January 16th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -4 degrees, Calgary 3 degrees, Mesa 25 degrees”

Jackie was out early this morning to go to her first Yoga class of 2026. We will see how her muscles react to that.

I took Daisy down to the dog park and even though no dogs to play with she did her business. She is a funny girl.

The air temperature rises so fast it is amazing. 8 am to 9 am and it jumps 5 degrees and today hitting 25 with no wind it was wonderful.

I readied everything for my first golf game of 2026. With lots of anticipation I hit the course. First hole ended with a easy birdie. Another birdie a few holes later and some good holes and then some bad holes. I have always struggled controlling a slice but today control was not in the cards as I lost two balls due to slicing. I finished 9 holes with a 40 which I can life with but ended the game at 92 which is 10 higher than I would want. Two lost balls is instantly 7 strokes just given away as I was shooting 4 from over 200 back on each hole. And Ron P a great golfer who is 83 yrs old beat me and the rest of the guys. He was the low gross and low net today. Arnold who is 90 yrs old also golfed very well with us today. Arnold and Wayne will join again on Monday. Nice guys.

Our group has it’s ebb’s and flows of people coming and leaving. It was fairly stable for a few years but this year we have been hit with a lot of changes. Jim W decided to sell his place so is gone. Denis H decided to join a league and doesn’t golf with us anymore. Mike and Barry only golf once a week with us as they joined a league.

We have been lucky in getting Lyle to golf consistently, we have Sandy joining us now more often and Jim H will play more often.

But to add to this coming and goings, Barry decided to sell his place and sold his in one day. So he will play until the end of March and won’t be back. He has decided to travel and stay in Italy and like countries for a few months instead. There is age when you are able to and a age when you know you can’t so they have about 10 yrs left of active retirement. If you can’t walk there is no use going to an exotic or historical spot as it makes seeing things difficult. Good on them.

Currently I am not of that thinking. I will visit different spots in the world but to stay as a tourist in a foreign country not knowing the language, culture and being alone per say isn’t high on my list. I love the companionship here in Viewpoint, I love the activities and things to do and I love sleeping in MY bed.

Once again it is a sweet time to buy in Viewpoint right now as the pricing is down. Reminds me of 2007 when we bought with a slight depression of pricing and a huge potential of a upswing. I know there are some nice units selling pretty cheap. It is always cyclical but this year when you add the political climate and exchange we lost a few more Canadians.

So it was a very pleasant and a fun day once again and I will work on my slice one more time. Drives me nuts to always have to fight it. It is the difference between my score of 77 and 87 every time.

I was disappointed in the greens. They are not a lot better than we left. I strongly think they should be giving a discounted price due to this.

Thought of the Day

They call it golf as every other four word is taken.

January 17th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton 6 degrees, Calgary 14 degrees, Mesa 24 degrees”

No reason to get up early as it is weekend. Jackie took Daisy out about 8:30 and walked around the park after the dog park.

Today is my Big Brother’s Birthday. I will say this it is not nice to think about how OLD he is. To have a parent at almost 94 yrs old and a brother in his mid seventies sure brings to life how time is flying.

It is especially important to live for now as the average Canadian male lifespan is 79.5 yrs old. Reaching 65 yrs old the additional life expectancy increases exponentially.

Happy Birthday Alfred Willard. Enjoy your mid 70’s . LOL

A wonderful supper and BBQ outside on the patio tonight My grill is open sign turned and my cold beer sign shining brightly.

After a Depot run Jackie started to paint the back room our master bedroom. She got about half done today which awesome. The blue grey color with the white trim popping looks great. Why has paint become so expensive.?

Daisy had fun shopping with us. She spent the day following me with Jackie busy. I worked on the back deck. The original deck I had I thought was too small so I build an addition to it. Building it difficult as it has to be moveable in case of a water line or power line break. So trying to say within the rules a bit I got it done. But when I went to buy the additional composite decking Lowes changed suppliers and I could not find a match. On any given day I would have just bought all new decking. I would say this is 10 yrs ago at least, BUT no I wanted to save money as Trex is expensive and I designed a pattern of old and new boards. 5 yrs later I needed a step and again a supplier change. So three different products which I hate but live with. My add on steps had sunk a bit so I used the jack and lifted it back up and added new blocking. Never mind the different colors but it was not a great job with different widths, thicknesses etc. I live with it as it is in the back but a job not proud of. In todays world it would be about $5k to replace and I am not going to do that. Working in the sun all day is tiring.

