Seventh Golf Game of 2009 (first half?)

4th hole, old landing golf course
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

I managed to squeeze-in 9 holes at Old Landing Golf Course this morning before the light rain and distant rumbling became heavy downpours and thunder. The gent in the clubhouse was kind enough to offer me a 9-hole rain check after we stood together and watched a green, yellow and red mass moving in on the weather channel radar.

I have to say I played poorly. I think I was listening too hard for thunder and lightning from the first tee and so not being patient enough. I did settle down some, though, after it began to rain softly and without thunder. I had my share of good shots and finally managed to play the long, bending road-side par-5 -- where I am usually in the trees to the right -- out in the fairway where a gentleman should play.

I'm not sure when I'll play the second half of game 7. The forecast for tomorrow is not promising. But we'll see.

Some People Just Can't Stay Out of the News

I think I had honestly started to forget about Bobby Jacobs, one-time wunderkind head of a local sports tournament that collapsed into scandal some years ago. Well, he's back and facing charges of harassment, according to a story on the WBOC web site: Former Basketball Tournament Director Arrested for Stalking.

Troopers say they were called in to investigate after letters were sent to the Cape Henlopen School District accusing a teacher of inappropriate misconduct with students. They say the letters continued not only to the school district but also to Wesley College in Dover, accusing a coach of similar misconduct. In addition, troopers say letters were sent to Legislative Hall accusing a department secretary in similar behavior.

Their investigation found the letters questionable and likely from a fictitious source. They also noted that all three of those targeted were once involved with the group that had oversight of the Slam Dunk to the Beach basketball tournament:

All three individuals, according to police, who were accused of the misconduct , were once involved with the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association. The organization was formerly known as the Delaware Scholastic Secondary Athletic Association. This organization oversaw the "Slam Dunk to the Beach Tournament" which Jacobs was the director.

The Slam Dunk tournament was a local institution for some years, but after a time started to look a little fishy to me. Eventually, it fell apart after questions started to arise regarding scholarships that were promised but not delivered. Mr. Jacobs abruptly canceled the 2004 event and was on the run for several years, hiding in Florida before being brought back to Delaware to face charges.

Police traced the letters back to their origins, found evidence linking them to Jacobs, searched his home and found even more evidence on his computer.

The result? More charges against Bobby Jacobs, and we once again have to follow this guys sad sack story.

Update: The Dover Post story on this includes a clarifying detail:

The three individuals allegedly targeted by the letters had helped police in their investigation of the Jacob’s misappropriating Slam Dunk funds after he cancelled the 2004 tourney and dropped out of sight. He was charged with theft and jailed for two years after his capture by U.S. marshals in Miami.

(A tip of the hat to twitterer @oceanviewde for leading me to this story)

At The Range

carts
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie

I've not been able to get out and play golf for a while, but I did head out to Midway Par 3 to hit a large bucket of balls at the driving range this evening.

I wanted to try out my two different drivers and see which will work best. And I worked my way through a few other clubs. It was a way to stay loose, get some motion in, and have some fun.

A couple of fellows came along and started hitting balls a short way down the line of mats. One was teaching the other to play. As much as I tried to not listen, I found the guy's advice to his friend starting to affect my swing. That's the worst thing you can do.

Over the years I have developed a serviceable, if ugly, swing. It usually works for me, though it is probably more appropriate to an arthritic, one-armed, 80-year old pensioner in a back-brace.

Listening, even unwillingly, to proper swing-advice just doesn't help. I think, frankly, that it may be too late.

Back on Stage at Possum Hall

I've taken a small role in a production by the Possum Point Players, a community theater in Georgetown Delaware where I spent many days, pre-kids.

The show is Stinkin' Rich, a retelling of Moliere's The Miser, set in 1929 in New York. I'm playing Simon, a lawyer and go-between who is on-stage for all of 30 seconds or so. The director is my old friend Nina Galerstein, who introduced me to the Lovely Karen. She asked me to jump in and take the small role and I decided, "why not?"

It has been a good long while since I've been on stage at Possum Hall as an actor. Back in 2004 I helped out as a stage-hand. I used to be a regular, but as the children came along and their activities took precedence, I stepped away. I'm enjoying getting back on-stage again in a speaking role. I like playing Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker for the girl's dance school. But it's cool to be using my voice again.

I've been taking rehearsal pictures, which may give you a preview of the show. I'll also note that fellow blogger Kim Klabe is a part of this production, playing a worldly operator named Rose.

The show opens this Friday and runs Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoons, for the next two weeks.

Con"grad"ulations

I saw "congratulations," spelled that way, with a "d," written in soap on the back window of a truck at Sussex Tech today. We were there for a graduation ceremony, so I assume that the misspelling was intentional and a celebration of someone having completed high school.

Our Colleen will graduate next year, so this was rehearsal, in a way. And we were there in support of our friends Andy and Lynne; their eldest, Rachel, was Class President and a speaker at the ceremony. That's her, at right.

Colleen's young man, Michael, also graduated, as did several of her friends, some of whom we've known since they started school. It's cool to see how they have grown into fine young men and women.

Sixth Golf Game of 2009

I played a solo round at Old Landing Golf Course, outside of Rehoboth Beach, yesterday afternoon. Old Landing is a course I've played many times in the past. It has not been the best-kept place to play, but it is getting better and is a fine value. I walked, carrying my clubs, as part of my attempt to get into better shape.

