Airline Challenge - Passwords - Birthdays - SD Storms

 Shalimar, FL   (Hi 90   Lo 76)

The heat is keeping a lot of people inside, so I haven't seen many out and about. I'm loving it, no problem with the heat, and the humidity has been less so all is good. 

Sunday: I worked on a puzzle and crocheted and the diamond art picture. Here's the results. (Click on the photos to enlarge). 

                                                Shephard and wiseman for the manger scene for a gal

                                                    I love this puzzle but I can't keep them all. 

Now,  I'll be making all craft fair items. They moved the date to December which gives me more time. I still have orders to do, but I'll get them done before Christmas. 

Monday: was all about airline tickets to Alaska. That was quite a challenge. There was no answer trying to call the airlines. The connections are to Fort Worth, Texas the timing is ok hopefully an hour to get from one area to the other, BUT coming back is from Anchorage and not Vancouver. That means we leave about 8:00pm on  the red eye, all night on the plane and home by 10:30am. So many variables for the whole trip.  Getting a motel then back to airport to get the train to the cruise port. If we do it all without missing the ship,  kudo's to us!!!  That's in September, but it's coming up quickly. We think we have all the connections in line, we'll know when we get ready to fly out. 

Tuesday:  I did the same thing as every Tuesday. I had diamond art and meditation. I also had two classes by zoom which is always interesting. 

Wednesday: I played cards the entire day. Hand, knee and foot and then the evening a game called 31.  Wednesday's are basically always the same except I throw in a doctors appointment a time or two. 

Thursday: I had two doctors appointments and made them both, no problem.  The dermatology was first and no problems. It was great seeing the same doctor as last year. I'll go back next year.  It's great to get passed with zero problems living in the Florida sun.  So many have to have surgeries.  I went to crochet group for an hour and half then on to the massage and chiropractor appointment.  I rolled over in bed and  "felt" a pop in the right hip. It felt like I laid on a knife. It didn't hurt for long but haven't been able to walk real well without hurting. The doctor sent me for an x-ray. It didn't cost much so I went on a walk-in basis.  I found out Saturday morning that it's arthritis and a pulled muscle from the hip. I'll have to be careful for awhile and keep ice on it and if it gets more irritated I'll take Advil. Good to go. 

Friday:  Our newsletter for the complex came, so I worked on the notes for next Saturday's meeting. We start another month next week. I worked on changing passwords on y long list of websites. I have many that have the same and I wanted to get them changed, the problem? most are crochet and there's no changing or deleting the website.  I even called a couple of them and they said they don't have a way of change or delete. WHAT?!!  I'm now stuck on a few but at least the rest of them have been changed. The scammers are making it really hard on people that stay within the rules, been that way for years. Where's there's good there's bad, just like AI will be shortly. 

This afternoon the office had a goodbye for one of the gals in the office. We had plenty to eat and drink and most people left in an hour. I wish you luck Theresa.  It's always good to get a lot of the community together. 

Saturday: I had an early painting class. It was daisies on a wood plaque. Totally different painting technique that I've done, but I learned quickly. We were done in just an hour. 

It's good to have something to do on weekends. I came home, ate lunch, called a friend from the GBM group then took apart the puzzle that I did (above) and put another one out. I love having puzzles on the table because I can put in a piece when I'm cooking, or just passing by. 

At 5:00 at social hour we had two birthdays, Margaret and Mary. We had pizza and ice cream cake. They were both delicious. 

                                                        Mary the birthday girl

                                                

                                            Margaret the other birthday gal, with Lu and Ellen

                                      

                                                Ellen and Mickie

                                                Mary, Patti, and Nora

                                                Piece Ice cream 

I came home and after a bit of nightly chat I watched storm chasers in SD. It was a wild night for tornadoes. They started out little whirls and ended up like this one.  No one hurt that I have heard, but a barn and house were hit. Not much out in that area it was roaming around, but those two houses were a few miles apart.

                                                The black to the left is a windshield wiper. 

Appointments - Social Events - Storms in the North

 Shalimar, Fl   (Hi 94   Lo 77)

Sunday:  I worked on the puzzle most of the day. I did more organizing on new computer. I was missing a couple things off the old computer. I got the old computer up for just a few minutes  to get the files. That was pure luck. It was a very slow day. 

Monday: I am learning Tarot cards so I had a zoom class on cards first thing in the morning.  My neighbor took me to a Greek restaurant for my birthday. I worked the rest of the afternoon and evening on the puzzle with another neighbor.

