January 2010

Jan. 31st what a great week we just had. Along with our regular schedule we did some exciting things this week and one being on Wednesday we along with Dennis, Pat and Kate went to the Snowbird Extravaganza that was held in Lakeland, about an hour’s drive from here. It is put on by the Canadian Snowbird Association, we not being Canadian called and found out it is open to all, and what a wonderful time we had. The doors opened just as we got there a 9 AM and we went through the vendor’s area picking up information and ideas, and also signing up for free prizes that cover a host of things, mostly to get you on a mailing list. At 10 AM we went to one of the three areas that were set up for entertainment and we didn’t have to move as every 30 minutes a new act came on stage. We did move between 2:30 and 3 PM to go to a different stage area to see a few acts that weren’t held in the area we were at. This went on till 4:00 when everything shut down, and all this was free and the only cost was $5 for parking. After the show we did some shopping and then went out for supper at a great little fish camp and had some great food. On Thursday evening we had a great Ham & Bean dinner soup here at the resort. Friday evening we went to a local YFC dinner and it was so refreshing to see and hear a lot of the stories of the youth in the area. Here in Highlands County the local YFC has access to the schools and it is a great way to introduce God to their lives. We have been going to our local church for over a year and during that time we knew our Director of Student Ministries, but it turns out we didn’t know him at all. He was involved with some of the events on the stage and we saw how the young people were drawn to him and he to them as well. We knew that he was a very good football player in college. We did a web search on him and we came to find out that he is the lead singer in a Christian Rock band that does concerts all over the country and that just last year they had a song that was number one on the charts in Christian Rock music. He really is a great fellow and we are happy to have him in our church. On Sunday after church we had Dennis, Pat and Kate come up to our place to play cards. Our original plan was to go bike riding but the weather didn’t really cooperate as it was cloudy and never got above 65 and the air was damp. We had a great time playing games as this afternoon we played Apples to Apples, around 4:30 we decided to go out to eat and went to another area eatery and enjoyed the food. There are so many places to dine out in the area we will probably never get to all of them. Oh, and by the way on the way to the restaurant Kathleen got the phone call, and as Jon is driving he couldn’t figure out why such a serious call on a Sunday afternoon, We will have to get back to you later about the call.

Jan. 24th wow does time fly or what, it has a month since we last wrote in this log. Let us start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year; we had a nice party here at the Resort, nothing like walking home after a party. We have been quite busy in our activities and also for the fact that Kathleen has come through her cataract surgery very well. She is still adjusting to not wearing glasses; she will be getting a pair that will be used mostly for reading. We have also been involved a lot with our church, in that we have been doing more with the members, and this is very good for us. Just the other day we were heading to Disney and by about 2 seconds we were in front of an accident, and because of some moves we did in the mile or two before this we know we would have been involved. As for the accident since we were in front of it and didn’t really see anything we kept going as there were a lot of cars behind it. Also in the past several weeks Jon didn’t miss any golf from the cold weather and as a matter of fact golfed a few extra times as we didn’t bowl because of Kathleen’s surgery. We did go to one of the gourmet diners here at the park and we had a great time as always For this dinner we had bought some wine down from Pa. that we were going to the Wine ‘n’ cheese event, but we double booked that day and we had the wine at the dinner. The event we had booked was to see the Calgary Fiddlers, and what a fine show they put on. They consisted of 14 fiddlers all from the ages of 14 to 18 and they knew how to play. Kathleen won a free CD by answering a question that was posed to the audience and that was “What’s the difference between a Violin and a Fiddle?” It is a great CD and we played it while we went to Okeechobee to meet up with fellow workampers and geocacher, we met along with Kate and had a nice lunch and then did several geocaches. They were just a few shy of 5000 caches and we hope that they got enough to get to that milestone. Hopefully it won’t be this long for our next entry and till then everyone have a good time. Oh!, Kathleen’s answer to the question was; “A violin has strings and a fiddle has straaannngs.”