Written on 8-4-15.
Summer is coming to a close quickly, but it doesn’t matter this year because Belinda and I are “rewired.” We do not have to set up our classrooms, or attend meetings, or…freak out. We won’t have to go get our keys early only to sit in our classrooms and stressfully space out, reconstructing in our minds the lengthy “to do” lists with items that must be done before that all-important first day of school.
Instead, we are working on our summer “to do” list, one that we generate on our own and rarely has an item that with a time limit. Lately, to adjust to this new lifestyle, I’ve found it very beneficial to set aside three hours a day to get things done related to my new businesses. 9:00 to 12:00 works pretty well, but today it was 1:30 to 4:30 since we had other work to do this morning (weed work for Eric’s mobile home park). I have two more days of Santa Fe technology trainings coming up early next week, and I am close and hopeful for possible Time to Teach trainings at either Ruidoso or San Juan College. We’ll see how that all pans out by the end of this week.
After the weeding, Belinda and I stopped to...
get a coffee for me at Durango Joe’s and some money from the ATM machine. I got to see Brian again. The last time I was there, he remembered my name and I forgot his. This time, I think it was reversed. I did get to introduce him to Belinda, though, and he mentioned that he practiced his putting for three hours recently. I know he’s hooked. He said sitting on his heels really helped him feel more braced and balanced. That was what he said his biggest takeaway was after all that practice.
When we got home, we mowed, trimmed, and did some weeding on our own property before having lunch. Lunch was fun because we utilized the misters on our pergola for the first time. The breeze wasn’t always blowing the mist in our direction, but that was a good thing. The cool and tiny droplets felt great when they came our direction, but the shifting winds gave us a break and kept us from getting too chilled. B loves the pergola as much as I love the misters. Looking forward to using them again tomorrow, and they were so simple to set up.
On to golf…
I have four new birdies to report, one from Las Cruces and three from yesterday’s round back here at Hidden Valley.
NMSU Golf Course-Hole #3-Birdie #24 of 2015
As mentioned above, it was a bit of a struggle to decide whether I could bring my clubs or not, but it all worked out. We squished them in. On Friday night, I was going back and forth in my mind, too, about playing at Red Hawk, the more expensive option or at NMSU’s course again. My cheaper side won out. That and I wanted to play a course I was familiar with to see if I could play better. I was happy with my decision; I wanted to get the back nine figured out more clearly in my brain this time around (I didn’t remember much from the last time when James I were there), and I figured I could shoot an improved score. This birdie did help.
I played with a lovely couple, Dave and Libby (sp?). They had been married for a little over 30 years, and they were friendly, pleasant to be around, and extremely helpful because they knew the course, playing there often. Dave guided me on this hole. He said a tee shot that flew the berm just on the left side of the fairway would be the perfect tee shot to cut the corner and make the hole play shorter. He also warned about the bunker just to the left of the fairway if I were to cut the corner too much. I did it anyway, so I was not a very good listener. Actually, I did listen, but I just ended up going farther left than I had aimed.
My ball was in the middle of that bunker, and it was a rather large one, too. I chose my 6-iron for the lay-up, and this was a great escape. My ball clicked neatly out of the sand and sailed straight up the fairway heading right for the flag. When it landed, I was a pitch away. After that shot, I had to rake about 20 feet of sand to get out of the bunker.
The pitch was the best shot, in my opinion. I had to pick a spot just to the left of the bunker that guarded the green on the front right side. The green sloped from right to left, so landing my ball farther away from that bunker would have had my ball rolling farther and farther away from the hole, too. Libby warned me not to put my ball above this hole, because putting downhill was extremely tough. It landed near my aiming spot, bounced onto the green, and rolled just past the hole. My putt was about four or five feet away, and with these fast moving greens, I just had to get it rolling on the line I saw without putting too much of a swing on it. It went in, but I never saw it go in; I am still working on keeping my head and eyes still throughout the stroke of my putts.
Libby was very good. She chipped in on #2 for a par. Her pitches and chips would typically stop within three feet of her targets. When I was putting the push cart I had rented away, I overheard her say she had shot a 79. Dave said he had shot an 83, but I scoffed at that one (silently in my head of course). He would not putt out on half of the holes, and I am pretty sure he didn’t count some missed putts. Some holes, however, were played not only legally, but also well by him. He did earn some legitimate par on a few of the holes.
