Clubhouse Grille (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***) (*** NO POLITICS/RELIGION ***)

[Sean2]

I like Tina, lol:

[BIG STU]

Something I did not think about earlier. I was in the shop and it hit me like a sledge hammer. Will tell you the meds I am on make me dull sometimes. Anyhow the reason I hit the Power Bilt driver higher is because the weight is in the rear. Macs and Pennas it is more central like under the center of the sole plate. I know for a fact that is the reason because one time way back when I modified a Penna driver by taking the center weight out and filling the cavity with wood glue and sawdust and putting like 4 strips of lead tape in the rear. This Penna driver had a weight problem anyhow because the previous owner had taken a rat tailed file on a drill and had made a Hogan Speed Slot on the toe. Then IMHO they had put too much lead in the center and really threw that thing off. The guy who owned it got pissed and gave it to me. I played it on and off for a couple of years until it developed a crack on the toe side to the face. I did inject some Conap epoxy and put in a shaft extender and made it like 46 inches. Used it at the range off the mats showing off hitting balls over the fence. finally one night it exploded. In those days I was about 15 or so still wet behind the ears but was learning

[Hankshank]

Som time since I posted here last. A lot of interesting topics being discussed here:

Golf of course. After a super chilly April and beginning of May my season is well on its way. First really decent 9 holes early this morning. To comment on the Persimmon discussions, I was thinking about my old McGregor Tourneys I bought as my first clubs back in ‘81, being on the tee today. And well, the driver had a sweet sound - when you hit the sweet spot, which was a rare experience. The metal woods, especially the 470cc drivers really introduced me to being on the fairway, which was kind of nice. Spoon was my standard tee club back in the days.

to further draw comparisons btw now and 81-82, nothing has really changed. Clubs dont really matter that much. I have been searching for the swing, especially the release for soon 40 years now and I hope to continue. And a good ball contact this morning led to a round better than my hcp. My short game is stable, my scores depend solely on my swing feeling the day in question. Just the way I like it. Som Covid restrictions, think I mentioned it last. Can all you guys play now? Restrictions?

I saw we have some bookworms here, so I dare ask a question of knowledge and reading : Being heavily interested in history I decided to make a “quarantine activity” of learning about the Presidents of the USA. Have kind of Googled them all up and its a splendid way to learn about the person as well as of the history of the time for each presidents, in the US but also in the world, a new perspective of events I know from other readings. A lot of questions comes up, some which would be interesting to discuss here, knowing that there are a majority of good US folks here. Some questions might be a bit political which is not suitable for this forum, eg Southern vs Northern sentiments, do some of you guys know good forums in the US for political discussions? are some of you guys interested in US history?

Guitar is one of my other babies. Listening to others I am a huge Tommy Emmanuel fan. Being able to play guitar Boogie like him must by wonderful. Otherwise I really like Rockabilly guitarists, solos in Rockabilly songs really gets my blood boiling. I am pretty decent myself in making a guitar sound good without having the finger picking ability. But thats the beauty of the guitar. Achords can sound magical if performed with the right feel. Might just throw up some souldcloud links here. But Tommy Emmanuel is my hero. Guess all you guitar fans have seen and heard this one:

 

[BIG STU]

We were never restricted as far as playing in SC. I mean we did have some restrictions like 1 to a cart etc but played on. I am on the bench for now and for some time since I had a work related accident and cracked my L-2 vertebrae and my left shoulder scapula. As far as US history I like it and read up on it but more from a technical standpoint. Even though I do not like to fly I am a big airplane buff especially WW2 and Korea. Most of my internet exploration has to do with wrecked aircraft sites and research on why it happened. I am also a big buff on WW2 shipwrecks.

