Date: December 14, 2010
Location: Tucson, AZ
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The challenge of writing a blog is many fold, but can be summarized in two major obstacles. The first and most obvious obstacle is that the writer or blogger must have an enormous source of BS. This is the easiest challenge I face. It is said that I may have a never ending supply of the necessary fodder to blog for ever. The second obstacle is a more strenuous challenge to conquer for me. It seems that if you have some thing to write about you do not have the time to write and if you have the time to write you probably have little to write about. That is when obstacle number one can defeat or assist in putting forth a blog. Since we have arrived at Voyager it is obstacle number two that has slowed my blogging prose.
Voyager is a rather large retirement RV Park and retirement village. It is, in reality, a city. Some people are transient, as Connie and I are. Some people are more permanent as they reside here in park model homes for most of the year and others own homes and reside here year round. As a group retirement is the last word I might choose to describe them. Not a one of the residents of Voyager have come close to retiring in the defined sense of that word. The park monthly news letter is an example of just what I mean. It is over 27 pages long. There are more then 3 pages of single spaced lists of activities that are planned on a consistent rotating basis. These are not just planned activities. They are well attended activities and very active chances for the citizens of this city to socialize, interact and exercise nearly all day long and on almost every day of the week. Retirement and boredom are not an option and they are frowned upon by everyone here. If you are not playing Pickle Ball you must be working in one of many shops on your silver jewelry or word project. If that is not you cup of tea you must be sewing or trekking off on a bike ride through the desert. At every moment in the day there are a myriad of opportunities for the citizens of Voyager Village to exercise there fingers, there feet, there hands and arms or their minds. Retirement is not allowed and I am not sure that boredom is even allowed the lexicon at this city in the desert.
Since we have arrived, a short week or so ago, Connie and I have had zero free time. This is not a bad thing it is just a Voyager thing. As I first reported on the day we arrived we had an instant to regroup and attend a Harp Fusion concert and the schedule has not slowed yet. Everyday on our calendar, and you need an accurate social calendar at Voyager, we have something penciled in for our entertainment, exercise or socialization. Sometimes I feel like we are trying to squeeze 8 days into each week. And yet we do not feel hassled or pressured. We just feel active and part of a bigger real human world.
Connie has decided to gain her exercise by joining the church choir and using her very beautiful voice again as it should be used. This church choir is not a group of six or twelve ladies and 2 or 4 men that meet once a week to yell forth something that might be music to deaf ears. The choir at The Voyager is a collection of over 30 voices that are expected to and do produce entertaining music for our village’s own church service. At time the choir is less than pleased with the director because he expects quality for the quantity of voices he has report for practice twice a week. I realize that an amateur choir is first and foremost amateurs from the Latin amo, amas meaning to love. As I sat in church Sunday watching the smiles and brightness in the faces of this choir as they performed a rather difficult piece of music in a very beautiful and inspirational manner I could see the love of music in their faces. The choir director was no longer the enemy. He had taken their frustration and amateur voices and produced a product that filled the church with a sprit of beauty and melody. I am guessing they will all attend practice again Thursday and again become a bit frustrated and again fill the church with the melodic sprit of love.
I, being of no vocal talent, have chosen to join an aerobics class. Don’t get too excited. It is an aerobics class for the mind. In one class we are discussing the economic history of our world and how it affects every day social interactions. And in the second class we are discussing the United States Constitution and how it is either influencing or being influenced by today’s political climate and everyday events. I know half of you just fell asleep. A more accurate description of these seminars might be a collection place for a bunch of overly opinionated, overly zealous political junkies, and rather un-shy vocal friends to gather and argue semantics of constitution law and economic principles for an hour or two a couple of times a week. The real pleasure of these group meetings is that at the end of the meeting everyone is still friendly and the extremes of conflicting opinions are forgotten until the next gathering. Anyone that has ever had to put up with any of my diatribes is well aware of the fact that I often have an opinion and it is quite pleasant to gather with like minded purveyors of personal intelligence even if they do not see everything through my eyes. Our constitution class was very vocal and almost heated at times. It had opinions from the far right Tea Party wacco fringe to a professed communist or at least a socialist. Yet at the end of the discussion group everyone was still smiling and eagerly awaiting our next meeting and lively discussion. As our moderator explained at the end of our group gathering, “It is a time to exercise our minds and understand that we can disagree with opinions with out being disagreeable.”
I have only covered a very small over view of our schedule at our new winter home. They may be two very important aspects of our life here, but by far not the only items we place on our rather full social calendar. I have not mentioned the dinners we have scheduled, the symphonic concerts we have already attended and plan on attending in the near future, nor have I mentioned the evening personal social schedule we are filling up each day. There is literally not a free day on our calendar in the foreseeable future and we have a list of things and places we want to add to our schedule when we find a time squeeze them onto calendar. I hope that sometime in the future I will be able to take PC in hand and again report our active status. I hope it will be enjoyable for you to read and I know it will be a necessity for me help remember all that we have done as we rest in the desert for the winter.
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