And yeah, this is from a great site titled awkwardfamilyphotos.com

My favorite today?

So yeah, I was on the golf team for three years in high school.  A few things to note.  First was that I was required to wear a hat during matches to cover up my non-standard hair color (purple was my favorite).  Second was that I was kicked off the golf team for a practical joke involving Ex-Lax.  That's a blog for a different time...

Anyway, I went golfing after school with two of my best friends one fall/winter afternoon.  It obviously wasn’t golf season.  It was something to do.  Because I haven't head from either in a long time, I don't want to use their names.  So I’ll call my friends Mr. H and Mr. T.

Mr. H was on the golf team with me, and Mr. T was just a friend in common that liked to play for fun.

So we went to play at Saddle Brook which was just a nine-hole course at the time.  Saddle Brook is on the west side of Indianapolis and I'd played there a lot since I had a brother that lived on the course.  But it was just a round for fun, and we were playing like it.  Not taking ourselves seriously and enjoying the activity.

I was playing about average for me.  two thirds of the way through I was headed for my usual score of around 42-44.  Mr. H was right there with me, and Mr. T was way up there.  None of us really cared about our score because it was all about fun.

I found a ball on hole 7 (now hole 16), and laughed out loud because of the corporate logo.  It was a Beanee Weenee logo golf ball.

When we got to 8 (now hole 17), I checked the yardage which it claimed as being 177 on the card, but I thought it was at least 10 yards short.  It's a cheeky little hole with an elevated, two tier green.  I grabbed my 7-iron and threw a ball from my pocket onto the tee box.  In my usual style, I just set up and hit it without teeing it up and with no practice swing.

Mr. H and Mr. T were both still getting their clubs and one of them asked where my shot was heading.

"Right for the green" I responded not thinking much of it.  It looked like a good placement.  One of them asked where it went.  "I think it went in the hole" I responded.

Without them hitting their tee shots, we all ran up to the green and jumped up with celebration at finding the ball in the hole.

Usually the presence of Scots means a lot more laughing, a lot of late nights, and a lot more drinking. None of which I mind, because it so damn fun.

This time it was a little different. There are 5 Scots staying around this week, and I've only previously met one. So there's a lot of getting to know one another. The other thing is that since most have never been here to Indy or to the US, there is some of the tourist thing - but not much.

I was convinced to take the day off and join in on some shenanigans based on a list of things a few wanted to do while over here, so guess what the main activity of the day was?

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynCsFZ3AS3E&e]

That's right, we went to Don's Guns. Because of some pretty strict laws on fire arms across the pond, two gents were itching to experience anything different than the standard firearms that they were restricted to in the UK. Supposedly this is a popular activity for foreign travelers to Indy (I found that pretty interesting).

I would have taken a camera inside to document the occasion, but I was not allowed to. They fired four different guns.

1. M1 Rifle
2. A generic handgun
3. M-16
4. AK-47

They had a blast - and it was more than the $10 Don was touting. For two guys renting those four guns with ammo and range rental cost about $200.

I personally didn't take part. Not from lack of interest per se, but I just didn't feel like it was the time or place to have my first experience firing a gun. I'm pretty sure I will at some point, just not now. I have a healthy fear of guns (seeing someone get shot in the head for no reason will do that). But it's a discussion for another time and place I guess.

But anyway, it made for an interesting experience that I wanted to blog about.

This was a not so great time in my life, but my friends helped me pull through some nasty sh*t. Many of the emails I came across were ones that meant enough for me to actually keep them. What has made me pause is that most of these emails came from people that I'm not in contact with for one reason or another.

I do this from time to time. I'll find something that takes me back to times of old, and I'll wonder why things happened the way that they did. Inevitably I'll write it off to growing apart or whatever conflict may have happened, but there's always a period of remembering how things were. In today's case it a odd mix of bitter, fond, and even gut wrenching.

Hubbard and Cravens take me away!