Sunday, January 17th

  Pat was at the door early today to go riding, I was still in my pj's.  Threw some clothes on and went for the morning ride with him and 2 other guys.  It was a nice day for a ride, a bit of wind in our face going east and with Larry missing, they picked up the pace some.  It made for a tough ride for yours truly on that leg of the journey, but the return trip was all the more enjoyable.  It turned out they went all the way today, but I cut off at Mountainview and returned on my own.  That gave me just over 10 miles and I was dead beat.  I think the other guys had 4 or 5 miles longer on their ride.
  The Sunday paper came an that is a coupon clippers windfall, so we clipped a few of the good ones.  The highlight for me was the Harbor Freight one has the free tape measure again and I am down to 4 of them in the shed out back.  Marg got a handful, not sure which ones appealed to her, but there was some for Ruby Tuesday & she loves the salad bar there.  We went out for some new spikes for my golf shoes and I ended up with a couple of pairs of runners.  We stopped at Big 5 and they always have sports shoes on special, one pair was a really good deal, while the others were just a good deal.  When I got back I put the spikes in to make sure they were the right ones, as there are so many different kinds now.
  We had a sandwich and then it was time for the Celebration of Life.  We lost 9 people from the park in the last year, an unusually high number.  Considering there are only 150 stalls in the park, almost everyone had a someone they knew that could be counted among them, so it was well attended.  It was pretty much organized by Shari and several people including the pastor assisted with the function.  Some of the ladies baked a few things to have with coffee or tea after and they had a chance to visit after.  It was nice to see the park owner, Atmore at the function as well as so many of the residents.
  It was a much nicer day and was quite a bit warmer in the sun.  We needed water for the water cooler so went out for that.  They have the sales dispensers all over the city and with the cooler, we are now using 5 gallon bottles.  This is much better than the smaller ones, requiring fewer trips.  Later in the afternoon we went for happy hour at Johnsons.  It was a smaller group today, which most of us like because then you can actually visit with others.  I filled Larry in on the ride today and that it was his fault for the fast pace and long ride and that I am recruiting more old fat people to ride with us to slow the leaders down.
  Supper was a bbq affair and was good.  Marg refers to these as our joint effort, although all I do is stand in front of the grill and make sure stuff doesn't burn too bad.  It also gives me an opportunity to visit with the neighbour behind us as he does a bit of the same.
  Ice cream social tonight and I paced myself at supper so that I could have a banana split, while Marg stayed with the ice cream and cake.  We had the opportunity to meet some new people in the park there and chat with them a bit.  One couple from Maine were quite interesting - translation - he is a hunter and got a moose this past fall. 

  Checked the powerball ticket for yesterday, only one number & no powerball match.  Marg re-invested the winnings from last week, well you never know.  Sometimes lucky money brings other winning money, well that was the thinking.  It now appears that was flawed logic.