Checking In One Year Later

 Last year I was sitting on this same sofa, watching the same thing (The Masters) on tv under very different conditions.  Earlier that day, I had my ACL replacement surgery and spent the better part of the next 3 - 6 months rehabbing.  Today, I played golf, took a walk and feel thankfully very different than I did a year ago.   I just read this post from the day before my surgery and can say, yes, I am glad I did it, but it wasn't easy. 

April 6, 2022
Not having fun here....

April 6, 2023
So glad I can sit cross-legged again!

 Reading the updates following the surgery I am amazed by myself.  Many of us never stop and give ourselves time or permission to be amazed by the gift of our body's ability to heal.  I am truly thankful.  But honestly, when they told me it sometimes takes a whole year to recover, I was daunted and thought to myself, "a year seems like forever!".  It was, but it also flew by.  I look forward to this being but a distant memory!

One year post surgery and while I still don't (never did) walk very fast, 
I am faster than I was a year ago. 

I played golf today and... well...my current handicap index is 20.0 and it was 17.5 a year ago before I went on the injured reserve list.  Some things take longer to come back than others, I guess.  I am making it my mission to get back below 20.  Even if I "have" to play golf three times a week.  

In other good news, next week we are going to finally take the second part of that trip we had to cancel last year.  Our plan was to go to The Netherlands and tiptoe through the tulips before we walked the Portugues Camino de Santiago.  We did the Camino last October, but there are no tulips in October.  To say I am looking forward to this trip would be an understatement. Bring on the tulips and the canals of Amsterdam!  

And HAPPY EASTER!

These are the kind of photos that set us up for disappointment.
But then again, "maybe not" said the eternal optimist!

Annual Reset

 We are almost one month into 2023...how is it going out there?  Welcome to January (my favorite January post!), or as I am referring to it, "my annual reset button".  I don't necessarily make resolutions but occasionally I will assess the past year and where I am compared to where I was last year, or the year before, or maybe 5 years ago.  But really...comparing to 5 years ago just reminds me how time is marching by!  This year I have decided to make a few promises to myself, with the goal of self-improvement. Ugh!  Self-improvement....so much work!

January 2022
My "sweet rides"
before they were retired.

January 2021
 Avoiding humanity and Covid and cuddling with newborn Augie!

5 years ago...I won't be doing this anymore...

It was good while it lasted!  
Obviously, January is a month for skiing!

My first promise or pie-in-the-sky wish is to get healthier.  A general goal which means eating healthier...or just less, drinking less, moving more and ultimately looking and feeling better.  Not that I feel bad now but I ain't gettin' any younger...dammit.  I need to keep the tires aired up, the engine tuned and take care of the interior and exterior, so I can outlive my warranty.  

My other goal, which will probably be easier to accomplish, is to improve my golf game.  My beloved golf game was cast aside and left on a ski slope to wither back in February.  Life kind of got in the way of my golf game and it was seriously neglected in exchange for rehab, recovery, and travel.  It became an afterthought instead of a priority.  Poor golf game.  Now that I have the time and the knees to golf again, I want to get back to where I was or even improve.  A girl can hope!

Hoping to make this drive several times a week!

It is almost the end of January, and I am happy to report that things are going well on all fronts. After a month or six of overindulgence in all things food and drink, I have cut back from my "no rules" consumption habits to some reasonable consumption practices.   I was not ready to commit to dry January, so I am doing "damp" January (which I occasionally refer to as "grumpy humorless January").  But "damp" instead of "dry" has a better chance of becoming a practice that will be sustainable into the rest of the year.  According to Atomic Habits (yes, I am also trying to improve my reading material), if I do 1% better every day or week, I will ultimately reach my potential.  Stay tuned.  

Improving my golf game is a much more fun (most days) endeavor!  Spending 4 hours outside hitting a little white ball into a small hole, in the company of friends, is so much more fun than eating my vegetables and drinking water!  I have already begun to see improvement...but it was not going to be hard to play better than I did last year!  Low bar to hurdle there.  I must say that I also enjoy playing in moderate to cool conditions a lot more than hot and humid ones, which makes January a great time to work on my game.  This is a promise I should be able to keep for longer than a month! Just think, if I do 1% better every week where I could be.  The math geeks out there are welcome to do the calculations on this one for me and let me know when I can expect to shoot in the 80's!  I'll wait.

In other news, I am trying to figure out ways to perk up the blog, or maybe ways to wake up my writing.  I realize just by writing this, that I really do enjoy writing and should do more of it just to exercise different parts of my brain.  As with golf...and maybe healthy living, writing takes practice.  I do have a few ideas but not quite the total vision yet.  I guess now I have a project to work on when I am not golfing or deciding what healthy options I should make for dinner!  Feel free to share recipes, blog topics or ways to make a 10-foot putt!

Happy 2023!

 

What is it About the Garage?

