Exercise at Venture Out

There are a number of exercise classes available to us here at Venture Out... 

We enjoy pool exercises -- the pool is heated so even if the air temperature is cool, exercising in the pool is comfortable unless the wind is blowing -- which means getting *out* of the pool is chilly! The pool exercises use an audio program with music that makes it enjoyable.

We also enjoy a couple of morning classes in the ballroom, "Early Bird Co-Ed Exercises" (which uses an audio program -- same program every morning, Monday-Friday), and "Stretch and Tone" (which also uses an audio program but a different routine each day, Monday-Friday). 

For all of the classes, the number of people grows week by week through the season, reaching their maximums somewhere in late January or early February. After Stretch and Tone last week, the leaders got us all together to take a picture of the whole group:

We are in the back, almost the last two on the right side.

Isn't that a good looking group? The couple in the front on the floor are our faithful leaders who are there every day demonstrating what the audio program is directing us to do so we can get a visual reference too if needed! (And we often need it!)

Bocce Ball shot

Our play in the bocce ball league has been non-stellar so far this season, but we enjoy "trying"!

Last week, after the other team (using the white balls) had thrown all of its balls, Cleo and I had two last balls to throw...

...and we ended up getting our two (blue) balls right next to the pallina. 

At the end of all of the throws, whichever team's ball is closest to the pallina gets a point, and if that team has additional balls that are closer than any of the other team's balls, they get as many points as they have close balls to the pallina. There was no doubt that we got two points (and that's how many we needed to win the game!). 

Thusfar in the season, we are 3-3, 3 wins, 3 losses. Better than more losses than wins! 

"Century" plants about to bloom

There are a number of examples of the Agave americana, more commonly known as "century plant", around our community. 

The common name "century plant" stems from its monocarpic nature of flowering only once at the end of its long life. After flowering, the plant dies but produces adventitious shoots from the base, allowing its growth to continue. Although it is called the century plant, it typically lives only 10 to 30 years. It has a spread around 6–10 ft with gray-green leaves measuring 3–5 ft in length, each with a prickly margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce deeply. Towards the end of its life, the plant produces a tall, branched stalk adorned with yellow blossoms, which can reach a height of 25–30 ft. (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_americana)

The "adventitious shoots" are also called "pups". 

One of the bloom stalks outside one of our buildings with meeting space.

Close-up on the lower part of the bloom stalk where the blooms seem to be coming out.

I had heard from some other folks in our community that they grow to a certain age, bloom, and die, but... so many of the plants in our community have bloom stalks up right now, I didn't think that was the case. Of course, they *could* have all been planted at about the same time. The community is 55 years old, this side of the community was the last to be developed, so maybe plantings on this side are 40ish years old? And maybe this is the second round and the plants we see now are "pups" of an earlier bloom?

I haven't found anything on the web that substantiates that they bloom at a certain age. I think it is more likely related to being in drought conditions for a few years, and then the relatively wet summer we had last year, followed by a warm and dryer winter may have sparked their flowering. 

At any rate, we are looking forward to them fully flowering! 

Getting together with Alaska trip friends

We got together with some of the folks who were also on the Alaska trip with us in the summer of 2024:

We met at Waldo's BBQ -- they had lots of signs around the restaurant -- I got a picture of this one outside.

Being as I grew up in Virginia, I still enjoy pulled pork as my favorite BBQ offering. (I didn't know until I met and married Dwayne that other parts of the country (specifically Texas) consider only beef to be a valid BBQ option!)

Our group at lunch - Peggy and Mory, "sister" Peggy (as she and her brother, Don, were on the Alaska trip, called "sister" to differentiate her from "Mory's Peggy" and a "Peg" who were also in the caravan!), and Patti and Carl.

It was good catching up with what these friends have been doing and find out what trips they are planning this year and into the future!

Some views from closer to Phoenix

Carl had a doctor's appointment in north Phoenix so we drove out a bit further than our usual trips...

On the freeway, there was a Waymo car on its way to Sky Harbor airport.

Waymo—formerly the Google self-driving car project—makes it safe and easy for people & things to get around with autonomous vehicles. Take a ride now. (https://waymo.com/rides/)

Check out the video on this page: https://waymo.com/waymo-driver/

Are you ready to go for a ride in an autonomous vehicle?

I was trying to figure out if I would be wise to follow it as maybe it knew more about traffic patterns on the roads we were driving on -- but it was going to the airport, and we were not, so we didn't. 

This was on another street on our way to the doctor's office. I thought the palm trees looked like they had their "hair" up in a pony tail!

It is always interesting when driving around!

Taking care of business

Last week, the Annual General Meeting of our Condo Association was held. Since our community is run by the owners (via a Condo board), this is the time when the general manager and active committees can report to the owners.

The condo board members were there on stage. At this point, our general manager, Steve Byfield, was reporting on projects that have been completed over the past year. It was quite an impressive list!

There were also committee reports from Architectural, Green, and the Safety and Security Committees. All of the members of the condo board as well as all the members of the committees are owners of property here in the park. General Manager Steve Byfield indicated that he receives assistance from owners who have expertise in areas of concern to the park which helps all of us. One example from this past year was that the laundry facility was not being used as much as it had been in the past (more and more people have their own laundry machines) so they reduced the footprint of the laundry allowing the released space to be allocated to the real estate office. One of our residents had run commercial laundries and was able to advise on newer technologies -- the new machines do not use coins, but rather can be charged on credit cards or used via a phone app -- so no coins to have to managed by the community staff. The company supplying the machines is responsible for maintenance. $0.80 out of every $1 spent at the laundry is returned to our community. Seems like a good solution for our community.

After the Annual General Meeting, I was running off to a dental appointment... 

This picture was on the screen in the examining room where I was taken. I was wondering what it was a picture of, and I asked the young lady who was taking x-rays and she didn't know. I got Google Lens to take a look at it, and it said, "This image depicts a moment at the Badwater Basin salt flats in Death Valley National Park."

More information about Badwater Basin:

• It is the lowest elevation in North America, sitting 282 feet below sea level.
• The polygonal patterns are created by the constant cycling of salt crystals growing and drying in the basin.
• After heavy rains, a shallow, temporary lake known as Lake Manly can form, creating reflections on the salt flats.
• The basin is surrounded by mountains, including Telescope Peak, which is often snow-capped in the winter.

My dental hygienist and I agreed that the pictures they display should have captions for the curious!

Updating exteriors

A couple of weeks ago, one of the houses across the street from us was re-painted...

Painting in progress -- we thought that they had painted more blue than intended...

... when the painters finished, it didn't have as much blue at the bottom, but they did paint around the roof line, and freshened up the white/cream color too. The thing at the peak of the eave is a piece of "art" -- we don't remember whether it was there "before" or whether it was added after the paint job.

One of the houses that is a few doors down from the one that was painted is having stucco put on -- that can really make an older unit look more modern.

Here's another older unit that has had stucco put on -- it not only looks more up-to-date, we understand from friends who have had it done that it helps with insulation too.

This is an older unit that has *not* had the exterior updated (like our "casa", though this one does have a lower Arizona room). It looks more dated than the ones with the stucco facing.

We like seeing that owners are doing things to improve their properties. It keeps the community looking good and shows that the owners care about their properties.