Well That Was Fast!

I had every intention to keep up with this blog.  Obviously, I failed!  I like to write.  Honest, I do.  I just wish I had time to do all the writing I want to do.  After retiring in 2011, I took some time for myself.  I went to the gym almost every day and hiked a lot.  I have been to the gym once since mid-June and been on far to few hikes.  I had to update my profile.  In March, I lost my old dog, Mikki.  I still have two dogs, Minni and Matilda.  I still have six cats, but not the same six.  I lost one and gained one.  Had to change the number of grandkids to six since Leah had baby number four.  Isla was born on May 12th.  I don't think that number will need to be updated!

I have gotten more involved in neighborhood activities than this introvert ever thought possible!  I am into my second year as secretary of our neighborhood association after taking a few years off from that responsibility.  I have not typed up the minutes of our September 8th meeting yet.  Hope I can still figure out what my notes mean.

We just published the most recent edition of our neighborhood newsletter.  The next edition, November-December starts our 3rd year of doing the newsletter.  I usually write a couple of columns for it.  After the newsletter got off the ground, I started a Facebook page by the same name, East Bluff News.  We have 473 members and continue to grow.  Monitoring that page takes an unbelievable amount of time.

The East Bluff Community Center tried to start some programming of "seniors".  They forgot to ask seniors what they wanted.  Even Bingo failed.  What did survive was our "Coffee With" events.  From March through October, I organize one a month.  We have had "Coffee" with the fire department, Code Enforcement, the Police Chief, the Mayor and various City Council members.

September 26, 2015 we started the East Bluff Community Food Pantry.   Although it is only open for two hours on Saturday morning, hardly a day goes by that I am not doing something related to it.  Six days a week I pick up the bread & baked goods donation from Kroger on Wisconsin Ave.  It was seven days a week, but I gave a day to a small neighborhood pantry.  Come Saturday morning the bags of food are ready for distribution.  It takes a couple of hours to get everything set up and at 10:00 AM it is non-stop for a couple of hours.

Most recently, I have started supervising events at the East Bluff Community Center.  It doesn't happen that often, but I love it when I get to do it!  Most of the events have been with the Hispanic community and has given me the opportunity to take a peek into the culture.  And besides, I get a $10.00 an hour stipend.  Most of that goes back into the food pantry though.

I know this has not been a fascinating read, but it helps explain why there has been no post since December 31, 2015.  So much for retirement!