Yesterday, we played nine afternoon holes of golf, took burgers from the clubhouse home for supper. We would have stayed and eaten there — after all, their clubhouse is my briar patch — but it was the cats feeding time. The Padre baseball game wouldn’t start for about two hours.

Planning to listen to the local weather report, which is never quite right, we ended up watching a snippet of news. Not my thing. Then, because we both were interested in hearing golfers talk about their game, we went to the golf channel with its coverage of the US Open. They had a tribute to Payne Stewart, a terrific golfer who died in a plane accident. It was well done. Then, Brandel Chamblee and four or five other “panelists” talked incessantly about how much they knew, describing the course, which is really irrelevant to playing it

Then the game came on. Being that watching the whole game is part of my religious vow, i did: walk off homer for my Padres in the bottom of the ninth. i prefer to listen to the announcers for the flavor of the game, but i’m getting close to swearing off. Don Orsillo, Mark Grant, and Bob Scanlan being som impressed with themselves and their useless information, including banter they thought was funny. They weren’t.

i sat there as the Padres’ catcher Kyle Higashioka leads off the bottom of the ninth inning with a “walk off home run,” which by the way, had nothing to do with what Kyle did: he didn’t sprint but his trot was closer to a run than a walk. However, anyone on the telly takes great liberty in exaggerating actuality.

i clicked off the electronics systems and sat there pensively. In 1976, Mose Allison nailed my evening of streaming. Every person who opened his mouth during my evening of watching perfectly fit Mose’s admonition in his song, “Your Mind Is On Vacation” (“but your mouth is working overtime).

Be sure and listen to the lyrics because it’s not just television where folks are nailed in Mose’s song:

Note: i have resorted to using YouTube. i have Mose’s album by the same name. i bought it when it came out. Jimmy Smith, my mentor, introduced Cy Fraser and me to Mose in 1963. But i am technically challenged and could not remember how to put that version here. With Walker Hicks, i will relearn how to do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxZ-scE9mDk

Been a bad week. Nothing went right. The list is too long to include here. Nothing serious compared to what others i know are dealing with. Besides, if i enumerated on my problems, we all could call it whining from a curmudgeon.

It sent me to a dark place, i admit. While i toiled away at pursuits that would only expand the work to get it done. i chased paper, only to find more requirements required to finish the task. The internet and its maze of technicalities of which i’m not equipped taunted me. A project only important to me continued to hit speed bumps like a Maserati in a “quiet zone” neighborhood demonically designed to slow you down.

Then, Maureen and i mutually decided to abandon our plans to go to dinner at one of our favorite places because we just didn’t have the energy.

So i set up the dinner trays, and set up the napkins and silverware in preparation of our watching the Padre games later. i poured a Martin (thanks again, Mr. Fraser), added the olives and sat down. Rather than turning on the idiot box to watch biased and the really bad, un-objective news or something else before the game, i turned on the Bluetooth speaker and selected Andrea Bocelli’s “Ciel de Toscana.”

Our next door neighbors have heard my music collection many times because i play it on my iPhone and Bluetooth speaker when i am outside, at least daily. When we went out to lunch Salvatore commented, “Wow, you sure have a lot of different music. We even heard you listening to opera the other day.” i smiled and explained i had been a deejay back home and had gained an appreciation of most music genres.

Still, i was puzzled by his comment about opera. Finally, it occurred to me he had heard me playing Bocelli’s album.

i could go on and on and on about my music collections, preferences, and dislikes. Everyone has their own preferences in music. But that is not what i’m getting at here.

i only wanted to convey after being frustrated, a curmudgeon in a dark place, when i put Andrea Bocelli’s music on my bluetooth, i relaxed. Calmness ensued even while we watched a snippet of news and turned it off when it was too difficult to bear.

Thank you, Andre.

For the readers here, you might try it. i would recommend Enya also.

When reaching my age or thereabouts, many suffer from old age pestilence. Cancer; tendons, ligaments, and bones weakening, breaking or disappearing. At eighty, i too have some of those ills but marginally so compared to many of my friends and others.

Many in all age groups that call themselves adults have their problems because they were in the military service, a large number of them in battle, some in hand to hand combat, some who didn’t come home or died early because what our country required them to do. Oh, i was too close to battle numerous times but was never in actual combat. i experienced losing someone at sea, an electrician losing his arm in ship’s switchboard, a airman losing his leg in a helicopter crash, and a list of such harms too long to list here. i was in a number of situations on ships that had the potential for losing my life. Like those casualties and those life threatening situations, they occurred in service of our country.

i play golf once a week or more at a military golf course, mostly at Sea ‘n Air, Naval Station North Island’s course. Usually there are about six to eight of us. We play early. Somewhere around the fourth through sixth holes, we hear a bugle play first call to colors from base loudspeakers. Five minutes later, our National Anthem begins. If golfers are out of earshot, someone who can hear the opening notes, yells “colors.”

