Being necessary

My department at work has the required number of people to function in normal situations and to survive when someone is sick or on vacation which turns out to be over half the year.

However, due to a medical situation that has a coworker out for a while, things at my job have not been normal especially when anyone is on their vacation. When I took one Friday off to move my mom, I came back the following Monday to 75 skids to put away.

In order to see my mom's new doctor and to recover from the extended weekend, I am currently scheduled off from the 4th through the 10th and have half joked at work stating the department might be better off closing at that time.

To get some of the thoughts out of my head, that is how I anticipate things could go:

Mar 2: Coworkers were surprised to see me thinking I scheduled the week off instead of the marked mixed week off the calendar.

Mar 3: I end up frustrated since other people in my department are able to leave on time or early before the day before heading on vacation. Though it is nice to see a review stating my dedication to my job, this sucks. I then leave a detailed email with potential situations that could happen when I am gone that no one will read anyway.

Mar 4: People realize I am gone and try to figure out how to cover for me. If something significant happens, I will get a text or call asking for help and potentially am asked to work a half day late Wednesday or Thursday morning.

Mar 5: The plan is to play a league round in Round Lake then take US 12 to get back to I-90 possibly stopping in Lake Geneva which I pass to pick up something to take with me. If I have to work that morning, no disc golf.

Mar 6: If weather in Bloomington is ok, I drive 15 minutes from the hotel to a small nine hole course. Lunch at the Mall of America where ai take a picture of my flipping off the giant Pepsi logo. Coworkers are relieved since there are no outbound trucks and ignore the vacation calendar by leaving things for "Ken to figure out Monday morning".

Mar 6 PM to Mar 8: I see people some who I haven't in over a year. I watch awesome music performed. I explain what happened the last time I was in the twin cities. Multiple people comment on my shirt Saturday night on the same floor I will consume a years worth of alcoholic beverages with people I trust hopefully including my daughter. I play a flex start event Sunday morning at the same course I visited on Friday and watch people with talent draw pictures Sunday night.

Mar 9: When I wake up, I see a text message from someone who ignored the vacation calendar asking me when I expect to be at work that day. I then get breakfast at the hotel before heading home potentially stopping to throw discs somewhere. I will likely get asked if I can come back to work the day after instead of taking Tuesday off and I reluctantly agree to do so.

May 10: Back at work tired from the weekend and fighting body that wanted to recover instead.

I am hoping things won't go that way and I am ignored by work for a week and come back to minimal things to solve but by posting this, will hopefully get those thoughts out of my head.

Eligibility part 6

This is being released as the youth of the world is hopefully about to start competing in winter events and hopefully there will not be any focus towards the eligibility of certain competitors in women's events.

Since the 2024 Olympic games produced overreaction to certain women competitors believed to not be eligible, there has been much discussion about this. I have stated the question is how to define eligibility for women's events and since I don't have a degree in genetics, I need to trust those who do.

However, I have found a solution that multiple people have proposed to be completely absurd and that is to eliminate women's events claiming they can compete equally with men. There are events where gender doesn't affect performance but I am referring to the majority that do.

In one discussion, I provided data proving that at the elite level in many events, the difference is so significant that female competitors at their best would have zero chance against equal male ones. Unfortunately similar to showing data to a member of the GOP about the potential damage the current administration is proposing, it was ignored.

It doesn't matter that the idea of women's events was initially created to protect male ego in archery (which is one of the few sports where gender doesn't affect elite performance), today, there is a difference at the elite level. That is similar to claiming that since Democrats were pro slavery over 160 years ago, that they are the bad guys today.

Why do I use the phrase "elite level"? That shows the ultimate ability of an athlete. 

Does that mean every man will defeat every woman? No. My 51 year old sister who has completed an Ironman triathlon would easily beat me in a 5k run. However, in disc golf which I have played over 20 years, my 60 year old self who finished last in the finals on last year's world championship would be expected to play equal to a local female pro in her late 50s who has won 2 professional world titles and 2 US titles in an age protected female pro division and is in the top 20 of all time event wins.

Many of the results events at the winter Olympics don't compare to men and women. Any event which has a judge provide a score based on their opinion can't be compared but people who pay attention would notice male competitors will complete more spins than female ones.

Alpine skiing can't compare since women will be on a different course. In ski jumping, it is designed for competitors to land on a specific part of the hill and the start position can be adjusted to do so. Hockey? No. Curling, maybe.

There are also events where the goal is to finish first. Pace can affect that.

The only two events that could be compared are Nordic skiing and long track speed skating which literally had the same distances for both mens and women's events. I also noticed that for qualifying in a snowboarding event, the best female time out of 32 players would have finished 31st in the men's division on the same course done back to back along with a couple mixed events where men and women competed in tandem and the mens performances were beyond the point where a woman could "surprise" and win.

Long track speed skating is the most obvious one. There is a significant difference between men's and women's world records.

