Championship Golf Course is, out of the mouth of an avid golfer, the best golf course in the Villages. Sean had an opportunity to play Evans Prairie this morning and he came home raving. If you know Sean, he is an Ambassador at Tierra Del Sol, you know that he loves golf. He will play a round of golf and when he gets home he has to go back out and practice. If his round was good he has to make sure he keeps doing what he was doing, and if he had a bad round he wants to make sure he doesn’t keep doing what he did.  I am thankful that they don’t have guards on the golf courses at night, for sure as I know Sean, he would apply for the job.   Very rarely does he not like a course, and he is known to rave about many courses.  But today he was full of excitement when he got home, so much so that the neighbors have already heard about it.  I asked him what made Evans Prairie so special he said the layout, a lot of water and wildlife area. I should say after golf,  wildlife is his next favorite thing, so besides the layout being excellent I believe the wildlife area is the icing on the cake.  How many times have we said The Villages just out does itself each time it presents us with a new facility, and they did it again.  Oh, I wasn’t sure if his round of  78 (in the wind) had anything to do with his love of the course.  He said no, when you get excited about something you always do better.  How true.

has just materialized, and that is I will miss someone or something when I am blogging about an event. I did it and I apologize as it was quite a feat that was performed by the only all women Village Dragon Sisters United. They also participated in the races over the week-end and they placed 2nd in the A Division, which as this was their first time racing in the Disney venue it was quite an accomplishment considering they were competing against women over half their age. Thanks so much for giving me a heads up, I appreciate it. Congratulations, how proud you must be that your first time out you did so well.

is what I promised in my last blog. I still am in awe of the Village Dragon boat crew members, especially after witnessing their races in Disney this past week-end, and was able to   gather a few more impressive facts that should interest our residents. They recently raced in Hong Kong China this past summer. The Villages was represented by two teams, one was a Standard boat team of 25 crew and one short boat team with 14 crew. How great is that, and I even have another bit of information to impress you with and that is three Village men qualified for the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Dragon Boat Team USA for the Milan, Italy world championships in Aug-Sept. 2012. The Village men were integrated into the Masters Competition racing in the 200M, 500M, and 2000M events with the masters standard and short boat men and mixed teams.  I’m sure none of them ever imagined the experiences they would have upon becoming a Villager.  I don’t think any of them thought I’m buying in The Villages because I want to go to China and Italy.  They could buy anywhere and still take a trip,  but I don’t know of any other place that would offer the opportunity to be accompanied by a dragon…boat that is.  Congratulations to all those that qualified and attended those races.  I’m not sure what criteria is used when picking a name for a team, but I’m sure there is great discussion as I think the name conjures up an attitude and that can be important when competing.  As I said previously the three Village teams in Orlando were the Silver Dragons, the Leatherneck Warriors and the Leathernecks.  Hearing those names gives you a general idea of who they are.  Many names gave you locations Windy City Thunder,  JAX Fire Dragons Chix with Stix, Philadelphia Flying Phoenix, the Capital Drakainas, Toronto Firefighters, Miami Dragon Slayers, Beltway Dragons, and the Charleston Firefighters to name a few.  Then there were the all woman teams which included a team of breast cancer survivors, which was very moving.  Some of their names were: Seas the Day, Kentucky Thoroughbreasts, Girls Gotta Row, Dragonborn Ladies, Bare Naked Bladies, Dragon Sisters United,  Bosom Buddies and Mammoglams.   Then there were the very descriptive names such as:  Geeks in the Creek, Insanity Rules, Team Insanity, Why Don’t We Get Drunk & Crew,  We’ll Have Another, Organized Chaos, Aquaholics Dragon Boat Club, Fire Breathing Bubbas and on the magical side:  Hope Floats, Magic Dragons and Disney Dragons.  Downtown Disney holds the Dragon Boat competition every year and I highly recommend you join the fun and cheer our teams on…we beat all the other teams and it would be fun to have the largest group of fans in attendance…I’m sure we could do that.  Stay tuned for next years date, and I’ll see you in the stands.

