25th Anniversary Trip, My Tweaky Back, and the First of Five Birdies

Written on 10-27-15.

    Belinda and I are about 41 minutes outside of Ruidoso.  We’re headed home after our 25th anniversary vacation/trip to the Carlsbad Caverns.  On the way down there, we also stopped to ride the tram up to Sandia Peak and stayed at Danielle’s place and visited the kids in Las Cruces, too.  It’s been an amazing trip so far, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to say it’s over since we are on our way back home today.  Our plan is to stop to see Mike Speck and get my Time to Teach books back.
    I have five birdies to write about, and I also want to relay the stories about Carlsbad and our vacation, so I’ll get right to the birdies and mix in other details as I go along. 

Aztec Municipal Golf Course-Hole #11-Birdie #36 of 2015

    I am going to count this one.  A birdie is a birdie no matter how small.  On the final day of The First Tee for the Par group, we played three holes of golf with the participants.  I took Lily and Garret in my group.  We played hole #12 first.  Then we walked over to #10, and we finished up on #11, which worked out well to finish right next to the pro shop.  C.J. and I decided before playing that we should let this group play from the ladies’ tees since they were the advanced group.  It was his idea, and it was an excellent one.  I wouldn’t have to put up temporary teeing grounds, and this group would be up for the increased challenge of the “longer” holes. 
    This is the first birdie with my tweaked back.  My back gave out on me while working on my presentation for Time to Teach for Koogler.  It was caused by many hours of cramped airplane seating, golf in Virginia, stress, and too many slight bends forward while sitting and testing Response Cards for the training. 
    That’s when I got...

Guy's 50th Birthday Surprise Weekend Details

Written on 10-12-15.

    I am on United Flight 1968, flying back to Denver after surprising Guy for his 50th birthday.  It was a swell visit, a real blast!  We surprised him on Friday night when we first arrived at their home.  Annmarie ended up being the one who picked us up.  He appeared underwhelmed, but hey, that’s Guy for you.  He said he thought something was amiss when Annmarie went out at night to get a compress for her eye.  She has a stye, poor thing, but Guy said she never goes out at night, so that was weird.  Also, she was doing quite a bit of house cleaning before the weekend, and she asked him to take off Monday, too. 
    I am going to stop for a minute because the drink cart is here.  I want to avoid any spills if I can.
    Okay, drink break is over.  So, he wasn’t really surprised, but Guy is not overly dramatic in any way either, so I hope he was at least mildly surprised.  On Saturday, Annmarie sent us off on...

Headin' to See My Bro for a 50th Birthday Surprise

Written on 10-9-15.

    Well, this is fun!  I am on United Flight 1887 to Dulles to surprise Guy for his 50th birthday.  We will surprise him tonight after he comes home from ShyShay’s baseball game.  Their friend Krystal (not her real name) is picking us up.  Bev and Duncan, Guy’s college roommate from their Mesa days, are on a Southwest flight right now.  They got a head start on my flight, but we should arrive close to the same time.  If the game gets rained out, though, Annmarie will pick us up instead.  Either way, Guy is in for a big shock.  I look forward to seeing the look on his face when he sees all of us and learns what’s in store for him this weekend.  His birthday isn’t officially until the 28th.
    Tomorrow, we are going on a brewery tour.  We have three stops to make.  Dave, one of Guy’s good neighbors and great friends, and I will be “in charge.”  At the final stop, he will be surprised again with a dinner with more family and more friends.
    On Sunday, we will play golf at...

A Cabin Home Fall Day and My First Training

10-3-15

    I am sitting next to my wife up at the cabin home, but we are not alone this time.  Eric is out on his patio, and I can see him through the window directly behind the stove. The stove has flames flowing like bright orange ribbons in the wind, but these ribbons are flowing vertically.  Amanda is sitting by the stove/fireplace.  We just had a delicious breakfast with sausage, french toast, and sliced apples.  Hey, we’re back at the cabin home again! We wanted to see the fall colors because they were just beginning to turn last weekend, and we were right to come back.  The drive up here was spectacular; fall colors have multiplied greatly in one week.
    Okay, it’s about five hours later now, and I just sat down again after running errands in Durango and having lunch at Chavolo’s with the Edgertons.  I wanted to buy three video adapters/dongles for my Time to Teach trainings, but they only had two at Connecting Point for my MacBook Pro.  When I go to present at various schools, I’ll need every type of adapter ready to go to match whatever my clients will have for their projectors or screens.  I bought the VGA and the DGI today, and now I only need the HDMI; they had none of those in stock today. 
    I also stopped at Home Depot to buy stuff for the cabin home.  I picked up mouse traps (old-fashioned, new-fangled with poison, and large ones with glue), defoggers, hanging sticky tape for flies and moths, brackets to hold shelves in the garage, and some other hanging devices with “grabbers” for rakes, shovels, and bikes.  It took a while, but...

St. Francis Watches Over Our Family

    Okay, on to St. Francis.  I just find it remarkable how often this happened and in such different places and with different members of our family.  It happened again tonight.
    The first time was with Belinda and Danielle.  Belinda and I dropped Danielle off at a little coffee shop.  It had knick-knacks, paintings, jewelry, coffee (of course), refrigerator magnets, clothing items, etc.  While waiting for my coffee and breakfast, I walked over to see what the ladies were looking at and we stopped right in front of St. Francis, a statuette of him.  There were some other religious items, too, but of course I noticed him right away, and I mentioned once again that he is my mother’s favorite saint. 
    The second time I was alone.  I went to church in Santa Fe.  I do not remember the church’s name, so I’ll have to research it later.  Belinda and I were there for my technology training, and Belinda was going to pick up James at the airport in Albuquerque the next day, too.  I googled the church, and I got directions, and it worked out that it was in the evening.  I had just enough time to...