Coincidences Involving Wallpaper

Barb finished her quilt just in time for the craft show at the community center on Sunday. On Sunday night, she put the quilt on our bed for the first time. It looked nice but Barb felt it didn't match the wallpaper.

Barb started thinking of repapering the bedroom. She talked to the previous owner about how the wallpaper in the bedroom was put up. He said he didn't know. He told Barb that a lady named Mary Lou, who was the girlfriend of the first owner, had put up the wallpaper.

Barb didn't think about it again.  Barb thought she might never find out how the wallpaper was put up.

The next day we went for brunch at Virginia's house with another couple. To make six of us, Virginia had also invited a lady to brunch named Mary Lou. Barb didn't put two and two together.

Then today Barb was outside and Mary Lou walked by. Barb went over to say hi. Mary Lou asked if the wallpaper was still up in the bedroom. Barb realized this was the same Mary Lou previous owner mentioned.

Then the previous owner came walking by. He was excited to tell Barb that this was the Mary Lou who put up the wallpaper.

Through all of these coincidences, Barb got her questions answered about the wallpaper.

A Long Distance Message from Down the Street

I got a call from Barb's friend the other day asking me if Barb and I could go with them to brunch at one of her neighbour's house. She suggested Sunday. However, I was going to watch the Blue Jays Spring Training game with my sister that day and Barb had her craft show at the community center.

Later, Barb got an email from Julia saying that someone named Virginia had phoned and left a message. Virginia invited Barb and me to brunch. Barb didn't know anyone in Ottawa named Virginia.

Barb emailed Julia back about it.  Julia said that she thought the lady was calling from the park here in Florida.

Then Barb got a call here from Virginia. Barb didn't know her. It turned out that Virginia had looked our name up in the park directory that was from last year. Since we didn't live here last year, we had our Ottawa phone number in the book. We didn't have a Florida phone number then.

Virginia wanted us to come over for brunch.  She wouldn't take no for an answer. Virginia said that Barb'a best friend and her husband would be coming too. So Barb said we would come over on Tuesday morning.

Barb asked her best friend about Virginia. Her friend said that Virginia likes to cook. She is a lonely widow. So she looks in the phone directory and randomly picks couples to join her for brunch.

We went on Tuesday and had good food but it was kind of strange. We could see that Virginia was just a lonely old lady who wanted someone to talk to. So she kept her schedule full with guests. Then she didn't have to eat alone.

Trophy Wife

Barb came out to watch my playoff games in slowpitch this week.  

We walked in together and I gave Barb a little kiss before I went to prepare for the game.  There were guys in the stands that noticed.  Some said kissing was not allowed.  Others said no kissing was okay.

We lost in the semi-finals.

After the game, the finalists were coming in to take our bench.  Barb was waiting for me outside the fence.  One of the players coming in asked Barb who she was waiting for.  Barb said Ivan.

The guy turned and said to me, “You never told me you were married to a super-model”.

Then the other guys chimed in.  They said it must be because I am a billionaire who has a trophy wife.

Greasing the Wheels

We don’t get many phone calls here in Florida and when we do they are usually wrong numbers.

The other day I got a phone call from the organizer of the Heartland Games Pickle Ball Tournament.  He asked for Barb.  I told him she was out.  He asked me if she realized that her and her partner Ross, in the mixed doubles tournament, would be playing in the 55 and under category.  I said that I thought she did.

He said that Ross was 72 years old.  Usually people will play down one level but he has never seen someone come down that many levels.

Barb found out later that the organizer also phoned Ross and asked him the same question.

Ross said, “Yes, I have taken out the WD40, to grease the wheels on my wheelchair”.

Barb and Ross went out and won the bronze medal in the 55 and under category.  They got their names in the paper but not their ages.

Florida's Natural Life

As I said in my last post, we are not gardeners. Over the summer, we had people come to cut our grass and blow the leaves off our lawn. But since we are here, Barb decided to cancel that service for the winter.

As usual, Barb did the work herself.

There are a lot of leaves from the neighbour's tree that fall on our lawn. The first time Barb was out raking the leaves, she found that the leaves had formed natural little piles along the side of the road on our lawn.

As Barb started raking one of the piles, she felt something bite her leg. It really hurt. She looked down to see her shoes and socks covered with red ants. She threw down her rake and started slapping at them to get them off before she got biten any more.

When she picked up the rake again, it was covered with red ants as well.

