Beauty can be deceiving.
What a beautiful day to play golf in Syracuse, N.Y., you might say to yourself after looking at the photo I snapped with my iPhone 4 looking out over the 10th fairway at Foxfire Golf Club this afternoon.
Yes, the sky was a shocking blue.
Yes, the grass was a vibrant green.
But the wind was whipping.
The temperature topped at 51 degrees.
It felt cold.
Kingpin hits his drive on the 10th. Down the middle.
We all dressed in layers. I wore a T-shirt, a short-sleeved golf shirt, a long-sleeved T-shirt, a half-sleeved vest and a sleeveless vest. I topped it with the beige fedora-style hat I bought on my dear wife Karen and I’s cruise to Bermuda last September.
Onward through the chill we went, Kingpin, Wags and I, for our second round of this spring. That’s a pretty fast start to our season in upstate New York.
Wags hits his drive on the 10th. Down the center, two feet from Kingpin’s shot.
On the practice putting green, Kingpin pulled out a pair of special rain gloves he’d received for Christmas from his sister-in-law Barb. Not to battle moisture, but to fight the cold.
I ran into the clubhouse and bought myself the exact same pair right just before we went to the first tee. They fit, well, like two gloves. My hands felt warmer, and the grip on my clubs felt great.
I hit my drive on the 10th. Notice the lack of balance as the shot flares 25 yards shorter and into the right rough.
Kingpin won the most skins in our little competition, and shot the lowest score by a handful.
Wags won the second most skins and shot the second lowest score.
I won the least skins and shot the highest score, by a couple.
Did I mention the wind and cold?
Would you play an outdoor sport in 50-degree, windy conditions? What’s the worst outdoor sports experience you’ve ever had.
Mark Bialczak 
This is the first spring I can remember when 45-50 degrees didn’t feel warm. When the wind stops, the clouds come out.
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Cloudy. Cold. Windy. Repeat. Good to year from you, Cat.
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Winter weather on 4/25? Bah humbug! It’s in the 80s here, like all week. We are sunburned from yesterday’s soccer practice (we put sunblock on). In winter, we had soccer regionals, and it was about 21 degrees (as cold as it gets here). I recall jumping up and down repeatedly, walking in circles to keep warm, not feeling my toes inside my two pairs of socks and boots, and feeling miserable. I will push the sun closer to your direction.
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I accept that sunny proposition, Kerbey!
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The appearance was definitely deceiving, but we must be thankful for the sun. I still dig the Mark Bialczak golf fedora.
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Thank you, Chris, to say you adore-a the fedor-a. I have five of them!
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it looks pretty from where i sit, but i know the sun can be deceiving, as any northerner knows. and i can speak from recess experience, as soon as the sun hits the wood chips the kids are so excited to take coats off, and that lasts about 30 seconds until the wind and actual temp hits them )
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I love this line, Beth: “as soon as the sun hits the wood chips …” I can picture the eager kinders throwing off the jackets only to return to the coat-pile when the wind whips the playground.
It’s funny, but sometimes even we northerners don’t seem to get the back-to-cold-today memo. On one hole, we saw a postal worker delivering mail to the complex in shorts and shirt sleeves in the 50-with-wind!
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What we say about biking “a bad day on the bike is better than the best day at the office”. I’m sure it applies to cold golf too. 😉
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5 Borough Bike Tour coming up Chatter Master. Have you ridden that? It’s a great time.
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Oh Micatx, I would love to. Some day, I live a little too far away for that. But I love reading about biking as much as I love the riding. Thank you for sharing this.
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It does apply to spring and fall golf in my book, Colleen. I can assume you don’t have many bad days on the bike …
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Well Mark…..I don’t want to hijack your comments….but I’ve had some moments on the bike…..like the dog knocking me off, putting me in the hospital for three days. The deer knocking me off, concussion. The woman opening her car door on me…. the fella that threw a bottle at me and hit me in the back…. but none of them I would trade. Though I would like a word with the dog, the deer, the woman and that fella.
😉
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Good golly, Colleen, hard-core adventurist, you may be the first and only biker to be run into by a dog and a deer, run into a car door and have a run-in with a fool fella who’d hit you in the back with a bottle. One would be enough for a lifetime. All four? Yes, you may hijack my comment space with this news.
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You are so kind to me. The car door lady did not actually hit me. Tried to scare the crap out of me. It more scared my husband who was behind me and SAW her do it. It’s not that I’m hard core, it’s that I don’t have good luck. 😉
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Buying those gloves was a great idea!
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And now I have them stowed away for rainy rounds, too, Rachel, although we try not to go out there in a downpour!
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and hopefully not when lightning strikes!
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Oh, that’s stinky! 😦 I’m sorry. But you’re right, it was very pretty! I bet your face got cold. You probably don’t want to hear that I’m angry with my landlord because my air conditioner isn’t working properly and he’s gone for the weekend. 😉 Stay warm, my friend! 😀
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Great line, Rachel, simple and to the point: “That was stinky!”
I also think it is sucky when a landlord leaves a tenant down south with a broken air conditioner! 🙂
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LOL! Me, too, but in May I will be over this poetry theme and will be onto a “Truth is stranger than fiction” theme – where you can read about some of the shenanigans my current and former landlords have pulled. 😉
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Oh, I am looking forward to being entertained by your life of enduring too many shenanigans, Rachel, I truly am!
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Well, if you tune in then, be sure to have an empty bladder…because I guarantee you will laugh!
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Best outdoor experience playing tackle football; no equipment; with you on our sloped front yard in the snow with 6″ already on the ground. An orthopedic surgeon’s wet dream. And yet year after year we emerged unscathed to slurp down some hot chocolate. Livin’ Large on Seabrook.
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My favorite game that you and I made up was “punt” on the Seabrook hill, MC. Hours at a time, the guy at the bottom would battle valiantly to top the guy at the top …
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Crazy fun. Those were the days when we played outside not video games. AHHH the taste of victory was so sweet when someone finally made it to the top.
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Our neighbors were very tolerant, I realize now, as we thumped basketballs and footballs and street hockey pucks well after the sun went down, MC.
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