Games...a few choices for you.

HOW MANY DIFFERENT GAMES DO YOU KNOW HOW TO PLAY?  Why?  Well retirement is all about playing...life becomes a game. 

I, for example, I play with words.  The blog is my game board and words are the game tiles.  Still other love a game of golf or a game of bocce.  Card games, including Texas Hold em, are great favorites around here.  My friend played in a bocce tournament with us this morning and left immediately to play Bridge.

I am just pointing this out to you because I believe that games and puzzles are a wonderful way to keep our minds alive and allow us to socialize with others. 

Here in Rincon East RV Resort you will need to be fearless...this is your opportunity to learn new things in the company of people just like you. You can take that first yoga class with other people that are taking their first class.  You can play your first bocce game with beginners like you.  Age is not a factor...the leaders in our bocce ball tournament include people in their eighties and people much, much younger! 

So if you are an expert, here is your chance to teach.  If you are beginner, here is your chance to learn.  

Texas Hold Em Rules On Monday night a group of people gather in the card room to play poker...the longer a player stays in the game the more he/she wins.  I hear it is a great lot of fun and, if you are lucky, you may even win a little petty change.

Euchre  (rules here) is played in the afternoon almost everyday.  For those of you from the mid west this is good news.  There are even a hardy few that play every day.  I don't know how to play this game but it does sound fun.  

Cribbage (rules here)  I learned this game as a child. Although the rules look complicated, it is really very easy and lots of fun. 

Bocce (rules here) is that game you see being played in parks using concrete balls along with a smaller ball called a Pallino.  According to Life Script, healthy living for women! bocce has been around for thousands of years and is still a favorite of the young and the old.

Throwing balls toward a target has always been a favorite sport of the common man. The Egyptians were the first to play bocce around 5000 B.C., using polished rocks. The Egyptians passed the game to the Greeks around 800 B.C., who then taught the Romans to play it using coconuts! Emperor Augustus was supposedly a great bocce sportsman. The Roman influence in the game is seen clearly in its name; the word bocce derives from the Latin bottia, meaning boss.

Horse Shoes is a favorite here in this resort.  Men show up in the morning and games go on all day.  Alph Horse (rules here) says "Horseshoes is a game that is extremely easy to learn, yet difficult to master. While no article can hope to help your mastery of the game (sorry – it takes time and practice to get the knack for pitching a horseshoe), by the time you are finished with this article you will have a full understanding of how horseshoes is played and scored.

Pickle Ball  We have just added a Pickle Ball (rules here) court here in our resort within the last year.  This court is used hard everyday that it does not rain or blow.  Players often practice on the court for competition at the city parks and recreation facilities.  It is a fast game with rules that are similar to volley but played with a paddle and a light weight ball. 

Bridge is a great favorite with players both in this park but in parks near by.  If  you  love a challenging game you will find wonderful playing partners and couples to spend time with.

Golfers with out partners will find a list of people looking for a game in the recreation director's office.  I noticed recently that they was a very long list of people that had signed up.

Bingo players have one evening a week to play and win.  If you love this game of chance, you will have lots of competition.  Our auditorium fills on this evening for a game.  You can win prizes at this event.

We also have a tennis court, pool tables and, for the card players, several rooms with the appropriate tables.

The choice is yours.  There is no reason for anyone to be bored here.


b    

Ann Landers and Me...a day in the life of a snowbird!

Image via Wikipedia

The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you havent thought of yet. - Ann Landers

We played bocce ball today...our season began this week so we are all out trying to figure out how to play, again.  Yes I know we are getting smarter as we age and really there is no reason to shy away from learning a new skill.  The thing that drives me nuts is not knowing how to do something I already know how to do...if that makes any sense.

We are partners with another couple...Ken and Carole.  Carole is the "my friend Carole" I talk about so much.  She is funny but not really very quiet and she does talk a lot.  Even more than me I think.  If Ann Landers were still alive the saying I quoted above could have actually been about Carole and I.  We do drive people to distraction on the bocce ball court.  We are very good players sometimes and we do win.  Probably in a serious league we would be banned or something...we may be banned in our RV Resort.  Sigh!

