GOLF ITCH

Have you ever had one of this hard to get at itches? You know the ones,they strategically place themselves in an area of your body that are neither reachable by hand or foot.You find an object to satisfy the itch, whether it's a wall or some obscure looking kitchen utensil that you swear to God was made for that very reason!!
I have an itch and this one can only be satisfied by a round of golf!!! I love living in Southwestern Alberta for one simple reason. While the rest of us Canadians are digging out the snowbanks or wearing their parkas because of bone chilling temps, we are loving our chinook powered climate and REELING in excitement because OUR SNOW IS ALL GONE - NA NA NA NA NA NA!!!! I liken the weather in Lethbridge to Vancouver MINUS the rain. For many golf enthusiasts living in my neck of the woods the desire to go away for a winter golf vacation isn't a high priority as say for someone in my home province of Saskatchewan. Fact is, we have one Par 3 course that only closes on Christmas Eve & Day. I've been to the driving range twice already and CAN'T wait to hit the links in the next couple weeks. To add to my excitement is my brand new driver, a Nike Sasquatch Sumo Squared!! This monster has a head the size of a small childs, man you could literally pick up a kid by his ankles and swing him like a club - this thing is MASSIVE!! The only problem I'll have now is finding courses long enough for my tee shots, maybe I should look at playing on AIRPORT RUNWAYS!! I'm kidding, but if you couldn't feel the excitement in my words here you better check your pulse.I played my first round last year around the middle of March and it looks like it will be the same again this year. I love calling back home after my first round and usually ask them if they had fun shovelling snow , and oh yeah, by the way, I shot 83 today!!! My golf buddy Ray and I will be hitting the range a little more often in the weeks to come and I'll take a picture of us on the first tee, with big 'ol grins on our faces! I liken myself to a bear, I go into hibernation mode for the winter and once the temps consistently hit +5 or better, I wake up my clubs and look forward to March.
My itch is being satisfied right now by Tiger Woods golf on my playstation and will be quickly relieved by the opening of our courses in the next few weeks!! Two more sleeps until March.

I look FOREward to showing my pics!!

Darren

Life's Too Short!!

I'm going to do that one day!! If I had the money, I'd TOTALLY buy that!! We should have lunch soon!! I'll see you the next time I'm around!! How many times have we been guilty of saying that? I know that I'm guilty of that at least once a week. Great intentions + no actions = STATUS QUO. It's like a safety meeting - nobody moves- nobody gets hurt!!I remind myself everyday what it is that I want to accomplish with my life and I'm NOW finally starting to take action and, even though they're baby steps, I'm stepping off of the procrastination bus!!I'm not sure if you're familiar with a great gal Kriss Carr,she's a fellow cancer survivor who has an incurable cancer and made a documentary and wrote a book called Crazy Sexy Cancer. She has a great quote on the homepage of her website and it says - Why, when we are challenged to survive, do we give ourselves permission to truly live? Isn't that so true? How many times have you talked to a survivor of an illness,serious accident,crazy addiction etc., have you heard them say - "dude, you gotta take the time to stop and smell the roses" or "slow down and enjoy the view". I'm 100% guilty of that as well. When I was going through my treatments for leukemia and was SO BLESSED to be at the golf course and actually GOLFING- I shot like 60 in nine holes and I said "I don't care, it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining and look how beautiful this course is with it's nature filled back drop. B.S. - I shot 60 - are you kidding me!! Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful to be alive and to be able to continue on with my great passion for the game of golf, my point is WHY do we have to have something terrible like cancer to make us re-adjust our sails? Life is too short and it was a serious wake up call for me back in August 2003 when I was kicked in the nuts and told " YOU HAVE CANCER" - I was only 34 years old for pete sake!! We get so wrapped up in all of lifes other B.S. that we forget to keep living and do the things we're passionate about. You receive daily reminders about why we should start chasing after our aspirations and yet we keep jumping back on that big fat procrastination bus with the destination heading to NOWHERES LAND!!! My biggest wake up call came in the form of a cancer diagnosis and STILL needed other reminders to get me the hell off of that bus. The final kick in the ass came today, and this wasn't just a kick, it was a full pledge flying kung fu Mo Fo kick square in the middle of my ass and I'm totally off of that bus full of like hasbians!! A very good friend of mine and my older brother's BEST FRIEND, passed away today at the age of 47, 47, are you fricking kidding me!! Leaving behind his wife and son & daughter in law.His name is Marcel Cancade and we affectionately called him Cito. He died from complications during heart surgery and has left a huge hole in all of our hearts - GOD BLESS YOU CITO!!! WHY,WHY and WHY do we have to have something so incredibly shitty like this to happen to keep giving us remimders - screw reminders, wake up calls, as to why we need to stop thinking about it, and like Nike says - JUST DO IT!! I have, for the first time, graciously accepted the position of CEO of this great company called MYSELF and I won't stop until I have reached the upper echelons of my life and the sky is the limit as per how far that will take me!!

We all have passions and desires that are ALWAYS burning inside of us, don't wait for the perfect moment or the proper time, because we don't truly know how much time we have!! Live your life to the fullest today, and go to bed rested so you have energy to do the same thing again tomorrow!!

Until tomorrow,

Darren