Late this morning, upon our return from the courts, our friend Patti was driving by and had a real nice thing to say. Apparently, this morning she looked for a new blog post and when not finding one, went back to the beginning in February 2007 and began reading. In those days I wrote posts more often, but they were much, much shorter. She said she liked it and it sure made me happy for someone to do that, reading it like a book. Now that would be something. Our friend Liz is soon to publish a book based on her blog, "Be Brave, Lose the Beige"! How cool is that?
Let's begin with a bright and happy image of a Northern Cardinal, one of a pair whom have been creating a big mess on our walkway with fallen seed! Holy cow, we are having to clean up a pile every day.
I forgot to mention that we saw our first ducklings of the season on our walk around Lake Davis last week. Although they are of the Muscovy variety, ducklings of any kind are just so adorable.
The first Magnolias of the season are showing their pretty faces and fragrance, just outside our gate.
There are a passel of turtles in the pond beside the community entrance, including some little ones!
This is but a few of the fourteen I counted the other morning! They seem to be enjoying the abundant sunshine.
I wish that it was all sunshine and roses in the community, however, that would not be telling the truth. Because this blog is meant to document life as we live it, I would be remiss not getting this down in print. A group of six residents, most of whom we know, are trying to overthrow the current board of directors, of which our son David is one. Actually he is the Vice President, but still he has the same vote as everyone else. As you can imagine, there is tension between more folks than is comfortable. On Saturday night, during our absence due to our pickleball obsession, a meet the candidates forum was held. At the very most, 45 people attended, but you can sure bet that more than that number are willing to complain. I suppose it is a microcosm of society at large? At least 600 residents live here and only about 70 vote. That said, I just realized that there are only 302 voting units because there is only one vote per unit. Our friend Mary, the former judge and now election queen with Orange County, will be counting the votes this Thursday night. Only time will tell where this all goes. :(
When last I wrote Major League Pickleball was upcoming. Because this event happens in only six places around the country, it seemed like a no-brainer to attend. As such, we found a place to stay for three nights, super close to the venue, Pictona. Pic as in pickleball and ona as in Daytona. But you figured that out yourself because I know that you are a smart bunch! It's really in the community just north of Daytona, Holly Hill which is small and to be honest, a little run down. Pictona itself is a first class facility though. The Orlando Squeeze were to begin playing at 8am on Thursday and although we did not make the start of play, we weren't too far off. I'll tell you what, our team has the best logo out of all 24 teams. Or, at least that is how I see it!
We'd all been wondering if and when they would have some merchandise for sale and thanks to our friends Patty and Kieth, we knew that there would be the goods at the tournament. Want to know how they knew that? Their daughter works for the company that made the goods!! In fact, they were over on Wednesday night for snacks and brought us some pre-tournament stickers. Can you say, "I bet Gail and Bruce were happy"? Why yes you can! The booth was busy with buyers.
The Orlando team was one of the last to be formed so the player draft was a bit limited. Two of whom are pictured below.
They played their hearts out, but came up a little short in the end.
Here's a link to our group. Callan Dawson getting down oh so low!
Disclaimer....I can get low, but the above is crazy low, especially for a guy. Seems as if they are a little less flexible than us gals.
A fan rocking the t-shirt.
There was plenty of sunshine and by Sunday the heat that comes with it!
We spent all day there, finally arriving at our b+b around 6:30. Called River Lily Inn, I'll be honest with you and say that it probably cost more than it should to stay there, but there aren't all that many options to choose from.
We stayed in the "Moon River" room with a balcony overlooking the river which is directly across the street. One morning I did pop over to snap a sunrise picture.
There are all manner of funky touches there, including this heart-shaped pool.
So that is where you go swimming should you care to, and here is where you park your car.
Because we were there for so little time, I didn't learn much about it except for the current owners must have purchased it during the pandemic, or just before, because they've owned it for three years. Apparently a previous owner painted the cars-on-fence display. There are more that would not fit into the frame!
As we were arriving, the man in the pink shirt introduced himself as Al, the owner. Mostly though, we saw him in a red Kansas City Chief's chef's coat each morning as he served our breakfast.
We did learn that they own a staffing company in Kansas City, as well as a farm in Nevada. Plus they are 70 years old!
Al's wife, who I thought was called Mary, but I later learned is not, Muriel or something, is British which explains this?
For someone who is as cautious as a person can be, the stairs were a wee bit steep.
Just this morning I realized that I am but two days away from the anniversary of my first broken wrist which is still, I am sad to say, not entirely the same. That said, I can use it, so there is that to celebrate!
A full breakfast was served in this lovely space.
Our only problem was they wanted to start at 8:30 and we really needed to be gone by then. Fortunately Al did his best to accommodate our schedule.
A funny thing happened on Thursday. From our top row seats, which were great btw, we glanced over to our left and who should we see but Ray, a court fixture at Dover Shores, sitting with Steve Kuhn, the bald man who is the mastermind behind Major League Pickleball. He is the money man as well.
Ray is the man with the crewcut. I bet you might remember how we visited him at the hospital when he had the partial finger amputation? At any rate, the fellow in the middle is Ray's longtime friend John, the man who once owned the longest running bar in Orlando. Our son Matthew used to dance many a night away long ago when it was called Barbarella. So what was he doing at a pickleball tournament sitting with the head of MLP? Instead of the nightclub, he now owns a space called
Clear One. You guessed it, pickleball reigns supreme there. As he explained, during our dinner with them, the pandemic hurt the nightclub business and since he'd learned to play pickleball he thought why not buy a place to play? At nearly the same time he heard tell about Steve Kuhn's ideas on growing the sport of pickleball, in part through creating MLP, so he called him up asking about buying a team. And that is just one more story of how pickleball is creating some very unlikely friendships! We know that has held true for us.
This was kind of fun watching Dekel Bar sign this woman's shirt. Absolutely hard to imagine three years ago when we began playing and watching the pros.
So what in this post would lead a person to believe we had overdosed on pickleball? Not much is what I have to say. Which means, the kitchen is calling and the overdosing part will have to be left for a part two! In the meantime I so wish I had the complete concentration of Lucy and Callie above. They are doing that in spades.
Until we meet again, I remain,
your friend,
Gail
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