Category → Recreation
Choosing Between Party Invitations
Last year around Christmas I had a stressful time making decisions. It seemed like each day when I went outside to collect my mail I received more party invitations requesting the presence of my family at holiday events. At first I found it flattering that my family and I were being thought about by our friends and family and that they all desired our company during the holiday season. It wasn’t long, however, before the flattery turned into frustration as the party invitations kept arriving and as our calendar began to fill up with event after event.
It got to the point where our family had to sit down with the party invitations and do something very important: choose. There was no way that we could accept all of the party invitations and remain sane through the month of December. We had to begin declining party invitations and narrowing our schedule down to include only the events we really wished to attend. It might sound simple, but when you sit down to choose between attending your grandmother’s yearly holiday brunch or your best friend’s annual reunion party for all of your college friends, choosing is not so easy.
Our family quickly came up with a way to sift through the small mountain of party invitations and choose the ones we wished to attend. The first and most important way that we narrowed our list was by thinking about the relationships we had with the people throwing each party. We made the decision to separate the party invitations we had received into piles based on our closeness to the hosts of the parties. This made it easy to see where we could decline a few party invitations simply by choosing close family and friends over people we didn’t know so well. A party hosted by a parent or sibling took precedence over party invitations we received from a co-worker or former neighbor.
We also decided to narrow down party invitations by only allowing ourselves to schedule a certain number of events each week. We limited our family to accepting party invitations to one party during each week and one party each weekend during the entire month. This way we were not so busy with parties that we were unable to continue doing other important things.
If you find yourself receiving too many party invitaions this holiday season, or at any point throughout the year, look for ways to narrow it down and only accept party invitations to events being held by people you love the most.
Gardening in a New Way
Gardening is a terrific hobby. If you have enjoyed gardening for most of your life, you know the joys it can bring to your life. It gives you the chance to work outside and to feel closer to nature by helping her make food, herbs or beautiful flowers where there was nothing but weeds before.
For many people the joy of gardening is far more important than any cost savings they might get from growing their own food. In many cases, if you did the numbers on it, the food you grow at home is not that much less expensive than buying it at the local grocery supermarket. But to have a garden full of producing plants gave you fresh food. And there was something so gratifying about both growing your own food and in harvesting it as well.
This may have made you nostalgic for gardening if you, like many senior citizens, can no longer garden the way you used to. Even if you are still living in your own home, the physical labor of tilling the soil for planting and then tending the garden may be more than you can do at this stage of life. While you dearly yearn to get out there and get your hands dirty in the good earth while planting your favorite flowers or crop producing plants, you must be mindful of your doctor’s instructions and take it easy at this stage of life.
For others in the later years, the time may have come for you to move out of that house you owned that had a yard where you could carve out a bit of land for a garden. Perhaps you needed to cut back on the amount of maintenance you were able to keep up with. So you let your kids work with you to sell the old place and get a condo or apartment that is much more manageable.
Sometimes economy or health concerns play a factor in where you are living and the best place for you right now is an assisted care facility where you can have quality medical care available should you need it. You know this is a good idea and that your children love you and that is why you worked with them, or at least you tried to when they helped you make the transition.
But giving up gardening may be one of the many transitions to a smaller living space that you grieved about losing and miss easy spring and summer when you want to be out there in nature enjoying the experience of growing things. If only there was a way that you could continue this delightful hobby and still be careful with the issues that made gardening at a large scale out of the question.
As they say, where there’s a will there’s away. And there may be new ways you can continue to enjoy the fun of gardening within the constraints of your senior lifestyle. One way might be to look into getting some window boxes for your apartment. These long planting boxes are often used by people who want a small indoor flower garden or to nurture house planets. But you could get a few of these kind of growing spaces, solicit some help from the facility maintenance people or your kids to get them installed and filled with good earth and enjoy puttering in those small gardening space and see the little plants you picked sprout and grow. With the extra time you have due to retirement, you are sure to do an outstanding job of caring for that little garden.
You can also help your kids learn to garden. By adopting the “sweet but helpful Grandma” attitude, you may find that your children and their spouses wish they knew your gardening secrets and with a bit of partnering, you could use their muscle and flexibility to set up a nice big garden at their house. Then you can just come over from time to time to tend it as much as you can and “supervise.”
