Cutting from One Post to Make Another

I cut this excerpt from my last post in order to get five posts for the month of May.  Since this is the last day of May, I wanted it to say five before it was too late.  Silly, I know, but May was a very hectic month with the end of school, planning for the BWP summer institute, and other stuff.

The Bisti Writing Project summer institute that I will be the co-director of this time around begins this Thursday.  I am so excited to be a bigger part of it!  Last year, I was a tech helper, but this time, I will play a bigger role! 
    I am also hoping that it will help me get into a routine of working out and eating better again, especially for golf.  The plan is to get up and work out every morning before I go.  After the institute, it would be great if two times/week I could go practice some short game or go to the range at Pinon Hills.
    If I want to break 80 this season, I must play better!
    Everyone has left the cabin now except Char, Belinda, Amanda and me.  That’s a combo we have never had here before.  I think Dale had a great birthday.  Last night we had steak, potatoes, salad, and Dale had a gin and tonic (or two or three) with Eric and Anna and Char. 
    The girls and I just got back from an hour long walk through Ground Hog Vista.  It was a nice walk with cool breezes and conversations about teaching and students who misbehave.  Char, although not a teacher, does a fine job with all this teacher talk.  The twins have now washed their hair and they both feel like new women because of it. 
    We have a fire going.  I am writing and the girls are chatting by the fire.  I just texted James and Danielle to see where they are at and what they are doing.  James is the first to reply so far.
    It’s almost 9:00.  I am tired after our walk, and I am having a beer.  It’s making me even more sleepy.  I should proofread Tom’s book some more, but I feel like veggin‘ out and watching a movie.  I might do that instead.  Not in the mood to work or even write right now.

Until next time...

Back at the Cabin and 5th Birdie This Season!

5-16-11
    I am sitting in our truck at the Vanilla Moose waiting for family.  We are celebrating James getting a job with the YCC (Youth Conservation Corps) this summer.  It’s a big deal; this will be his first real job.
A group of teenagers just showed up with James.  They are a busy bunch, moving around, talking, laughing, acting “cool.”  James asked me where Belinda was.  I said I didn’t know.

5-29-11 Memorial Day Weekend
    We are back at the cabin for the first time in a long time.  It’s a big group.  Char, Dale, Anna, and our regular two families came this time.  We are mostly here for...

First Day Back after a Hiatus

I played with Bruce and C.J. today.  It was a beautiful day!  Birds chirping.  Green grass, green trees, green greens.  Sadly, the golf was bad for me.  I was wiped out when it was over.  I am not in good golf shape.  It made me want to play more, though.  I thought I would be able to shoot an 89 without much effort.  Instead, it took a bunch of effort to shoot an adjusted 98.

How the Match Turned Out

5-13-11
    When I teed it up, I was more focused on my routine than on my “I hope I win this thing” attitude and nervousness.  It was not the best tee shot, but I understand why playing often helps improve my game, more than going to a range.  I pulled it, but I had done that many times on this hole in the past.  My ball ended up on the front right corner of the closer teeing ground on hole #12.  It was on the corner so much so that I could only take my normal stance without falling over backwards and no more.
    I had a clear shot between the tall trees over there, and I guesstimated my yardage at around 160 yards or so.  I used my 7-iron, and I was reminded that a lower score is only one good swing away.  My ball shot between the trees and landed just to the right of the hole, short, but also very close to the green.  It took two putts from there, one from off the green a few yards and one gimme from about a foot to earn my par.  Mike ended up with a putt for par from much closer  than my first one, but he left it short.  Carl got into even more trouble, so he did not come close to a par either.  I had won.  I had held them off.  It was a nice victory.  Carl did not talk much when it was over.  I think he was upset, and that he really wanted bragging rights over a coach.   I was glad that I was able to disappoint him.
    Okay, one day I felt a pang of regret for helping with the golf team, but only one day and really only for a moment or two.  Don had to be somewhere else for his Wishon club-fitting business, so I was the only coach at practice.  As I was driving off in a cart to go over to the makeshift practice area behind hole #7, kids walking ahead of me with bags over their shoulders, I saw Bruce and C.J. heading off to go play. 
    My sister and my brother and I quote movies often, so a quote came to mind.  It comes from the third Indiana Jones movie where someone chooses the wrong Cup of the Covenant at the end of the movie.  He takes a drink from the Cup, shrivels up, his face contorting and aging by the second, and then he dies in a poof of dried up skin and bones, the blonde German helping lady shrieking and screaming the entire time.  Then the knight who watches over the Cups says, “He chose poorly.”
    This is after he had told Indie and the group, “You must choose wisely.”
    So, of course, my thought about myself as I saw Bruce and C.J. heading off to play as I was heading off with a bunch of teenagers was, “He chose poorly.”
    My mom, my dad, and my nephew Daryl are here this weekend for James‘s Confirmation.  Sadly, this is also the weekend for the annual Robbie Ward Memorial Tournament.  Bruce had asked me to play via e-mail earlier this week, but I declined, of course, stating I had company this weekend and I could not possibly play. 
    During a game of Sequence tonight, though, I half-jokingly, half-seriously asked my dad if he would want to go with me to the golf course for five hours tomorrow.  I would not be able to play with Bruce and C.J. probably, but I would be able to get on somebody’s team.
    It was dropped.  One look and a comment from Belinda and I knew I had no hope, no chance.  I have a ton of stuff to do at my school anyway and... my family is here!  Priorities, Pat.  Will I ever get to go play golf again without stress or guilt?  Heck, will I even be able to go play golf even with stress and guilt?  I have not played near enough since the weather has gotten nicer.  Arrgghhh!  As I write this, I am still secretly hoping that it might happen tomorrow.  Can I still pull it off?  No.  Forget it.  Next year, it should be a done deal, though.

Match with Two High School Players

5-4-11
    May the 4th be with you.  May day!  May day!  May day!  We are in crunch time at school.  It’s report card testing, end of year field trips, and stress, stress, stress.  I can do it, though.  We will do it.  It will all get done.
    I have finished Chapter One of Tom’s book.  I sent him the first part of Chapter One to see if what I had done was what he had in mind.  I will send him the rest of Chapter One tonight when I get home.  Danielle and I are in my classroom.  It’s 7:32.  She has homework to do, and it has to be done on a PC because she is using Publisher.  Also, when she is done, she needs to print to a color printer, so here we sit. 
    No news from D.K.  I have it in my mind to e-mail her again.  I want to ask her to please give me her permission to do an article and to give me an idea A.S.A.P.  May really does get busy with school, so I need as much time as I can get in order to do a quality article.  Also, the summer institute is starting here at the end of May, so once again the sooner the better.
    As I mentioned in a previous post, I escaped with a victory