Arrived Monday evening. Tuesday breakfast at the Patisserie. Great place! Lots of grocery shopping at Public. Olympics and Dog Show. Unpack some more. Visit Ginny and pick grapefruits and oranges. Found a great bakery that makes Orange Rounds - $2.50- enough for at least 2 people. Gave one to Ginny. More Olympics. Cooking in. Eating healthy.
Today I went over to the office to get a current phone book for the Condo complex. Ran into Brooke, Lois’ daughter, a tennis player. She is here til March 1st, off to Aspen, returning March 9th for the Tennis tournament which is 3/10-3/12 this year. She’s a lot of laughs on the court.
While I was talking with her, along came Sid, another tennis player who made music videos for advertisers for a living. Now he writes, directs, plays piano for the annual entertainment put on by Sun Rise Covers the night of the tennis awards ceremony. Luckily I have escaped any singing and dancing again this year.
After hello to Monica, another tennis player not allowed to play with us because she works not lives in the condo complex, in the office and Paul, the handy man, went to check out if anyone was on the courts.
George, Jack L., John and his wife, Sandy, who has lost her teaching job, is subbing and playing in the tournament this year, were playing on Court One. Sandy is a very good tennis player. She’ll be hard to beat.
On Court Two, actually sitting in the sun beside the court were Carolyn, Jack S., Phil and Don. Hugs and kisses all around from the men.
Carolyn hugs too. She has a shoulder problem this year, Last year she had her foot operated on. She’s a good player. Jack S. says he has recently developed spinal stenosis and is having trouble walking and playing tennis, but he’s still playing. Phil’s wife, Jan, had her gallbladder out in December. Don rushed off to eat breakfast.
Harry is playing a little. His wife, Irmguard, is never on the court, but comes to social events. They live here year round as do Sandy and John K.
Everyone asking, “How’s Skip?” “Fine, Fine.” Not sure he’ll be playing tennis due to his problems with his eyesight, but we’ll practice some and see what happens re The Tournament.
Tomorrow is round robin. Friday, Wednesday, Sunday. Everyone welcome. Considering the fact I haven’t played since September I was hoping to ease into tennis, maybe have a lesson with Raj before hitting the court, but why worry. It may be ugly, at first, but with any luck it will come back to me. Best to have a lesson though first. I’ll see how bad/ugly it is tomorrow. It will be fun no matter how badly I’m playing. Good to hit a ball around with friends. Nobody really cares who wins or looses, except for a few very competitive types. Besides noone remembers who won or lost 15 minutes after play ends, including me.
Visited with Helen Q. Jack S is running the tournament this year. Jean H died, unfortunately. She was a wonderful, friendly woman who took photos of everyone and gave them away. She enjoyed people and the social events at night and down by the pool, etc. I’ve been asked to do her usual job, selling raffle tickets the night of the awards dinner. That will be fun. Get to see everyone, hand out prizes, etc. I can’t screw that job up too badly, I hope.
Helen has already bought a few things as prizes. She told me the latest news, most of which I had heard from talking to Kay in Columbus. Kay talks with Lois, Brooke’s mother, widow of a judge. Betty T. has lung cancer, smoked all her nearly 80 or 80 plus years. “She’s not going to make it.” Marsha O. has 4th stage Ovarian Cancer, taking chemo. Jean died. Phil’s wife had her gallbladder out in Dec. etc.
Helen looks around her condo, Jim, her husband, another retired Judge from MA,. is out golfing?, and said, “I’ve got to clean out some of this stuff.” We both remark on how much stuff we have. If we drop dead today or tomorrow it is going to be a big job for whomever (whoever?) is left. Helen is 75, Jim 77. I’m not too far behind, almost 67, but a youngster around here. Skip 80, Jack S turning 80 in April, etc.
All in all Sun Rise Cove Tennis and Yacht Club is about the same with some changes. PS There really aren’t any yachts. Maybe one down the end of the bulkhead, piers. One sailboat that goes out once a season. Pretty good sized, but immobile. The other slips are filled with whalers for the guys that like to fish out in Sarasota Bay.
A lot of the condo owners only live here Oct. - May. A few year rounders. About 140 condos in four, five story buildings. We are in the second building, first floor. We’re two buildings away from the two tennis courts -sandy courts, easy on the knees. No shin splints from hard courts here. The ball bounces differently than on clay, not good to fall on. I skinned a knee pretty badly one year. Mostly easy care though., no brushing. Once a week grooming.
We’re a couple of buildings from the large swimming pool and the small swimming pool. We are right on the bay. So the sun rises over the inland water way in the a.m. and sets over the Gulf in the evening. We are in a very narrow section of Siesta Key at the far Southern end across from Turtle Beach. We are gone by the time the turtles come out of the water to lay their eggs on the beach. Good swimming in the Gulf, but not today. The water is about 55 degrees due to the cold weather. However, I’m told the swimming pool is heated to 85! Getting in - no problem. Getting out into the North West wind is a bit trickier if you don’t have a Big, Warm Towel nearby.
Gotta go. Off to see what birds are around the Celery Fields east of I75, Fruitville Road. This a.m. I saw the parakeets by the tennis court. Everyone told me it was the first time they had seen them this year. About 20 of them. Used to be Monk Parakeets, then the Black headed came. I didn’t have binos with me so I couldn’t see them well enough to tell what kind they were, but it’s fun to hear their noisy screeches while flying around in flocks. More bird reports later. Oh, I found out that WWElvis is, maybe, not an Elvis impersonator. He may be a fan, that’s all. My mission, from Helen Q. is to find out more about him. I now know is real name, Paul D. He lives four floors about us. Stayed tuned. FAN.
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