I should have played from the blues, but he said he was going to play the whites when we started out on #1. I didn’t want to slow down play by having the three of us play from three different teeing grounds, so I decided to join him instead. The whites made this course much easier, and on some of the holes, we were teeing off with Libby, too, but some of those holes were par fives for her and par fours for us. I shot an 86. I had a great up and down on hole #6, the par three with the water. My back nine was better than my front. I shot a 44, 42 for my 86. Next time, I will choose the blues if it’s not an issue.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #9-Birdie #25 of 2015
C.J. and I (gluttons for punishment) were taking on Bruce and Reilly again. Reilly had recently returned from the hospital in Denver after his lung had collapsed again, but this time he had a surgery. It was successful, and it went so well that he no longer requires oxygen during the day like he had most of this summer. Just before leaving for the course, however, he had had his picc line removed.
I wonder if I could play as well after having a picc line removed. Thankfully, I’ve never had a picc line. He and I tied with a 41 on the back nine.
For this hole, my birdie didn’t even win the hole, but Bruce’s birdie, with a pop, got them back to even. We were doing some experimenting with pops after a team lost a hole. We ended up changing it because it was making it really difficult to get ahead and stay ahead. We decided a team had to lose two holes in a row in order to get a free pop on the next hole. That worked better.
My first drive headed toward the trees. My provisional also headed toward the trees, but we could see that that one was going to be in play, so we left the teeing ground. Bruce and Rei were in a cart, so Bruce found my first ball and indicated to me that it was good. Phew!
We had to ask a family coming up in two carts to #12 to pull them forward for C.J. and Rei to cut the corner. After they had successfully put their balls back into play by cutting the corner off of the out of bounds, the family went ahead and began to tee off. My ball was farther than C.J.’s and Rei’s, but it was near a tree. I had already smacked a tree with a ball in front of some of my First Tee kids a couple of weeks ago, and that ball had flown backwards and to the right, so I was a bit anxious that it might happen again and possibly ricochet toward the family, but I went ahead and took my swing anyway. I did have more than a foot of space for launching past this tree compared to the other one, though.
My utility club put my ball not only past that tree, but it also landed it just over the bunker and near the green. My ball was just clear of the taller grass, barely on the collar, but I was able to putt from there. My putt was a bit long, and I joked with Bruce that I had to leave myself an uphill putt, didn’t I?
His chip from off the green gave him a longer downhill putt than I had, though, but it didn’t stop him from draining it from eight feet. That birdie and the one pop they had after losing #8 gave him an eagle, so my putt would not help us win this hole, but I wanted to make it since he had just made his, of course. Mine was from only two feet away, and it had only the slightest break from right to left. I aimed for the right side, and it rolled in.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #14-Birdie #26 of 2015
We were two down when we came to this hole. Bruce had just birdied #13 to help them go two up. From holes #13 through #17, Bruce had three birdies out of six, and he had four 3’s on his scorecard. Geesh! He birdied #13, #15, and #17. On #13 and on #17, he drove his tee shot near the green and then pitched it to less than four feet. On #15, he made a bomb from about 30 feet, and I told him he had just gained a stroke according to the strokes gained statistics.