[Hankshank]

Really sad to hear about your accident! Hope rehabilitation goes well!

i have been in and out interested by WW2 all my life. A good friend in youth was an attack fighter maniac, especially the Spitfires and the ME109’s, knew every little nook and cranny about each version of them. I think I have a better than average knowledge about the planes of WW2 but I was more into battleships. WW2 is interesting but there are just so much about it on TV and in the Scandinavian history magazines, too much really, I have focused on other periods now for a while.

[tolmij]

Bit of catching up again, PD I will be watching the climbing video tomorrow, sounds interesting. Gardening in the morning, 45 years of wedded bliss and we always plant something to comemorate each one, several to do this time as we had our first actual pleasure shopping trip on Friday to the garden centre, and DW went mad with the purchases.

Good to see you back Hank, your contribution was missed.

[scomac2002]

@Hankshank and @BIG STU count me as another WWII history buff. My uncle was a bomber pilot, flying Lancasters in 1945 in active service. MY Dad was in the Engineers, so he was one of those guys that got to build bridges while being shot at . He never spoke about it much, but did relate one incident while stationed back in England before D Day where he helped to pull the crew from a downed bomber that was on fire.
My cousin (and his wife) were career Officers in the military as is my wife's cousin who happens to be a helicopter pilot. Strong military tradition in our extended families. So the interest in the subject matter comes naturally I suppose even if it was never viewed as being cool when I was younger.
I never turn down the opportunity to go to an aircraft museum either locally or when travelling. Perhaps the one that sticks out the most in my memory was seeing the Holocaust museum and touring the Nazi Parade grounds at Nuremburg. That was incredibly spooky as I closed my eyes and could envision the thousands of Nazis chanting and saluting Seig Heil as depicted in the propaganda films!
Haven't made it to Hawaii yet, but visiting Pearl Harbor and the Arizona floating museum is on my bucket list.

[Sean2]

Interesting story regarding WWII. This was in either OK or LA, don't remember which. Anyway, a mom and dad are watching a war in the Pacific documentary and their five year old son was playing on the floor. At one part of the documentary the narrator referred to a piece of equipment on an airplane. The kid looked up at his parents and said, "He's wrong, it's called a drop tank," and went back to playing. The parents got curious and found a picture book of the Pacific theatre and showed it to their son. He talked about the planes, what they could and couldn't do, etc. In one photo is a group of flyers on an aircraft carrier. The child started naming the people in the picture...he even pointed to himself in the photo. Floored, the parents reached out one of the survivors and it turns out they were planning a reunion in the near future of those who survived. The family went to the reunion and their son was calling the attendees by name, swapping stories of what they went through together, etc.

[PeanutsDaddy]

I’m a history teacher. Love the subject.

 

[Sean2]

I was an in-school suspension teacher, lol...before I became a counselor for at risk teens at an alternative high school.

[Qqq123xx]

I was like going to post how much of a help the community kinda guy I am by saying that I had given 400+ books to the local Library. Never mind.

[Qqq123xx]

I really like that piece. Does the handle pull out like a draw or down? Just Qurious.

[Qqq123xx]

Your best post ever bar none. "Impressive, full of colorful anecdotes." "A wide swath of information." 8/10 Dentists say "SuperWow."

[Qqq123xx]

Yep that is exactly what I remember, half of ball over crown. Used to have a few Pers. drivers alas either sold or gave away. If I could go back in time.

[BIG STU]

I guess I was lucky in my trucking days when I owned my truck. Got to go to quite a few aircraft museums and such. Also hauled aircraft parts from the boneyard in Tucson. Went there one time and there was a SNAFU getting the part off of it's attached plane and loaded on the trailer. The Major who was in charge of that operation found out I was an aircraft buff and arraigned for a Sargent to ride me all around the place. Another time I was at the AFB in Ogden UT and had some satellite gear that needed special unloading so I had to wait. Ended up at their museum. Met an older gentleman who was restoring the huge B-29 bomber they had there. He was actually the Flight Engineer on that exact plane in WW2. Got an actual tour inside the plane got to sit in the pilot's seat. I am also lucky in my travels I have visited numerous ships including the USS North Carolina , USS Alabama. USS Lexington ( carrier) USS Intrepid ( carrier). I also got to visit the Canadian Aircraft museum which if I remember right our own Socomac lives near there. I got to haul a pressure chamber from Cape Canaveral Fla to Boeing in Seattle Washington. When I got there I was told it was the actual chamber the Mercury and Gemini Astronauts trained in. Boeing had a lot of interesting stuff there and were in the process of starting a museum. My wife just reminded me we hauled part of the Russian Space exhibit back in 89. All of that was sealed in metal cans. Never got to see any of that on display

