Door

We have to be careful to make sure the door of the house is properly closed before we leave the house.  Today I came home from softball and found the door of the house wide open.  Most people in The Villages will lock there door just to go out in the garage and we don't even shut the door to go out for hours.

Directions

I was driving home from brunch with my sister and was at a stoplight in a nearby town.  A lady in the car beside me was trying to get my attention.  So I rolled down the passenger side window and she asked me whether The Villages was on this highway.  I said yes just up the road.  I wondered why she would think to ask me since I had an Ontario license plate.  Maybe it was all the pickleball stuff on the car.  Maybe she is a pickleball player and she knows the pickleball is a big think in The Villages.

Science and Technology Club

My softball game was cancelled today.  So I decided to go to Science and Technology Club to hear a lecture about Nuclear Power.  I was sitting in the back of the room and someone came to sit beside me and it was the husband of Barb's pickleball friend.  After the lecture, I asked him if he wanted to go for coffee.  So we went to Dunkin' Donuts around the corner.  We were sitting outside eating a bagel and drinking coffee when I noticed that the price of gas in the gas station across the road went from $2.06 a gallon to $2.29 a gallon.  There were some kids sitting outside with us and they were just screaming when they saw that.

Sarah

Sarah was struggling with her new job because she was working outside every day in - 20 degrees temperatures.  She sent us a message during one of the worst days with a selfie of her all bundled up and just her eyes showing.  She said she was shedding frozen tears.

Debit Card

Barb's debit card was declined at the quilt show in The Villages.  She phoned the bank and found out that since the vendor at the quilt show was from Ohio, the bank thought it was suspicious activity and had declined the purchase.

Work

I had accumulated a few hours of work that I wasn't able to claim last year because I had run out of days.  I asked my supervisor if I could claim them this year.  He said that it was between me and his boss to decide.  The next day he told me that he had talked to his boss and she said it would be okay.  I waited until payday came around and then I tried to get on my work computer.  I couldn't log on.  So I phoned the help desk and waited on hold for half an hour before I got someone to help me.  I told him my problem and he asked if I was using wifi or was hardwired in the internet.  I said I was using wifi.  He said then there was nothing he could do for me.  So I took my computer into the living room and tried to hook it into the router using the cable.  I reached behind the router and unplugged the cable from the router to plug it into my computer and then I realized that our phone uses the internet and I had just shut off my phone and lost the connection.

Honking

Barb was with her friend coming home from pickleball and she was driving a different way home.  She saw me driving home from softball and she came up behind me at a traffic circle.  She honked to get my attention.  I heard the person behind me honk and I thought he wanted me to move.  So I pulled into the traffic circle and almost got in an accident.  Then I realized that it was Barb and her friend in the car behind me and I waved and drove fast to get out of the way of the oncoming car.

Post Office

There is a grungy Post Office not far from our house but there is a nice Post Office just a little farther away.  So Barb was going out to the nicer Post Office for the first time since we have been here.  When she got there it was closed.  She didn't know why it was closed.  Then she found out it was Martin Luther King Jr Day, a national holiday.

Caitlyn

A friend of Barb's friend was visiting but her friend was not even home she was back in Philadelphia because someone in her family died.  Anyway the friend of the friend was messaging Barb saying she was bored and asking to get together.  Barb was hesitant responding and the friend of the friend messaged and she could accept rejection. She said she would just go a to movie.  She said she heard The Green Book was pretty good.  So Barb started to feel bad and I encouraged Barb to invite Caitlyn over for dinner and a movie.  I said we could get The Green Book on Kodi.  So Barb rushed out to Sam's to buy a roast chicken.  Sam's was almost closing and Barb got there just in time to get the last chicken available.  She thought she would have to fight another lady to get the chicken.

Brunch Delayed

My sister and I get together for brunch once a month.  We were trying to get organized and I emailed her and asked her if she was free on Friday.  She wrote back saying no, could we postpone it until next week because her visitor Sandra is "flighting" out on Friday.

