Best wishes Mr. & Mrs. Grabowski

I performed my first wedding ceremony today. Beth’s daughter Jen and Mike are now husband and wife by my hand. I hope my beginners luck brings them many years of good fortune and happiness.

We had the ceremony in Beth’s front yard and a nice reception for 30 friends and family in the Chula card room. We changed gears and bar hopped on golf carts around TV until we ran out of steam (earlier for some of us than others).

Beth’s crazy fun family loves to surprise each other and this event was no exception. Her son Nate made a surprise visit from the New England cold, bringing all three of her grown children and their families together for Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in many years. Jen had this part planned long before she decided to get married. Beth was so surprised when Nate appeared at her kitchen window, she dropped a hand full of silverware, knives and all, dangerously on the floor!

But the surprises didn’t stop there, Beth’s sister Barb and her husband surprised everyone with a last minute decision to show up for the wedding. I had trouble remembering who knew who was coming in, when they would arrive, and where they were all staying. I wouldn’t be too good at this family espionage stuff, but it sure seems to work for them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the day that we set aside to reflect and give thanks for all that we have. I am thankful for my health, my family and their health, and for good friends. Through the years we have been truly blessed and have often taken for granted the basic comforts that we have in this land of plenty. The food on the table, he roof over our heads, the right to work in a safe environment for a living wage, the freedom to choose and believe in values that make sense for each of our families.

The institutions that I have relied upon to protect these blessings have been threatened in the past few years. The roof over my head has been devalued, the banks that hold my 401k are near collapse, the company that holds my pension and has provided a great lifestyle for our family is in bankruptcy, the Union that protected my rights has been challenged, the armed forces that have insured my freedom have been put in harms way.

Still, this year I am not only thankful, but hopeful. America is unbelievably resilient. If we make mistakes, it seems that we have an unequaled ability to “course correct”.

So thank you to my friends, my family, the UAW, Delphi/GM, the US Armed forces. Good wishes to the new administration and to all of the newly elected folks. You have a big job ahead of you and the fix will not be easy or quick but if we stand together we can turn this mess around!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Cold weather sport

The weather is very Un-tropical! It figures that when my daughter comes down from the stormy north, the weather turns coooollllddd. Well this is the excuse that I needed to go to see the movies that I have wanted to see. I haven’t been to the show in quite a while, but the cold drove me inside to see four different flicks. Here are the reviews:

Nights in Rodanthe – Sappy ad-nauseum. These characters were so over the top predictable (like harlequin romance characters), and the plot so lame that I should not have bothered grabbing extra napkins from the concession stand.

Quantum Of Solace- Action packed from beginning to end. Craig is the best Bond ever! I still don’t know what the movie’s title means.

Secret Life of Bees: The book was great and so was the movie. Queen Latifah should be up for an Oscar. All of the cast members were well developed and I longed to know more about their lives. Extra napkins please.

Body of Lies: Blood and guts movie; Thought provoking, with very graphic violence. DiCaprio and Crowe were believable, and the plot held my interest.

I am so sick of popcorn; I probably won’t have it again for a month.

Hurricane Erika

Erika was supposed to fly in today at 2PM. She is a person that leaves too much to the last minute, and I predicted earlier this week that she would wind up in this dilemma. She missed her flight and has to sit in the airport for 8 hours to catch the next available flight. She is now scheduled to get in at 11:30 PM. Oh boy, a trip to the airport at Midnight. Hurricane Erika is blowing into town!

Beth’s brother Greg is also in town. He is looking for a nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath on the historic side. He’d like extra parking, and possibly a garage for his toys. He’s vowed not to leave until he buys a place (Like brother, like sister). Anyone have something that matches this description drop me a comment.


I have a noticed something interesting about alternative transportation methods. It seams that when using a transportation method other than the traditional, people feel a kindred connection. We have owned boats, motorcycles and now golf carts and it seams that when a brother/sister commuter passes it is customary to wave. I have seen bus drivers, Disney Jungle boat drivers; Trolley drivers also exhibit this friendly behavior. Does this apply to work vehicles (bull dozers for example), or is it only recreational vehicles? I am not sure if this applies to all vehicular travel, but I’ll bet if one space shuttle passed another the captains would wave or at least nod a space helmet.

I know initially upon our arrival to TV, this behavior made Wayne uncomfortable, but now he is a waver too. Wave on fellow travelers, I love to see your smiling acknowledgments, it lets me know I am not the only goofy happy Villager on the road (path).

Snowbird Season

The snow birds are here, and our visitor season begins full force! I hear a lot of people complain about the inevitable, but I still look forward to most of the hustle and bustle the seasonal crowd brings. I don’t particularly like the traffic so I take my cart for every trip that is within the Bubble.

The golf courses are beginning to fill up. The guys are starting to go outside the Villages to golf more often. Like the leaves changing up north, this is an indicator that the seasons are changing. Maybe now they can justify the charity (sweat shop) grounds maintenance work that they do at that outside golf course, by actually using the free golf that they earn.

We just said goodbye to last week’s crop. Molly’s beautiful grand daughter, daughter and cousin and Wayne’s Brother and his wife just left when the next wave begins.

