• Sky Mountain Golf Course, Hurricane, UT

  • Maureen O’Shea at Torrey Pines

This is World Glaucoma Day. Yes, today, March 12, 2026, is World Glaucoma Day. It is part of World Glaucoma Week (March 8–14, 2026), which focuses on raising awareness about the “silent thief of sight”. The day emphasizes the importance of regular eye check-ups to prevent blindness.

I want to share my experiences with Glaucoma.

My Glaucoma started in 2003

Dr. Monica Jensen referred me to Dr. Kirker to see if I had signs of glaucoma.

Dr. Kirker was full of fun. He always called me, Maureen O’Hara, and he would laugh. He did confirm that I had the start of glaucoma and I began taking eye drops to stop the progress by reducing the eye pressure.

Dr. Kirker retired and I started seeing Dr Douglas and he retired. I was referred to Dr. Gooi and now I see Dr. Penner.

In the past few years, I tried many different eye drops and had major side effects. The last prescription was Monoprost.

Dr. Penner explained to me that the drops were not keeping my glaucoma at bay and that surgery was the only option. I was booked January 5, 2026 for surgery on my right eye and February 17 for my left eye.

This surgery is called Trabeculectomy and they make a flap called a bleb in the white of your eye. My first surgery was on the outer side of the white of my eyeball of my right eye. The 2nd surgery was to the right of the eyeball of my left eye.

The surgery on my right eye kept the pressure down however it caused my eye to be blurry. 4-6 weeks was generally the timeframe for the blurriness to stop. However, after eight weeks, there was still a bit of blurriness in that eye.

The surgery for February 17 was postponed to March 4 when my left eye surgery was done.

When I wake up in the morning, there is no blurriness in either eye, however, I do believe the eye drops cause some cloudiness but it is mild. Right now I am using four different drops; prednisone, bepreve, nirvanac-sandbox-moxifloxacin. These drops are to heal my eye.

For whatever reason my right eye was blurry for seven weeks. With my left eye right from after the surgery I had very little blurriness.

I can see quite clearly with my latest
prescription classes from last summer. However, they up close reading portion of my glasses is not accurate. Dr. Pender said that it takes a good month for the eye to heal totally and I will be able to get new prescription glasses.

Hopefully my eyes will be healed from the surgery soon and I will be seeing OK!

Read more

Oh, the joy! Oh, the happiness. Oh, the thrill.
Oh my! Will I ever have A BIG BAR BILL!

What thoughts go through your mind when you finally make the ultimate golf shot, a hole-in-one?

Multiple Aces

Having a hole-in-one is pretty special. But having multiple holes-in-one? How special is that? Mega!

Brian Harman had a Hole-in-One two times in one day

Brian Harman had double aces at the 2015 Barclays. His golf ball and the shirt he was wearing ar now on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL.

During the final day of the 2015 Barclays, on August 30th, 2015, PGA playing pro, Brian Harman did something amazing, twice. He made two holes-in-one, twelve holes apart from each other. Both were made on par 3’s at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey.

Harman’s first hole-in-one came on the 196-yard third hole. And his second hole-in-one was on the 228-yard 14th. By making those aces, he became the third PGA player to ever score double aces in the same round. Now, that’s pretty special.

The World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, FL has both Harman’s golf ball and the shirt he was wearing on display.

Deborah Rowbotham

Deborah Rowbotham showing off her medals from the Huntsman Games, which we both played in 2014.

My niece, Deborah Rowbotham, knows what having multiple aces is all about. She has had three – yes, count them, THREE holes-in-one! And to top it all off, she made all three of them the very same summer, and two of them were on consecutive Sundays.

Unreal. Shocking. Exhilarating

This is what Deborah said about her string of aces, which happened in 2001:

It was unreal, shocking, exhilarating and, thank goodness, I had hole-in-one insurance!

