BAD NEWS!! I’VE LOST MY CELL PHONE MODEM!!

Yes. I was so stupid!! Last month I got a call from someone (I thought a Verizon rep.). He asked if I wanted to sign up for another two-year agreement with Verizon. I’ve been happy with my service, so I said “OK, but do not change my plan!!” I explained how I was grandfathered under a plan (America’s Choice) and for $5.99 a month I could use my cell phone as a modem to connect to the internet and e-mail. Someone else came on the line to confirm what we had agreed to. I said again, “OK, but do not change my plan.”

A few days ago I received an e-mail from Verizon advising that my bill was ready for viewing and would be automatically deducted (as usual) on July 04. The amount of the bill was $464!!! I immediately called CS, thinking there was an error. She told me the charge was for megabytes used for the internet!!! I stated that I had used my phone as a modem as I had for the past four years. She told me I had a new two-year agreement and as a result my plan had changed to Nationwide and under the new plan I was charged per megabyte!!!

I immediately went to the local Verizon store and talked with the Manager there, explaining how I had told the telemarketer several times not to change my plan, but my plan was changed. Also, I gave him a copy of my contract dated February 2007 that does not end until February 2010. I still have eight months remaining on my current contract.

He understands my plight. Apparently, my contract information was entered incorrectly in their records, and since my contract does not expire until 2010, my account should never have been turned over to be called about a new agreement. He is currently contacting his “contact” about refunding the outrageous charge and voiding the new agreement and reinstating my America’s Choice Plan. GOOG LUCK with that!!

In the meantime, I can’t use my cell phone as a modem and must rely on WiFi at a remote location. That’s what I’m doing today.

After the fact, Ken’s son, Mike, said, “Don’t ever make an agreement over the telephone!”. Strangely enough, my daughter, Stasia, said, “Don’t ever make an agreement over the telephone!!”

I hope you learn from my mistake.

“KINGS OF SWING” IN OUTDOOR CONCERT

Last Thursday evening I joined our friends, Lois and Gene, at an outdoor concert at the local Short Pump Town Center. It was a huge crowd gathered in the center of the shopping center to hear the “Kings of Swing”, a local group with that “big band” sound. The band was great. The weather was great. The friends were great!! And the food was great. We had coupons for free Chic Fillet sandwich with the purchase of drink and a side, which we bought before the concert and enjoyed while listening to the music. The entire evening was GREAT!! Thanks Lois and Gene for a good time!!

Here is the crowd at the Town Center. See the tree on the left. A little to the right of it is a slightly visible street light under the Crate & Barrel name. We are seated somewhere between the two!!

This picture shows the entire band.

A close-up of the brass section.

FATHER'S DAY DINNER!!

Mike and Diane took us out to dinner tonight for in celebration of Father’s Day!!! The restaurant was Mimi’s Café, a new restaurant that just opened in Short Pump a few weeks ago. Already it is one of their favorites (and with good reason)!!

A funny thing (I thought). The waitress, a really cute young lady, kept coming to our table asking if she could take our dirty dishes. She would pick them up as soon as someone was finished with a dish. Several times I had to grab my bread and butter plate or my salad bowl to keep her from taking it. The four of us kept laughing about it. When she came around again, I had one more bite on my dinner plate, but Ken gave it to her anyway. She said, "You've had it long enough. It's somebody else's turn now!!" We all thought that was a pretty good come-back!!

Thanks, you guys, for a great time and delicious dinner!! Love you!!

(Where the heck was my camera???)

GETTING RID OF KEN’S “DAY BED”

Guess What!!!

Ken’s knee has improved so much he is now able to get up off the low sofa without too much problem, so we don’t need the six inch form pads to raise the height of the bed anymore. Now we need to get them out of the motor home!!!

Can you or anyone you know in the Richmond or Gloucester areas use two very nice, very firm, very thick foam rubber pads? (Each pad is 26 X 36 X 6 inches thick; together they are 6 feet long). And, they are YOURS for the taking!!! Give us a call: 804-301-8465.