Our friend Vern is in for a couple of days. His sweetheart of a wife, Cathy didn’t join him this trip. They have a brand new Grand Daughter and I think he will have quite a hard time dragging her away this year. Daughter #1, Erika is flying in Thursday for an extended visit, Elaine and Kevin will be here Friday for a long weekend.

Beth’s Daughter Jen and family are all coming down for Thanksgiving. Jen is getting married here and I am performing the ceremony. I’m a Notary, and this is one of the few States that I can marry people. How weird is that? The guest list for this celebration keeps growing. What started as a small gathering of a few of us, has grown to 35 plus. I am looking forward to a wonderful event, but it has Beth a little nervous.

Initially we were going to do the reception in my back yard, but we got scared when the weather started getting cold, and booked a card room. At least I got Wayne to paint my driveway, on the expectation of the gathering at my house. I think I could have gotten the fountain I bought on Ebay, hooked up if we would have waited a bit longer to tell him about the change of plans.

I hope the novelty of visiting us in TV never wears off for our friends and family. Each new visitor brings a spark and keeps our lives interesting. It also gives us an excuse to show off TV and to throw a party!

Ya'all wont fries with that??

Wayne’s brother Gary and his wife Carrie have finally come down to visit. We have been trying to lure them down here for the past 3 years. It’s their 25th wedding anniversary this week and we are thrilled to show them around. They are still working with tuition to pay, so it will be a while before they can retire, but we’d love to see them consider TV in the future. We’re thinking of taking them to Cape Canaveral Friday for the Shuttle launch.

The pace is much slower here in the South. When we first came down here it bothered me WAY more than it does now. I was the one in line with the veins in my neck throbbing and my face purple. I was the one ready to grab the Burger King girl by the neck when she finally asked me if “Ya’allllll….. wont…….fries…….. with……that……..Woooooppppeeeerrrr???? (Don’t they know what FAST FOOD means?) Y’all must be from New York, she would comment. How’d she know that?

I was the nut weaving traffic to get 2 cars ahead of the pack. I got 2 speeding tickets in the first month I was down here. I don’t drive outside the bubble anymore. I have come a long way. I now understand why we siesta, and that manna does not mean tomorrow, it just means not today.

If I find myself getting impatient now I just take a breath and remind myself that I am retired, and I have no where that I have to be. If I get there 2 minutes later, nothing will change, no one will care. Now I only have to have “the talk” with myself occasionally.

Soilent Green

RC Hosted a Texas holdem’ poker party last night. My cards stunk, but after wearing Joe down, I split the last pot. That broke me even (that’s what all gamblers say), and the combination of good company and frozen Daquri’s made for another great Saturday night in The Villages!

The election is over and my candidate won. My mood is tempered, however, as the candidate that my daughter worked her tail off for narrowly lost his bid for NYS Senate. On any Election night over 50% of the candidates, many very qualified, fine people of character do not win. That does not make them losers.

Politics is a very tough game and my Erika is a very sensitive young woman. She bleeds for everyone that hurts. I love that about her, but I am still inclined to hop on the school bus and spank the bully that hurts her feelings. She will see in hind sight that she was an important part of a historical take over of the NYS Senate by the Democrats. Her hard work and dedication to a wonderful candidate (Former Heavyweight boxer Joe Mesi), will reap rewards long after last Tuesday’s honorable showing. Good job team Erika!

I have been disturbed by something that Beth casually commented on the other day. Where are the cemeteries in and around the Villages? I don’t mean to be morbid, but this is a community of older folks, and unlike other places I have lived, I don’t see funeral processions, lead by black hearses. I don’t see the churches filled with funeral services. I see the Ambulances, and read the notices in the paper but I don’t remember seeing, well, the next logical ceremonies. Does anyone remember the book (or movie) Soilent Green?

I am so proud of this country!

Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America~

I am so proud of this country!

A rest for the weary.

The Halloween party last night at Molly’s was a classic. We went as the Village People. Wayne was the construction worker, I was the Cop and RC was the Native American. Ron was Hillary, Beth a Harem girl. Wendy was a clown & Mark a Biker, Jeff a scary cloaked dude. Molly got her pirate costume in Key West and Joe was himself in 20 years complete with suspenders and over the calf socks and sandals.

Starry, starry night was tonight in the Polo grounds. The astrology club had high powered telescopes set up for anyone with an interest, to view the night sky. I saw Jupiter and three of its moons, a Nebula, and Twin Stars. What a place.

I made my last calls to GOTV for Obama. People are sooooo sick of this election. Take pity on those poor souls who call you on the phone to prod you to vote. I love the political stuff, but even I can’t wait till it’s over. It’s been going on for two years now.

I am enjoying being out of a political leadership role, this election. I am hiding out. It is a relief to just make phone calls and leave the organizing, recruiting, scheduling, cajoling, scrambling, funding spinning, refereering, and all of those other responsibilities to someone else. I might get the urge to do more later, (or not) but I think a lot of us are burned out. For now I am very content doing grunt work.