Moving on in, stolen garbage, and cart of the day

Did I forget to mention that we bought a place here? Just like everyone else, we came down and were amazed and overwhelmed, got into the lifestyle, purchased a home. On move in day, earlier this week, we put our garbage out, and it was promptly stolen by someone who thought we would be throwing out valuable stuff. The house was sold "turnkey", and the previous owner had items I didn't need. I took them to Goodwill for recycling.

Cart of the day pic below.

Avoiding Notoriety

OK, I'm trying to keep a low profile here. I'm careful to position the car properly, you know, to color within the lines, so I don't get my picture in the Parking Hall of Shame.

Lots of older folk like to customize their carts and cars. This morning I parked next to this vehicle. If you look closely you'll see there's a handicapped hanger on the rearview mirror, behind the Spanish moss of swag hanging there. One can only deduce that the driver's disability is sight-related, due to the amount of visual impairment created by the car decor.

Lawn Bowling

Who knew this could be so much fun?

Next up on "sports I've never tried" is pickleball.

Toaster Love

At the last minute we decided to stay an extra month in The Villages. It's hard to find places to rent at this time of year, but we were lucky to land a lovely home due to a cancellation. The owners are off doing good work in the world (literally, helping children in 3rd world countries) while we are golfing and swimming and uking and woodworking and dancing and using their golf cart, kitchen, den, wifi, and shower.

I decided to make a gift for our hosts, but when I looked around I couldn't find a thing that they need. Finally I settled on a toaster cozy (everyone needs one, right?). Then I couldn't find a pattern online, so I designed my own version. I uploaded it to Ravelry to benefit all toaster lovers.

Still haven't found them

I'm two weeks into my stay here in the Villages, and still no swingers. I haven't seen one golf cart with the flag on it. Plenty of other stuff, like "Muffy and Biff" decals, Green Bay Packers flags, and even one emblazoned with the names of 15 cats. That crazy and wild senior thing is a myth, likely propagated to get more press (any press is good press, right?), but with 114,000 people and growing this place hardly needs more exposure.

The Villages has it all -- every hobby, every sport, every interest is covered at one of the rec centers or through the lifelong learning college. So far I've found four different uke groups, not to mention other mixed strings music groups to play with, and these people are serious players. People drive around in golf carts, and the community is designed with this in mind, with many trails throughout the properties. Live music plays every night in three town squares. This is truly Disneyland for seniors.

In between activities I'm finishing a few knitting projects. This one is my favorite baby sweater pattern.

Looking for Salacious Stories in the Villages

I'm in Florida. The Villages. We decided to "test drive" the largest retirement community (over 100,000 residents) in the world, so, anyway, we are renting a place here for a month.

When we told our Minnesota friends of our plans we got some unexpected reactions. "It's a promiscuous place!" and "Everyone is cheating there!" were common retorts when I casually mentioned we were going to stay at The Villages. Then I found a few references online, like this one and this.

One friend suggested I hunt down the real story so I can write about it.

Well, I haven't seen much evidence of the swinging life (yet). Husband did see a team called "the swingers" on a list of bowling leagues at the local alley, but I suspect that has more to do with the use of arms in the sport than what they do after the game . . .

Holiday Sweater

This is February Lady, minus the sleeves.