Tomorrow I will play golf in a ladies league at our golf course that is very near by the RV park.  Fred Inke Tucson Public Course is very difficult so I don't know how it is going to be.  My friend Carole ask me what I was thinking!  Let me know that that works out, she said.  I am just a little afraid.   I don't know what the punishment for public embarrassment is...do your suppose they will yell at me?  Keep me in your prayers because I think I am going to need it!

I spent the morning trying to straighten out my Hubpages account so I could earn money on Google Adsense.  I am waiting for a reply to my email...I am hoping I didn't leave the poor people at Hubpages scratching their head.  I have not received a reply yet.  I am hoping that they understand that even though I am in my very late 60's I have not lost all my senses and am still a smart woman...my email may not have conveyed that message.  We will see.

A neighbor invited us over for a cocktail hour and we were invited to stay for soup supper...it was such a lot of fun.  They live in North Dakota very near where all the oil fields have come to life.  They have some very interesting stories about "Man Camps" and the influx of people moving in in the hopes of finding jobs.

A day in my life.  I will be back tomorrow...we will talk again then.

b

Retirement Question: What do you do all day?

I know...you need help with stuff!  I would come over and help you if I had the time.  Even though I am retired and don't have an actual "job" I am really active almost every day.  Aren't you bored out of your skull?  What do you do all day? you ask.  I guess you need to see a glimpse of what a day in retirement can be like...if you choose.

FAMILY:
Today is December 16, 2010.  Thursday in this year.  We are getting very close to Christmas and all that it means to us.  Last night my daughter and I spent 2 hours on our iphones with the Face to Face function turned on shopping on our computers for family that lives in China.  We found a Pendleton Blanket on ebay and I ordered toys on Amazon for my granddaughters and a fancy wine bottle opener for their parents.  The gifts will arrive at their house in China on December 24.   In the world of this retiree that seems very strange.  To think that China used to be so far away!

BUSINESS:
Today my husband and I have spent the morning with business. My cell phone was on speaker mode while I read documents on the computer, sent email and kept my brain alive.

PUBLIC SERVICE:
Now I will make a huge pot of white chili that we will serve to a group of homeless men at the Catholic Church.  My husband and I will join a group of our friends to eat with a group of veterans that live outside in downtown Tucson.  The men are taking classes and working with the VA to get their life back.  They are transported every day to the church.  They will eat the meal, do their own clean up and then use the facility to shower, wash clothes and sleep in a warm bed.  We are not Catholic but we were delighted to be asked to help.  I wish we did more of this sort of thing.

ORDINARY DAYS:
The ordinary time in our days are the times we love the best...that is why we retired.  We are snowbirds and spend our winters in a small RV Resort in Tucson, AZ.  I have come to think of it as living at "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends".  I don't know if you have ever seen the cartoon but the story line had children's imaginary friends coming to live in the home when the children outgrew them.   Blue Dot, clown, monster and my grandson's friend, God, always had a home until some other child needed them.

Our line up of characters include every imaginable occupation, moral standard, mental state, nation of origin and income level.  The men are veterans and many have decided not to talk about service in Viet Nam or some other overseas assignment.  Some people are nice and some are not. Everyone from the millionaires to the almost homeless widows with only their SS pension live together in peace.  We play bocce ball, pickle ball, tennis, and horse shoes outside.  We play cards, pool and dance inside.  We eat together often, argue over politics or religion and we are always learning from each other.  Books are shared, craft rooms are full and any activity on the exterior of our park models will draw a crowd and lots of advice.  No one should ever be lonely...but if they so choose, they can live in seclusion.

It is cool today and is beginning to rain (70 degrees) so we will stay indoors until this evening.  On a day when we were not leaving the park, we would gather with friends at an informal cocktail hour held on a neighbor's patio at around 4 pm.  I see our friends are playing in a bocce match so I will go visit for a minute and cheer them on.  I am reading a book on my Kindle and, of course, this blog takes quite a lot of my time.

I call this place "The Waiting Room for Heaven" a phrase my friend Carole coined.  Like the imaginary friends at Fosters, we will stay here until our family needs us or we go home for a while.  Then we will spring back into action doing child care and giving support to those we love.

I hope you have an idea of how the time flies for us.  The big question we ask ourselves over and over is when did we have time to work?


Have a wonderful day.

b