All of Deborah’s aces happened at the Dundas Valley Golf and Curling Club in Dundas, Ontario. It’s Deborah’s home course, and I have played it several times both with Deborah and with my sister (her mother) Georgie, who was a long time member there. Georgie was 96 when she passed away last fall, but she was an active golfer until her 86th year.

It wasn’t until Georgie was 75, in 1993, when “Gorgeous George” as we used to call her, had her only hole-in-one, again at the Dundas Valley course. And Deborah, who’s been golfing since she was 11, was there to see her mom’s ace!

Molson Award

Georgie Rowbotham’s Molson Award from the Dundas Golf & Curling Club

Another one of Georgie’s proudest golfing moments came in 1968 when she won the Molson Award for the Ladies Golf and was given a beautiful silver platter as a memento.

Since I’ve played the course, I even know the holes that Deborah’s amazing feats were accomplished.

Dundas Valley is another one of famed Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson’s designs. Look closely at the name and you’ll see the word “valley” in it those valleys really come into play with the course. You will have an abundance of sidehill, uphill and downhill lies on nearly every hole on the course, and it must have been quite a challenge for Thompson back in the 1920’s to come up with his design.

Even so, many of those holes are familiar to me as they are similar to another Thompson designed course – Tor Hill in Regina, Saskatchewan. Although I moved from Regina to Calgary, Alberta years ago, I’ll always consider Tor Hill my “home” course.

As for me, a hole-in-one has always been elusive. But each time I step on the tee-box of a par three and look towards the pin, I imagine in my mind’s eye the flight of the ball, landing lightly on the green, and skipping a few yards and then rolling into the hole. Alas! I have been close, SO CLOSE, more times than I would want to tell you about, inches to the left, inches to the right, but never close enough to fall in and find the bottom of the cup.

Hole-in-One

If you’ve made an ace, there are different places that you can register your accomplishment online, but many of them exclude international players. One that I found that includes acers from around the globe is the Golf Digest Hole-In-One Club where you can enter in all your details, including date, which course you were playing, which club you used and has a searchable database to find friends or folks you know who have registered their aces. If you’re worried about hole-in-one insurance, one international vendor is Hole In One International who, according to their Twitter page, has paid out over $45,000,000 in cash and prizes to contest and promotion winners worldwide since 1991!

No matter if you think a hole-in-one is a sign of golfing skill or just a lucky shot, they’re amazing to watch and they’ve got to be amazing to make. This year, on the 2014-15 PGA Tour, 41 holes-in-one were recorded, numbers 40 and 41 belonging to Brian Harman. Billy Hurley III was the first one to record a hole-in-one last season, and both he and Andres Romero joined Harman with two aces in the season, although Harman was the only player to record two holes-in-one either at the same tournament, or on the same day.

Read more

Destination: Whitefish, Montana

We plan to leave tomorrow around 7:00 a.m. on our next road trip that will take us to Whitefish, Montana, then back to Calgary via Cranbrook, B.C. Our route to Whitefish, Montana, will take us South and West on Alberta highways 8 and 22, down to the Crowsnest Pass.

I love the drive on the highway past Bragg Creek and Turner Valley, a golf course that I have played many times. We’ll then pass through Longview, where Canadian entertainer Ian Tyson has his ranch — this is certainly cattle country down here. I’ve embedded a YouTube video of Ian Tyson – who’s 81 (a whole year older than I am) singing Four Strong Winds as a tribute to his father who fought in the First World War. That video was released just a couple of months ago, and although the voice is shakier than it used to be, Ian Tyson is still a great performer. A big shout out and thanks to his agent, Paul Mascoli of Mascoli Entertainment Corporation for letting me use the picture of Ian Tyson on my blog.

I’ve been singing along to Ian Tyson since I got my first Ian & Sylvia record, probably back in 1970 or so, introduced to our family by my niece, Deborah Rowbotham. Back then, I’d have a bunch of albums lined up for the record player, including Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues, Gordon Lightfoot, Ian & Sylvia and others, and I’d play them while singing and doing the housework on Sunday mornings. It was always Sunday Morning Coming Down at our house on Sundays!

