Gear Acres at Top of the Hill: This Year's Buick Open...The Year of the Urinator

Well we survived another Buick Open. As you may know by now, Buick and GM have pulled their sponsorship from this tournament. The purse for 'The Open' is over 5 million which is 5 million that GM desperately needs to run the company.

What is sad is that Buick has sponsored this tournament for 51 years. Also what is sad is that the winner takes home over 900k. I really don't understand why the winner should get 900k. What overhead does the individual golfer have? Clubs...probably free, travel and lodging, caddy, and what else???? There also is very little danger involved. Pulled hamstring? Runaway golf carts? Hearing loss from wearing loud colored pants?

Now compare that to a NASCAR driver. Most races pay the winner between 200 and 300K except for Daytona and The Brickyard. What overhead does a NASCAR driver incur? Race team, multiple race cars, lodging and travel. Danger involved....death resulting from crashes, permanent injury resulting from crashes, and hearing loss from loud race cars. Seems like NASCAR drivers should win more than pro golfers, especially when the driver usually has to split 60/40 with the owner.

I know the local economy will suffer from the loss revenue. The local paper says that the high school athletic program will lose $40,000 that was annually earned from charging for parking in the high school parking lot.

Grand Blanc township could do their job better when it comes to making the week of the golf tournament bearable for the residents that don't make $$$$ from the event.

First off....the noise. We have to listen to loud music, car horns beeping continuously (car alarms being turned on and off), car alarms going off and beeping for long periods of time, air horns, hollering, and squealing tires. The township could also monitor the dB's and issue citations. The most frequent noise makers are car stereos, loud motorcycles, and loud 4 wheel drives trucks.

Second....trespassing. The township is right on the job posting signs that say 'do not park by order of police'. See the township sells permits to homeowners to allow them to charge for parking. The township is only interested in making sure they get their cut and could care less about non parking home owners dealing with trespassing. They could just as easily post signs that say 'no parking and no trespassing by order of police'. They could also put out signs reminding spectators to stay off lawns and walk in designated areas. They could also assign each home owner a lot designation like Lot Z. They do this for the country club but not for individual home owners. Some of the trespassing comes from spectators not knowing where they parked and how to get there. Signs posted at exits indicating which parking lots can be accessed from that exit and an arrow pointing in the direction of the lot would help with trespassers that get lost. Spectator could be given a piece of paper with their parking lot designation letter on it for future reference. Oh wait, that might be a bad idea because all the slips of paper would probably end up in my yard.

Here is a photo of some lost spectators.

Here is a photo of the politest trespassers we had all week. They said, "Sorry...where do we need to go to get over there?" R told them and they left.....no arguing, no flipping of the bird, and no name calling.

I love the excuse...."I paid to park over there and that is where I am going." "Well buddy, I didn't receive a dime of it, so go around." Which is usually where they start calling me a name. And they wonder why I don't like this time of year.

Third....the traffic. We have to modify our driving routes because of traffic. I can't tell you how many times in the last week I have been flipped off or had people honk their horns because I had the audacity of slowing down to pull into my driveway. The township could place an officer at the south end of the golf course on Saginaw Road. Instead all the police presence is around the club house or when the groundskeepers make their daily trek down South Saginaw Road once play has ended for the day on the front nine. When this parade starts it requires a police car or police motorcycle at the front and in the rear. The township could also lower the speed limit from 55 to 35mph from Wednesday through Sunday. And most important...the township should require homeowners to direct traffic leaving their yards. You say...."that is dangerous".....and I say "you had no problem standing there directing people into your yard for 10 bucks." I swear we had several near misses with people turning left out of driveways and almost hitting another car pulling out and turning left across the street. Of course they both horned their horns and flipped the other guy off.

Last but not least.......Signs need to be posted to remind people "No Public Urinating Allowed". Yes people that is right......every time we turned around people were peeing. There were so many people peeing that I felt like I was in a urology office. On Sunday morning, I was taking photos of some flowers in my back yard when I heard a guy holler at his buddy. I looked up just in time to catch this guy peeing along the fence row. R later saw another guy peeing in the same place. Come on guys......you got the better plumbing configuration but please could you remember to go before you leave the house!!!! How about cutting back on the Big Gulps from 7-11.

But on Saturday the winner of the day was this guy.

R pulled into our driveway just in time to catch this guy in our bushes relieving himself. Here's a photo of R asking 'The Urinator'...."what in the #$%^ do you think you're doing in my bushes? You can't p$%s out in public." To which 'The Urinator' replied "God bless America." Check out all the people walking around.