Mountain Fresh Family Update

Written on 6-10-14.

    I take a deep breath in, and I let it out.  Once more.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Fresh mountain air fills my lungs.  With each breath, peace flows in and stress flows out.  If the stress were visible, it would be a ghastly green, a hideous green and not a mountain pine tree green like the trees I see with my natural widescreen view here.  Yes, we are up at the cabin home.  Belinda and I have escaped.  Let it out, Pat.  Let it all flow out.  This so necessary, so right.  Thank you, Edgertons, for this opportunity.  I will be forever grateful that we can come here. 
    It’s not just that we can come here and afford it; it’s also that my wife sheds the overbearing “skin” of stress that comes from being at home.  Not that our home is a stressful place.  We do have “haven” and “sanctuary” and now “refuge,” but it’s more about...

Three Birdies on Memorial Day

    I’m sitting on the new furniture in the living room.  Ah, it’s summer again.  James’s girlfriend Amanda is here along with their friend Justin.  B is off to Farmington to take Jess on an errand.  Jess fell and hurt her elbow, so B is helping her out.  Jess is okay.  She mostly just hurt her right elbow and hip.  Danielle is at work; she is doing C.P.R. training today for her new Y.C.C. job.  I find myself with another opportunity to write in the month of May, so I’m taking it. 
    As I stated in my previous post, I helped out our newly assembled team on Memorial Day with three new birdies.  Not a shabby way to start the summer.  Here they are...

Hidden Valley Golf Course-Hole #14-Birdie #13 of 2014

    My drive went well to the left, a straight line drive pull to the #7 fairway.  My ball could be heard whapping a few leaves on its way over.  From there, I chose the 7-iron, but I was a bit afraid that...

Here I Am

    Hello, my name is Pat Swope, and I am the blogger of this blog.  Or rather "blah-g."  I have been rather preoccupied with some other things lately, namely the end of this school year, my 24th/25th.  I am now in the middle of my 25th year and could retire in October if I so choose, but I would never do that; that's how I came into teaching, so I would not do that to a class...or a new teacher.  Our daughter, Danielle, also had her high school graduation, so we have had family and friends here for that, and we participated in this year's Project Graduation for her just like we did for James two years ago.  I've been busy, but it feels wonderful to create and write and type again.

On to golf...   

    I played in the Memorial Day Marathon tournament two days ago.  I was going to play with Cameron, but he got an offer to have his entry fee taken care of, so he chose to play with someone else.  He asked if I wanted to play with another guy he knows, so I agreed.  His name is Chris (not his real name), and he’s a younger player with a high handicap. 
    We did not play well enough to place, but I had a fine time, and we had said from the very beginning that we were going in with low and/or no expectations. 
    I earned three birdies on my own during the tournament, so I will relay those here.  Briefly, though, here they are.  I had a birdie on #14 (of course), another on #18, and the third one came amazingly on the oddly substituted green on #11.  #11’s original green is in the process of being redone, but they all should be redone in my opinion. 
    They look diseased with tiny oddly shaped patches of green surrounded by shallow valleys of brown.  Golf balls would bump along, change directions, and do the most unpredictable things.  One of my putts did what I called “the fake arrow through the head” move.  It was heading towards the hole when it curved around it and then straightened out again on the other side.  Sigh.

Until next time...

27th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary

In this excerpt, I write about how I won my first prize ever by playing golf.

Written on 7-17-01.

    I have so much to write and so little time.  I will hit the highlights now and fill in details later.  I made three pars in a row at holes 7, 8, and 9 with Troy at his new golf course, South Suburban.  Guy was playing with us also.  I also got two more birdies bringing this year’s total to four so far!  I might possibly have five birdies actually.  I need to check with Hidden Valley about the fifth one. (I am sure it really wasn’t a birdie.  I hit into the big pond that really isn’t a pond yet, and then got up and down from 100 yards out, so I am not counting that one as a birdie.  6-5-02)  Beating Eric two out of three 18 hole rounds in Montana was fun.  Not that it is good to beat Eric, but it helps measure my improvement.  I scored two of my lowest scores ever for nine holes, 41, once in Montana and once again here at Hidden Valley.  I will fill in details later, but I am doing very well and I am very happy.  My handicap is starting to go down, down, down.  I might be under twenty by the end of this summer.  I am working very hard to be able to do that.  More details later.

Written on 9-12-01.

    I have even more good news.  I won my...

26th Excerpt From My Original Golf Diary

     In this excerpt, I start with a birdie I had earned way back in June approximately 13 years ago with Guy, Annmarie, and Daryl.  I also take Danielle (and her special guest) and James to the "new" 18 hole Hidden Valley Golf Course where I played steadily, yet poorly, with James and hot and cold with Danielle.  A week from today, Danielle will be graduating from high school.  James returns home tomorrow night after his second year in college.  Sigh.  

Written on 6-13-01.

Foothills Golf Course-Executive Nine, Hole #2 
 
    Guy and I had just made par on the very first hole.  That was...