An interesting day

Beth and John showing how Beth would help her dad get his riding boots off!

I cancelled our team practice yesterday as one of the team had a pontoon rented for the day.  Six of us went on a 3 hour boat ride on the back waters of the gulf and then into a gulf a bit.  There was a lot of good conversation and it was a beautiful day but as we went through channels, around bends in the backwaters and by multi-million dollar home alone the shore I thought back.

To the late 50's.  I remembered siting on the barn roof, on the west side.  Our barn was low and long so the roof was at an angle where a person could easily walk and sit on it.  Often I would shimmy up the electrical pole by the front door and then I would walk over the top to the other side and there I would lie down.  I could see the dust from the road a mile to the west and I could look up at the western sky.  I often would think about my future.  I would see an airplane and I would imagine where it came from and where it was going.  I would think about our humble tumbled down farm and wonder what and where I would be when I grew up.  I would pretend in my mind that I was rich and famous and lived in a fancy place and then I would question if I would ever be beyond my present living.  Now I do not live in a fancy million dollar house nor am I rich and famous but yesterday as we boated past so many beautiful homes and met so very nice boats I thought "Carmen you did good".  Here you are 70 and you enjoy tennis, you have almost too much food to eat, you have bikes to ride (different than the little bike and big bike), you can buy a banana any time you want (growing up I told myself when I got to be an adult I would buy a banana everyday!) and the list went on and on and on.  So this morning I am more thankful than ever before that I am who I am and I do what I do.
By the way, in tennis if the ball is 99% out and 1% in it is in!  Our clay courts are not red but rather they are a dull grey.
I am finding that being team captain is at times fun, at times challenging, at times consuming and at times just frustrating. This week is has been frustrating!  I am trying to reschedule a match and the other team is not cooperating very well.  They have 17 guys listed on their team yet the captain is claiming he is having a difficult time rounding up 6 players for a match.  I suspect he has some that he WANTS to play and they often can not.
Our neighbor John and his daughter and son in law are down here for a bit.  We had them over for a turkey dinner Thursday and had a wonderful time.  Beth and her husband leave tomorrow and John will stay for another week.  He will come back in March and stay for the month.  Beth shared this great store of her childhood.  When she started riding horse she wanted leather riding boots instead of the old shoes she had.  She had to wait until she was 16 and she finally got them.  She was in heaven and loved them.  Today she has that pair of leather boots and her dad's leather boots sitting by her fireplace.  Great memories.
It is almost 9:00 AM and I am still in the middle of my FP but will sign off and get some things done.  Maybe the remainder of the PF will help me get some work done.