From Longview, we follow the rolling hills with some surprising elevation changes along a winding creek to Alberta’s highway #3 – the Crowsnest Highway.

Soon we will be driving past the tons of rock that slid down the mountain at Frank, Alberta. The Frank Slide was a rockslide that buried a great part of the mining town of
Frank on the morning of April 29, 1903. It occurred at 4:10 am, when it took under 100 seconds for over 82 million tonnes (90 million tons) of limestone rock to slide down Turtle Mountain. That slide obliterated the entire eastern edge of Frank, the Canadian Pacific Railway line going through that part of time, and Frank’s coal mine. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and remains the deadliest, as between 70 and 90 of the town’s residents were killed, most of whom were lost in the rubble. Turtle Mountain’s formation left it in a constant state of instability, a fact that wasn’t lost on the first nation tribes, who didn’t need seismic data to know better and always called it “the mountain that moves”.

On to Blairmore, the home of the Crowsnest Pass Golf and Country Club. I’ve played that course many times, including with the Alberta Branch of the Notre Dame Hounds Alumni Association with one of their annual golf tournaments. Although from the highway, the holes you can see wouldn’t necessarily compel you to stop and play as they’re rather flat and treeless. But stop and play it is something I recommend: you will not believe how beautiful the holes are that are away from the highway. It’s absolutely stunning. The course offers a challenging layout and spectacular changes in elevation. It’s certainly worth the trip – it was awarded Gold in the Most Scenic category in the Golf West Magazine’s 2014 Readers Choice Award.

The Elk River runs alongside the highway for many kilometres – beautiful, clean water rushing towards the Kootenay Lake. This is such a scenic drive along this highway, especially in the summer months. Trees and mountains on both sides. Awesome.

In no time we will be crossing into the USA at Roosville from Grasmere, B.C. and we will be off to see restauranteur Trina Kelly at her On The Fly Cafe – for at least a coffee. It’s a roadside cafe with a reputation for great food, and we can’t wait. They’ve got a great menu, including a Power Smoothie with fruit, kale, spinach and chard!

Eureka, Afterall!

It won’t be long before we will be arriving in Whitefish. This is NEW territory to me and I can’t wait to discover. We’ve decided to stay just two nights at the Grouse Mountain Lodge and the third night, we’re going to stay and play (once again!) at the The Wilderness Club in Eureka. The golf course has been opened to the public now since 2010 and it’s a Nick Faldo design, and I’ve never golfed one of his designs before, so we’re super excited about that. I need to give a big shout out to Adam at The Wilderness Club’s Pro Shop for getting us the tee times – and the room reservations for Ruth and me!

GREAT JOB, ADAM, I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET SUCH A FRIENDLY GUY IN PERSON!

– Eve

I’ll be setting my alarm and we’re T-24:00 and counting.

More to come.

Read more

Ruth and Mo's selfie at the airport

Ruth and Mo at the Toronto airport

Maureen (my mom) got on the plane from Calgary to Toronto at 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning — the start of the trip to Ontario. A few hours later, she’d landed at the Lester B. Pearson Airport, and Ruth was there, in her Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight. That’s the car they’ll be using for the upcoming road trip. Off they went to Ruth’s cottage, just over two hours away.

Staging the Cottage

The cottage is for sale, and Ruth and Mo will be busy getting it into sales shape, making it into, as my friend Nancy used to say, “the prettiest cottage in the area!” The staging will begin in earnest today, uncluttering furniture, moving some onto the porch and perhaps garage selling the excess, but that’s still not decided. The cottage is being sold turn-key, I believe, so everything included, still, the staging needs to be right to get the buyers interested!

