We’re still having trouble with our timing. Jackie and I felt quite smug that we had
planned our schedules to the point where we could arrive at all of the
scheduled events at least 10 minutes early.
So it came as quite a shock to find out that we were always the last to
arrive. Nothing compares to walking into
a room and having 150 people stop talking en masse and stare at you as you do
the walk of shame to try to find a seat.
In theory, every activity starts at 6:30 p.m. In reality, most people arrive around 6 pm.
(or earlier). This explains why old
people all seem to have dinner at 4 p.m.
I always thought it was just a sign of old age and felt kind of sorry
for them. I was wrong! It turns out that all these old people have
secret lives and the party starts at 6:30 (and ends promptly at 8 p.m.). And if you want a seat, you’d better be there
by 6 p.m. by golly.
In the last couple of weeks, Jackie and I have actually gone
out to dinner at 4 p.m. We have also given
new meaning to the term “dine and dash”.
Crock pot cooking is now almost mandatory. We’ve mastered the art of eating, cleaning up
and getting out the door within 15 minutes.
This retirement business is exhausting!
Another skill we've (almost) mastered is the "wearing of the badge". When we arrived, we were issued a name tag which is to be worn at all times and particularly if you are playing games that involve money (it's a law in Texas). And we're talking serious money here - last night, for instance, I won $1.80 (USD) in two games of 31. Jackie is the all time winner, though - she won $13.75 in quarters at Card Elimination. And our big discussion, at Tripoli, was how pennies can get moldy in a sealed container and should you wash them or not. Mind-numbing discussions, I know. No wonder we're exhausted! Seriously, we've calculated that it costs us about $7.00 a week to pay for all the games. Sadly we had not factored this into the budget but we're making do.
After a few (a lot) of false starts where we had to do a second walk of shame to go write our names on little scaps of paper, we've finally gotten to the point where we remember the badge 90% of the time. Especially when we don't actually need it - like for ice cream, dominoes and snackers.
We still haven't mastered the concept of "snackers". They just mysteriously appear at random events. Obviously some people are getting the memo but we still never know if, where or when to bring snacks. We are given a lot of leeway, though, since Jackie and I are considered the "young'uns" around here.
Down here in Texas, everything is big but what we saw last
week made my jaw drop! They call them
“Ropas” which is Spanish for clothes.
That is an understatement!!!
These are massive warehouses that are filled almost to the ceiling with
clothes. People scale these mounds of
clothes like they are crawling up Everest.
When you have a pillow case full (you have to bring your own pillow
case), they weigh the clothes and charge you by the pound. Most is 25 cents a pound but the really high
end stuff can go as high as 60 cents – depends on the pile you climb. Oh yeah – and you get a 5 cent discount if
you wear your badge. So, if you have the
agility of a billy goat, a high tolerance for the smell of dirty clothes, a
name badge and 20 cents, you too can outfit yourself for the foreseeable
future.
