Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patricks Day


It was a little over FIVE YEARS ago (where does the time go?) that TartanGolfGrips.com was conceptualized and launched shortly thereafter....

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day 2011 than with an order that I fulfilled a couple of minutes ago, featuring a MURPHY Partan (TM)...

Here's what that one looks like - very striking, yet understated, don't you agree?


Wednesday, May 05, 2010

How to Be Happy When You Have Every Reason Not to Be

By Scott Hamilton - (copied from Bottom Line Personal e-mail)

Figure skater Scott Hamilton, who won a gold medal in the 1984 Winter Olympics, has had to endure more than his share of tough times.

A childhood digestive disease, never properly diagnosed, permanently stunted Hamilton’s growth and nearly killed him. His mother died of cancer while he was in his teens. Hamilton was dropped by the Ice Capades just two years after his Olympic win, putting his professional skating career in doubt. He battled testicular cancer in 1997 and a brain tumor (benign) in 2004.

Hamilton once lived in fear of the problems that seemed to lurk around every corner, but now he remains happy and optimistic even during difficult times. Here are his secrets for happiness in a very imperfect world...

Consider all problems temporary... and temporary problems unimportant. As a skater, I knew that I would fall when I tried to learn a new jump. I also knew that these falls were irrelevant as long as I got up after each one and tried again.
I try to apply this lesson to my life off the ice as well. I might have a problem right now, but "right now" is just a moment in time that soon will be gone forever... and my "problem" really is just the starting point of a journey that will lead to a solution to my problem. Why let a starting point affect my mood? What matters is where I end up, and that’s going to be somewhere better.
It might take me a while to solve my problem, but I will start to feel better as soon as I begin working toward a solution. I find tremendous joy in tackling my problems. It breaks the "victim mentality" -- a sure path to unhappiness -- and puts me back in control of my life.

Don’t face problems alone. Men’s figure skating is a solo sport, but I still needed a coach to get the most out of my abilities. Life often seems like a solo sport, too, but finding a coach -- a spouse or a friend with whom we can share our problems -- will make our attempts to solve those problems more enjoyable and more successful. Humans are social animals, as my coach, Don Laws, used to remind me. We’re not designed to face problems alone, so we shouldn’t try to do so.

Find strength in challenges. My mother’s struggle with breast cancer taught me that there are positive aspects to even the most devastating losses. For three years, my mother continued to earn a living... work toward her master’s degree... and raise three children, even as she endured chemotherapy.
As awful as it was when she died at age 49, the lessons I learned from her strength in the face of the challenges were the most important lessons of my life. I had been an underachiever as a boy, but following her example transformed me into an Olympic champion.
We cannot completely control the events of our lives, but we can control how we respond to them. It’s this that defines us. I choose to be happy about the wonderful example my mother set for me in those final years, not sad about her death.

Don’t delay difficult conversations. My first inclination when someone does something that bothers me is to bite my lip and remain quietly unhappy. Over the years, I have learned that stoicism only prolongs my displeasure. As much as I dislike confrontations, they often are the quickest path back to happiness.
Example: My agent, Bob Kain, no longer had much time for me by the early 1990s. He had added new clients and taken on a management role in his firm. My career was suffering -- but for years, I said nothing. I didn’t want to damage my relationship with Bob. Instead, I let my resentment build until our relationship was almost irreparably harmed. After I finally spoke up, we found a solution -- a different agent at the company would handle the details of my career while Bob served as adviser. I could have avoided years of unhappiness if I had just voiced my displeasure sooner.

