One Last Outing at Hidden Valley? and Happy New Year!

12-31-14

    With less than two hours left in this year, I am writing this last bit in this 12th golf diary.  What a year it’s been.  So many changes.  Today, I had my golf clubs re-gripped, my big Christmas gift of the season.  Don let me swing some in his workshop when I came to pick them up, and I still had some shanks sneak in there, but my best swings came when he put a 2x4 next to my ball.  He and I believe I am coming so far inside sometimes that my club is screaming to get to the outside, and because of that I’m getting some lousy contacts.  Thank you, Don.  He said, very generously, that I could go in there and swing away for free anytime because I am his friend.  I’ll take him up on that in 2015.
    After picking up my clubs, I tried to call C.J. again.  Today was the last possible day to go play at Hidden Valley before it’s officially closed.  We had talked about playing 18 holes one last time, but we’ve had snow.  We’ve had freezing weather and wind chills.  We’ve been busy, too.
    He didn’t answer, but I saw that he called me back.  I tried again, but he still didn’t answer.  So, I drove right to his house.  I convinced him (it wasn’t hard) to come with me to go to the course one final time this year, and possibly one final time…forever.  It’s still unknown what will happen with the golf course.
    We decided to play #10 out and #11 back in.  C.J. won the first hole with one less stroke than me.  We teed off on #11 from the red tees.  I brought three clubs, but C.J. chose only one.  Never take on C.J. when he has just one club.  The golf was not great, but the companionship was, of course. 
    I realized as we walked along that golf is not the important part.  Maybe it was the bad golf I was playing or maybe it was because I wasn’t taking the golf too seriously either.  We’ve spent thousands of hours just hanging out when we’ve played all these years at Hidden Valley.  C.J. and I did things that we’ve done every round we've ever played there.  We both wished Bruce was there, but he was playing a game and hanging out with Reilly.  We took our swings and made comments about each one.  We looked for golf balls together, the gentlemanly thing to do.  We complimented our good shots.  We had small talk.  We talked about the golf course, but the conversation about the golf course was much different this time.
    He said there were three owners, but they owned different shares.  It was nine shares, so one owned six, one owned two, and the last one only one.  One owner, last name Barker (not his real last name), was a local who also played at the course.  He confirmed that one of them was tired of investing in the course without the other two helping to pick up the slack.  Not sure which one, though.  He also said the water was not the issue.  The biggest issue was the loss of memberships, most likely due to the poor playing conditions.  What a bummer.  He also mentioned that the entire course might be turned into a housing development.  It’s speculation, so it will be interesting to see what truly happens. 
    When we were done, we shook hands.  We said goodbye and thank you.  It was fun!  But, it was different, too.  We had taken pictures before, but this time we both took pictures thinking these might be the last.  This time when we played, we were both thinking this really could be the last time, and we might be the last two to ever play there.  And as much as we have played there, that’s very fitting. 

Until next time…

Happy New Year!

Change is Good, Though

    Bruce, C.J., and I did play nine holes earlier this month.  Bruce’s strong play helped us to a score of +2, a much better score than we all expected.  My game was rough.  I had five out of six excellent drives, but my iron shots included some of those dreaded shanks again, and my chipping and putting were not where I expect them to be.  I do hope that I play better when we play our final 18 holes.
    These past five to six months have been crazy with big changes similar to the closing of the golf course.  Let’s see.  Oh, Belinda and I both told our principals before the break that we were going to retire from public school education at the end of this year.  I’ve worked very hard to get trainings as a Time to Teach consultant.  The children have left home.  That change alone was one of the biggest, and we all felt it the weekend we took the children to school.  James cried in his bedroom, his way of saying goodbye to his childhood.  His room was devoid of furniture because he was taking it to his house in college.  The finality of their childhood years was felt by all of us that weekend.  Ouch!  My heart hurts again just writing about it here.  Change is good, though.  We grow from change, and it’s almost always in a positive way.

Say It Ain't So!

Written on 12-24-14.   

