We’ve finished deadline for the Jan/Feb issue so I’m back to the Gold Beach Youth Golf Team. We meet at my office, which has been converted to the golf club, this afternoon to discuss the winter schedule. Right now it’s raining most days and it gets dark about 5 pm, so it doesn’t leave a lot of room for golf outside. The kids built an indoor range out of an old discarded ocean fishing gill net in one of the BHM storerooms, so we have a rainy-day place to practice. Through donations the club purchased a used video system so we can record, then analyze the kids’ swings.

Two people have taken me up on my appeal for donations of golf clubs in my Oct. 15 post.  If anyone else has clubs they no longer use, we’ll put them to good use. I’ll pay the Fed-Ex charges. Just e-mail me (dave at backwoodshome.com) with your mailing address and I’ll ship you a pre-paid mailing label so you can FedEx the items to us. If they are real good clubs, we’ll even pay you for them, but we can’t afford much.

You can also help out the youth team by buying a golf shirt I designed. I talk about it in my upcoming editorial in the Jan/Feb issue. It costs $30, but it’s high quality — 65 percent poly and 35 percent cotton that would sell for about $35 at a golf pro shop. I’ll not only send you the shirt, but I’ll also send you a free, autographed copy of my book, Can America Be Saved from Stupid People, and our little U.S. Constitution book. The offer isn’t online yet (I’ll have the webmaster do so soon) so you’ll just have to call the office at 1-800-835-2418 to order. Here’s what the shirt looks like:

Today, after learning my local health department now has swine flu vaccine for adults with certain conditions like asthma and heart disease, I decided to get a shot because I have heart disease, having had heart bypass surgery. So I called the health department to find out when I could come down for a shot.

“How old are you?” the health worker asked.

“Sixty five,” I said.

“You’re not eligible,” she said. “The cutoff is age 63.”

So there you have an indication of what is in the future. There is now enough vaccine for all the children, pregnant women, and adults “who qualify,” but because swine flu vaccine is government-controlled, bureaucrats have decided my age has disqualified me.

I‘m expendable!

But this morning, middle son, Robby, who is 16 and normally blessed with discriminating taste, passed on this marvelous dish in favor of a package of Rice a Roni.

“Are you kidding!” I pleaded. “This Parmesan dish is delicious!”

“This is good too, Dad!” he said matter-of-factly.

Egad! His generation will soon be in charge!

Jackie Clay video

By the way, if you haven’t seen Jackie Clay’s latest blog video, you should. Extremely good. It’s the Oct. 27 entry.

Problems with website shopping cart

The shopping cart on the website broke yesterday afternoon, but we got it fixed tonight. So if you tried to order something at the website within the last day and a half but couldn’t, please try again.