Flames win again. It is amazing that the Oiler only have TWO more wins than us but are in second place and we are in second last place. Crazy !

Thought of the Day

When someone says it is in the last place you look. Yes it would be. LOL

January 18th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -8 degrees, Calgary -2 degrees, Mesa 25 degrees”

Another gorgeous day in Mesa. Not a cloud in the sky or a breeze in the air.

As usual Jackie and Daisy were out of the house early this morning.

After breakfast Jackie decided to finish painting the bedroom. I whipped to Costco to pick up some stuff for the guys and Jackie girls that come here after golfing.

DO NOT GO TO COSTCO on a Sunday. It is incredibly busy. And that doesn’t describe it well. It was mass chaos. You get busyness, older people all mixed together in aisle it will be a scene. Crazy.

I managed to get in and out but as usual Costco got me and I ended buying too many things. One good thing is it will last for a long time the stuff I bought. But i find if it is available more does get eaten. Chocolate covered raisins, baked chips, chocolate covered almonds, mixed nuts, bags of chips, meat sticks, salted cashews plus beer, water and Pepsi. We had three years of rebate cheques from Costco I used up.

Then off to wash the car as sitting for a month it was pretty dusty.

I came home and helped finish putting all of the stuff back with Jackie. She doesn’t like my special order mini blinds so we have blank windows. Tomorrow morning when the sun shines brightly she will discover the reason for the blinds. She is thinking peel and stick sheets for the glass. I won’t say anything. LOL

She worked hard for the last two days and it turned out great. I think it looks awesome in fact. Here is a before and after. The pictures really don’t show the difference between the beige wall and the now grey wall.

After supper we had the Viewpoint Orchestra putting on a concert. Joel had a special performance tonight. These guys are GREAT. A 10/10 in quality and quantity. The musicality and skill were pleasing to the ear. Joel’s special “hammer” portion was awesome. A visitor to the park subbed in for a singer and was spectacular . She is from Edmonton and was visiting friends when she was asked to sing. Awesome job.

It was a fun night with exceptional talent. Having said that though it felt like a church concert watching for your kid and then the collection plate coming around.

It is a all volunteer group that has to spend many hours to perfect their skill. I can only imagine how good they were when young. I thought of this as we had all of the veterans stand up and to see them now a shell of a man they once were. Many of them most likely fought in some engagement and now are just old.

A fun night.

Thought of the Day

Age is something that doesn’t matter unless you are cheese or a fine wine.

January 19th-20th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -6 degrees, Calgary 5 degrees, Mesa 24 degrees “

A wonderful warm sunny day. Bright sun and no wind.

Jackie was out early and Daisy to had a nice long walk and park play.

I got a few things ready for guys like take out the food and move the chairs to room for 8 guys. Everyone was in agreement to move to snacks, peanuts chips etc rather than meat & cheese plates as are finishing at supper time and people have Burger night or Fish Friday meals to go to.

I was tentative golfing today as I experienced too many slices causing the scores to be higher than I would have liked.

Today was another struggle with slices but I managed quite well. I had 3 birdies and 4 pars on the back nine and a pretty good front nine but still lost to a sandbagger by ONE stroke.

It was quite an eclectic group of guys today. All retirees so that in common but we had a owner of a car dealership, a owner of a tire shop, a owner of a semi- truck dealership, a owner of a paving company, a owner of truck shipping company, another owner of a car dealership and one sales guy. A vast amount of talent here. And some money.

Should have started a company and not a sub shop. LOL

Everyone today golfed lights out. 6 out of the 8 guys finished in the NET 60’s club which is unheard of.

I had to take this picture as Sandy has let his hair grow long and flowing. It is identical to my friend Bob Ferris’s . Made me smile to see it and have the memories. I picked up Bob & Pat years ago at the airport with the Jeep with no top on. He arrived at Viewpoint and it took days to untangle it.

The money was spread around today with Sandy winning two Par 3’s for $12, Ron winning two Par 3 for $12, and Bob winning 1 Par 3 for $6 . Kirk winning Low Gross $5 and Sandy & Kirk tied low net $2.50 each. Notice no Larry mentioned. Darn

Just another day in paradise. Love it . Fun day. Exercise, friendship, fellowship, and competition.

