One-Word Wednesday

I’m back shooting disc golf now that my thumb joint feels better. Here C.J. tees off during yesterday’s Southwest Handicap Mini at Community Park.

Return!

The Mister putts.

Eric tests the wind direction.

My baby boy sails in a par putt.

One-Word Wednesday

C.J. starts two discs towards the basket in an unconventional manner.

Kick!

Closing in on the target

Looking good so far

Will both discs stay in the tray?

Nope!

Saturday in the Park

Love the bright purple phlox.

Last Saturday was my kind of perfect day.

First, both boys came home for the weekend. That really would have been enough. Then Saturday morning, the Mister, Jake, and I enjoyed “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” even though it’s extremely violent with an ammunition budget that had to be about a million bucks. Talk about your literal overkill!

But the icing on the cake? Our friends Jessica and Eric asked if we would be available for a play date at Imperial Park. Absolutely! All we had to do was switch out Jake (who drove to Houston to be with our “third son,” Chase, and honorary son, Josh) for C.J.

A pennant dragonfly poses.

Being out in nature on a gorgeous spring day meant snapping pics of nature, of course.

The putt heads towards the basket.

And, naturally, discs were a-flying courtesy of Eric . . .

Note the Mister pushing a stroller.

. . . and C.J.

Jessica and Ted

But the highlight for me was seeing three-month-old Ted. I was in desperate need of an adorable baby fix.

Awwwww! Such a cute toothless grin.

And now I can last another, oh, week or so!

As the Sun Sets

Birds add to the sunset.

Disc golfers love when their discs go into the basket.

The light is fading.

Photographers love when nature complements the sport they’re shooting. Well, at least I do.

Par?

The addition of a disc flying into a basket? Icing on the proverbial cake!

One-Word Wednesday

The guys played disc golf at Bill Frederick Park in Orlando during our recent vacation.

Discin’!

Our pal Eric recommended it. It was nice with a lot of trees, as well as some sand.

Plus it was a nice change of pace from the theme park.

 

Half and Half Putting

Ready to practice

The Mister and I attended a wedding (casual attire; loved it!) last Saturday afternoon about a half hour from Huntsville. When we were done, I called C.J. to see if he’d like us to visit and take him out to dinner.

Is chocolate my favorite food? Yes, indeed!

So we drove north. With about a half hour or so to kill before we were hungry, we, naturally, first went to Eastham-Thomason Park for the guys to toss some discs. While the Mister chatted up another student who was playing, the kid and I hung around the practice basket and talked while he putted.

C.J.’s been plagued by poor putting lately, and his initial short-distance attempts failed to clang the chains with any consistency. So he decided to try a new approach.

Hi, Mom!

Let’s call it blind putting. C.J. took two putters and, without looking at the basket, sent each on its way, one at a time. Without fail, he canned the second putt after completely blowing the first.

This one misses.

It was pretty funny! C.J. would throw that first disc, and I would tell him which way he missed. Then . . . boom! . . . the second one would find chains and the tray.

Made it!

Of course, making 50 percent of your close putts isn’t a great number when you’re playing in a disc golf tournament. And I’m pretty sure that the kid’s doubles partner, Eric, won’t approve of this new technique if they play together at Am Worlds in April.

But it sure beats missing so much of the time!

Accidental Special Effects

The disc golf course and park are on Little Egypt Road.

Last Saturday the Mister and I drove to Huntsville to visit our baby boy. We wanted to see the new apartment that he, RJ, and two other pals plan to move into this fall (a pause, please, when we consider four boys living together and the subsequent chaos and mess, plenty of which will come from our own cutie), as well as sign the necessary paperwork.

Because it was such a nice day (spring has finally sprung in south Texas!), the guys naturally wanted to play disc golf. C.J. specifically was interested in trying out a course called Little Egypt in Conroe, which is close to Huntsville. So off we went!

The woods proved challenging.

There was only enough daylight to complete 13 of the 18 holes, but the guys got a good taste of the layout. Which was not yummy at all! Trees as far as you could see impeded plenty of drives and upshots, adding to the frustration of rusty putting.

I had opted to bring my lightweight Nikon V1 to document the event. Fortunately, being able to up the ISO to 800 and 1600 meant that I could snap decent, in-focus pics as day turned to dusk.

The disc looks stretchy on C.J.’s putt.

