It is Thursday, so a trip to the Elks at lunchtime is in order. But before leaving, we skulked to the garden, watching out for that terrible wild wabbit! To our horror, there was no wrabbit but he left his calling card, or should I say calling turd several places. We were delighted to see that he did NOT get to his favorites, as they are now protected with steel bars (1/2″ by 1/2″ galvanized wire). He did attempt to bite into a pepper plant, but there was one nibble and three droppings; he does not like the hot stuff!
Mary picked a dozen large tomatoes to bring to the gang at the Elks. Through the magic of AI, I replace the background to make it more interesting.
We did some chores inside the house, cleaned up, and headed south to Santa Ana.
The Lodge was not busy today.
We entered and sat down, and our average wine magically appeared. Thank you, Karen! But then came Bob Z., carrying a large box filled with letters, envelopes, pre-stamped and addressed envelopes, and other goodies.
This meant Bob was pressing his dear friends into forced labor! It was time to send the Starlighter’s Dance Club invites to the next dance! It is a lot of work to create the newspaper/invite and individually fold and stuff 100+ envelopes! I know because I did it for years.
I suggested using postcards and writing everything tiny, but our dance group has an older clientele, so small writing was not an option!
These can be mailed for two cents (fifty years ago).
We were pressed into service, and after a slow start, we folded, stuffed, and sealed like professionals. The banter between everyone should have been recorded because we were all laughing and giggling.
We kept Iris busy sealing the envelopes!
We were done in a matter of minutes, finishing just before our meals arrived. Mary ordered the swordfish and shared it with me. I went for the Caesar salad with chicken for protein. Bob did the flatbread, and it was pretty good!
We love our gang!
We went home soon afterward because we left Scout the Wonder Dog inside due to the heat. We worked around the house getting ready for our company!
George showed up right on time, and it was so good to see him. George, Robin, Sue, and I worked together thirty years ago. George was from the finance department and was in charge of keeping my department honest, a truly laborious and challenging task, but he did it with only a few bumps and bruises.
George is 74 and has been retired for a while. Over the years, we have gotten together several times for lunch or dinner and enjoyed reliving those things that never really happened. Part of his family lives in Irvine, so he often comes from his home in LA. Making a stop at our home was easy!
Telling “sea stories” is always fun!
I forgot how tall George was! We dined at the Orange County Mining Company where steak was the order of the day.
I asked the greeter to take a picture of George and me and to do some Photoshop magic to make me look as handsome as him! Good luck with that, greeter!
Now we all got into the shot! It was fun remembering back in time and discussing all the friends we all knew. George and his brother are building condos in Texas these days to stay out of trouble. George is a grandfather several times over, and we got to see the kids as George keeps his phone and photos handy!
We had a wonderful evening.
We returned home and sat for a few minutes, trying to figure out how to meet again. We called a good friend, Teresa Brenner, and chatted with her for a while. We tried to get Alice Caldera on the horn, but she was unable to get to the phone as she had just had hip surgery.
It was a good day!
