Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Cleveland Winterfest

Today, the City's Public Square lights up with about 100,000 people, bands, speakers, fireworks, Christmas lights, the huge tree, and displays because this is, after all, the day following Thanksgiving when all the citizenry pours into downtown to shop at all the major department stores and see Santa Claus at Higbee's and Mr. Jingeling on Halle's Seventh Floor, Santa's associate and his elves at May Company, and the tall, ornate Christmas tree at Sterling Lindner.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! No-no-no-no! It's not the day after Thanksgiving, it's Saturday. I saw the sign!

Halle's? Closed. May Company? Closed. Higbee's? Closed. Sterling Lindner? Closed. And the Cleveland Winterfest is now held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Shop in the suburban malls on Friday, come downtown Saturday.

But someone in our household didn't know that. Sterling-Lindner closed in 1968. Halle Brothers closed in 1982. May Company closed in 1993. Higbee Company was sold to Dillard's and closed its downtown doors in 2002. But she invited a few people over for dinner and a tour of the lighted, decorated Public Square -- last night!

25 people -- and no lighted, decorated Public Square.

The food was great.

So, early this morning, as the rest of the City slept, city workers and others were out on Public Square building stages, putting up huge TV screens, barricading streets, working on the fireworks display, and telling a guy walking his dogs to stay out of that area because of the danger to the public.

Someone in the police department put up a few of these "no parking" signs:

Because this doesn't happen on November 28 in these parts --

and --

Oh, the party last night -- it wasn't a total loss because a few weeks ago, there was a test burn of the lights. A preview ... on my iPhone!

Wait 'til next year!

Tonight, we will not be present for the lighting of Public Square. We will be seeing a different kind of fireworks:

NCAA

The NCAA Division III Volleyball Championship Tournament and the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships are in Cleveland this weekend at John Carroll University and Highland Golf Course, respectively. There is no admission charge for the cross country championship.

I volunteered to work; so, today, I guarded the athlete's lounge. Incidental to choking anyone who attempted to get in without proper credentials -- and I apologize to one of Hope College's trainers and hope the flowers were delivered to your hospital room -- I also re-stocked the food and beverages and nacho cheese dispenser.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission is always considerate of its volunteers, making sure that no criminal charges are brought, except for the most serious offenses, and having excellent food in the volunteer's hospitality room. Many times, there are games and reading material for the volunteers. Today, I found a rather interesting activity for the volunteers, who may have had some time to kill in the hospitality room:

And inside the box, vacuum-packed:

Bank Job

To ensure security please remove all dark eye wear. -- Sign at Bank.

Here's what I think. Bankers are afraid of the Man With the X-Ray Eyes and his cohorts; so, they want the eyes to show so they can identify people with X-ray eyes. But while they can see through clothes, cheat at blackjack, and see inside people, they really cannot do much about getting into bank vaults.

The bankers should be more interested in figuring out who the 4-D people might be.

JACK MULHALL

maybe i don't feel the same way about death as a lot of people. i don't know. i'm not going to explain anything that i think is original or brilliant, i know. indulge me.

i think that the best we can hope for as human beings is to live a long life. duh. we are ALL going to die. so all that is left is to look at HOW we've lived, what we've given. and in the rare instances where a man or woman has given so much, added something so extraordinary to the universe, maybe mourning is not as appropriate as honoring, maybe even celebrating the life of this person.

it says in the paper that jack mulhall "ran shelters for addicted people." to be fair, it says a little bit more than that. but not nearly enough. not nearly enough.

jack (though not all by himself) founded and was the driving force behind the keating centers in cleveland. here's how i describe the keating center: you're a drunk or junkie, and you're at rock bottom. you show up at their door and say "i need help." you got it. you have a bed, food, clothing, and help. for free. the people who work at keating are all in recovery and work there to help drunks and junkies get and stay clean and sober. they are all angels. they -- and jack -- love you. they teach you how to love yourself again. it's not easy. jack wasn't easy. he was a tough, crusty old bird.

but -- oh man -- what he did. he scraped and begged for anything and everything keating needed to stay afloat. and they did.

i asked him once if he was related to someone that i knew from my childhood. he said, "yes, he was my brother. he died." i told him i was sorry, that i, as a child, had admired his brother. jack told me that his brother was one of the reasons why he kept on. that his brother told him to as he was dying, that it was good work that he was doing.

jackson was sent to keating by the probation officer in his case back in 2007. he fricking hated it. it was more work than he was ready for. he knew it. everybody at keating knew it. so when jackson bolted in the middle of the night, jack wouldn't let him back in. it would have been a waste of a spot. it was right.

jack generated a whole lot of controversy. he was not easy. but you can NEVER take away from him what he did. i can't even guess at the number of people he helped get and stay sober. the lives he saved and enriched.

he did good. thank you, jack.

***and you can do good, too: send a check to PO Box 770108, Lakewood, OH 44107.

It's November, Dude

This morning the dogs discovered a new resident of West 9th Street. An urban camper. He was still sleeping. And he didn't stir much when the guy in the Subaru SUV remote-locked the doors causing the horn to toot. He was prepared for rain, which never materialized last night:

The weather was superb; so, I played golf this afternoon. I waited on the tee for a threesome in front of me to hit to the par-3 14th hole. There's a small lake to the left and short, way short of the green, which comes into play on the 13th hole more than on the 14th; but the third player -- I would be using the term "golfer" inappropriately in this case -- did not hit it safe, which would be anyplace other than 90 yards and to the left, and splashed one in the pond.

He turned and said to me, "I feel like throwing this fucking club in the lake."

"Hey, we shouldn't even be out here playin' golf. It's November, dude. It's 70 degrees."

Tis the Season, I Guess

Yesterday, we took a trip south to see DT and his lovely wife, Lee, not to shoot stuff, but to see a community theater production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Here's a portion of their 110 acres and one of the dogs:

Christmas is almost upon us. Tonight, on the dogs' walk, they witnessed Public Square lit up:

An L.A. production company was shooting film on Public Square yesterday. Maybe that had something to do with the holiday display. Or maybe not. Pre-Thanksgiving Christmas sales are happening in all the stores already.

Daylight Savings Time & Dogs

You were supposed to turn your clock back an hour. Somebody forgot to tell the dogs that they could sleep an extra hour; so, I was out at 5:45 this morning. The streets were empty, except for two homeless guys that took wide berths around the dogs -- or maybe, me.

In a study done by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published a year ago in October, researchers found that "contrary to the policy's intent[,] DST increases residential electricity demand." The study done in Indiana revealed $9 million in increased electrical costs and estimated "social costs of increased pollution emissions" of between "$1.7 to $5.5 million per year."

Of course, it's not such a drag when I think that the dogs would be wanting to go out in the middle of summer at 4 in the morning if there was no DST.