Helping

A high school classmate of mine died today.

We weren't close or anything. We had a few classes together and as far as I can remember, he was always friendly towards me and I hope I was the same way towards him. But we never hung out outside of school. We were just in different circles and, as I imagine is common in all high schools, there was very little overlap between our circles outside of school.

I don't feel that I'm old enough to have high school classmates passing away. But I guess that's the point. None of us will ever feel old enough to believe a classmate should die.

This isn't a "live every minute like it's your last" post. Instead, it's a "take time to do something for someone else"  post. We're all stuck on this little blue ball we call earth for a short time. We don't know how long, but we know it's not much. So use that time to make things better for someone else.

Visit a friend you haven't seen in a while.

Call someone you've been meaning to call.

Smile and say hello the custodians at your office.

Donate to a charity.

Write a letter to a friend who moved away.

Visit a nursing home.

We don't know when we're leaving, but we can sure make things better for others while we're here.

Dumb dog

Dear Dog That Lived At This House Before We Bought It,

I hope you're enjoying wherever it is you're living now. Rest assured that our dog is enjoying her new home and probably getting into many of the same adventures you had here.

There's just one little think you and I need to talk about. I know you lived under the deck in the back yard, and that's all well and good. I bet it was a cool, shady place for you to call your own. But here's the thing. All those holes you dug under the deck, under the steps and even under the gate. Yeah, those ones that you probably had a great time just digging and digging. Well, apparently our insurance company needed those to not be there. And guess who that responsibility fell on?

Me.

So I had to find someone who had a large amount of dirt who would let me then fill a pickup truck with that dirt, drive home, and fill in the rather large holes you decided to dig.

I can't speak for your owners, but we have a rule that my son learned by the time he was two. Before you can play with something else, you have to put the first toy away. So in the future, before you decide to dig another hole, how about filling in the first hole before you start.

Sincerely,

A guy who does not enjoy moving large quantities of dirt by hand.

Grandma and the Masters

My grandparents loved golf.

I knew that any weekend we made the 70 mile trip to visit them, there was going to be golf on.

I hated golf. I find it boring. Incredibly challenging and difficult to master, yes. But boring nonetheless.

A few years after my grandfather passed away, my grandmother won the lottery. Ok, not the actual "Mega Millions" lottery, but something almost as good. She won the right to buy Masters badges (tickets) every year. This right can not be transferred to anyone else and can't be passed on after you die.

Each year, my grandmother would let one of her eight children have control, for lack of a better word, of the badges, meaning they could go and take their spouse or kids. The only rule was the tickets were for family members only.

Being that neither of my parents or my brothers were all that interested in golf, we fell pretty far down the list when it came to the order in which each family got to go.

When it was finally our turn, my brother and I went together and while we still find the game boring to watch, we knew that strolling the grounds at Augusta National to watch the world's finest golfers was akin to being in Carnegie Hall to watch the world's finest musicians perform. We didn't have to have a deep appreciation for the game to have a deep appreciation for where we were and what we were able to witness.

Because we lived relatively close by, we also got to go whenever someone couldn't make it, usually for the Thursday or Friday rounds.

This year is our year to go again. Or, it was supposed to be. My grandmother passed away this past September. So no Masters tickets for us this year, or any other year unless we win the lottery.

CBS has been running Masters commercials over the past few weeks. It makes me realize how fortunate I was to get the opportunity to go to the Masters a few times. It also makes me miss my grandmother.