To Quote Thoreau

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.
Henry David Thoreau

This is what a five pound bass looks like as it leaps up out of the water to snare a rubber worm midair during the middle of the first cast of the evening in beautiful Chickamauga, Georgia last night.

For the record, Chris Scott is perhaps the greatest fisherman I have ever seen. I once saw him catch a fish from the truck as we were pulling up by just simply suggesting which lure he was going to start the day with. A fish overheard the conversation and proceeded to fling itself up on the bank and plead for mercy. I was there, I saw it.

On a related note, this picture was taken at our new fishing and kayaking spot …a beautiful pond no more than two miles from us. It’s nestled back in the woods off a side road from another side road and hidden like an ark from the Nazis  …even Sherman couldn’t find it.

Now, back to Thoreau. First of all, I always wanted to quote him, but he truly has it right.

It’s not the fish …it’s the moment and I truly love good moments.

I Could Be Great

This is when advertising crosses over to art. When it speaks to you with a message that not only reaches for your wallet, but grabs your heart and holds on as well. Watch this and feel your emotions go from complacent to a triumphant crescendo in just sixty seconds.

I have been a fortunate man …I was raised with dogs in my life and I saw their importance at an early age. How a person could go through life and actually declare they are not a dog person is simply beyond me …I absolutely cannot fathom it. They are gifts, they are little nuggets that He placed here to show us what this love thing is really all about each and every single day. That’s what they do …we just need to simply stop and take the time to enjoy them and let them do their job.

Everyone deserves to feel the love of a dog just once …and a dog deserves to feel loved as well.

Purina I applaud you and I applaud the work you are doing through your website.

Now, pardon me while I wipe my eyes and go love on my girls. Something tells me they may be getting a special Pro Plan supper tomorrow night.

Hug your dog …go do it right now.

Don’t have a dog? The animal shelter opens at 9:00 most every morning.

The Beginning of the Legend

My viewpoint from the first hole at the High Point Golf & Country Club.

The rain had settled in, or so we thought. Black clouds resembling coal smoke covered the north Georgia hills like a thick quilt in winter, when suddenly there was a glimmer. The rain started to lessen and as you can see, the blue skies were starting to peak through and reveal themselves as we made our way to the historic first tee.

The golf gods knew that this would be no ordinary day …no, this would be a great day, dare I say a day that will be spoken of in reverence and near whispering and awestruck tones for generations. My children’s children and even my grandchildren will one day tell this story. As long as gentlemen in their starched shirts, argyle socks, Cuban cigars and scotch-filled high-boys gather around the clubhouse here at High Point …this, this will be the day they will point back to. That mystical moment in time that will simply be known as “The Round” …the benchmark of greatness, if you will, for all future golfers.

Simply put, the day I brought the mighty High Point to its knickered knees.

Let me see …320 to the hole? I think I’ll go with a pitching wedge.

But Now He Sees

Doc Watson passed away tonight. Doc was not just a guitar player, to be more specific he was a flatpicker …but then to simply say that is like saying Picasso was a painter ….you just feel there needs to be some more descriptive words added.

Doc won numerous Grammys and his musical influence reached all around the world. He passed away almost two months to the day after Earl Scruggs’ death and they were truly two of the most influential and respected acoustic musicians to ever walk on this planet. Doc and Earl were almost the same age, were lifelong friends and folks will discuss and analyze their music long after I’m gone. They didn’t just carve a unique musical path throughout the years, they went four lane …and they did it with style and grace.

Earl, Levon Helm and now Doc in a two month period …it seems they’re all leaving us.

The night Earl passed away I wrote about the time, around 1981, that I got to see and meet Mr. Scruggs in Chattanooga at a venue down on the river, just off Market Street. Ironically, it was just a few months before that meeting that I got to see Doc Watson at that very same music hall. My buddies and I had the exact same great seats to see Doc in action.

Now keep in mind, these were the days before the internet and the wealth of information readily available to us literally at our fingertips. All we knew about Doc was his music that we had HEARD. My first introduction to Doc was through the very first bluegrass album I ever owned, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I was amazed at the intricate sounds emitting from the album as it scratched through my old Motorola stereo …I cannot even begin to count the number of times I would sit and listen to that entire album. Later on, I can remember sitting around with my buddy David Jones and we would sing Tennessee Stud as he would attempt to hit a few of the notes that Doc was able to swiftly muster from a six string.

Move forward to that spring night in 1981 as we stood up from our seats in the wings just off stage left to applaud Doc and his son Merle as they entered and made their way to the stage. Doc entered like a prize fighter following Merle (also a superb guitar player who would die in a tractor accident just a few years later). Doc’s right hand grasped Merle’s right shoulder as they made their way through the crowd. I can still remember the moment I noticed it and turned to one of my buddies who noticed it at the same time …”my gosh Doc Watson is blind!”. Until that night and until that moment, we had absolutely no idea.

