I certainly am not qualified to judge if Tuesday's high temperature of 65 degrees in Syracuse, N.Y., had anything to do with global warming. That is such a serious matter that I had to mention it here this once. I surely worry about the polar bears losing their habitat at the melting glaciers at the poles and the domino effect of eco structures tumbling around us and the planet that will or will not be left for future generations.
But that is certainly not what I wanted to think about when I pulled on my pair of shorts before 8 a.m. on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2014, topped that with a layered look of T-shirt with golf polo and long-sleeve pullover and vest, and watched a bearded Al Roker explain during the weather segments of the "Today" show how nice it would be in upstate New York as a winter storm hit Minnesota and tracked its way east. I know he put an extra glint in his smile for that part of the forecast. The dude went to college at SUNY Oswego.
It was inexplicably sunny and warm Tuesday. These things happen every now and again all on their own. I was in a position to take advantage of it.
I let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out in our Eastwood backyard right around 8 a.m., and she stood in the grass and watched the low sun peek over the fence by Good Neighbor Tim's house. She is a happy rescue mutt when it is this warm on Nov. 11.
I walked to the triangle of land that separates James Street from Grant Boulevard right around 9 a.m. and I admired the flapping American and P.O.W. flags atop the poles. I ran my hands across the stone monuments dedicated to our veterans on this, their day. They were draped in red, white and blue bunting.
I started a good walk spoiled at 11:14 a.m. at Radisson Greens in Baldwinsville with my best buds KP and Tater. Well, that's what Mark Twain called golf, anyway, and the way I frequently hit the little white ball the next five hours, I would not argue with that legendary label, even if we did have carts to motor us around and the grounds were still green, the leaves had been blown off the fairways, the greens were rolling true and I could not have thought of one single place on earth I would have rather been.
The sun was low in the sky by the time we finished, poking its late rays through bare tree limbs. Over the course of our 18 holes of chatter and and camaraderie, I'd gone from short sleeves to long sleeves, and the mental debate was on about whether the vest would come out of the basket and onto the body. I was still wearing shorts in Syracuse, N.Y., on Nov. 11, 2014.
At the end, the temperature in the 60s on this day offset my score in the 100s, no debate.
Al Roker told me it'll be in the 30s come the weekend. That means that snow that hit Minnesota could find us. We're due. We just had our bonus day.
Were you able to take advantage of the warm and sunny Veterans Day, and if so, how?