Of fathers and sons and golfing for life

Some people play golf for a living.
Some play it for life.
Count me as part of the latter. As I've already noted here, I took up the game when I was 14; now I'm 47 (hold on, let me get a calculator ...)  that's 33 years I've been chasing that little white ball around big, green pastures. And, oh, has it been fun.
It's funny, though. For years I felt golf was a great escape for me. Even though I wasn't that good (and I'm still not) I'd get out on the course and the cares of the world would drift away like a hard slice off the 1st tee (if you've played with me, you know what I mean). For the next few hours, even if I wasn't playing well, life was pretty good because even bad golf beats a good honey-do list on a Saturday afternoon.

Santa baby, please make the music stop for a while

Baby, it's getting old outside.
Please, let me explain:
Recently, I read that Christmas carols have been around for thousands of years. Supposedly they date back to around 120 AD when folks used to celebrate Winter Solstice. Then came Christmas, carols and later, regular old Christmas songs.
So, to recap: Christmas music has been around for more than a thousand years, give or take.
Boy to I feel silly. See, I figured they started about 20 minutes after the first Thanksgiving.
See what I'm getting at here? When it comes to the holidays and Christmas music, I'm as festive as the next guy. Really I am. But as I sit here and look at the calendar on the wall, I see that it's December 1, 2011. The problem is, I've been hearing Christmas songs for at least a month now, if not longer.

I know, I know. This isn't a new objection. Its seems for years now we've been hearing complains that radio stations and shopping mall sound systems have been playing holiday music earlier and earlier.

As a middle-aged guy, I can still remember back to my youth in the 70s and 80s when nary a hint of the holidays was heard until sometime after Thanksgiving.