Hello
again. Our last chapter concluded on
Halloween, Friday, October 31
st, while we were celebrating at our
home in Pahrump, Nevada. Saturday, we
had a generally relaxed day at home. At 5:00
or so we went over to the clubhouse for a “Frozen Pizza Party” put on by the
Silver Seekers. Those who came brought
some sort of frozen pizza and the kitchen crew put them in the ovens and sent
them out. It was actually a lot of fun
with everyone trying a little bit of different types of pizzas. Jackie made a dill pickle pizza because the younger
son of our Maintenance Manager, who is 6, loves pickles. It actually turned out to be a pretty popular
choice and went fast. After the pizza
party we did some trivia games, one just regular trivia, another a musical
bingo type of game which was a lot of fun.
We were done around 8:00, after which we went home and watched a little
TV before bed.
Sunday,
November 2nd, another Sunday-Funday.
We didn’t go anywhere, but we generally define Sunday’s as not doing any
kind of work, just relaxing with each other and not stressing about
anything. We watched a couple of movies
and had a good time We did actually
spend quite a bit of time working on a new cruise for next year which will be
the crowning glory of our cruising experiences.
We put a deposit down on a 33-day cruise which leaves Los Angeles in
November 2026 and goes to Hawaii, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and ends
in Singapore. A little scary to think
about, but still, something to look forward to.
Monday, Jackie went to the clubhouse and played cards with her
girlfriends for most of the day. I just
worked and played in the shed for most of the day. My friend Len came over for guitar practice
about 1:00 and we played for an hour or so.
We went to happy hour at 4:00, then came home and had dinner. We spent the rest of the night watching TV.
Tuesday, November 4
th, we went out for a late
lunch and some grocery shopping in the afternoon. After we got home, we relaxed for a
while. About 5:30 we went over to the
clubhouse for an event, a “Snack Walk” which is like a cake walk except for
snacks. Basically, a big game of adult musical
chairs. The twist is that if your chair
number is called you have to face a challenge of some sort. Solve a puzzle, draw cards, tell a joke,
various stuff. All in all, it was a lot
of fun. After the event we went back
home and watched TV until it was time for bed.
Wednesday was the normal stuff.
Jackie played Pokeno in the afternoon, I went to jam with friends. We went to happy hour at 4:00, then came home
and had dinner. We spent the rest of the
night with the TV.
Thursday, November 6
th, we didn’t have a busy
schedule. We went out for a late lunch
because we had a party tonight at the clubhouse. After we got back, I went over and set up my
music stuff for the party. We went over
about 5:30 for the party. Tonight was
“Ugly Prom Dress” night, set up to be like your typical high school prom. We had probably 50 people attend and some of
the costumes were great. We played music
and danced and took lots of pictures.
The party ended just before 9:00, after which we went home and watched
TV for a while and went to bed. Friday, we
had a free day most of the day, we went out and ran some errands. At 4:00 we had a show in the clubhouse put on
by the Silver Tappers, a local senior women’s dance troupe. They put on a really nice show. After the show there was a dinner, tonight
they had pulled pork or chicken, and sides.
After dinner we went home and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Saturday, November 8
th, I was up early and in
the clubhouse for the Annual Membership Meeting of the Co-op. As a member of the current Board of
Directors, I was up on the podium with the rest of the directors. The meeting was very easy, with little input
from the membership and no controversy.
The whole meeting only lasted about three hours. At the end of the meeting the results of the
recent election were announced, and I won one of the three-year seats on the
new BOD. There were three elected to
three-year terms, the three top vote getters.
The fourth-place candidate was appointed to fill a two-year term, and
the fifth-place candidate was appointed to fill a one-year term. Therse were terms that were open due to
resignations from the BOD through the year.
We will still have two open seats which will need to be filled at the
next regular Board meeting from nominees made by a special nominating committee
appointed by the President of the Board.
Speaking of which, the newly elected Board met, and I was selected to be
the President of Board for this year.
Yea me, I think. After the
meeting we went home for a little while, then came back for another dinner,
this one rolled steak. After that we
went home and relaxed with the TV for the remainder of the evening. Sunday was a quiet day at home. I tried not to do any Co-op work, and we
spent the day just being together watching movies on TV.
Monday, November 10
th, Happy Birthday United
States Marine Corps. My friend Len came
over at 11:00 for an hour or so of guitar practice. We had a 1:30 lunch with the Lucky Rollers,
the park’s camping group, at the Dry Creek Saloon. We had a nice lunch with about 20 other
members of the park. At 4:00 I had four
other former Marines over to the house for a Birthday shot. We stood in front of the Marine Corps flag I
have on display and toasted the Corps.
