Golf cart work

While we have some upgrades that we would like to get done to our golf cart, our neighbor, Barb, had an upgrade done this week that we anticipate in our future... 

When she got back at the end of December, she checked the water in her lead acid batteries, and I worked with her to fill them with distilled water (we have a handy-dandy battery water filler that we tried out on her batteries). (what we got is something like this: amazon link)  Then she charged it for a while, but the batteries were not taking a charge.

So, she decided that she needed to get new batteries (batteries seem to last 2-3 years in the golf carts here due to the heat). She sought counsel and decided to replace the lead acid batteries with lithium. 

The guys from Golf Cart Farm came in a couple of days to collect her cart -- Carl took a picture of their truck so he'd have their contact info in case we want to use them to do some of the service on our cart...

...and two days later, they returned her golf cart with a beautiful new lithium battery! I went over to oooh and aaah over her new battery.

We want to replace our lead acid batteries with lithium, but will probably wait until the batteries need to be replaced -- possibly next season (fall of this year). No need to replace while the current ones are still working!

Getting tickets for another event

I posted about getting to the Activity Office on Tuesday morning to find a line for people getting Murder Mystery tickets.

On Thursday morning, the Valentine's Day Dinner and Dance tickets were going on sale. We went last year and enjoyed it. We knew that they had assigned table seating, so checked with some friends to see if they also wanted to go -- ended up with 4 couples so we could get a whole table. I volunteered to go "early" to the Activity Office to get the table - when I got there 15 minutes before the office opened, the office had already opened and the line was out the door. I thought, "uh oh!" but joined the back of the line.

I had checked the day before, and for this event, I only needed a single badge to purchase a whole table. By the time I got to the front of the line, several tables had already been sold out:

... the highlights mark sold tables. I was able to get table 34 (marked off on this copy as this was after I purchased) which is near the dance floor and the stage.

Another friend was a few behind me in line and she got table 35, just behind us. We might have a column that could interrupt our view of the band, but... many of us in our group are there to dance, so we won't worry about that too much!

Busy days!

Sorry for the lack of posts -- we seem to be busy, busy, busy. We are still recovering strength from our colds/flu, but the main "season" here at Venture Out has started in earnest.

When I went in to volunteer at the Activity Office on Tuesday, I noticed there was a line of people extending out the door!

Inside, the line snaked around the open area in front of the counter.

It was the first day for sales for a new "event" here at the park, a Murder Mystery evening. From the marketing blurb:

Join us for a night of intrigue and mystery from the prohibition era. Will you be the murderer, the silent witness, or the victim? Come for the Mystery, stay for the "Bucket Draw" and dessert!

As I have mentioned before, these kinds of things are brought to us and sponsored by one of the "clubs" -- in this case, the VO Splashers Volleyball Club (pool volleyball). So, but club uses it as a fundraiser to help provide funds for things they want to purchase or to help out the community as a whole.

Because of all the interest, once the line died down, I contacted Carl and we decided we would get tickets too (the line was because people wanted to sit at a table with their friends and so many people were in there with the badges from their friends and were purchasing a number of tickets). We found a table that had two empty seats, so we're looking forward to meeting up with some folks that maybe we don't know yet -- but it isn't until February 3, so it will be a while before I blog about the event itself.

Interesting maps

I've posted before about how the maps that we normally see of the world can give misconceptions -- I found this website recently and thought it gave some good insights: https://www.traveller365.com/articles/AfterSeeingThese15MapsYoullNeverLookAtTheWorldTheSame?fbclid=IwAR0rh6hoAEwFX923S-nlHk7JB6iZbRuiGgkvovSF11QuuvlJF-xkiP8CglY

To do your own comparisons, go to the referenced website, type in a country or continent name, and try moving it around: https://www.thetruesize.com

Uh oh...

After I went to the Eye Institute last week for my 1 week checkup, I stopped at PetSmart to get some food for Miss Kitty...

I sent Carl this picture from the front of the store.

 Uh oh!!! 

They weren't actually set up with the kitties at the time I was there, so we were safe, this time!

Another interesting car

It seems that we often see "interesting" cars when we're out-and-about in Mesa. We have been staying close to home for a couple of weeks as we "gave" each other colds/flu for Christmas, but we did make it out to the grocery store this past week.

We saw this car in the parking lot...

Carl said that this was the type of car that his family had when he was a kid...

... except that theirs was teal (he thinks it was all teal, not two-tone as this one is).

Carl said that his father traded in their Bel Air in 1962 to get a station wagon.

It is fun to observe things as we're out and about.

Contronyms

Contronyms are words which are their own opposites. I recently saw an article that tells about 25 of these interesting creatures:

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/57032/25-words-are-their-own-opposites 

These kind of words must make learning English such a challenge!