…which means that train season is about to begin. Today is the first official day of fall. For the umpteenth year in a row, I vowed to make time to do some model railroading during the summer months and for the umpteenth year in a row, I broke that vow. You would think a retiree could find time to devote to both hobbies. Guess what. I can’t. It’s either/or. I’m becoming golfed out and am getting the train bug again. The latest WPF was a big help to get me jump started. I have actually begun to straighten up the layout and finish a few projects that I left hanging last spring. There will still be a few rounds of golf to be played before I get it out of my system for the year, but I’m getting ready to actually go downstairs and do some real layout work for the first time since early last April. A couple days of heavy rains have been a big help.
Man I have played several years past Christmas here, and that’s in Pa. Never knew there was a golf season closer. The season NEVER ends. Neither does the MRR season.
Man, the things I could get down if I was retired, lol. I put my clubs away last weekend and I’m happy I did, I didn’t shoot par once this year. For me train season officially started this past weekend when my club went to our first show of the season in Picton, Ontario. Funny thing though, I bought 5 new slot cars and no train stuff at the show.
It’s always golf season here in Southern California [(-D]
I used to be a fanatic golfer as well and can remember playing year around here in Ohio. We once played with orange balls in 6 inches of snow. Believe it or not, an orange golf ball will actually show through that much snow if it goes under. The really challenge was trying to figure out how far short of the green you had to land your ball to get it to stop on the frozen greens. One of my greatest shots ever was an 80 foot putt I made on a green with a layer of ice. It was hit and hope and it somehow managed to land find the hole.
Since I turned 40, the golf season began to start later and end sooner. The end has a lot to do with how I am playing. Last year I did shoot one even par round but the best I could do this year as a 1-over 73. I’ve actually hit the ball better this year than I have in a long time but the last month I’ve gotten one of the worst cases of the yips I’ve ever had or seen. Imagine Vijay Singh after 10 cups of coffee and you’ll get the idea where I am at right now. It makes walking away from the game a little easier right now.
I gave up on golf. For me, it’s a big waste of time. Trains are better.
According to my wife (who can’t fit all of her golf championship trophies on the mantel) golf season is just about to start - with daytime temperatures that are only two digits instead of three. [8D]
The most golf I have ever played was a couple of rounds of putt-putt. Like their mother, both of my children are championship-level players with display cases full of trophies.[^]
Unfortunately for my model railroading, physiological problems don’t care about the seasons…[|(]
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - right hip willing)
You’ve got it all wrong. There isn’t a golf season and a train season.
There is a golf half of the day (daylight) and a train half (night). The only thing that changes with the seasons is that in the winter you have to play faster (don’t take your kids!) to finish the round before train time rolls around again.
And to the guy who’s complaining about not breaking par: No sympathy from me. I often struggle to keep my score in double digits (that stinking lake on #7 and the three tiered green on 16).
Golf? What’s Golf?
Wasn’t it Mark Twain who defined golf as “A good walk ruined”? I wonder had he ever met John Allen what kind of opinion he might have rendered on model trains.
Me and golf don’t mix. I’ve tried it several times, and it seems like I just can’t play it. My clubs are now collecting dust. I also have a golf course about 10 miles away open 365 days a year. Now when the ground is froze, talk about a good drive. That should add several yards!!!
It seems like I’m working on the layout more since the change in season. I gotta save some for the “snow”. Yeah I said it [X-)].
…and so is motorcycling season, pool season, and boating season.
But, I probably won’t have to cut the grass more than 3-4 more times.
And, I guess I should probably fire up the snow blower now to see if it has one more season left in it.
Never have played “Cow Pasture Pool”. Summer time is for chasing trains with a camera and the rainy months are for working on the model trains.
If memory serves, both were born in Missouri, so I imagine they’d get along quite well. [swg]
I think Sam C would appreciate John Allen’s artistic ability and photography. Oddly enough the guy who basically invented color photography lived next door to Mark Twain in Connecticut. He used to take test pics at home, so some of the oldest color pictures still extant are pics of Sam Clemens taken 100 years ago.
I golf all spring summer and fall and build model trains all winter. - Nevin
Oh, rub it in!
I have played 80 rounds so far this year and shooting par for the round is out of the question.
15 handicap, so 3 or 4 pars per round is all I can muster.
I’ve got the perfect solution for you- buy my house down here on . With 56 strait days of 95+ degree plus heat and less than 0.25 inches of rain, the golf courses are little more than total sand traps. Unfortunately, it’s just too hot to work on your layout in the garage- all those drops of perspiration loosen up the white glue and corrode the track sitting there in the salty air. Yup, you won’t have any problems with either golf or MRR here since few retired folks venture out of their life sustaining air conditioned homes. If you are like me, you can while away the entire summer (which starts in March and ends in December) sitting there in AC bliss assembling endless little buildings. Come December I’ll try to find room for those 30+ newly constructed buildings on my well warped layout out there in the garage. Two more summers like this one and my former logging layout will look more like a downtown metro layout. Then again the odds are fair that a hurricane will take it all away and I can start all over again (if the insurance I pay dearly for will actually payoff what their policy says it will). I’ll even leave the current layout in the garage for you but if you drive anything larger than my Mini Cooper, it won’t fit in the 2.5 car garage…
I go kinda the opposite of most people, I do much more modelling in the warm weather months for several reasons.
One is that I don’t like the hot humid weather so tend to stay in the air conditioning during the summer (although this summer was pleasantly mild here in the Upper Midwest), plus anything involving spray painting and such can only be done during warm weather, not so fun opening the windows for ventilation when it’s -20F!!
Also my busy time at work is usually January thru April, so I tend to get most of my modelling projects done during spring-summer-fall, and get the layout "finished’ enough by the end of the year that I can just operate the layout Jan-April and not have to worry about working on it.
BTW I’m not a golfer, I’m a bowler. Right now we’re in our third week of league play, so that’s one night and $20 a week I don’t have to dedicate to trains. The league runs til April.
There is an ongoing war in my neck of the woods between the R/C club that borders the golf course and also my property and the Naval air station. Seem the golfers get a bit touchy when the R/C guys fill the sky with that lovely annoying whine of a weed whacker motor used to fly a big R/C plane and forget about it when the C17’s use the bases runway for practicing touch n go’s. My brother in law played the course when they came to visit us and he came back shell shocked…lol thought he was under attack.
Yes it is, and I’ll be playing on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Easter, oh and I’m crossing my fingers for time in between.
Honestly though, I’d rather be playing golf in Montana, Utah or even Oregon. Those are other places I’ve lived over my short life and golf is cheaper there and the scenery is delightful.
The only reason train season slows down for me in there Summer here is because my garage get too hot, and that is no fun at all.