Basketball, etc.

It's getting close to that time of year that we often label as "March Madness." The Indiana high school girl's tournaments were broadcast all day on Saturday and we watched or listened to them on TV. The girl's tournaments are really interesting since they tend to be more emotional than the boys' tournaments. There are four classes of play in Indiana with two games in the morning and two in the late afternoon.

 One of the channels on Directv is carrying many Oscar winning movies this month and I've set up quite a few for recording but now I'm wondering when we'll have the time to view them. Our lifestyle  doesn't allow for us to sit around all day watching movies. The first one we watched was a B&W movie from 1958, The Defiant Ones, starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier chained together and on the run from a chain gang. The films are HD and even have closed captioning so I'm assuming someone has spent quite a few dollars to enhance these films.

I finally completed the Lent Banner for church which is very similar to the one I posted at the end of 2016.

On this version I enhanced Luther's Rose
with color and gold trim

I'm working on scrapbooking again after not concentrating that much in 2016. I'm a bit behind because I like to do something for each month of the year. The first layout for December 2016 was fairly simple to complete:

We're learning how to use masks to give
an artistic look to our layouts.

After completing the first page, I began working on the companion page and, finally, on the 6th revision called it complete thanks to the suggestions of several who offered advice.

Digitalscrapper.com is a friendly place to learn and
seek advice. It takes a lot of practice and patience.

With Ash Wednesday only a few days away, I already can see that this week is going to be filled with lots of activities. Stay tuned....

State Park #2

On January 1 we visited the newest Indiana State Park and today we visited another one closer to home. In an ordinary year, we probably wouldn't be out hiking because of snow or ice on the highways or covering the trails. But this is not an ordinary year. The average high for this time of year is somewhere in the 40s, but today, when the early morning cloud cover evaporated, and with the sun shining brightly we reached a high of 65.

Our destination today was Fort Harrison State Park, established in 1996.

Since 1903 Fort Harrison played an important role in Indiana history. The Fort was slated for closure in 1991. In 1995 the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the State of Indiana's request to convert 1,700 acres of the 2,500 acre post into a state park and nature preserve. Fort Harrison State Park includes one of the largest tracts of unbroken hardwood forest in Central Indiana, several small lakes, three and one-half miles of Fall Creek and its tributaries, trails and picnic areas.

The drive to the park took less than 30 minutes; but when we arrived at the entrance we entered a slow-moving queue that took another 40 minutes to get to the actual gate. When we were about four or five car lengths from the gate house, I noticed a line for anyone having a pass.

After our January trip we looked into the possibility of purchasing a pass and found that for $25 (senior rate) we would have entry to all parks for the entire year. Good decision as we waved our card to the gate attendant and she waved us through. (As a side note, when we departed about 2 hours later, the line to enter the park was nearly as long as when we arrived.)

Rule #1 when not familiar with a park, ask for a map. We'll remember that next time. We parked the car and headed out on the trail. Our original plan was to hike about 2.5 miles around a small lake, but as we learned later, we were going in the wrong direction. Sometimes it's good to make a mistake because we wouldn't have walked through this walnut grove:

Walnut Grove

We wouldn't have seen these beautiful Sycamores either:

Sycamores are noticeable for the white bark

We eventually came to a pedestrian entrance to the park and turned around to retrace our steps through the walnut grove and headed in the other direction. We came across this little lake:

Can you picture this when all the trees are filled with green leaves?

Do you see the picnic table on the far right side of the photo? The trail eventually took us up and around for about 2 miles and as we passed on the far side and looked down we noticed the picnickers were still enjoying the warm sunshine and their day in the park. 

We probably covered 4 miles, give or take, in two hours. Nothing could be finer than a walk in the park on a 60 degree day. I'm looking forward to our next State Park. Can we visit one each month in 2017?

Is it really February?

Last Thursday morning, when we left for the "Y" after breakfast we had to scrape and sweep an inch or more of snow and some ice from the car before we could leave. The temperature was in the low 20s. Thinking we might have slippery streets, we were surprised to find the streets were dry with no patches of snow or ice. A day later, the temperature was in the 50s. We've been experiencing yo-yo temperatures all winter so we don't know from one day to the next what to expect.

Several weeks ago I mentioned that we had visited the Greenwood Senior Center. Since then we've returned several times for an afternoon of playing contract bridge. This last Thursday Ray had the highest score for 2017. We've also learned that the Senior Center has a food pantry that is open to seniors and is not based on income but on age! We definitely fit that criteria. They always have loaves of bread but other items change from week to week. It seems that most of the items are very close to their expiration date and, I assume, are donated by local grocery stores. Some of the items are tempting and we've indulged in cookies and sweet rolls but are determined to not fall prey to these temptations in the future and choose based mostly on nutritional value.

Last evening the 50+ Social Group at church held a Valentine's Party and Bingo. The tables held bouquets of red roses and everyone enjoyed a meal followed by ten rounds of Bingo.

Each table was decorated the same

Part of the buffet line

Bingo prizes waiting for redemption

Ray compares his card with Gail and Dick

Even though we came close a time or two, neither Ray nor I had a winning card. That we live in an ever evolving age of technology was definitely evident while playing bingo. The caller used his smart phone with a special bingo app. The bingo cards were printed using the app and we used crayons to mark our 10 game cards. A fun evening and we were home about 8 o'cock!

Super Bowl LI

Like I've come to expect after any big game, everyone is ready to talk about it the next day. Yesterday's game was no exception. We headed to the "Y" to play Pickleball this morning and had several conversations about the game. Most Indianapolis fans were rooting for Atlanta but were denied the satisfaction of seeing the Patriots defeated. No one can deny, however, that the New England team, its quarterback and coach are in an elite group. Congratulations to them.

We enjoyed having Bill & Karen over for the game, continuing a long tradition for Super Bowl viewing. Two other couples were originally part of the group but have moved out of state to be near their adult children.

Bill, Karen, Ruth & Ray

This past week we were fortunate to watch two exciting basketball games. IU defeated Penn State in triple OT and then Purdue played at Maryland and somehow found a way to win. It wasn't easy!

We must be getting close to spring and maybe the groundhog was wrong last Thursday. For the record, in January Indianapolis had the least amount of snow since 1998 (less than 2 inches). In comparison, some areas in the western U.S. have had 25 ft of snow this winter. We also learned that January was the 16th warmest month and had the most 60 degree days since 1974. We're expecting rain and, perhaps, hail overnight. 

We learned that our brother-in-law Ross was in the hospital because of congestion and tiredness. The cardiologist is prescribing meds and rest. Ross is optimistic that he can return to an active life again after giving his heart a rest but it won't be easy as he is not one to sit around. 

We have some leftovers from yesterday so I may not have to cook every day this week! That's always nice.