Golf Sunday

So today's golf round is at Roosevelt and both Scott and Greg joined me this morning. Another Sunday, a little cloudy first thing but I was 100% sure the outer layer I wore coming to the golf course would be off before we even tee off. Another Sunday and another chance to work on my mental game. To work on my mental vibration. To work on getting myself relaxed and not get speeded up. No better an example than my talk on Friday that was yet another example of how I let an external stimulus speed me up and therefore perform below my best. I reminded myself that it is a swing by swing kind of thing but to also be able to compartmentalize to the context. In other words, yes I may hit one bad shot. But I can and should still get it in the hole in 4, which is a very VERY good outcome. I noticed that I drove in feeling a little tired today, no doubt a product of not having good sleep. Something I did to myself staying up to basically let my own mind roam instead of focusing on slowing it down. So on to the game. Right off the bat on the first hole on my first shot I get a test. I usually have great shots off this first tee. Not today. I topped the ball and it went about 70 yards. Great start smh. However, my second shot with a 4-iron got up near the green! A terrific shot. My 3rd shot chip got within 20 feet of the hole, and I made the putt for a par! YES! See? Context. A par on the first hole. I had a great shot off the tee on the 2nd. But the reverse happened. I whiffed the 2nd shot. And I did not slow myself down enough so that I had to take 2 more shots just to get to the green. Sigh. A 7. And then on the short hole following that, although my tee shot cleared the trees, I overshot the hole and ended up with a 5 because I missed an easy putt. Sigh. Now on Hole 4, that was my BEST HOLE OF THE DAY. A beautiful drive and another 4-iron got me to the green in TWO! I missed the birdie putt, but made par. I was doing great! 2 pars on the first 4 holes! What I did was psych myself out from there. I said things like: "I can go home now, I made 2 pars already!". And my conscious self followed suit. I never could find any more consistency. I would have a great shot on all remaining holes but would follow it up with a terrible shot. My consistency left me. My relaxed state left me.  I could never put together a string of shots like I did Hole 4. Or even Hole 1. There was always one crucial shot that could have led to a good score but I missed on. On Hole 5, it was the fairway approach to the green which was not that far. I could have and should have made the green. I didn't. Same on Hole 6. I was already on the fairway, but missed the 3rd shot. On Hole 7, I got a 4 because I missed the par putt from a long ways away. On Hole 8 I had a beautiful drive but shanked the 2nd shot to the rough. On the last hole I teed up hole level to the rough. But missed the chip way hard and past the hole. Oh well at least I did have those 2 pars...

Usually when I go to Roosevelt I would stop at IN-N-Out for lunch on the way home. Not today. I decided to take the freeway and got home before 11:30! I stopped at Crimson instead for the usual salmon kabob and rice and lentil soup. And then finally caught up on sleep with a nap that lasted an hour. Hey I had done my exercise for the day, spent time outside. I actually planned on working on my taxes today. it is the 15th of April next week you know. Instead I finally got to watch one of the movies I downloaded last week. Chaos Walking with Daisy Ridley (Star Wars) and Tom Holland (Spiderman). A curious take on the battle between the sexes. A settlement on a distant planet where a village has only men, and dealing with an anomaly where they could hear each other's thoughts. No women in the village. The men killed them because the anomaly didn't affect the women. They couldn't hear the women's thoughts. It would take a strange holy man who had inner demons about not being able to tell the difference between the voice of God to fuel the movement to get rid of the women. Isn't that how cults start? Like the Trump cult that pushed people to attack the US Capitol. And then prayed inside that they were doing this in Jesus' name. Misguided people. The protagonist helps the one woman who lands from a crashed spaceship. Because there is always an inner stirring when you get past your own demons and clear them. They're not demons. Just bad programming. Hmmm. Very appropriate with what I'm trying to do isn't it? I never did get to my taxes tonight. Instead I took a peek at my organization's KNOWBE4 scores, got disappointed, and prepped a presentation for tomorrow. Sigh. Yes. I worked. And stayed up until way past midnight in the process. But at least it should be a chill week. Shouldn't it?