Our daughter, Danielle Rae, is 18 years old today. When I think back to the day she was born, I remember the false alarm (B thought it was time, but it wasn't yet) that had Belinda and I staying at a house near the hospital in Durango. That false alarm caused Jess and Amanda and the rest of the family to stay at home, but in the middle of that sleepless night, Belinda knew it was time to go...so we did, and we barely made it. It was Belinda's will alone that stopped Danielle from being born in the car and then in the elevator as well. I remember being insistent with the nurse who was way too casual about it all. "Go get Dr. Lavengood NOW!"
Belinda held off, somehow, until she saw Dr. Lavengood's face. And then our baby, our daughter was born (much faster than James), a combination of a China doll and a beautiful Navajo with shockingly dark, black hair. I know she is ours because I followed her to the station down the hall for all the measuring and the cleaning up. And then Belinda nearly died, but that's another story with a happy ending. Happy birthday, Danielle! We love you very much. You and your brother have enriched our lives, and we are so very proud of you and who you are.
Written on 8-3-13.
The family and I are driving to...
Las Cruces; it’s time to take James back to school, and it’s earlier than usual because he has his new job as a C.A., a Community Assistant at the Vista Del Monte Apartments. James is driving, I’m in the passenger seat and the two ladies are sacked out in the middle. James’s stuff is taking up the rest of the van. We are listening to Jim Gaffigan on James’s iPad, and he’s talking about deodorant and body odor. We’re laughing.
So, here I go to write about the golf experience at Robert T. Lynch with Joe. Once again, like when I was playing with James, I was worried whether Joe was having a good time. I was. I had a blast, but Joe doesn’t play golf, so how was it for him? He said he had a great time; at one point he said he would have been happy if we were washing laundry together, or maybe it was scrubbing floors, but I got the point, and I agreed. Honestly, hanging out with my best friend Joe for a long weekend was the best part of the entire trip. It didn’t matter what we were doing.
This, like all of my golf experiences, was unique. When we found the pro shop downstairs, I asked if we could use the driving range to hit a small bucket of balls each, but the guy in the pro shop said that would be impossible; they have no driving range. I asked if we could please play alone, but it was very busy. They were hosting their club championship that day, and they were open for regular play, too. At first, the starter said another twosome would be joining us, but he would do his best to let us go alone. Then he said only a single would be joining us, but while we were sitting there waiting to go, he looked at us, paused, and then smiled and said, “Just go ahead. Go ahead and go.”
So, we did. We played the entire round alone, and that was fantastic for both of us. The golf course was tough. It was soggy. It had dense vegetation on every hole. Hitting a ball in that stuff was like hitting it out of bounds. Joe, despite hitting his golf ball into that stuff a fair number of times, had some super shots as well. On #1, he got off the tee box after only two topped shots. On #4, he putted one in from off the green from about twelve feet away. He made more longer putts than I did, doing it again on hole #6 and on two other holes. He had his best drive of the day on hole #10, smashing one that went over the hill that blocked the view of the fairway, where his ball landed on the fairway with only 100 yards left to get to the green. It was brilliant. Furthermore, he got out of the sand twice in a row on hole #4. He got out of one bunker and landed in another one, but he escaped both of them with only one shot each. Oh, and he earned a legitimate bogey, his best score of the day on hole #8. I was impressed.
I did not play well, but it wasn’t horrific either. I got two pars on the front nine, one on Styles and the other on Ross (the holes had names). I earned four more on the back nine on these holes: The Bell, Rock (the par three signature hole according to the pro shop guy), Newton Side, and Parkway Home (the final two holes). It was swell to finish par, par like that. The course was fine, and like any other course I have played for the first time, I would like to have another go at it to do better. Maybe some other year.
I do have some complaints. First, the golf course rarely had yardage markers. I think each hole had a marker at the 150 yard mark, but I can’t confirm that. I did not see any at 100 yards, though. I had to guess the yardages on most of my approaches, and that made a difference with some of my scores. Also, the golf course was not in good shape. Hidden Valley is not a premier golf course either, but it has better fairways on most of its holes.
For example, on The Dragon, I hit a fine tee shot right to the corner and on the fairway, but when I got to my ball, it was sitting on a patch of brown stuff that was not “fairway-like” at all. I considered moving it, but I remembered the adage that I mostly live and play by: Play it as it lies. So, I played it where it was, and I had a bad result. That’s about it. It was wet and soggy in many places, but nothing too terribly bad. If it was too wet, a drop was appropriate and acceptable.
