Major Mike’s Musings

Mrs. Major continues to improve. She’s getting around, now, with the aid of a cane instead of her walker. She went to play cards at a friend’s house last night, went swimming this morning, and went out to lunch with “the girls” today. I can still outrun her, though.

She’s doing really well. When I got home from the U.S. Open, I noticed right away…she was able to stand up long enough to give me a big welcome home kiss and hug. Now that’s improvement.

As you can see, the tapes have all fallen off the incisions and they are healing nicely.

Mrs. Major is now walking down the street seven houses in the evening instead of the two she was doing when I left. She’s also walking around the house with a cane sometimes instead of the walker. Also, she leaves the walker behind when she can steady herself on a counter or wall. (more…)

I’m finally recovered from the trip. After watching the playoff and sudden death playoff, we took the redeye (10 pm takeoff from San Diego) to Philly then to Tampa then drove home. I got home around 2pm Tuesday. Too tired to do anything but veg until bed time. (more…)

Hooray! Tiger Woods birdied the 18th hole to tie Rocco Mediate at one under for the U.S. Open. Tomorrow at 9am we’ll be in the stands at hole one for the start of the 18 hole playoff.

Bonnie asked , “Why no cameras [at the U.S. Open during the competitive rounds].”

Good question, Bonnie. If you’ve ever watched the British Open, where they allow cameras and cell phones, you’ll often see golfers back off of shots and glare at the crowd. That’s because somebody was “clicking” their photo as the golfer was about to make his shot, interrupting his concentration. They have enough trouble trying to get some fans to be quiet during the shots, much less trying to get the “cool action photo”.

On practice days, they’re not trying to win a tournament, so they allow the clicking. They also allow fans to get autographs between holes. Practice days are very relaxed. Competition days are very intense. 

Thursday Son Major and I manned the thru board for hole 11.¹ We worked from 6:45 to 12:15. We got to see the entire morning round play the hole. 11 is a par three so we were able to see the tee and the green play. We developed a system that took the least amount of time so we got in the max amount of watching. The rest of the early afternoon we planted ourselves at the green on hole six, a 515 yard par 4. We wanted to see some long shots into the green. 

Yesterday, we slept in², had breakfast and headed out to the course. After watching a few shots on the way, we found seats in the bleachers on hole 3, another par 3 and watched almost the entire afternoon round from there. 3 is a tough downhill par three, 195 yards into the wind. The green is severely sloped and not too deep. We only saw two birdies while we were there and saw two double bogies and a triple. Great day. (more…)

1. The thru board posts the scores for the group that’s currently playing the hole through the previous hole [↩]
2. until 8 [↩]

 

Yesterday we went to see Old Dad and Pretty Betty. It’s about a two hour drive north of San Diego so we rented a car and headed out. We got to spend the whole day with them and Old Dad sprung for lunch.¹ Pretty Betty had a cable that worked with my camera, so I downloaded a bunch of pix and put them up on majormike.com. See them here. The photo to the left is Mike Weir.

On the way home, we stopped at Marie Calendar’s in Carlsbad for dinner and to catch the end of  game three of the NBA finals. The bartender, Paulina, had a tattoo of a Salvador Dalì artwork on her forearm identical to the one on Son Major’s forearm. They insisted I photo their forearms. Unfortunately, I left the camera on the table when we left. Fortunately, Paulina knew whose it was and gave it to the manager, Christine, who gave it to me when I drove back to Carlsbad this morning. Thank you Paulina and Christine. (more…)

1. Is anyone surprised? [↩]

I forgot to bring the USB cable for the camera, so I can’t download the photos until I get home. I still have room for 1300 more on the 2GB card in the camera, so you’ll have lots to see then.

Today was loads of fun. We walked the entire course—not in hole order, saw gobs of pros—but not Tiger or Phil¹, watched lots of shots, bought some U.S. Open goodies, and generally got sunburned from the long hazy day.

From our hotel, we walk to the trolley station, take the trolley to Qualcomm Stadium, take the shuttle to the golf course. It takes about an hour total, but is very relaxing…we don’t have to drive.

We’re looking forward to our trip to Seal Beach to see Old Dad and Pretty Betty. We’ll spend the whole day and part of the evening. 

Tonight, we’re beat and are heading for the rack right now.

1. We did see Vijay, K.J., Trevor, Michael Campbell, Bubba, Zach, to name a few [↩]

Saturday, I worked all day at the Villages Woodworkers Club Woodshop which gave Mrs. Major a chance to see how she would fare while I was out of town at the U.S. Open. She passed with flying colors. She can completely take care of herself.

She’s enlisted the help of friends and neighbors while we are gone. One is moving the newspaper from the driveway to the front door, another is coming to sit in the house while Mrs. Major takes her shower, others are bringing dinner each night, still another is accompanying her on her nightly walk down the street.

In a surprise move this morning, Apria Healthcare, Inc., called to say they’d be by this afternoon to pick up the CPM. We both cheered. Cleveland just left with the dreaded machine. Now Mrs. Major is almost independent.

Bonnie asked what is Mrs. Major going to do while Son Major and I go to the U.S. Open. She can pretty much take care of herself, but we’ve got neighbors and friends lined up to do things like move the newspaper from the driveway to the front door each morning, hang around while Mrs. Major takes a shower, bring meals, and be on call in case she needs someone.

We live in a pretty incredible community. We had several neighbors volunteer to help. Charlene also has some women who play cards together and exercise at the pool together who are all over this. In fact, I think they’re kind of glad to see me go so they can spend more time with Mrs. Major. (more…)