Sell your smile... even to yourself. I once saw Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi miss her landing on a triple lutz and fall hard on her back in front of a large crowd. She must have been in pain -- not to mention disappointed and embarrassed -- but she immediately bounced back up with a huge smile on her face. The remainder of her routine was flawless.
The crowd gave Kristi a big ovation. Her smile had convinced them that the fall didn’t matter -- everything was okay.
Kristi’s smile also convinced Kristi herself that everything was okay. It’s easy to lose confidence and feel bad when we "fall." Smiling or laughing releasesendorphins, hormones that trigger feelings of happiness and well-being. In other words, we don’t have to wait until we are happy to smile -- we can use a smile to make ourselves happy.
I put this lesson to use in my own life by searching for the humor in my darkest moments. If I can laugh at myself, my problems seem less daunting.
Example: I was scheduled to skate in Peoria, Illinois, just hours after I learned that I had testicular cancer. I feared that this could be the last performance of my life, and I desperately wanted to do well -- but my mind was on my cancer, not my skating. Suddenly I noticed a woman in the front row ignoring my routine entirely and casually applying makeup. It made me chuckle to think that this performance that was so important to me was so meaningless to her. My mood immediately lightened, and I was able to get through the rest of the routine.

Fight for change. The world changes. We change. It’s inevitable. The only way to remain happy is to embrace change and enjoy it. We need to take pleasure in meeting new challenges and take pleasure in the surprises that lie around every corner. The changes that we fear often make our lives much better in the end.
Example: When the Ice Capades didn’t renew my contract, I feared that my professional skating career was over. As it turned out, getting fired led to one of the greatest successes of my life. My agent, Bob Kain, and I started a rival skating tour, Stars on Ice, that is still going strong and earning money today -- while the Ice Capades folded years ago.

Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Scott Hamilton, who won a gold medal in figure skating in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo and cofounded the Stars on Ice professional figure-skating tour in 1986. He is a member of the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame and author of The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (Even When You Have Every Reason to Be Miserable)(Thomas Nelson). www.scottcares.com.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Picking up the blog again, with an expanded scope

OK, so I've been watching the whole social networking phenomenon develop more or less from the sidelines, and just decided that maybe it's time to resume the blog and expand the scope and nature of the postings.

Up until now, the primary purpose of this blog has been focused on golf, and supporting my sideline business TartanGolfGrips.com (shameless plug).

Some recent changes have caused me to consider resuming the blog, and continue to observe the world of golf, but also to widen the scope to include my other (numerous) and diverse interests, which include business, music and other sports. I may even tap dance with a little political commentary from time to time, depending upon my mood...but don't hold your breath...

TimeForeTee has always been a play on words, and since one of my nicknames has always been "Tee" and my surname begins with "T", it only seems natural to wrap even more of my life in this little wrapper that's been lying dormant for awhile.

More to come soon - on with the fun...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Partans explained

What is a Partan(TM)???

A Partan is a Personalized tARTAN design that affixes to a golf club shaft, usually on a putter, but on any golf club, and then covered by a C-Thru Golf Grip(TM).

The C-Thru(TM) grip allows the personalized tartan to show THROUGH the grip, allowing the golfer to express their individuality, their love of golf (a sport that is closely linked (pardon the pun) to Scotland AND Ireland), their pride in their heritage and their general good taste!

The breadth of tartans that are available is truly staggering, covering most major heritages, geographies, military associations, academic institutions, professions, and then there are HUNDREDS of "Universal" tartans that are simply attractive to look at, but have no particular association.

Did you know that there are tartans available for:
  • Japan
  • Korea
  • Germany
  • Ireland and every one of the Counties or Districts
  • Argentina
  • Brazil
  • Canada and every one of the Provinces, and many CITIES within Canada
  • Most of the states in the United States have their own tartan
  • Many many more

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Some GOOD news - Charlie's stateside and heading home!

This post is a follow-up to my post from last Fall about "Charlie", the dog that was adopted by a US soldier in Iraq....

"Charlie" is HOME - he's made it out of Iraq after MANY months of red-tape and waiting - you can read the story here...he landed at Dulles Airport on Valentine's Day, and is heading to Sgt. Watson's home in Phoenix, AZ!!!

HOO-AAAHH!!! (Read the blog entries that lead up to this one.....they're heartwarming....)

For MORE heartwarming stories, and another opportunity to help with other "dogs of war"like Charlie, there's a new charity at Baghdadpups.com, which is a special project of the SPCA International...

