Golf Speak and Playing the Fool

I'm whipped! I went out for a ride tonight (a 20-mile loop to the trails at Murphy) and my legs were dead. I'm terrible at taking a day off and just putting my feet up to get the rest I need. I suppose that's why I welcome rainy days. I'll typically either ride or walk or golf each day but not a combination of those. I've not been so good about limiting my activity lately, and oftentimes I'm finding myself riding in the morning and golfing in the afternoon.

I'd planned to volunteer for a few hours tomorrow morning working on the new mountain bike trails in Lakeville but I think I may take a pass. There's a chance I'll be golfing in the afternoon and I need some downtime. I'm not complaining. I signed up for this when I retired. I just didn't know it would be so much work!

I'm enjoying my time on the golf course as much as ever and while I'll still play a pitiful round of golf some days, I can see where I'm making noticeable improvement. I played at Legacy Golf in Faribault yesterday (my favorite course of late) and was +1 after 8 holes. I tired on the back 9 and posted an overall score of 85. I had the dreaded 4-putt on the 12th hole. How does that even happen!? Anyway, I'm really enjoying my time out there, especially now that I've got my PCC membership and the variety of courses it offers. I've yet to break 80 but I sense I'm going to reach that milestone soon.

And speaking of golf—I've been using the 18Birdies app for tracking my golf stats and for yardage help during a round. I like the app a lot. Check it out and see if you agree. It's free and free of ads. I believe there are promotions that you can opt into and that's how the developers generate an income but those promotions happen behind the scenes of the app and aren't noticeable while you're out on the course.

Switching gears.

For those of you who feel you're getting your political and world news in a "fair and balanced" way, I have something for you to read. This article is from a 14-year veteran at Fox News. In the article, he details how nearly every program and discussion on the network is scripted to provide a win for the conservative home team. I fully understand why you believe as you do if this is where you're putting your trust (in addition to the numerous other far-right voices of deception on talk-radio) but I would also tell you that it's not too late to stop playing the fool, and I say that in the kindest of ways. But you have to be the one to make that choice for yourself.

I don't have any illusions that it will happen in my lifetime but I'm hopeful that at some point reasonable people will be able to look back and see this time in our country for what it was: a massive brainwashing of a large percentage of our populace, too willing to turn over their critical thinking ability to others to manipulate or too comfortable with the message of fear and hate that Fox and other deceptive voices were feeding them while conning them into supporting people that don't have their best interests at heart, nor those of our country or the world.

On what planet is it okay to applaud the rollback of regulations that help protect our sources of fresh water or dismiss regulations that protect our air quality? How can people honestly say that they're in support of those who seek to abolish regulations that are there to protect consumers from those who would prey on them and take advantage of them? Do you really believe that our mainstream news sources are "fake news" as Trump* likes to assert? And how does one get to the point where they listen to a man like Trump* and believe the propagandists that assure them he's not only the right one to lead our country but that he's a godly man?

Faith can be a beautiful thing, but it can also make a fool of you.

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