Jackie was off to Yoga this morning. Hopefully she doesn’t pull a muscle as Yoga is known to do.

I took Daisy down to the park and yakked with the guys and their dogs for a bit.

Nothing on the schedule today so I put away everything from my golf guys. Chairs, cans, tables etc.

Maintenance today. I sprayed for Scorpions. I sprayed for Crickets. I sprayed Round Up for the weeds,

I sorted and cleaned one section of the shed and found a missing tool I was looking for.

I discovered late tonight I have a bifold door repair to do. I have to remove the bottom stile, reglue it and reinstall it. I then will hit it with a couple of pin nails to hold it in place. The factory when they built the house did it poorly and the stile broke loose.

I would say I used this following statement 1000 times in my sales pitches. ” If you look up bifold in the Webster dictionary it will state, Poor operating weak door system, is that what you want? “ They are just that. They are hung cheaply, they cost less with the only advantage being consume less space. I have always hated them, In fact even framers and finishers hate them as they are undersized and the top molding is out of the site line with the balance of doors and they have to make the RO a different size.

A 1 minute job that will take one hour as I have to get out the compressor, and use the air gun after gluing.

I took Daisy for a spin today and the pools and the music on the greens were packed.

Did my speed run down the main road and was clocked at 18 mph in my cart. Yahoo !

I thought I would check out the RV section. Still 50% empty. The Canadians just didn’t show up this year. Oh well their loss of one or more years in their short lives for no reason.

When we bought our house here in 2007 we camped in one of these lots while we looked at every resort in Mesa before deciding on Viewpoint.

A decision that I would consider one of the best we have made. The fun and enjoyment we have had and continue to do has been amazing. While different with the changes over the years it is still our Happy Place.

Thought of the Day

Everyone should just smile. Life really isn’t that serious. The sun rises and the sun sets. We just complicate the process.

January 21st

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -9 degrees, Calgary -3 degrees, Mesa 21 degrees”

It was a little overcast today so it stayed on the cooler side. It was cool in the house and outside.

Jackie had her usual walking with Daisy. She needed to be ready early as today is her hair appointment. Daisy’s not Jackie. LOL

I went outside and started to work on the bifold. The builder cut the door down and re-stiled it. Not a great job. They used pin nails in the back so I couldn’t remove it. So I pried it open and glued it. I put more pins nails and it is now just drying and will be strong. It takes longer getting out the hoses, compressors, gun etc than to fix it.

I was outside and it was cool. I looked for a work coat to wear but couldn’t find one so I decided to put on my one and only vest I have here. While it kept my body warm my first feelings were , “I am warm but man my arms are cold”. My fingers even turned white as the blood in my cold arms due to wearing a vest was too thick to allow the circulation to get to the finger tips.

Got the job done which is good, I will install after a few hours of drying.

Installed like brand new. I was just going to glue but decided to a Mike Holmes and pulled the compressor, hoses and tank out and pin nailed it also.

Sat in the back in the warmth and enjoyed it. Daisy joined me but her new haircut was hilarious with the static cling.

Her haircut was very nice though.

Had lots of time for supper today so slow cooked baby back ribs on the BBQ. Dry rub only and 2 hours later perfection. Add mashed potatoes and salad and you have a wonderful supper.

Daisy with her new pretty haircut is passed out after her stressful day.

It was just I and another guy in the hot tub tonight. Small world. He is from Oyen and golfs with the owner of Home Hardware Oyen. A great conversation. Funny though as he had a big farm and the kids didn’t want anything to do with so he sold it all. He says ” Dumb kids the land has doubled in per acre pricing in the last 5 years” Laughs and says he will spend it.

My shoulders have been real tight for a long time and hopefully an hour soak at 104 degrees will loosen them up.

Thought of the Day

No chip on this shoulder. I wanted to tell you a shoulder joke but I was afraid you would just shrug it off.

January 22nd

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -21 degrees, Calgary -13 degrees, Mesa 23 degrees”

I see lots of -30 degrees tonight and even -40 on the weather map with the windchill. Now i would like to say we are looking great for the next few days but we have a cold spell coming also with rain. Now rain in Mesa is 1/10th of an inch.

Jackie was off golfing this am after taking Daisy for walk.