Everyone on the course stops, takes off their covers (hats to you civilians) and puts their right hand over their heart until the anthem is concluded and “carry on” rings out from the bugle call. The players resume play.

You see, these folks served their country and continue to honor their country by honoring our flag according the “U.S. Flag Code.” They are not honoring a president, a congress, the supreme court, or a political party, or philosophical position on government. They are honoring our country. They are honoring our citizens, all of them, whom they defended, through showing respect for our flag.

It seems the citizens of our country don’t feel they should honor and respect the flag. Judge Alito and his wife displaying the flag upside down was a gross disrespect for our flag and our country. The US Flag is not a platform nor should be used as one to state a political stance or be used in a squabble between neighbors. i am not taking sides politically. i’m done with that. All political parties have lost their moral compass to get their people elected.

The citizens are even worse in their disrespect for the flag and our country’s constitution. Here are some things all should consider before displaying our flag. These come straight from the U.S. Flag Code:

The flag should not be displayed on a float in a parade except from a staff.

The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat. When the flag is displayed on a motorcar, the staff shall be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.

When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right, that is, to the observer’s left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing.

The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.

The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.

The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.

This includes political advertising. And making it different colors or otherwise altering its appearance is disrespect for it and our country.

No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

So now, if you are using the flag to support your political position, you are not only showing disrespect for our flag, but for our country and for those who have served to defend that flag, our country, and our citizens.

No, i’m not going to come after you or try to punish you. My service to my country was, in part, to defend your rights to say and do what you want within legal limitations. But you should be ashamed. You are showing disrespect for the country that allows you to do what you are doing. Shame.

There are many other things i would like to include here, but those things smack of politics, which i try to avoid. i will add an observation:

Folks of my vintage and beginnings, think of the Golden Rule as being espoused by Jesus in the New Testament of the Bible. It was. It also was a key rule from around 2340 BEC in Egypt and is found in nearly all religions in various forms — DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU.

It seems to me all of our politicians and damn near all of everyone else in this country, especially those who claim they are “religious,” have decided to ignore that dictum. i think the world would be a whole lot better off if each of us made that our primary watchword.

i am a citizen of the United States of America, i served my country in the Navy for more than 22 years and sacrificed some of my rights while serving. i believe our constitution with some flaws due to the time in which it was written contains the ideas for the best government on this earth throughout history. i belief many, from the start, has abused its ideas of equality and freedom to gain wealth and power and abuse others. i honor the United States of America Flag, Old Glory to signify my beliefs.

i am worried we are destroying our constitution and our country by our selfish and blind adherence to party politics. It seems we have not learned from history, just ignoring it to repeat its failures.

i am ashamed of what it appears we have become, or at least on the road to becoming.

Vanderbilt’s lost to Ohio State in the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s golf championship, 3-1-1 at the La Costa resort in Carlsbad, CA today.

This is a sports story. i feel obligated to write the first sentence as i was taught by JB Leftwich at Castle Heights Military Academy long, long ago. The gospel was “Why, What, When, Where, and How in twenty-five words or less. All that followed was to explain or complement that first sentence. The same dictate ruled all “news” stories in good newspapers. Alas, no longer.

This law of the sports pages land of long ago faded into oblivion amidst the new journalism that wishes to prick your interest, show off writing skills, dazzle you with cute ideas that only vaguely relate to what happened, report something bad outside the field of play, and sometimes, rarely in comparison to the bad, report something good about a player or coach. i’ve actually read sports articles on sporting events that didn’t give the score until the fifth or sixth paragraph.

Even though this is more a sports editorial than a news story, i thought it appropriate to begin with the old timey way, the good ole days in the golden age of sports, which has morphed into the dollar, dollar, dollar age of sport.

But not for the past five days.

When i learned Vanderbilt had run away with the Indiana regional and would be playing at La Costa. i bought a six-day pass. i am not embarrassed to report i am a Vandy fan, regardless of the sport. The reason is i have always rooted for Vandy, growing up in Lebanon, about 30 miles from campus. i was equally a fan of Tennessee back in those days until at a Vandy-UT game in Knoxville, Vol fans pelted me and my Vanderbilt friends with paper cups, coke cans and sprayed us with beer and liquor. They did this while i wore my Navy service dress blue Lieutenant Junior Grade uniform. i would still root for the Vols as i have many friends who are ardent Orange fans, but i can never quite put that incident behind. Nowadays, i root for Vandy in all sports because i was acquainted with the late David Williams, former Vice-Chancellor of Athletics and his successor, the marvelous Candice Lee, and i know, without a doubt this private university is facing an uphill battle in the SEC but keep trying and always focus on, as David coined, “Doing it the right way, the Vandy way.”

To be honest, i don’t follow anywhere near as much sports as i did a score of years (that’s sort of a bad pun) ago. i watch teams i root for when possible. Pro basketball looks more like a street pick-up game in Chicago than the game i knew. College is getting close to as bad. Pro football games are interminable and technicalities and officiating (bad descriptive term), good and bad, determine the outcomes. College games are just as bad already. Scheduling, commercials, and coaches have become more important than the teams or the players. i love Vanderbilt baseball, but college baseball is also now trying to emulate the major leagues.