For my birdie, I drove it to the middle of the fairway. My ball was on an upslope, so I had a launching pad for my approach. I was around 190 yards away. I chose my utility club again, Bruce’s old club. I sure like that thing. With the uphill slope, though, my ball ended up going high and left of the green. It was on the hill that is over there, and I had a tough pitch. The hole was in the toilet, but I still had to be careful. If I pitched it short, it would get caught in the thick grass and stop. If I pitched it long, it would roll into the bowl too quickly and roll off the back of the green. Bruce said it did hit the taller grass, so it worked out well. It worked out so well that it rolled down into the bowl, making a beeline for the hole with great pace. A few feet away, and I was asking for it to go in, but it tapped the flagstick and bounced away instead, stopping a tad over a foot away. I asked them all if I could finish; they were all down there now, and they said it would be fine. Without too much thought or effort, I tapped it in. That got us back to only one down.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #16-Birdie #27 of 2015
After Bruce’s birdie on #15, we were right back to two down again. Just like that. Bruce, Rei, and I landed our tee shots on the green. Bruce was long and right of the hole. Rei was closer, but still a ways away and left of the hole. His ball had kicked onto the green after hitting the hill on the left side. Mine was short and right of the green, but it was closer than both of theirs. Before teeing off, I switched from my PW to my 9-iron. Good choice. If I did the “quarters” game/thing that they do, I would have won the quarter. C.J. missed the green short and right. Bruce lagged his putt and finished for a par. Then Reilly rolled his putt directly into the hole for a two. C.J. got on and used up two putts for a bogey, so it was up to me to halve the hole. No pressure. I’ll be honest when I write I really wanted to make this putt. I was happy for Reilly for making his, but I really wanted to retaliate, or send a reply, so to speak. I aimed for the right side of the hole. I looked up just in time to see my ball catch the lip on the left side, fight gravity, and then give up and fall in. Bruce was impressed. He made a happy comment right after it went in, and then he complimented me on making a pressure putt. I was proud. I answered Reilly’s birdie putt with one of my own.
We ended up losing the match. C.J. left after #18, even though we still had to finish holes #1 through #3. Reilly stopped playing, too. I was impressed and amazed he had played as much as he had after his surgery. Man, he is one tough kid!
I could only tie after #18, anyway. We were three down with three to go. #18 had me flustered. I had a fine tee shot. It was headed for the trees between #3 and #18, but I never thought we wouldn’t find it. We never did. I borrowed their cart to go hit again, but I messed that one up, hooking it over to #3, and I never found that one either. I conceded. C.J. and Bruce tied with bogeys, though, so it wasn’t over yet.
I beat Bruce on #1 with a par to his bogey, but it ended on #2 when my 9-iron pulled my ball towards the ditch. I was unable to chip in for a par, so Bruce’s bogey ended the match. At least we made it past hole #14 this time, and we were competitive. Bruce shot a 78, and I shot an 83. Not bad. We’ll get ‘em next time.
Summer is coming to a close quickly, but it doesn’t matter this year because Belinda and I are “rewired.” We do not have to set up our classrooms, or attend meetings, or…freak out. We won’t have to go get our keys early only to sit in our classrooms and stressfully space out, reconstructing in our minds the lengthy “to do” lists with items that must be done before that all-important first day of school.
Instead, we are working on our summer “to do” list, one that we generate on our own and rarely has an item that with a time limit. Lately, to adjust to this new lifestyle, I’ve found it very beneficial to set aside three hours a day to get things done related to my new businesses. 9:00 to 12:00 works pretty well, but today it was 1:30 to 4:30 since we had other work to do this morning (weed work for Eric’s mobile home park). I have two more days of Santa Fe technology trainings coming up early next week, and I am close and hopeful for possible Time to Teach trainings at either Ruidoso or San Juan College. We’ll see how that all pans out by the end of this week.
After the weeding, Belinda and I stopped to...
get a coffee for me at Durango Joe’s and some money from the ATM machine. I got to see Brian again. The last time I was there, he remembered my name and I forgot his. This time, I think it was reversed. I did get to introduce him to Belinda, though, and he mentioned that he practiced his putting for three hours recently. I know he’s hooked. He said sitting on his heels really helped him feel more braced and balanced. That was what he said his biggest takeaway was after all that practice.
When we got home, we mowed, trimmed, and did some weeding on our own property before having lunch. Lunch was fun because we utilized the misters on our pergola for the first time. The breeze wasn’t always blowing the mist in our direction, but that was a good thing. The cool and tiny droplets felt great when they came our direction, but the shifting winds gave us a break and kept us from getting too chilled. B loves the pergola as much as I love the misters. Looking forward to using them again tomorrow, and they were so simple to set up.
On to golf…
I have four new birdies to report, one from Las Cruces and three from yesterday’s round back here at Hidden Valley.
