News from SeniorLand

I am remiss in blogging. Despite 2 manuals and a mentor I remain a slow learner with the new camera. Few photos, fewer words. To compound matters, I got the Photoshop CS5 upgrade--again 2 manuals weighing more than a large sack of potatoes and me with a learning curve that is a straight line--no curve. So the few photos that are even worth posting I manage to botch up in the "digital darkroom"--which is cool talk for messing up your photos on your computer rather than just taking a bad picture to start with. However, I got a very cool photographer's vest for Christmas so I look much more competent than I actually am.

There has been another factor--I lost my sense of humor. That's never really happened before. Not losing it just for a day or two--it's been lost for months. Only those who have gone through a lengthy period of dealing with a much-loved mother as she has slipped into a different personality know the pain of the loss. After a year of declining mental abilities and increasing risk to herself, we had to force her into an Assisted Living facility. Of course she didn't want to go--who would? But after she took a nasty fall on a curb and hit her head on a bus bench we knew the living alone jig was up. Until you've been publicly interrogated in a bank lobby by firemen who ask you if you're the one who hit your mother and cut her forehead, asked if you've lost your temper and physically abused her and then hear them asking her the same questions, I'm not sure you really know embarrassment.

In any event, it seems the drama has decreased and adjustments are made all around and perhaps the sense of humor will return. In fact, I know it has. How can one not laugh when in ONE WEEK I met a golf coach named Sparrow and an antique dealer named Winterhawk??? Oh yes, I am still in California! Sparrow seems very nice and actually had some  useful hints about hitting the golf ball. I'm envious of his ponytail but then, I was the one who chose to cut my hair.

The golf course is holding my interest more these days. We are thinking of going on a golf outting with some other residents here in SeniorLand and I've got to do better. I've added a hybrid club to my bag--I now have a driver(still forbidden by the doc but he is such a killjoy), an 8 iron, 9 iron, putter and now the hybrid. I'm not sure what the hybrid is but the ball goes further with it than with the 8 iron. I've also learned the hybrid is not for using on any kind of hill or rough or too close to the green. I've played with just the 8 iron for a year now and I'm ready to branch out. With Johnny the Grip, Coach Sparrow, and watching the golf channel I ought to be improving soon. I mean--if Rush can improve I'm sure I can catch on to this game. But then I remember the new camera and software--uh, maybe not.

The 19th Hole