When our round was over, we had our picture taken outside the pro shop next to the statues of Eddie and Francis. Now that it’s over, I have promised to call back on a Wednesday and speak to Marty who set up our tee time to let us know how the round went. He gave us some great advice about things to do in Boston, so I owe him a phone call and a thank you.
Belinda held off, somehow, until she saw Dr. Lavengood's face. And then our baby, our daughter was born (much faster than James), a combination of a China doll and a beautiful Navajo with shockingly dark, black hair. I know she is ours because I followed her to the station down the hall for all the measuring and the cleaning up. And then Belinda nearly died, but that's another story with a happy ending. Happy birthday, Danielle! We love you very much. You and your brother have enriched our lives, and we are so very proud of you and who you are.
Written on 8-3-13.
The family and I are driving to...
Las Cruces; it’s time to take James back to school, and it’s earlier than usual because he has his new job as a C.A., a Community Assistant at the Vista Del Monte Apartments. James is driving, I’m in the passenger seat and the two ladies are sacked out in the middle. James’s stuff is taking up the rest of the van. We are listening to Jim Gaffigan on James’s iPad, and he’s talking about deodorant and body odor. We’re laughing.
So, here I go to write about the golf experience at Robert T. Lynch with Joe. Once again, like when I was playing with James, I was worried whether Joe was having a good time. I was. I had a blast, but Joe doesn’t play golf, so how was it for him? He said he had a great time; at one point he said he would have been happy if we were washing laundry together, or maybe it was scrubbing floors, but I got the point, and I agreed. Honestly, hanging out with my best friend Joe for a long weekend was the best part of the entire trip. It didn’t matter what we were doing.
This, like all of my golf experiences, was unique. When we found the pro shop downstairs, I asked if we could use the driving range to hit a small bucket of balls each, but the guy in the pro shop said that would be impossible; they have no driving range. I asked if we could please play alone, but it was very busy. They were hosting their club championship that day, and they were open for regular play, too. At first, the starter said another twosome would be joining us, but he would do his best to let us go alone. Then he said only a single would be joining us, but while we were sitting there waiting to go, he looked at us, paused, and then smiled and said, “Just go ahead. Go ahead and go.”
So, we did. We played the entire round alone, and that was fantastic for both of us. The golf course was tough. It was soggy. It had dense vegetation on every hole. Hitting a ball in that stuff was like hitting it out of bounds. Joe, despite hitting his golf ball into that stuff a fair number of times, had some super shots as well. On #1, he got off the tee box after only two topped shots. On #4, he putted one in from off the green from about twelve feet away. He made more longer putts than I did, doing it again on hole #6 and on two other holes. He had his best drive of the day on hole #10, smashing one that went over the hill that blocked the view of the fairway, where his ball landed on the fairway with only 100 yards left to get to the green. It was brilliant. Furthermore, he got out of the sand twice in a row on hole #4. He got out of one bunker and landed in another one, but he escaped both of them with only one shot each. Oh, and he earned a legitimate bogey, his best score of the day on hole #8. I was impressed.
I did not play well, but it wasn’t horrific either. I got two pars on the front nine, one on Styles and the other on Ross (the holes had names). I earned four more on the back nine on these holes: The Bell, Rock (the par three signature hole according to the pro shop guy), Newton Side, and Parkway Home (the final two holes). It was swell to finish par, par like that. The course was fine, and like any other course I have played for the first time, I would like to have another go at it to do better. Maybe some other year.
I do have some complaints. First, the golf course rarely had yardage markers. I think each hole had a marker at the 150 yard mark, but I can’t confirm that. I did not see any at 100 yards, though. I had to guess the yardages on most of my approaches, and that made a difference with some of my scores. Also, the golf course was not in good shape. Hidden Valley is not a premier golf course either, but it has better fairways on most of its holes.
For example, on The Dragon, I hit a fine tee shot right to the corner and on the fairway, but when I got to my ball, it was sitting on a patch of brown stuff that was not “fairway-like” at all. I considered moving it, but I remembered the adage that I mostly live and play by: Play it as it lies. So, I played it where it was, and I had a bad result. That’s about it. It was wet and soggy in many places, but nothing too terribly bad. If it was too wet, a drop was appropriate and acceptable.
When our round was over, we had our picture taken outside the pro shop next to the statues of Eddie and Francis. Now that it’s over, I have promised to call back on a Wednesday and speak to Marty who set up our tee time to let us know how the round went. He gave us some great advice about things to do in Boston, so I owe him a phone call and a thank you.
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