I decided to try playing the whole round with my driver in action. In the past, I have limited the use of the driver, as I am not very good with it. But my swing is improving and I can sometimes hit a decent drive, so I decided to use the driver on all holes save those where it is clearly the wrong club -- par-3 holes and those with narrow, tricky drives.

I had mixed results. There were several drives that I was proud of, but often, when I hit a firm, rising shot that seemed to have some distance in it, my slice ruined things. I hit a few trees. But my fairway shots are getting better; I've found a comfortable spot with my 3- and 4-hybrid clubs. There were several holes that I was able to approach in something like golfer fashion.

I still carded a disappointing 114, but had at least one par and several holes where, but for a decent putt, I'd have had more. There was only one truly ugly blow-up hole.

And I got some very pleasant exercise.

Floating History

I spent a pleasant hour today visiting the Nina and the Pinta, reproductions of two of the ships that Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain to the Americas. The ships are in Lewes for the weekend and the volunteer crews are offering tours.

I love boats of all kinds and am a voracious reader of maritime stories, so I was in heaven. I took about a hundred pictures, some of which I liked well enough to post on-line.

While I was aboard, a small group of volunteers from the Kalmar Nyckel were wandering around and playing compare and contrast. The Kalmar Nyckel is a reproduction of the ship that brought the first permanent European settlers to Delaware, in 1638. There are almost 150 years between the two voyages; it was fun to listen to them compare notes with the Nina and Pinta crews. The Kalmar Nyckel was a much more technologically advanced ship, yet all three are but small cockle shells in which to cross a stormy sea.

One of the perks of living in Lewes is the town's close connection to the sea. We were historically a port, and a fishing town. Now we haul in tourists and retirees, but the water still plays a key role.

A Stormy Night in Delaware

A storm front moved across Delaware last night, bring high winds, thunder and lightning, and possibly hail up and down the state.

The scene at right was at 7:05 p.m., just outside of Rehoboth Beach. Heavy rain showers had just moved through, though there was not much thunder or lightning. There was a momentary opening of the clouds that showed the sunny skies that had been around earlier in the day, and the tops of the storm clouds above the murk that hovered just over our heads.

As the evening progressed, we watched storms roll across the sky north of Lewes. They tend to pass us to the north, but we did get a few brushes of rain and wind and were able to watch the show from our north-facing living room windows.

And it was possible to track the various storms via twitter.

In Ocean City, Maryland:

• drvcrashI sweat a tornado is coming thru right now
• drvcrash It's hailing sideways
• scottking http://twitpic.com/67xft Hail just shattered the windshield on our neighbors truck. They look like cocktail onions.
• drvcrash @scottking yeah i was watching the cameras at work when it hit and all the customers run in
• scottking @drvcrash I can only picture being putt-putting or on the boardwalk and have it start hailing. Bet it's hilarious to see tourist run.

In New Castle County, Delaware:

• del_editor http://twitpic.com/680ld - rainbow outside the news journal
• del_editor power's out in bear, we hear
• del_editor about 5,600 Delmarva Power customers w/o power in Glasgow area. power back on by 11 p.m. they're saying.
• del_editor http://twitpic.com/6863r - rainbow on 141 SB

At around 10:00 p.m., del_editor, who works at the News Journal, tried a little twitter-based reporting:

• del_editor so how's the weather, any power outage situations out there in the south, north and in between delaware?
• andytuba @del_editor Well, Newark had that weird yellow sky earlier, but it stopped raining a while ago and the power's doing fine.
• lifeontheedges @del_editor not much crazy weather here, lots of thunder and lightning for a while but calm now. sky looked like orange sherbet at sunset.

I assume there were several other responses, from folks I don't follow, because del_editor soon seemed satisfied:

• del_editorI love the power of twitter. In a few seconds, I can gauge weather throughout state. thank you, all.

And others were watching the storm and storm-watchers:

• lifeontheedges wow, looking at flooding in Salisbury on @wboc preview

Meanwhile, in Southern California:

• martenhogeweg even the fox weather man is twittering: it's sunny in socal.. it's sunny in socal.. it's sunny in socal..

And this morning? Here on Delmarva:

• oceanviewde Storm last night was worth the incredible weather it brought for today!

Words Matter

There will be plenty of other people parsing the security/terrorism speeches by President Obama and Dick Cheney today. There are substantive differences in policy, of course. But I wanted to keep it simple and just look at the words.

To the right is a word-cloud of Dick Cheney's speech. Note the largest word. We spent the last eight years having that word, "terrorists," shoved down our throats.

At left is a word cloud of President Obama's speech. His largest word is "people."

A note to Dick Cheney: go away.

New Photo Project

I've started collecting, photographically and geospatially, Kent/Sussex Boundary Monuments. These are stone monuments, set in the past to mark parts of the boundary between the two counties. Most of the boundary follows streams, but there are two stretches of lines which run from point to point. Most of those points are marked with stone monuments. The New Castle/Kent boundary is similar.

Staff from all three Delaware counties and several state agencies have started a project to improve the accuracy of the geospatial data that we use to represent the county boundaries in our GIS tools. We have been looking at historic surveys and have noticed references to stones that serve as monuments in several places. So I have started do some scouting to see if we can find these. And, of course, I take pictures.