The Gift of Pain/Health

Written on 6-27-25.

     Rocky and Kelly just drove away from the cabin at Vallecito, and it’s quiet time now.  They stayed one night, and we all went out on the lake this morning.  It was beautiful.  The conditions were calm and sunny, a perfect summer morning on a mountain lake.  Eric let me drive his brand new, more powerful boat, and I got to bring it in to the dock, too.  Thankfully, the conditions were conducive, and I put it back in the slip with expertise.  I even amazed myself.   Soon, we will have our family here for the 4th of July.

On to golf…

I am working out with Matt (last name) again, and I have had two sessions already.  I asked for that as a gift for Father’s Day, and then I got two rounds of ten workouts accidentally.  Belinda had already gone down there to pay for the first ten sessions, and then I charged ten more.  The lady didn’t tell me B had already paid for the first ten, so I just kept them all.  She told me I had money left over from the previous time, too, so I am set for a long time.  It feels great to...

be back with him again, and I am joyful to be taking this step for my health and well-being.  I know I want (and really need) to maintain my strength into my 60’s.  I am worried about losing muscle mass as I continue to age, so I am fighting to stay ahead of the game.  Working with Matt will certainly help, and of course, it will help my golf game, too.  It already has!  I had success when I played with Herman (not his real name) two days ago.  I will write about later hole by hole, because it is so exciting for me.  I beat him straight up!

First, I want to get playing with Eric at Civitan in here, because that happened a while ago.  Despite Eric playing well at Monticello, he could not repeat with another win at Civitan.  He did say before we played that he was really sore and tired from swimming.  He has been going to his Masters swimming sessions in the early mornings, and they gave him a rough workout that morning.  We joked about getting the excuses out of the way right away.  

They have improved Civitan with a new seating area that is shaded near the #1 tee box, and they have done some landscaping with pea gravel paths between that those tables and the pro shop.  It looks very updated with these new changes.  

Neither one of us got any birdies, but I was more consistent than he was for most of the round this time.  I had seven pars and seven bogeys to Eric’s two pars and nine bogeys.  He really struggled on hole #5 both times, pulling his tee shots well left into the marsh and losing his golf balls there.

We decided to tee up our first shots during the second round, because the teeing areas were not mowed down to fairway length.  We tried to hit off the grass only for the first nine holes to practice hitting greens, but the taller grass really affected our play.  We played a game with G.I.R.’s yielding the greatest points, and I was able to hit more of them than he did.  We could get three points for hitting a green, and one point for earning a par.  If we got a bogey or worse, we would subtract one point each for those.  

It was hard to get points if we didn’t hit the greens, of course.  I won the first nine holes +1 to his -8.  Then I won the back with 0 points to Eric’s -3, so it was a bit closer the second time around.  We had fun, but we were also happy to drive away as it got hotter in the afternoon sun.  I imagine Eric felt more relief driving away than I did.  He was very tired.

Greg texted me and invited me to play in the Yellow Ball Tournament at Hillcrest coming up on July 12th, so I am looking forward to that one.  He and Marc would talk about that tournament and how fun it is multiple times when we would meet and play at Hillcrest.

It’s later in the evening now, and I just took a shower.  Cool breezes are blowing through our Alto as I type, and life is good.