Keeping Sane During COVID

[Troble]

I was reading through some of all your profiles this morning and I stumbled across @tony b who apparently has in interest in golf. Which is something I quite enjoy. Being in San Diego and a resident of the City of San Diego we get to play the City owned golf course and home of the 2008 & 2021 US Open Torrey Pines. 
 

ive been making a point to schedule one day a month to go to this beautiful spot, which as all of my friends know, I’d like my ashes spread around hole 3 on the South Course. It’s a very special and beautiful place. It’s been incredibly therapeutic to do that. I love about 15-20 minutes away so I’ve also done a couple of brisket smoked while golfing. Here a few photos of the scenery. 
 

cooking on my KK and golfing at Torrey Pines has been great for me, what have you been doing in 2020 to bring you enjoyment?

btw @tony bin case you were wondering last week it was a bit chilly 66 degrees when we teed off at noon 

[USUAggie]

I am so jealous!  I will play Torrey pines one day!  When we travel for vacation and go to La Jolla  cove to snorkel,  I drive by and make my family mad because I am wasting their time.  Lol

[jonj]

I've been playing golf once a week with a bubble buddy, although not on as nice a course as you have available. We try for tee times when we can play as a deuce, as there are a lot of mask/Covid conspiracy folks in this part of the country. And, oddly enough, high infection rates in the community (/s). We used to (now retired) work at the same hospital, which is now full of Covid patients, so we and our families are very careful in our behavior. I would consider it poor form to be admitted to my former hospital right now. We play unless the temperature gets below 40°F (we would probably be in shorts and polos if it reached 66°). 

We play music together once a week as well (we are in the same band when not grounded by Covid) to keep our skills up.

Finally, I do a lot of reading. I'm in a long standing (although now Zoom-based) book club but also go through several other books in addition to the selected book of the month. I typically do a fair bit of woodworking, but am finding it is really on the back burner since the pandemic. Not sure why.

And oh yes, cooking and working down the wine cellar. The latter will take some diligence.

Edited December 22, 2020 by jonj

[Jon B.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Jon B.

[Troble]

@USUAggie - next time you come to SD we'll have to get out and play?

@jonjthose sound like solid options. What kind of music does your band play and what instrument? I have destroyed my wine fridge during COVID and we've been playing with pretty much the same foursome this entire time, although we all walk and there is really never much time when we're closer than 6 feet to each other. My family and I have been very careful as well and really limited all of our social activities outside of seeing my wifes parents and seeing my parents, usually outside by the KK eating a meal Golfing at Torrey was the only real thing I've gotten to do and I disintitly remember the first round when it opened up right around Cinco de Mayo and the joy i felt getting to play and getting in nature like that. As a City resident I get to play there for $60 so it's kind of like why would you not play there if you can? Just gotta know how to book the times!

@Jon B. that is relaxing in style my friend!

Edited December 23, 2020 by Troble

[jonj]

@Troble we play classic and garage rock, Americana, and oddball music which makes us smile. My main instrument is electric bass guitar, mostly Alembics although I do use Hofners when we do a Beatles set. I also play electric 6-string guitar, mostly G&Ls or Fender. I occasionally use a Theremin but am not at all proficient at it. Mostly just strange noises. TMI.

In a kind of weird moment of insight, I realized I bought one of my Alembics about a decade ago from Kevin Robell, who lived on Coronado Island at the time. 

Our wine cellar has a L-O-N-G way to go before we run into any difficulty, so we have that going for us...

[Troble]

@jonj that’s great! I’m jealous. Always wanted to play music but never put in the time. Tried a little bass in college but I’m super into music and wine. Pink Floyd, zeppelin, talking heads etc 

my favorite though is Phish I’ve seen them way too many times and that’s the other thing keeping me sane during COVID watching my favorite bands on my backyard with the surround sound/lighting system we set up in the spring. The music has been a godsend!

I love the sign on the wine cellar as well. What’s your favorite wines/grapes?

Edited December 23, 2020 by Troble

[jonj]

The wine cellar art was done by one of our friends from college who is an artist. She and her husband are among our closest friends but we haven't seen them in person since last Christmas, due to Covid.