Today was outside paint day for me. I painted the fascia board on the west . A little difficult getting it but with a 4 in roller and a 10ft extension handle I was able to get it.

I touched up all of the fence and gate area and the window.

Then off to fix my curtain rod for our outside patio. The connector was turned around which allows the pole to drop a bit and I wanted to sturdy up the outside bracket. Funny how a small job requires so many trips to the shed for tools. Hammer, impact drill, drill, drill index, nut driver, screwdriver, hole saw kit, screws, clamps to do a small job although it took me a couple of hours on this alone.

Then off to set up chairs, Whitney Houston was tonight. Not a big draw as we only had just over 400 chairs to set up.

Home again for supper with left over ribs. Awesome tasting.

I am not a fan of Whitney type songs as she is like Celine Dion, Barbara Streisand, and Mariah Carey . A lot of yelling and screaming and not hearing one word. This impersonator was a American Idol finalist and I give her performance a 9/10. She put on a very good show that was quite enjoyable.

A great show, a fun evening and day getting things done.

Thought of the Day

I do my own stunts… but never intentionally.

January 23rd-24th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -14 degrees, Calgary -10 degrees, Mesa 19 degrees”

One could look at the temperature here and say it is a very nice day. 19 degrees by any stretch is a warm summer day in Calgary. Having said that I to wear a light jacket both days first thing thing in the am and even during the day sitting outside writing this.

It was a very fun day on the course today. Still struggling with the slice and it got me today with two lost balls. Still some good golf. Not my best today with only one bird and a few three putts. One guy in our group golfed his best score. Barry had a 77 net 58 which is unheard of. I got lucky to win one Par 3 so made a few bucks.

Today was the Robbie Burns tournament so lots of plaid and kilts. Quite amazing that a man living only to 37 yrs old and living in the 1700’s is still celebrated today. To be honest I knew nothing about him so had to look him up. It appears the song Auld Lang Syne for New Years was his claim to fame. Pretty impressive to have that kind of longevity.

After golf we headed to Kirks place. Bob is Scottish and his birthday is on Robbie Burns day so he had bottle of the finest Scotch. Shot of Scotch or two. LOL I have to admit they got to me a bit.

I rush home as we have the dance to go to tonight. A quick bite than off to dance the night away. I will say the song choices were ok but the sound guy just didn’t do his job and the music was very muffled and difficult to hear. Glad it wasn’t blaring as it is nice to talk but would have better with better sound. Still a fun night.

We actually slept in until 9 am this morning. Right at 9 we got a call from Fred & Terry in Mexico. Always fun to talk to them and see how they are doing in Mexico. It appears they are liking it a lot which is good. A small medical issue but handled very well. Ralph & Tracy have left so they will have no company for a bit. I am still confident in our decision to enjoy Viewpoint versus another option. A three week vacation cost more than 6 months here and we have lots to do.

Having said that it is a different time than for years.

My golf group is being decimated by people selling and leaving. This year we lost Denis, Jim, and now with Barry having sold his place and leaving at the end of March. Mike joined the “sell” group and his is listed. Losing 4 guys in one year is a lot. We have Ron P, Ron S, Kirk and myself with hopefully Bob and Sandy for next year. Such nice guys which is hard to replace.

Today we decided we will do nothing. It was cool enough with the wind today even though 20 above I had to put on a light coat. Watching TV outside, eating outside, took a trip to the baseball field for a great burger. A nice day.

A BBQ sirloin steak with fries was awesome. I found a steakhouse to go to that has a Porterhouse steak on it. Unbelievable and extremely rare to be on menu.

Thought of the Day

I don’t get nearly enough credit for things I manage not to write about but really want to.

January 25th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -5 degrees, Calgary -0 degrees, Mesa 18 degrees ”

The last day of our cool spell. That huge storm that has caused numerous States to declare state of emergencies also hit us a bit with temperatures plummeting to the low 20’s and high teens. Albeit sunny.

We watched a great movie last night with Mark Walberg. I like him but as so many he is getting older looking. Play Dirty was a action packed movie done with a lot of humor thrown in. Great movie

The NFL semi finals are on today so we planned to take some of that it.

First off to a hike around Red Mountain Lake . A beautiful day for a walk and loads of people fishing today. This park has everything with soccer fields, basketball courts, pickleball courts, tennis courts, picnic tables, lake, paths, and football fields.

