Enjoying our Retirement

It is 10:00 a.m. and we have already had calls from Shannon and Eddie. Shannon and her family are on their way to the Alps with a group of home schooling French people (some of whom speak English). She will be gone for a week and not getting any emails. Eddie called on the way home from the ice rink with Evan and Brady. Eddie's hockey team--he coaches and Evan plays on the Saturday team--are 12 and 1. Evan got two assists this morning and Brady was the water boy. (On two nights of the week this role is reversed but Eddie still coaches.) Mac and I really like it when the kids check in for the day.
My sisters and brothers are all doing well. Karen started us off with an email about how things were good with her and the rest of us responded with how well we are too. (Somebody has to be lieing.??) How can we all be enjoying our jobs or our retirements or our mixture (like Jerry)?
I feel like we are pretty well blessed in our family with such healthy kids and grandkids and with our mutual respect and caring.
Mac and I are going to go get the mail now and walk around Lake Menzie in Dundee while we are over there. We are going to a comedy this afternoon called "The Sugar Bean Sisters" and will probably go out for dinner. Tomorrow I am playing bridge all day in a Swiss Team Event at the club.
FUTURE PLANS
When the one year listing is up on our real estate posting we are going to make some improvements on our unit. We are going to get rid of the plastic windows and storm doors on the front and back of the Florida room and put in real doors and a nice glass front window. We will probably get a new mattress and a new refrigerator too. We don't want to fix it up and then get an offer on it. The listing ends Feb. 14th.
We are leaving the 21st for a week in Michigan. We will be going to a hockey tournament in Lansing while we are there. Eddie is playing in an old timers league. Some of his old team mates from Mich and Wisc may turn out to play on his team. We have some cold weather clothes down here (we wore them down when we left Mich.) I told Sherry that I would have to borrow her boots though. It will be a fun week in Traverse City. Owen will be able to talk to us a little now. They will be coming down to stay with us the first week of April too.
Shannon will be staying for few months in Michigan this summer. Some in Gowen and some in Ann Arbor and a few weeks in Bedeck, Novia Scotia. If she buys a new van in Michigan for the trek into Canada, I may be able to ride along. That sounds good to me, I hope I have enough energy for a trip like that though.
My sister Mary is contemplating a trip to the USA in June for a weaving conference in Tampa. I would like to be in on that too. We will see what likes ahead.

Teaching Again

Here is picture of my water exercise class today. We had 7 (one exercised on the side of the pool) this a.m. and I am very happy with how the class has progressed so far this month. We did 50 minutes of continuous exercises today, none of which are aerobic. The scarecrow in the back is me of course.
I am also teaching a scrapbooking class and I am finding out that teaching really makes me very happy. I had forgotten how much I really love teaching.
This was such a good week for me. I did lousy at bridge (always just out of the money, but still fun). Mac and I walked around Lake Menzie. I got a great call from the Williams (they called me at 5:30 a.m. and I was up, we talked for an hour). Anja told me to check out my son's web page because he has listed fake relatives. Sure enough there is a mystery cousin listed.
Mac got a great present from Eddie for his birthday(It's a Red Wings T-Shirt with Rawfalski's name on the back of it). We got 2 haircuts and went out for dinner about three times this week. I am now reading a new book that was written by the husband of one of my bridge friends.
Mac and I both record each morning what we are grateful for that day. This morning I noted that I was grateful that I haven't even noticed that I have knees lately. The shots have started to do the good work of keeping me out of pain.

I have finished the Efudex face treatments

Here is the finished forehead. I put the Efudex on twice a day for two weeks and here you see the resulting reaction. Each red mark is a piece of bad skin that is being removed from my face. I started this process this summer doing one cheek and then the nose and then the other cheek and then the chin and under my nose. I have to wait two weeks or more between applications but now I have done the whole face and I can forget about cancer on my face for a few years. Yeah!!

Being Naughty!!

I did something I shouldn't today. I rode on the new roller coaster at Cypress Gardens. It is somewhat like the "Blue Streak" at Cedar Point. It is bigger, but it is an all wooden one which I like better than the metal one. I really liked it. I have been to CG three times this season and I was always listening to the "click, click, click" as the coaster climbed the first hill. Each time I heard it I thought it was calling to me. I drive by the park quite often too and I see the long expanse of the coaster from the road and that was luring me as well. I finally gave in as I was at the park without Mac and had a girlfriend with me who likes white water rafting so I thought that she might be game. We did it, I am not in pain and I wouldn't mind doing it again. My friend (she is 70 years old) nearly lost her $70 leather cowboy hat and her wig too. She caught them as they were about to fly off.

