El Mirage, Arizona

We learned more about a new sport yesterday. Well, it’s actually an old sport, but we’d never heard of it before.

Formerly known as lawn bowling, bowls is a sport that’s at least seven hundred years old.

It began in England, and several kings banned play because they felt that too much play would destroy soldiers’ archery skills.

Bowls is very similar to curling and bocci ball, and all three sports use some of the same terminology.

A small while ball called a jack is rolled across the lawn. The jack marks the spot that players roll their bowls to; bowls closer to the jack score highest.

The bowls are made of a compressed composite material. They are weighted heavier on one side so that they curve when rolling towards the jack.

There are lots of traditions in the sport’s play. During tournaments players wear only white. Communication between partners involves lots of hand signals because they are at opposite ends of the court.

I have tried and loved curling, but I never did understand scoring. Bowls scoring sounds complicated, too.

I would love to try bowls, but I’m not sure Rich would be happy if I picked up another sport to be passionate about…

I’m hopeful Rich will give it a try while I’m playing pickleball.

Gold Canyon. Arizona

I received three special Christmas presents among a plethora of great gifts from friends and family!

• Richie and Melissa are spending a white Christmas together in Boise.
• Rich told me to go play pickleball while he cooked the cioppino for Christmas Eve dinner for us and a few friends.
• My wonderful friend Sharon knew I would be missing snow, so she sent me a couple of gifts including Instant Snow!

I hope y’all have a wonderful holiday season!

P.S. If you didn’t get a chance, you might want to watch this <3 minute video from NBC News that aired a few days ago. It put me in a patriotic and thankful Christmas spirit.*

Snowball Express Brings Cheer to Kids of Fallen Military Heroes

*Be sure to watch until the end…

Gold Canyon, Arizona

I talked a bit about Happy Hour in a previous post. We haven’t had it in our neighborhood for a while because it’s been a bit chilly.

Well, that’s really only part of the reason. Another part is because Wayne and Jan started our neighborhood practice of “church” every evening at four o’clock to watch the effects of the sun’s setting on the Superstition Mountains. Jan loved to sit out in the street because it afforded the best view.

But last week Jan and Wayne moved into their new permanent home–a park model  in this resort with perfect views of the Superstitions.

They’ve been busy getting moved from their 5th wheel into the park model.

Last night was the first night “the street people” met for happy hour since their move. We had a wonderful visit, laughing and telling each other great stories.

At one point, Jan mentioned that she recently bought a standing rib roast. When I asked her how she was going cook it, she smiled proudly and said, “I now have an oven.”

That might not sound like much to you, but to those of us living in an RV it’s huge. We all have connection/microwave oven combinations. While they are okay, they are a D- compared to a standard oven for baking and roasting.

Six people turned towards Jan and said in stereo-like unison, “You have an oven?”

She smiled and nodded yes.

Debbie hesitantly asked, “Do you have a dishwasher, too?”

The rest of us sighed with appliance envy as Jan nodded yes.

Gold Canyon, Arizona

Our resort back yard neighbors are Mona and Don.

We haven’t met Don yet, but we have visited with Mona twice in the last month.

We had to. 🙂

Here’s what happened:

Our First Meeting

About four o’clock one afternoon, Mona walked out of her back door with a glass of wine in her hand. She walked onto our patio and into our hearts.

She promptly sat down, introduced herself, and started talking.

Mona doesn’t look anything like da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, but she’s just as intriguing as these two stories show…

All. Her Children

Don and Mona have four children and multiple grandchildren. On the first night Mona and I talked about our children. Mona told me short vignettes about three of her children.

She then said, “And our other son is just plain odd.”

Turns out he lives off the grid in a small town just south of the Canadian border in the Idaho panhandle. He and his wife have homeschooled their children and make their living selling their wares at local markets.

While that son’s life doesn’t produce the same monetary rewards as his siblings, Mona is as proud of this son as she can be.

Mona is very proud of ALL of her children. They are all successful in their own unique way…

Her New Sister-in-Law

Just after Thanksgiving, Mona came over for a short visit, again during happy hour with wine glass in hand.

When asked how the holiday was for her and Don, she proceed to tell us about her new sister-in-law, “Debbie” who is married to Don’s brother, “Bill”.

Hang on, this is a wild ride…

Bill lost his wife to a two year battle with cancer during April 2014.

After over 40 years of being apart with no contact, Bill and Debbie reconnected recently and were married on December 1. 2014.

Debbie used to live near Bill and his first wife. They were good friends. Debbie even worked for Bill and his wife in their family business.

This was over 40 years ago.

Life moved on. Debbie’s husband was transferred to another state, they moved, and eventually the once good friends lost track of one another.

After his wife’s death, Bill started reminiscing and wondered where and how Debbie and her husband were.

He hired a private investigator who located recently widowed Debbie in Seattle.

Gold Canyon, Arizona

Our RV resort held a patio sale yesterday. Residents could sign up to sell items from their RV spot or patio home

I signed up to sell felted soap, so I got a front row seat to the craziness.

Think of a cross between garage sale and Halloween on steroids.

Transportation varied from golf carts to bicycles to cars. Oh, and the occasional pedestrian.

Late Friday afternoon, early lookie loos wandered around the park scoping out the hot spots so they could be first in line in the morning.

The sale started promptly at seven. Why seven you might ask? Because the sun wasn’t up at six. 🙂

Husbands and wives often split up. One would drive to one end of the street and park while the other would walk along slowly and look. Reminded me of Halloween because that’s exactly what I did with my kids.

The other day I heard about a drive-by funeral home. This patio sale was a drive-by sale. I lost count of the number of cars that slowly drove about five mph and about five feet from my table.

I would say “Good morning.” The husband would say, “It’s soap.” The wife would shake her head, and they would drive away never even acknowledging my greeting let alone making eye contact. It was like they thought being in their car made them invisibile to me.

The good news is that I did sell some soap. And the better news is that the morning provided some of the best people watching moments ever!

Gold Canyon, Arizona

Every afternoon between 4:00 and 4:30, RVers and Annuals (those who own or live in park models) start scurrying about the park.

Shuffling this way and that, some are carrying food, some are carrying bottles, and some are carrying glasses.

What’s going on?

The bewitching Happy Hour!

Laughter and conversations drift all around the park from random abodes. By my inexact count, there’s a happy hour meeting in about every ten residences.

So once this park is full (after January 15), there will be about 75 happy hour parties–each and every night.

The group we meet with sit out in the ‘street’ and watch the beautiful and colorful effects of the sun setting on the Superstition Mountains. It’s a great group, and we have combined to solve almost all of the world’s problems if just someone in authority would listen to our collective wisdom… 🙂

The emphasis on many of the happy hours is the alcohol. We had a great giggle the other day while entering Costco. An 85+ year old woman was buying three large bottles of whiskey. An 80+ year old man told her, “Go ahead… Just buy four!” She snapped back, “I only need three right now!”

Her happy hours are most likely very happy. 🙂