"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together" (All's Well)

.....We have lived for the last 29 years in a gated senior condo community in Delray Beach called Huntington Lakes.  I first saw it in 1982...there were three four-story units and a long staircase going nowhere. I supposed another building was to be erected, this one to be eight stories.  I think it would have been much cheaper for me to buy the staircase.  The attraction at this venue was a $6 million dollar clubhouse replete with a 600 seat theater, a gym with all manner of equipment, a beautiful lobby with a fountain, a pond, fish, and a six lane indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and a jacuzzi...or whatever you want to call it, a huge ballroom, classrooms, a billiards room and card rooms.  Early on I was the only one in the place.  Of course, now there are about 44 buildings--and several of the eight-story variety.  Each four-story condos has 32 apartments.  And this is how Life #7 began.

.....For the first two years I was here, I taught in a private high school & was selected to coach a very poor soccer team.  Florida then was like Texas--football country.  Rhoda also found a job in a doctor's office and retired in 2000.  When she first got here, she was dismayed that she had no friends and most of the women were much older than she...But now she fits in here like a bee fits in a hive. (Definitely not a cliche!) When I left the school after two years, I taught a six-week course in our clubhouse called "Fun With Shakespeare".  I never suspected that I would get so many seniors to register for that class. I would pick a play that I enjoyed and I used to get from 30 to 60 "students".  I have to say that it was great to teach those seniors who were obviously hungry for some education that they somehow had missed. I'm a professional so I didn't teach pro bono...I charged $30.  I taught this class for many years with unsuspected community interest.

.....While here I played golf almost three or four times a week with neighbors who also moved here eventually from East Meadow where we had first settled in NY. We bought a small ranch house there.  My golf game got steadily better, and there were many courses available to play.  I was proud that I got to be a 7-handicap player.  Early in the 80s, our Board established a "senior olympics."  In the first year I won a gold medal in the 3-mile walk, racquetball, golf, and in swimming--for the 50 yd. freestyle and the 50 yd. backstroke.  (I was a swimmer since I was 5 yrs. old).  I won an awesome "MVP" trophy.  I no longer am able to play golf or any of the other sports.  However, if they held a walker or a scooter race, I might enter. I love a sporting challenge. After all of this, I still couldn't decide if I was "great".  I finally decided that the proper thing to do was to let other people make that determination.  

Life #7 has gone on now for 29 years.  So, it has to be continued.  A lot more to come!!  My books, my blog, my musical and acting career, my medication, & etc.