Filling Time

 Some day I will look back on this pandemic period and wonder, "What did I do with my time?" Certainly many of the activities we had partaken in since moving to North Carolina have been curtailed since March. But I am doing a few things besides shopping for groceries, making masks, kayaking and taking photos. I volunteered to serve on the Communications Committee for our development. Because the community is barely a year old, our HOA is still under the control of the developer, Lennar. However, Lennar put together communications, landscape, and facilities committees that are comprised of homeowners. The communications committee has met several times. There are only three of us, so it is easy to meet and be socially distanced. It is too early to tell what kind of an impact we can have, but a board meeting takes place later this month. That should give us a good feel as to whether we are just a committee on paper, or if we can really facilitate good communication between the developer and the homeowners.

The Hiking Club, which has been inactive during COVID, organized a hike throughout the Phase 2 & 3 portions of our community, which are undeveloped for the most part. Though 23 people showed up, it was not hard to keep your distance from others while still being able to take part in conversation.

Imagery hike

Jim and I just attended the first meeting of the Photography Club last night. We are allowed to use the Meeting Room now as long as there are ten people or less attending. Masks are mandatory inside the building, and social distancing is required. They only let one group per day use the building, and it is deep cleaned each night so it feels safe. Only four of us came, so we were able to keep our distance. Our small group decided we will go on a photo shoot to the NoDa area of Charlotte later this month, and at our meeting in September we will review our best pictures. It should be a fun group.

Imagery pickleball courts

The thing that has been taking most of my time, though, is the Pickleball Imagery Club that I started. We had 72 people interested, which is impressive considering around 150 homes have closed and not all those people even live here in the summer. I developed a committee of ten to help out, and we have decided to structure as a 501(c)(7) since we are collecting membership dues. I've spent a lot of time talking to the local Pickleball Ambassadors as well as other like clubs in the area. The committee has met twice, and we are making great progress. There are 48 people so far who have signed up and paid their dues. Ladies play has been established on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings, and every Friday night is mixed social play. The guys play regularly, but they have not yet locked into set times.

So, little by little, we take baby steps into our not-so-brave, new world. We will continue to find the things that work for us while avoiding the things we think are too risky. It's all we can do.

The 1976 Summer Olympics

Olympic Park Montreal

While we were in Montreal we took the Metro out to Olympic Park, site of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The whole complex lacks a grand entrance, and the remaining buildings and property appear worn out and tired. Which got me thinking about how old the park really is - those games were 36 years ago! I was going into my junior year at Iowa State and Jim was not yet my fiance, though we had been dating since freshman year. Can that really be 36 years ago? I guess the lines and cracks in the concrete at Olympic Park match the ones that have appeared on my face during the same time period.

Biodome, Montreal

Pan Am Games, Montreal

We decided to tour of a couple of the buildings, and we learned how much money the city of Montreal lost hosting the games ($1.5 billion) - a debt that was finally paid off in 2006, primarily through a tobacco tax! Can you imagine? I hope they never decide to try to have the Olympics in my town. Of course the murder rate around here would probably keep us out of contention anyway. It was nice to see that they have re-purposed a few of the buildings. We tried to get into the Biodome, which houses an indoor zoo, but the line wrapped around the building several times and we decided we didn't want to see it that bad. The Junior Pan Am games were taking place in the stadium, so we watched a water polo match for awhile and imagined ourselves at the games in London.

At the end of our tour the guide informed us that the Olympic torch was lit, if we wanted to go see it. The only time they light it is when Olympic games are taking place, so it seemed like kind of a big deal. After hiking around for a bit we finally located the torch, which was somewhat diminutive in size. It was very hard to see the flame, but I managed to catch a picture of it with a tree as a backdrop. Not too impressive, but hey, this may be as close as I ever get to anything Olympic. Let the games begin...

Olympic Park, Montreal

Olympic Torch, Montreal