October 1, 2024 - Bears, Boone, Home, Golf
This week I said goodbye to my old home, spent time with the Doctor of Golf, started to get excited about bears, and was grateful our daughter is safe from a devastating storm.
Nuggets of Information: It Bears Repeating
October brings fall colors, pumpkin spice, giant skeletons and ... FAT BEARS! That’s right, Fat Bear Week starts tomorrow and runs through October 8th. I know last week I said voting for the Toy Hall Of Fame was the most important vote of the year. But I forgot about Fat Bear Week! So starting tomorrow, please go vote at the Explore.org website.
Match-ups are open each day between 12:00-9:00pm Eastern. According to the website:
This is a single elimination tournament. For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness and success in brown bears. The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned Fat Bear Week champion. Meet the bears, fill out your bracket, predict your fat bear winner, and campaign for your candidate.
Last year, I wrote about this sacred contest, with 128 Grazer dominating 32 Chunk in the finals. Who will win this year??? Remember – if you don’t vote, then you can’t complain about who wins when they implement their ursine policies.
Enrichment: Western North Carolina Updates
For over a year I’ve written about our older daughter Samantha, who is a sophomore at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. My family has strong ties to that part of the state – I used to visit Boone & Blowing Rock as a kid, and we’ve taken our kids there throughout their lives. When Samantha said App State was her first choice, it made me happy for many reasons.
Seeing the destruction that Hurricane Helene caused in that area is heartbreaking. Luckily, Samantha was home during the storm. She had a doctor’s appointment in Atlanta, and decided to come back early Thursday, missing the worst of it. At the time, we worried that Atlanta may be a bigger risk, as the hurricane was projected to come right through our neighborhood. And while Atlanta certainly saw its share of flooding and damage, Western North Carolina was just devastated. Her apartment complex is high on a ridge, and did not experience damage. Many other kids were left without housing, in an already tight housing/rental market.
Lisa and I are on multiple App State/Boone/Watauga County Facebook/Instagram pages, and our feeds are filled with videos and images of the destruction. As sad as that content is, there is hope and goodness too. The main dining hall on campus is giving out free meals – not just to students. Anyone can go and they will be fed. Individuals are posting about pop-up meals they are running. One couple was making tacos, another grilling burgers and hot dogs. Parents who drove up to get their kids brought carloads of water and other supplies.
As of now, classes are canceled this week, and the growing consensus is they may cancel next week too. While we are grateful Samantha is here, she is feeling the pull to go back up there, to help others, pick up shifts at the restaurant, food truck and F.A.R.M. Cafe she works with, and connect with friends. For a complete list of resources and ways to help, click here.
Workshop: Closing Time
I spent last week back down in South Florida, with my sisters, doing one last stretch of packing and cleaning of our family home. Since January when our Dad died, I’ve written about this process, and this week was our final time together in our old home.
During the day we worked around the house, and at night we shared dinner and watched Netflix. We made a lot of progress, loaded a moving truck full of items we wanted to keep, and coordinated the rest of what’s left to do with our amazing realtor Amy. She is awesome – a longtime friend of our Mom’s. She has been incredibly reassuring and supportive.
Amy came by the house Friday to check in, take pictures, and see what all was left to deal with. When she arrived, she told us she had a surprise and had us close our eyes. When we opened them, there were three beautiful paintings of our home! Her daughter Bailey, a student at SCAD, painted them for us based on pictures Amy sent her.
The whole week was emotional, but for me, the most moving moment was when I looked down and saw those paintings. Each one was from a different angle, capturing the place that has been our family foundation for half a century. My painting is in my office, below a picture of my parents, next to a collage of pictures of Lisa and the girls.
The house will be listed for sale next week, and soon after (we hope) it will belong to someone new. And that’s okay. We are so thankful to Amy and Bailey for giving us this incredible gift.
Selected Content: Dr. Golf
While we were in Florida, my sisters and I visited some close friends of the family, Ione and Gary Wiren. I’ve known them since I was 5 years old - their son Dane and I grew up together and were good friends. My sister Bridget is friends with their daughter Tracy. We had a lovely visit - Ione and Gary are delightful. They shared stories about how they met, their courtship, moving to South Florida, and of course stories about Dane and his sisters. I’ve been to their house countless times, and there is something special about it that I thought I’d share.
But first let me set the stage. I grew up in a golf community, and Gary is a big deal in the golf world. He is an internationally known teacher of golf - an actual Doctor of Golf. He is a member of 9 golf halls of fame, including the PGA and World Golf Teachers HOF, and is the author of ‘The PGA Teaching Manual’ and founder of @golftrainingaids. So towards the end of our visit, when Dr. Wiren told us to follow him, I knew where we were going.
Back when I was in high school, I remember them adding an extension to their home that serves as a golf museum. It is quite remarkable. Gary has a massive collection of old golf clubs, balls, tees, books, magazines, advertisements, apparel items - pretty much anything golf-related. It is one of the largest collections in the world - and it is a few houses down from where I grew up!
He gave us a private tour that I think any golf fan would pay $$$ for. He opened hidden panels to reveal a vast collection of golf clubs - many from the 1800’s. He told the best stories - having a custom driver made for his friend Warren Buffett, who brought HIS friend Bill Gates over one day to check out Gary’s golf museum. (Gary had two drivers made - one he gave to Warren, one he kept and showed us.)
Even though I remember the space from when I lived there as a youngster, to have him give us a tour was very meaningful. At the end of our visit, when we walked out to our car, Gary asked me to show him my golf grip. I begrudgingly showed him my grip and he instantly said “Oh you slice it, eh?” I said “So much so that I aim left of where I want it to go!” He then showed me exactly what to do with my hands to fix it.
How special - on what may be one of my last trips to where I grew up, to spend time with dear friends of our family, getting a private golf experience, and possibly coming away with a fix to my swing? Nice…
I strongly encourage you to check out Gary’s Instagram. Watch his videos. He’s the best.