Author: Naomi Stobbe

I worked on some more stitching this morning. Then I had another guitar lesson from Rudy and followed that up with a bit of frustrating practice. After that I did some yoga with Adriene and now I am sitting on the patio.

We ended our day with a very long walk through the dark streets of Palm Desert. We snuck into the country club across the street from ours when a car went through the gate. The air was cool. It was a long walk to the big entrance at the other end of the community. We crossed the busy street and found ourselves in a big outdoor mall complex called ‘The River’. Although it featured multiple fountains and lots of lovely areas many of the shops were empty — gone. Probably due to the effects of covid, which has kept us all in ‘lock down’ for over a year.

We couldn’t count on the big gate at the other end of the country club having a car enter or exit and thereby opening the gate for us so we could return the same way we came. So, instead, we walked the LONG way around, back to our place.

We cycled the 5.5 miles north to Walmart this morning — so Rudy could buy ‘supplies’. A knife sharpener, a small soldering iron, a big coffee mug. When we got home he spent way too much time trying to solder the disconnected wires back onto the circuit board in his small bike light, which broke the other night when we were cycling to the Mexican restaurant and it fell off his helmet and crashed onto the pavement. All that time trying to fix it just confirmed that it is ‘unfixable’. But he sure tried!

In the dark evening I went to the hot tub and it was beautiful. Quiet and still. Stars twinkling in the sky. It inspired me to swim a few circle laps in the cool water — and I thought to myself that this is something new I would like to do again.

It’s a golf day for Rudy. He’s off to join friends Darrel, Bob, and Reg’s son-in-law Tim, for a round at the Desert Willow golf course. I have the place to myself after breakfast. I have a very relaxing morning. Just before noon I get on my bike and cycle down to El Paseo to join Cari and Dorothy for lunch. Rudy is home after having lunch at the golf course.

After some ‘time off’ (re-seeding), our golf course is again open for business. So this morning the little tractors and maintenance crews were out in full force, mowing and bowing and raking and setting up tee blocks — getting ready for the onslaught of golfers who’ve been waiting for the chance to plunk a few nice new Titleists into the pond.

In the afternoon we WALKED (2 miles) down to the Westfield Mall, to see the movie “The French Dispatch”, a Wes Anderson film. Man, it was HOT walking in the afternoon. The movie was typically weird and beautiful and strange.

We walked home, and had supper, and then ‘retired’, tired and hot and ready to do nothing. So we did not much.

My birthday! Woke to a fresh cup of tea brought to me in bed! What a way to start the day.

The day unfolded here as most days have… a swim (25 minutes in circles), yoga, needlework, etc. Rudy and I went for a walk on the golf cart track around the golf course at dusk. The design is very appealing with waterfalls and ponds and fountains. There are few streetlights and we walked hand in hand. No outside pressures — just US.

We ventured out for a birthday supper celebration. We got some headlamps (Rudy’s taped to the top of his bike helmet) and made our way down the dark sidewalks. It seemed precarious and frightening and this added to the excitement and adventure of it all. We went to a Mexican place called ‘Agave Fresh’ for margaritas and enchiladas mole and tacos and refried beans. It was loud and busy and happening for a Sunday night and it felt Mexican and tropical and novel all at the same time. After the meal we passed a small ice cream shop where we sat down and had a little ‘dessert’. The ride home was hard to see again, but we made it home without incident.