I got a Magic Jack call from Maureen yesterday afternoon. I know many people who use Magic Jacks to make VoIP (Voice Over Internet) calls — but you do need to have an Internet connection to make them, so she called me from the local libray. Later, we switched to Facetime — she has an iPad and I have a MacBook Air, and Facetime is an easy way for people using Apple products to communicate with each other. She sent me some pictures she’s taken to upload them to the blog.

Ontario countryside

The Ontario countryside – Photo by Maureen O’Shea

Maureen said she and Ruth had had a wonderful lunch at the home of friends of Ruth’s and her dearly departed husband — but I’ll let her tell the story. However, the scenery is beautiful, as Ontario is, and I’ll share one of Maureen’s pictures with you so you can see it too.

Notre Dame Hounds and Wilcox, Saskatchewan

It was a quick chat for a couple of reasons. I’d published a story on Monday on The Hockey Writers about the Four Hounds in the Stanley Cup Finals – these are four boys who all went to school and played hockey at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, a school where my dad, Doc, my sister Bridget and I all attended — and my mom had volunteered for several years on their Alumni Board, so we have a lot of interest in the school. Since the Chicago Blackhawks won, and Hound Brad Richards had played such a great role in that last game, I’d spent part of the morning on the phone with 74-year-old Terry O’Malley — 3 time Canadian ice-hockey Olympian (one time bronze medal winner) and former Notre Dame Hounds‘ coach, about his memories of Richards as a Bantam AAA and Junior A player. And then, because he had a fishing story for me — about lobster fishing with Richards’ parents, Glen and Delight, and he mentioned a dear friend of my mom and dad’s, John Weisshaar, I had to give the Weisshaars a call. They live in Ontario now, and Johnny, a farmer, school bus driver, coach and team manager from Wilcox, can tell the stories and has a great memory for a guy in his 8th decade. I spoke to his wife Roseline for quite a while too..I’d visited them two summers ago, and I miss them, especially since they’re some of the handful of people left who were good friends with my dad. Roseline, who has had Multiple Sclerosis since 1958, has never let her disease stand in her way of being Roseline. That’s probably why they were chosen the Godparents for my younger sister, Lisa: great character and a great character!

I find it hard to believe that people like John and Roseline are getting older. In my mind’s eye, they’re still super active and in their 50’s. But not any more, now that’s me. Roseline tells me, “Colleen, it’s hard to get old.”

My mom was only at the library for half an hour and soon, Ruth was back from running errands and off they went again. Maureen has some stories in the pipeline which I know you’re going to love to read and hopefully we’ll get them published this week!

Happy Birthday to Deborah

Today is my cousin, Deborah Rowbotham’s, birthday. Deborah will certainly enter into this blog from time to time, she’s one of my mom’s favourite road trip and golf partners. Happy Birthday, Debba Dear. Have a great day on the golf course (I know that’s what she’s got planned!) The picture of Deborah on the left (doesn’t she look great?) was taken after she and Maureen participated in the Huntsman World Senior Games in the golf category last year — but, as usual, that’s a story better left for Maureen to tell than me. It’s Deborah’s “Bus Pass” day, as my dad used to say, the day that seniors everywhere used to wait for to get reduced travel rates on public transportation. If, as my mom says, 78 is the new 65, then Deborah, you’re probably turning 50 today! Hooray!!!

And One More Thing…

You can follow my mom on Twitter — she’s @sevenpars (the day she shot 7 pars was a proud moment). She’s getting more and more followers, but her biggest follow so far this week is UK publication, Lady Golfer Magazine! Check them out. She only has 20 Twitter followers so far, so I’m impressed. Well done, Maureen, and Lady Golfer Magazine, my mom is certainly your target audience! Kudos to you too!

Read more

I wasn’t living on the farm after I graduated from High School so I wasn’t there for the day to day progress of the building of the Gardiner Dam.

