Ah – I felt much better this morning, having had nearly eight hours of restful sleep. I think the jet lag is over at last!
It was a lovely, foggy morning when I went outside to await the arrival of “N” and “B” for breakfast.
The hotel in which I’m staying has a row of wicker rocking chairs in the front and it was delightful to sit down and rock and watch the fog. The only detriment was a hotel staff member blowing away leaves with one of those noisy blowy-things that pollute the air with fuel fumes and noise. He left after a while and peaceful tranquility returned, followed shortly by “N” and “B”.
Our breakfast was quite pleasant, enhanced by conversation and cups of tea and coffee.
Afer this we went to one of the recreation centers where we quickly located “Sparky’s Strummers” by the sounds of banjos and guitars floating through the air. There’s no instrument more intrinsically jolly than a banjo, and this group gets together regularly for the simple joy of playing old time songs, singing, and playing. I counted 18 performers, some on guitar, some on banjo, and there was a tambourine and a washboard as well. 
Everyone who knew the song they were playing just opened up and sang along (yours truly included). One of the musicians was extraordinary on his banjo and had a microphone pointed at it. His riffs led the way with most songs, and a few microphones were passed around so people could sing the songs they were all playing.
We stayed there for perhaps half an hour then made our way to the car, with “N” dancing all the way; the music having really energized her (or maybe it was the several cups of coffee…I really couldn’t tell)
We spent the rest of the morning driving through the area (“B” should hire himself out as a tour guide!) taking peeks at open houses to see what the local real estate market has to offer. We looked at several in a handful of areas, and location really does make a difference – while they were all pretty much the same size range (from 800 feet to about 1300 feet) one of them, being in a new development, was priced far more expensively than the others (and somewhat outrageously, if “B” or I were to be asked).
We’ve now returned to the house and are about to have a lovely lunch, so I’ll sign off.
----- and time passes ----
So now it’s nearly 5pm. After lunch we went out to look at another house or two – larger ones this time, the cheaper of which listed at $212K. (“B” knew that this is beyond my means but wanted me to get an idea of what $$ purchases what). These were quite nice houses with open, airy spaces and the kitchen entirely open to the living/dining area. Spacious, fair amount of storage, and everything new. One of these was the newer version of the house “H” and “B” live in, and it was different enough that I had difficulty matching their actual house to the floor plan I was looking at.
In all the homes we saw today I looked for places where we might be able to fit our 3 large birds. One of the houses actually could have accommodated them; it was actually the first of the small houses we saw in the morning. This was being sold by a couple who bought it, made upgrades themselves (and a wonderful job they did, too!) and wanted to “flip” it. They had finished their enclosed lanai so it was a complete structure (as opposed to just a frame and a bunch of screening material) that stretched most of the length of the house. They were selling it furnished (beautifully, too!) with a hot tub for 4 included inside the lanai. The birds would have fit quite well into that room. The rest of it was pretty small; 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. Very clean-looking. A nice showcase type place which did not look at all lived-in, which also meant it did look pretty but did not look welcoming. Well, they dress these houses up to be sellable. Still, the stuff they were including in the sale looked delicate and I felt sure I would break a lot of it inadvertently simply from being my own, klutzy self.
“B” and I chatted about the Villages and he mentioned that they really only use their house to sleep in. Most of their days are spent out of the house doing activities, meetings, and so forth. I pointed out that this was interesting because Al and I spend most of our time IN our house, so the comfort and amenities of our house are more important to us than they are to “B” and “H”. “B” suggested that if this was the case, the Villages might not be the right place for us to settle. He observed that our daughter and niece are important parts of our lives and wondered if it were possible for us to maybe buy a duplex with our daughter and son-in-law up in Oregon.
I rather thought it would be greatly easier to keep peace in the family if we did not pursue that idea – both Al and our son-in-law are too dominant to peacefully co-exist for any length of time…but I really did appreciate “B”s input.
Well, after all that we dropped Heather off so she could sit attendance at the Democratic Party booth in the nearby Town Square. We’ll eventually pick her up and go to dinner in one of the restaurants. I’ll describe that for you later this evening, once I’m back in the hotel.
----- more time passes -----
…and here I am!
So we went back to the town square where “H” was manning the booth with several compatriots and she needed to continue working so “N” and I went to the nearby shoe store to find those sandals she had needed since the other day. This store was having quite a sale – buy one pair and get two more pairs free so “N” found 3 pairs of sandals (same sandals, 3 different colors) and one of the salespersons handed her a coupon for an additional 25% off (or some such sizeable discount). She ended up with $120 worth of shoes for less than $50! Excellent.
We went back to the “Vote Democratic” booth but “H” still wasn’t done (“B” was off chatting with a friend) so “N” and I took a stroll around the busy square. See, this was Thursday night when every week the square fills with craft type booths and live music and people dancing and shopping and strolling. We walked past people dancing or selling jewelry and caps and hanging decorations and glassware and oh, everything you expect to see at any street craft fair. I helped "N" find a new purse, at one of these booths (evidently she decided that hers had gotten too old) so our stroll was a successful one.
At last all four of us gathered again and went off to the local deli to have supper. The matzoh ball soup wasn’t as good as the stuff we get at home but the Chicken Florentine was FABULOUS!!
After another quick trip back to the “Vote Democratic” booth to pick up the supplies “H” had brought I was dropped off back here at the hotel.
Tomorrow morning I’ll just chill out here in the hotel until the afternoon when “H” will pick me up in the golf cart. 
See, everyone here has a personalized golf cart as well as a car because most facilities, stores, and services can be reached by golf cart in The Villages, and besides, there are about 87,492 golf courses here. It appears that every square foot of otherwise unused land has been converted into a golf course so owning a golf cart is what everyone does and all the houses (and I mean nearly every single one!) have a small garage specifically for golf carts. In fact, I neglected to tell you that yesterday when “B” first picked me up he did so in the golf cart. There are special, slim roadways built everywhere for the golf carts to use, plus the major roads have golf cart lanes, and it was rather cool to take a scenic tour from within the little golf cart!
Anyway, “H” will pick me up and bring me to a class in Zydeco dancing that she and “B” teach. Halfway through the lesson “B” and “N” will leave in the car to travel south to Orlando Airport to pick up my brother “M”, his wife “S” and their son “G”. That’s right! Nobody in my family have real names – just initials! My mother thought it would be easier that way if she had to sew labels into our clothing! That’s the story I’m going with – work with me, here…
Oh, and I forgot to mention that at some point tomorrow evening the daughter of “H” and “B”, “H2” will arrive. She’ll bunk with me in the hotel room over the weekend which will give us a wonderful opportunity to catch up, since I haven’t seen her in quite a number of years!
Other than the above, there appear to be no other activities planned for tomorrow. “N” had phoned one of the realtors we chatted with to see if he’d be able to show us some of the model homes but as of this writing he had not returned her call. If they can arrange for someone to give us a quick tour of the more moderately priced models we’ll do that in the morning. Otherwise we’re on our own!
As I am this evening. Nothing to do now but sit back, watch tv, and catch up on sleep – we got our exercise today!
No comments:
Post a Comment