From then on, she was very careful to check for red ants before doing any gardening.

Poke and Kill Ya

We are not gardeners. The lady who owned the house before us had a plant called a bougainvillea climbing the tressles beside the driveway.

They had beautiful red flowers but they also had very long and sharp needles on the vines.

One day I was talking to the man who owned the house before us. He told me how his wife had worked for many years to get those flowers to bloom and how much she loved those flowers. He also looked at the vines and told me that they needed to be trimmed.

Barb was talking to a neighbour who had the same flowers on his tressle and she asked him how he trimmed them. He said it was very difficult. He showed Barb the scratches that he had gotten recently while trimming it. He said the vine should be called “Poke and Kill Ya” instead of bougainvillea.

Barb hated the bougainvillea because she kept getting stabbed by the thorns when she got out of the car in the driveway. So one day, rather than trim them, she cut them down and threw them out. She got terribly scratched by the thorns but she was happy to be rid of them.

Soon after that Barb went to the block party and saw the previous owner. She wouldn't talk to Barb, she was so mad at her.

Fortunately, in a few weeks, she got over it and they are back on talking terms.

Being a Little Boy Again

My cousin Paul, from England, came to visit my sister and I a few weeks ago.

One morning, I brought him and his wife Amanda to the local softball diamond to watch a game from the over 60's league. They had never seen a softball game before. I explained the rules and answered their questions. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

When we got home, I showed Paul my softball equipment. We played a little catch. Then I let him try my bat. I tossed a few slow pitches to him.

He couldn't hit the ball at first. So we kept trying.

Finally, he hit the ball. It went flying and hit the neighbour's house. Paul went running to hide. I went running to pick up the ball.

What bad little boys!

Its A Wonderful Life

Ever since I can remember I have watched the movie “Its a Wonderful Life” during the Christmas season. It was a tradition for me even before I had a family. My family adopted it as they grew up.

This year, since Barb and I were in Florida, we wanted to start some new Christmas traditions which mostly involved not having Christmas traditions. However, the girls didn't like that plan.

Sarah bought the DVD of Its a Wonderful Life and showed it to her roommates and friends.

One night she was watching it with a friend and started texting Barb while she was watching.

Barb started to text back dialogue from the movie that I told her about, and she remembered, as Sarah was watching.

Sarah was freaking out because she thought Barb was looking up the dialogue on the internet. Barb said that she wasn't. Sarah said that Barb couldn't have remembered all of the dialogue herself because Barb doesn't have a good memory.

In the end, Sarah found out that I was prompting Barb and that made sense to Sarah because she knew that I had watched the movie so many times that I pretty much knew it off by heart.

But spending the winter in Florida is a Wonderful Life.

Living for a week on New Zealand Time

The International Softball Federation World Championships were held in New Zealand last week. It was broadcast on the internet as a pay-per-view. I got a little confused about how to pay and what it cost. Fortunately, I got a nice email from the lady running the show telling me that I had overpaid and would get a few days of free viewing.

I watched the tournament every day for 10 days. I especially enjoyed seeing my friend Matt Roy hit lead off for Canada and have a lot of great at bats. He must have had a great on base average.

The funny thing was that the tourament was live from New Zealand time which is 18 hours ahead of us. So the games started at 5 pm and ran continuously until 4 am. For a week, I was up all night and slept all day. I was also confused about what day it was because the tournament schedule was listed aas their day which is the next day to us. The tournament ended on Sunday their time and Saturday our time.

It was also funny that Barb got involved in watching the playoffs with me. She got very excited a couple of times.

In the semi-finals, the Australian coach started his second string pitcher because he thought they would easily beat the Venezuelan team. The second string pitcher allowed three runs in the first two innings before the coach put in his best pitcher. The Australians never scored and they lost because the coach was over-confident.

In the finals, Barb got upset at some calls by the umpire and the fact that the umpire was trying to control the game instead of letting the players play. One time the pitcher didn't like the ball he had to use and asked for a new ball. The umpire wouldn't let him have one because he said they were delaying the game. Then the pitcher, umpire, catcher and coach got into a long argument that delayed that game much more than if the umpire had just let the pitcher have another ball. The next pitch hit the batter. So he got on base. The next batter almost struck out looking but the umpire called, what looked to us and the Venezuelan pitcher as the third strike, a ball. Then he walked that batter. The next batter hit a three run homerun and that homerun decided the game.  The home team, New Zealand, won the tournament.