Spotify

I was getting frustrated with my Ottawa radio station because it kept cutting out during my favourite songs.  So I decided to try Spotify.  I found my account and put on a playlist of Bob Dylan songs and really enjoyed it but then I realized that I could listen to my music in iTunes on my computer and I have even better music there.

Tennis

We don't have live TV.  So we can't watch live sports when something big is happening.  Barb was happy then when she stayed with my sister for a few days while she was playing a pickleball tournament near where my sister lives.  She was able to watch some of the Australian Open tennis tournament while she was there.

Registration Problems

Barb was trying to register online for the US Open and they had a special window of time for her category.  She knew that the registration fills up fast so she tried to register as soon as the window opened.  She had trouble logging on and was struggling for 12 minutes before she saw the phone number at the bottom of the registration page to call if you have trouble getting online.  She phoned the number and found out that somehow she was listed as a Guest and not a Member when she was trying to register.  He changed her status to a member and she got in right away.  But by the time she got in all the spots were full.  She was wondering if all of the 4.0 players who registered an hour earlier than her had taken all the spots.  She texted the organizers to complain and the organizer said that there were an equal number of spots for the 4.0 and the 4.5 players.  Then she realized the VIPs could register early if they paid the many hundreds of dollars to be VIPs.  So she thinks that the VIPs had taken all the spots.  Fortunately, some of her partners had been able to register and because they got in she will get to play with them.

Stutter

Barb just realized that we never got the cards for our Travel Insurance.  She thought maybe she never paid for it but I checked the bank account and saw that she had paid for it.  So she phoned the Travel Insurance company and explained the situation and the man on the phone said that they had mailed the cards to our Canadian address.  So he sent us an electronic version of the cards by email that we could print out.  Barb was happy that it all worked out but she told me after she got off the phone with the man that he probably should have found another type or work instead to phone customer service because he had a terrible stutter.

Misunderstanding

When Barb's pickleball friend and her husband took us out for dinner, Barb was talking casually about how difficult it is to win the US Open in the 4.5 category.  Barb thinks it is easier to win the 5.0 category because, even though they are higher ranked, there are fewer teams.  Barb was saying that all of them should play in the 5.0 category.  I guess Barb's friend thought Barb was asking her to play with her in the 5.0 category because she heard through the grapevine that other people had heard that she was playing with this friend in the US Open.  Barb did not intend that at all. She was just blowing off steam.  Then her friend sent Barb a message saying that she didn't think she was ready to play in the US Open and Barb was really surprised that she had misunderstood the whole conversation but Barb was also happy that her friend backed out on her own and Barb didn't to tell her she didn't want to play with her.

Pickleball Picks

Barb's friends are all part of a group of pickleball players called Deb Harrison's Pickleball Picks.  Barb has been very sad that she hasn't been picked to join the group.  I guess you can't ask to join you have to be picked by Deb Harrison who is an instructor in The Villages.  Today she was playing at her normal place and some other people came and took over the courts.  So Deb Harrison set up a foursome to go to another set of courts to play.  Barb was one of the foursome.  After they were finished Deb asked Barb to come over to speak to her and Deb asked, sort of secretly, if Barb wanted to join her Pickleball Picks.  Barb was very honoured but she also wondered why it took 3 years for Deb to pick when some of her other friends were asked as soon as they arrived.  Deb told her that it takes her a long time to decide whether to pick someone to join the group. If you show too much interest in the group, she won't pick you.

Almost Sad

Barb's pickleball friend and her husband took us out for dinner at a good hamburger place.  I had a juicy hamburger and after dinner I went to the washroom to wash my hands.  I was drying my hands with the paper towels over the waste paper basket and I heard a little noise in the basket.  I looked in the basket and saw my university award ring sitting among the used paper towels.  I was lucky that I took notice of the noise because I would have hated to lose the ring that I was so proud of that I had received when I graduated from university 40 years ago.  I had gotten my ring made bigger when I was working quite a few years ago and now I am a lot thinner and I never got the ring resized.  So now it is too big for my finger.

Giggles

Barb set up my phone to play baby giggles when I get a Messenger notification.  Whenever we hear the baby giggles, we both giggle too.