These pads would be great to make a very nice “Day Bed” (as we well know);

Great as a "Day Bed"!!

Or they could be used as a mattress for visiting grands; or as really, really neat floor pillows; or cut-to-shape for chair cushions!!! The possibilities are endless!!! WOW!!!

Great on the floor as floor pillows!!!

Possibilities are endless!!!

Remember -- They are YOURS!!! What a DEAL!!! Give us a call: 804-301-8465.

KAREN AND HARRY; MARY AND RALPH

Good Pickleball friends Karen and Harry and Mary and Ralph arrived at TT Chesapeake Bay on Tuesday afternoon for a couple of weeks’ stay.

We met Mary and Ralph in July 2004 –taught them how to play Pickleball, took them for a boat ride up the Piankatank River where we got caught in a deluge of rain, and introduced them to Euchre. They in turn talked us into playing water volleyball where I immediately jammed my arthritic thumb!! Ouch!! It was a lot of fun.

A few years later, Mary and Ralph met Karen and Harry on the Chesapeake Bay Pickleball court. They have been best of friends since that time. They usually meet here once a year, usually in July. Geez. Seems we've know Karen and Harry for a long time, too. We were all here last July 2008 when our friends Wayne and Nancy stopped by Chesapeake Bay on their RV trip East.

We could only say “Hello” and “Goodbye” because we were scheduled to leave the park on Wednesday morning for our “week out”. However, I was able to join the four of them for some of Mary’s delicious home made banana pudding! Harry threatened to buy up all of Wal-Mart’s old bananas so Mary could make lots and lots of pudding!! UUMMMMMMMMMM

Fortunately, we’ll be back next week before they leave. We’ll get to play around with them then!

GOODBYE, SUZANNE!! I’LL MISS YOU!!

My friend, Suzanne, and her husband, John, left TT Chesapeake Bay for Pennsylvania this morning. I will surely miss her. Except for our “week out”, the two of us spent hours every afternoon doing line dancing here at the Campground. Sometimes she showed me the steps; sometimes I showed her something I remembered. Then on the weekends I would teach other campers and Suzanne was always there to help.

Here is a group of beginners we had on Saturday

Here we are again doing Water Aerobics in spite of the cold, cold water!! BURRRRRRR!!!

Thanks again, Suzanne, for all of your help and for all the FUN we had!!! Hope to see you soon.

KEN CONTINUES TO MAKE GOOD PROGRESS.

Good News!! Ken’s recovery from knee surgery is going very well. In fact, when we moved from the Richmond Elk’s Lodge back down to the Chesapeake Bay Campground on June 3rd, Ken is the one who drove the RV! We go into Gloucester for Physical Therapy two days a week – Ken for his knee and me for my hip which is still bothering me but is a lot better now.

A part of Ken’s therapy continues to be Wii Tennis. Here Rick and Mike came to challenge him, but ended up challenging each other! What a backhand!!!

COMPARING KNEE SURGERY SCARES

A couple of weeks ago when we were riding around the campground on Mike’s golf cart, we saw Jenny and Gilbert (of the Golf Cart Race). Jenny had knee replacement surgery in February and has made remarkable progress.

Jenny and Gilbert

Jenny and Ken could not resist the opportunity to compare knee surgery scars!!

This weekend Jenny tried her hand at Pickleball!! Maybe it won’t be too long before Ken is back on the court!

GREEK FESTIVAL

May 31 – While we were in Richmond for our “week out” from TT Chesapeake Bay, I discovered the Annual Greek Festival was being held in town. Even though Ken could not go, I called all of our hometown friends to see if anyone was going so I could join them. No one was going this year!!

A day later, our friends, Lois and Gene, called to say she had a great recipe for a Greek dish and invited us to their home for our own private Greek Festival!! We were also joined by friends Karen and Dennis. (The six of us have been friends for YEARS!!). It was great seeing them all again and having delicious Green Moussaka. Thanks, Lois and Gene.

Faye, Lois and Karen

Moussaka, made of eggplant, potatoes, eggs and who knows what else. UMMMMMMM!!

