Upde Designs

Happy Sunday!

I have some fun “snapshots” for you today that I took last Wednesday at the Maquoketa Kiwanis Golf Outing.  I rendered them in black and white just for fun. This is an annual event and is their big fund-raiser for the year.  It usually takes about 5 hours but there were fewer teams this year so we were done in about 4 hours.

It is a best shot event with a couple of twists.  Each team has a yellow ball and the first shot of every shot has to be hit with that ball.  You don’t have to use that ball at your “best shot” but you do have to make it the first shot of each stroke.  If you don’t lose the ball it is put in a bucket at the end of the round and a lucky team wins a nice prize if their yellow ball it drawn out.

We lost our yellow ball in the water but was lucky enough to find it and retrieve it.  I won’t mention the name of the individual who put it in the water.  🙂

The other twist is if your shot is the one picked as the best shot you are not allowed to hit the next shot.  A lot of best shot events have that rule.

Anyway it’s a fun event and the money raised is well used in the community to fund projects that benefit the children of in the community.  So I play in the event every year.

Oh, an interesting story for you.  Yesterday I went on a 23 mile bike ride.  At the farthest point in my ride I noticed the sky was getting pretty dark in the west.  I had checked the radar before I left the house and saw nothing within a hundred miles of Dubuque.  I neglected to take into account that storm cells can form in a very short time.  The looks of the sky indicated to me that I had better get going and with due haste.

On the way back is the longest hill on my route.  It is a mile long and I have to take it in a very low gear.  I have never made it up that hill in such a short time.  About two miles from home and I saw some lighting and it was obvious it was going to rain.  So I came to a picnic table (on the path) that had a roof over it.  I secured my bike and got under the roof just as the storm hit.

The wind blew so hard that the structure was shaking and I was concerned that it might actually blow over.  My upper body was protected by a rain jacket and by the roof but it felt like my legs were being stung by a thousand pins.  I look around after a while and the rain was blowing sideways.  There was a young man who had also taken shelter with me and I didn’t realize he was there until he said he was worried about the storm.

After about 20 minutes the storm blew over and I rode the last two miles in a steady rain.  Along the way I had to dodge debris from the storm.  Saw a couple of road signs that had been snapped off and were laying on the ground.  Tree limbs were everywhere.  It was a bad storm to be sure.  I’m thankful that I made it through it unharmed.  Wet but unharmed.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Thanks for checking out my blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.