However, it was May 27, 1958 that there were ceremonies officially marking the beginning of the construction.   More surveying was then done on both sides of the river and soon heavy equipment began arriving to start moving dirt!  And heavy equipment it was: HUGE EUCLIDS, TRUCKS, GRADERS – for work that was being done, day and night.

imageThere, one course, was a security issue and getting into the site entailed an access gate that monitored all activity entering and *exiting the site.lk*  My Dad, Peter and *Uncle Paul, his twin brother, both worked at manning the gates.  It was a great opportunity for a couple of “Seniors”.  I know my Mom was glad to have something exciting for Dad to do and keep him out of the house.

Some of the construction site was designated for a park and a townsite.  Of course buildings were erected to house the needed machinery and retail businesses were opened.  A drive-through cafe and a general store were opened for business, as well as a service station.  Imagine! Ice cream less than a mile from home!  imageThe village was called Cutbank.  Temporary housing was available for the workers.

I know it must have been difficult for my Mom to see the house movers come and jack up the house and prepare to move it to another location.  Now it wasn’t a treasured family home in fact it was a house that was actually in two parts.  The first part had survived a fire in the dead of winter with snow being carted up to the roof to extinguish the flames.  After, an addition was added to the house with stairs leading up to a bedroom.  There was still a door leading to the roof of the original house and the charred shingles were there for you to see!  But this was my Mom’s home, and she must have loved it dearly as she opted to ride in the house to its new foundation on my brother Gordon’s farm.

The house was turned opposite to how it sat before:  now it faced south instead of north.  I loved the way it now sat with the sun shining in from the east and south windows.

Mom now had a garden just steps from her door.  A place for her to grow her  gladiolas and all the vegetables she loved.

My Mom with her beautiful flowers.

By now the building of the dam was in high gear. The tunnels and the towers were in place and my brother Gordon was employed by the PFRA to control the levels of water downstream and operate the spillway when water levers were too high for the lake.  Soon the large pumping station was finished and my brother Gerald (who was now an electrician) was employed by the Saskatchewan Water Commission in charge of the water irrigation canal.

Both my brothers were employed close to home until retirement.

Close to the village of Elbow was a perfect inlet for a marina, which was built, as well as a championship golf course called Harbour Golf Club & Resort.  This golf course is dear to my heart.  What was once nothing but prairie grass and gopher holes was developed into a beautiful, challenging golf course.  Most of the regular golfers are from the surrounding facing communities and what an opportunity it was to be able to get off the tractor at noon and head out for 18 holes of golf nearby!

The course has several holes that cozy up against Lake Diefenbaker and it is hard to keep your eye on the ball with the shimmering sunlight reflecting on the water captivating your view.  One hole that I love and is unique to this course is a Par 3 of 68 yards from the forward tee.  What is unique about this hole is the tee is slightly elevated and your ball must carry over a fairway wide thicket of chokecherry bushes to a hidden green.  Go long and you are down the cliff to the lake.

Memories’

June 21, 2026

Read more

JIm and I were were golfing at Sky Mountain Golf Course in mid October back in 2010. We were paired with a couple from Idaho. Gary was a very good golfer and so was Judy.
The course was very busy so there was a lot of chatting as we waited on each T box. Judy suggested that the guys ride on one cart and she would ride with me. So we switched carts and clubs. She loved telling me that she was 80 and Gary was only 78. She also said that coming down to Hurricane to golf was one way they could stay together. She told me that, of course, living together without being married in Idaho was frowned upon!

As I said earlier, she was a very good golfer. And she also said that having her handicap go up from a six was certainly not as much fun as having it go down to a six.

She was very curious about my clubs and I do believe at that time I had a Taylor Made driver with a bright white head. I asked her if she would like to try it. She said, “Oh, Maureen, would you let me?” I said “for sure.” She hit it several times and always far and straight.

I told her that I had bought it at Zion golf in St. George and I knew for a fact they had one more.

We sat and visited in the parking lot for at least a half hour after we finished golfing. We talked about places to golf, golf clubs and places to eat..

As we were saying our goodbyes, Gary piped up to say that for sure they would be heading for Zion golf when they left the course. He also said, as you may have guessed, Judy has her own money!

