This weekend was a fun fest for me. I had a big Ryder cup style golf tournament which was mercifully rained out on Sunday (more on that later), a rock concert/festival, and an awesome daddy son day. And it rained. For the first time since gas cost a dollar, it rained in our neighborhood. I mean a wash out, big puddle, soaking downpour. It was awesome.
The golf tournament was going well and then I took off to San Antonio for my rock and roll experience. Those of you who are FB friends, know some of this, but essentially I have been given a pretty neat gift. That gift is named Omar Uresti and he’s my best friend. One really cool part of being Omar’s friend is he gets amazing and frequent access to celebrities. I still remember one time at a tournament in Pebble Beach, Clint Eastwood hosted a party for the golfers. I was trying to explain to my wife Nita to act like you belonged “inside the ropes” and everyone will treat you like one of them. We met and shook hands with Mr. Eastwood and she couldn’t even speak. I later caught her just staring at him. It was pretty funny and I’m sure I’ll get in trouble for this. However, isn’t it awesome when you find yourself in a situation where you are amazed as you were when we were a child? The smile either inward or outward of child-like wonder.
So the quick background here, ever heard of a movie called Rockstar? In it a guy in a tribute band gets invited to replace the newly fired lead singer of this mega rock band. Well in real life this happened to a guy named Tim Ripper Owens when he became the new lead singer for Judas Priest. Tim is a golf fan as are a couple of guys from Judas Priest. Omar’s caddy at the time was a comedian named Michael Collins who you may have seen doing the “caddies corner” or heard him on XM if you follow golf. Anyway, super funny and sweet guy and a good caddy, in fact I even emceed his wedding (talk about pressure, Emceeing a comedian’s event?). In any case, Mike knew Omar was a Priest fan and they were playing at a club in which he had done stand-up. So he called to get passes (no one pays for anything at their level BTW). They got in and as soon as JP found out Omar was in the club, gave him full backstage all-access. They were as excited to meet him as he was to meet them. Omar called his sponsor and had them send drivers and putters to all the guys. Omar and Tim were now life-long friends. Tim left the band and Rob Halford came back, and Tim has been working on other projects since. In any case, he follows Omar at certain events, and Omar always goes to see him when he can.
So Omar calls and said Tim was playing in San Antonio Saturday night with the Dio disciples. (Stick with me, this will get to parenting and kids). We go and of course get back stage all access dressing room, tour bus, the whole shebang. Meanwhile, I’m looking at my watch because: a) I’m an old fart now and I don’t usually stay up past 11; b) Nita and my cardiologist have me on weight watchers and every Michelob ultra is 3 points; c) I have a huge golf match in the morning; and d) we still have to drive back home and I live another 30 minutes North West of Omar. So after the show, Tim says, “Wendy is taking us all to dinner.” He meant Wendy Dio as in Ronnie James Dio’s wife. So we all go to dinner. The nice thing is once you are inside the ropes with these folks, they are as nice and sweet as can be. Just real people. We told stories about our kids, about traveling, golf, concerts, cities, food, diets, you name it. It really was a great time. Then we loaded up and headed to Omar’s house, and we got there around 1 AM, maybe later. I just slept in the spare room. My sleep was the sleep of the innocent.
The next morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed home in the downpour. I called for my tee time and the match was suspended. THANK GOD!!! As I got home the kids were up and happy to see me and me to see them. So I said, “Connor, do you want to go in the golf cart and get wet and maybe play in some puddles?” DUH!!! So we changed clothes and off we went. We jumped in puddles and splashed and just had a big time. Then we drove by a Halloween shop. He said, “let’s go in there daddy.” Well we were in no condition to do it, so we went back home, dried off, cleaned up and headed to the Halloween store.
Now I don’t remember getting the memo that Halloween now equals motion sensitive zombies at 150 bucks a pop, but there are a LOT of choices for that. Luckily Connor only wanted a 4 foot cobra snake. And Connor did pretty well. He only wanted me to hold him once and he was fascinated by the spiders, rats, and snakes (all boy that kid). Well, we got home and he wanted to go outside again. So we went to play, in the mud. You do remember his affinity for mud right? Well the rain and the fact that our crew had not shown up with the grass in three weeks left a really nice wet trench that was extra sticky. Connor got his front loader and got after it. His face could not contain his smile. He had so much fun it was amazing. My amazingly awesome wife suggested that I take a nap while Connor napped. I smiled, hugged and kissed her, and of course accepted.
The next day (Columbus Day), Nita had arranged a neighborhood play date. She asked me about whether or not to cancel. I recommended that she advise the parents to bring a change of clothes, a towel, and be prepared to be hosed down. Those kids played with all the toys and everything we have. Not Connor, he went straight for the mud. And eventually so did all the kids. They had a blast.
So yesterday, my guys showed up with some grass. And they finally covered the dirt, so we could have a yard again. And the first question Nita asked me (now she has been on my butt for a month about getting grass, because she can’t keep the house clean with Connor in the mud all the time) was, “Do you think we could get some more dirt delivered? Connor loves it!”
Finally, my mom turned 76 yesterday (October 11). I emailed and posted a request to some friends to reach out to her and wish her a happy birthday. I decided to limit it to people that had met mom and whom she had more than likely either housed, helped or fed at some time in my life. And four decades of my friends, family, and former teammates reached out to her. It absolutely made her day. She couldn’t stop smiling. There is something about watching your kids, your wife, your mom, and even yourself get that smile that just can’t be removed. It’s the smile that makes you happy with all the little things that keep you warm. The one that is infectious for happy people, and best of all, the one that really pisses off miserable people. God bless.
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