Last Friday I informed my boss at the ISVR that I will be leaving the University of Southampton at the end of June.   We will all be moving back to Nashville where Lynlee has already arranged for a job transfer.  What will Ken do?  House husband for a while, maybe try for some engineering consulting work.  But I really want to try my hand in the photography business.

There couldn’t be a worse economy in which to quit a job.  But I did it anyway.  There also couldn’t be a worse time to try making money at photography.  Newspapers are laying off experienced photographers in droves.  The traditional revenue streams for photographers have been upended by digital media and the web.  But I’ll try anyway.  Why?  Did you ever see the movie Being There staring Peter Sellers?  At the end of the film he exits the scene by walking on water over a pond.  Why?  Because he didn’t know he couldn’t.

The next stop was the dairy barn where we saw a cow being milked; a 12-hour old lamb; and a bunch of chickens.  Then on to Meet the Animals where everyone got to hold a baby rabbit (which we learned is called a kitten), a baby duck and a baby chicken.  The last stop was the Farm House where we got to wash dirty towels on a scrub board as well as a tour of the house.

It was a fun day out and I was really impressed with how well these kids behaved.  I was expecting mayhem, but these kids at St. Francis School are a really good bunch.

The first day we played at Killarney Mahoney Point. This is an inland course on the edge of the lake with the Killarney mountains on the far side. Most of the travelers were pretty jet lagged and but we had fun anyway.

Day two we traveled to Waterville. This is an tough links course on the coast. The wind was blowing about 30-35 mph which made the play pretty challenging. Here’s Jim Hubboch digging out of a bunker.

Day three we went to Tralee. The weather was nice with a little wind. I hired a caddy there who is from Tralee and caddies for Janice Moddie on the LPGA tour. He had a week off after the women’s British Open and what does he do but work. I quickly learned to turn off my brain and try to do exactly what he told me.

Day 4 we went to Old Head which is located on an incredible part of the coast. The golf course takes up an entire spit of land jutting out into the sea. The weather was beautiful as was the scenery.

Day 5 we went to the famous Ballybunion. This is a really difficult golf course. On one hole I was 15 feet from the pin just off the green and it took me 5 shots to get in the hole! The ball rolled back to my feed twice, then over the green into a bunker, then up and down from there. The first 6 holes was cloudy and breezy, then the weather came in and the wind blew about 35 mph with lashing rain. I asked my caddy if he would be playing in this and he said no, he’d be in the shower by now. The last six holes the weather cleared and we finished in sunshine.

Day 6 we played at Dooks, a lesser known links course. The weather was rainy with little wind. One guy called Buffalo hit a drive off the tee that didn’t get 5 feet in the air. It dumped into the gorse 50 yards in front of the tee box. He asked his caddie if he saw the ball. The caddie repplied “No, I lost it in the air.”

The last day we played at Killarney Killeen along the lake right next to Mahoney Point played on day 1. It rained on and off that day and the groups that finished behind us played in pouring rain for a few holes.

Ohter than golf I didn’t have much time for anything else but drinking Guinness. Our group did our best to deplete Irelands reserves of the black stuff.

Come back in a couple of weeks for more posts on all of these.

We played with my golf partner, Phil, and his daughter, Katie, who babysits for Noah and Mary sometimes. Stoneham Golf Club is rather hilly, and I was worried that Noah wouldn’t be able to make it walking. But he’s a resourceful little guy. He talked Phil into a ride.

Ken took 23 shots and Noah had 52 putts. Noah 10-putted a couple of greens but finished off with a 1-putt. He didn’t win the prize for the most putts. That went to a kid who took 70 putts. Phil won the prize for fewest shots tee to green.