Hi AGAIN.....

I have no news.....nothing to share, no photos of fabulous vistas, no adventures, nothing........ and I don't mind a bit.    Life has returned to the hum of everyday routine among the old people of The Villages.      The roads and golf paths are much too busy .....  the Squares are full every nite with the oldsters dancing and shopping and  eating and proving once again that life is a good thing down here in American's Friendliest Hometown.     The growth has been quite phenomenal since we left ...... entire Villages and Rec Centers and Golf courses have sprung up, extending the boundaries of our Community to distant corners of the counties.    The rumors have it that we'll be able to drive to DisneyWorld in our golf carts !!  The census is now well over 100,000.   Housing prices, after being stagnant for a few years, have gone up significantly.... and still they come.   

   The Villages is developing an entirely new health care model.    In conjunction with USF, they are calling it the "Marcus Welby MD" approach. (it has a more official name as well)   They have brought in Primary Care Physicians from around the country, given them a great salary and perks and set up homey  Health Centers ,  golf cart accessible, and the emphasis is on developing a relationship with your Dr who will not be rushed at appts and works on a salary rather than how many patients can be seen in a day.     So far, the initial reaction seems to be positive and I suspect, that private practitioners will be seeing their patient numbers dropping as this gets going.     We're still undecided if we want to join.     We have been somewhat pleased with our Internist but may make some inquiries into the new program. It's very innovative and I heard that this is being closely watched by the health care industry to see how it does.   

In other news in the aging field.....one of us has beautiful greying hair, the other, not so much.   But in the interest of saving hours in her busy days, she has decided to go au natural......   It's a shock everytime I look in the mirror and see this older woman, but I love the freedom and don't miss the blond.....much.  

The extermination system worked and the annoying little creatures are mostly gone from the lanai....they will return but in more manageable numbers.    Meanwhile, with that annoyance gone, another soon filled it's place and we had to have the professionals  come in a persuade the ghost ants to go away.   Apparently, its the season for them and the diligent young ladies also found a large nest of them beside the house , close to the fireplace where they were marching in.     I'm waiting for the next specie to invade and only hope it doesn't slither.   

We have a couple of  weeks before we put on our party clothes and celebrate Nicholas and Kelsey's wedding ....another advantage of being old is that we don't have any role except to look nice (despite the grey) act nice (careful with the wine) and be proud of two wonderful kids.    Stay tuned......

And speaking of proud......  The Villages has a huge population of pickleball players....what started out as a few courts has expanded into a highly organized system, designed to encourage everyone to have fun ... to play with others of your level and do it all safely.    P plays at least 6 days a week for  2-3 hours.....because it's a smaller court and is all doubles play, there isn't as much need to run around the courts...and his skill and cunning overcomes any of his issues with agility.    Yesterday, he went to a rating clinic .... based on a scale of 1-5 he came out as a 3.5 which is tremendous.    (4-5 is Championship level).....  And to think they said he might never walk  !!

Meanwhile, the extra inches from all the Mexican food this summer, seems to be hanging around much too long.   I'm pounding the pavement most mornings but now have developed those annoying shin splints so will have to back off a bit....... the golf game is slowly coming back.  

Busy weeks coming up with guests, travel and celebrations.     I wish I had started the blog FIFTY years ago so we could go back and read all about the good stuff , see the people and places we shared our times with, share the funny and touching memories of babies and toddlers and teens and watch us all grow in so many ways.     But NEVER older as we are always YOUNGER EVERY DAY.