Ed's Blog

Summer Days, Spending Time, and Family

I love summer. Living in Buffalo means getting out of the house (igloos) enjoying the outdoors ... nature, golf, and of course for me, as a college professor who isn't teaching summer school it means working on research papers instead of teaching, working on my golf game, working on the yard and landscaping and watergarden (I will write a short blog story on our watergarden, as soon as my latest film photos are developed), ... and all the other hobbies that you don't have time for during the academic year.

Actually, if you read my last run-on sentence very closely you will notice the action verb is "work." Now, this may seem contradictory to most people - "working on my golf game." Come on. But, wait, to non-golfers let me explain. Golf is not quite a sport. It is most aptly described as an addiction. I think Dennis Hopper once said that there is a natural progression: marijuanna, cocaine, heroine, and then golf. (Dennis Hopper knows about these things).

The problem with a hobby like golf is this ... if you play well on Tuesday, you really, really want to play again on Wednesday becuase you played so well, it was fun. Great. If you play really awful on Wednesday, you really, really, really, want to play again on Thursday because you know how to correct your latest faults (because you spent Wednesday night thinking about your swing). Now when the addiction starts to take hold, a cyclical process begins where all of the "really" from the previous sentence is replaced with "really, really, really." Getting a golf fix can take hold of your life.

Of course there is much, much more to golf than what I just described. If you consider that golf also means spending time with friends (socializing), exercise (it's a nice walk), being out in nature, and all of the extras (tv, magazines, shopping for golf equipment, ... etc) ... then you can maybe, start seeing the tip of the iceberg.

I started golf lessons when I was 6 years old. Due to tremendous self control, I keep away from actually playing about 3 or 4 times a week. (Fortunately, I have not become addicted yet.)

At my Freshmen Advisement seminar last week, Girish asked about my summer. I said that golf was getting in the way of work and other activities. Girish and others countered - "Oh, what you mean is work is getting in the way of golf! Ha, ha." No, guys, I meant what I said.

Coming attraction Blogs, Next: (1) reports on my upcoming family reunion, (2) the pond story, (3) finding some time to pursue my other, new hobby, sketching, and (4) The actual family reunion report.

posted by Unknown @ 6:41 AM