Last Post of 2022-A Swing Trainer Junkie?

Written on 12-21-22.

        This is fun!  James and Danielle came home from Lakewood with us yesterday, so the four of us are hanging out.  They will be here through Christmas, so it’s a celebration in many ways.  Casey will drive from Albuquerque on Friday, too.

James rode along to my cardiologist appointment this morning just to keep me company, which was very nice.  I had a good report: no atrial fibrillations!  B and I just came back from town where we exchanged our iPhone 8’s for accessories for our iPhone 13’s.  I got a wall charger, and she got a slim wallet that attaches to her phone.  Danielle just left to go to Safeway for a grocery run.  B and I meant to go to Sam’s Club today, but she forgot her club card, so we made new plans.  We will go tomorrow or Friday now.  No biggie.

We watched Spielberg’s The Fabelmans last night, and it was wonderful.  I could see many of the references from his movies throughout, such as Close Encounters, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan.  It was an extremely well-done movie.  He’s a master movie maker.

Tomorrow, it will be A’s and B’s 56th birthday, and we plan on going to Griego’s for lunch together.  Life is good.

On to golf…

Eric and I played at Pinon Hills the first day it opened after all of the renovations.  Construction was still going on, but they allowed play, and it was fun.  Eric came up with a game that was similar to the Reverse Handicap Game.  It just wasn’t reversed, so holes were worth a thousand times whatever the hole’s handicap was, which was weird.  If I won an easier hole, like hole #4, I won a lot of points.  If I lost a difficult hole, it didn’t really hurt as bad.  

It wasn’t busy (we played later in the day), so we added a little putting game that escalated as we played our round.  The winner of the hole would pick a spot on the green from far away, and we would attempt to get a one-putt or a two-putt from that location.  If one of us made it in one shot, we would get double the money, but neither one of us did that.

To wrap this up quickly, I won the game with the handicap system at the end of the round.  I think I won by around $2000.00, but we missed out on three of the putting contests (holes 7, 8, and 9), because someone who was walking came up behind us, so we kept moving to keep the pace up.

We had a putt-off on the practice green, and I just needed to two-putt two of those to win it all.  Unfortunately, I only got one, and Eric got two, so his score surpassed my score.

It was a different competition, and it was fun.  I had a seven-footer for my final putt to win it all, but I missed it, so he truly deserved to win.

For Christmas this year, I asked for (and ordered it myself) the Precision Impact Swing Trainer.  The first one I ordered never showed up, though.  It got stuck in Lansing, Michigan, and I had visions of what had happened last year happening all over again.  

However, I reached out to Mike, the president of the company and customer support, to explain what had happened, and he sent me another one!  He was very easy to deal with, so kudos to him and his company.  Hooray!  I will get my gift this year.  I look forward to using it.  I believe I am a swing trainer junkie.

James and I are going for a late afternoon walk now. 

Until next time…

Ice Golf for Arthur

Written on 12-10-22.

        Kody and I just came back from walking down to the mailboxes.  I saw an e-mail telling me my replacement Abaco sunglasses had arrived, so I decided to go get them.  Kody did an excellent job of walking on his leash.

Back to golf…

Arthur (again, not his real name) had two funny things happen at Hillcrest on hole #12.  The teeing grounds were all moved forward because of the winter conditions like I had written before, so it was only around 130 yards to the pin.  For his first shot, his ball landed short and ricocheted back towards the water.  The water was mostly ice, though, so his ball skittered across the ice heading over towards hole #17.  Eventually, the ice ran out where it was water, so his ball fell in and went sploosh.  He teed it up again, and this time he chunked it fat.  His ball was headed towards the middle of the ice, so he turned away in disgust, but I kept watching.  His golf ball bounced off the ice with a loud crack and landed on the green.  It was only about 15 feet away form the hole.  I told him that I write about my golf adventures, and this story was definitely going into the journal.

Final Round at Hillcrest During the Pinon Hills Renovation

Written on 12-4-22.

        I am lying next to Belinda on a Sunday night.  We are in bed, and we have a new comforter to help with the colder nights.  It worked so well last night that we turned down the thermostat for tonight.  I woke up once, and I was a little sweaty.  Hopefully, tonight will be better.  

It’s deceptive.  It feels light, but it keeps the heat in well.  Another reason for buying it was that we were putting on quilts and extra blankets, and I just wondered aloud that if we had a comforter that was warm enough, we wouldn’t have to keep doing that.  It worked.  I can see the light green of the fabric reflecting the light of my MacBook screen.

On to golf…

I played with Herman (not his real name) and Eric at Hillcrest recently.  The weather was fantastic for this time of year, so I arranged it all.  Eric had an appointment with Dr. Lavengood in the morning, so we moved it from Riverview to Hillcrest.  I got a tee time for four, because Herman said his daughter would play, but she changed her mind.  Somebody named Arthur (not his real name either) was added to our group instead.  He was from Bayfield, but he worked for an oil field company in Ignacio.

I will continue this later, but I am glad to have gotten it started.  I am getting sleepy myself, and it is an uncomfortable position for my neck.  Until tomorrow then…

Written on 12-5-22.

