Virginia Breeze

And he has stress fractures too. But he tore his ACL last year after the British Open. So he has been playing on a torn ligament for almost a year! Here’s what his father, Earl, had to say this past weekend in a commercial for Nike about his son:

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’ And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

Earl, of course, died some time ago but his words are still around. And now we are starting to see exactly what he meant when he said those words.

Tiger did have surgery for cartilage damage.

“He did not play overseas late last year for the first time since 2003, hopeful that rest could allow him to play more this year. But the pain intensified through the Masters, where he finished second, and Woods said the cartilage damage developed from the ACL injury.”

–Yahoo Sports

So his damaged ACL brought about some cartilage damage and he had that fixed. But the damaged ACL was not repaired. Why? Maybe because it would have required him to stop playing golf this year. He would have missed the US OPEN.

This year’s US OPEN is special for Tiger. He grew up in the area. He has won a lot of tournaments at Torrey Pines.

“Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I’m thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament,” Woods said.

So he walked around on a torn ligament for almost a year so he could play in THIS tournament. It’s not going to get better by itself. He knew he would have to have surgery but he postponed it so he could play this past weekend. And then he found out he had stress fractures too! The doctors told him not to do it according to his coach Hank Haney.

“Tiger looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m playing in the U.S. Open, and I’m going to win.’ And then he started putting on his shoes,” Haney said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Come on, Hank. We’ll just putt today.”

Tiger made his knee worse by postponing his ACL surgery. He dealt with the pain in order to play in the US OPEN.

The question is did he INCREASE the risk to his golfing career by doing things the way he did them. I guess it just depends on how much his knee can take before it becomes dysfunctional.

I doubt that anybody knows the answer to that question. But it’s clear that Tiger is not being too cautious about his situation.

Apparently life is a lot like the thirteen hole on the final round of the US OPEN to this great champion. He should have laid up but he went with the wood even after his adversary found the tall grass. He was hurt by that decision. He had to go to a playoff.

And then he won. He moved off the thirteen majors and all the unlucky inferences you can draw from that number.

He doesn’t believe in luck. He believes in Tiger Woods.

He believed that he was going to win the US OPEN.

And he did. Along with six or seven other tournaments. Now he can rest and do his rehab. So he can come back next year and win some more tournaments.

Don’t be surprised if you see some of the PGA pros on the tour with this guy taking up bowling next year. It must be incredibly demoralizing to wake up today and realize that you haven’t won any tournaments while Tiger has been winning a bunch with a torn ligament and other damage to his knee and leg.

I’d say, ‘Tiger, I promise you,’” Earl says as we look upon his son’s unmistakably steely gaze, “‘that you’ll never meet another person as mentally tough as you in your entire life.’

And he hasn’t. And he never will.”

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Good morning to you and a good morning it is except that Beth is outside raking the leaves from the infernal tree that has a backward internal clock and drops them all summer long.

Her presence in the front yard means that I have only a few moments before I must go out in the heat and start up the lawn mower.

But I am imbued with strength this morning after the nice comments that have found their way here. I am generally not worthy of these but feel it necessary to try and understand them. Wait. I hear a lawnmower. Never mind. It’s two doors down. That could have been real trouble.

A gentleman by the name of Robert R. Marsh who has developed the really cool similar posts plugin you see around here and many other places has been helping me with something this week. Go look at the photos over at Photolinklove.com and see if you see any difference!

These photo shadows have always put a twinkle in my eye since I saw them in Michael Brown’s blog. They are just so cool and Robert just figured out how to do it and put them here! You can’t just get these anywhere as far as I know. Sadish uses them in some of his themes. But hopefully now they will be available if Robert decides to make it so. Thanks, guy!

But that is not all! Things have progressed rapidly in an upward direction since a squirrel took his own life Thursday night and blew out the transformer out back leaving us without electricity all night long. It was like living in a cave only a very hot one.

But last night was much better as I conversed briefly but nevertheless in a very positive way with Jordin. Yes my dear readers. Just one year after she became the reigning American Idol (plus a few days but who is counting) your blogging buddy said something to Ms. Jordin that made her laugh.

I told Beth about it this morning and she was almost elated! But then she decided we needed to cut the grass. So I must leave you now.

Have a great, great day. And let me leave you with this.

Remember to follow your dreams. But also try to keep your grass from getting too long. And if possible set up some sort of outreach program for your neighborhood squirrels.

Mine need to understand that the metal tubes that are affixed to poles among their branches and homes are not rest stops. They are gateways to squirrel heaven. And it hurts me deeply when they go through that door.

Stay here and gather nuts my friends. And have a good laugh as you look down and watch the sweaty refections on the chrome dome going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth while you are bouncing and flying through the air.

Count your blessings but don’t try to make them all come true in one brief moment.

For all the different loves there are
I find this one to be by far
The one that keeps me up at night
The one that brings us most delight.

It calls to me each time to climb
The tree of passion fruit divine.
Although I sometimes fail to see
The bending grass that waits for me.

And yes I sometimes fall from grace
And land upon a softer place.
These things they seem to come and go
Like antlers on a dear old foe.

I wish our love could always find
Aphrodite and her shrine
Upon the ocean’s frothy shore
So I could dive and fall no more.

