Entry 98:A Relatively Short Entry

We got back from our holiday vacation last night. It always feels weird for me to come home from "home". On one hand, it feels good to be home (DC-region), because I'm back where I actually live my life, and my life ain't so bad. I've carved out a little niche for myself here, and I like it. On the other hand, it's feels bad to leave "home" (Seattle / Tacoma / U.P.) because that's where most my family is and where most my nearest and dearest friends are. It's a real ambivalence.

Anyway, the trip was great. I'm not going to go into it much, because I don't have time for a long entry today. I hope to get back to my long-form, meandering entries -- that cause my friend Regulus's eyes to hurt and that my few other readers probably just skim -- this weekend. Until then I'll just leave you with a few pics I took of Chambers Bay golf course in University Place, Washington.

[I think a bit of my sleeve got in the upper left corner of the shot. A less lazy man would probably Photoshop that out.]

The entire area used to be a sand and gravel quarry until about five years ago (long after I moved from the area), such a waste for such a nice piece of real estate. (Once, when I was about 14, my friends and I climbed the fence, it was off-limits to the public, and rolled down the sand dunes. It actually kind of hurt and caused us to ingest about a pound of sand each, but we thought it was cool, anyway. That's basically life as a 14 year-old male. Doing stupid things and thinking they are cool. Come to think of it, that's basically life for males until age 30.) Now, it's not only a public golf course, but also a park with a running/walking path and a play area for kids. As far as public use of land goes, it's probably about as good as one can expect. Also, it will host the U.S. Open -- a huge tournament in the golf world -- in 2015, bringing a small bit of pub to my home city. (Well, technically it's not really my home "city", because for 17 of the 18 years I live there it wasn't officially incorporated. In fact, growing up I just consider Tacoma my home city, but you get the idea.)

[A pillar of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is barely visible in the distance.]

Well, that just about wraps it up, but first a political comment. Right now, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are tied in the Iowa primary. I'm pulling for Santorum if only because it will almost certainly cause more people to Google "Santorum", and I think Dan Savage's online smear campaign (pun intended) against Rick "Man On Dog" Santorum was genius.