Sunday Golf Altadena

Sometimes I do wonder why I keep coming back to the golf course considering how inconsistent I am. How consistent can I get if I only do this once a week? Am I doomed to just staying at this level? All relevant questions but today somehow, I did manage to find the inner joy of just playing. Because at the end of the day it is just a game. And it is just that. PLAY. PLAY means FUN. It doesn't mean beating myself up for not shooting par when I have never done it before for an entire 9 holes. And then sometimes, I manage to surprise myself. That happens when I let go and relax and not worry about the shot. I reminded myself that it is like basketball when I get into a flow state and get into this rhythm that I need to find. And sometimes it might take an entire 9 holes and I never find it. And then sometimes... Today we were at Altadena where we hadn't played in more than a month. On the first hole I was warming up. Good tee shot. 2nd tee shot in the bunker. On my way to a 6. Sigh. Not a good start. On the 2nd Hole, I yanked my first shot to the left but just about 140 yards from the hole still. It was my second shot that I hit really well and straight and got the ball right in the middle of the green. On in 2. A par was coming I felt. I did it one better. I sank the putt right from there for a BIRDIE! I have never birdied this hole. Hell, I can't remember when I hit a par on this hole last in fact. Something about that second shot though. It felt EFFORTLESS. That's when I got out of my brain and just hit the ball. The 3rd hole my first 2 shots were already 20 yards from the hole right in the front. Should have been an easy pitch and putt. But nope. Missed the green short on the next one, wild next shot. Blew the hole. Inconsistent. The longest hole 4 Scott and I decided to hit from the farthest tee (BLUE). The guys in front of us were clearly dicking around (and as it turned out later weren't really very good) and so it would help us while we waited to hit from farther. Besides, Scott was hitting his tee shots well today. I blasted my first tee shot 200+ yards, and hit a 3 wood after that another 200 yards! I was already within 100 yards after just 2 shots. Obviously the farthest first 2 shots I had ever hit on this hole. It was too bad I shanked the 3rd shot and the one after that. Man I had myself all set up. Same deal on Hole 5. I was within 100 yards after 2 shots. But again shanked the 3rd shot. See a pattern here? I think I was just not focusing yet again. I was  not allowing myself to get in rhythm. Still at the end of the game I noticed i had quite a few good shots and my bad shots were all within 100-110 yards of the hole. Now if that isn't mental I don't know what is. THAT is what I have to practice I guess. Still we were done by 10:45. I was already near my apartment by 11:15. I decided to shop for groceries. And I was still home by noon.

For lunch I decided I wasn't going to pay $20 for Crimson. I decided to buy salmon for $6, chickpea rice for $4 and eat that instead. It worked out just fine. I was plenty full. I should have taken an afternoon nap. After all, I did spend a considerable amount of time watching Bridgerton last night, which cut in on my sleep. But instead, I finished the first season and went on to the second season.  This second season was not compelling as the first. But I applaud the show for having minority co-stars. Indian no less. I don't think that was historically accurate for England in the early 1800s but who cares. Hey, it's Sunday. I didn't feel like doing anything. I just wanted to plant myself on my couch and watch TV all afternoon. By the time I looked up it was already 5 PM. What to eat tonight? Well there's the Beyond patty from last week that I really need to cook and finish. And a little bit of chickpea pasta left. Guess I get to have a faux spaghetti and meatballs dinner. Augmented by tomato basil soup. A fine dinner it was too. I didn't have to do anything anymore since I was already close to 10,000 steps for today and had already cleared 600 workout hours for the week. I could have done some work... but why? It's Sunday. What I did was finish the evening off with some Healy stuff. I did the prostate meridian tonight. And what do you know, there was a very small trickle of blood in my urine right as I started peeing, which was followed by clear urine. So the urethra issue is still around. My intuition says it's just all the healing stuff I'm doing all at once. My body is processing the die-offs in my system. Absolutely nothing to be alarmed about. Like a scab on a wound. Just let my body heal. Perfectly fine with me.