First time in a long time I saw a family on a Pokémon hunt. I didn’t think the webpage would still be active but sure enough the mother had it on her phone and the kids found one hidden beneath a power pole.

We walked until Jackie was 200 steps less then 10K . Didn’t want to cross the line too early in the day. Great paths and the perfect temperature. Even Daisy which would have put on 40K steps was great. I switched from Sass ( $220 per pair) sandals to China ones and have loved them. But they don’t last as long by far. The sole breaks and the stitching gives way. I can buy just about 4 pair to one though so ahead other than having to rebuy. I had one pair down here that broke and discovered I have another pair with a crack in the sole but other than great, so wore them, Due to my belief in letting Mother Nature be the determining factor not placebo propaganda in convincing people to spend money on pedicures or insoles, the shoe I wear as far as comfort goes is a non factor. Any callous formation is natures way of adjusting pressure points and alignment.

Headed home after a enjoyable walk in the park.

We sat outside and enjoyed the football game.

Nice the first 2 quarters then a blizzard covering the field. I do not watch NFL but the semi finals and the Bowl are always fun. I have two favorites the Seahawks and the Patriots with New England taking the win the first game.

My chicken wings for lunch/supper were awesome.

People continue to get old around me.

Today is Corey’s and Wendy’s birthday. Both aging right in front of my eyes. Being very gentle now I only slightly bugged them about their advancing years. When I see or look at someone’s age it forever surprises me with some I think are younger and some older.

Happy Birthday Corey. Loads of fun over the years. Many, many projects together and lots of fun golfing, camping, and get togethers. It is scary that he is closer to 50 than 30 yrs old now though.

Happy Birthday Wendy. Loads of fun over the years. Camping, lots of golfing, dining adventures, get togethers and a great cruise. The master of Made in Saskatchewan card games. Hard for Wendy to accept but she is a lot closer to 70 than 50 years old and that scares her. I had to explain math manipulation to her as it the process that marketing companies, pharmaceutical companies, polling companies and data survey companies use. It is accurate, it is correct, but designed to create an illusion and requires deeper understanding and investigation. Closer to 70 is scary for anyone to realize and accept.

I have to admit. The second game with the Rams we decided to come in rather than put on the patio heater tonight. I do not need supper as the wings were that good.

i watched a video clip that really resonated with me. It was basically describing the psychology behind people struggling in retirement in relationship to money. The premise is to spend money on the only thing left that you can control and that is your time, the moment, the experience right now, and not wait for a better time, more money etc. It is so true. You put something off until whenever, that time may not come. Put something off to later and you may not be able to do it. Put something off as you feel it costs to much you are never going to have more money and you cannot spend it from the grave. There is a small window between retirement age ( what ever age you decided on) and about 80. After that things are much more limiting both physically and mentally. If we use 65 as the start number that is only 15 summers, 15 vacations, 15 birthdays, and that goes by fast.

I consider Jackie & I extremely fortunate as we had 12 years already. We have been so lucky to experience a lot of fun times including many trips. Having said that for us just spending our winters being active in the sun is our wonderful happy place on top of every else we do.

Thought of the Day

Money in the bank is nice, but money in your memories is priceless

January 26th-27th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -3 degrees Calgary 6 degrees, Mesa 23 degrees”

The winter storm affecting the entire mid east USA made it’s impact on us lowering our temps a few degrees and a breeze.

So for todays golf it was pants and light jacket. Last moment change to shorts and light jacket. That lasted for about two holes and it was too hot.

The entire group golfed very well today. Arnold at 90 yrs old breaks 100. Ron P at 83 is third best net score and wins one Par 3 KP. But one guy was on fire. Sandy ( sandbagger) scores a 75 and a net 57 which is unheard of. It is a 1 in 7000 odds of this happening. Sandy was in the front group today so I did not witness it but it must have been fun. You get on a roll and it happens. He had 5 birdies today. I won my money back with a Par 3 KP and golfed quite well with 10 pars but had two triples due to lost balls.

Jackie had yoga this morning. I took Daisy down to the park but she wasn’t cooperative in doing her business. There were a few dogs but no playmates for Daisy.

Loads of people at the music on the greens today.

Lots of action in our families on the medical side. Seeing your parents age is a little difficult as everything they were changes. I think as with most things it is a learning experience for us. I know we can do it different.