Veggie Sticks

We had a potluck Friday night at the club house. I decided to copy a food item that was brought to the Christmas potluck at the bridge club. It was a big success, but the veggies didn't get eaten. Everyone thought it was a decoration instead of something to eat. It was fun to make anyway. Now Mac and I have to eat a few more veggies this weekend: summer squash, zuchini, pepper bottoms (three colors), cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and cucumber.( Someone told me to do fruit next time, what a great idea.!)

What a Week!!

I have been very active this week. I have started two different classes in the park. We now have a water exercise class and a scrapbooking class. They have both had the kickoff meeting and seem to be going well. I am excited about both of them and hope that all the participants are just as happy as I am.
We went to the Willie Nelson concert on Saturday and had Jim and Maria all day Sunday. Both of these were great. We love the Willie and the Sandviks. It is just wonderful that Maria is growing hair again and that just maybe she has this thing licked. She has a great attitude.
I have had a 1st and a2nd at bridge the last two outings (both with Jeanne) and have eaten at Jimmy T's twice.
All of these things were this week and what is really surprising is that I have had a case of shingles to fight to boot. It is the lightest case that I have ever had and I am taking an anti-virus med for it, but I have done two exercise classes and several 1/2 hour swims while fighting it and it seems to be all but gone right now.
I didn't manage to post the right link in the last blog. I hope it gets in this time. It is fun to learn how to do this. If the link is there, you can use it to check up on my bridge results.
I really like this picture that John took. We are all taking pictures of him and his sister and he is coming right back at us.
I cancelled going up to Detroit for the nationals. I had originally thought that Mac and I would just go home early and I would go to the tournament with Gargi and play some with Allan as well. I was feeling so bad about not wanting to go, but when Mac started enjoying Florida for the first time and wasn't wanting to go home, or for me to leave him, I felt that I should honor his request as he has been coming down here for me for years. What was great was that Gargi and Allan were both kind of iffy about the tournament anyway and weren't all that disappointed. We had a great time last August in Grand Rapids and we hope that we can do that again instead.
Wow--what a relief. Even Harry, who was going to attend, is now going to come to Florida during the week of the nationals as his friend's father has a birthday around that time.
We are supposed to go to the Gatlin brothers this weekend but the rest of the time we will be watching football and hockey or something. I wish that Shannon and Caleb's computor was fixed as I miss hearing from them.

You can check out my Bridge Results

Since you don't get the Lakeland Ledger and can't look for my name in the weekly bridge results column you might want to look me up online. The full names are given under the games heading. whbc stands for the "winterhavenbridgeclub". So far this year I have been mostly second or third when I play. I am looking to be #1 but it hasn't happened yet.

The After-Math

While I was doing my morning "Jumble" puzzle yesterday, the answer to--what was life for the retired Arithmetic teacher?--struct me as being a good title for all that has happened to me in the 6 years since I retired. I can't even imagine that six years have passed. It seems like the time is just flying by and I am just as lucky as I can be to have had this time to spend with my family and friends. I have had such a variety of stimulating and fun experiences.
We have so many fun things planned for this month. We had the birthday weekend with Mac's nieces and nephews last week and the dinner with our park friends. I have my two games of bridge per week planned with my girlfriends. We are scheduled to go to the shuttle launch on the 10th, but we may not be up for a 2:23 am event. We will see our friends from Seattle anyway whether at the launch or some other time. This Sat. is the Willie Nelson concert and Harry is supposed to visit after that. We have tickets to the theater in Winter Haven the following Saturday and possibly the Kenny Rogers concert the first of Feb. I need to mention the park events too, like the water exercise classes that I am helping to get started on Friday and the scrapbooking classes that I start next Tuesday. I am also running for Vice President of the assoc. today and we have a potluck this month.
Mac is as happy as he has ever been here in Florida this season and that makes me think that we will be coming down here for a number of years. He sees how much healthier he is where he can do his daily walks. He is just happier in general lately.
Yesterday I got the cutest Skype call from France. The girls have "borrowed" some guinea pigs for the time they are in France. As they had several back home, theses animals have made a huge emotional impact on the girls. Caleb kept talking about how to "roast" and eat these kind of pets to tease the girls and they were just telling him to "can it". I should include technological things on my list of blessings. Being able to see the Williams while I talk to them is very heartwarming for me. By the way, Sofie says that when she grow up she wants to have two houses and one of them will be in Florida with me. That sounds good to me too.
All for now.

No dog for now

We spent the weekend in West Palm visiting Mac's nephew John and his 6 dogs. As usual we came back with lots of dog hair and full of doggie kisses and love, but we didn't bring Foster back with us. We really love him, but he isn't potty trained. While we were there for the weekend he left at least 8 pools of urine. It broke our heart to leave him, but we couldn't adopt a dog that had such a problem. John says that he can cure him and we may reconsider at a later date.
Mac had a lovely birthday party down there so it was a good weekend anyway.