Be sure you are there ready to go when its harvest day and everyone in the family can enjoy the fresh produce and herbs you grew in that garden. And you will get a sense of renewal that you found a new way to garden that lets you keep a treasured pastime and do so within the constraints that retired life brings.
A Short and Snappy History of Bowling
As the most popular sport during the reign of King Henry VIII of England, bowling is still one of the most popular sports in the world. Over 100 million bowlers from nearly 90 countries participate in the sport. The popularity of bowling has been traced back many years and the game has contributed benefits to many people world wide.
The memoirs of bowling start in 5200 B.C. when some archeologists unearthed ancient forms of bowling pins and balls in the crypt of a child with Egyptian lineage. This discovery proves that Egyptians were the earliest bowlers in the world.
From that time on, bowling has taken many forms, using different pins and balls and played for different purposes. For instance, during 200 A.D., it has been recorded that Germans were fond of festivities and “village dances” and that among their ancient rituals was a game that resembles bowling today.
In this particular German game, Germans rolled or threw rocks or stones at nine clubs that were made of wood. These clubs are known as “kegles”, and that is why Germans who played this type of bowling were known as “keglers” and not bowlers.
After so many years of struggle for recognition, bowling was finally recognized in England as a form of sport during the 1100s.
From that time on, the popularity of bowling created an epidemic-like influence, infecting millions of people. King Edward III even prohibited the game so that his knights would focus their attention on the “archery practices” instead of rolling the balls.
By the 17th century, when the United States was still a colony, bowling was introduced in the area. The “Dutch” colonists brought this remarkable game to the Americans. They introduced a game of nine pins that are placed in a triangular formation, hence, the name “Dutch pins”.
As the nine pins or the “Dutch” pins strived to claim fame, the state of Connecticut banned the playing of “nine-pin” bowling because some unscrupulous people used the game as a means for their gambling activities.
Connecticut then added an additional pin to the game, creating 10-pin bowling. This was the start of a new form of recreation as bowling continued to proliferate in the society. With this additional pin, this new form of bowling had definitely hit “the mark” and now many people all over the world continue to patronize the game.
With almost 50 million Americans playing the game, bowling is considered one of the most popular and pleasurable sports in the U.S.
Bingo Rules
Online bingo games can be played using either use 75-ball or 90-ball rules. The rules are very straightforward; all that is needed to win bingo is to get all the numbers in a given pattern.
75-ball bingo is the version that is played in the United States and Canada. There are 75 numbers on the bingo board, as opposed to the 90 number UK bingo rules. Of these 75 numbers, there are over 6,000 possible number combinations on a bingo card, which consists of 24 random numbers between 1 and 75. The caller calls out the numbers that come out on the bingo board. To win bingo, players need to mark matching numbers that appear on their cards as soon as they are called.
Bingo cards have five columns that are each marked with a B-I-N-G-O letter. These make 25 squares, comprised of five down and five across. Numbers in the ‘B’ column range between 1 and 15, numbers in the ‘I’ column are between 16 and 30, in the ‘N’ column the numbers are between 31 and 45, in the ‘G’ column are between 46 and 60 and numbers in the ‘O’ column are between 61 and 75.
Bingo site rules vary from site to site. At Bingodrome and every gambling site, players have to be over 18 to play, as this is the legal gambling age limit. Multiple accounts are prohibited at Bingodrome, as this prevents players from abusing site policies. Players are held responsible for their registration details being kept safe at most sites. Once players have brought cards, they cannot undo the purchase. Basic player conduct rules are essential at Bingodrome, to prevent players from using abusive language and ensure players are not aggressive towards fellow players and Chat Leaders.
There are specific rules for depositing and payouts at each site, players should read these rules before playing. At most sites, players have to make a deposit to play bingo. These deposits vary according to the site policies, but are generally not excessive. At Bingodrome, a $25 deposit allows players to play. Many sites offer special deposit returns that give players a percentage of their deposit back. Bingodrome has a 100% deposit back promotion, and Bingodrome partners are eligible for a special 300% off the first deposit made. Players are limited to $500 per day and $2000 per month.
Bingodrome players can win Bonus Bucks in addition to cash prizes. These bonus credits are used to fund player accounts and do not count towards cash prizes. Bingodrome’s chat games have Bonus Bucks as prizes.
Players should be aware of each sites bingo rules before signing up. Players who have been playing without being fully sure of the site rules should make sure they are familiar with policies to ensure that they are playing responsibly.
