Early November Writings in an Early December Post

Written on 11-3-16.

     We head to Lakewood tomorrow for a visit with family, and the reason for this trip is Guy found some really reasonably priced tickets.  I have one meeting for Time to Teach at Foothills Elementary on Monday morning.  Danielle has even decided to make the trip from Las Cruces, but we encouraged her to stop in Albuquerque, and she will probably spend the night at Rich’s, James’s good friend and former college roommate.  He just got an engineering job there.

     I’ve started my new job.  I was given the green light to begin, so I contacted all five of my schools yesterday to get my first visits set up.  I have not set one date yet, though.  I just e-mailed all of them to introduce myself.  

     My biggest news, besides the new job starting, is that I have...

unofficially figured out my official birdie and eagle count.  That sounds contradictory, but I finished all of the birdies and eagles from Golf Diary-Part 13, and I know how many I have earned from this journal, so I simply added them together.  I still need to make it official by putting this journal’s birdies and eagles into the official birdie and eagle count officially.  Make sense?

     I also earned three new birdies that I need to record from just before Halloween. 

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #10-Birdie #55 of 2016

     I played the back nine first because it was a Saturday and it was super crowded, so Richard recommended I start back there.  It was a good move; I ended up playing the back nine without stopping.

I chose my 8-iron.  A lone man was on the range, and he said he was starting golf again after a 20 year hiatus.  It made me thankful that I had been playing golf for nearly 20 years.  Just think about what I could have missed out on if I had never started way back in ’99.  I spoke with him briefly just before teeing off, and I wished him well.  My ball headed toward the left side of the green, but the distance looked right.  My ball and my ball mark were a foot away from each other.  My ball mark was just left and slightly longer than where my ball ended up, and they were very close to the left side of the green.  

     The putt was so cool!  It was downhill and super fast, and I was worried about it going off the green, so I barely got it moving.  It never stopped, though, until it fell into the hole.  It broke left and then right, too.  Great start!  

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #13-Birdie #56 of 2016

     I aimed for the left side of the green hoping to make the green the bail-out area again, and it worked.  My ball headed right where I was aiming, and when I walked up to find my ball, it was just out of the bunker over there.  I had just enough room to take my stance and make a chip shot with my sand wedge.  My ball popped up and headed toward the hole that was on the front left side.  It rolled past the hole on the far side and settled just past it.  For the putt, I aimed at the top of the hole, and it broke left and fell directly into the center.  I was even after the first four holes, but that was only because I got a yucky double on #12.

     I had played a decent round up to this point.  On the back, I had hit four greens (only one short of my goal) in regulation, and I shot a +4 for a 39.  On the back, I had three greens in regulation before I got to this hole.  Another one would really help my score.

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #9-Birdie #57 of 2016
  

     It was not a pleasant start on this hole.  My tee shot was a high pull that looked like it would fly over the ditch and the trees.  A foursome found my ball over on #17, and one of the guys who played with me when I hurt my knee and withdrew from the Club Championship showed me exactly where it was, and then he showed me his golf ball and told me he had earned an ace on hole #2 earlier that morning.  I was happy for him, but it reminded me of my lifetime number for aces, zero.  

     A tree was planted in the path of my second shot, so I had to choose to go either to the left and use #18 or go right and risk the O.B.  The path to the right was clearer, so I used my 7-iron and got more than my fair share of my normal 7-iron distance.  My ball ended up in the dirt between the last two cottonwoods on the right side of the fairway, close to the cart path.  The next shot was the best one for this birdie.

     I chose my approach wedge, and I had the left side of the bunker to negotiate in order to get it close to the flag.  Because it was on the dirt, I knew I had to catch the ball first, so I practiced a descending blow a few times before I gave it a go.  It could not have turned out better unless it had gone into the hole.  My ball shot out of the dirt, and my club exploded the dirt up and forward.  The ball squirted out and headed toward the green, flying over the corner of the bunker and landing on the green where it turned left and rolled down toward the hole.  I could not see it, but I had a great feeling it was very close.  It was.  I was left with an uphill putt of less than two feet.

Written on 11-4-16.

     We are on our way to Lakewood now.  Danielle just drove through Colorado Springs and will arrive at Mom and Dad’s a few hours before we do.  B is driving, and we just passed the halfway point, Saguache.

     Eric and I played our traditional round at Hillcrest yesterday.  He texted me earlier that morning to give him a call, so I thought he was going to cancel, but he just wanted to warn me to dress warmly.  His dad, Craig Sr., has been having some mental issues, some dementia, so I thought he might not play for that reason, too, but he still chose to go play.  He and Amanda were going to spend the night at the cabin home, but Craig and Dori had a rough day after going to the doctor, so they did cancel that.  Eric rode back home with me instead of getting picked up by Amanda at the restaurant.  We were going to eat at our regular place, Cuckoo’s, but they were remodeling, so we ate at Lady Falconburgh’s instead.  It was recommended to us by our one playing partner for the day, Bob.  We just happened upon it, though, as we walked up Main St. looking for a place to eat since we were denied by Cuckoo’s.  

     The golf was great!  It was super to get to play golf with Eric again, who has stopped playing for the past five years or so.  He got the spark back after playing at Isleta for some Big-O thing he attended.  My previous post was about one of the Isleta golf balls he had generously given me.  He said he was bombing some of his drives, and then he proved it when we played yesterday.  He outdrove me on hole #4 from the new teeing grounds both times by hitting some monster high draws, and his second time around was even better than the first.  I, on the other hand, hit two weak pulls that ended up near the green on hole #7.  

     He also actually beat my front nine score by one stroke!  Not bad for someone who has had such a long lay-off.  Then he kind of fell off on the back nine, fulfilling his self-prophecy by saying it would not last.  When all was said an done, I had beaten him by six strokes, 87 to 93.  Selfishly, I hope he continues to want to play.  He and I could consistently take on C.J. and Bruce now that Rei had moved away to Ft. Collins.  The timing is not the best, however.  It’s heading into the winter months, and the golf course is likely to close again, maybe permanently this time.

Until next time…