I go to work on Tuesday and Thursday this week and next week.  I got a lot of stuff done for this week’s visits today.  I have a little bit of time to write before B and I go over to the Edgertons’ for dinner.  We are having pork chops tonight, and they are making everything.  They are working on eating better, and Eric has lost 11 pounds.  This will be the last time we see them before they go to Moab for some camping.

Back to golf…

Eric only played the front nine, and he rode in a cart.  He got some good news from Dr. Lavengood about his sciatica at his appointment, so we were happy to hear that.  He had a lot of double bogeys, though.  

Herman beat me by four strokes on the front nine with a 41 to my 45.  I didn’t keep score for him on the back nine, but he struggled, and I really wish I did keep his score, because I think I might have beaten him this time.  

On hole #13, he topped his tee shot, so it did’t go far at all.  I didn’t see it (I was taking a bathroom break), but I saw where it ended up.  For his second or third shot, he shanked one over by the fence.  I know he moved it or replaced it from off the fence line, and then he struggled a bit more after that.  I know it wasn’t a legal score, but I am pretty sure it would have been a high one.

On hole #17, he hit one OB.  He decided to just play it from OB, though, so it wasn’t a legal score either.  The thing is I don’t know if I will ever beat him, because he doesn’t hole out sometimes, too.  I know he is an excellent putter, but on those greens, he might miss one or two.  It was a putt I would have liked to have seen, but he informed me he gives himself putts sometimes.  I had a four-incher on hole #14, and I teased him that I was giving myself that one just like he did.  He didn’t laugh.

When we came to hole #18, he wanted to bet Arthur and me, and I should have taken him up on it.  I scored a bogey into the wind from the blues, and he didn’t fare well at all.  I ended up shooting a respectable 44 on the back for an 89 overall.  What helped were the par three holes.  Due to the freezing conditions (it was a struggle to get a tee in the ground on many holes), they had moved all the tees up to a spot in the sun on the par three holes, so they were all within 150 yards.

Eric and I played at Pinon Hills for the first time since it had all the improvements done.  I think it was the very first of the soft opening, and we got a tee time close to 1:00.  Melton said he got into a group with an earlier tee time.

I will write about that round soon, and I still have one more story to relay about Arthur’s tee shots on hole #12.

My Aunt Cynthia Dies

Written on 11-17-22.

        I am at Newcomb, and I have no plans with teachers as of this moment.  They have an assembly at the high school at 10:30 and 1:00, so three of the plans I had set up got postponed until next time.  I have found other things to do, though, and I feel I can write until noon when I meet with one of the Navajo Language teachers.  I am making this little break my writing and lunch break.

Yesterday, we learned that my Aunt Cynthia died.  She had a heart attack a few days before, so I wasn’t surprised.  It hurt to see Dad cry during our chat.  Mom cries, but Dad hardly does.  My eyes got watery, and my throat felt warm and full, too.  Many of her friends had died, and her social network fell away, too, after Covid.  Mentally she declined, also.  Her mail was stacking up I heard.  Sadly, Dad said that is what has happened to them as well.  I reminded him that they still have family, and he agreed, but I could see something has changed in Dad now.  It was like a resignation.

I said that it was a great thing to outlive your friends and to have a good, long life, but he didn’t sound too convinced.  Is it better to outlive your friends like Mom and Dad have?  I think so, but it must get discouraging at times.  

B and I will go visit them tomorrow for her first weekend of Thanksgiving break.  We plan to leave before 3:00.  Hopefully, the weather won’t be too bad, and we’ll make it.  We talked about staying at the new Hampton in Salida if we get too tired.  

We will have the usual Swoperton Thanksgiving Dinner next week on Friday, and all of the kids are coming.  This weekend and next week will be bountiful for us.  We have much to be thankful for.

On to golf…

The last time I played was with Troy (Casey’s stepdad) at Hillcrest.  I arranged for us to play nine holes at 10:30.  I couldn’t get a tee time before 2:00 at Riverview, but it worked out for the best.  We arrived just before our tee time, because I thought we might have a frost delay, but everything was running on schedule.  We took a few swings for our warm-up and we were off.

We both had a rough start.  I got a double, and he had problems getting out of a fairway bunker and some short game miscues on the first hole, hole #10.  He got a bogey on the next, though, and then I got the first par on hole #12.  

Things got even better for him after hole #15.  He got a double on that hole, but he said that would be his mulligan hole, so it would be a par instead.  He had a misfire on his tee shot there, but he recovered nicely.  After that misstep, however, he went par, par, par on the final holes.  It was great to watch, and he said I was his favorite playing partner now.  He consistently outdrove me, landing his ball an average of 20 yards ahead of mine.  I was impressed!  For the last three holes, he would play golf the way it’s mostly supposed to be played: a long drive on the fairway, an approach that hit the green, and then two putts.  He was so happy that, even though we could have stuck around to play nine more holes, he thought it should be left alone.  I said he was going to have a satisfied feeling driving home thinking about how it had gone at Hillcrest.

He shot a 46 with the mulligan, and I shot a 46 without using any, so we agreed that he tied me.  I agreed to let him have the mulligan when he asked me, but I bet he will be able to beat me without using any mulligans the way it’s going for him.  He was so encouraged to continue playing golf, and I was just thrilled that he had had a fun time.  Despite the two doubles I started with, it turned out to be an okay round for me, too.  I earned two pars.  

Okay, my lunch break is over.  I am off to meet that teacher.

Until next time...