Watch the video's of Charlie's return at http://baghdadpups.com/videos/


Another dog needs our help - please help him out

I don't know what it is, but somehow I keep stumbling across dogs that need (y)our help on the web, plus the way I found out about THIS one is kinda interesting, and provides the segueway into some closure from a posting from last May...enough time has passed that it's time to resume more regular blogging...

I stumbled across THIS dog in distress story because of what happened last May. On May 2, 2007 (easy to remember because 5+2=7) my wife went to Orange County to play in a charity golf tournament with "a client". She left her wedding band in her purse in his GMC Yukon, and her wedding ring was stolen from the Yukon while they were playing.

Shortly after learning of the theft of the ring, (but before a BIG revelation was uncovered almost three weeks later) I had set up a search on eBay to look for pear-shaped diamond rings, in the hopes that we might find it being "fenced" via eBay, and every day, I STILL get three e-mails with pictures of pear-shaped diamond rings...

Naturally, after all this time, no ring, and I usually just delete the three e-mails without looking at them, but SOMETHING compelled me to take a look at this morning's diamond e-mail...

SO - I opened this mornings e-mail, and the FIRST image that appears is this one and I start reading the de
tails and the seller is trying to sell this pear-shaped diamond to raise money for his epileptic dog. When I first opened the listing, I thought the thumbnail KINDA looked like "our" ring, but as I scrolled down, I was REALLY touched by the reason for this listing. Apparently, the dog requires treatment, and the ring is being sold for significantly less than fair-market value to raise funds for treatment of the dog.

Now when I saw the picture of the DOG, I REALLY went "Whoa!", because the DOG looks A LOT like my Rusti, who passed away in September 2006 (ironically when my wife was away on a "business trip" in Vegas either WITH or on BEHALF of an asswipe, motherfucking "client").

Needless to say, this story TOTALLY tugged at my heartstrings, and I sent the seller an e-mail to ask for their e-mail address, so I could send 'em some money via my PayPal account to help out with Junior's treatment.

He responded pretty quickly, and if you're interested in making your OWN contribution to "Junior" via his guardian Cameron, you can use your own PayPal account to send them some cash at ( vintagedreams2007 at yahoo dot com ).

ALTERNATIVELY, Cameron's got a whole STOREFRONT of eBay items for sale, and you can visit him at http://stores.ebay.com/vintagedreams2007-Start-Here . Find something you like, and help out "Junior" at the same time...

Let's get together and pool our resources, and either buy something from Cameron's eBay store, or just send him a few bucks via PayPal, and help out Junior....

To close, here's what Cameron wrote me: "
That is so nice of you to do that. Junior is my little man. He is sweet as sugar and I want him well I know the loss you feel everyday. I lost 2 dogs that were both 17 and I think about them all the time. I honestly was not aking for donations, but if you would like to help my email address for paypal is vintagedreams2007 at yahoo dot com. If not just say some prayers. Take care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

We're back...and hoping to help


It's been a little over three months, and things seem to be getting back to normal in my life again, and I feel that it's time to resume posting again - ESPECIALLY when a story like this touches my heart like this one has...

(Thank you to those of you who reached out to me and offered your support and prayers during a very difficult period in my life...)

Recently, I purchased a copy of "From Baghdad With Love" that chronicles the heartwarming story of an American soldier who was befriended by a local puppy, and his stories about successfully getting Lava back to the United States.

Well, I was reading an article at the Rocky Mountain News that highlighted the plight of ANOTHER American soldier, and HIS hope at getting his canine companion safely back to the States.

I did a little research, and the soldier has his own blog, called Operation Bring Charlie Home. You can make a donation through PayPal there, to help defray the high cost of bringing this adorable dog back to the United States, which I have, and I hope that many of those that read this blog will help out in any amount that you can.

My Dad was in the 8th infantry in WWII, and he relayed stories of many situations like this from HIS war experiences. Dad passed away suddenly a little over four years ago, and it's in his honor and memory that I would like to re-open my blog, and ask your assistance in this cause.

"Charlie" bears more than a casual resemblance to OUR little furperson "Triniti", so this story resonates with me for a NUMBER of reasons...

I'm back......and hopefully so will "Charlie" - SOON!