and off I go to give you an account of my two day experience watching and cheering on three of our Village Dragon Boat racing teams compete in the annual Orlando International Boat Festival, held in Downtown Disney. The teams from the Villages that competed were the Silver Dragons, the Leatherneck Warriors, and the Leathernecks.  Races are won by just inches making it a fierce competition.  The sport,  simply put is a 46′ long boat weighing 600lbs. and with a crew of 20 paddlers, a drummer and a steers person paddling to cross the finish faster than their competitors.  It’s a team sport in its purest form, that encompasses the elements of power, speed, synchronization and  endurance.   Teams often form as a social outlet, team building and an alternative form of exercise and that is why it probably started in the Villages. Right? Social outlet, and exercise is right up our alley and our generation loves the fun and excitement that teams bring, making this a  perfect recipe for success in the Villages. It is the fastest growing water sport in the world and North America has emerged as an international powerhouse because of its sprint canoing background. It is interesting to note that the average age of a Village paddler is 67, and they are competing against younger paddlers which you would think would walk all over them or better put glide right past them. If you had to make a bet wouldn’t you put your money down on a police department team or a firefighters team, these crew members are in their physical prime and age, but you guessed it, if you did you would have  lost your money.  It’s been rumored that the Orlando Police Department crew members, after getting beaten by the Villagers were heard to say, we know you did it but we don’t know how. This weekend’s races comprised of 70 teams from all over the world, and each race was 500 meters long with four or five dragon boats competing in each race.  It was mentioned to me that it is the only sport that starts a race with over 100 competitors all competing at one time.  Imagine the power exerted by those crew members.  It is exhillerating to see them flying over the finish line winning by only inches and what is more amazing is that the Leathernecks from the Villages won all their races and emerged as the Grand Champions this year.  Remember the average age is 67.  Congratulations Leathernecks for beating all those whipper snappers who think we Villagers are just a bunch of old retirees.  You did us proud and showed them a thing or two about power, speed, synchronization and endurance…you brought it all and left it in the water to surface again at your next race.  This will be continued with more facts and fun.

that is the Dragon Boat races. I’ll be joining the Village Dragon Boat racers in Orlando the next two days and I’m sure I will have plenty of fun as well as plenty to write about when I get back. They are racing Friday night and Saturday at Disney and I have the opportunity to join friends to cheer the teams on. Looking forward to it and I will fill you all in when I get back.

and you don’t want to do it yourself go see Sergio and Aurora. Many years ago I would do some sewing from time to time. We learned how to sew in school, in home economics. Imagine we cooked for half a year and we sewed for half a year. It was fun as we could move around the classroom, we could eat and wear our projects. I especially remember a pink sleeveless blouse I made and wore proudly. I never gave it a thought until now that probably the hardest thing about sewing a blouse is inserting the sleeves, and if my recollection is correct it didn’t have a collar either. However that did not stop me from feeling good about my sewing abilities. I also thought the cookies I baked were really good too. Anyway, fast forward 50 years and I decide this past summer that I want to cover six pillows for my living room couch. I don’t need a new couch but want to have a different look. I believe I wrote about my visit to my sisters in Virginia and the purchase of material and fringe for this project. I have a brand new sewing maching which Sean bought me when we moved here and he saw me hemming curtains by hand. Actually one curtain. It has never been used and sits in it’s original box, warranty and all. I thought what fun it will be to make these pillows. If I can sew a sleeveless blouse I can certainly make a pillow cover. When I was returning to Florida I stopped at my sisters and we were discussing my pillow project and she said I’m sure you could find someone in The Villages that could sew these for you. I was a little taken back by the remark, as it sounded like she thought it might be too much for me to do. I get home and start getting ready to tap into my sewing abilities. Well, to make a long story short, what a pain in the neck. I’m wrapped up with 5 yards of material and tangled up with 17.5 yards of fringe. Where do I start, I only have scissors for paper, I have no pins and the sewing machine is still in the box with the directions I will have to read before I even start.  Maybe I should first familiarize my self with the machine, okay where should I set it up. As I am struggling with all this my sisters remarks surface. I’m sure there is someone………….sisters are smart, aren’t they? There was only one problem I couldn’t find anyone.  Oh I found them but they were so busy I would have to get on a waiting list and wait months.  I especially got a kick out of one woman I called that said she was busy altering five wedding gowns so to call her in a few weeks.  In my quest to find someone I realized if you can sew you are in pretty good demand and I also learned that if you are looking to get married your chances are pretty good too.  Five wedding gowns, and I bet there are those brides that at this stage of their lives are getting married in plain clothes.  So, lots of brides.  Anyway, I happened to be going through Wildwood and I saw a new handmade sign…Upholstery.  I slammed on my brakes, turned around and the next thing I know I am in Sergio and Aurora’s shop.  They were still fixing up their facility, and it looked pretty bare bones to me but  I saw a big sewing machine and that made my day.  Within hours I was back with my pillows, material and fringe which I left with them, along with all  my enthusiasm I had for doing this job myself.  I did panic later thinking you don’t even know these people, you are so desperate not to do this job that you are willing to drop them off in the middle of Wildwood, jump in your car and run. Well, what a gem of a couple I met.  They have been doing upholstery for 10 years for decorators in first the Orlando area and then Leesburg.  They are from Argentina and have children in Spain and New York.  They decided to open their own business and I must have riden by right after they put out their homemade sign.  Sergio was working on a chair and it seemed he had a few other pieces he had to do, but not much.  I brought the pillows Saturday and picked them up Tuesday…..beautiful, what a job he did.  What  I found even more beautiful was that when I picked them up they had items all over their shop that people had brought in,  and actually they  had another person helping them.   Wow Aurora, looks like you and Sergio are going to make it.  She just grinned from ear to ear and the worry lines I saw Saturday were gone.   I rode past one day later and there were four more cars in their parking lot.  Oh, my pillows are beautiful and I highly recommend them if you want something done.

