when I come up behind a golf cart with the driver’s arm around his black Lab, both looking from side to side, enjoying the ride, the weather and the day. If I was Norman Rockwell I would probably run back to my studio and paint another cover for Life Magazine, but seeing as I am not, I will just paint a picture with my words. It is always fun to see a grandparent with his small grandchild riding along in a golf cart, the child sitting straight up with a look of anticipation, perhaps there is a treat at the end of the ride…maybe ice cream? I remember noting many years ago, long before cars required seat belts or any child protective devices, if you took a child to a birthday party they would sit straight up in the front seat, hands on dash board staring straight ahead.  I always wondered if they thought they would get to the party sooner or quicker if they took that position.  If you were on the way to the dentist, they would slink into the backseat, and if they could have gotten into the trunk I think they would have.   Our children today are buckled and bound and it is hard to enjoy any of their body language, whether going to a birthday party or the dentist.  As teenagers, we would ride along sitting right next to our boyfriends, sometimes he would drive with his left arm while putting his right arm around you.  That is really a sight you don’t see since the introduction of seat belts.  So when I see the arm around the black Lab, or the grandchild sitting erect in anticipation of an ice cream cone, I am pleasantly reminded of many happy yesteryears and I can’t help but smile.

for the abrupt departure from my last blog, but sometimes when I get on the computer time flies really fast,  I lose track of time and then I have to do what I did, leave in mid thought. I’ll try not to do that again. On that same subject of activities, yesterday I had invited two couples for a barbeque to thank them for inviting Sean for dinner while I was away, and also to celebrate Labor Day. When retired, holidays are not quite the same as when you worked,  as you don’t have the luxury of enjoying the extra day off. I still like to celebrate with friends so fiqured this would be a way to say thank-you. There were only six of us, and yet it was quite a feat to figure which day and which time. Wound up Sunday was good but it had to be in the late afternoon. Sean and Ed are both Golf Ambassadors and get off around 2:00pm, Carol plays cards so they can’t come until 4:30pm. Rich and Betty could come after the Foreign Film Club gets out, but it had to be at 3:30pm, as Rich goes to the Trivia Club at 6:00pm, loves it and wouldn’t miss it. There might have been a time when I would have hoped my function was more important than theirs, but living in the Villages is all about activities and they are our first priority. It is our enthusiasm about them and our unfailing attendance  that makes them great. I am a new member of the Foreign Film Club and I do have Water Aerobics but when you have invited guests to a barbeque, it is a given you stay home to prepare.  I know that I have spent quite a bit of time talking about activities and perhaps have you thinking…ok, I get it, you have a lot of activities, drop it.  I think I am having a hard time dropping it because I had the opportunity to attend a family reunion and there were many people my age, some older and some younger and all of them live year round in NJ.  I was flabbergasted at how frail many of them looked and  there was not a spring in anyone of their steps.  I couldn’t help but think the people in the Villages are still playing baseball, golf, pickleball, tennis,archery and the like well into their 80’s and none of them look as frail as did these folks.  I really feel the winters take a toll on a lot of things, including people.   Years ago when I was just coming down in the winter I had mentioned to my doctor how good I felt in Florida and he said it is a proven fact that you live longer in the warm climate.  I didn’t think too much about it until seeing my  aging contemporaries at this reunion, and thought that is what my doctor was talking about.   To be honest though  I also met other contemporaries that looked really good and were very spry and alive but they were still working and having fun at what they were doing,  so the secret perhaps is to have an  activity or passion you enjoy doing….and if you throw in warm winter weather you have just put the icing on the top.

in Florida. I was asked this many times while visiting in New Jersey, and I sometimes wondered if I had moved to another part of New Jersey would I have been asked the same question. In some cases the question was asked with a very compassionate tone of voice, or other times with a tinge of arrogance.  Normally the arrogant one would follow up with, how can you stand the heat. Interestingly enough New Jersey was about the same temperature as Florida this summer, but you can bet in February it’s not. I think a lot of people, myself included until I visited here, have no idea how beautiful our weather is in the northern section of the state. We go to the 50’s at night but warm up to high 70’s and 80’s mid-day. No matter how cool it gets, if at any time you sit in the sun, it is pleasantly warm. Even during the coolest parts of the year, a sweater or sweatshirt is sufficient to keep you warm. You can however always tell a born and raised Floridian by the earmuffs, gloves and coats they wear on some early morning romps.  To get back to the what do you do, rather than say what I do, I would say there are over 1800 activities a month to choose from, and the questioner would look at me and just smile, she’s really lost it, there could never be 1800 things to do in a given month. Honestly, there is. I personally don’t do that many a month, but anything you could imagine is here to do. The 1800 activities I am talking about are all facillitated by volunteers with either a very nominal fee for supplies or no fee at all.  Whoops, to be continued, as I’m off to swim.  Yes, swimming is one of my activities, and I don’t want to be late.