NMSU Golf Course-Hole #3-Birdie #24 of 2015
As mentioned above, it was a bit of a struggle to decide whether I could bring my clubs or not, but it all worked out. We squished them in. On Friday night, I was going back and forth in my mind, too, about playing at Red Hawk, the more expensive option or at NMSU’s course again. My cheaper side won out. That and I wanted to play a course I was familiar with to see if I could play better. I was happy with my decision; I wanted to get the back nine figured out more clearly in my brain this time around (I didn’t remember much from the last time when James I were there), and I figured I could shoot an improved score. This birdie did help.
I played with a lovely couple, Dave and Libby (sp?). They had been married for a little over 30 years, and they were friendly, pleasant to be around, and extremely helpful because they knew the course, playing there often. Dave guided me on this hole. He said a tee shot that flew the berm just on the left side of the fairway would be the perfect tee shot to cut the corner and make the hole play shorter. He also warned about the bunker just to the left of the fairway if I were to cut the corner too much. I did it anyway, so I was not a very good listener. Actually, I did listen, but I just ended up going farther left than I had aimed.
My ball was in the middle of that bunker, and it was a rather large one, too. I chose my 6-iron for the lay-up, and this was a great escape. My ball clicked neatly out of the sand and sailed straight up the fairway heading right for the flag. When it landed, I was a pitch away. After that shot, I had to rake about 20 feet of sand to get out of the bunker.
The pitch was the best shot, in my opinion. I had to pick a spot just to the left of the bunker that guarded the green on the front right side. The green sloped from right to left, so landing my ball farther away from that bunker would have had my ball rolling farther and farther away from the hole, too. Libby warned me not to put my ball above this hole, because putting downhill was extremely tough. It landed near my aiming spot, bounced onto the green, and rolled just past the hole. My putt was about four or five feet away, and with these fast moving greens, I just had to get it rolling on the line I saw without putting too much of a swing on it. It went in, but I never saw it go in; I am still working on keeping my head and eyes still throughout the stroke of my putts.
Libby was very good. She chipped in on #2 for a par. Her pitches and chips would typically stop within three feet of her targets. When I was putting the push cart I had rented away, I overheard her say she had shot a 79. Dave said he had shot an 83, but I scoffed at that one (silently in my head of course). He would not putt out on half of the holes, and I am pretty sure he didn’t count some missed putts. Some holes, however, were played not only legally, but also well by him. He did earn some legitimate par on a few of the holes.
I should have played from the blues, but he said he was going to play the whites when we started out on #1. I didn’t want to slow down play by having the three of us play from three different teeing grounds, so I decided to join him instead. The whites made this course much easier, and on some of the holes, we were teeing off with Libby, too, but some of those holes were par fives for her and par fours for us. I shot an 86. I had a great up and down on hole #6, the par three with the water. My back nine was better than my front. I shot a 44, 42 for my 86. Next time, I will choose the blues if it’s not an issue.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #9-Birdie #25 of 2015
C.J. and I (gluttons for punishment) were taking on Bruce and Reilly again. Reilly had recently returned from the hospital in Denver after his lung had collapsed again, but this time he had a surgery. It was successful, and it went so well that he no longer requires oxygen during the day like he had most of this summer. Just before leaving for the course, however, he had had his picc line removed.
I wonder if I could play as well after having a picc line removed. Thankfully, I’ve never had a picc line. He and I tied with a 41 on the back nine.
For this hole, my birdie didn’t even win the hole, but Bruce’s birdie, with a pop, got them back to even. We were doing some experimenting with pops after a team lost a hole. We ended up changing it because it was making it really difficult to get ahead and stay ahead. We decided a team had to lose two holes in a row in order to get a free pop on the next hole. That worked better.
My first drive headed toward the trees. My provisional also headed toward the trees, but we could see that that one was going to be in play, so we left the teeing ground. Bruce and Rei were in a cart, so Bruce found my first ball and indicated to me that it was good. Phew!
We had to ask a family coming up in two carts to #12 to pull them forward for C.J. and Rei to cut the corner. After they had successfully put their balls back into play by cutting the corner off of the out of bounds, the family went ahead and began to tee off. My ball was farther than C.J.’s and Rei’s, but it was near a tree. I had already smacked a tree with a ball in front of some of my First Tee kids a couple of weeks ago, and that ball had flown backwards and to the right, so I was a bit anxious that it might happen again and possibly ricochet toward the family, but I went ahead and took my swing anyway. I did have more than a foot of space for launching past this tree compared to the other one, though.