so little time.  Over the years I think we have all said…I wish there were more hours in the day.  It probably started while we were still in the cradle.  How many of us willing put our heads down and went to sleep, even at a tender age we wanted more hours to our day.  As we went along in life it seemed we needed more hours to accomplish chores that many times we really didn’t enjoy doing.  We always seemed to need more hours to do things such as cutting the lawn, washing the car, washing clothes, ironing clothes, helping with homework and the like.  Wanting more hours was not always a good thing, it just meant we worked longer in a given day.  I want to say to my children and grandchildren, imagine if you could close your eyes and wish for more hours in the day to do things you liked doing, and that is after spending the hours you had in a day,  doing exactly what you liked doing.  Well, that is what it is like when you retire, and especially if you retire in The Villages.  There were so many things going on last Saturday that it was almost ludicrous, no it was ludicrous.  Craft fairs, Art in the Park, Opening of Brownwood’s Paddock Square, Sumter County’s Master Gardening Plant Sale, Farmer’s Market at Brownwood and I could go on and on.  There were bands playing, cheerleaders cheering and twirlers twirling, and I swear the attendees at these functions were also playing, cheering and twirling with excitement.   I know because I was there and that is why I say to myself I need more hours in the day. I love deep water aerobics and  I love writing my blog, I have really gotten into watercolors and love painting, I love reading my books for book club and there are days I just don’t know what to do first.  What really cuts into my time and I love this too,  is doing things with my friends, which always includes lunch or early dinner.  Each day when I get up and before I start I already am saying I wish I had more hours in the day.  I think you will agree with me that it is much more fun wishing for more hours now than it was many years ago.  Well I’m running out of time, have to use it wisely as there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things I love doing.  Wishing you more hours in your day.

if you want to buy on your first visit, DO IT. You are probably wondering what has gotten me to shout do it, in internet language (capital letters). There are several things you might want to know about me before I tell you why I say DO IT. I am a very positive person, I do not like negativety of any sort. If someone does not like something, get up and go do something about it or be quiet, and especially don’t tell me about it.  There are a lot of things written about The Villages, in article form, books and in newsletters.  I received a newsletter today that has an attachment, I think 64 pages as I stopped reading it,  that was titled 50 Things You Should Know Before You Buy in The Villages.  It starts out that it is not negative..so I am already prepared for it to be negative…and it states several times in the first few paragraphs, do not buy on your first visit.  Well, I bought on my first visit and I have never regretted a minute.  We bought five days after arriving at the Villages because we were renting for two months, we loved it so much we wanted to rent for three months the next year, but realized that it would be $8000 to rent and that money was better off put towards a home.   Everyone’s situation is different, and every personality is different.  We bought our first retirement home in a wonderful lake community in Pennsylvania one week after we first visited.  The couple that had introduced us to the lake couldn’t get over we bought so fast.  They couldn’t get over that we didn’t even know where the grocery store was.  I couldn’t get over that that would be a concern.  I loved the lake and I was sure people got their groceries somewhere.    So for someone to give me  50 things I should know before I buy, they are really barking up the wrong tree.  I have been here full time since 2006 and have gotten to do a lot of things and met a lot of people.  I have not heard of people leaving The Villages because of something they should have known.  Those like myself who have had several homes,  it is more that their situation has changed, mostly they have sold their home up north and want something bigger. Sometimes they go bigger and then they buy something with less maintenance as they get older.  That is what is so great about The Villages, there are numerous options here that you have no where else,  that I know of.   As The Villages is built out I personally anticipate that our home values will increase considerably.  According to recent statistics total sales of all homes for the last 12 months was 4271, or approximately 356 homes a month, with 222 being new homes and 135 being  pre-owned homes sold. When The Villages is built out I truly believe we will still have the Buyers, approximately 356 a month, and that is how it will effect our values.  That is why I say what a great time to buy.  I also say if it is your first visit here there is only 1 thing you need to know, not 50,  and that is if you are thinking of buying…DO IT.

