Early Retirement

Well, I have mentioned living in a retirement community, and I have received some curious questions about that. As soon as I left Europe, running at the speed of light, I landed in a quieter Vancouver after the chaos of the Olympics had died down. My grandparents were thrilled (or so they told me) to have me staying with them for almost 2 weeks! They live in a lovely and highly sought after Christian community in Surrey, BC which is called Elim.
I was told that I could sleep in every day, and was quite pleased with that idea after the last few hectic weeks. One of the first days that I was there we had an easter celebration, with coffee and cakes. The next day we were invited to a birthday party that should be considered more of a milestone, and we had more goodies and coffee. Soon I started to see the pattern emerging in this “Elim - culture”. The idea of cake was ok, but then I noticed that Grandma would say after we had eaten it “well, now we don’t need lunch.” I soon found out, however, that this statement did not necessarily include me. I was pleased about that, because I would never intentionally just eat cake for lunch.
Grandma had many enjoyable small tasks for me, to help me feel like I was still contributing to society. I cut some fabric for her, baked bread, cut bread, washed windows and put the cushions on the outside chairs. Life became made up of the simpler things in life, and centered around food, of course.
Another great thing about this lifestyle was all the new opportunities there were for having fun. I was included in the weekly “Carpet Bowling” tournament. I must say that I did warn them I didn’t know how to do this. It almost looked like I was playing for the opposite team at times. The balls are weighted unevenly and the “skill” of throwing them seemed to be beyond my years. I threw too hard almost every time. I was particularly humiliated when a 95 year old woman threw right after me and made me look very pathetic indeed. My only comfort is believing that she has used at least 80 of those years to hone her carpet bowling technique. If you still can’t picture carpet bowling in your mind, it is similar to Curling. Well, let me clarify - it is not on ice, they throw balls, no one brushes and it is a bunch of old people, and they are NOT wearing the Norwegian pants. Other than that, it is pretty similar in concept.
The most entertaining “sport” I saw was actually in the extended care building. I saw a sign advertising “Noodle Hockey” and became very curious. Then, as I sat and was drinking my coffee and eating my cookies, I started to hear some THUMP noises, again and again. I finally just had to go walk in that direction and see what was happening. The elderly people were all sitting in chairs in a circle, and each one was holding a “noodle” like you use in a swimming pool. There was a big beach ball in the middle of the circle an they were all whapping it with their noodles. It made a lot of noise, and I don’t know what the rules were, but I was was seriously impressed. I wondered if this was a sport that could be brought out of the retirement community so that younger people could also play it. Later, when i escaped during afternoon nap time to go for a walk I began t wonder if I hadn’t been in this place just a little too long.