I'm Three Years Old!

Annmarie, ShyShay, Guy and I on Pole Creek's #9 on the Ranch Course

    Today is my third birthday.  I’m three years old now (sort of).  It’s been three years to the day that I had my meningioma brain surgery and was granted a tumorless brain, a new start, and the ability to have another page turned to the next chapter of my life here on earth.  Happy birthday to me!  To celebrate, I was given a fabulous gift that has no price, a precious gift many people wish for and many other people take for granted: time with my family.
    We are at Grand Lake again, our sixth adventure here at a place that has grown on us all as a special Swope family reunion spot.  We are staying at the most extravagant cabin home yet, a monster of a mansion (well, not really a mansion, but it’s spacious) with superb amenities and excellent cleanliness.  It’s a bit much for this humble servant/teacher, but I’m managing just fine, as is the rest of the family.
    Guy, Annmarie, ShyShay, Bev, Curt, Erica and Emily are taking...

"Terrifying" Best Round So Far This Summer

    I had one of my better rounds ever this past week.  On Wednesday, C.J. and I took on Bruce in a best ball/score match.  I figured C.J. and I had a fair chance to beat Bruce if we worked together. 
    As it turned out, Bruce struggled (for Bruce) and C.J. and I worked really well together.  We went one up right away because Bruce struggled his way to an eight.  Then we went two up with our two pars to his bogey on #2.  We stayed at two up on #3 when Bruce and I matched each other with pars, and then we all got bogeys on #4.  We went three up on #5 with our two pars to his bogey again.  On #7, he got it back to just two down with a birdie (more like the Bruce we know).  It was on this hole I figured out that...

Two Lousy Shots With Surprising Results and an Early Summer Scramble

Also written on 6-10-14.

    In golf, I have a story I’ve been meaning to get in here.  It took place before school got out, but I know I told Bruce that it would be one for the journal, so here I go.
    While playing #15, Bruce had a rare miscue on his approach where he caught it a little fat, causing his ball to head on an arch towards the ditch, but it miraculously missed the ditch (falling short of it) and hit the cart path instead.  From there, it caromed up into the air once more where it landed...on the green.  From there, he made his par after two putts. 
    On the very next hole, I played a similar shot, a shot that looked doomed after leaving the clubface, but somehow ended up just fine.  I caught mine thin.  My ball headed straight for the tree that grows between the teeing ground and the green.  It rattled around in the branches near the top, and it sounded awful, as if it had no chance to continue on its journey after all that ruckus.  Somehow, miraculously, it continued on, though, and like Bruce’s ball ended up on the green.  Thankfully, I was able to finish up in two putts for my par, too.

    On the final day in May, a Saturday, Bruce, C.J., Reilly and I played in a fundraiser for Aztec’s basketball team.  It was a scramble, and we played...

Mountain Fresh Family Update

Written on 6-10-14.

    I take a deep breath in, and I let it out.  Once more.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Fresh mountain air fills my lungs.  With each breath, peace flows in and stress flows out.  If the stress were visible, it would be a ghastly green, a hideous green and not a mountain pine tree green like the trees I see with my natural widescreen view here.  Yes, we are up at the cabin home.  Belinda and I have escaped.  Let it out, Pat.  Let it all flow out.  This so necessary, so right.  Thank you, Edgertons, for this opportunity.  I will be forever grateful that we can come here. 
    It’s not just that we can come here and afford it; it’s also that my wife sheds the overbearing “skin” of stress that comes from being at home.  Not that our home is a stressful place.  We do have “haven” and “sanctuary” and now “refuge,” but it’s more about...