by Joe Redden Tigan

An inordinately beautiful day surprises Chicagoland in July, 2003. No searing heat. No humid haze. Perfect. Real estate appraiser Conny Bromenn has recently turned 40, and the new fresh breeze has pumped him with a magnum of lucidity, though it struggles sometimes to sift through the gauze of befuddlement compiled over 40 years.

Conny's ready for a serious change. He needs to confront his long-standing lethargy in the community and search for deeper meaning in his life-but can he let his golf buddies know his intentions without being laughed off the course? His newfound clarity tells him . maybe.

Risking their friendship, Conny proposes a new wager to replace their long-standing $5 Nassau, one in which the losers must adhere to certain pacts. Intended to initiate some sense of social responsibility within this group of 40-year-olds, these pacts quickly take on a life of their own with each passing hole.

Conny and his friends start out just hoping to get a tee time in this unexpected weather, but end up turning a funhouse mirror on suburbia, their places in it, and what needs to be done .