Fore!

I'm off to Florida tonight to kick off the 2004 golf season.  I'll be gone the rest of the week and I am NOT bringing my laptop.  You have no idea how difficult that is.  While I do believe that a little isolation is helpful sometimes, my brain craves information after a day or so when I am away.  But I'll sacrifice knowledge for golf, especially in March.

Myself and a group of friends take this trip every year.  We change the destination and last year we found ourselves in San Diego.  Except for the airline losing my golf clubs for a day (they paid for a rental set and I got a new pair of shoes out of it as well), last year's trip was perfect.  The highlight of the trip was a Saturday afternoon round at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, one of the most beautiful courses in the country.  It kicked my tail, of course, but it was worth it.

What I remember most about last year though was another diner at the restaurant that we went to after the round at Torrey.  We wound up at a place where we sat outside on a balcony overlooking the surf on a clear, beautiful night.  In the middle of our meal they seated a gentleman dressed all in brown wearing dark shades next to us at a table along the rail, and for the forty-five minutes or so that he was there, he was more entertaining than anything else on the trip.  He never actually sat at the table, standing over it except for when he wandered in a half circle around it.  He polished off a basket of bread in about five minutes, and ordered several glasses of milk.  For his entree he had a rack of lamb, which he vivisected with precision in about two minutes.  He then had a few more glasses of milk and went on his way.

I suppose that this was a moment where one actually has to see it to understand why I would still think it memorable a year later.  In my time working in the inner city I saw plenty of people strung out on drugs and/or alcohol, but I never saw anything quite like the behavior this gentleman exhibited, so I can't say if it was normal.  The wait staff did not seem to be bothered by it though, and we found it silently entertaining as well.

Until next week, let's hope I can hit them straight!