Average Working Day

The first four and a half years living here all I did was play, which was not all bad. I golfed three to five times a week, played softball three days a week, bowled and played poker once a week and went out to dinner twice a week. These were my every week scheduled activities. I did many other things like read, billiards, trips, entertain guests, more dinning out, moving things around in my garage, drinking a beer or two, etc., to fill in my spare time. As I've told others that ask, The Villages is a unique retirement community where you can be as active as you want or not.


With all that said, I hurt my leg playing softball about a year ago and decided to make some changes while I was sitting on my butt for about three weeks while a tear was healing. The change I made was to get a part time job on one of the golf courses. This is me in my "golf uniform". I've been working for about a year now and for the most part I enjoy it. I work two days a week on a driving range which I like the best and one day an an ambassador on one of the courses. As an ambassador (We are called ambassadors for golf instead of the more negative terms like course marshall or ranger.), we run into all sorts of things. I've had to look for hearing aides, gloves, clubs, jackets, jewelry, hats, fought wasps on a pin flags and around a couple bathrooms, and many other activities that breaks up running around in my cart.


Today I deserved some hazard pay. I received a call (a golfer used her cell phone to call the course that called me on my radio) that there was a snake on one of the greens. So off I went to do battle and move the snake on. I figured it would be gone by the time I got there. However, when I arrived, I got a big surprise. The snake, still there, was about 4 to 5 foot long and as least two or three inches thick. It was a Cotton Mouth getting some sun on the fringe of the green. Since they have a tendency to be mean and full of poison, I decided I was not paid enough to do battle. So I watched it for while and guided a couple groups of golfers around the snake asking the course boss what he was going to do about my new found friend. The good news was the pin location was on the other side of the green, so most of the activity was away from it.


So after some great advice telling me not to go to close to it but with no assistance being promised and getting tired of it getting closer and closer to the golfers, I decided to see if I could move it on. At first it was not very interested in moving, but did seem interested in me. I threw a couple sticks at him, but he didn't seem to care. So I took the pin out of the hole and used it to move him a little. He didn't move at first. I think he was just watching and waiting to see if I would get closer, but mama didn't raise no dummy. Finally I did get him to agree to move back into the pond by the green. He seemed happy and I was still alive, so off I went to fulfill my other duties. After a little while I made a return trip and my buddy was back heading for the green again. I used the pin flag again and after a few ugly movements with him decided to go toward me or the water, he went back to the water. After one more check and not finding him I figured his sun bathing was over and my shift done, so we both went our separate ways to do battle another day. And you guys think I lead a boring life.

The Blue and the Grey

Saturday we spent the day watching the Boys in Blue beat up on the rebels, again. An observation. While walking through both camps, it was clear why the North won the war. In the North camps there were inspections, formations and preparations for the upcoming battle. In the South camps they were more interested in selling trinkets and old flags.

Here the Union is sneaking around the enemy cannon locations while the rebs are discussing what to charge for a shredded confederate flag.

We Northerners were outnumbered by the rebels in the stands, but not on the battlefield, and at least on Saturday we still prevailed. However, the battle planned for the Sunday was going to be a win for the johnny rebs. I guess we attended on the right day. As for as the economics, I'm sure the South sold more junk and left the site richer for it.

There seems to be some confusion on the South team. The Calvary going one way and the Infantry going the other. Note: Calvary is smarter than Infantry since they are riding away from the Union Soldiers and back toward the trinket sellers.

It was different and according to the announcers it was somewhat a true reenactment of how battles were fought. It was not a reenactment of the Brooksville raid, because the real raid was small, maybe a couple hundred troops. The reenactment we saw included about 1,000 troops from both sides.

On a side note, sitting beside me was an English couple. When they saw the Union troops they would say here come the Americans. I wanted to tell them both sides were American, but then they probably were waiting for the British troops to save the day so they could get their title and land back. Maybe they didn't understand their losing effort happened about 100 years before the battle we were seeing that happened about 150 years ago. But since they were guests in our country, I let them think what they wished.

So the weekend was different, interesting and we learned a little more about our history. I hope your weekend was educational and fun also.

Letters from the Kids

I live in a retirement community were funerals out number weddings 20 to 1. We have mail stations that we have to go to in order to pick up our mail.

Most people get there mail every day. I only get the mail once or twice a week. Typically I get two types of mail. The most popular are the lunch or dinner invitations from all the financial institutions that have my best interest at heart as long as I give them my money. If I attended all the invitation I received I would never have to buy food again.

The second type is like this. I didn't open it since I wasn't planning on getting burned in the near future.