Golf Left

11 years today since we lost my wonderful Dad at age 92. At least once a day I find myself thinking about him. He's still the smartest, classiest man I've ever known and the epitome of 'An Officer and a Gentleman'!

No one in the world looks forward to October more than I do. I love teaching golf more than anything, but living in SW Florida, May-September is pretty brutal with the heat. Most days on the range, the temperture in the sun is well over 100 degrees! October is still warm, but our highs are in the 80's instead of mid-90's and that's a BIG difference and quite a relief.

In addition to that, is knowing that Halloween and doing all my lights is coming soon. Our neighborhood in amazing for Halloween and I look forward to it all year.

I don't do nearly the 40,000 + lights that I do for Christmas, but still put up about 10,000, along with all the monster inflatables. I just bought about 25 new boxes of orange lights so I'll be ready.

The first step, which was the last few days, is trimming all the shrubs down about halfway so I can put all the lights on and they won't grow back too soon. It's always a battle, me against the yard, but I win, even after a lot of cuts and pulled muscles, ha, ha! 🎃🎃🎃

I've had more than a few folks comment on how much Parker and I look alike after seeing the first pic here from our birthdays last week. Thought it would be fun to find some others that had us almost matched up at the same age. The one of me when I'm 10 next to him is really something.

He's cuter and more handsome though, and dwarfs me on that last one, ha, ha! 😎

I saw one of our local weathermen today and we were chatting about all the rain and the temps. SW Florida has officially had the most rain EVER for the summer! It's been a more 'typical' summer this year with rain almost every afternoon. Some days it's rained in the morning which is unusual. It usually starts about 3:00 and lasts a few hours, but then it cools it off nicely and the evening is quite nice.

Just today, when I was riding my bike I took a picture looking West, showing the beautiful blue sky. At the same time I took one looking East (where the storms usually come from) and it was it's usual'scary'!

He shared some of his stats with me too. Last July and August were the hottest EVER in SW Florida! This summer we've had 8 days of heat indexes over 100 degrees, with the hottest being 107. Last year we had 6 weeks of indexes over 110, and most near 120, with the 4th of July hitting 122 degrees! It was like being in the Sahara Desert! It hardly rained at all last Summer, and it was the second driest July and August on record. Without the rain it simply never cooled things off. I posted the photo of me last year after just one lesson, where I was soaking wet everywhere!

Looking forward to October and November that's for sure! 😎

Ahh, just 4 months from today is Christmas Day! Think it's time to start organizing my lights!! 😁🎄😎

When Karen and I were in Barcelona for a few days before we picked up our cruise ship, it seems the only beer that every restaurant offered was one called, 'Estrella'. It's the national beer of Spain and is made right there in Barcelona. I had never heard of it before but it's yummy!! They serve it in mason jars as you can see in the pic of us in our favorite restaurant.

So, just this morning I went to our local Publix and 'Lo and Behold' there it was for the first time ever! Looking forward to enjoying one this afternoon and thinking about all the memories from our wonderful trip! 🍺