We then went to regular happy hour at the clubhouse. After that we went home and spent the rest of
the night watching TV. Tuesday was
Veterans Day and I went to an 8:00 flag raising ceremony to celebrate the
holiday. I had a 9:30 meeting of the
Security Committee and our housekeeper came at 10:00 to clean the house. At 12:30 we went back to the Dry Creek Saloon
for lunch because they were giving a free meal to veterans. We had another good meal. After lunch we ran some errands, then went
back to the house to relax. We went to
happy hour, then came home and watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, November 12th, another typical
Wednesday. Jackie went to play Pokeno at
1:00, I went to play with our jam group.
We went to happy hour at 4:00, then came home and had dinner and another
night with the TV. Thursday, I went to
the Town Hall meeting at 9:00, then later went to the Silver Seekers meeting at
1:00. Both Jackie and I went to the SS Board
Meeting since today was the election of new officers for the coming year. Normally there is only one person that signs
up for most of the SS Board positions, but this year there was a battle for
President, Secretary and Treasurer, as well as four people signed up for three
Director positions. It was basically a
generational battle, similar to the generational shift we are seeing on the
Co-op Board of Directors. It was the old
guard vs Generation X members. As with
the regular Board, the Generation X people won control of the Silver Seekers
Board. We look forward to a lot of new activities
because the Gen X folks love to party.
We went to happy hour at 4:00, then home for dinner and a night with the
TV.
Friday, November 14th, Jackie had a 12:00 mani
appointment. I went with her and after
her appointment we did a late lunch at the Mexican restaurant in the same
shopping complex. I had a 2:00
appointment at the Co-op office to sign off on the weekly payroll. We then had Bingo at 5:30. I won tonight, one game but I was the only
winner, so I didn’t have to share. I
finally went home with more than I spent to play. After Bingo we went home and watched TV until
bedtime. Saturday, we woke up to a
steady rain that had started in the early morning hours. Jackie had her ladies luncheon at 12:30 and I
went to the men’s lunch at 12:00. We
only had three people go to lunch out of the eight that had signed up, mostly
because of the rain. At 2:00 I had a
guitar practice with the two people I regularly play with here at the
park. We skipped happy hour because of
the steady rain, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.
Sunday, November 16
th I had to go out at 11:00
for my yearly pistol qualification to renew my concealed carry permit. When I got to the quarry it was only cloudy,
but while we were shooting the rain came.
It was light, but steady. We
finished the shoot since, as my old Sheriff’s Office range officer used to say,
“you never know what the weather is going to be when you get in a gunfight.” After shooting I went home, and we spent the
rest of the day just watching movies and having us-time. Sunday Funday! Monday, I had a Board of Directors workshop meeting at
9:00. This is where the Board sets the
agenda for the open Board meeting later in the week. This only took about an hour. Jackie was in the clubhouse at 10:00 to play
cards with her friends. At 1:00 I hosted
the monthly jam session in the clubhouse.
As with last month, we had a good turnout, with half of my regular
weekly jam group coming, as well as several members of the Co-op. We had a really fun session and even the
audience is getting bigger each month.
After the jam session we did happy hour, then went home and had
dinner. We watched TV until it was time
for bed.
Tuesday, November 18
th, I had a 9:00 meeting
with the Silver Seekers to help plan the December activities calendar. The rest of the day was spent working on
Co-op business in my shed office as well as going down to the Co-op office to
do some paperwork. At 5:00 we picked up
our friends Dale and Sue Vice and drove to the Artesian Cellars restaurant for
a nice dinner. It was raining again, but
other than some lightly flooded roads it didn’t affect our evening. After dinner we went back to our house where Jackie
served Key Lime pie to us. She had made
it earlier in the day because it is Dale’s favorite dessert. We talked for a while and they left just
before 8:00. We spent the rest of the
night watching TV. Wednesday the Direct
TV service man came out to check out our Direct TV. We have been having problems with just one
channel, the Las Vegas CBS station, breaking up and pixilating frequently. They checked the system, put a new LMB on the
antenna and changed a coupler on the coax line.
Seems to be working OK now. Jackie
went to play Pokeno at 1:00. I didn’t
have guitar practice because we had the jam on Monday. We went to happy hour, then came home for
dinner a night with the TV.
Thursday, November 20th, I had a 9:00 Board
meeting where I was supposed to have my first meeting as president of the
Board. However, the new Board decided to
not have the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of the meeting because many
of the new GenX members have been not standing for the pledge, creating a
political nightmare amongst the older members.
It came to a head today with a huge turnout of the older members, many
carrying flags and staging a demonstration.
Since my main fear for being president was being the only Boomer on an
otherwise all GenX Board I would be trying to make the older members understand
why the GenX folks were doing certain things.
