Friends and Fun!

We are catching a lot of flak for not posting a blog entry since February 3 because we have been keeping busy. Since we are now in the middle of a driving rainstorm that puts Oregon rainstorms to shame, we now have time to get you caught up on what has been happening here. Up until now we have had excellent weather. You may have heard that southern California has been in the throes of a powerful winter storm. Enormous amounts of snow have been piling up in the mountains. The Grapevine section of I-5 south of Bakersfield was closed last night and is still closed to the best of our knowledge. Here in Hemet we have been affected by wind and heavy rain, but no snow.

Our very good friends from Gresham, Greg & Rita Painter, passed through Hemet on their way home after spending 10 days in Mexico. We had a good time catching up with them and hearing about their travels. We got in a quick round of golf that ended with the beginning of a rain storm just as we all teed off on the 9th hole. We gave them a tour of the Golden Village Palms facility, and are trying to talk them into coming to Hemet for a week or so next year They left on Friday to head up to Berkeley, CA to spend the weekend with their son, Geoff and his wife, Julia.

Tim took a day to drive to Escondido, CA to again meet up with his Navy buddy, Don Spees. Don lives in Santee (close to San Diego) and Escondido seemed like a good halfway spot to meet. Tim brought down his box of Vietnam memorabilia to show Don, and Don brought many photos of his own. Don was Tim's boss when they served together at Nha Be in South Vietnam. Don let Tim borrow a book called "Diary of a Navy Seal" that was written by a Seal that was stationed at Nha Be. The book detailed a lot of the things around the base and town that really brought back a lot of memories. Mostly the good ones, but there were some stories about the shipmates that didn't make it back to their families. Don and Tim commented several times about how fortunate they were to come back home safely.

Diane played in the Golden Village Palms Sand Volleyball tournament and did quite well. Her team won several games. Diane is pleased with the improvement she has made since we first arrived. As you can see from the attached photo, she and her teammate, Anita, seem to be doing all the work while the guys on the team are just standing and watching. Notice the guy standing with his hands on his hips. We assume he was just thinking about the next play and whether the girls would give him a good set. Volleyball starts to wrap up here within the next couple of weeks but Diane is getting in as many games as she can until then.

Since the Canadians in the park are very selfish about allowing the Americans to attend their Canada Day celebration - they even check ID to be certain you have a Canadian driver's license, the Americans celebrated USA Day on Lincoln's birthday. We had a great pot luck dinner followed by an entertainer from inside the park.

Red, white and blue were definitely the prevalent colors for the evening festivities.

We spent Valentine's Day at the Hemet Elks Lodge with a whole group of folks from GVP. The dinner was Cornish Game Hen that was well prepared. We had a great time dancing and visiting with friends from around the park.

Well, that's it for now. We are hoping that the rains will cease fairly soon and we can resume all of our activities in the sun. Take care and let us hear from you.