[BIG STU]

Man that is spooky> I heard of it happening one time before and that was General George Patton describing somewhere they were at about being in a battle there 500 years earlier. I do not think it was ever taken seriously though because he was a known world history buff and kinda kooky anyhow

[Conrad1953]

I discovered the awesomeness of the occasional blank post. You can read into it anything you want; anecdotally speaking, of course.

[tolmij]

Pulls out it is a drawer, it has small shelves on either side under the top, we keep small books on them.

[Sean2]

He remembered fighting the Romans as a Carthaginian, and also believed he was one of Napolean's Marshalls.

[Reasonability]

Interesting WWII story.

The automotive industry grew rapidly as the depression eased. With that came a need for bendable/flexible engine hoses. At the time, the rubber industry was embryonic and wasn't yet equipped to produce such hoses. Plastics (as we know them today) were a futuristic concept. Turns out the hoses could be extruded like spaghetti noodles using a melted resin called PVA (polyvinyl alcohol).

Great stuff - worked like a charm. Cars leaving factories ran great. But PVA had one major drawback. It was water soluble. If you drove through deep puddles or in any way introduced enough moisture under the hood... the engine hoses failed catastrophically.

Enter two entrepreneurs/inventors in northern NJ. They knew of a recently discovered resin called Teflon. Teflon would NOT breakdown in water and could be extruded. The darn stuff has no true "melt" state, so extrusions basically involved mixing the dry resin with a wetting agent, forming an extrusion "paste" - then curing that extruded tube in an oven like a clay pot in the kiln.

The quest to find the best way to consistently extrude Teflon is where our two entrepreneurial inventors made a breakthrough. They added ground carbon black to that wet Teflon "paste". Voila - repeatable/reliable hose production was at hand. These hoses were great for cars but were mysteriously better for what was right around the corner.... WWII aircraft.

A high incidence of early WWII aircraft were unable to complete missions due to mechanical failures in mid flight. It was born of an electrostatic spark burning right thru their hydraulic hoses as the fluids within rubbed against the hose inner wall. But these two guys who used carbon black as an extrusion aide unknowingly came up with hoses that were also electrostatically inert. (Spark proof).

They were suddenly thrust from the automotive industry into WWII aircraft supply. It all came together at the perfect time. US aircraft suddenly had a decided military secret with their more reliable planes. Missions over Germany and surrounding nations played a major role in ultimately ending the war, and with that, the now infamous concentration camps.

Two fellas in question were just the right people at just the right time. Both had fled Germany just prior to Hitler's rise. One was of Jewish heritage. The other wasn't. They've both passed away many moons ago knowing their handiwork and partnership (which would have gotten them both executed in the homeland), helped shape the world's destiny.

 

[Reasonability]

Love me some Tommy Emmanuel as do many in the Grille!

Never quite developed high speed flat picking talent. But if the metronome is cranked down I can keep up. This signing voice is truly bad - as in it bends light while distorting the time/space continuum. I can make shower water flow in reverse as it sucks right back into it's pipes just to avoid mine. As a result, finger picking style is my go-to. Made a couple of "reasonable" home recordings, one of which my daughter and I danced to at her wedding.