And then our nights would last til dawn
As we would roll upon the shore
With taut skin scratched until it bled
And arched back crying to be fed.

With water glistening on your breasts
Hair laced seashells wildly dressed
Bruised lips laid upon my skin
And birds screaming just where we’ve been.

I would grasp your waist below
And lift you up so you would know
My masterful (Dear God) embrace
And never want to leave this place!

Until this happens close your eyes
Remember when our youth belied
The constant setting of the sun
Days to years that soon would run.

For in my heart the blood flows warm
And sometimes wishes it were young.
But in my mind the sand breathes fire
Embracing you with deep desire.

I wish that I could show you more
But know it’s you that I adore
And help me find the script I laid
Between the words of this brief page.

So then we’ll see just what is what
And who is hot and just how much
Eager to visit warmer clime
And merge both blood and open mind.

I hope you’re ready as they say
To see the dragon slayed today.
Make sure the mirrors have been cleaned
So we may view the fateful deed.

Whatever happens most of all
Let me make you laugh somehow.
Your clown prince cometh soon to town
And all do hope he won’t fall down.

And when at last we rest at night
Upon a silent sheet of light
Listening to the dogs next door
Remember I do you adore.
And know tis you that I adore.

***

Now might be a good time to mention that the voices speaking in each of my poems are not necessarily me! Parts of them might be me or all or none.

Because this poetry as a whole is not about me! Hopefully it will be more entertaining than it possibly could if that were the case. I am trying to write about our human condition and the strong emotions that are a part of it. Love seems to be an easy one for me to write about but maybe at some point I will try some others. But not really dark ones. I won’t be writing about hate anytime soon. Fear maybe. Oh wait. I already did that in the poem about the tiger. Confusion? Is that an emotion? Embarrassment? That’s a possibility.

We will see. Thank you for all the encouragement I have received for poems already done. They really are the soul of this blog and the main source of its traffic as well.

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Maybe we will see you at the beach sometime!

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More poetry from Davidlind

Sailing Away

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Last night we gathered on a ship

Our tribe and all our friends,

And sailed for distant galaxies

To find a peaceful land.

The stars received us as we went

Our lives passed through their gaze

We sailed between bright fire and light

Our eyes were all ablaze.

Read more. . . .

It’s the big Memorial Day Weekend boys and girls. What do we all have planned for these three days of fun? Are we going to the beach to see how much the water has warmed up since January? Are we staying home and cooking meat on the grill? MMMmmmmm. Meat.

Are we going to the pool and display our body fat to the world? Or are we going to go to bed and stay there for three days?

Being sick can be such a drag. I don’t appreciate enough the fact that I rarely stay in bed for more than a few hours to get some sleep. I mean if you are so sick you can’t even scrape yourself out of the bed and sit in front of a computer then you are REALLY NOT WELL.

I would have to be taking the BIG NAP in order for that to happen.

This morning I have been thinking about Lorelle again. I swore I wouldn’t go back to her blog because I was such an idiot the last time I was there. But I can’t stay away.

I did manage to refrain from leaving any comments however. So no damage done. Instead I am going to leave a comment here! Then if it turns out badly I can delete it!

Lorelle wrote a post about being a successful blogger and writing about things that interest lots of people. Makes sense, right? But then she says that lots of bloggers are writing about the same thing and that’s a drag. And clearly she is right again. Who wants to read the same thing over and over again?

But how do you write something very original AND something that lots of folks find interesting all the time? That’s pretty difficult it seems to me. And how do you know lots of folks will find it interesting when you are planning and writing it?

This is why I get crazy when I go over there. I end up with these contradictions and questions without answers. Maybe it’s clearer to you. Please let me know if you have the answer.

Anyway, it is a holiday weekend and Beth warned me several days ago that today (Saturday) needs to be a “cleaning day”. Because I invited a bunch of people over on Sunday (tomorrow). And so the house must be cleaned today. And the grass needs to be mowed.

But first the yard needs to be raked because of the freakin huge tree that likes to drop leaves all summer long. And these leaves can’t be ground up by the lawnmower she tells me. They can’t be mulched. They will just have to be picked up eventually in tiny little pieces if I run over them with the lawnmower.

I want so badly to have this tree cut down. But she refuses.

More frustration. Do I carry a lot of frustration around? Maybe so. Maybe i should let it all go and just breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Repeat five thousand times.

Alright. Things are much better now. Time to go rake, mow, dust, vacuum, arrange,empty, pick up, water, spray, shop and do other stuff too.

Do many things but not write. Stay out of this chair.

This is not going to be easy.

Update: I think that the idea is for bloggers who don’t have a particular blog theme like living healthy lives or collecting stamps or sports for example is this. . .Try to bring out your uniqueness as an individual. Try to express something that just has “you” written all over it. And try to make “you” entertaining or at least interesting. Connect to the things that interest you and help others in any way you can.

That’s what I am trying to do and maybe I am not succeeding. But that is the goal. Does it meet Lorelle’s criteria?

If it works I believe it does. And if it does not you all will sail away and I will have had fun trying.

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Update : Here’s a nice post written about Lorelle that helps me focus on the actual person who is behind the blog. It even has a photo of her. Apparently those are hard to find. She must be a distant relative of my wife.

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