How I Am Learning All of This Stuff and a Reunion

Written on 7-13-2020.

        I am sitting on the deck of the cabin home in Mancos, and it is just absolutely gorgeous here.  We made an escape in our Escape again, and of course, we brought the dog.  The sky is a bright blue, and it is filled with pearl white clouds with pale gray bottoms.  I can hear the wind blowing through the trees, and it sounds like a distant crowd cheering.  I’m listening to a podcast Joe e-mailed to me called Punishment Without End from Hi-Phi Nation.  It’s about a girl who was caught with drugs in her suitcase, so I am multi-tasking by listening and writing at the same time.    

I talked with Joe last night, and I realized I really miss him and our conversations.  I try not to think about what this pandemic has taken from us, but one of the things we are missing out on was a trip I wanted to give to Joe.  We went to Boston after I got my Masters, and it was mostly his treat.  My reason for wanting to take him on a trip was his turning 50.  Postponed.  Cancelled.  We’ll do it later now, and that is a bummer. 

My forehead looks really comical right now, too.  It is dotted with circular band-aids that are meant to stop the blood.  I had much of my millia removed today at Durango Dermatalogy, so my forehead was ravaged today, and now it is polka dotted with band-aids.  This was the perfect time to do it.  We came right to the cabin home afterward, and it’s near the middle of our summer.  I just counted, and it’s thirteen band-aids, but I just removed the one between my eyes, so it was fourteen.

B and I just got off the phone with Danielle.  Her crew is still in Casper, Wyoming, and they are doing some training this afternoon.  When I left the car, B asked Danielle to tell her everything, and she lamented that she hates long distance relationships.  I think they are very much in love, and it’s just really hard.  Firefighting keeps their minds busy, but as soon as they are off, they think of each other more, and that just stinks knowing they are apart right now.  I don’t know if they can stand another season of firefighting without each other, but I also don’t know what that might mean for their future together.

We had a long talk on Facebook Messenger Video Chat with...

James, Kyle, and Kameron.  We have decided to have James fly into Albuquerque instead of Phoenix.  It’s just safer…and cooler.  Kyle and Kameron are coming in the beginning of August, anyway, so it won’t mean less time for them to be together.  We are 19 days away from our boy coming home!  Wow!  Hooray!  James and Em told us, too, that she plans to come visit him/us in December for Christmas.  We shall see if that actually happens.  Tune in  here for an update on that this January.

One quick note on both our dog and our cat.  Kody is mostly healed now, but he gets up from his naps and limps some, so I know he is still sore.  It doesn’t help that he is back to full-time rabbit chasing, and they are fully abundant right now.  He has a sprinting workout on every walk we take.  He has his appetite back, and he even eats the chicken stuff he rejected before when he wasn’t feeling so good right after the accident.  That makes me feel so happy, not only does he have his appetite back, but we won’t have to donate all that dog food to the Aztec Animal Shelter, or worse, throw it all out.

Pika is plugging right along.  She has to be around twenty years old now.  I brushed her a few times recently, and she rubbed up against the brush and purred each time.  It amazes me how much hair comes off of her, enough to cover the space under my desk in the computer room with black tufts of hair.  She is sooooo skinny, so I don’t know where all that hair comes from.         

Back to golf…

I called and set a tee time at Riverview this Friday at 7:50 AM.  Eric said it should work for him, so that’s one.  I will wait to hear from C.J. and Shawn next.  Hopefully, they can play as well.

I wanted to give an update on my clubs.  I know I talked to Don about getting a new gap wedge, but when I picked up my clubs, I noticed that my old one was still there.  He had shined it up a little bit, he told me, but he did not increase the length to match the rest of the set.  I figured I had miscommunicated.  

I got a call from Don a week later, though, and he left a voicemail telling me my new gap wedge was ready and to come pick it up anytime.  Oh!  Great, I thought.  I hadn’t miscommunicated after all.  It must have taken longer to get that order shipped than the order for the graphite shafts.  

My set now has the Warrior driver, the one I used to call my “3-wood” before it became my driver driver, the actual 3-wood from Warrior Golf, the Taylor Made 5-wood Burner still, the Wishon utility club/7-wood, the Wishon turf buster, my Wishon Irons 5 thru new Gap Wedge (all with the same 7-iron length), my Wishon sand wedge, and the still mostly new S7K putter from Christmas.  Gone are the Wishon “white knight” driver, my Taylor Made 3-wood, and my old, shorter approach wedge.