Interesting news with the situation in Minneapolis, the Carney/Trump spat, Venezuela, Russia, TSX and the raids even in Phoenix. I say interesting because watching Global news means seeing the traffic and weather reports every two minutes. This is just to fill in time. It is all news but not really good news in most cases. Good news doesn’t sell.

Wordle in 4 today with Jackie in 5. They have had some harder ones lately.

I checked on my Grade reading score and my writing is one grade less than the preferred average reader likes. I try on purpose to make my sentences easy to read and not fraught with complexities. I will pump up the verbiage until the end of the month to see what happens. My liking is to say ” very careful ” instead of ” exceedingly fastidious ” so I will just go a little easy and say ” be vigilant” . Feb I will recheck.

Thought of the Day

My humor is always above par, even on bad days.

January 28th

“Mercury Forecast Edmonton -4 degrees, Calgary 7 degrees, Mesa 24 degrees”

Calgary weather is and has been pretty good. Looking forward the bit it is a warm winter. But it is WINTER and that -30 temp still has 8 weeks to hit.

No winter here. Today was 24 degrees and is the coldest of the next ten days. Not hitting 30 but 25 to 28 degrees each day.

Today was our date golfing day. So we have to bring Daisy along. Once again absolutely perfect for 4 hours straight. She just watches everything. That includes the Canadian geese. By rights, these geese should be kicked out as illegal aliens because they are messy and dangerous.

We were partnered up with two very nice guys. One from Colorado and the other from High River AB. It was a fun day with them. Plus we finished in less than 4 hours which is wonderful.

Ok here is the scoop. JACKIE HAD HER BEST SCORE EVER today . Not one mulligan, not one gimme, not one do over, just plain good golf. Great drives , good second shots. The greens were difficult. The condition of many of them was challenging. Despite this, she not only did her best but by far her best. JACKIE SHOT A 93 TODAY. When I delve into the score she easily could break 90 with a little closer chipping and better putting. She has broken 100 a few times but this was close to getting to the next level. I can’t wait until next Wednesday.

We got home and looked in the fridge and freezer. We decided I would whip to the clubhouse and pick up supper. It is so convenient to have them right there and with good food. Philly Cheese steak and take a guess what Jackie had. You got it !

Jackie hit 15,000 steps today without even trying.

Doesn’t everybody do this after a hard round of golf ?

Thought of the Day

Her score was so good you would think it was mini golf .

January 29th-30th

” Mercury Forecast Edmonton -1 degrees, Calgary 8 degrees, Mesa 24 degrees”

The first 80 degree of 2026 is supposed to hit on Saturday. It is expected to stay at or close to 80 degrees for all of next week.

Busy day today with Jackie off golfing. She is trying to repeat her success, lol. The golfing ladies are coming over for a hen party after that. We are setting up hundreds of chairs for the Steve Miller concert tonight.

Doing a little browsing and this fact came up.

The overall decline in physical capacity from peak age 35 to age 63 ranged from 30 per cent to 48 per cent. I personally belief the numbers are off a bit but with the thousands studied it was the finding as a whole. It appears an approximate 10% decline per decade.
I never really had any realization of this until maybe a year ago or so. Lifting a 65 pound 5 gallon pail over my head to get it up on the roof isn’t as easy as it once was. Muscle stiffness after exertion is more common. Then this winter not being able to arm curl a single arm 50 pound weight anymore was shocking. Still able to do 35 pounds sets but the 50 pound was not happening. It would be interesting how long it would take me to get back to that but that would be too much work. Plus only one arm to work with. Stamina decline is inevitable but I still feel I am pretty good.

This summer Corey and I worked to build a cook house for Jess & Pen and we worked 12 hour days or more steady with minimal breaks and it wasn’t that hard considering it was physical work all day long.

Jackie & i’s parents could make their life so much easier with more physical activity. That is why I mention this situation. It is human nature to slow down and be less active. However, every year after 75, I believe it is imperative to maintain a certain level of activity. This is necessary not only for easier daily living but also for your overall health.

This last week I golfed with a 90-year-old, an 89-year-old, and an 83-year-old. They were all able to go golfing and enjoy life. They have issues but they do very very well.

I know what I just mentioned is so true. I always take pride in my ability to hit a long ball. I am longer than most but some of these young kids now are passing me or at least keeping up. I would say my distance has gone from about 280 yards to about 250 yards. This change is due to the difference in altitude and dense air, but also because of strength.

