Fall Is Here!

With a 20-degree drop in the temperature from yesterday, I think it's safe to say fall has arrived! It will only be in the 60s for the next few days, and then level off into the 70s. With sunny skies, that's about perfect!

This past week has been difficult for many of us here. Our sweet Life Enrichment Director Jennifer was on a wonderful trip to Maine when her father-in-law passed away. We knew how much they were looking forward to the trip, and we were sad that it ended as it did. My friend Anna and I went to visitation at the funeral home to support Jennifer, who looked distraught. She took the following week off, and I hope she's feeling better when we see her Monday. We are having a lot of new people moving in, and Anna, Nancy, and I were asked (knowing that all three of us wanted to move from our previous tables) to move to a different table with some of the new residents! We were there for less than three weeks when Nancy passed away suddenly! I knew her from our Trivia group, and all three of us are liberals. She had just gotten through her cancer treatment and was doing well. Due to other health issues, she was in the process of moving from the cottages into the building. Only a few days before, she was saying she hoped to be able to attend the Trivia competition in Columbia next year, and she seemed to feel better than she had in a while. The suddenness of it stunned everyone! I guess, at our age and in a community like this, it is to be expected, but that doesn't lessen the blow.

One of our recent outings was to Musgrove Mill State Park. It was a lovely day, and we took a picnic lunch, which gave us plenty of time to attend a lecture and explore the grounds. A Revolutionary War battle was fought here, described as a turning point in the war.  The park isn't that far away, and I had driven there, but didn't really check it out, thinking it might be nice to do with visitors. This was certainly an easy way to see it.

On the 10th of September, I gave a presentation on our African safari to Kenya and Tanzania. Tippy and I had presented it as an OLLI class, so the only thing I had to do was shorten it a bit. Even so, it was longer than most presentations of this type I had attended. It was just difficult to cut out a lot of it. Anyway, the attendance was great, and everyone seemed to really like it. I received questions afterwards and lots of positive comments. One resident even gave me these lovely roses the following day! I had two people say they were sorry to have missed it because they heard such good things about it. One resident who had been on safari said they didn't see nearly as much as we did. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Tippy here to swap stories!  Needless to say, I was very pleased that it went well.....and that it was over! I haven't told them that we went on a second safari!

I truly am not ready for the holidays and am in denial! Being a retired teacher, I could go the rest of my life without Halloween! It's a big thing here, and it kicks off months of holiday events. Even so, I do get a kick out of the Halloween pumpkin decoration competition by our staff. I'm amazed at the detail and the cleverness of the entrants. They really are cute, and I have no idea how they come up with such great ideas. We get to vote on the funniest, the most creative, and the best overall. It really is difficult to narrow them down and vote. In addition to this, we will have schoolchildren come through for treats, as well as children of staff members in their Halloween costumes. It'll be fun to see them.

On September 25, we participated in the annual Presbyterian Communities Trivia Competition in Columbia. For a brief time, we came in second out of five communities competing. There was a tie for first place, and after a tie-breaker round, we slid into third place. Even so, we missed only two questions and felt we did well, especially since we are one of the smaller communities (Florence, SC is the smallest). 

Along that same line, we had a luncheon this week for a trophy exchange with the Columbia community. Back in April, we tied in the Olympic events. They got to keep the trophy first, and now we have it for the rest of the year. 

David's been at it again! This popped up on my FB timeline, and I spent two minutes looking at it and thinking, "That looks just like Rosie, but it's not my door!" Finally, I looked up to see who had posted it! They really are cute, and Rosie's fans get a kick out of seeing them, too.

Not a lot else happening, except early voting starts Monday. Last time they took us to vote, but with Jennifer being absent this week, it will probably be a few days before that happens. So, I'm planning to be there on Day 1 and am hoping for a big (huge!) Blue Wave!!

I hope this finds you doing well and enjoying the seasonal change.🍂