Ultra Low Cost Airline

Spirit Airlines that Laura took to get here and to get home was advertised as the first Ultra Low Cost Airline.  We thought that was because you had to pay for everything even carry-on baggage.  I looked up Spirit Airlines in Wikipedia and it said that they were also known to have the best on-time record of all the airlines.  We realized that they could be on-time because they don't wait for their passengers to get on the plane.  Laura had a stopover in Houston and the stopover was only to change crews.  Everyone had to get off.  So Laura decided to use the washroom which was right beside the gate.  When she came out of the washroom a few minutes later, she found her plane had already left without her.  She was so furious.  There wasn't another seat available until Sunday morning.  So I bought a direct flight from Houston to Seattle on another airline for her and she paid me back.  It was a great waste of money.  She was so mad at Spirit Airlines and I couldn't believe that they would leave without her because she had a boarding pass and her luggage was on the plane.

Great Scott

When I dropped Laura off at the airport, there was a Telsa in front of us letting someone off at the departures.  The Telsa was really neat because it had it wings up like the old DeLoreans. Laura and I thought of the great times we had watching the Back to the Future movies when she was young.

Stoplight

Laura went to watch Barb's pickleball and then she wanted to come and see my softball practice.  I told Barb where my diamond was and when my practice started.  When I was driving to the diamond, I realized I was following Barb and Laura in the CRV.  At the stoplight before we turned into the diamond parking lot, they noticed I was behind them and we waved at each other.  I didn't have to honk at them.

Tracphone

The SIM card for my Tracphone came in the mail today and we tried to set it up.  We had to phone the company and of course with got an automated service.  The first thing they asked for was my Tracphone phone number.  I found the phone number on the phone but when I keyed it in, they told me that that number was no longer in service.  And I couldn't go any further.  I phoned back and this time I said that I wanted to set up a new phone.  They asked for my plan number.  I didn't have a plan yet.  So I was stuck again.  I tried and tried but couldn't get a person on the line.  So Laura tried for me and she finally got someone on the line to talk to and they told me I had to set up a plan before I could set up my phone.  They told me the plan options and I found out they didn't have a pay as you go plan as I thought they did but they did have a cheap plan for $19.95, for 100 units whatever they are, that would last 3 months.  The units are either phone minutes, texts or data but I don't know how many units are used for each type of service.  Then I tested the phone by phoning our land line and it worked.  The man on the phone said they would phone me tomorrow to make sure it worked but he never did. 

Lady Next Door

Laura and I were out in the backyard hitting broken pickleballs.  I would pitch them to Laura and Laura would pitch them to me.  Then I got Laura to pick them up as I held the big plastic bag that I keep them in.  I have over 150 broken pickleballs in that bag.  I hit the whole bag and then Laura hit the whole bag.  The whole time that lady next door was sitting out in the sun.  After we were finished, she came over to ask us about the pickleballs and I asked her if she wanted to play but she said no.

Canadian Tan

Barb's black pickleball friend said Laura had a Canadian tan when she saw Laura as she walked into the pickleball court area.

Row Row

We have gotten into the habit of saying Row Row like Scoobie Doo instead of Oh Oh.  Julia, Laura, Barb and I were saying it a lot when we were playing Bocce Ball and we made a bad shot.

Testing My Fake Fitbit

Barb and Laura have real Fitbits and I have a fake Fitbit.  Barb doesn't believe that my fake Fitbit tells my correct steps on my afternoon walk.  So Laura and I went on my afternoon walk together and we compared the steps on her real Fitbit with the steps on my fake Fitbit.  My fake Fitbit recorded slightly more steps than Laura's real Fitbit and Barb was very surprised.

Barb Chokes Again

Again tonight Barb was taking her vitamin pills and I was talking about how when I was getting a carton of Diet Pepsi from the garage, I had to wrestle with the big box of batting in the garage.  Barb had bought some batting for her quilting and it came in a box that was about 5 feet tall and 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep.  It was on top of the cartons of Pepsi and I couldn't get it off because the ceiling in the garage is quite low.  Barb started to laugh and choked on her pills.