YES, You Can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks !
And this old dog (don’t you dare say the B**** word) has spent the last week doing her best to prove the old negative adage wrong.
Had my first golf lesson last Saturday. The instructor knew what he was up against when he asked me what I wanted to accomplish with my lesson and I replied with, “I want to smack it”. Guess you aren’t supposed to do that right off. For background, you should know that I have a wood plaque, sitting by my desk, painted with the words " God grant me patience and I want it now". Probably should have shared that with the instructor before he committed to the lesson. Anyway, he spent about an hour with both of us, focusing on stance, position, grip and the fundamentals of the swing. All good stuff, but I still wanted to get outdoors on the greens and smack a couple of balls. The whole point of learning how to play golf is to be able to enjoy some of the most scenic areas of Tucson, which just happend to be the golf courses. I think I'm on to something here. So, to continue the story, I caught D giving our instructor one of those patronizing, just-between-men, don’t-even-try-to-talk-her-out-of-it looks. The instructor was a fun guy and a good sport and they were male-bonding, so off we went in a golf cart to the far end of the green and, guess what? -- smack it I did !!! It was great. D caught my hit on video, so my next adventure in learning will be to sign up on YouTube, learn how to upload a short video from my camera, and figure out how paste the embedded code on LJ.
Next on the 'new things' list was the first ballroom dancing class. I think the hardest part for me is going to be training myself not to move into a step until I feel the "lead" from my partner. It's that patience thing again. First night out we learned the basic waltz, second class was the rumba, don't know what's next but we'll find out tonight. Got to watch part of a group class (mambo), and it looked like a blast. We'll see where we go with this. The initial, introductory lessons are really cheap. I'm expecting sticker shock when they sit us down and work on selling us the full program. I'm really having fun with it, so.... hopefully we'll sign on for more. I'd like to focus on 1940s swing and on salsa.
The next adventure was a bike ride: my first in about three years (still learning how and when to change gears).
Ready to take on more I decided to sign up for knitting classes, which I did last Wednesday. They start in mid March. Knitting might teach me patience.
That not being quite enough, I've been working on learning how to groom my Australian Terrier myself. They have a unique look, and getting it right involves learning to use a stripping knife. (I'm also improvising with a hairdressing razor, which actually works quite well.) At the moment, Lizzie is about one-fourth groomed. Now, there's a real model of patience. Maybe my sweet and tolerant Lizzie dog can teach me that trick.
first dance class:
