Snapshots

Just turned 29.  Last year before three-oh!

For most of us there are always 2 times in a year when we reflect on how the past year has been.  There’s new year’s eve when we go, “wow, a whole year has gone by”, and then there’s the birthday when we think the same thing.

I haven’t actually felt like I was 28.  I think I was too busy and tired to feel like anything.  I just sort of remember being 27, and then now here I am.  Never imagined I would be a dad before turning 28.

Work has been quite busy.  Not yet too stressful, but now it seems like there is an endless amount work to do.  Still haven’t needed to do overtime to finish before deadlines, but it’s getting closer to that point.

Went out for golf a total of 3 times so far this year.  Just changed my golf grip (like, the way I hold the clubs) from interlocking to just plain old standard non-overlapping (almost like a baseball grip), and saw major improvements.  I had to change because the way I was holding the clubs was really hurting my fingers (especially when I shank the ball or hit the on the ground).  The interlocking grip was the grip that was taught to me back in high school, and I always felt it was more natural.  But now using a standard grip seems just as natural.  After doing some practices, my hands and fingers no longer hurt, and saw major improvements in my driver.  Like, so major that the first few times I hit the driver with it, I had to stand back and watch my own shot in amazement.  I had never seen such nice shots coming out of my drives.  Of course there are still bad shots, but they are day and night compared to how I was hitting them before.  The distance can still use improvements, but now I can actually use the driver on a course and have a decent chance of it being on the fairway.

There’s always something new happening to Benny every week.  It’s pretty cool to see all the changes.  Still not used to his crying though, even though I’ve heard it for almost a year now.  His birthday party is coming up.

Hm, I really have to blog more often.  I realized that the main obstacle to my blogging is actually the formatting for that picture per blog post.  Without it I would be able to do it faster, and have shorter posts…

After the last post, I realized that I did not have much longer to train for the sun run, and if I did not take my lunch time to run, I would not have time to train.  So for nearly 2 months, I pushed myself to run 3 times during the weekdays, and 1 more time on weekends.  In many of those times my mind was willing, but my body was not.  I really had to push myself.  Despite rainy on most days, the hours around lunch time was surprising “unrainy”.  I found that many times it would rain in the early morning, then stop, and then continue to rain in the late afternoon.  Because of this, I was able to run 3 or 4 times a week.  I did notice my pace getting better.  And for those times I went to the gym to run on the treadmill, I noticed that I was able to run faster than I did last year also.

On May 9th, I was as prepared as I could be.  There were some factors benefiting my run, but there were also some hindering factors.  The weather was awesome – warm and sunny.  I did not have any stomach cramps during the run, which happens about 15% of the time.  I did not have to dodge too many slow runners / walkers because I am placed in the yellow – slightly faster – group compared to years past.  I wasn’t too tired as I slept around 13 hours two nights prior.  However, I was sort of sick (sore throat and runny nose), and only got around 6 hours of sleep the night before.  My right hip also wasn’t feeling the greatest as I pulled a muscle or something during a training run.  So all in all, it was an OK run.  It could’ve been worse, and it could’ve been better.

Anyway, my goal was to beat 50 minutes.  It wasn’t easy, but I did it.  It was a decent improvement over last year’s time.  I don’t have a goal for next year yet.

Because our company got amalgamated into the mothership, we doubled our corporate team from the typical 20+ people to 39 total for this year (basically Richmond office + Burnaby office).  This also meant that for our high tech division, we were placed #13 out of 65!  Not bad.  Our previous record was #28.

Remember that 7 iron that I lost on the golf course after the final golf lesson?  On Tuesday I went to the course for a sunset round and I made one last attempt to see if it’s returned, and it was!  The pro shop guy went into the back room and came out with my 7 iron!  Now my set is complete again!

And on the driving range, I made a breakthrough: after months of being on the driving range, and about 1 month of actually practising with the driver, I think I finally got the hang of it.  The bottleneck to my distance and accuracy turned out to be my grip (too tight) and my arms (too tense).  During a pitch and putt round at Central Park on Monday, I realized that by loosening up even more than I used to be, I could hit just as far, if not farther.  A light bulb turned on in my head, and I decided to try to not try so hard.  Loosen the grip as much as possible without actually letting the club fly out, and swing as if the muscles on my arms were not being used.

So on Tuesday, I tried it on my driver the way it worked for the irons…  Wow.  The ball ended up travelling in a way that I could only dream of before.  It was incredible.  My fingers weren’t being busted, and I barely felt soreness anywhere.  No, they weren’t all straight, and the slice was still there, but most of them could be classified as a fade rather than a slice.  They went much, much farther than it used to.  Now I actually lose track of the ball because it gets so small.  Granted, my eyesight isn’t the best, but this is compared to how I was always able to see it land before, and now a lot of times I can’t.  It’s a very gratifying feeling.

It was so unbelievable to me that I thought the fences at Riverway was closer than at Richmond driving range.  So I went to the Richmond driving range on Wednesday and confirmed that Tuesday wasn’t a 1-day fluke.  I can now use my drives on a real course!  That means when I pull out the driver, it isn’t an automatic lost ball (or a land roller…).

I’m not still not that consistent, of course, but now I know what to work on!  Finally, the driver is now a friend.

In the blink of an eye, another month has passed.  I guess I just have to blink one more time and I’ll be a dad!

Anyway, I still suck as a golfer.  I think I am making some progress, but if I really am, then it’s really slow progress.  My fingers have been bandaged for days at a time, and continuously.  Different fingers get blisters depending on how I grip the club, which has been varying as I try out new things.  I still hit the ball poorly from time to time, and strike the mat, both help form the blisters in my hand.

The golf lessons ended a few weeks ago.  During the last lesson, I lost my 7 iron on the golf course, somehow.  I still don’t have it.  I might just have to live with(out) it.  I bought 2 wedges on craigslist at less than half the price I would get from Golf Town.  So my collection is nearly complete.  I just need to get a couple of hybrids, and overlook the fact that I don’t have my 7.  Not like it matters that much, since I still suck.  When I suck less, I will buy a new set, from craigslist, again.  After factoring the taxes, buying great-condition used clubs from craigslist is like buying clubs at 40% of the price.  It’s just too good to pass up.

Got my driver’s license renewed just yesterday.  It still says my height and weight as the same as when I was 16 years old.  The lady didn’t bother to ask me.  I guess it’s close enough.  It would be great to update it though.

I slept a lot last night.  I think I slept a total of 10 or 11 hours, and then took a 3.5 hour nap.  I guess that might be an unconscious stalling to read the book, The Birth Partner.  Yup, only 1 month to go and I still haven’t read the book(s) that I am supposed to read.  And now I’m blogging, which might be another attempt to put it off.

During my 3.5 hour nap, I had a pretty vivid dream (which is often the case for afternoon naps, I find) about being on a surprise Disney cruise.  I was again wondering what I was going to tell my parents, and wondering to myself how come I got on the ship again.  It left from Vancouver, and was heading to Victoria.  I think that was when I realized it was a dream.

Work has been fairly busy for me.  I’ve been working on this feature for 3 weeks now, and I’m still not done.  The bugs from other features have been coming in, and have been put off until I finish this feature.  It’s going to get busier and busier.  Well, at least I’m not really stuck on anything — just lots of work, that’s all.

There’s going to be lots of work at home, too.  Dissembling a table in order to fit the crib, which we have to assemble.  OMG, the book is 300 pages.  I better get cracking.