Riversdale 'Ritings

Written on 6-4-17.

     I am sitting on the smaller of the two charcoal gray couches in the beach house that belongs to Katy, one of James's co-workers and friends.  She and her husband, Crispy (yes, Crispy), are thinking of renting this place as a VRBO or an AirBnB.  We are the trial "renters."  I broke it in on the second morning when I accidentally burned the carpet upstairs when the iron ran out of water.  I was ironing at the end of our bed, because they do not have an ironing board here, or they do, but we couldn't find it.  The iron burned my shirt sleeve, so I goofily set it down on the carpet where it immediately made a perfectly shaped burnt imprint of the bottom of the iron at the foot of the bed, a permanent one.  Yikes!  So sorry, Katy and Crispy.

     James, Danielle, and Belinda are watching The Office on my laptop, so I am actually using my iPad Mini and my wireless keyboard to type this.  We are all sitting upstairs where it's much...
warmer than downstairs.  Down there, the air is frigid; we can see our breath most of the time.  We have two heaters up here, though, a gas one and a plug-in radiator type.  Belinda did not last long watching The Office; she just sauntered over to the bed for her afternoon nap.

     Since we've come here, we've done many fun things.  We have driven to a winery called Poppies, where we tasted six different wines on empty stomachs.  Then we shared two platters of some of the most decadent, rich, and flavorful foods I've ever eaten.  We also shared two desserts, a chocolate cake with a Chile kick and a lemon cake with coconut, both with real whipping cream.  It was all sooooo delicious.  Our stomachs were definitely full after that.

     After our luxurious lunch, we shopped at a grocery store called Pak N' Save in Masterton, and that was like walking through a freezer. I even witnessed a young boy walking through there with no shoes on!  The cost of the groceries for three days nearly matched the amount we had just spent on wine and lunch.

     Today is our last day here.  We've spent three nights already, and its gone by as fast as a wintry wind can suddenly blast us in the face on the beach.  We took a walk to the beach together as a family yesterday, and we also stopped by the little convenience store on our way back.  The beach and ocean were gorgeous, and we even saw a distant rainbow out on the ocean.  

     We ate smoked salmon (cut so thin that it was liking eating salmon bacon) and mixed vegetables for dinner last night; we are doing our best to eat in and eat healthy, but it is not so easy since we are on vacation and in a celebratory mood.  

     We've been super mellow since we arrived.  We've hung out inside here, and it has a cabin home feel to it, for sure.  We watched multiple movies: Captain Fantastic on Danielle's iPad, Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End, one of Katy's DVDs, Bounty Hunter with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston, War Machine with Brad Pitt, two downloaded movies from Netflix, and the third Star Wars Family Guy movie, It's a Trap.

     I even got some bonus golf in, too.  James and I got to play at the Riversdale Golf Club yesterday and today.  It's just a long "golf drive" away from here, less than a city block's walk and just up the hill at the end of our street.  We paid for 18 holes, but we only played the front nine yesterday.  We went back to finish our 18 that afternoon, but it was "club day," so it was too crowded, and that is why we waited until this morning to complete the round.

     We took on the Bogey Man, and it was a great match.  I predicted that I would bogey just about every hole, and I would earn a couple of pars.  I thought James would have some high scores, but I thought he might get one or two pars, too.  We set the goal of +9 to tie him and +8 to beat him.  We did better than that when we finished up at +5.  I ended up getting four pars on that first day, and James had two legitimate bogeys.  He and I both made some long putts, too, and he had his best drive by far on hole #6.  

     This morning, we set the bar higher, but we also adjusted James's handicap by giving him two strokes per hole.  He scored some doubles the day before, so we agreed that that would be a fair adjustment.  

We said we would have to be +9 for the entire round to beat the Bogey Man this time, so we had to play better than yesterday.  We did it!  We beat him easily at +8.      We were the ones laughing this time, and we really had a pleasant two rounds together.  Not much can compare to playing golf with my son on a beautiful golf course.  It doesn't really matter what we do, but playing golf gives us plenty of uninterrupted time together, and we got to play cooperatively, too.  Fantastic quality time!

     It's an hour or so since B went to lie down now.  Danielle joined her about forty minutes ago, so they are both passed out on the bed behind me.  James has switched from watching The Office to playing Call of Duty on the Xbox 360 they have here.  I am half watching him play and half taking time to write.