My utility club put my ball not only past that tree, but it also landed it just over the bunker and near the green. My ball was just clear of the taller grass, barely on the collar, but I was able to putt from there. My putt was a bit long, and I joked with Bruce that I had to leave myself an uphill putt, didn’t I?
His chip from off the green gave him a longer downhill putt than I had, though, but it didn’t stop him from draining it from eight feet. That birdie and the one pop they had after losing #8 gave him an eagle, so my putt would not help us win this hole, but I wanted to make it since he had just made his, of course. Mine was from only two feet away, and it had only the slightest break from right to left. I aimed for the right side, and it rolled in.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #14-Birdie #26 of 2015
We were two down when we came to this hole. Bruce had just birdied #13 to help them go two up. From holes #13 through #17, Bruce had three birdies out of six, and he had four 3’s on his scorecard. Geesh! He birdied #13, #15, and #17. On #13 and on #17, he drove his tee shot near the green and then pitched it to less than four feet. On #15, he made a bomb from about 30 feet, and I told him he had just gained a stroke according to the strokes gained statistics.
For my birdie, I drove it to the middle of the fairway. My ball was on an upslope, so I had a launching pad for my approach. I was around 190 yards away. I chose my utility club again, Bruce’s old club. I sure like that thing. With the uphill slope, though, my ball ended up going high and left of the green. It was on the hill that is over there, and I had a tough pitch. The hole was in the toilet, but I still had to be careful. If I pitched it short, it would get caught in the thick grass and stop. If I pitched it long, it would roll into the bowl too quickly and roll off the back of the green. Bruce said it did hit the taller grass, so it worked out well. It worked out so well that it rolled down into the bowl, making a beeline for the hole with great pace. A few feet away, and I was asking for it to go in, but it tapped the flagstick and bounced away instead, stopping a tad over a foot away. I asked them all if I could finish; they were all down there now, and they said it would be fine. Without too much thought or effort, I tapped it in. That got us back to only one down.
Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #16-Birdie #27 of 2015
After Bruce’s birdie on #15, we were right back to two down again. Just like that. Bruce, Rei, and I landed our tee shots on the green. Bruce was long and right of the hole. Rei was closer, but still a ways away and left of the hole. His ball had kicked onto the green after hitting the hill on the left side. Mine was short and right of the green, but it was closer than both of theirs. Before teeing off, I switched from my PW to my 9-iron. Good choice. If I did the “quarters” game/thing that they do, I would have won the quarter. C.J. missed the green short and right. Bruce lagged his putt and finished for a par. Then Reilly rolled his putt directly into the hole for a two. C.J. got on and used up two putts for a bogey, so it was up to me to halve the hole. No pressure. I’ll be honest when I write I really wanted to make this putt. I was happy for Reilly for making his, but I really wanted to retaliate, or send a reply, so to speak. I aimed for the right side of the hole. I looked up just in time to see my ball catch the lip on the left side, fight gravity, and then give up and fall in. Bruce was impressed. He made a happy comment right after it went in, and then he complimented me on making a pressure putt. I was proud. I answered Reilly’s birdie putt with one of my own.
We ended up losing the match. C.J. left after #18, even though we still had to finish holes #1 through #3. Reilly stopped playing, too. I was impressed and amazed he had played as much as he had after his surgery. Man, he is one tough kid!
I could only tie after #18, anyway. We were three down with three to go. #18 had me flustered. I had a fine tee shot. It was headed for the trees between #3 and #18, but I never thought we wouldn’t find it. We never did. I borrowed their cart to go hit again, but I messed that one up, hooking it over to #3, and I never found that one either. I conceded. C.J. and Bruce tied with bogeys, though, so it wasn’t over yet.
I beat Bruce on #1 with a par to his bogey, but it ended on #2 when my 9-iron pulled my ball towards the ditch. I was unable to chip in for a par, so Bruce’s bogey ended the match. At least we made it past hole #14 this time, and we were competitive. Bruce shot a 78, and I shot an 83. Not bad. We’ll get ‘em next time.
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