A lazy start to the day yesterday – for some reason, I’m sleeping a lot, which is quite nice in some ways, but a slight waste in others. Jessica & the kids & I ran a couple of errands in town (the smallest Post Office I’ve ever seen at the college Doug teaches at & bought my bus tickets to NYC – less than forty dollars return, bargain) & then headed out to Lake Galena. Galena is a small lake not from town & there were plenty of kids out learning to sail very small yachts with varying degrees of success, many people making use of the path that goes all around the lake – we took a short stroll down to a rather rickety pier & looked at the ducks (not my normal sightseeing, but Katarina seemed to enjoy it & I got my fingers almost pulled off – a small price to pay for not having to rescue a two year old from the lake). Current favourite sayings are “watchoo doin?” and “huh?” repeated frequently; this is an improvement over the first day or two’s shyness.
Mid-afternoon, Doug & I headed off half an hour north to the 2009 US Women’s Open. Doug is a professor in turf management (from what I can work out, mostly on golf courses) & as a result he & a lot of his students & graduates have volunteered for the week working on the grounds (mowing, rolling, watering, replacing divots, grooming & so on). It was the last practice day before the four day tournament starts on Thursday. While Doug went off to a meeting I wandered around a few holes on the front nine, checked out the practice green & driving range. There was plenty to look at & it was intriguing to see all the things that go on behind the scenes at a major that are not seen on the television. I’m pretty sure I have never seen so many golf carts (at least a few hundred) in one day. I met up with Doug on the back nine – our (his, really) job was to follow the last players around & remove the tee markers & flags. It was a pretty easy job – we cruised around in a cart pulling markers & flags occasionally & spent the rest of the time taking photos, chatting to groundsmen & climbing camera towers (not sure if that was allowed – one was particularly tall & seemed rather rickety). A good afternoon doing something quite different to what I usually do on holiday. Doug has just headed out for the first day’s play.
Arriving home from the golf, my package of bike goodies had arrived. My bike is now usuable with a new chain on it & new grips & my new shoes fit well. Still need to get my brakes sorted (probably bled) & I’d like to clean & grease the freewheel. I think I might just roll in to town & have a little explore.