Thanksgiving Week-end

This was by far the loneliest Thanksgiving I can remember. Besides being away from friends and family, Arne wasn't feeling up to par so we didn't do anything all day except for an hour at the driving range. I didn't even cook as I thought we were going out to eat but that didn't happen. We did get calls from Nick, Taylor and Lisa as well as a nice text message from grandson Aaron. I'm not looking forward to a lonely Christmas. I did decorate the house a little today to at least get into a festive mood. Christmas is really supposed to be about Christ so maybe it's not all bad to just focus on Him this year.

Friday we drove up to Ocala and looked at lamps and coffee tables. Did order a lamp but couldn't decide on the tables.

Saturday morning I was surprised to see myself on the front page of a section of the local paper. These pictures were taken the day we packed bags of food for the local food pantry.I'm the one in green. :-)

Saturday afternoon we had a visit from a high school classmate of Arne's. He and his wife drove up from Tampa. The two guys spent all afternoon reminiscing of their prowess on the baseball diamond. Jack was the pitcher when Lane Tech won the Chicago City Championship and Arne hit in the winning run. We took them to lunch at Arnie Palmer Legends Country Club about 2 miles from us. Can you believe...I forgot to take a picture and I had my camera in my purse!

Besides decorating today, I went to volleyball. I've been hitting the ball incorrectly so other players have been kind enough to show me the proper way to avoid broken or sprained fingers. One gal told me to practice in front of the mirror all week and to visualize the ball coming over the net. Hopefully, I will be better next week and the big knuckle on my index finger won't hurt as it has every other time I've played.

Golf, Amelia and Volleyball

I played golf Wednesday and Friday, just the Executive courses. Wednesday I got to the course and realized I didn't have my purse so no Villages ID. This is not the first time I've done this. :-( Since I couldn't get hold of Arne to bring it to me, I was told I couldn't play. At the last minute, the starter gave me a "Spectator" pass so I could ride along in the cart. I didn't play the first hole but played the remaining 8 as we were out of sight of the starter's shack.

Yesterday Arne and I saw "Amelia," life story of Amelia Earhart. Hilary Swank. the actress, looked very much like Amelia. I enjoyed the movie but of course there was no surprise ending. She was a remarkable lady and very daring. She was only 40 when she went down in the Pacific.

This afternoon I played my first games of team volleyball. It was fun but I have lots to learn if I want to play on the Villages 65-69 team next year. Before I left, we had a storm front move through...dark, roiling clouds. We did get some nice rain out of it.

Atlantis Launch...Spectacular!!

Sunday Arne and I drove over to Titusville. We spent some time at Space View Park looking at the Astronaut Walk of Fame and monuments for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. We then checked in to our motel and decided it would be the best place from which to view Monday's shuttle launch. Our room was on the second floor and early Monday morning Arne set up our chairs on the balcony looking directly across to the launch pad. We were 12-13 miles away. The sky was very cloudy throughout the morning and we were concerned the launch would be cancelled. The launch of Atlantis took place as scheduled, 2:28 PM EST, and according to NASA it was "perfect" and "flawless." We totally agree and feel so fortunate to have witnessed this spectacle. We thought we would be lucky to view the shuttle for 20 seconds but actually were able to view it for almost two minutes. Words cannot describe what we saw.



Here's some video. I apologize I got so engrossed in the launch that I didn't pay attention to the camera I was holding. Kind of like my experience in Ocala today when I was stopped for going 57 in a 40 MPH zone. OUCH! Now I know where the state of Florida gets their revenue since they don't have state income tax. :-)

New Acquisition

Our neighborhood held a community garage sale Saturday with preview on Friday evening. Since we had gotten rid of most of our excess before leaving Arizona, we didn't participate in the selling but did do some buying. I bought this bike for $15 and am enjoying riding around the neighborhood and on the recreation trails. I also bought half a dozen books and for the life of me, I can't figure out why I did that since I could get them for free through the library. Duh!

Saturday afternoon I picked up my new sewing maching. Yes, that's right. After 30 years, I've decided I want to sew again. I want to make some window treatments so didn't need any fancy machine. This is just a basic with a dozen different stitches. I went to Joann's Fabrics to buy a spool of thread and a remnant on which to practice. I was shocked when the thread rang up at over $5! The last time I bought thread it was about 75¢.

This afternoon Arne and I moved all of the garage stuff from the living room back into the garage. How nice to have the living room back. Now I can call to have our new sofa and loveseat delivered. They've been holding it for 3 weeks. This is a picture of my desk unit from Scottsdale which will now be Arne's Art Corner.

Octoberfest and Halloween

Friday night we went over to Lake Sumter Landing for the Octoberfest. With hundreds of people in attendance, we managed to run into two couples from our neighborhood. But the biggest surprise was to find Del and Jacque Heiser, former Terravita residents. I had just emailed them that afternoon asking if they were back in The Villages after spending the summer in Pennsylvania. We had a very nice visit with them as we ate Weiner Schnitzel, veal cutlet on pretzel dough bun covered in sauerkraut.

Saturday night we went to the neighborhood Halloween party. We had a good time and even did a little dancing. I did the twist with our next-door neighbor, who was dressed in drag. He won the prize for funniest costume. Someone else dressed as a mountain of debt. We decided to go as Arizonans.





We've had lots of activity in front of our house. One neighbor is putting in a pool which was started almost two months ago! There has been a truck of some sort almost every day during that time AND they park at the end of our driveway, making it more difficult to turn out onto the street. The moving van came Friday AND Saturday. Haven't met these neighbors yet but they must have a lot of stuff!



The other neighbor across the street just put in a natural wall around their pool. They planted mature queen palms, Mexican palms, bird of paradise and bamboo. Arne thought he was back in Viet Nam.