Growing up, I was an astronomy and manned space flight junkie. Come to tnink of it I was an outright nerd about it! Somewhere in the ensuing years, I thankfully traded in that interest for a singing voice that could be mistaken for a flatulent health concern.

[tolmij]

To me Tommy is possibly the very best at present, we have dozens of his recordings and like to play them when painting.

[tolmij]

Good day today, plenty of plants and native trees went in. Another gardening Anniversary, thats how we have celebrated our wedding day for many years. Took down most of a tree that was that was in the way, much more than we anticipated. Back to normal tomorrow.

[scomac2002]

Yesterday was a gardening day here as well. More like a gardening hour though as my BIL came over and we dug out the last of the ferns that are clogging up the back quarter of our garden. It seems that June will involve improving a couple of perennial beds that had overgrown shrubs removed last fall. The ferns just moved into take over the neutral space. BIL is working on a woodland garden with native plants, so my interlopers have found a home there.

It would seem that the pandemic has offered an opportunity for many to improve their landscapes. Business at the garden centres and nurseries is booming as gardening is a socially distant compliant activity that yields years of enjoyment afterwards. Been spending lots of time researching appropriate species and designs have been modified many times over in my mind. My daily walks have yielded lots of ideas as you see what other folks have done and what grows well and works well together in more mature landscapes throughout our town. It's not doing much for my golf game, but it is an interesting new activity that has taken hold of me.

[tolmij]

And a good night was had by all ???

 

[Conrad1953]

Sleep well Tol and dream of birdie putts going in the hole.

[tolmij]

Finished helping DW with her gardening project today, planting seeds for the summer blooms. It would not have taken so long if the wine had not flown so freely last night

If I tell the truth it was not as bad as five empty bottles says, we only emptied bottles that were almost empty anyway, just looks good when you photograph them..

Talked to a relative in the UK last night, she is 85 and her husband 89 has just been transferred to hospital with a blood disorder, she was trying to arrange home delivery from a local supermarket but for some reason they would not cooperate, the same story we have had fro a relative of DW who is also in her 80s. She has a son who lives in Greece and he has ordered the groceries from his mothers shop via internet from Greece and they have delivered it on time with no problems, it beggars belief they will do it from an overseas request but not local. Happy we moved to Australia as the UK really seems to be falling apart.

[scomac2002]

No birdie putts in the hole for me yesterday, but I did make a long one for par, so I'll take that. Not much of a golf game, in fact it would be better termed a frustration. Such is the case with nine holes a week and no practice. What is one to expect? At least when I was on the farm I could hit balls into the field. Now I have nothing that doesn't involve an overcrowded driving range. We shall endeavour to persevere...

Hit the ball a bit better yesterday, but still far from normal. The driver is the bad actor which has had me perusing the pages of eBay and Golfavenue looking for an alternative. Spent a good hour on the practice green after my round with putter in hand and then working on my basic chipping technique. That was time well spent. Whether it carries over to my next game remains to be seen, but I remain hopeful as I was feeling much better about my putting by the end. Makes one wonder why the simplest shot in golf is also the most difficult to execute consistently well?

Signed up for another league yesterday. I'm not going to play it weekly, but when I want to fit in an extra game I'll have that option.

[Sean2]

Golf is a strange game. I played 9 holes from the senior tees yesterday and made four birdies. One was a 3.5 foot putt, and the others were between 15 and 25 feet. Sometimes the golf gods smile on you...I suppose to keep us guessing. That is why when I play I have zero expectations. I have no idea who will show up to the course that morning. It could be the guy who shoots an 85, or the guy who shoots 76. Regardless, I try not to get too frustrated when it is the former, and just accept what golf gives me that day.

[tolmij]

Building myself up for a game at present, no idea the rules are at my local club but from what I have heard it is open with strict controls. Cash for golf has been non existent for ever as since I had the problem earlier this year DW has been using my golf kitty, and make no mistake one thing my wife can do is spend money. Please no one tell her I said that the result would be a sever beating with the tongue.