At Sky Mountain Golf Course the third hole is a dog leg to the left. All along the left side of the fairway is tangled bushes and rocks. The cart path is also there and ends with a large bunker bordering the left side of the green. The fairway slopes dmownward before rising up to the green.

We were booked with another two some the next morning and we’re waiting to tee off on the fourth hole.

Down the cart path coming from the fairway on number three hole are Gary and Judy.

“I got the driver, I got the driver,” Judy shouted as she jumped off the golf cart and gave me a big hug.

Judy had hit her drive right down to the area on the up slope to the green!

“Thank you so much Maureen, if I hadn’t tried your driver, I would never have guessed what an asset a new club could be for my game.”

Glad to have helped, Judy.

Read more

The holiday has existed in Canada since at least 1845, originally on Queen Victoria’s Birthday, May 24.

The holiday is colloquially known in parts of Canada as “May Two-Four”, a double entendre that refers both to the date around which the holiday falls (May 24) and the Canadian slang for a case of twenty-four beers (a “two-four”), a drink popular during the long weekend.{

Hanley, Saskatchewan, had a celebration on Victoria Day as far back as 1905? The reason I know that is because when my mom‘s family came to Saskatchewan there was a celebration in Hanley at that time. There were flags and banners and a merry-go-round. Baseball and foot races.

I only remember it as being a “Sport’s Day” and my Brother Jim would go and pitch for the Strongfield baseball team. I don’t believe I ever went to Hanley, but I can remember it was either really cold or really hot. Jim would come home with such a sunburn when it was the hot sunny day.

I think my dad really wanted to have a son that was a good baseball player because he had played baseball back in Minnesota. I think by the time Jim was old enough to play all my dad probably wasn’t that keen about baseball by that time. How do I know?

I know that Jim tried very hard to be really good pitcher and he probably could’ve become one if he had had any coaching outside our family. All I know is I wasn’t very good at catching the fastball that came out of his hand!

I have no pictures from Hanley celebrations but I have one from Notre Dame at Wilcox.

I hope that summer is on its way!

Read more

You should write your life story.

I think it is important and forgive me if I said this before! Every time I’m having a card game with a few people or just coffee, I ask them if they have written their life story or if they have any plans to do it! I explained to them that it’s not that difficult even if you just write it on line paper. If you have access to word document on your computer or tablet you can write it there. Printed out or if it is just on lined paper, you can go to Staples and have it coil bound. BIngo , you have a record of your life for your children or grandchildren to read.

One day when I was waiting at the lab to have blood work done, I was in conversation with a gentleman in the next seat. He said that his Mother was still living on her own and very healthy at 86 years of age and I thought this is a really good time yo tell him to sit down with her and explain how important it is to him if she would write her life story. And I told him just that. He told me that his mom was 13 years old and his dad was 14 years old when they came to Canada from Germany. They had survived WW2 in Germany and met and married after coming to Canada. There must be interesting stories of each parent.

It reminds me of the story of Edith Kesmarky. She was Doc’s (my husband) boss at SGI for many years. She and husband and children escaped from a train that was taking them to a concentration camp. The oldest daughter needed to go to the washroom and all four of them went from the washroom off the train on the other side. It was dark and they trudged through the muddy fields for four hours not knowing where they were going. It turned out when it was daylight that they were safe in West Germany. Edith’s husband was an Engineer and was offered a job with Sask Power when they finally arrived in Canada. I remember her saying they had only $1.87 to their name when they got to Regina.
One friend of my youngest daughter told me how happy she is that I write about my life in my blog. She was at her grandmother’s funeral and after listing to family members recalled many things her Gramma had done. She had never heard any of this before. She wished her Gramma had written about her life.

You can buy inexpensive lined paper to write on. Once you have written your life story, you can take it, as I said above, to Staples to make copies for family members. You can get it coil bound for under $10.00.

Start writing today!

Read more