Wedding Day Details

Written on 6-15-19.

     It’s wedding day!

Written on 6-23-19.

      That was all I had time to write that day, because I quickly realized I had better get dressed and ready to go preside over that ceremony/celebration.  Did not want to be late for that! Thankfully, I wasn’t.  

     And, there was much rejoicing.  That was one of the best wedding celebrations I have ever attended, and I am including Belinda’s and mine in that evaluation as well.  I’m not just saying that because I was the officiant either, something I had never done before.  It was just super fun, and it was made even better because it was our little Swoperton family’s first wedding.  The pressure was off, too, because they had already been married for a year.  This was the public celebration of their love, and what a celebration it was.

     The Edgerton property had never looked better, and the water was high and flowing right behind me as I spoke.  I even joked that if I said something Becca (or Matt) didn’t like, she had full permission to push me into the river.  She didn’t.  They didn’t.  Phew.  

     *I’m watching the final round of the Travelers Championship as I write, and it’s becoming a two-man battle between Chez Reavie and Keegan Bradley.  Bradley is now just one stroke behind Chez after the 15th hole.

     Many special moments popped up on the evening of the wedding, but here are some of the most memorable ones to me.  Tommy from Phoenix, a flaming redhead and proud homosexual, grabbed Belinda and danced with her like a maniac, whipping her around and smiling through every step.  A terrible song followed, however, so they both turned their backs in protest.  

Kyle and James took turns...

bantering during their speech, and they ended by asking Matt to allow them back into the family, because they could not compete with his looks, his smarts, his athleticism, and mostly his dimples.  Matt allowed it.

     Danielle gave her Wed Talk, and she taught us that it was tough living with Becca at times, but she’s also one of the toughest people we’ll ever meet.  She borrowed my sport coat and readers to complete her look, and she gave us moments to laugh and moments of great appreciation for Becca and what she’s accomplished in her short time here on earth so far.

     I choked up and lost a couple of tears when Dorrie and Craig beat everyone with 63 years of marriage.  It just killed me that Craig couldn’t be there; he was recently moved into a nursing home in Farmington after a brain bleed due to a fall.  I’ve lost my movie buddy.  We need to visit him soon.  He told Becca he wanted to be the first one to dance with her at the wedding.  She said that wouldn’t work.  So, he said he wanted to be the second one to dance with her at her wedding.  She said that wouldn’t work.  Okay, could he be the third?  She said yes, he could.  Because he wasn’t there, though, Dorrie did her best to be the third one to dance with Becca during the “dollar dance.”  

     On a final, more upbeat note, we had a fabulous moment when all of the Swopertons, including Matt, ended up dancing, laughing, and having a wonderful time together.  The party outlasted the D.J., who packed things up just after midnight.  All in all, it was a hugely successful event.  Becca and Matt are on their honeymoon now, a repeat of the Christmas Cruise we took in 2010.

     Chez just rolled in a birdie putt on #17, and Keegan is putting for a bogey, so it looks like Chez will prevail for this championship. Ouch.  Keegan missed, so it was a three stroke swing on that hole.  

On to my golf…

     Not much to write about here.  

     Shawn and I tried twice to beat C.J. and Bruce the last two times we played, and we fell short both times.  This whole “Shawn doesn’t play well when he’s my partner” continues, but hopefully we will break that jinx soon.  We had our best opportunity on the last day of May when we played our Escalating Skins game.  We had lost the front nine badly with only 50K to their 330K.  C.J. and Shawn pushed the money from #9 to #10 with birdies (C.J.’s with his pop), and I won #10 with the only par to gain us 190K and a great start on the back.  They won holes #11 through #13, but we came back a bit by winning the bonuses on #15 and #17, so we had hope, and because all of the money was pushed starting on #14 and going all the way to #18, we really could have won it all.  

     Shawn and I both got respectable bogeys on #18, but a pitch by Bruce on his third shot put his ball close enough to get the only par there, and he and C.J. got all of the rest of that money.  I honestly haven’t added it all up until today.  

     We ended up with 390K, and Bruce and C.J. finished with 1,390K.  Those last four holes were worth 800K, so we could have done it, but we fell short.  Shawn did not play well on the back like he had been lately, and I actually beat him in stroke play 94 to 97.  Bruce shot an 85, and C.J. shot an even 100.

     On our second attempt to beat those guys in our first round together in June, we played best ball match play, but this time it was over by hole #13, and we lost 6 and 5.  Bruce maintained his total dominance by shooting the best round of the season so far with a 76, just four over.  Sweet!  Shawn played better, shooting a 91 this time, and I trended in the wrong direction with a 97.  C.J. stayed the same by shooting a 100 once more.  

     That last round was played on the 5th of June and here we are near the end of June already and I haven’t played since, but I’ve been busy with prepping for the wedding and the summer institute with the Bisti Writing Project.  Golf was out of the question, of course, when James was here for his short week, too.  Unless we play together, I will not miss out on that precious time with our only son.

     Although I haven’t been playing lately, golf continually lingers on my mind.  I’ve been considering a swing change and a possible trip to Lakewood to not only visit and help the folks, but to possibly include a visit to Golftec to get a video lesson with my buddy, Troy Charles Youngren.  

     We’ll see.  I might also just take some time to go to the range and work on my swing.  I’m thinking of shortening it and maybe changing the tempo to see what happens.  I’ve also thought about beginning to purposely take divots to see what happens, because I’ve always mostly been a sweeper who rarely takes divots.  I feel like experimenting to see what might come out of it.       
     I could also spend one practice session honing my short game, and I know that would reap huge benefits in lower scores.  Pinon Hills is a tough, gorgeous, sometimes incredibly frustrating test of all of my golf skills, and I just want to play it better.  I know I can.  More consistency would certainly help.  Simply staying out of trouble will lower my scores in many ways.  

     I’ll end today with some of the better news I have received about golf lately, and it actually came on the day of the wedding.  Eric’s brother-in-law, Dan, the awesome, nearly scratch golfer, played Pinon the day before the wedding.  I told him to break 80, and he agreed that was his goal as well.  Well, he didn’t, but he came close.  He shot an 82.  It felt great to know that my best round was just four strokes off from his round.  Great golf awaits me at Pinon Hills, and this membership guarantees that I will get it.  As of this writing, I’ve only played nine 18-hole rounds and one 9-hole one.  I will play again on Tuesday after the summer institute is done for the day, so that will make it an even ten rounds.

Until next time…