Doc and Merle (whom Doc named after his friend and legendary musician Merle Travis) got to their seats on stage, along with a bass player, and proceeded to absolutely put on a show that originated the term “shock and awe”. I sat there the whole night amazed at what I was seeing and equally amazed that he was performing music at this level without the benefit of sight.

There are two things I think of often from that night, other than the music. One, I would learn that not only was Doc blind, but he wired his own house …I have two good eyes and I feel proud of myself when I stick an extension cord into a socket. The other was a feat that amazes me to this day and anyone who was there that night I’m sure remembers it vividly. Merle was taking a break during one of the songs and as he was picking, he accidentally knocked his long neck beer over. Without missing a lick, he tapped the end of the beer bottle with his foot and it stood right back up to its proper position …the crowd went crazy. I honestly don’t think he spilled a drop.

Doc was a multi-talented individual and by all accounts a kind, generous and wonderful man. But tonight, I’m not thinking about the music …truthfully, I can only think of one thing …can you just imagine what Doc can see now?

I bet he doesn’t blink for a thousand years.

Without heroes, we are all plain people, and don’t know how far we can go.

Bernard Malamud

Today, remember those who gave all ~ Memorial Day 2012

It’s Memorial Day Weekend Ya’ll

To kick off the weekend just right, here’s a commercial from one of my heroes, the Bang Bang Lady …that’s right, Wanda “Bang Bang Lady” Lamb from Phenix City, Alabama. I wrote about her a few weeks ago after noticing her on a billboard running for a county commission seat.

This classic commercial features the Bang Bang Lady, along with Mary “Boom Boom Lady” Williams.

I could so party with these ladies.

Frog as Art

This is what the underbelly of a frog clinging to a window at a house in Chickamauga, Georgia on a Friday night around 10:50 looks like.

The hard part was not the framing of the shot or holding the phone still as I took what I feel is the definitive “Citizen Kane” of frog underbelly pictures …it was getting that little sucker to pose like that. Frogs can be so temperamental and it was late, it was Friday night and you just know that froggie wanted to go courting.

Hello Clarice

Her name is Clarice and she lives in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. She’s very friendly and an engaging conversationalist. In fact, she spoke to everybody who happened to stroll by her as she sat poolside in this beautiful beach setting at the Vue right on 30A …that is, everybody but me.

You would have thought my name was Hannibal Lecter or something. Yes, a somewhat subtle, but you must admit spot on reference.

Flashback to my dating days.

Just a thought

I believe that oysters and beer are the only two members of the food and beverage family that look pretty much the same entering your body as they do leaving your body.

Discuss among yourselves.

What happens in Vegas ….

Did some modeling work while in Vegas.

Hey, don’t judge me. You know, sometimes the cards just don’t fall your way, if you know what I mean. It was either pose for a few minutes or hit the streets ….had to get back home some way.

Yes, the water was cold.

Rules of Etiquette

I am a member in good standing at the High Point Golf & Country Club.

High Point Golf & Country Club dates back to the early seventies and was designed and built by Mr. Claude Gilley, who by marriage was in a way related to me. Claude’s brother in law was my dad’s uncle, which makes us kin around these parts …they both lived there adjacent to the course. Claude was a wonderful man and had three of the most beautiful daughters you’ve ever laid eyes on …possibly another story for another day. Needless to say, I have spent many a lazy afternoon smacking a golf ball in various directions …even sometimes toward the hole, as I attempted to emulate the skills I had witnessed on the television from time to time.

Let it be known I’m not a great golfer …I really don’t care for the game that much. I am good enough not to embarrass myself …I can keep it in the fairway, putt much better than average and I can hold my own whenever I’m playing with someone with advanced skills. I have played golf at several very nice courses over the years …but never by my choice. I truthfully could go the rest of my life and not touch a club. However, I do love riding around in the cart, hunting balls in the woods, wearing those way cool shoes, playing practical jokes and hanging with the guys …to me, that’s golf.

Now, I have always prided myself in this one truth …in all of my years of playing golf at the High Point Golf & Country Club, I have never left the course with fewer golf balls than when I started. Playing golf to me is somewhat like Easter Sunday afternoon and I so love finding these “eggs” littering various woodsy areas around the course as I attempt to retrieve an errant shot that my partner (of course not me) had just made.

I have tons of really good stories about playing golf there. I’ve had near death experiences, I’ve seen some amazing shots pulled from oh, shall we say …the lower extremities that would amaze even Jim Nantz and the boys at CBS Sports. I once almost missed a wedding because time had gotten away from us and we still had to finish what was amounting to a really great round. We finished the last 4 holes and made it to the church just in time for me to slide into a tux and proceed to lose all memory for what they tell me was several beautiful hours of my life. Somewhere during this lost period of time I said “I do” …again, that’s what they tell me.

