Clouds and More Clouds, Missing my Daily “D”, Pool Day?

Without a doubt, excitement early on Friday, Feb. 10^th from seeing sunshine and blue skies turned to disappointment soon after when the ever-popular clouds moved back in. The temperature went from 68F at 9:30 when the sun was out to an unbelievable cool 63F by 11 when the clouds moved over the sky.

I was hopeful that the sun would win out

These aren’t days for hot tubbing, let me tell you! I’m even missing out on my natural Vitamin D. I started outside with my book while Bill barbecued breakfast and then after eating, moved inside with Clemson to finish the final chapters of 2^nd Chance. Page-turning, it was. What else from James Patterson?

                                                                                                                                           

Each day we determine whether it is warm enough to go up and have a hot tub but neither one of us is brave enough to hop out of a warm ‘bath’ into the cold chilly air. Yes, people at home do it all the time in the dead of winter, when it is snowing but we like the weather to be optimal. I admit that Bill is fussier about this than I am, but I’m not keen on hot tubbing alone, either.

Clemson had an upset tummy this morning, we could hear it grumbling a mile away so I sat with him and gave him some special attention for an hour while finishing my book and while Bill wrote his blog post. Our pooch turns into a real baby when he isn’t feeling good, so we try to coddle until he is feeling better. Enough of playing doctor, I grabbed the two-way radios, turned them both on and headed out for a walk with one tucked in my pocket.

I start feeling cooped up after a while and need to get some fresh air and exercise. The 63 degrees felt pretty good in a sweatshirt. I detoured around the park in a different direction than usual and found myself at the Lounge again to work on the jigsaw puzzle. Yay! Someone is helping me with it and contributed a few pieces while I was away yesterday.

I knew I could spend an hour here easy so prepared Bill before I left where I would be. I was in my glory working the puzzle, it is one of the few things I miss being able to do in our Suite. Mom and Daddy always had a puzzle on the go in our family home growing up. It was on the dining room table, could be up to 1500 pcs. but normally 1000 pc. puzzles.

An example of a family tradition being
carried on in our lives
This was in 2015 while visiting Mom

When we had to use the table, Mom had a piece of heavy plastic she folded over the work space and on top of that a heavy quilted plastic table cloth. Resourceful she was, to say the least. It was pulled back easily when we were finished eating so we could sit and work on it at our leisure. Many, many memories flood my mind of Daddy sitting there in his flannel shirt, glasses on his nose, an arm laying across the table in front of him and a puzzle piece in his other hand hovering over the jigsaw.

He used to hide a piece in his pocket once we were near the end, so we would search and search and it always left him in position to place the last piece. He obviously didn’t want any of his 6 daughters to become an old maid. Wives’ tale for sure but it worked! Fond memories they are.

I headed back after about an hour and asked Bill if he was up for a game of pool. It was a date! We watched the news at home, 3 pm Pacific Time and I pulled out my corking or spool knitting. I use old sheets cut into strips on a spool with pegs. Eventually, I hope to turn it into a bathroom scatter rug. We’ll see. It is something else I enjoy doing in my spare time.

Okay, back to our date. Bill and I walked up to the Lounge and set right to a game of pool. I broke first and soon realized what I was up against. Wow, this guy is good! I was in trouble. Oh well, we had fun and I’m proud to say that it wasn’t a wipe out. Bill won best two out of three, which means this rookie actually pulled one out of the proverbial hat.

We watched some NCIS reruns back at the Suite biding our time until 5:45. Robin, next door, needed to call her husband in Washington to find out whether his flight to Palm Springs was on schedule. When she arrived, I set her up on Google Hangouts once more and the call was short and sweet. No way would I want to be driving down the mountain at 11:15 pm but she needs to pick him up at midnight.

without sun, not much of a sunset

Bill did our steak on the Weber Q and I made up a salad inside. Since we’d had breakfast that morning at 10 we were anxiously waiting dinner. Supper is going to taste good tonight!

Bill barbecuing after the sun goes down

Just waiting for the entree

This was a quiet day, not much going on but it was still a good one. Again, while doing up dishes, it flashed through my mind how lovely retirement is. I still can’t believe how lucky we are to be able to partake and not have to report to a job.

Another piece of pumpkin pie with Cool Whip
finished off our meal nicely

Thank you for reading along, I hope your day was just as relaxing.