I finally figured out a system for recording my swings, but it was quite the process.  The first day I attempted to record my swings, it was frustrating.  I went to the range at Pinon Hills, and I was planning to use my iPad, because it is bigger, but I had been logged out for some reason.  I tried to get the password, but I couldn’t recover it (no wi-fi connection), so I had to make a new password.  

I called B to help me, but she didn’t see any passwords for it on the computer, so I switched to my iPhone.  That worked.  I logged in with a new password on Swing Catalyst, and I placed it on my bag in the perfect spot, just in front of the plastic double golf ball holder that I’ve never used and resting on top of the zipper for the small front compartment where I keep my golf tees.  The compartment sticks out just enough to rest the phone on the zipper, and it rests beautifully on the ball holder.

I had to figure out the timing next, and the 15 seconds option, the longest time available to delay recording, worked the best.  That gave me just enough time to set my phone on its spot on my bag and get into my address position.  I now know when it starts to record (the white Explore button and the Flip the Camera button disappear on the bottom), so I know just when to take my swing.  I recorded my swing from the front and down the line.  It was really hard to see the screen in the bright sunlight the last time, but I remembered the routine from the first time.

  Here’s the routine: Have the my bag and cart in the right position.  Tee up a ball and get my alignment club set up.  Have the club I am using ready to go.  Set the time for 15 seconds on the app.  Start the timer, and make sure it’s going.  Quickly get into address position.  Wait for the recording to start.  Make the absolutely best swing possible.  Stop the recording.  Delete the video or keep it.  Slide the recording to just before impact if it’s a good one.  Save the video.  Start the whole process over again.

When I got home, I uploaded the best swings to the cloud, and then I downloaded them to my iPad.  I saved the best ones with titles like Smooth 7-iron or Down and Through 6-iron.  It is quite the process, but it is paying off dividends now.  I can see what I am doing correctly and/or incorrectly immediately, and more importantly, I can match the model.

When this all started (the swing change), I wondered how I was going to do it, and now I know.  

This is how I am doing it.  I am reading the book.  I am rereading it right now, and highlighting the parts I think are important.  That reminds me of how I learned volleyball.  I walked to the Fort Lewis College Library, and I checked out books on how to play volleyball.  They helped me tremendously, especially the ones with pictures.  That makes me sound like I was a little kid, but what I mean is that the pictures really helped me the most, because I am a visual learner overall.

I am watching YouTube videos.  I got my clubs upgraded and right where I want them.  I am practicing on the range.  I am videoing my swing on the range, and I am just beginning to match the model.  I am keeping my short game going, and I am actually working on improving that, too, especially with my last lesson with Luke.  I am avoiding playing…mostly.  I know I am playing this Friday, and I just played two times, but Friday’s round will only be the third time I have played since I started all of this.  I will go to the range again before then, and I will work on a steady head and keeping my trail leg down.  That is what I will focus on when I play this Friday, too.  I am not going to let playing get in the way of my process.  I am not going back to two planes.  Never.

I am running out of time.  My new MacBook Air has only 34%, and it’s 2:45 in the afternoon.  Soon, we will be packing up and cleaning, but I want to relay one more golf story, and it’s a funny one.

When I played my second nine holes at Green River, I had a few problems.  For example, I forgot to bring my mask (I forgot it that morning, too), so I had to go back to the truck again and get it before I went into the pro shop.  I also bought some more Off! Bug Spray, and I found out that I didn’t need to do that.  I thought the one I had fell out of my push cart pouch, but I had actually secured it in the zippered pouch where I keep my golf balls.  Good grief.  I was a mess.  

I bought two six-packs of refurbished golf balls.  I thought that would last me, and it did.  I didn’t want to run out like I did that morning.  I was all set, and I teed off for another adventure.  I did better when I played #1 this time.  I did not lose six golf balls, and I got a real score.  It was a double, but it was a real score.  

As I came closer to the green to go look for my third shot, though, I approached the little creek that protects the green, and I saw a ball.  It was in the taller reeds, but it was easily visible from where I was standing.  

I reached for it, and it turned out to be my last resort ball that I had lost on hole #6 from my first time around.  It was unmistakably mine with its orange PS, and it was a Bridgestone.  We were reunited, and it felt so good.  I had really pull-hooked it that morning.  Way left.  No wonder I didn’t find it then.  However, it is now back in my bag next to my range finder where it belongs.  I laughed out loud to the golf course and myself.  Now, that’s a happy ending.  I needed that. 

Until next time…