I have laughed so much at this place. In fact, I have laughed more as a percentage of time on this piece of land, than any piece of land I know of in the world. I have learned life lessons, given out much needed advice, received advice and shed more than one tear on more than one occasion. It was a place of solace to me at times during dark hours of my life. A dear friend of mine and I had a standing appointment every Friday at 3:30 for years no matter what, to simply meet and tee it up for awhile. There were times we would barely talk until maybe the third hole or so. Life can be hard sometimes.

Claude sold the course to his brother Clyde many years ago and Clyde ran it for years. Now, Claude and Clyde have both passed onto their reward and a new owner has taken over. A new owner with a new mindset and a different approach to shall we say …tradition.

Ok, let’s be honest …I have thus far stretched the truth just a little bit on a few things. There is no “Country Club” at High Point Golf & Country Club …truthfully, there are no “memberships”, heck there aren’t even eighteen holes, only nine. The actual club house has seen much, much better days, the details of which I will not share other than to say this …cigarettes there are plentiful and cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner are not.

Golf, as in life, has rules and I understand the rules. Shirts with a collar, 90 degree rule with the carts at times, not standing in someone’s lie on the green, don’t scream during someone’s backswing, honors, don’t sneak up behind someone and pull their shorts down as they are leaned over trying to make that big putt, the whole silence and decorum at proper times thing, shouting “fore” when your ball is about to nail a fellow participant. The rules of golf can get rather lengthy from time to time depending on the course.

High Point Golf & Country Club has one rule and one rule only ….

“Don’t drink beer from a bottle ‘cause some of the boys like to play barefooted.”

You’ve got to love a place like that.

Now, I’m no big beer drinker, so don’t start chastising me. I actually rarely have one. I’m also a beer snob …I like a Shiner which is made in the lovely town of Shiner, Texas …a town that I took a glorious road trip to last summer. The fact that I would have one at all is enough to have me excommunicated from most any baptist church around these parts. For some reason, having a beer ranks much higher than gluttony and gossiping on the sin list and also gets a bad rap up against having a glass of wine …again, another story for another day.

So, here we were at the prestigious High Point Golf & Country Club equipped with a six pack of rulebreakers …what’s a guy to do?

Lucky for us, the woods are not technically part of the course and just every once in awhile an errant shot would make its way there. Hey, we were the only guys and I do mean only guys on the course all day, so we had plenty of time to hunt down golf balls and not break the High Point Golf & Country Club Rules of Etiquette.

After all, as in life …I do want to remain in good standing.

Sunrise on 30A

Took this shot early one morning last week as I was crossing the bridge from Watercolor, Florida to Grayton Beach …looking out toward Western Lake.

I could go all spiritual or drop some deep thinking, mindless dribble on you, but instead, I’ll just say this …good timing.

Sometimes, I’m lucky that way.

Take a Load Off Levon

A very fitting tribute to a true musical legend …Mr. Levon Helm.

This video was shot a couple of weeks ago, just a few days after his death …and it was also shot in one of my favorite cities in the whole world, Charleston, SC …right there on glorious King Street.

Here’s a link to the official Levon Helm site …or, to really see what a guy he was, do yourself a favor and watch the The Last Waltz …oh my gosh.

Missing You Today

I feel like missing you today
Sometimes I just get this way
Seems like everything I see
Brings back another memory
I must feel like missing you today

Mother’s Days are probably the hardest day of the year for me. Some years are harder than others and for some reason this year stings just a bit more.

She left at fifty three …I am her age now and she didn’t deserve those last few years. She didn’t deserve to hear the word cancer …she didn’t deserve the fear it brings, all the pain and all that sickness. She didn’t deserve to simply evaporate in front of our eyes …angels don’t deserve hell.

You’re never too far from my mind
I feel like crying sometimes
It’s always been so hard to do
Especially when it comes to you
You’re never too far from my mind

I am fully aware of “His ways are not ours” and that “He works in mysterious ways.” I do not and will not question Him. But, just because I do not question does not mean I understand and accept it. It means I am simply going on and look to that day that I don’t have to hurt on Mother’s Day anymore.

I know someday I’ll see your smiling face again
I don’t know when but I know it’s true
One other thing I know
No matter where we go
You love me and I love you

                         Missing You by Todd Snider

Love you Mama.

My New Beach House

Just got back from some Florida time spent on 30A …it is truly a beautiful part of the world. I ate too much, I relaxed too much …but it being vacation and all, I felt compelled.

See you next year!