The new year has started well.

i went to Sea ‘n Air for early Friday Morning Golf. The other two friends from our last our last military tours at the Naval Amphibious School Coronado and who are the original FMG participants along with me were occupied with family events. But Bob Schoultz and Mark Shults joined me. Bob, a retired SEAL captain, has been playing with us for about five years. Mark, who is one of the civilian regulars for at least that long, is a good golfer and even better guy. The threesome was fun.

Our tee off was delayed by a forty-five minute frost delay. Yes folks, San Diego can have frost. Even though it never got below forty degrees, the sunrise cold snap generated frost bad enough to cause serious damage to fairways and greens if carts had driven on them or walkers had trodded there. But the wait wasn’t bad and gave us time to hit a few more balls on the range, needed for my two-week layoff.

The sun quickly eliminated the frost and by the seventh hole, i had shed my sweater and was back in shirtsleeves for the rest of the round.

Maureen and Bob’s wife Mary Ann joined us on the back nine, my favorite part of the course. The group of five was delightful to play with on a perfect Southwest corner day. After the photo, Maureen bogied the tough par four.

i had a terrific round (for me). All was right in my golfing world.

Maureen and i went for a late lunch at Tartine’s, a small Coronado restaurant with outdoor seating close to the Bay, one of our favorite lunch locations.

A nap, some work in organizing, and a bit of college bowl football followed. Then it was tradition time: my black-eyed peas and cornbread and Maureen’s yellow tomatoes by a good blaze in the fireplace.

There are many family and friends i wish to either respond to year beginning well wishes or send to others, but it is late. So i will attack that tomorrow. My lateness does not mean i don’t care. That, i’m afraid is me just being me.

Yesterday, i posted a photo of me and one of my three all-time heartthrobs on Facebook. The photo above is of one of the other two. Below not only shows my third all-time heartthrob but also the two people who loved all of us…and many more.

And so this new year begins. i hope all of you have a wonderful year with minimal tragedy, but more so, i wish you to have and to give the love shown in this last photo.

Happy New Year, as they say.

Watching the Music City Bowl while recording the second half of Vandy’s basketball game. With two minutes left, it is a cliff hanger with the Aggies trying to rally (they didn’t pull it off and Louisville wins, 27-21.

The game was exciting, but as usual, i am frustrated the talking heads and commercials didn’t allow me to watch the Texas Aggie Military Marching Band. They are inspirational. Kelly Winkler Adams, who was there, was impressed. She should know. She and her husband Jay Winkler have two sons that are marvelous, successful musicians with about ten years in marching band experience.

But with all of that, the most striking thing about the game was the head referee. He looked scarily like Doug Neidermeyer, the villainous and downright dumb egotist who was the BMOC and ROTC commander in “Animal House.”

The ref was the highlight of my evening. Every time they zoomed on him making a call, i thought of Neidemeyer and started laughing.

But only because, the sports media wouldn’t let me watch the Aggie Marching Band..

The amount of crazy, one-sided crap on social media posted by folks with blinders on is reaching frenzied proportions, and the flow will only increase for the next ten months.

It reminds me of a story i ran across years ago when, as the Senior Naval Officer at the Texas A&M NROTC Program, i was interim nuclear program recruiting officer for about six months and consequentially learned a lot about Admiral Hiram Rickover, the eccentric father of the Navy Nuclear program. i no longer know the source of the story.

As the tale went, Admiral Rickover was sitting before the House Armed Services Committee on some matter relating to his job when a committee member asked him if he had the power, what would he do to make the military establishment more effective.

Rickover said he would take half of the flag officers in the Pentagon and give them all an individual office in the “D Ring” (the next to outside ring of the Pentagon) and supply them with pens and a notepad. Then he would direct them to write notes and other papers and send them to the other flag officers in that ring. The generated writings and the flag officers who wrote them would never leave that ring. Then, he said, the other half of the flags would go about taking care of business.

i think we should divide up the conservative and liberal contributors to social media and put all of them in two separate social media programs. There, they could send all of their views to the others in their group: conservative to conservative, liberal to liberal (since they never read or listen to the other side) and the rest of us wouldn’t have to deal with it on our social media.

The Christmas saga wound down today.

i took a nap around 9:00 this morning that lasted four hours. i am still not in sync but knew a lot of things needed to get done. i made a “to-do” list and prioritized both physical work, computer/administrative work, and somewhat addled brain work. i went through the list and had my action plan scheduled.

Then Maureen came back from the grocery.

The top priority on my action list immediately became:

 Do whatever the hell Maureen tells me to do even if it doesn’t make sense or is out of order

i showed my list to Maureen.

She didn’t think it was funny.

It is early, early Tuesday morning. i am  about to go to bed (and hopefully, asleep) in my own bed.

i am writing a summation of my travails with American Airlines, including a blow-by-blow description of today’s silliness beginning with a 3:00 a.m. awakening until now: ugh. i will complete that ugly story tomorrow when i can think as straight as i can think…unless i play golf; then it might have a Wednesday finish.

But on the five-hour flight from Charlotte, i met two really nice young men and hope we can keep our connection. Jim Watkins, a senior at ‘Bama, and Jim Esler, a insurance agent and a new force in the San Diego chapter of The Propeller Club — more on both later.

Just being home is enough right now.

Peace.