Monday

An early start today and Larry & I picked up Gary to ride.  No donkey visit today even though we could hear him calling.  It appears he gets lots of visitors, so we took our regular route that Gary has not been on before.  We got our 3 plus miles in and showed Gary the big housing development going on just south of here.  Larry was quite concerned about Cooper as he won't eat since Nancy left.  Earlier Marg had gone there and he seemed to eat then, but he suspects the dog hides his biscuits in his bed.  It would be funny, except she will be gone 5 days and the dog needs to eat.
  We got back just as Marg was leaving for water aerobics.  She convinced Janice, next door to tag along.  She is new in the park and said she wanted to meet more people, so Marg has been helping her get out.  They had a good sized group today, something like 14, I am surprised the pool didn't overflow with all the splashing and thrashing they would create.
  I went over to check on Kenny and his car project.  I kid him about running an illegal body shop, or chop shop using undocumented foreign workers [me].  We came up with a couple of neat solutions to his project.  He is going to use the lid of the spray paint can for the center of the steering wheel, like a horn button.  For hub caps he is going to use milk bottle caps, they are just the right size to friction fit in the recess in the rim and best of all between us we had enough red ones.  We did some masking so he could paint the windows in and put some chrome trim on the bottom of the bumper.  It should be ready tomorrow, so I will make sure I get pics of it.  He's kind of protective of anyone working on it with him, but seems to make an exception for me even after I told him if I was being to helpful to just tell me to get lost.
  We had a bite to eat and then I went to play pool, Marg went to the grocery store.  When I got to the pool room there was no one to play.  I looked around and saw Warren watching Gary & Aaron working on a golf cart to get some Christmas decoration problem sorted out.  Warren played pool once last year, but really hasn't been a presence there, so I was surprised when he said he would play.  He is quite good for a guy who doesn't play regularly and beat me twice.  I joked that I should know better than to play a carpenter as he seemed to know all the angles. 

  There was a block party on Tequila lane at 4 today and Marg made:  a Greek salad & a ham.  It was a picnic ham and was sliced at the market.  She made a glaze for it and put it in the oven to get it ready to take.  There were a lot of people there, probably close to 100.  The road was pretty much full around the party area.  Marg talked Janice into going and it was nice to see some of the year round residents in the party.  There was lots of food, everything I took was very good and best of all both of us got a piece of the peach cobbler Smitty made in the dutch oven.  This was only my second time getting a slice of one of his creations, they are legendary and delicious.
  After we went back to our place, Marg was speaking with some new folks across the road from us.  They are from around Slocan, BC but did not know Jock & Helen or any of Helen's family in the area.  They are only here for a week as their winter break strategy is to move around every week or two.
  After a bit of a break we went to bingo in the rec hall.  Here again Marg convinced Janice it would be fun, so she went as well.  We did indeed have about as much fun as you can without winning.  Marg was one number on multiple cards and singles so many times I lost count and she sat waiting for her number for many calls, but alas success was not to be.