My Blog

And NOW you decided to take up golf?

It’s Naomi’s second last day here. She’s mostly packed and ready to go. Laundry’s done. So what should we do today?

Well, although the forecast was for less than warm and sunny, the day actually turned out quite nice! And although I had TALKED about going out to some ‘cheap’ golf course with Naomi so she could learn how to play the game, so far that hadn’t happened. So I googled ‘driving range’ and saw there was one just down the (bike path) road from our place. I selected three irons from my golf bag, bungeed them to my bike, and we were off. We shared a bucket of 100 balls for $12. And then the golf lesson began!

It turns out that Naomi is a quick learner. She’d already shown that with her guitar lessons. Now she was pitching the ball with enthusiasm. And we both had fun. We might even go back tomorrow and play the little 9-hole par 3 course next to the driving range.

Back at the ranch we had our now-standard lunch: tortillas filled with horse-radish cheese spread, mustard(s), mayo, tomato, ham, lettuce. And a Pilsner Urquell.

In the afternoon Naomi went to the pool across the way while I worked on catching up this ‘blog’. Slow going. By 4:30 it was dark. Naomi got the chicken and veggies into a marinade. We had happy hour and watched a bit of Shark Tank on TV. Then I barbecued the chicken while Naomi cooked the rice-a-roni. Delicious supper.

We had talked about going back to Lappert’s Ice Cream for one last delicious treat. So at around 8pm we hopped into the van and headed out. We parked in front of the Agave Fresh mexican restaurant. Too early for ice cream — why don’t we have a margarita on the patio. Well, the margarita did the trick. We DID take a short walk to the ice cream place but by that time they were closed. Oh well, we weren’t really that ‘hungry’ anymore anyway. Home and to bed.

Cool and wet in Palm Desert

Oh, oh! This is something unusual. A cloudy sky. And some scattered drops of rain! I ate my cereal and yogurt for breakfast. Just before 8am we were off to the university parking lot to get a (free) Covid test for Naomi. Drive-thru, get a ‘self-test’ bag, swab each nostril for 15 seconds, and deposit the kit in a big barrel. And then back home. After Naomi had had her breakfast we went for a LONG walk around the country club. Coolish, and just a smattering of drizzle.

Back at the house I watched some of the golfers and sat at my computer. Soon it was lunch. After lunch we drove to the Westfield Mall theatre for a ‘Tuesday Discount’ movie — “C’mon C’mon”. Not bad. Wasn’t sure if this was a ‘movie’ or a documentary. We checked out Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods in the mall after the movie. Stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a few groceries. Then home. Happy hour for me, while Naomi was on the phone with Augusta for an hour or two.

Supper was a jacked up frozen pizza. After supper Naomi and I started filling in this blog — using Naomi’s notes and my budget app. Naomi wrote the first day’s notes, then headed off to the pool for a swim while I continued working on entries.