Caught in the Rain

I go for an hour long walk around the park every day from 4:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. 

One day, it had rained a little in the morning but just a little. 

I asked Barb if it was going to rain during my walk.  She said no.  I met a lady jogging in her raincoat.  Then when I got to the point where I was farthest from home, it started to sprinkle. 

I saw a friend sitting outside on his carport with his wife and another couple.  I decided to stop and wait for the rain to stop.  However, the rain got harder and eventually became a torrential downpour. 

I phoned Barb and asked her to come to pick me up.  She said she would when the rain let up. 

I had to wait at my friend’s house for quite a while.  We couldn’t even talk on the carport because the noise of the rain on the roof was too loud.

Parachute Joke

We were having steak one windy night. 

Barb lit the barbecue and came inside to wait for it to heat up.  When she went outside to check it, she found that the wind had blown out the flame. 

She came back in the house and got the lighter. 

She didn’t turn off the gas and open the lid to let the gas out that had built up in the barbecue.  So when she lit the barbecue again, I heard a big bang because it made a big explosion. 

She thought she had broken the barbecue.  I thought she had blown herself up. 

The parachute joke wasn’t very funny anymore..

So Many Barbs

At one point last year, we noticed that there were many Barbs in the park.  I looked it up and it turns out Barbara was the second most popular name for a girl born in the 1950’s.

When we were sitting all day long watching games at the pickleball tournament, there were many times when someone was trying to get Barb’s attention.  However, it wasn’t my Barb they were yelling at.  It was always some other Barb.

Never Say Die

I finally saw Barb play in a pickleball tournament.  She was playing in the top level of women’s doubles. 

There were four teams in her division.  So they played a round robin. 

Barb and her partner won their first two games easily.  Then they had to play the other undefeated team in the last game and the winner would be the champions. 

They were playing one game to 21. 

The other team was surprisingly good.  Barb and her partner were losing 20-16 near the end of the game. 

I thought to myself if I was calculating probabilities I would almost certainly think Barb was going to lose. 

Then someone on the other court started a leaf blower.  I guess that distracted the other team and Barb got two quick points on service aces. 

Barb and her partner never lost focus and never gave up.  They turned the game around.  Barb and her partner came back and won the game 21-20. 

Barb had mistakenly thought the tournament would be decided by point differential but it was actually decided only by points for.  So they won the tournament by one point 63-62.

Open Door

Barb’s friend from Ottawa was coming to Florida for a few weeks and decided to come to Sebring to play with Barb in the pickleball tournament.   

He came over to our house for dinner the night before the tournament.  He and Barb were very excited about playing together in the tournament.   

They spent the whole evening at the dining room table talking pickleball strategy.  I spent the evening in the living room working on my computer.   

At one point in the evening, I got up to get Barb and myself a cup of coffee.  When I walked into the dining room from the kitchen, I noticed that the door was wide open.  Barb and her friend had been sitting right beside the door all night and hadn’t noticed how cold it was getting.  

 They were working up a lot of heat with their excitement about pickleball.

Book Found

I have been reading these nonfiction books on development aid and how the big plans often don’t work.  One of the books referred to a book I owned.  I had started the book last winter here in Florida but never finished it.  I brought it back to Ottawa for the summer but I didn’t finish it there either.  So I brought back to Florida again hoping to finish it this winter.  When I went to look for it among my books I couldn’t find it. 

The very next day, I was getting into the car and I saw something under the driver’s seat.  I got down on my knees to reach under the seat and there was my book.

Chinese Lanterns

Our friend in the park organized a Chinese lantern party for Valentine’s Day.  However, it was too cold that night and many people had other plans.  So she rescheduled it for the next night.  About 100 people from the park showed up with the lanterns that were handed out ahead of time.  We were one of the first to let our lantern go.  It was a big pink heart and it flew away in the wind over the orange groves. 

Barb had a friend who lived close to the place where all the lanterns were taking off.  However, her friend wasn’t out looking at them.  So Barb went up to their house and disturbed them during dinner.  They thought the lanterns were going off at 7:30 but they were going off at 7:15.  Her friend and her husband were so happy they hadn’t missed it. 

Barb was saying that it was too bad that Daphne and Truman weren’t there to see it because she said they would like this kind of thing.  Then we turned around and there were Daphne and Truman with Scruffy. 

It was really cool seeing all the lanterns flying away over the orange groves but we wondered where they would come down.  The organizing lady said that she had put the fire department on notice that she was doing this.

Julia’s Valentine’s Day Surprise

On Valentine’s Day, Julia sent Barb an iMessage saying “We’re Engaged” and included a photograph of her hand with her engagement ring on her finger.

She told us the story through numerous iMessages.  Dillan and Julia got all dressed up and went out for dinner at the Chateau Laurier.  He was showing her around the place and said that his father had their wedding reception there.  Then he proposed to her and gave her his mother’s ring.

Julia said “Yes” and they were both very happy. 

They are moving into an apartment together at the end of the month.

Barb Gets a Fat Lip

Pickleball involves a lot of overhead smashes.  Barb regular comes home after pickleball and shows me the bruises where she got hit.  One day she came home and showed me her fat lip.  I guess an opponent’s overhead smash ricocheted off her paddle and hit her in the lip.  She had a sore fat lip for a few days.

Slicing Bagels

Barb found a Panera Bagel store in Sebring.  She loves their cinnamon bagels.  They sell them by the baker’s dozen (which is actually 13 bagels). The first time she went there they were sold out of cinnamon bagels early in the morning.  The second time she went there she bought some bagels but she had to wait a long time in line.  Then she found a website where she could order the bagels the night before.  She could pay for the bagels online as well.  Then she could pick them up without having to wait in line to pay.  There was option to ask for the bagels to be sliced.  However, you had to check each bagel individually.  When Barb picked up her bagels the next day, it turned out she had ordered six bagels sliced and seven bagels unsliced.

Sarah’s First Meatloaf

Sarah messaged Barb to get her meatloaf recipe from her one night at around 9 pm.  Barb couldn’t find her meatloaf recipe because we never make meatloaf in Florida.  The only time she made meatloaf was for Sarah at Christmas.

So Barb just gave Sarah the recipe off the top of her head.  I worked out fine and now Sarah has a great recipe for meatloaf and makes it all the time.

Ivan Taylor from Peterborough

I was sleeping in as usual and I heard someone knock of the door.  Barb answered it.  The couple who were knocked wanted to know if this was where Ivan Taylor from Peterborough lived.  Barb said no this is where Ivan Taylor from Ottawa lives.

It turned out they really only wanted to pick some grapefruits off our tree in the backyard.  Barb said sure they could.  We have the biggest grapefruit tree in the park and there are tons of big grapefruits growing on it all year round.

Barb Caught Out

Barb plays pickleball every morning with her friends at a set of courts in the Sun ‘N Lake community near by.  She pays $100 per year for a membership to play there.  Her membership was about to expire on February 1^st.  She didn’t think they would cancel her membership right away.  So she didn’t rush to renew it.  When she went to the courts on February 1^st, she found out she couldn’t get in.  It was a weekend.  So the office was closed.

There was another fellow in her group who was in the same boat.

In the evening, Barb was making an arrangement with this fellow to play the next morning.  Suddenly, she realized that neither of them would be able to get in to the courts.