    So, our Hidden Vally Golf Course is closing.  It’s just not working out.  They probably lost a ton of money this past season (remember the bumpy, putt and pray greens?), and they may have been steadily losing money for years.  Who knows?  Someone knows.  I heard the water is the most expensive part, and that’s what did them in.  I am betting that Tom knew it was going to close, and that’s why he found work in Florida.  I also heard (from an unnamed source) that one of the owners was fed up with putting money into it and not getting any help from the other owners.  C.J. is working hard to get the city to take over.  We’ll see what happens with that.  I am willing to help with that in any way possible.  I know the city manager likes to take his family to play golf there, so that might help. 
    The pro shop looks barren.  Pictures are taken down.  The kitchen is empty.  It’s surreal.  It’s been thirteen years.  Bruce, C.J., Eric, and I plan on playing 18 holes one last time before the doors are closed for good on December 31st.  I know they are playing today, despite the high temp of just 38 degrees.  Eric is unable to swing a club since he recently had shoulder surgery, but he still wants to go what might be the last time.  He’ll chip and putt and just hang out with us.

It's a Different Kind of Christmas Eve

12-24-14

    Merry Christmas Eve.  I never know when the next time to write will come, but I do know I didn’t expect it to take this long.  I haven’t posted to my blog yet this month, but it’s been crazy busy at school.  We are heading home after a wonderful, but busy trip to Littleton, Lakewood, Colorado Springs, and back to Lakewood again.
    Once again, a road trip ends up being one of the better times to write, so here I go.  James is driving.  B is seated behind me.  Danielle is behind James, and I am in the passenger seat.  We are all in our new, loaded, slate gray Ford Escape.  Life is great! 
    It’s atypical to go to Mom and Dad’s before Christmas, but it’s all Mom and Dad’s fault.  Sort of.  Dad’s breathing attacks prevented them from traveling to Virginia to visit the VA Swopes in October, an annual trip.  Guy did his best to get a flight out in November to visit them instead, but it didn’t work out, so he ended up getting a flight with his family in December.  I guess I can blame Guy then for this trip, too.  Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Guy; it’s all your fault. 
    We drove straight to Joe’s new condo in Littleton on Saturday.  He treated us (and his latest girl Tammy) to a spectacular dinner at Ja Ja’s, a fancy French restaurant just down the street.  After dinner, we walked on an illuminated, cheerful downtown Littleton Main Street before getting some ice cream and hot chocolate on the way back to his place.  Yummy!  Joe’s new condo is…well, new.  It’s only four years old, and it’s gorgeous.  Our family instantly loved the place.  It’s a spacious two-bedroom, two and a half bath with luxurious dark wood floors throughout.  The guest room was a cluttered mess, but he promised to have that all cleaned up before our next visit.  We topped off the night with another “Generous Joe” Christmas. 
    We had our bigger family Christmas at Bev and Curt’s on Sunday.  Then we came back to Mom and Dad’s on Monday for the birthday celebration, a different celebration without my Aunt Theresa being there; it was just too much to have her come this time.  That night, Daryl, his now fiancé Katie, Erica, Erica’s friend Tiffany, Emily, James, Danielle and I saw the latest and final Hobbit movie on the Imax in 3-D.  Wow, what an expensive, yet immersive and fantastic movie experience that was.  The technology has reached a point that I didn’t forget about the 3-D this time, and everything looks and sounds incredible.  It didn’t hurt that the movie was very well done, and I felt it was a return to the better quality of the original three Lord of the Rings movies.  Bravo!
    James convinced me to go see Interstellar after that at the Bel Mar with Guy at 10:20.  Good grief, two lengthy movies in one evening.  Guy, Annmarie, and ShyShay had just returned from a dinner with their friends.  We made it minutes after it had begun.  This movie, although quite different from the Hobbit movie, was just as excellent.  James had given it a glowing review, so I had to check it out for myself, and it wasn’t hard to convince me to stay up later to see another movie with my only brother and only son.
    Last night, it was a mellow night with just Mom and Dad and the four of us.  Danielle wanted to go to downtown Denver first, so we did.  She was giddy as we drove and walked around.  She just loves the downtown experience.  It was enjoyable for the rest of us to just watch and listen to her react to everything we saw down there.  We got some coffee and checked out a few shops before heading home for pizza and one game of James’s Settlers of Catan, Belinda’s and Dad’s first time.