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I haven't posted for a few weeks so I thought I had better let anyone interested get caught up. We have been busy participating in park activities, playing pool, and the usual stuff we do here. The Oak Ridge Boys performed two shows in our park's ballroom a week ago. We didn't go because we had seen them a few years ago in Branson, Mo but they sold out both shows (840 seats each). Jim and Donna Skolek from Ottawa, IL had a grandson graduate from Marine Corps basic training in San Diego, so on their way to the ceremonies they stayed in Yuma for several days to visit with us. We had been to their place last summer (see one of the posts in July). It's great having more company come by to help us enjoy the sunshine. Actually, it has been raining here much more than normal. It's amazing how fast the brown desert turns green with just a little rain. In a couple of months it will all be dead and become a fire hazard. We are on our way home from a pool tournament in Phoenix, it's raining on us right now and we're only about 10 miles outside of Yuma.

The Desert Classic Tour holds a tournament every month somewhere in Arizona, usually Phoenix or Tucson, and I have decided to play in them while I'm here. Since these tournaments draw the top players in the state it is my chance to make sure my head doesn't get overinflated just because I'm one of the best players in our park and the Billiard Club President and all. Nothing like having a player named Susan beat you by one game in a race to 8 games of bar table 8-ball to let the air out of your balloon. Actually she is an excellent player and I didn't mind losing to her as much as the next match I lost to a less skilled guy. Last month I at least won two matches before getting knocked out even though I have only played one of the top players that participate. Anyway my ego has been reset to the appropriate level and we are headed home, Tonya's driving and I'm typing.

We are only a couple of weeks away from the weather getting warmer to what I consider really nice and the Canadians here consider too hot. By the end of this month they will almost all be gone and things will slow down here dramatically. We plan on staying on into April like we did a couple of years ago. All the activities are nice bet we also like being here when things slow down. I'll be reporting back in before then.