Get set…Go.  I’ve been back home in The Villages for almost a week now and it is amazing how I have been an observer of activities.  I felt like an outsider looking in, being blown away once again thinking of how many things I could do, and yet doing nothing.  Oh, I am almost completely unpacked, except for a few lingering items,  I have food shopped and restocked the shelves with things I like,  paid bills and done wash so I have been doing some things.  I think the past week I’ve been getting ready and getting set.  Yesterday  I actually jumped into my bathing suit and was out the door by 8:15am to attend a deep water aerobic class.  I really enjoyed it, although I found out just how out of shape I had gotten.   I spent a lot of time trying to keep myself down in the water, a true sign that the core muscles are pretty lazy. After the class the instructor remarked that she thought she had really worked us especially hard, at which I replied any workout after nine weeks was hard for me.  I think she was being very kind,  as  the interesting  thing about deep water aerobics is that when you loose your balance you float to the top, so I’m sure she was well aware of my bobbing up and down throughout the hour.  I’m pleased with myself that I stopped procrastinating and although it took me time to get ready, and get set I finally did go, and I’m glad I did.

Jiggety Jog. I made it back, and although it was hard to leave everyone it was great to get home. I think that is always the way, we hate packing but love going away, when we are there the time goes so fast, but we love getting home. Packing to come home is easy, unpacking takes time. I was away for nine weeks, and although I have paid all the bills, I am now going through a mountain of mail. It is taking me a few days to get acclimated to The Villages. After driving all those weeks on New Jersey highways and then going with the flow of traffic on Route#95, as I got closer to The Villages on Rt.#441 I found myself trying to figure out what the problem was, is there an accident, why is the traffic going so slow? The lights  would turn green and no one would go, I’m thinking why are they not moving. However in comparison, as slow as the traffic goes the activities here are moving fast and furious.  My head is spinning as there are  so many things I want to do, but first I just have to finish unpacking and sorting  the mail.  My activity light has been on red for awhile and now as it turns green I will eventually move.

Since spending time with my sons and their families, I’m getting to appreciate the saying and the feelings  TGIF brings.  It probably is  sympathy pains I am feeling, but as we all know sympathy pains are real.   Being in The Villages I am far away from the hustle and bustle of families with teenagers,  but now that I am visiting them I am right in the middle.  Well, not quite in the middle…I don’t get up until I hear the garage door go up and my son, Joe  and grandson Damian, leave at exactly 6:10 am, on the button.  Not 6:09am or 6:11am.  Damian is 16 and is working this summer with his father and mother at Landmarker Geospatial, and amazingly doesn’t complain about the 6:10am departure every morning.  It always hurts a little to see them grow up, as there are not a lot of years they can be foot loose and fancy free, although working towards the purchase of their own cars is the foot loose and fancy free that they are looking forward to.  Last Friday, when they returned home after work, I said to Damian, now you must appreciate the meaning of TGIF.  Oh, I have always appreciated  the phrase, we’ve been saying it for years in school.  Well that’s true, and it is also true that when I went to school I had never heard of TGIF.  The first time it surfaced was in 1964, long after my school days, but during my working days.  Hence my association with work.  Of course now it has an entirely different  meaning…living in The Villages when we say TGIF, we grab our coupons and head out the door with friends for dinner, and we haven’t even put in a hard week of work.

It’s me and as I promised:  no politics, no religion, and no negativity.  A few of you reading this will know what I am talking about and I welcome you to my blog, if this is the first time you have visited it.  I feel a little rusty writing, and that perhaps is why I have been procrastinating, and putting my two sense in, in other places.  I had a smooth trip up, and as always enjoyed my visit with my sister in Virginia.  We went to my favorite material store, (I want to cover some cushions), and if a hoarder only hoarded material, this is what their place would look like.  It is the first floor of a house with  room after room of bolts of material, standing up straight like soldiers,  with a Collier brothers passageway to navigate from one room to the next.   If you stood on tippy toes and saw something across the room,  you had to crawl on top of the bolts, bumping your head on the ceiling from time to time.  I stood on tippy toes and pointed and my sister, being much younger and more agile than I, bumped and crawled until she got just the right piece. That is what little sisters do for bigger sisters.  After successfully shopping we went to my next favorite place and that is an historic Virginia Tavern for lunch.  I left the next morning, 12 hours after losing electricity when the violent storms rolled across the Blue Ridge Mountains into Washington and left people without power for days.  They had electricity in NJ, and I arrived in time for a great July 4th celebration.  It’s great to be here with everyone, but mostly miss Sean and all the goings on in The Villages.