Well, except for the disc. When shooting under low-light conditions, which leaves you with a slooow shutter speed (these were mostly around 1/50th of a second), you’ve got to pick your poison: Either the person will be in focus or the disc.

The Mister lasers in a putt.

Naturally, I prefer crisp-looking people. But I was intrigued when I checked out my photos in Photoshop: The out-of-focus discs looked so elongated! Almost like spaceships.

That really IS a disc heading from C.J. to the basket.

These formerly round, odd-looking aliens added a new dimension to my disc golf photos. I guess that just like with life, disc golf can be a blur!

Frosty Photography and Disc Golf

The Mister putts uphill.

Last Saturday was a bone-chilling kind of day. It was 34 degrees with a blustery 16 mph north wind. Add Houston’s traditional humidity (the dampness made it feel even worse) and gray skies, and it led to one conclusion: Stay inside all day (well, after my early, icy-cold four-mile jog/walk, of course).

The disc saw Steve’s mean face and knew it better land in the tray.

So, naturally, when the Mister got a text from our pal Eric telling him that some of the usual suspects were playing disc golf at Community Park, he was rarin’ to go. Say what? Why not be smart and stay warm?

Blame it on his Nike FuelBand. The Mister wanted to get his 10,000 steps in, and this seemed like a fun way to do it. Where “fun” equals “frozen fingers and toes.”

Eric lasers in his putt.

I didn’t quite have in my 10K steps on my FuelBand, so I figured, what the heck? I joined the gang of six for the final half-dozen or so of the 18 holes (I was smart enough to wait until they were almost done, of course) and snapped photos with my little Nikon 1 V1 (30-110mm lens) until it literally froze at the penultimate hole (I had to pop the battery out and back in to get it to work again).

Michelle throws from an awkward position.

Those steps were frigid ones, especially after my sneakers got wet. Man, it was cold! I was wearing my warmest coat (my older son’s letterman jacket), earwarmer, and mitten-gloves to no avail. I hated that wind chill when I lived in Chicago, and I especially despise it now. We have to endure some of the worst summers on the planet (which extend into spring and fall); it doesn’t seem fair that we should have to deal with cold, too.

Mother Nature? Let’s talk!

Blake shows great form on his upshot.

Despite feeling that I was part of the idiots parade, it was nice being out with pals and surrounded by such pretty greenery. The park features lots of pine trees and bushes. Those make for great photo backgrounds.

Jeff floats his disc through the air.

When all was said and done, the disc golfers seemed glad that they had played. I guess it’s never too cold to throw.

But my Nikon 1 thinks it can be too cold to shoot pics!

The Beauty and the Cutie

Aunt Dorothy is surrounded by Mike, Carol, and the Mister.

Last Saturday the Mister and I drove to Huntsville for two reasons. First, we joined his brother, sister, and sister-in-law and visited with a true beauty, the Mister’s aunt, who was celebrating her 94th birthday in a facility there.

Practice makes better!

And then we moved on to this cutie! We picked up my younger son at Sam Houston Village and drove the short distance to Eastham-Thomason Park so that he and the Mister could throw some discs.

Teeing off into the gloaming.

It was fun spending time with the Mister’s family. And, of course, we can never get enough of our beloved baby boy (or his equally beloved big bro). What a wonderful afternoon and evening we enjoyed!

Simply gorgeous!

The fiery sunset? Icing on the proverbial cake!

Bucolic Disc Golf

Such a restful setting for a basket during an oft-stressful game

Usually the most-scenic parts of disc golf courses are trees and lakes. But River Pointe Church’s land also features a fenced-off cow pasture. Players whose discs go off-line have to recover them from this out-of-bounds area.

Most of the time, the toughest aspect of that retrieval is trying not to get hung up on the barbed-wire fence; we rarely see any animals near by. However, during last Tuesday’s Southwest Handicap Mini finale, some of the four-legged clientele were up close and personal with one of the baskets.

The kid ignores the animal background.

At first when I was walking towards the basket from across the course, it actually looked like the cows were on the wrong side of the fence! What a relief to see that wasn’t the case. I sure didn’t want them messing with my beloved baby boy (as well as the Mister, who would have been the one rescuing him while I snapped photos)!

A great putt!

Despite all the chain clanging, the bovine peanut gallery paid udderly no attention to the players. Even Hiral’s stunning birdie putt turned no heads.

Talk about your tough crowd!