Musings from the last best place

If you're serious about golf, you either already own or are seriously considering a golf GPS system. Used to be that Sky Caddy was the only game in town (I own an SG5), but this year seems to be a breakout year with several new models available from Garmin, Golf Buddy, Callaway, and others.

I like my SG5, but was under-impressed with the paltry 3 month warranty and annual subscription fee required. I'm intrigued by Callaway's uPro, which you can pick up at Golfsmith for less than $299 through the end of July 2009. Here's how:

1. Sign up for an account at ebates.com. It costs nothing to join, but you'll get 5% cash back from Ebates when you click through to Golfsmith from their site.

2. Sign in at ebates.com, find Golfsmith in the list of stores, and click the link. This will automatically get you 5% cash back on your Golfsmith purchase (you'll receive the payment later directly from Ebates - read about how this works).

3. At Golfsmith, search for "Callaway uPro Golf GPS". Callaway is offering a $100 rebate through 7/31/09. Right now, you can also use code EPS926PRE to get free shipping.

Here's how the Callaway uPro deal breaks down:

Golfsmith list price: $399.00
Ebates 5% cash back: $19.95
Callaway rebate: $100.00
Shipping: $0.00

Final out of pocket: $279.05

The uPro carries a 6 month warranty - not great, but better than the three months I have on my Sky Caddy SG5. Certain credit cards automatically double the warranty for anything you purchase - if you're fortunate enough to carry such a card, use it to extend your warranty to a full year at no additional cost.

Callaway also uses a different business model than Sky Caddy - instead of a yearly subscription, you pay for each course you download. If you tend to golf the same courses, this will save you money. The cost per course is $10, although buying in bulk brings the per course cost down.

I'm trying to talk my league partner into buying a uPro - I'll give some feedback on the device once I get to play with it. If you've got experience with it, I'd love to read your comments!

To create this panoramic, I stitched together seven separate shots taken at the Headwaters State Park in Montana. I sometimes marvel how blessed we are to live in a place like this.

This evening, my friend Brant Nyberg and I trekked out to the Headwaters State Park near Three Forks, Montana for some golden hour photography. Headwaters State Park marks a special spot in Montana where three rivers - The Madison, Jefferson, and Gallatin - join to form the Missouri. We had actually packed up and were driving back to Bozeman when we saw this crane standing in reflective water by the roadside. I nearly racked out my 70-300mm Zuiko lens to capture this image (on a tripod, of course). A great end to an enjoyable evening.

As I grow older, one thing that's continually humbling is learning how much I don't know. I've been in the faith for most of my life, and yet this morning's sermon taught me something I certainly should have known, but didn't. I'm sharing this because I think it's really a pretty fundamental piece of the whole redemption puzzle.

On the cross, Christ's final prayer is this, "My God, my God - why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) Now, the astute (in this case, the pastor's daughter) may ask, "Why did Jesus ask this question? Didn't he know what was coming?" I mean, if Christ is truly God in man, this crucifixion thing shouldn't have taken him by surprise, right?

As pastor Brett LaShelle pointed out this morning, the answer is both simple and obvious - but it's something I've missed my entire life.

While the phrase is presented as a question, it really isn't a question at all - instead, Jesus is making direct reference to Psalm 22. At the time of Christ, folks weren't walking around with the NIV tucked under an arm. No - scripture existed only on scrolls, and those scrolls were typically available only in the synagogue. In addition, there was no chapter/verse system - that's a classification mechanism that we've imposed in translation to make it easier to break things up into digestible chunks. So a reference to a Psalm was made by simply quoting its first line - in the case of Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" So Christ wasn't asking God why, he was making reference to a Psalm that tells us why. You can read the Psalm here.

With this understanding, Christ's 'question' in Matthew 27:46 goes from strange query to intentional invocation. Right up to the end Jesus is connecting the dots, showing the Jews (and us) how he fulfilled the prophecy of the Old Testament.

If you're a believer, I hope you have a happy and blessed Easter. And if you're not, I hope you also have a great passover week and Easter weekend!

Given the price of Zuiko lenses, it would be great to rent the lenses before making a decision to buy. For instance, I've had my eye on the 11-22mm f/2.8-3.5 lens for quite some time. It runs around $700. Now, the reviews on the 11-22mm are stellar, but before I drop 700 smackers it would be nice to play with the lens a bit. If you shoot Olympus DSLR, you've probably already noticed that most camera shops won't touch Olympus with a 10 foot pole. Not sure why that is, but there you go. We Olympus shooters are left to buy online. Most of the big, reputable online photo sites carry Olympus, so this really hasn't been a problem, but rentals have been harder to come by.

Now that's all changed. I just discovered that LensRental.com now carries Olympus Zuiko lenses. The price to lay my hands on the coveted 11-22mm? $43 for seven insured days of shooting. Not bad - although shipping adds another $26. Seven days should be enough time for me to decide whether or not I'm interested in owning the lens.

Olympus shooters are often left playing second (or third, or fourth) fiddle, so I thought I'd write this quick post in the hope that it will help other Olympus fans locate a resource for lens rentals.

While winter has made a (hopefully brief) return to southwestern Montana this week, our snowmobiling outing this past weekend was all sunshine and spring conditions. These pics were taken in the mountains above Cooke City, home to some of the best snowmobiling to be had in the Rockies. No fresh snow this weekend, so instead of action shots I focused on sight-seeing. I think these mountains look their best in winter when snow covers most of the scars left by early 20th century mining.

This was a special weekend because we took our boys along for the ride. My son loves snowmobiling, but the Kitty Kat sled he rides around the field at the cabin just isn't cutting it anymore. So we took him up the mountain to let him get a feel for riding the 'big boy sleds'.

And no - those high-marking shots aren't of anyone in our group. Even with low-risk avalanche conditions, we're not willing to take the chance. We all wear avalanche beacons - primarily to be ready to help find guys like the ones you see in the photos. I'm not knocking them - live and let live. It's just not for me.

Spring has arrived in the high country! With our friends who were in town from Minnesota, we took the kids sledding yesterday in the hills just outside Cooke City, Montana. Here are a few pics from the afternoon's fun.

We're taking a whirlwind trip to Seattle this weekend for a medical visit. Here are a few pics from the touristy stuff we're doing before our doctor's appointment on Monday.