Expectations, Predications and Reality

This is my second week as the substitute blogger and I can really appreciate the difficulty that our fearless lead Blogger, Bernard, experiences each week. It is difficult to come up with stories of Golf and more that will satisfy the discerning readers of the blog. While Bernie and Judi are enjoying quality time with their family at an authentic southern wedding we northerners will carry on with our appointed duties. I am looking forward to Bernie taking back the reins next week.

This week was a week of expectations. We expected the return of our long lost foursome buddy, Dan, who was taking a break from his country house on the lake to join us this Sunday. Unfortunately, Dan had a recurrence of a chronic back problem and had to defer his return to another week. This left us with the returning Max, who previous readers will remember as the son in the father and son duo from last week. As for our final member of the foursome, we decided to take on whatever walk-on joined us on Sunday. On the golf front, expectations were high as Barry had a stellar round with his brother on Saturday and I had a decent practice session at the driving range and Max was also looking forward to hitting a round in the 80’s. These were our expectations, but we were not so bold to consider them predictions of how we would perform, only our hopes. Contrast that with the local meteorological folks on the television and radio. You see, these guys were not offering expectations about Sunday’s weather, they were offering predications. They all but told us to pack it in, because there would be showers everywhere on Sunday and some heavy downpours to boot. So when our collective golf games did not turn out the way we had expected, we could take solace in the fact that the predications were wrong and it turned out to be a sunny morning with no rain until the car ride home from the golf course. Speaking of expectations, it is time to talk about our walk-on 4^th Mark. Mark was a rather large burly guy who spoke with a noticeable accent when we introduced ourselves. In honor of Bernie I said we should all introduce ourselves as “Bud,” but I was too late – Barry and Max had already shook hands with Mark. Mark spoke in a deep voice and initially sounded like he hailed from Germany or some country in the middle of Europe. He kind of looked German, so our expectations stemmed from what we saw and heard initially. As we talked more and more with Mark, it was clear that he was not from Germany. He sounded like he was from Jamaica or some Caribbean island. Obvious mismatch between his ethnic appearance and the notion that he hailed from Jamaica, but the accent was definitely from the Caribbean. Now for the reality. Mark turned out to be a really nice guy who enjoyed Barry’s kidding around and who liked talking golf with Max. He was another big hitter in the tradition of all the walk-ons we have had in the last few weeks. He turned out to have something in common with me as he worked in the technology department of J.P. Morgan. It turns out he hails from the island of Grenada.

So much for expectations and predications we will stick with the reality.