4th Excerpt from My Golf Diary-Part 2

        I am doing another excerpt for my last post in March.  It's been a busy month with work, and that is the reason.  In this post, it's right after James's 9th birthday.  We take both families to Navajo Dam for some fun in the sun, too.

Written on 8-18-02.

Today is the day after James’ birthday.  We ate dinner at McDonald’s for him.  We also got him the strategy guide for his Nintendo Gamecube game Pikmin.  I got to play golf as well.  Eric and I finally played at Hidden Valley.  It was expensive, of course.  Sorry, no deals.  It cost $23 to play nine holes with a cart.  We would have walked, but it has been so hot and dry lately.  I played well considering a very slow start.  I ended birdie, par, par for a score of forty-three.  The last par was very nice considering it is the number one handicap hole on the course.  Eric and I have never gotten better than a bogey there.  Here are the descriptions of the birdie and the last par.

Hidden Valley-Hole #7   

Eric had just hit one out of bounds on this short par five, but I offered him one mulligan, which he used and then returned the favor for me on the very next hole.  I know I said I wasn’t going to do that, but right now I feel it’s fair if we both do it and this ended up being a par, not a birdie.

        I kind of scuffed the tee shot a little with my 3-wood, but I think the ground being so hard helped it to roll...

Phoenix, Ajo, and Continued Recovery

Written on 3-20-22.

        I am watching the Valspar Tournament while I stretch out on our bed.  It’s a lazy Sunday after a long trip back from Phoenix and Ajo.  We decided to come back early by one day, so we drove all the way back from Ajo on Friday.  It was splendid to have a morning back at home yesterday to clean the camper and recover a bit more vs. staying the night at Homolovi Campground on Friday.

We had a fabulous time, but I was super sore all week due to the volleyball tournament James and I played in a week ago Saturday.  We did well, placing a respectable third place in a chill family-style tournament.  We won two out of five in pool play, and we had two very close matches there.  Then we played three matches together in the tournament, and we won two out three of those, and then B and I decided to leave.  It was close to 2:00, and Danielle said she would take my place, also, so we cut and ran.

Turns out, I really hurt my body, and I am old.  My body does not recover the way it used to.  My quads screamed the first two days after, and then my knees were in shock the next five.  My shoulder also had some things to say to me, and I did my best to ignore it.  I am still recovering today.  It’s hard to find a comfortable position, and I plan on icing my knees again in a moment.  I am thankful for another day of rest.

Kyle and I made a video of the two of us limping into the sunset together at Lost Dutchmen State Park, the campground we stayed while visiting in Phoenix.  We brought Paws back to him, and that was a joyful reunion.  Paws was stamping her paws in the dirt by the campground table in anticipation.  Kyle had a mishap on a one-wheel at about 15 mph recently, and ending up going to the hospital in Albuquerque while doing some work in Socorro.  The swelling in his leg nearly caused his skin to die, but it subsided while at the hospital, and it has continued to improve since then.  Danielle visited him in the morning, and James in the afternoon.

It’s after 4:00 now, and the tournament is heating up.  Looks like we will have a play-off between Sam Burns and Davis Riley, who are tied at 17 under.  Riley has a chance to win the tournament with a birdie putt on #18, though.  He is setting up now.  He missed right, so we are going to extra holes.

I got to go to the range at a Kokopelli Golf Club near Kyle’s house.  It was only seven minutes from his house, and it felt good to get some practice in.  I bought a large bucket, and I went back and forth from the range to the short game practice area.  I got two full-swing videos that looked pretty good, one from the front and one from down the line.  I was pleased that I could get back into form after a long lay-off.  I couldn’t find a relationship with the ground, because they were only allowing players to hit off the turf, but I was hitting down on the ball and causing the “divot” to come after the strikes after some practice.  

I used my new bag, but I found out I hadn’t transferred my ball mark repair tools from the old Wishon bag, so I got them transferred as soon as I got home.

I also checked out the Ajo Golf Club.  It was like a "Tin Cup" course with a dirt driving range and rough greens, but I would be willing to go try it out if we visit them next year.

Okay, enough for now.  I am going to enjoy this play-off.

Until next time…

Entire Star Wars Collection Inventoried

Written on 3-6-22.

        Bev’s birthday was two days ago, and they travelled to Florida to visit the highest point there (one of things they do when visiting each states) and Disney World.  We heard that they may not be able to go to the Star Wars tour, but they did get to go eventually.  It was having mechanical problems.  Sounds like they had to stand in line for a long time, though.

If I haven’t written about it yet, I have completed the inventory of my entire Star Wars collection!  I did it.  It’s done.  Now, I have a better idea about how much all of this stuff is worth, and if I were to die, it would be easier to sell off or keep for the family.  It took longer than I thought it would, and I have a bunch of stuff I didn’t even know I had.  Now that it’s on my phone, I can more easily mark stuff that I would be willing to get rid of as well as say what is really important to me.  I did my best to make it fun, too, and I would stop and appreciate the items that hold a lot of meaning as I went along recording each item.  

As far as value goes, my comics are worth a lot more than I thought, but that will fluctuate according to the market, of course.  I know that when we reach 50 years from 1977, many of my items will be worth a lot more.  I am pretty sure I heard that on The Antiques Road Show once.  If I were to do the P.S.A. thing, some of my trading cards from 1977 would catch some super high prices.

I am glad it’s behind me now, though, especially since the weather will be getting better for playing golf.  

On to golf…

I have cleaned off my pitching area and putting green recently with our new Stihl blower, and I have been working on my putting in our computer room, too.  Sometimes, when I am in a Zoom meeting, I hide my camera just to move my body and putt for a bit.  I have my new TGW bag, but I haven’t used it yet while playing, except for the trip to Bluffs for my birthday.  Even there, I carried it in and didn’t put it on my push cart.  The weather has not been conducive to playing outside yet…at all.  It snowed here last night and left a couple of inches, and it’s blustery and cold right now, despite the sunshine peeking through the clouds.  

I just peeked out at our lawn, and it’s covered with snow.  I should fertilize it tomorrow.  I always like to do that after it snows near springtime.

I plan on reaching out to Southwest Putting Greens to have them come do a little upkeep before the first year runs out.  I just e-mailed them, so I hope to hear from them soon.

3rd Excerpt From My Golf Diary-Part 2

        I am using another excerpt today from my journal from 2002.  That was twenty years ago, and I had around four years of experience with golf at that time.  I had just placed third in my first tournament, the Pinon Hills Classic...in the high handicap division.  In this excerpt, I clean my clubs after a few rounds, but I clean my clubs after every round now.  I unpack what happened when I played in the tournament, and I get a cartoon in the mail from Mom and Dad that I still quote to this day...  

Written on 8-2-02. 

        I just cleaned my clubs.  It always feels good to get them nice and shiny after I’ve played a few rounds.  I played with Eric at Pinon Hills a couple of days ago.  Like I had mentioned before, he couldn’t play in the tournament because he was out of town.  He had gone to his big family reunion.  I didn’t play well, but I was doing something you shouldn’t do.  I was working on a move.  I was trying to do the...