Tuesday: I try to make all my doctors appointments in June because it's my birthday month and I can have everything done at the same time. I have no idea how I got two on the same day, but the first was a hearing test in the AM and it was POURING rain with lots of lighting. I opened the door to the car and a lighting bolt struck not too far away, I felt the heat  I closed the door real fast but I couldn't be late so tried again and made it to the front door before another bolt was fairly close. I was soaking wet but got the test done and out of the office in an hour. I'm starting to lose the high pitch sounds so they want me back next year. I still can't hear right from the plane trip in May but nothing showed up on why. Guess I'll get used to it. Later in the day I had a dentist appointment for cleaning. This time there were only two teeth that needed some extra cleaning, but nothing more and a six month cleaning will be next. 

Wednesday: I played cards all day in another village. It's a great time to find out what's going on in the other villages. Great gals to play with so all is good. I also played in the evening in my village.   

 Thursday:  We had a newcomers meeting. The AC went out on the main building and it was hot and wet. Condensation was really bad and they had huge fans to try and dry the floor, but just too dangerous. It was moved to another building. The council members welcomed those that have moved into the community in the past six months. I went to another village to a crochet group and got a book on very small animals that are done in knitting. I'm going to work on transferring the knit to crochet. That should be interesting. I had three zooms with classes and getting with other people the rest of the evening and night. 

Friday: I had a couple gals over just to gab and laugh a bit. Then went to the ice cream social at the commons (main building) provided by the CarePatrol group. They help seniors in anything they may need from care at home to care when it's needed after surgery. I'll get more info on them in the coming weeks.  I didn't get on last week for the NC group so it was good seeing them again and catch up.  

Saturday:  By the time I got up at 9am it was already 90 degrees. It's sticky but a good breeze so I went to the pool party and lunch sponsored by a church group. There's 200 kids in this church and they spread all over our area for lunches and fun for seniors and other communities. They put on quite a spread and it was neat talking to some of them. The pool was more of interest. It's ho out!

I took some pictures last night while watching storm chasers. There were several outbreaks this week of tornadoes and last night (Friday) was no acceptation, even in Canada and several in North Dakota. 

                                                This is how they usual start, a big mother ship.

I spend a lot of my time watching storm chasers on youtube.com in the stormy season. It seems anymore it's more year around. 

Ice Cream - Special Meeting - New Computer - Hearing - Luau

 Shalimar, FL  (Hi 86  Lo 79)

This was an interesting week, a few different things going on, let's get started. 

Sunday:  I worked on the puzzle most of the morning and at 1:30 went to the Village one lounge to help setup for the ice cream social. We're trying to get people out of their apartments and be with people but that's not happening. The same few came, but we did have some laughs and great ice cream and root beer floats.  (Click on the photos to enlarge)  Line up for ice cream. 

Monday: we had a fifteen minute session on how to prevent falls. The rehab company talked about safety around the apartment. It was basically things we knew but good to review. An hour later we had a special council meeting talking about what we would like to have more help in around the apartment. The biggest concern is the transportation after hours or weekends. There were a few other things that would be nice and they'll see what the community would like and work on ideas. 

Tuesday:  I started out with diamond art. Meditation we're going over the Youtube.com,  Oprah's & Arthur's book,  Build the Life you want.  It's really good!  I didn't do much when I got home but did go to cards for the evening then zoom to keep me occupied. Later in the afternoon I got my new computer. Mine died, it had a broken case in 2 places, the keys had holes in them (I type a lot) and the battery died again. I learned you have to unplug the PC once in awhile to let it go to 20% then back to 80%. I'll do that with the new one. I got Jim's PC up and running but most of the stuff was his and in his name. I had upgraded to Windows 11, but it's a desktop and very heavy. Now I have a working back up if needed. The crazy thing on the new laptop, the power button is right next to the delete button.  Yep, I keep shutting it off.  It's the 6th key to the left. Why?

Wednesday: There was supposed to be a talk on scams, but no one showed up. This group of activities gals and guy, will start following up on talks to be sure someone is coming. Another problem for them to check out. I did play cards in Village 5 but the best this of the day was THE LOBSTER TRUCK!!!   For those following me on the blog for years, this is year 33 that I've had some sort of lobster on my birthday. This time it was a couple days late, but it still counts. I normally have a full lobster, but it's getting harder to work on getting meat out of the shell. I was glad to have it done for me. Lobster bisque soup, two lobster rolls and lobster quesadilla.  Rick also sent flowers and they're all popping out of the buds. 