I follow a few other blogs.  Just a few... compared to the number some people out there read on a regular basis.  Maybe this explains why my blog is not on thousands of people's everyday reading list, that and the fact I don't blog every day. The blogs I do read, I read for pure entertainment plus they have a writing style to which I aspire.  I really miss my weekly brain candy when one of my bloggers goes more than a week between posts.  The nerve of them....how can they go and live their lives and not keep me in the loop with a witty or relevant blog post?

Today I noticed that my last post was ten days ago a long time ago and I thought to myself, "If I'm lucky there are people out there wondering if I fell down a rabbit hole or something.".  I know...it is very presumptuous of me!  No worries, I am here, living my life and not blogging.  It happens....so I guess I'll forgive my favorite bloggers for doing the same.  Sometimes life is just more important than the blog.  No! Life is always more important than the blog.

Having a happy Easter with these people
and not blogging.....

So... what have I been up to instead of blogging?  Well....there are a lot of spring golf tournaments and I just don't know how to say "no".  There are the dance lessons TJ and I are taking.  Plus, we have been doing some spring cleaning or as I'd like to refer to it, "cleaning this pit before friends and relatives arrive and see how we really live"... oh, and did I mention the wedding is in less than 2 weeks?  Really, I am not doing that much for the wedding compared to the bride who has done most of the work.  Far be it from me to butt in and take over her finely tuned wedding planning mojo.  I do find myself having panic dreams where I show up to the church and I don't recognize any of the people there or The Dress falls apart or no one shows up or fifty more than we planned for show up.  I'm sure these will become more and more frequent over the next few days.  I am just hoping that soon we will be able to relax, enjoy the moment and trust that all of the people we are paying will do their jobs and everything will go according to plan or as close to the plan as possible.


Let's talk about cleaning for a minute.  In my book, cleaning means mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming, maybe clean the dog nose prints off the windows, cleaning the cobwebs from the corners and putting away all the piles of crap that we have sitting around the house.  To my husband, cleaning means cleaning the garage.  What is it about men and the garage?  Every time we have a party or event at the house he feels compelled to clean the garage.  Why?  We don't ever eat dinner or serve cocktails there.  No one ever sleeps in the garage.  No one goes to the bathroom in the garage...I hope!  We don't even have a ping pong or beer pong table that people play in the garage.  But, without fail, he thinks we  (he and the mouse in his pocket?) need to clean the garage.  This time, since the event is bigger than a little Saturday night barbecue, he has gone way beyond the garage.  "We" are having the outside of the house painted.  The house is getting a total overhaul.  The bonus to me is that the painters are cleaning the outside of the windows after the painting is finished.  A job I was planning to not have enough time to do!  So, for three days the outside of our house has been chaos.  Once the job started and got underway we found out just how badly the house needed painting.  The timing may be a bit off but in the end, she looks very nice with a shiny new coat of paint not to mention clean windows.  On to the garage!

NOT!!!!!

Chaos comes before order.

We finally did it!  We have both always wanted to take dance lessons and with the upcoming wedding we decided to just do it!  After three lessons, I can say in all seriousness, we will never be ready for prime time by the wedding.  We may eventually be able to dance together without fumbling awkwardly through the steps...we hope.

Dancing with the Stars...here we come!

There is a very good chance the blog will be idle until after the wedding.  I'll be busy holding in my stomach trying to fit into my mother of the bride dress, enjoying all of our family and friends and dancing up a storm.  I promise plenty of pictures and hopefully no horror stories.

How to be a True "Scotia Woman"

My sisters and I have an ongoing conversation about "Scotia Woman".  We have spent many summers in Nova Scotia and since we were raised in the South there have been many qualities we have observed over the years as Scotia Woman characteristics.  These characteristics are uniquely different from the typical Southern Belle (even though we really aren't typical Southern Belles) lifestyle and so they stood out to us over the years. After our many summers here, we have adopted some of the behaviors and can only hope that some day we too can be true Scotia Women!  You may be a Scotia Woman yourself or know a Scotia Woman or even have Scotia Woman days, it's all  good!  Just in case you ever aspire to Scotia Womanhood, here are a few defining characteristics.

-Scotia Women don't wear make-up on a daily basis.  Who has the time and anyway, who needs it?  Sunscreen and bug spray however are applied frequently.

-Scotia Women have no problem with the weather.  Rain, wind, sun, it's all the same, don't let it keep you inside!




It's a lovely day for strawberry picking!



Scotia Woman trainee picking berries!

    
-Scotia Women always have the right clothing for the conditions.

Almost perfect attire for rainy day berry picking, or just taking a long walk.

There are a couple vital items that are missing from this photo.....

-Scotia Women own at least one pair of rubber boots and the classic yellow slicker!

or a whole family of rubber boots!

For day or night wear!