Most of our cellar is California based, primarily cabernet sauvignon and Russian River pinot noir, with a smaller amount of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, syrah, and a lot of sparkling wine and Champagne. Sparkling wine makes every day better! We have just a few remaining Bordeaux from the 1990s, but really stopped buying when the first growths moved to four figures per bottle.

"A magnum of Champagne is the perfect accompaniment for two gentlemen at lunch, if one of them isn't drinking much," ascribed to Sir Winston Churchill. If he really didn't say it, he should have.

[Troble]

I’m a Russian river Pinot guy 

[tony b]

Now that colder weather is here (high on Christmas Eve is forecast to be 12F), I haven't hit a golf ball since late September. I am so envious of your weather in SD - just about perfect year round. 

All the beer festivals were cancelled this year, so it's been pretty boring year mostly, except for the derecho in August; but, I could have done without that excitement!!! And, my planned trip to Northern Italy was obviously nixed. With all the beer events being cancelled, including face meetings with my homebrew club, I greatly throttled back on my brewing. So, a lot of my diversion has been mostly cooking.

Fortunately, I have a well stocked wine cellar and bar to keep me amused - ha, ha! Most of the cellar is older (10 - 30 year old) reds (Bordeaux, CA Cabs & Zins) and I still have a couple of cases of '90 vintage ports left (Grahams, Dows). But I mostly drink out of my "everyday rack" of younger reds (Pinot Noir, Cab, Syrah and Zin), rosés, and whites (Chardonnay, Viognier, Vinho Verde, and White Bordeaux). 

I am going to be sooo glad when 2020 is over! 

[Basher]

This was yesterday.

Dolphins off Peel Island.

This is mates boat so I don’t do this often.
I’m a member at royal Queensland Golf Course, however, haven’t played much over the last few years as I’d rather attend my kids sporting event at the moment.
Jonj what’s the best book you have read recently? I discovered audiobooks a few years ago and became obsessed. Now I listen to 30- 50 books a year.
Mindf##ked was interesting- it’s the Cambridge Analytica story written by their head tech guy.
That’s a pretty course Troble.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jonj]

@Basher I’ll send you a list when I get a chance to put one together.   

[Troble]

12 minutes ago, jonj said:

@Basher I’ll send you a list when I get a chance to put one together.   

I’d like to see the list as well please!

[Troble]

@Basher my golf rounds have gone down significantly with small kids. I used to play 1-2/week for about 10 years but I can’t justify spending an entire weekend day away from my kids now. So I strictly moved to weekday/business golf. This yielded about 5 rounds a year the past few years big since COVID my wife and I have tried to schedule time for each other to do something solo away from the family and kids. I chose golf and once a month I go to Torrey pines on a weekday when my kids are at preschool and j can “work remotely” from work. It’s been a nice break and in November I was able to do a work meeting on the golf course so I played 2x in November 

Edited December 23, 2020 by Troble

[Paul]

4 hours ago, tony b said:

I am going to be sooo glad when 2020 is over! 

If you think 2020 was bad wait till it turns 21 and starts drinking!!

[Paul]

I've just been working my regular job and finetuning the house.

We did get some rain the other day and I used it as an excuse to work under the house. There's about 6' of headroom down there so I built a small workbench a couple weeks ago which is functional but, there's a post and footing in the way.

The post and footing was really bothering me and it was a tripping hazard. 

I have lots of scrap lumber so I built a storage bin around it.

I've got PVC parts in it now. I'm thinking once all the yard irrigation is done it can hold screws, nails, and such.

 

[Troble]

@Paul that’s nice work! I literally have no skills with my hands so I always respect any woodworking, carpentry or craftsmanship. That looks like a solid project. What’s your “regular job”?

[USUAggie]

I guess I never really responded besides saying how jealous I was about playing Torrey Pines.

like many here I love to golf.  I was not able to get out as much during covid but enough to keep me sane.  
 

I also love to woodwork.  I have fallen In Love with the lathe.  Since then I have not done much flat work.  
 

cooking is what has kept me the most sane duty this time especially on my new Komodo kamado.

Here are a few of my woodturnings.

[Paul]

36 minutes ago, Troble said:

What’s your “regular job”?

Power plant operator. It's deemed critical infrastructure so COVID restrictions haven't effected me much.

[Paul]

Nice work @USUAggie. Did you cut the threads on the lathe or do you have tap and dies?