The chair set up was an easier one with just over 400 chairs. It is too bad as this was an excellent concert, Unlike our dance this time the music, the singing was crystal clear and very good. As I said Steve Millar band which unbeknownst me has a tremendous amount of excellent songs that I didn’t know were his. Abracadabra, Space Cowboy, Fly like and Eagle, Joker and many others. It was a great concert and very enjoyable.

Guess who was up and dancing. I said that doesn’t count as a step as she did over 22K steps. Sandy & Jackie dance troop.

With Jackie’s early morning Yoga which she loves it throws off my timing. In fact so much so that today I did not hear her leave the house with Daisy & I remaining in bed.

Off to the dog park. Daisy found a Labradoodle to chase her. She had fun and did her business.

Got ready for golf with the guys and it is going to be a great. Goal for today is hit 80 degrees and score below 80. Life is good.

The weather has been very good in Calgary but there is still snow on the ground and compared to here it is freezing.

I will take our poorer than normal greens any day over this coyote’s game conditions.

Ok the results of my expectations. the temperature just missed the 80 degree mark coming in at 78 degrees. I just missed breaking 80 by taking a triple boogie. No complaints as both were so close and so nice. Amazing to me that with two birdies and 9 pars not to get below 80 but in golf anything can and does happen.

Ron graciously paid for our Fat Willy’s after golf. As there was the Saskatchewan party starting most of group took off early. Just an awesome day with the entire group golfing very well.

I got home and Jackie was babysitting Winnie. Daisy and Winnie continuously play with each other. It wears out Daisy but Winnie being a puppy can go for ever. Nice for Daisy to have company and for Winnie not to be stuck at home alone.

Thought of the Day

“We’re not just under par—we’re under investigation for excessive greatness.

January 31st

” Mercury Forecast Edmonton 5 degrees, Calgary 11 degrees, Mesa 27 degrees”

Wow has January flown by. First day of 2026 hitting 80 degrees is nice. Especially so as we are having our block party tonight.

I finished off my groups new handicaps for Feb and included adding the calculator for the course rating. I think to see a Net 60’s club member will now be a lot fewer. I changed the payouts and hope the guys step up and bring one dollar bills to make it easy. It is almost imperative to do so.

Off to Safeway to pick up some groceries and to pick up an appetizer for tonight.

Wordle in TWO which is awesome.

We readied everything. We brought out the chairs and end tables. We also set up our blocks tables for the food. Our thought as it was such a nice day was to have it right on the street in front of our place.

Daisy waiting anxiously for the people to arrive.

Our plan for this event is simple. We will not have any activity this time. We just want a meet and greet. We have so many new people on our street it is easier just to get to know them.

Funny as when we made our introductions we are tied for the third longest tenure on the block. Soon to be the longest. Starting in May, Ardon and Florence will move to a seniors home in another state and Ian is currently selling his place.

We have had our house here since 2007 so 19 years this year. Time goes by so quick. We have no inclination what so ever of leaving here. Love it with the lifestyle, the amenities, the physicality part, and most importantly, the social aspect of a close community.

We had around 34 people at our party today. I know every block believes they are a great block but we seem to be exceptional. It is not a “party” block. It is not a dead non social block. It is just a good mix of nice people.

The food selection was awesome. There were deviled eggs, orange peko chicken, meatballs, shrimp, cheese and meat plates, plus many other options. We had a humongous selection of deserts also. Awesome.

Being hot out it worked out perfect as we had sun sections and shade sections for people to sit in.

What was exceptionally nice is that so many people stayed late. It was dark outside, and warm and group of us sat on the street. Out came the exotic drinks. We had Sambucca, we had Cherry Whiskey and even Hutterite moonshine. It was fun night.

Daisy loved Donna from next door and sat on her lap for a large portion of the evening.

Sitting in the middle of the street I noticed a full moon.

A ending to another wonderful day in paradise.

Just to rub it in a bit. We could be in a foreign country looking at an old museum/castle or just looking at unique architecture, or sampling foreign food but we wouldn’t feel as safe, in the company of 30 fellow peers, enjoying food and laughter and been able to go to sleep in our own bed.

Love this life.

Thought of the Day

Love Thy Neighbor… Especially When They Bring Snacks! Block Party Calories Don’t Count.