In The Last Two Weeks

In the last two weeks, I have learned a lot.  Some trivial, some pretty important, some new life-lessons, and some just plain funny stuff.

Did you know there really is such a thing as a Dew-Whip?  I didn’t.  I thought it was just a funny word that people said from time to time.  Well, let me tell you, my dad, the golf course worker, has been filling me in on some of the “official” golf course terminology, including the “dew-whip”.

See the guy below with the really long pole?  The pole is a Dew-Whip.

The Dew-Whip is a fiberglass, retractable pole with a very thin flexible tip.  Sometimes after mowing the greens, the mowers leave little bits of cut grass.  The groundskeepers take the extended Dew-Whip and use it to “whip” the piles of grass and separate it out so it doesn’t cause an obstruction on the green.

Do you know that the mind of a 12-year-0ld girl doesn’t think about feeling the air around an object to test whether the object is hot or not?  No, they decide that since the cigarette lighter in a vehicle isn’t red, it’s probably not hot and proceed to jam their thumb onto it.  🙂  Ouch!  I’m willing to bet Harley will never do something like that again!  

I learned that 13 pound dogs are scared to death of 7 pound cats.  Especially the gray, lovable kind that purr at the top of their lungs.  Said dogs will choose the longest path of travel if necessary to avoid coming into contact with gray cats.

On a more serious note, I have learned that even the kindest, gentlest person can turn into a hateful, mean-spirited antagonist when they don’t get their way.  I have also learned that sometimes silence and kindness only mean you refuse to be diminished by such behavior, but are by no means indications of weakness or approval.  On the contrary, they are signs of maturity, strength, and power.

Sometimes the price you pay for a choice you make is TOTALLY worth it.  Today, while out golfing with my dad for Father’s Day, I had to search for a ball I hit into the weeds.  As we played on, I noticed hives starting on my legs from some plant I contacted that I’m allergic to.  However, tonight for dessert, we had strawberry shortcake.  I am allergic to strawberries.  I could have just had shortcake and whipped cream, but NOOOOOOOOO, I had to have the strawberries, too.  The hives and itching I deal with tomorrow in addition to what I got from the weeds will be completely worth the yumminess of the berries!

The best thing I learned the past two weeks wasn’t anything I didn’t already know, but it was more of an affirmation that my bragging and pride I feel about my girls is completely justified.  I had to be out-of-town last week, and it happened to fall on a day when our house was on the Realtor Tour and would be shown to the area realtors.  I left a list of what needed to be done in the house before the girls took the dogs and left the house for the day.  Not only did they do EVERY. SINGLE. THING. on the list, they decided to do it the day before to make sure it was done correctly.  I am so very proud of them, how responsible they are, and how much I can depend on them when I need to.

There are many many other things I’ve learned over the past two weeks, but I thought these were the best to share.

What have you learned lately?