Pebble Beach

Wow
Woohooo
What wuz I thinking?


Wow

Pebble Beach was, is and will forever be the best meeting of sea and land on the planet. The scenery is breathtaking. We lucked out and had record high temperatures in the 90's.

What is nice about the area is that it's pretty much free of the riff-raff that can invade beach towns. Carmel, Pebble Beach and Monterrey are all seriously upscale and quiet. The water temperature may have something to do with it.....even in the summer, it only gets into the 50's. It's a nice place to walk or sit on the beach, but you will die if you go swimming. Hypothermia will set in at 15 minutes and the body will shut down. It's true. Look it up. This means NO BIKINIS. This means no young men....they all head north to act their age.

One really cool thing about the beach there is that DOGS are allowed to run around. Playing golf, I would occasionally catch myself gazing at the surf and watching all sorts of canines fetch pieces of driftwood their owners would toss at them. The dog life there must be good.

Pebble Beach is corporate excess rivaled only perhaps by the Super Bowl. The pricing is such that you just don't even want to know and the old saying, "If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it," echoes throughout the pines trees. They could probably add 50% to their prices and people would still pay.

Woohoo

With the sleep issue I had not played golf in over a month, but with that problem now behind me thanks to the MSM (SEE BELOW), I was able to walk all three courses over a three day stretch and play pretty decent considering my apathy over the last little while. In fact, when I hit my tee shot on the first tee I breathed a huge sigh of relief...

Of course, playing with a bunch of insurance guys is bound to be comical. The guys I played with were so bad that I had to catch myself from either groaning or laughing out loud. At least they knew which tees to hit from since most golfers don't.

One old-timer from Sacramento, when asked what tees he wanted to hit from (white is closest, gold is middle, and blue is back - the tips), he said, "When I can shoot 72 from the whites, I'm moving back to the blues." FINALLY! A golfer with a brain bigger than his ego!

This makes perfect sense. I know waaaaay too many guys who stomp to the back of the tee boxes to play the back tees, and then shoot a 95....or worse.
By the way, my old-timer pal shot a 109 from the whites, so he won't be moving back anytime soon.

Spanish Bay is HARD since the wind blows and the track is tight. Links course. Pebble Beach was actually the easiest of the courses but jaw-dropping beauty all around is distracting....plus people everywhere walking around taking pictures and pointing at the golfers. Spyglass was, by far, the best golf course of the 3 I played. It was tough, fair, fun, and had both beach, and forest holes. Pretty cool.


What Wuz I Thinking?

I moved away from this area? Dunce cap for me.

I grew up close to Pebble Beach - about 90 minutes north in bucolic Los Altos, California. It's easily tne nicest place to live -in my opinion- anywhere on earth except for maybe London, or Paris. It has an "out in the country" feel to it, but is only minutes away from civilisation (UK Spelling) that includes an In 'N Out Burger, conveniences stores (but not on every corner), and what not. The sky is blue, and THERE IS NO WIND.

As Janae and I were driving back to the San Jose airport via the cities and towns of my youth such as Santa Cruz, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Mountain View, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia for this area. It was the perfect time and place to grow up - the fondness I have for that part of the world will never fade.

Fate however intervened, and I somehow ended up at the University of Utah....to ski. A few years later I was working at the Hotel Utah and that's where I met Janae.....who walked in off the street one day looking for a job. I've caught myself over the years at various times thinking to myself, "What if she never walked in that door?" Hmmmmmmnnnn......

Think about your own life....the decision you made to stay in one place or go far away when high school was over. Where did you go to further your career? Accepting or declining a date.... The totality of those small decisions helped build the life you lead today.

The Magic Sleep Machine (MSM)

I've used the machine for 6 nights now and I feel pretty much back to my old self. I am amazed at how good I feel and am grateful for the doctors, nurses, and technicians who all played a role in helping to dial in my diagnosis.

Thanks to Janae too for taking care of me - the first few nights I would wake up in the middle of the night and look up as she would be gently sliding my mask back in place. It beats getting poked for snoring like before.

Off to Louisville on Tuesday to play famed Valhalla.

Is life great or what?