2025 by the numbers

Frisbee golf rounds played: 1

Disc golf rounds played: 223

Courses played in 2025: 53

IL/IN/MN/WI: 38/3/4/8

New courses played: 20

Sanctioned rounds played: 45

Rounds in the same group as a former or current PDGA major winner: 5

IL/IN/MN/WI: 34/3/5/3

MA1/MA2*/MA3*/MA50/MA60: 3/1/3/13/25

Rounds played on a Federal holiday: 5

Rounds played on a notable non holiday: 4

Different holes birdied overall: 388

Par 4s birdied: 29

Holes birdied first time in 2025: 157

Of those a new course: 83

Those on a new tee or basket location for 2025: 17

Those I first played from 20-24: 35

Those I first played before 2020: 22

Lifetime unique birdies/different courses played: 1063/136

Rated holes played: 851

Rated birdies/different holes: 174/138

Holes I birdied four times: 2

Longest rated par three birdie: 323 (Bethel U #18)

Longest rated par four birdie: 617 (50 Acre 14-16)

Most birdies in a round: 9

Rounds with no birdie: 5

Longest birdie streak: 5

Throw ins: 2

Total to par: +8

Drives that hit metal of the basket: 11

Second shots off the tee that went on the basket: 3

First shots off the tee in the basket: 0

The new challenge

I am writing this during the last hour of 2025 home in bed after watching a satisfying final episode of Stranger Things at a movie theatre.

For me, there was one goal for 2025 and due to time, energy, analysis, money, and a bit of luck, I walked up to the first tee at the course on Bethel University on July 5th in the final round of the world championship. Though my mind at that time was focused on a decision made by someone else months previously that in retrospect makes sense, it is now very satisfying knowing my decisions on what to do along with lessons learned from the previous decade allowed me to get there that day.

I was so mentally and physically exhausted following my final round that less than 100 miles on the return trip, I fell asleep at 2PM in my car after putting gas in it causing me to get a hotel.

There was no after plan and combined with unanticipated stress outside work or the course, my body is more broken down than ever. In the 45 minutes since leaving the theatre, I have experienced pain in over a half dozen different places in my body including my right knee which needs to be replaced in an operation that won't be considered by my doctor until my BMI is significantly lower.

Knowing what to do and more importantly to not do is obvious and two months ago I saw someone who succeeded in doing what needed to be done.

Three hours past the time I normally go to sleep is not the ideal moment to develop a working agenda but waking up a half dozen times (including today) the past 7 weeks with spasms in one of my legs causing me to need crutches to make it to the bathroom is a sign of a problem that needs to be solved immediately. 

Barf day

Many refer to Dec 23 as Festivus based on the TV show Seinfeld but to me it is something different.

I have vomited more years on that date than only other. My birthday is second.

2012: Caffeine hangover. Yes, I get them every once in while especially when I substitute soda for sleep.

2015: Mushrooms. I found out I can't eat them as apparently they were diced in door I had at a company party. I almost ended up going to the ER.

2016: Virus or grocery store wings. I ended up in the ER and got two bags of fluid for dehydration. The next day stating "Howdy Ho!" when pooping got old as the line from the song "Sometimes it's practically water" happened the fourth time of many.

2017: Popcorn and peanuts: I woke with abdominal pain and ended up in the ER where I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. I try to avoid them now.

2023: Mushrooms: Something in my Five Guys burger was off and when I examined the half that was remaining, discovered them.

The nightmare still continues

Ten years ago today, I referenced "The Nightmare Begins" which is the name of the Doctor Who episode that first aired 6 hours after I was born.

Among the multiple cartoons from the 60s and 70s that featured teenagers in a band was The Pebbles and Bamm Bamm Show. Pebbles (voiced by Sally Struthers) and Bamm Bamm were dating and and there was also a group of teenagers that were at odds with them in Bedrock.

The "comic relief" of the show was a character called Bad Luck Schleprock. Yes, it uses all eight characters of my last name four of which are in the same spot. Being born on the 13th and having a negative outlook on live made it easy for people to draw a comparison.

Due to my instincts and calculations this is my expected last birthday ending in a zero. To be honest, June 28 through July 5 which involved seeing Weird Al backstage again then making the final round of the World's was my celebration rather than one specific day or weekend and due to multiple reasons, my plan on what to do the next four days has been downgraded.

Anyway, if I am able to cheat death in 2034 like I did in 1990, the current plan is the 2035 Worlds.

25 wins by the numbers

On a damp dreary cool November day last Saturday, I won my 25th PDGA sanctioned event so it makes sense to break down the wins in multiple ways:

Tier A/B/C: 1/3/21

Division MA3/MA40/MA50/MA60: 1/2/15/7 (This is how those divisions are defined today as a couple wins were before they were renamed.)

Number of rounds 4/2/1: 1/15/9

At 50 Acre/Fairfield/Dellwood/Eagle Ridge/Grey Fox/Anna Page: 6/2/3/2/2/2

Places with one win: 8

By number of opponents 0/1-3/4-7/8+: 2/18/3/2

By year 13/16/18/19/20: 1/1/1/1/2

By year 21/22/23/24/25: 2/1/2/4/10

By month Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May/Jun: 1/0/1/1/3/2

By month Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec: 2/2/5/4/4/0