A good time was had by all!

Yesterday morning was our water aerobics class. Maggie O. came this time but her friend, our friend, Ellen, was feeling too sunburned to come down to participate. She really got scorched on her first day out in the elements Tuesday. I should have watched her more closely as we sat and talked for hours and hours in the sun!

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When the class was over, one of the ladies, Lonnie, invited me to have lunch with her friend and her at The Club. Phyllis lives in the Capri which is the building next to mine and was walking over to meet us. Of course, I said I would but cannot go into the dining room in my swimsuit. Lonnie had pulled a long dress on over her clothes so would have met dress code. She suggested to Phyllis that we dine poolside, as Ellen and I had done Tuesday, but when Phyllis came back with the menus, she said she would prefer not to eat from the foam "to-go" box. Instead, the hostess set up a table on the patio just outside the addition to The Club, complete with table cloth, flowers, the works, just for us!

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An aside: as I look across the river at the approaching storm complete with lightning, I see the boat that looks exactly like mine dashing toward "home" before the storm comes on full force. I miss my boat, do not miss owning it, but miss riding in it! "Sittin' Pretty" was my boats' name, wonder if that is it....

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Back to lunch: Lonnie wanted me to meet her friend, thinking we would have much in common, and I guess we did. Other than being neighbors, she is friends with one of the ladies in my building, considers herself a frustrated editor, and was just a delight. Both ladies are substantially older than I am but it really does not matter. They laughed at my menu choice however, as I played "stump the waitress" by asking for a hot dog again. She looked at me like I ordered something quite exotic instead of something so low brow. I told her I had it on Tuesday so she went to check, reporting back that indeed, I could have a grilled hot dog! The other ladies had regular menu items while I ate one of the two dogs they brought me and some of the fries. It was great fun to chat with these ladies and appreciated being made part of their little circle!

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After lunch I came upstairs and exchanged my swim clothes for my nightie since I did not want to get re-dressed right away. It is hard to get clothes on after being in a swimsuit most of the day, what can I say??? The afternoon was spent working on the church newsletter which will be an abbreviated version of its usually longer form due to the fact that little is taking place around church during the summer months, particularly since Pastor and family are on vacation. Today it is finished and was e-mailed to the recipients forthwith!

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This evening I am attending a play with Maggie O. and Ellen in San Marco called "Into the Woods", a take-off on children's nursery rhymes. Joanne's dad has seen it and found it quite amusing. I am looking forward to it, especially spending time with my friends!

Oh, like you don't know what I am going to talk about today....

The Cap and Trade Agreement! The Congress of the United States is set to vote on this important, life-changing, probably life-damaging policy change and hardly anyone is aware of it. Why? Because a couple more entertainers died, that's why. Nero is fiddling again and the policymakers rejoice, enjoying the accidental distraction from the business of the country. And we thought a romantic jaunt to Argentina was enough of a distraction---not so much! I used to think how "lucky" it was for Gary Condit when the terrorists attacked us on our shores in 2001, because he was under the microscope for the death of Chandra Levy. Whew! That was close! Guess it turned out that another man was arrested for the murder but at the time, man, for sure, Condit was the guy!

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I have had the national "news" on since about 6:00 a.m. and now they are finally showing something that is real news. Not good news, but worthy of the title nonetheless. What I find amusing about the Michael Jackson story is when photos are shown of him as a young black child from Gary, IN and his "evolutionary" process into a lovely young white female at the age of 50...and no one finds this odd? Of course they do! But now, little will be said about the child molestation charges, the wildly eccentric behaviors, money flushed down the toilet, so to speak, these children he's harvested as his own....Even Geraldo Rivera was telling this a.m. about his last interview with him/her a few years ago, about Jackson's having a piece of tape across what was left of his nose after numerous surgeries had compromised its position on his face. The more an aberration a person is, the more popular they become....I must be getting old and crotchety!

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On a "lighter" note, the sun is nicely warming my chubby arm as I write. In a few minutes I expect Justin to be here for a very important task, or two----soda delivery and a closing! A closing? Yes, here's the story: Yesterday a.m. our maintenance person, Connie, came to the door to get my keys so she could move my car away from the building. Some workers had to park their equipment in my spot so I gave her the keys, saving me from getting dressed first to do so. When she came back up, Connie told me about the screens having to come out of the front windows for the painter. I said I would ask Justin to do it, but she took a look at them, saw they were in the window backward, and pulled them off. Just like that! I had never messed with the screens or windows in those secondary rooms so the screens must have been reversed (pull tabs on the exterior vs. interior) since I moved in. In this process, however, we saw that one of these high windows was open a bit, about an inch or so. Neither of us could budge it from outside so I tried from inside the room, although I had little leverage from the angle I was at. I did what I do best in these situations and that was to contact Justin to come close it for me!

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He was too busy yesterday pulling weeds at the office because someone was coming to look at office space, so he offered to come first thing this a.m. At first I said I would try again but he insisted I just leave it for him, since there was a computer desk and Christmas boxes to be worked around in order to access the window. We just wonder how long it has been opened like that, and who was able to reach over all the junque to open it. No one could have gotten in to rob or hurt us here, as the metal bars are in the windows but a snake or other creatures, or even cold could get in around the misshapen screen. Oh, yeah, and heat.....

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My tummy is grumbling this a.m. probably because I did not really have supper last night. Our building had a social event called "Instead 'a Dinner" which fortunately was not rained out by a tropical storm like last year's was! Or moved upstairs, like we did when Lisa, Lynn and family was here. It was well attended, great food and company, but sadly, only our same group of people came. These events were intended to help bond people, unite, mollify, whatever, but inevitably it is the same people who attend these events, even the nightly ones, who came last night. We all donated assorted appetizers for our entree and I brought my formerly 'fresh-out-of-the-cow' cheese curds. Being such a picky eater (can't tell by looking at me!) I did not overdo it at the table. Not a big fan of humus or freeze-dried green beans or whatever the heck those things were! Hugh took the remainder of the cheese curds home with him to finish for breakfast---if they lasted that long! He loves 'em!

Here are the early arrivers at the "Instead 'a Dinner" event on the sundeck last night. Jack in the wheelchair, Mustafa walking with wine glass, Karen and Maureen along the wall, and Hugh's back toward me. The pools are in the background with people still swimming because it was such a lovely evening.

Jeff is seen here chatting with Connie, our maintenance lady, and Ellen, whose glass I lust after! She made a pan of chocolate rice krispie treats just for me but I shared with the entire group. One of the girls who came later had never had one before....imagine!!