I decided to sleep in the other day, and Suzanne caught a picture of this thin layer of fog at dawn over the golf course. I was glad that she was up working while I was getting my beauty rest. She’s younger than I, and has a lot more energy. I just haven’t yet convinced her that she should serve me breakfast in bed… gotta work on that!
After our bike ride, Gretchen likes to dry me off, while Rudy finds a perch on my stomach where he can pretend he’s The King keeping a watchful eye on his domain.
The puppies and I went for a w-a-l-k in t-o-w-n, and they had great fun treeing this gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) who was holding an acorn in his mouth while taunting Rudy and Gretchen from the safety of the upper branches.
While in town, we met Maisy,another red long hair dachshund, and her owner Hugh. Trying to get three wiener dogs to pose for a photo was like herding cats, but worse.
On Friday evening, we were at Unity of The Villages for a private viewing of the Messages of Hope documentary. It was a great evening, with over 100 attendees, and all proceeds going to the church’s repair fund (following senseless vandalism of their front doors).
On Saturday morning we met Susan Prince (the Citrus Tower Geo-Quiz Winner) and her friend Jan at Panera for pastries and coffee. They are members of a walking group, The Solemates, who were out for a 12 mile walk in preparation for a half marathon in two weeks. It was a real pleasure getting to know both Susan and Jan, and we hope to see more of them in the future. Good luck on your big event!
We stopped to visit our friends Gayle and Bill Hancock at their new home in Bonnybrook. They were just finishing two months of remodeling, enclosing and expanding their lanai to make a new 800 sq ft room overlooking the Arnold Palmer championship golf course. The view was gorgeous, and because Bill and Gayle had been stationed in Japan, the house and yard were decorated with beautiful Japanese prints, pillows, dolls, lanterns, and other memorabilia.
Bill is a retired Navy 3-star admiral, a shipdriver [read “real naval officer”] like Your Correspondent (rather than a zoomie [aviator] or bubblehead [sub-mariner]), so he and I swapped real sea stories while Suzanne and Gayle were chatting in another room. One of the most important parts of a good sea story is a storm in the middle, but My Lovely Bride broke up our session before I could get to the typhoon part…. Darn!
Suzanne’s twin sister Janice (who is actually a couple of years older than my bride; figure that one out!) arrived today for a visit with her husband Allan (a highly skilled golf fanatic masquerading as an electrical contractor) for a visit from Philly. Suzanne’s mom Ruthie joined us for the drive to Orlando to pick them up, and it was mandatory that we stop at Bonefish Grill for some Bang Bang Shrimp and other delicacies before returning to The Villages.
We are planning a mountain biking expedition on Monday morning. Knowing that Janice is not an early riser, I mentioned that we’d be getting started around 0645 to experience sunrise in the forest up near Ocala. Without skipping a beat, Janice stuck out her hand and replied, “Hi, my name is Janice Clay. I don’t believe we’ve met…” (I guess she put me in my place…)