Written on 12-12-2020
It’s a historic day, because today is the day that vaccines are being sent out across America for the first time. It is strangely ironic that 80% of ICU beds are being occupied at the same time, and we are far from the end, but this does sound like the beginning of the end. Healthcare workers will receive it first, and that is a good thing; they deserve to work without the fear of getting Covid-19. So happy for Becca and her friends/co-workers. They deserve protection.
On this historic day, I actually went to Aztec Urgent Care, not for Covid-19 symptoms, but for a possible ear infection. The service provider told me that my left ear did look infected, so she prescribed some ear drops. She told me it looked like swimmer’s ear. I took the first dose (4 drops) this afternoon, and I will take my second one tonight before I go to sleep. I am hopeful it will help soon, because it smarts.
We put up our third ceiling fan for our anniversary today, the one in the living room, and they all look fabulous. James was instrumental in helping us get them up and spinning. All three of them are up and running now, and we have said...
that each fan was representative of ten years of marriage.Written on 12-19-2020.
Good afternoon! I am up at the cabin home with Eric, Amanda, Belinda, James, Misty, and Kody. I am sitting downstairs where it is considerably cooler, and my lovely wife is taking a nap straight across from me, all snuggled up in a baby blue blanket. It’s 12:16 here, and it’s a Saturday. Yesterday, we drove up at about this same time to celebrate the twins’ birthday for the weekend. We plan to stay one more night tonight, too.
The boys and I made a spaghetti dinner last night for the girls, and then we played a new board game that Amanda had just bought called Blank Slate. It was simple to set up and fun to play. Mostly, though, we just had the best conversations between the games. Poor James is stuck with us, but he fits in so well. He likes the “retired life,” but we can all sense a restlessness in him, and he will be gone to Albuquerque by the beginning of January.
I really enjoyed playing ping-pong this trip, and I suggested a game that was more like Queen of the Court to help keep everyone involved. If you made a mistake, you were out, and if you managed to score seven times in a row without a mistake, you were declared the winner. Nobody made it to seven. I think Eric made it to five once. Then we switched to glow-in-the-dark ping-pong, but it was nearly impossible. Funny, but nearly impossible.
I have completely reread and cleaned up this year’s diary over the past week, and I made some notes on what I needed to update, so here I go…
First, despite the pandemic reaching record numbers recently, I must confess that I am back to using a “normal” amount of toilet paper. I know I said I would never go back, but it’s just easier to use a substantial amount. I am not wasting it, by any stretch, but I am certainly not being so stingy with it anymore.
At the beginning of this diary, I was doing swings in slow motion to practice, and I could barely do three of them without feeling the burn, especially in my forearms. That was before the single plane swing discovery, and I have since stopped doing that. I am more in the “match the model” groove now rather than the “slow motion” swinging. I might return to slow motion practicing once I get the single plane swing down better, however.
Since I have been stuck inside due to the cold weather, I haven’t gotten to use any of the training aides I bought. I recently saw a video of Todd Graves talking about keeping his head still on FaceBook, and I made sure to save that video. When I go back to practicing, I might pull out my homemade version of the Steadhead, and practice with it some more.
I have not used my homemade alignment and ball position trainer either, but I did make something else similar to it. I was able to bring it to the range only once, however, before the governor shut us down again.
For this new homemade training aide, I clamped my yellow plastic training aide to an old shaft without a head on it to help with my ball position. I set it down on the ground, take my stance, and the yellow part angles out to keep my lead foot in the proper position by putting it at 20º. I measured from that heel, and it puts the ball in the correct position for both my driver and my irons. If I place a ball behind the shaft with that aide clamped on and resting by my lead foot, it is about five inches from my heel. If a ball is placed in front of the shaft, it is lined up correctly for my driver.
I then placed another club perpendicular to that one, and I was lined up at whatever target that was pointing at. It was weird and unorthodox, but it worked. I had a super visual for ball position and an alignment aide, and once again I saved close to $100.00. I am betting I will use it again this coming year.
We just got back from our winter fun out on Jackson Lake this afternoon. It was beautiful and sunny out there, and we had a blast walking all around the lake on the ice, testing it by throwing rocks and by walking gingerly, too. We were never in any danger. When we were walking on it, we were closer to the shore, and the water was shallow there. Kody and Misty came with us, and they had fun barking and growling at each other, as well as fighting over sticks.
Until next time…
Written on 12-24-2020.
I am half-listening/watching another Todd Graves YouTube video, and this one is called Winter Golf with the Single Plane Swing-Part 1. That is a real theme of this year’s journal, writing about watching lots of videos with Todd.
I have a few more things to update in this diary, and that will be it for this year. Despite the pandemic, it’s been a decent year. Many things and people to be grateful for.
First, Danielle is here for Christmas! Wow, what a gift. She had to ask permission and prove her case for coming, and here she is. She said she quarantined more than ever, and she got a negative result from the Covid test she recently took. We gave her a resounding yes, and now we have our entire immediate family here for Christmas, and who knows (God) how many times will this happen again. Most likely never. Matt gave Danielle a promise ring for Christmas, and that was a big surprise. They will more than likely become engaged after the upcoming fire season. Danielle said she didn’t want to be engaged during fire season, and I get that, but I know that when I knew I wanted to get married to Belinda, I wanted to get married ASAP. Everyone’s path is different, and that’s okay.
At the beginning of the outbreak, I started going to mass online. I have continued to do so. I usually “attend” mass at the Archdiocese of Bombay, and the reason I like that one is because of two prayers. The first is the Prayer of Spiritual Communion, and the second is for relief from the coronavirus. They are beautiful prayers and so fitting for what is going on right now. I haven’t been to mass for over nine months, and I look forward to returning.
After we bought the new MacBook Air, I wondered if I would miss the CD/DVD drive. I really haven’t. I wonder how I will rip video clips for my presentations in the future. I am really enjoying this new computer, and macOS Big Sur is a good looking operating system.
Another accomplishment for this year was the learning that I took away from Luke Tanner’s lessons. We managed to get in all four of them during the pandemic, and he gave me some things to work on, for sure. I am not sure that he helped me with learning the single plane swing, but I took things from his lessons that could help anybody with golf. Here are the biggest takeaways.
First, I like his ideas on chipping, and I am taking those tips forward to the upcoming season. I will chip less with my sand wedge, and I will adjust for longer chips with different clubs. All of that will reduce variables, and my golf ball will roll more than with what I have been doing.
I also learned a new putting drill from Luke that included string, and I plan on using that this upcoming season.
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