and also of The Villages. I would not be a bit surprised if you had no idea what I was writing about, because as of a few days ago I would have not known either. However, it has to do with the game of Petanque, (pe-tonk), which is the French game of Boules. Oh, that game…no, you still don’t know, well here goes. In my last blog I had mentioned that I would be attending Resident Academy, which incidentally is a wonderful program. One of the speakers at the  Academy  was John Rohan, Director of Recreation, who mentioned the sport of petanque, which is played four days a week in Paradise Park. Being the curious person that I am I looked up their schedule and yesterday took a ride over to see what it was all about. There were three games going on and everyone was really enjoying themselves.  Although the name petanque is French boules, it is very similar to British lawn bowling or Italian bocce.   When I googled the game, the definition was you throw metallic balls on dirt beneath plane trees…and that is exactly what they were doing.  The court, or whatever you would call it, is scratched in the dirt like we used to do when designating first base or the game of hopscotch many years ago.  They would throw a small ball, called a cochonnet out into the court and the players would throw out three metallic boules to see who could come closer to the cochonnet.  I know I am over simplifying it as I’m sure there is a lot of skill needed to be good.  I think the most remarkable thing about it is you can’t help but marvel over the huge trees that they play under.  I’m sure they could play in the rain, as the trees form a huge canopy over the courts.  I thought to myself while I was there that I would play this game just to play under these trees, they are that magnificent.  When I came home and saw that trees were mentioned in the game description I couldn’t help but think there goes The Villages again, they have EVERYTHING.  You need trees, not a problem, we have them.  If you have never visited Paradise Park you are in for a real treat.  It is at the bottom of the golf bridge over Rt.#441, or if driving take Morse Blvd. across Rt.#441, which will bring you in the Boone Gate, make a sharp right on Paradise Dr. and go to the end, bear right and you will be in the parking lot of the park.  In France they say the local bouledrome is a social vocal point, and that wine and cognac is the drink of choice, which is probably why it is social and vocal.  At 10:30am I didn’t see any wine or cognac, however they meet at 3:00pm on Thursdays, so that may be a different story.   If you go to www.laboulebleue.fr you can learn more about the game, but in the meantime if someone mentions the activities in The Villages, we can add Petanque to our repertoire.

Last spring I read where the District would be offering a program to the residents, appropriately called Resident Academy, where they can learn about the local government and to alleviate any confusion or answer any questions regarding the responsibilities and functions of the Community Development Districts. It was billed as an in-depth look at the various District Departments and how they work together to make this the best community to live, work and play in. I called immediately to get my name on the list and received a call last week that I am scheduled for the classes this Monday and Tuesday, and that I could pick up my binder last Friday at Customer Service.  I picked my binder up and as always impressed with the way things are done in The Villages, scanned the agenda and I think I am going to know anything and everything about the Districts.  If I don’t  it is certainly not for lack of effort on the part of the Villages Districts.  I feel I am fairly familiar with bonds and bond maintenance as I had to be able to explain it to prospective buyers as a Marketing Representative with The Properties of The Villages.  I also attended the Community Development District Orientation which also explained a lot but still have a few questions,  that I’m sure will be answered at Resident Academy.  You may be asking yourself why I feel it necessary to know all this information.  The future of The Villages is basically in the hands of the residents of each District and I want to make sure I understand what our responsibilities as a resident are.  Everything has been put in place by the Developer but as we go forward it will be up to us to make sure it is maintained properly.  I think.  You see, that is why I am going.