This morning I realized that I didn’t want to do that, so before the
meeting I stepped down from being president of the Board and became just a
regular Board member. The rest of the
meeting went pretty routinely. In the
afternoon the RV tech came by and fixed the dump valve on our black tank. We spent the rest of the day relaxing around
the house. Friday, I had two committee
meetings today, a By Laws meeting at 11:00 and a Policy and Procedure meeting
at 1:00. I had chaired both these
committees last year, so I was in charge of setting up the organizational
meetings for the new year. I will not be
chairing either, but I will be on the committee as a member. At 3:00 we went to get haircuts, then went
out and ran some errands. We had dinner
and then spent the rest of the night with the TV.
Saturday, November 22
nd, Jackie played cards at
10:00, I did some work around the house.
In the afternoon Jackie made her entries for the Spam cookoff
tonight. At 5:00 we went over the
contest. Jackie didn’t win, but there
were about 20 entries. I don’t care for
Spam, too greasy, but there were a couple that, to me, were somewhat
edible. After the contest we went home
and relaxed with the TV until bedtime. Sunday,
we left the park about 10:30 and started down to Laughlin for a two-night stay
at the Riverside Resort. The Riverside
is always sending us offers for free nights, so every few months we go down for
a weekend. We got there about 2:30, got
checked into our rooms and then gamed for a while. I managed to hit a Royal Flush for $200,
which was great. We went to the Prime
Rib room at 6:30 and met our friends Linda and Jim for dinner there. They had just got off a cruise in San Diego
and decided to stay overnight in Laughlin before driving the last 150 miles to
Pahrump. We had a very nice dinner. After dinner we gamed a little more, then
went back to the room for the night. On
Monday we pretty much stayed at the Riverside gaming and relaxing. We did breakfast in the buffet since they
gave us free buffet tickets. We also got
free movie tickets, so we went to see the third of the Now You See Me movie
series. It was pretty good, and we
enjoyed it. We gamed and then had dinner
in the buffet as well. We went to bed
around 10:00.
Tuesday, November 25th, We checked out of our
room at 10:30, then went across the river to do a little shopping in the
Bullhead City, Arizona, Sam’s Club. We
bought a few things, gassed up the car, and went to the Laughlin In and Out for
a quick lunch. We then headed back home,
getting into home about 3:00. We went to
happy hour, then came home and had dinner and another night with the TV. Wednesday was a typical one, with Jackie
playing Pokeno at 1:00 and me going to guitar practice with my jam group. We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, November
27
th, Happy Thanksgiving.
Jackie spent the morning making the sweet potatoes for the Thanksgiving
dinner in the clubhouse today. A little
before 3:00 we went over to the clubhouse for dinner. There were over 60 people at the dinner, and
it was a lot of fun. The park cooked a
bunch of donated turkeys and hams and everything else was potluck, there was
LOTS of food. After a nice dinner we
went home and spent the rest of the day and evening vegging on the couch. Friday Jackie and several of her girlfriends
left about 9:30 to go to a black Friday sale at Secret Sisters, Jackie’s
favorite secondhand store. At 11:30 we went
over to the clubhouse for “leftovers lunch” with stuff from yesterday’s
dinner. They made a LOT of turkeys. About 1:30 we left again so Jackie could get
a mani. After the mani we did a Walmart
run for supplies. After we got home, we
considered going to Bingo, but we were both a little tired, so we decided to
stay home. I had no more gotten into my
“evening clothes” when Jackie got a phone call from the Bingo crew that they
couldn’t get anything to work. I threw
on my regular clothes and went over there.
I found that the internet for the Clubhouse was down. The modem was working, but there didn’t seem
to be any signal from the provider, Valley Electric. Finally, someone in the audience came up with
a cell phone that had hot spot capabilities, and I got the system running. I then went back home, and we spent the rest
of the night with the TV.
Saturday, November 29th, Jackie went to play
cards in the clubhouse at 10:00. Other
than that, it was a stay-at-home day, doing some chores around the house and
relaxing. Sunday, we had a relaxing
morning then went out to run some errands.
We stopped first at the Steelbound Brewery, the former Pourhouse
restaurant, for lunch. I had a nice
steak and Jackie had lamb. We were
joined by our friend Charlene, who just happened to come in shortly after we
did. After lunch we went to Secret
Sisters secondhand store to drop off some clothes, then we went to the Verizon
store to change our phone service. We
had changed to AT&T three years ago when we first moved from the motorhome
into the trailer. We had the Direct TV
people out to install the antenna for us and the representative convinced us to
switch over to them from Verizon. We had
been with Verizon since before we went full time, even before it was
Verizon. The AT&T service has not
been good in my estimation, but we couldn’t switch until we had paid off the
phones we bought when we first switched.
The phones were paid off last month.
Because of the black Friday sales, we both got new Samsung smartphones for
free, as well as we each got tablets for free.
We are now back on Verizon phone service. After the phone store we went home and spent
the rest of the night watching TV and setting up our new phones.
That brings us to the end of November, time to get this
diary post online. Until next time,
behave well and love greatly. Bye
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