Homer's Gates Ajar

Homer lives with his family in a peculiar place in a beautiful park called Como. 

Every spring Homer and his family move up from their secure underground burrow to the flowered "Gates Ajar" at the entrance to the park.  Homer easily sees all the visitors from his spot in the flowers.  Tunnels weave in and out of the structure standing 10 feet high.  Dirt, 8 inches thick, stuck between its wood frame and metal mesh, gives Homer and his family plenty plenty of room to scurry in and out. 

Homer's favorite spot is above the wheel design, where he sits looking out from his cool hole, an excellent view of the fountain squirting water just a short distance down the hill. 

Every spring Tom and Ed, the gardeners, replace the green, red, yellow and pink plants covering Homer's summer home.  Each day they return to water it down during the summer, so the plants grow.  Splashes of water give him a refreshing shower, only if he makes it to his special spot in time.  "Oh How I love the sprinkle", said Homer.

Daily, visitors come to take pictures in front of his gates. Families, come from near and  far and some are weddings.  How fun it is to be a part of all these pictures-  he likes to make funny faces.

Homer's too young to venture far from his home.  Oh, so much he wishes he could go down to the fountain, jump in to the cool pool, letting the water splash down on him.

One day, Jake, his best friend, visited him from on top of the hill. 

"It would be no problem to go down to the fountain" Jake said. 

The water in the fountain isn't too deep. We could jump, splash around all day.

 

Venturing out they traveled throughout the tunnels to the fountain.

Homer remembered what his dad had told him, “Don’t go close to the fountain.”

Jake said it was OK!  I guess it is. 

Once they reached the fountain, the water looked inviting.  The long trip was hot and dirty; a dip in the clear blue water would be so refreshing. 

Honk!  Honk! Geraldine, a big white goose, scared them. 

"What do you think you are going to do?" She said.  

 "We want to go in for a swim." said Jake.

 "It's way to deep and you can't swim." She said.  

 Jake smiled, saying, "What do you know." 

 Both, jumped in.  Bobbing up to the surface, they realized the bottom was far below them to touch, Sinking down many time, taking many mouthfuls of water, the two gophers thought this might be their last day they ever play. 

 A tug on their backs brought them up and out of the water.   In one dip Geraldine grabbed the two of them, plopping them on the dry grass next to the fountain.

"You have to promise not to come back to the fountain until you learn how to swim." Geraldine said to the two waterlogged gophers.

Jake and Homer went up the tunnell back home to the gates. For the rest of the summer the only water play these two friends had was the sprinkler from Tom and Ed hose. 

The fall came upon the Gates Ajar and the flowers were removed.

Homer and his family journeyed back to they underground burrow. Homer had dreams of learning to swim, ready for the next summer.

 

 

Bubba's Dream

Bubba Watson played a special round to tie for the championship of the Masters Tournament in 2012.  On the second playoff hole, he hit his first shot into the woods, his opponent had a poor lie but in the fairway rough. 

His ball was so far in the woods ,a miracle shot was the only way to get him on the green. The opening, not much more than 30 feet wide then a hard hook to the right, around the trees would get him to the green. 

The shot had to come out of the wood just next to the camera stand, then curve 45 degrees to get to the hole.

 

When it came out of the woods his shot flew in the air, landing in front of the green then rolled within 8 feet of the hole.

 

Hitting his first putt six inches past the hole, gave him not a tap in, but just about.  It made him think, every other time he'd dropped a shot like this with no thought, this time a miss would be disastrous.  How could he explain it to all those people when they said , "How could you miss that?

Stepping back to double check, he took another look, just to be sure, was it as easy as all those other times? A short swing, the sound (klop blop) of the ball dropping to the bottom of the hole, ended the flow. It's signal meant a bend down, sticking his fingers down the sides, and picking it out.

At that moment he heard the crowd, straightening up, it hit me. He had just won the biggest event of the sport he loved.

Fifteen minutes later in the clubhouse, he was asked how he felt, " I never thought that far in my dreams. "

So maybe the reason fantastic thing miss us, isn't that we don't dream, it's that we don't dream far enough.

Nice going.  Bubba