Life After Remodeling

Having spent the better part of two months on the bathroom remodeling, beginning with this post from January when we finalized our ideas,  and ending with this post from March 18 when the project was completed, you might have thought we would be suffering from boredom, but in this household, we try to keep as active as we are able. Sadly, for me anyway, I'm still out on the injured reserve list, but that has not kept Bruce from playing. Our son Bill has become a convert playing two nights a week with the men's group where the hit the ball as hard as they like as long as it stays in bounds! Speaking of that, I think I'll begin this post with the goings on yesterday at the tournament which finally arrived. 

Thursday morning we drove out to Winter Garden to see what an actual tournament is like. If you are just a spectator with no nerves to trouble you, it is fantastic!

The city is very focused on Coronavirus safety, thus everyone who is not playing is required to wear a mask and try to maintain social distancing. As well, there were temperature checks and a form to sign stating that you were not sick. With that out of the way, we took a seat in the chairs we'd brought and watched the matches which we thoroughly enjoyed. 

So, we thought we understood how things worked, however, that was a bit of a stretch. Arriving a little after 7AM yesterday we met up with our friends and Bruce's partner, Denny. 

Because the courts are surrounded by a wind screen taking meaningful photographs of the games in progress was not much of an option, but I was able to take a few shots through the open gate before it began. They used the six pickleball courts along with at least eight on the adjacent tennis courts. These two guys practicing in the foreground were our guys first opponents.

Which means to me that they have played in a tournament before as they knew to arrive way early in order to warm up. So, that was lesson one.

Bruce and Denny's names were called as one of the first matches, the best two out of three. Lesson two, this is how it works. They were given five minutes to warm up on the same court as their opponents.

Five minutes is just a blip when you are trying to get warmed up, not just your body, but your mind which in the case of our guys, was buzzing with nerves. Carolyn, Denny's wife, Connie, Yvette, along with Greg and Leslie and I were hoping for things to go well. Here is the referee talking to them before the match.

The gates closed and the match began, except then it was stopped for reasons that were not clear to us spectators. 

What we learned later was that the wrist bands given to the players was to denote who was the first serve,r something which a person would understand only after having been in a tournament before, but was new to us. So, another lesson learned. In my opinion, this undermined their confidence right out of the gate. I could be wrong, but as most of you will agree, when called out by a person of authority, it rattles ones nerves. Nevertheless, play resumed and the results were not what they were hoping for. That said, months ago I'd watched and shared with Bruce, this video about  entering a first tournament. He claimed that if you score one point that you should call it a success and in that regard, they did even better than that. Probably less than twenty minutes later their names were called again to play one match to 15 to remain in the running. This game went better, however, they were not the victors and that was that. Far sooner than we expected,  their first tournament was under their belts with valuable lessons learned, albeit some of them painful, at least in the short term! I am just so proud of them to even have the nerve to enter! Sunday Ryan and Greg are entered, so we will go out to root them on and hope for the best. 

So what else have we been up to? One morning it was a walk around Lake Davis to enjoy the fine weather.

Hidden in the reeds a swan is sitting on her nest.

Nearby a blooming Tabebuia tree has as many blooms on the ground as on the tree. Hard to say which is more striking, the bright yellow blooms against the blue sky or the carpet of yellow underfoot.

Another day I actually went to the library for the first time in over a year which felt a bit weird but welcome.

Last weekend I received a text from the folks who bought our home wanting to know the name of the sprinkler system company we used. Furthermore she said that the big tree out front had lost yet another huge limb and they were planning to take it down, something I was so sad to think about as that is the tree where our 46 year old staghorn fern is still hanging. She wondered if we wanted it which although I would love to keep that part of our history going, is impossible for any number of reasons. I drove by on my way home from the library to say a last goodbye and was astonished to see the whole front yard torn up in what looks like a new septic tank drain field in progress.

That tree looks pathetic! There are still times when we miss that house, but times like this are when we don't!

Out back I spotted our first ducklings of the season! 

When we changed the clocks last Saturday it occurred to me that perhaps it will be one of the last times we do so. Or maybe not? There are some politicians working hard to make that happen and I wonder if they will succeed. The late afternoon sun is casting some fantastic shadows these days.

Originally I'd purchased two of this shelving units for the bathroom, deciding later that they wouldn't work, however, we found a place for one of them on the porch.

Monday we drove to Mt. Dora for a nice diversion which would have been better if it were a Tuesday as many of the shops are closed on Monday. Nevertheless, the weather was gorgeous and we took our time walking around the charming downtown. 

We roamed the grounds of the lovely Lakeside Inn,

where we saw these ladies ready to board the very small airplane, presumably to fly over the huge chain of lakes.

After popping into a few shops we noticed the inviting patio with bright red umbrellas at the Pisces Rising restaurant near the water and decided to give it a try.

After enjoying a delicious lunch, we ordered Bruce's favorite desert and were not disappointed.

Before leaving town we drove by this house that is certainly eye catching to say the least.

You have to wonder what the neighbors think.

Nancy arrived yesterday morning for her vacation at the Peck Casa. It's turned somewhat chilly, not what she was hoping, but at this time of the year, in a few days it may be 90 degrees again, as it was last week! She will have some pool days to look forward to after all.

Lastly Bruce and I have been watching a series on Netflix called The Sinners and oh my gosh, it is incredibly well done even if the subject matter is oftentimes hard to watch.

That's life after a remodel, let new adventures begin!!

your friend,

Gail