It has now been around three weeks since I last put ball and club together. I'm recovering nicely and trying to focus my energy on the backyard rink but well-meaning people keep bringing up Florida and how much I'd love it there right now. I feel the shakes starting to come back.

My youngest is about to turn 4 and that means it has been 4 years since my last winter golf expedition. I honestly don't see getting that trip back. I had a great streak that had become locked in but a break in the streak means all grandfathering is out. My wife has apparently never heard of the "a starter can't lose his job to injury" unwritten rule of sports. So, now I hose down the ice until it's as slick as the greens at the Ledges and I wait. And wait.

I'm OK with a break from golf. If you live in Maine and don't own a GulfStream you better be OK with it or you'll go crazy and drive everyone around you crazier. But with no snow the past couple years the cross country skis and the snowshoes have cobwebs on them and, by the time the Boston Golf Expo rolls around in early March, I'm ready to hit a striped Top Flite with a persimmon wood. Getting to play until mid-January would seem to be a blessing but now I'm not so sure. It feels like I got stopped in mid-swing.

Of course my job with Golf Maine means I'm talking golf every day which is sort of like letting Gene Simmons work at Victoria's Secret but I fight every day to prove that my life is more than just golf and that I can handle the winter. It's obvious I'm losing, isn't it?

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