Mancos Musings

Written on 5-22-16.

     I’m sitting on the couch up at the cabin home in Mancos.  Belinda, Danielle, and I came up for one night on a Sunday.  The fire is going (thanks to B), CBS is broadcasting golf, and we are settling in.  This week is busy with Danielle and I going back to Las Cruces and Belinda gearing up for the end of her one school year at Florida Mesa Elementary as the computer lab/research teacher; they are getting rid of her position after this school year ends.  I have my second ever training at Loma Heights this Thursday and Friday.  I’ve been spending hours getting my presentation just the way I want it.  

     My settling in involves writing, of course.  I have five new birdies to write about.  I got another one when playing with C.J. and Tom, his buddy, one day, and then yesterday I earned three more.  Let the birdie count continue…

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #12-Birdie #20 of 2016

     Yep, that’s right.  I earned a birdie on hole #12, a rare thing indeed.  C.J. and I were playing together.  I used my utility club because the tees were back.  It was not pretty, but it was functional.  My ball shot out medium low.  I wish I could have seen it bouncing; I would want to know how many times it bounced before it jumped or rolled and ended up just four feet left of the hole that was near the middle of the green.  I saw the putt in my mind instantly.  It would move to the right slightly at the very end, so I aimed just to the left of the hole.  My ball caught the left edge and fell in!  C.J. was impressed; he knows how rare birdies are on this hole, slightly rarer than getting a green in regulations there.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #10-Birdie #21 of 2016

    Before we teed off, I discovered that C.J.’s buddy, Tom, and I had northeastern Colorado in common.  He lived and worked in Wray for years as an attorney.  I told him that my Uncle Ray, who died recently (sniff, sniff), was born there.  After our initial small talk, I chose my 9-iron and made an effortless swing to put my ball just past the hole and only five feet away.  The putt was mostly straight with only a tad of left to right in it.  Sadly, this birdie did not help me enough in my match against my two competitors.  C.J. wanted Tom as his partner to take me on in match play.  I held my own until holes #15, #16, and #17.  I didn’t do too badly on that three-hole stretch, going bogey, par, bogey.  Unfortunately for me, they went par, birdie, par with Tom chipping in for his only birdie of the round on #16.  I went from even to three down in a snap!  I did my best to come back, but the match ended on hole #2 after we had decided to hole #4 would be our closing hole.  Age and treachery beat my youth and beauty for this round (wink, wink).