Incidentally, Lois is the friend to whom we gave a Purple Shamrock many years ago; and she, in return, gave us starter plants for Ken to give his daughters in Florida. Ken took a tiny bulb from one of those starter plants and planted it for us. (See March article, “Follow the Purple Shamrock”). I thought now would be a good time to show how much our Shamrock has grown.

Shamrock as it was in March and late May.

THE GREAT BLIND GOLF CART RACE AT TT CHESAPEAKE BAY!!

It was Memorial Day Weekend 2009 and the crowd gathered to watch and participate in the annual Blind Golf Cart Race at TT Chesapeake Bay. It was a beautiful day for the activities. Participants took to their carts in teams of two. The driver was blindfolded and attempted to negotiate the course (a Figure 8) by following frantic instructions from the team navigator. Teams raced against the clock and were judged by total time to negotiate the course, plus points for any penalties.

Delores and Diane came to watch in Diane’s new brigt RED Club Car!

Ken even came out for the event.

He drove himself over using his cane to accelerate. He should have been in the races! HA HA

Ru, our Assistant Manager, directed the race, with Barb and Shannon helping with the officiating.

Brad was the MC, announcing race times with his own colorful comentary, providing music, between the racers, etc.

Brad caught me taking his picture.

Diane refused to race with Mike, so guess who said, “I’ll race with Mike!” Here we are making a practice run, learning the course. Mike has his eyes open, but later he will be blindfolded. He thinks if he leans far enough to the left, the cart will go left!

Oh No!! In our second practice run, I forgot Mike had his eyes closed pretending to be blindfolded. I yelled “Stop, Stop!!” But it was too late. We crashed into another cart in the middle of the figure eight!! It was so funny! No one was hurt.
But I can’t say the same for the front left tire of our golf cart!! (See Below.) Although the race was about to begin, we were number 17. Mike thought he had time to make an unscheduled pit stop. He drove with a flat to the Maintenance Shed and pumped up the tire. He came racing back laughing – “Jimmy Johnson can’t do better than that!! A 2-minute pit stop!!”

Great job, Mike. Everything is A-OK now!!

Mike getting his blindfold.

Here we are, ready to go. BOGGADY, BOGGADY, BOGGADY. LET’S GO RACING, BOYS!!

Ooops!! First penalty! And we just started!

Oh, Dear!! Second penalty!! Notice Barb giving the fingers to indicate our penalties!!

Oh Crap!! We hit a bale. That means we have to back up to get around it. How much time will THAT take??
Keep going, Mike. Can’t you tell which way I’m pointing!!??

Note the flag in the right corner. We're at the finish line!! Hit it, Mike!!!!!

There were more than 22 teams in the race. Here are some of OUR friends who also participated!!

Pickleball player, Amy and her young driver. They are the ones who crashed into us during the warm-up!! Or did we crash into them?? Anyway, we all got to the center of the figure 8 at the same time!!!

Amy’s husband, Tom and his partner. He’s also a great Pickleball player. (You’ll see these guys again later.)

Billy Babb and driver Gilbert. Gilbert is always challenging Ken to a Pickleball match, especially now!!! (You’ll also see them later.)

Pickleball Players, Wayne and Linda

.

Linda can’t wait to get her blindfold off!!

Friend Buzzy and his driver!! Either Buzzy can’t navigate or his driver can’t drive!! They were ultimately disqualified for driving over the flag at the finish line!! I think this picture is hysterical!! I love it!!!

Buzzy trying to redeem himself. This time he fired his driver, changed carts, and brought along Little Bear to help navigate!! You can just about see him sitting in the middle.

The Winners!!

Third Place: Billy and Gilbert. WOW!! I don't believe it!!! Just kidding, guys!!

Second Place: Sorry, I don’t even know these two expert racers.

First Place: Tom and his driver. CONGRATULATIONS, TOM!!

And LAST Place: Two pretty young ladies who gave it a good try!! At least Mike and I beat them!!!

WHAT A GREAT JOB BY THE STAFF, ALL THE PARTICIPANTS, AND THE SPECTATORS!! Let's do it again next year!!!