Arthur F. Kuhn
Managing Editor

A hole-in-one is rare on the golf course, but what are the odds of a blind golfer sinking one?

Leo Fiyalko couldn't see it, but his golf buddies did -- a hole-in-one on the fifth hole at Cove Cay Country Club in Clearwater, Fla.

Fiyalko is 92, and has macular degeneration. He's been golfing for 60 years, but his 110-yard shot with a five iron on Jan. 10 was his first hole-in-one.

"I was just trying to put the ball on the green," Fiyalko said.

Fiyalko tees off every Thursday, with a group of golfers ranging in age from 70 to 90-plus. He used to have a seven handicap, but now he needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls because he only has peripheral vision in his right eye.

Jean Gehring was playing in his foursome and watched Fiyalko's swing.

"I could tell it went on the green, (but) when we got up there I didn't see it. I looked in the hole and there it was," he said.

Gehring said Fiyalko brushed off the feat, and had to be prodded to tell his wife about it at the end of the round.

Fiyalko's friends at the country club presented him with a plaque last week to commemorate the feat.

Frank Oresnik of Medford, Wis., is on the verge of making history driving his old standby -- the pickup truck he says is about to pass the

1 million mile mark.

Oresnik took his 1991 Chevrolet Silverado to the Oil Ex-Change Quick Lube in Medford recently for what he expects will be its last oil change and tuneup before hitting the magic number.

He said the truck is 1,200 miles from a million, and once he hits the mark he will retire the vehicle.

"I feel almost like the longtime NFL player as he goes into his last training camp knowing this is the end," Oresnik said.

He credits proper maintenance and a good measure of luck for allowing the truck to rack up so many miles. He said he's had more than 300 oil changes and tuneups at the Medford business, going in every 3,000 miles.

The truck has had four radiators, three gas tanks, five transmissions and six water pumps, but the engine has never been overhauled, Oresnik said.

He bought the Silverado in June 1996, after the original owner put 41,000 miles on it. Oresnik uses the vehicle to deliver seafood in three states, putting on about 85,000 miles a year.

Having a tornado demolish her home was bad enough. But weeks later when Ann Beam of Wheatland, Wis., received a $2,000 cable bill for destroyed equipment, she was floored.

"I just couldn't believe it," Beam said. "I was like, 'What are they thinking?"'

Time Warner Cable billed a number of Wheatland residents for equipment damaged in the Jan. 7 twister. Beam's bill covered five cable boxes and five remote controls.

She immediately called the cable company, but a man who identified himself as a manager said there was nothing the company could do.

"They said I would have to take the bill and turn it in to my insurance company," Beam told the Kenosha News for a story on the paper's Web site Thursday.

But her cable equipment was nine years old, and the insurance company would pay only a depreciated value, she said.

Beam's case was simply a misunderstanding, Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Celeste Flynn said. Some customers were charged for unreturned equipment, but only because they canceled or transferred their service without mentioning the tornado, she said.

"We understand this is an unusual situation," Flynn said. "All they will need to do is call, and we will take the equipment off their account."

The rare winter tornadoes destroyed more than two dozen homes and damaged nearly 80 others in Kenosha County.

-- With thanks to Associated Press

Art Kuhn is the managing editor of the Daily Times. Contact him at (740)) 353-3101, ext. 244, or e-mail at akuhn@heartlandpublications.com.