It’s been quite the month of March so far.

A visit back to see the folks in late Feb introduced me to a bug of some sort, then my mom took sick with probably the same thing I had and ended up spending the better part of ten days in the hospital, meaning another trip back and doing that familiar “create order out of chaos” thing that comes with being the oldest brother once you have elderly parents – trips to the hospital, keeping the whole family informed and on the same page, that sort of thing. I don’t mind – comes with the turf. But between spending a day in the ER down the street after my sister-in-law did something to her shoulder (the whole room – and I do mean the whole room filled with kids and teenagers coughing, sneezing, and puking), and two more plane rides filled with the same (though, fortunately, not the latter) my body has been beaten down to the point where I’m the one that needs to go to the doctor and see about getting something more than over-the-counter meds.

I’ve never been one to go the flu shot route – to me it always seemed like an inherently convenient way for the government to slip in something that could modify behavior, like turning conservative-thinking folk into the other persuasion (no conspiracy theorist, I!) – but after this year, and recognizing the fact that, all the gym work aside, I am now in my sixties, I think next year I’ll give it a go.

It’s good to be back home in the Valley of the Sun. Sitting here under the Tiki bar on a lovely, sun-splashed Sunday morning with a big cup of joe in my favorite Jacques Cousteau-quoting…

The Sea
“Once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonders forever.”

nautical-themed cup at my reach, doors to the kitchen wide open, the sounds of birds chirping and folks going about their weekend-warrior activities beyond the walls outside, Golf Channel on the TV inside, it occurs to me that it doesn’t get a whole lot better than this. The air fragrant with the sweet smell of all the fruit trees budding (from the looks of it my neighbor Shawn is going to have a bumper crop of grapefruit; same for us and our lime tree). Gekkos scurrying along the walls and darting in and out of the bushes planted alongside. The sound of water trickling across the swimming pool fountain rocks. If I felt better I’d hit a bucket of balls over at Superstition Springs this afternoon, but I tried to swing a 7-iron yesterday in the front yard and it felt like it weighed twenty pounds. When I start feeling better I’ll start making the transition from working-on-my-swing winter golf to preparing for Goodboys Invitational weekend which, hard to believe, is just four itty-bitty months away.

[Speaking of which…Yo, Goose – I know you frequent this site from time to time. If you look carefully in the upper right-hand corner of this page you might notice that one of those two strikingly-handsome gents holding the Spielberg Memorial Trophy looks an awful lot like you. Meaning, isn’t it about time for Exec-Comm to start stirring from its off-season hibernation and start getting on the stick as far as the 2016 Goodboys Invitational is concerned? I mean, where are we going? Where are we playing? Who’s in? Who’s not? Whither “Mothra”? Where are we staying? Who is my partner? How much will it cost? You know, the usual things…]

After being away from the house for the better part of a month there’s a lot of work to do inside as far as cleaning is concerned. Not so much outside, fortunately – at last not like the last two years where we had the grande Tiki bar deck and Tiki bar roof replacement projects. I want to re-theme all the silk flower pots and replace the clay one that finally disintegrated from years of sun and heat, but frankly, that’s about it. God-willing-and-the-creek-don’t-rise we’re still on track to have all of our non-mortgage debt paid off by Halloween (Labor Day if we get a little lucky), but I’m more than happy just taking things week to week, recognizing how fragile our individual earthly existences are where everything and anything can change at a moment’s notice.

The bougainvillea are outstanding this year. Will try and get some pics up over the next few days.

Hope y’all didn’t think I had dropped the ball on the blog too badly. It’s good to be back.