good times

I’m being presumptuous here, but some of you may have noticed that I didn’t blog last week.  I spent the week enjoying Myrtle Beach, S.C., with my parents and three brothers and their families.  I would have told you that we were gone, but I just bought a Wii and I didn’t want anyone to think they had a green light to break into my house and steal it.

Random vacation thoughts:

1. I just called my mechanic about my Oldsmobile van.  He’s going to find the cause of the green oily liquid that is leaking from beneath the back shock absorber (probably coolant for the rear air conditioning), fix my rear wiper, and discern why my “service engine soon” light came on.  I’ve decided to live with its broken fuel gauge and heated seats that don’t.  I guess this is about what I should expect from a discontinued line from a bankrupt company.

2. The key to winning at miniature golf is to avoid unforced errors.  Many holes come down to dumb luck:  roll the ball down the hill and see where it ends up after bouncing off a couple of walls—this was confirmed by my two year old nephew, who scored two holes-in-one by doing this.  But while it’s hard to predict which balls will make it in the hole on the first try, the key to a low score is to avoid blowing makeable putts.  Here I’m thinking of my nephew’s father, an occasional visitor to this site who three putted from three feet.  You can’t win the game on any one hole, but you can certainly lose it there.

3. Who brings their own putter to a miniature golf course?  I saw a father in a Ping T-shirt and Titleist cap who brought his and a miniature version for his kindergarten son.  He reminded me of the “Real Man of Genius” ads:  “Here’s to you, the Tiger Woods of miniature golf.  You make your son hit first so you can read the slope of the fairway, you pump your fist when his ball goes into the drink, you refuse to share your night vision goggles for the obligatory hole played inside a fiberglass cave, and nothing makes you happier than to win a free game by acing the mystery hole.”

4. Who drives through a tunnel with their left blinker on?  Where do they think they are going?  This being South Carolina, I thought that once I was being followed by NASCAR fans.  I eluded them by turning right.

5. Funniest moment:  upon being told that he tends to boast, my nephew said, “Yeah, but I win a lot too.”  Point made.

6. I did manage to read N. T. Wright’s Justification by the pool, and I plan on organizing my thoughts together and blogging about this important book later this week.  For now I’ll say that I thought Wright was thrilling when he spoke on the topic of Christian worldview (God’s plan through Israel to save the entire world), but he disappointed with his statement that our final justification is by works.  I was hoping that he would spend more time clarifying and defending this view—which I think is the most controversial part of the book—but apparently he didn’t think it merited such close attention.