Money, money, money everywhere.

Three of the past five days, i have been in a sports world that felt right. i was planning to go all six days. When i approached La Costa on Friday, it began to rain against the weather guessers’ predictions, and i had not taken my rain gear. i may be stupid but i ‘m not that stupid. An eighty-year old does not need to be wandering around in the rain for six or seven hours soaked. Not good. i turned around and took the hour drive back home in the Southwest corner.

i would have attended Monday, but i had a better offer. Maureen and i played 18 at the Bonita Golf Club, one of my favorite places. Today, i was back in a land of sports reverie. That’s “sports,” not fanatic, money chasing.

My three days at the tournament were, in today’s term, awesome. It was sports. The weather, not what folks who visit here expect, was perfect: cool, marine layer cloudiness, perfect for walking. The crazies haven’t caught on yet, so the crowds were not crowds. Few enough people to see all of the action on the course. During my three days, i heard school supporters yell (politely congratulating their team) when they won. Nearly all of the recognition was applause, quiet, controlled, appreciative applause. And thank goodness, there was not one idiot the entire time show off by insanely yelling “in the hole,” thinking he was cool.

Fans of the teams talked to each other, no animosity. As the players walked the fairways, they talked to each other with conviviality. It was appreciating the game, the players, and respecting the game, and the event. i was lucky to have met a bunch of good folks. i met Ms Tuttle (i apologize for forgetting her first name) and then her husband Tom and their daughter-in-law (again apologies). The Tuttles live in Naples, Florida. Their grandson, Cole Sherwood, just graduated from Vanderbilt, and was one of the keystone players on this team, as well as a nice young man

My claim to fame this week was on the 18th Saturday, when Cole’s tee shot went into the hazard. With a marshal assisting, he took his drop. The North Carolina coach had parked his cart on the cart path and walked across the fairway to coach his player. The cart was in Cole’s line for his shot. i went to the cart and moved it out of the way, now claiming i had helped (legally) Cole.

It was sport. It captured the essence of what college sports should be. Friendly competition, emphasis on competition, as it should be. i’m sure, somewhere, money is involved, especially in the big, bad sports nutty universities where fans throw their money at athletes, thinking somehow it makes their school and themselves the best (and now the NIL and recent NCAA rulings have made an awful mess of college sports even worse). But for three days, i saw true college-athletes playing a sport.

Now it took an effort. i covered 300-plus miles in four round trips, an hour each way four times. i walked about 26 miles. i loved every minute of it, except for this morning’s drive in the San Diego commute.

Now, for all of my Vanderbilt friends: the NCAA men and women’s golf championships will be held at La Costa in the Southwest corner for the next two years and possibly two more years. i’m pretty sure Vandy will be here for several, if not all of those. i would like to experience this again with you.

Go Vandy…You are doing it the right way, the Vandy way.

i was going to reluctantly diss (whatever the hell that means) California today, even though this state gets all sorts of dissing (?) from people who really don’t have a clue but think they do, but then i recalled something similar elsewhere.

A couple of days ago, i bought an all-tournament pass for the NCAA men’s golf championship at La Costa. The daily passes were $8, the final day was $12, and my all-tournament tickets were $36.

Now the first strange thing was when i acquired the tickets. The single day tickets are available through the NCAA, and, i assume, at the gate. But the all-tournament ticket package can only be acquired through the University of Texas athletic site. My contact with Vanderbilt athletics, Andrew Maraniss who has written several great books about athletes, including Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South. Andrew told me the University of Texas was the “sponsor” of the tournament being held in California. Go figure.

But i am excited. i will be going to watch men’s college golf for most of the day. Vanderbilt, who won the Indiana regional in a cake walk, is one of the favored teams, and a number of their team members are competing for the individual championship. Pumped. i’m pumped. In addition, i will get to see Candice Lee, the Vanderbilt Vice-Chancellor of Athletics, the incredible woman who was a force in Vandy honoring my mother for her basketball feats (in 1935). i also will get to meet Mark Carter, Candice’s Senior Associate Athletic Director.

i’m ready to go. i will leave after the commuter traffic dies down tomorrow morning (it’s about an hour to the course from out in the Southwest corner).

Now for the kicker: my ticket for five days of golf was $36. For the first four days, i’ve been given locations to park and take a shuttle to the course. Fine. But on the championship day, the only parking apparently is at the course. Parking will cost $40, or $48 for valet parking. What?

i was thinking, yeah, yeah, California. But then, i remembered going to Nashville about a dozen years ago and the Marriott at Vanderbilt charging $40 to park in their garage. Stupid.

i don’t care. It’s stupid. The world is chasing money. But tomorrow, i’m on an experience that i could never imagine would happen.

Go ‘Dores.