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| Twinkle Toes |
It started out like a normal morning-the usual thin gruel of oatmeal, orange slices, semel with cheese, rich coffee. The game was going well. I had the lead just a few pegs from the finish. Surely I would win. I was so excited I was shaking like a shaved chihuahua, but then those capricious card gods exploded my hopes like a pimple on a pouting pubescent. I screamed bloody murder as I vainly tried to apply pressure to my wounded ego. Needless to say, Twinkle Toes (Stumpy the Wily Cager) had once again snatched victory from what looked like certain defeat. To soothe my saddened soul, we decided to do what Americans do-go shopping. We drove over to the Farmer's Market in Sun City. We had a wonderful experience at the Farmer's Market in Morro Bay, and that had whetted our appetite, but let me tell you Sun City is no Morro Bay. Sun City started out as a retirement community and hit its stride in the mid eighties when over 39,000 retirees lived in model homes. The population is somewhat less now, but the demographics are similar: 98.1% white; average age, 75; 100 females to 69 males. And the so called farmer's market was little more than a bunch of old retired white people selling trinkets so they don't get bored. We did buy a bag of navel oranges from a young Hispanic man, and we got a tutorial on orchids (How to make them go crazy) from a very nice lady, but overall the only benefit we got out of the deal was to gain a broader perspective of our surroundings on the drive over there (Which is always good). After the market, I took twinkle toes to a well reviewed Nails shop where she got herself a pedi-mani. The girls in the busy shop looked cute and busy. Twinkle toes was very happy. In the meantime, I found a place to refill our empty propane tank. We came back to the RV park, had a little lunch, and then explored the neighborhood east of the freeway. This turned out to be great because we came across the Phoenix Tennis center, which is a public facility that has been recently refurbished. They have a tournament this weekend as well as a College match that we hope to catch. Today we saw a bunch of young (11-12) high level boys and girls practicing. They can really play, and it turns out they're part of a high level group that plays internationally. They are homeschooled, and their participation requires both talent and commitment (And probably money). As former avid tennis players, it was cool to come across such a place. Around six, we went to our Tai Chi lesson. Judy sat this class out to rest her leg, and I accepted (As graciously as I could) the constructive criticism of David. It is what I signed up for, after all. I don't believe I can grow if I'm not willing to venture out of my "comfort zone". I'm here to tell you that I'm way out of the zone. One comment David made as an aside to another student, "The more you know, the harder it is to learn." Finally, we came back to Frac and watched the Zags pummel the hapless Marymount's. And we've started booking our social calendar (Jim and Rita-tomorrow; Russ and Cathy-Sunday; Happy and Forey-Tuesday. So despite my unfortunate luck at cards and my feeling of being nothing special as a Tai Chi student, I must say life is good, especially today.
We eat this thin gruel six days a week. We're nothing if not regular.
The only thing older than this crowd were the vendors, but I'd say this handsome guy still has a good chance of finding a date.
Maybe he could take lessons from this orchid.
Miss Judy making a shrewd deal on oranges (Or maybe she was just contemplating her navel).
Public facility. About thirty excellent courts.
Judy in her prime.
The view from our living room.
David stopped class three times to walk over and correct my position, and all we were doing was lifting our arms.
Here I'm in the process to doing a cloud hands exercise (I was corrected here, too-gotta love it).
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