                                                 

The lobster truck  and the lobster roll.

                                                    

We had a gorgeous full moon, but I missed the strawberry part. I wasn't early enough to see the red. 

                                                  

Friday:  I had a doctor check my hearing and why I can't still hear since the flight to Illinois. It sounds like water so I wanted to check it out before flying again in July. It's ok and I have to learn to release the pressure (blow harder while holding my nose). He setup an appointment next Tuesday just to be sure all is ok and nothing more then just pressure. I haven't had a hearing test in years. At 5:00 I went to the luau. I haven't gone to the last couple they've had but people kept asking me to go.  It was fabulous!  The meal was amazing and the entertainment was too.  The dancers came in from Orlando and going back after the show, so it was a very long day for them. Here's a few pictures.

Great Hawaiian music by the band

                                                                  Pigs head

                                                        And great meat it produced

          The feeding line

                                                The plates are full

                                                            Great coconut cake

                                                        Two of the ladies doing the hulu

Ending with the best, the chief fire entertainer

What a night!  

Saturday:  I love sleeping till 10am, makes the day go a lot faster and less to have to find to do. Weekends are horrible for nothing going on, most of the time. I didn't get my Hellofresh meals yesterday, so called them and I got them by 4:00 today. I did more organizing and setting up the new computer and started crocheting some wisemen and shepherd for the manger for an order, then started getting gnomes for the craft fair going. At 5 I was at social hour which is always a good time. I hope everyone had a good week.

Puzzles - Massage - Activities - Birthday

 Shalimar, FL   (Hi 90   Lo 77)  Humidity has begun

The first week of the month has been really busy. I'm so glad there's something to do and people to be with most of the time. It's beginning of June and in Florida it starts getting hot and humid.  The hurricane season is about to start and the complex is getting info on where people want to go if we're under order to evacuate. The fun begins. 

Monday I went to Walmart to get groceries and things I needed for the next couple months. I try not to go very often and so far it's every three months. The little things I get at Dollar General which is closer and less traffic. This time of year traffic is bumper to bumper to get to Destin. I finished a puzzle with the neighbor. (Click on the photos to enlarge)

                                            This one took awhile but Del finished it late one night. 

  I got this one from Lessie. It's called mystery puzzle. You put it together, then move it around and put in  more pieces to make a totally different puzzle. Very interesting.  I don't want to do another one. Click on it and check out the difference.

Tuesday I went to diamond art, and maybe in two more weeks I'll have the picture done.  Later I had meditation. I came home and crocheted. 

Wednesday I had cards for a couple hours then my massage and chiropractor appointment. I have to tell you something to make you smile, (or laugh). I did chair yoga on Tuesday. During the night I went to roll over and almost screamed in pain. Every muscle I worked out earlier in the morning before, was yelping!  I can't believe how bad I felt. Even my fingers from spreading them were sore. How did so little movement for 15 minutes in a chair, hurt so bad. I haven't decided yet if I want to do it again. I was very thankful for the massage. She went easy on me and it all worked out by Friday morning.  It's youtube over 60 chair yoga, try it!!

Thursday the activities meeting was in the morning. It was well attended and so glad we have three activities people that are pushing on getting people out doing something. They even have ballet planned. I went from there to crochet group till 3pm then to cards that evening. 

Friday is my down day, but I stayed busy. I went to Del's to work on the new puzzle which has lights. It was 500 pieces and we finished it in four hours. It wasn't hard to do but after gluing it and getting the lights in was the hardest. It's very pretty, especially at night. Now to get it framed (box frame) and put it up. 

                                         The back with the wires and battery after gluing it. 

                                                All lit up. It's very pretty in the dark.

Saturday was my day.  77 Sunset strip, birthday. I did the morning meeting at the Village one lounge then did the workshop on end of life paperwork in the afternoon for the whole village. It's so important to get life's affairs in order for those that will be taking care of you when you leave this life on earth. It was a great turnout and well accepted. I had a hospice representative with me to tell what happens in the later stages. It took about an hour just as planned.  I had a couple hours before my party at the lounge with chocolate cake and of course my wine. What a great group.  I love them all, and today was a very good birthday. 

                   Flowers from son Rick. Thank you so much. It's going to be fun watching them open up.

It was a super great week and those that remember I get lobster on my birthday every year. This will be year 33 that I've got lobster, only it's Wednesday next week. I'll tell more about it next week.