The Real Residents

I've been trying to find out what the year-round residents think of the actions of the snow-birds. From what I can learn, they don't seem to think about them at all. They just put up with them as if they were a bunch of unruly children who sometimes get in the way, but mostly can be ignored. And after enjoying life snowbird-free for a few weeks, I can agree. They gradually fade away from our minds, leaving us free to come and go as we please. The most important thing to remember is that the snowbirds are here on vacation and all they want to do is play and have fun all day long. The rest of us live here and we have on-going responsibilities. We like to play but we have work to do, too.

Now that it's summer I've decided to try a few of the activities. My husband and I have joined the summer Bocce games, and we've become regulars at Friday night Bingo. It's fun but I'm starting to get bored. I never was much of a game player, and I like sports but Bocce is as slow as molasses. Watching it is boring but playing it is mind-numbing. It's a game for the elderly but in this park it's played by the younger men and women. I think they scare the elderly off.

Now what? Can I find happiness in a 55+ community? I think I can but in my own way. I like to sew; I like to read; I like to do crossword puzzles on my Kindle. I like to walk; I like to swim; I liked to play badminton when I was a kid. When I look at that list, I realize that everything except badminton is a solitary activity. Sewing can be a group activity but all they do here is quilting and that's during Season only. As I mentioned before I don't like quilting. There's also a knitting group. I don't knit well but I used to be able to crochet. I guess I could join the group and crochet, if they'd let me. Maybe I'll put a note in the Bulletin asking if there are any crocheters in the Park. Maybe we could start a crochet group, and keep it up during the summer. That could be fun. OK. I'm getting interested again. Book Clubs. I don't like them but maybe I should try it once or twice before I cross it out completely. I may find it's fun. Now that I've started thinking about it I may start having fun after all. It's all in the mind.

HOA Power...?

Since I moved to this community, my husband and I have gone to two HOA meetings. Very interesting.
The first one, in March, turned into an angry free-for-all. Soon after three of the Board members resigned.
Another meeting was scheduled for April, with a Board of Directors meeting scheduled for  the week before. We decided to attend the Board meeting first to find out if they were going to appoint replacements for the Directors who had resigned. We showed up at the clubhouse at the designated hour per public notice. No one was there. Another couple also showed up and had no idea what was going on. She called a friend on the Board and found out that they had moved the meeting to earlier in the day. Bad move. It's not only against the HOA Bylaws, it's also against the State Sunshine Laws. I emailed the former president, who had resigned, and asked him if he had heard what had happened. He had but felt I was trying to solicit him for action. I assured him I wasn't, and left it at that. We went to the scheduled members meeting to see what if anything was said. Silence. Since it was the last meeting of the Season, I decided to wait and see what I could find out during the summer from the full-time residents who very seldom are seen out and about while the snowbirds are visiting. Stay tuned.

Preparing to Have Fun

We were talking to a neighbor last night about our community. Now this neighbor is 55 and still works full-time , not your typical resident. He had some good suggestions. It seems we have a pool table and ping pong table in the clubhouse. Who knew? Maybe we could get people interested in those activities.

The community library has lots of puzzles but if you try to put one together in the clubhouse it can't be left on the table because someone will come along and put it away. Our neighbor thinks there's a card table that could be used for puzzles, and then left in a small room next to the large dining area. If true, we can start a puzzle and leave it for others to work on.

I would love to have WiFi at the clubhouse. We need to research that. If we did, then it would be much easier to teach computer use. As it is now, I would have to invite people to my house. I don't think I'm ready for that. I guess this will have to wait.

Since I like to sew, maybe we could start a sewing group for people like me who aren't interested in quilting. If we don't have someone willing to teach, we could help each other. I'll have to find out how the quilting group organizes their meetings. Do they bring their machines to the clubhouse or meet at someone's home?. And do they even use machines or is it all done by hand? 

What else would I like to do? Cooking? Maybe something informal could be organized. It wouldn't even have to be cooking but swapping recipes, diets, healthy eating information, etc. If we did decide to cook, we could cook something at home and bring samples to the meeting, or just report on how the cooking went. If we had a brave soul, maybe we could have a cooking demo once in awhile. That would be fun.

Maybe I've made a good start after all. This could turn out to be fun.

Where Am I?

I retired a couple of years ago. At first I was too busy to notice anything different in my lifestyle. But recently we moved to one of those 55+ communities and I've suddenly started wondering, what do I do now?

Every month a bulletin with a calendar is published and delivered to each door. (Don't ask. Later I'll explain why we still use paper.) A quick perusal of the activities shows an assortment of card games plus knitting, quilting and beading groups. Oh, and don't forget a reading group. Now, there's nothing wrong with these activities except they seem to be geared to someone's idea of little old ladies and gentlemen who have no energy and no desire to learn anything new.

I've always had plans for my retirement, catch up on my reading, learn something new, and re-visit my sewing hobby. However, these are all solitary pursuits and my main reason for moving to a community was to socialize with my neighbors. I hate card games; I don't like group book discussions; and I don't knit, quilt or bead. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with any of this but does the week have to be filled with it? We need some new activities.

Online searches of things for seniors to do have revealed that you're either young and fit or old and feeble; there's nothing in between. I think there is something out there for people like me, and I know there are more people like me out there. And this takes me to why the bulletins are printed on paper every month. I asked one of the HOA board members about why we don't have a website. He said it seems that only a few residents have computers. Now that may be true but I find it hard to believe. I know a lot of grannies and grampas who are on Faceboook, and also have email. Maybe they don't see that it's the same as being "on the computer." This is one thing I need to check into.

I also know from working in libraries that many older people have eReaders. I have one myself. They are not far removed from computers and many can be used as mini computers. I bought my Kindle Fire for that reason. And smart phones are nothing but mini computers you can also use as a phone. If these same people who don't have a computer have a smart phone than they're already there. Granted it's not easy to read a bulletin on a smart phone. I seldom do myself so I think a small computer of some kind is still needed.

One of my first projects will be to have an informal class at the clubhouse on the basics of using a computer. Hopefully, someone will come.