A New Life! Retirement at its Best. 15

Encounters

 The days are shortening; at 6 a.m. it is still dark outside, and in the high forties, and at 7 p.m. it is completely dark and in the fifties. So gradually I have changed my daily walks from early in the morning and after dinner to after breakfast, if the weather is pleasant – and with the sun and little or no wind it’s great. The trees are starting to change colors and promising a beautiful palette in a few weeks. The fun part is that during the day I meet people along my trail. Not like the evenings, an occasional runner or dog walker, but people working on their property. One man was moving ferns and we had a conversation about those.

When walking along the lake I saw two turtles on the log in the water, like I had seen before. Getting closer to take a picture, a blue heron flew out of nowhere and landed on the log, while the turtles, seeing him approach, quickly jumped off. Back on the trail I met a gentleman who was scooping pine needles off the path, putting them in a large trashcan and spreading them on his property adjacent to the path. Why? “The gardeners blow the needles off every Monday, but they keep falling and they make the asphalt slippery and dangerous, especially for runners.” I could agree, even as a walker. As we talked, the heron bent over and we saw him catch a fish. “We recently lost one of them,” said Johnny,” because he caught a fish with a hook in it.”

He asked me where I live, told me his mother also lives at Waltonwood, in Assisted Living, and she will be 100 next month. I always carry at least one business card with me, which I gave him. He was very interested. Other than maintaining the Wimbledon swimming pool he was apparently also someone of power in his church, and ended the conversation with an invitation to be the guest speaker at the Methodist Church in the near future: “It’s close by, and you will get a free breakfast.” “I get that at Waltonwood too.” “Oh yes, of course.” He laughed and said he would get in touch with me, definitely, with a date for my visit.

On the way home, at the entrance of the Nature Preserve, I took a picture of this friendly ghost, which reminded me of one of the many activities at our “Club.” On Tuesday we’ll have a Halloween party, in costume for those who like that, with wine and cheese and crackers. Tomorrow there is a bus trip for a day to Old Salem, every Wednesday you can sign up to take the bus to a different restaurant for lunch, movies are shown four times a week, happy hour starts at 3:30 p.m. on Fridays, and every Thursday afternoon there is some kind of entertainment, a singer, a group of musicians, and more. Besides that there are the free fitness classes, free swimming, Bingo, Arts and Crafts, Computer education, sewing and quilting, religious services, bridge groups, hand-and-foot, and more.

We are still too busy to participate in many of those things, but it is good to know that we can have fun and will keep busy, even in our real retirement.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until Next time!

Ronny

 

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