mourning dove mating coos of the year, a lovely breeze rustled through the palms, and we had the doors wide open to let the air in. Absolutely gorgeous.

I sat on the side patio nursing a club soda with a wedge of lemon taken right off the tree beside me (courtesy of my diet, no alcohol for the next two weeks) and watched the doves and all sorts of small birds, sparrows, mostly, try to eat my newly spread grass seed. The pool filter was annoying me, so I shut it off and drank in the quiet. Trees rustling, birds winging in and out of the lemon and lime trees, the occasional dove cooing. It was gorgeous.

Hard to believe, but passing by a couple of golf courses on my way to do errands earlier, they weren’t as packed as I thought they would be – I mean, it was a perfect day for golf (a “ten-beller” as fellow Goodboy Ben “The Funny Guy” Andrusaitis is wont to say). I even took a few minutes out of the day to break out my 8-iron and take the first swings of 2012 out on the front lawn. With Vegas golf beckoning in just around six weeks from now, I’ll begin preparations this coming weekend with my first jaunt to the range since last July.

If there was ever a week for thawing out the bones and decompressing from a incredibly-hectic holiday season it is it.