5 Golf Goals, Progress.

Goal 1: Get 5 lessons this year from someone who knows what they are talking about
Progress: I have taken 2 lessons out of my 5, and they have been amazing. My game has turned around a lot, and I know it has more to do with the lessons than the frequency, I am playing with a purpose, and he has been tremendously helpful. Next lesson is short game only, so that will be good.

Goal 2: I don't want to shoot 100 ever again. Starting 4/1/09. Ever.
Progress: I shot a 100 or 101 at Braintree in April, but nothing has been close since. I should add that I played exceptionally bad on the front in Braintree, and exceptionally well on the back. Doing okay with this goal - I think 100 is a distant memory.

Goal 3: Figure out some consistency with my 3 wood, 5 wood and hybrid off of the tee by the 4th of July.
Progress: I have been hitting my 3, 5 and hybrid off the fairways pretty well, I haven't given them too much time off of the tee so far, so I am not sure. But I do feel like this problem will be solved by 7/4.

Goal 4: As an immediate "Summer of '09 Goal", I realistically want to hold myself to no more than 2 holes of 3-putt in a round.
Progress: I haven't been keeping track, but 2-3 3-putts is I think roughly where I am ending up. I will start keeping track and recording.

Goal 5: Work on my short game as much as anything else, while at the range or practicing.
Progress: I have been working on this, and I am much better around the greens - I tend to avoid going back and forth across a green now. I will work on this a lot more, I think I need to quantify it. I can start by keeping track of my scores from 100 yards in - how many strokes it took me to score, and figuring out how to improve that.

Golf.

Training, Cont'd.

I have started to link my MapMyRun routes with twitter, so here on the blog you'll be able to follow my runs, I likely won't be blogging about each run individually.

I went for a run yesterday after my chiropractor appointment, which started at about 9:08 am or so, and I finished the run between 9:33-9:35 - so the run was somewhere between 25 and 27 minutes. I am pretty happy with that kind of run, and it was 3 miles. AND it was so hot.

It was great to change up the route a bit.

On the golf front, got my new handicap from GHIN and I am now at 15.0, down from 17.4 two weeks ago. In my original golf goals email I think, and I can easily check, but I think i wanted to be at 15 by the end of the summer. Oops.

I have some work to do to keep it there.

Turbines.

I believe everything I see on TV. I caught a quick glimpse of a guy on TV today that said that if you took a 100 mile square patch of the Mojave desert and put Solar Panels there, it'd be enough energy for the whole country. I am assuming that the cost associated with that is what is prohibiting us from going that route - I also assume the cost associated with doing that is miniscule compared to the financial holes we continue to dig for ourselves by burning coal at every turn.

Beyond that, I cannot see the aesthetic argument against wind turbines. I actually find them fascinating to look at, and think they are amazing. Now, I have heard of some that shake the ground so much that people demand they be taken down, and I find that understandable, but if you are worried its going to ruin the skyline, I need a better argument than that to be swayed.

Music.

I don't listen to new music anymore. I hardly listen to music at all. And it isn't purely new bands that I don't like, its new music by the artists I used to love. I didn't buy Oasis' previous album, yet a handful of years ago I traveled to Ireland to see them. I didn't buy Juliana Hatfield's latest but she is one I consider a favorite, and I would see her live.

Oh, and seeing bands live? I can't even think of 3 I'd go see, even if you offered me a free ticket with free parking. Juliana Hatfield and Fountains of Wayne, I guess?

Lily Allen's music is cool, I like when she releases new stuff. I like Gwen Stefani's solo stuff, but I don't care at all when a new album comes out or anything.

What happened to me? I was daydreaming yesterday about how excited I'd be if Blur released a new album that sounded like Blur in 1997 - then I realized that's the last thing a band would want, and then I convinced myself I don't even want that.

When I was younger, I thought there was an endless black hole of available space for love of new music, but I think my music-bag is actually full and I can't find a way to let anything else in. If I ever have a month (or series of months) like I did when OK Computer came out, I'll be sure to alert the blogosphere.