Some Scotia women have been known to get up in the wee hours of the morning, throw on their boots and slicker in the middle of a blowing rain storm and go down to the beach to check on all the boats on the shore to make sure they have not floated off to sea.

-Scotia Women are very aware of the weather conditions and are always willing to help a neighbor in need.

-Scotia Women hang their clothes on a clothesline to dry.  That's what sunny days are for! Clothes pegging is a dying art!

-Scotia Women like to be outdoors, for chores and recreation.

work and play





Perfect day for a Scotia Woman swim!

-Scotia Women are the do it yourself types.  Whether it be organic gardening, canning, or baking bread!  It all tastes so much better!
They can turn this-

Hand picked at the U-Pick

                                                                   Into this:

Delicious strawberry jam!

-Scotia Women are also crafty.....some are hookers (of the rug hooking variety), some paint, some quilt or knit.  I think this is due to the fact that winters are very long up here and the need to entertain yourself is high.  Maybe they are just more talented and creative than most.

-Scotia Women are not wimps!  I repeat, Scotia Women are not wimps!

-A Scotia Woman golfer is willing to play in the best and worst conditions at almost any time of day. 

I've crossed over!  Dew kicking golf.....check!

My sisters and I, along with our daughters (some who have been prominently featured in this post) have spent years trying to achieve true Scotia Womanhood.  It is not something easily achieved by girls raised in the South aka GRITS.  We like to dress in lightweight colorful clothes and wear makeup.  We are used to living in the air conditioning and we buy our jam at the store.  If we wear rubber boots they usually have Burberry plaid or some other equally trendy pattern on them.  We are not used to braving the elements on a daily basis, the most challenging elements we face are heat and humidity and their hair frizzing ability.  We only play golf when the weather is nice because you know if it isn't nice today it will be soon  and that goes for all 12 months of the year.  And if we hung our clothes out to dry they would end up stiff as a board and have a nice exfoliating quality when we wore them.

Spending 3 months living in a rural farmhouse has it's way of turning this southern girl into a Scotia Woman.  Well, at least for the summer!  Cheers to all the real Scotia Women!

In the Swing of Things

A nice way to spend a lovely Friday afternoon

This is a statement I would never have uttered until this year.  Up to this point in my life golf was something I neither had time, energy, talent, equipment or patience for.  This fall we joined the golf club in our neighborhood, a first in our married life...belonging to a golf club.  I figured I would use the athletic facilities, ie the yoga classes, and TJ would golf and therefore be otherwise occupied on the weekends.  Good plan.  But as they say....the best laid plans of mice and men...

Last fall, on a few particularly lovely afternoons, I agreed to golf with TJ.  We shared his clubs and to my surprise, I did not suck.  (yeah, I hate that word too but it seems to fit here) Must be my new bionic left forearm that has changed my game.  The other advantage of playing golf on a Friday afternoon is that after golf we get to go to the clubhouse and eat dinner, because "honey, I'm just too tired to cook tonight."  Hey, I am starting to like golf  more now. 

My relationship with golf has several facets.  First, it was what my Dad did every weekend he could when we were kids.  That is just what Dads did, we were kids, we didn't care.  Then when I got married and had kids of my own, it was something my husband wanted to do and I hated it because it meant he was gone for 6 hours and I was stuck with the kids to fend for myself for yet another day in the week.  I resented golf, that frivolous hobby that took my husband away on the weekend.  Occasionally I would be invited to participate in a game of golf back then, usually in Nova Scotia ..for the games.  No pressure....you golf once a year, we really need your score.  Sure, I will find an unsuspecting teenager to watch my kids for what will seem like an eternity while I go and curse my way around 18 holes of golf for what definitely seemed like an eternity. All the while wishing I were back at the beach sitting in a chair watching my  kids play, or cleaning a bathroom or getting a root canal!  Needless to say, golf did not win my heart back then. 

As life would have it, I now find myself with the time to play golf and a place to play.  I have no kids at home who need a babysitter.  No weekend softball games to dutifully watch anymore.  The bathrooms don't get that dirty these days. The weather has moderated for a while so I can't even complain about it being too hot to play.  And, as of Christmas I even have....

My very own golf clubs!

Means, motive, opportunity and....weapon.  I now have everything needed to commit the crime of golf.  I even find myself enjoying the game.  Shocking!  I really can't decide if this is a good thing or a sad thing in my life.  It is a bit distressing that I am now at a point in my life where I have all this leisure time to fill.  A sad state of affairs or a real blessing?  I still feel a bit guilty out there and think I really should be doing something productive.  I guess I'll get over it!

A friend told me about a t-shirt she saw that explains it pretty well.  The shirt says, "I hate golf, I hate golf, I hate golf, Nice Shot!, I love golf."  Pretty much sums it all up!  Mine might say something like, "C#*p, nice shot, S*#t, oh, nice shot...."  inconsistent is my game. 


where did it go?

right in the middle of the fairway....not bad, maybe I do like this game