I’m leaving this morning for NJ for a month or so. I thought tropical storm Debbie was going to delay my start, but it looks like she has decided to come in a little more south than predicted.
Thank you Debbie, glad you won’t be traveling with me. Sean will be joining me later in the month. I will be blogging from the north, but right now have to get on the road again. Have a great summer and enjoy the sunshine heading this way over the week-end.

We have wanted so badly for the preserve behind our house to fill up with water, as every little bit of rain we have gotten over the past several years has not stopped it from getting dryer and dryer each year. When the water goes away, so does the wildlife. Gone are the days of the coot hens and ducks on their nests, the herons of all descriptions and the alligator we watched, patrolling his habitat like a Brinks security guard. Each spring we miss the site of the coot hens and their little ones stepping from lily pad to lily pad to cross the small pond behind our house. Twice in the seven years we have been here did we have a baby alligator visit us on our patio and then in our garage. How many times we said, what we really need is a week or more of solid rain and maybe that will, to a degree, bring it back. Needless to say we have been delighted with the  rain that we have had, and we keep checking to see if we can see the water yet. I can remember checking out the window to see how deep the snow was during a snowstorm, even turning the outside lights on in the middle of the night to take a look.  It has been de ja vue, but this time I’m looking for  water, even turning the lights on in the middle of the night.  Sure enough yesterday the pond is getting bigger and bigger, and some birds are flocking back. The frogs are singing at the top of their lungs and it is music to our ears. Today the weather news is that hurricane Debbie is coming across central Florida tomorrow around 2PM.  I am still delighted with the news as that will bring more water to the preserve, but am a little concerned as I am leaving in the early am to head to NJ for a month or so. I hope to be in South or North Carolina by 2PM, so that is not a problem, however not so sure how fierce the wind may be pushing  at my back. As one who is pretty positive, it may help with my gas mileage.  Of course if  it looks too risky, I’ll gladly delay my start for 24 hours, as I still am delighted with the thought of the rain will bring to our backyard. I did wish for it but I will be careful.

The other day I stumbled across an article in the paper about  Camp Villages sponsoring fishing at Golfview Lake park for the Village grandchildren.  They had a great shot of  a gazebo at the end of a dock  that extended out into the lake.  Across the lake you could see golfers and I’m sure that is how the name came about.  Curiosity always gets the best of me and with a name like Golfview Lake,  it had to be something that would be fun to see.  The lake seemed quite big beyond the gazebo, so I thought it might be in the area of Orange Blossom Gardens or Silver Lake.   Sure enough I found it on a map and went over to take a look.  What a pretty, pretty spot.  I’m  sure many golfers are familiar with the park,  as they would be looking directly at it as they come down the fairway from the Orange Blossom Hills Country Club.   Also, I’m sure many of you  that have visited the restaurant,  have marveled at the view from the Country Club;  the fairway, the lake and the church steeples in the distance.  In the early evening, with the lights it is spectacular.  I found that  Golfview Lake park gives you a reverse look up the fairway and it is equally as  spectacular.  The park has beautiful Oak trees and picnic benches, and is located by the entrance to the Mark Twain Library, located next to the Paradise Recreation Center.  You can browse through the library, get a book and sit under a tree, enjoy your book, your view and your retirement.  And if it is Thursday and you like crab legs, Orange Blossom Hills Country Club offers all you can eat…they too are spectacular.    To get to the park you can take Avenido Central across Rt.#441 and through the gate, Wales Plaza, take 2nd left on Owen Dr. and follow it down to the left , which will bring you  behind the Paradise Recreation Center.   If you come in the Boone gate, which is the extension of Morse Blvd. across Rt.#441, make a quick right on Paradise Dr, go to lst stop sign, Wales Plaza, go left and then left on Owen Dr.   If you go over the golf cart bridge over Rt.#441, go left pass the the dog park and continue onto Paradise Dr., at stop sign, Wales Plaza go right and then left on Owen.