Waterball galore...

So I'm in Desert Hot Springs (near Palm Springs) at Caliente Hot Springs Resort which is an RV and mobile home park. Cam's parents bought a place in here in January and so I have been camping out in the living room of their very cute 1 bdrm mobile home.

Just 2 'blocks' away is the resort recreation area. There are two big pools and 3 hot tubs. There is a fitness room and a library. Plus a little bistro which will be shutting down soon. Basically, this place shuts down for the summer as the snowbirders head home. It supposedly gets too hot to hang around, however, there are about 100 permanent residents here.

Every day at 11am except Sunday, a group plays waterball which is basically volleyball in the pool. In waterball, you can hit the ball as many times as you want to on one side and the same person can also hit it as many times as necessary. The back row has to set the ball to the front row unless it has been touched by someone else first. The 11am crew is the more serious competitive one. There is another group that plays at 2pm with a beach ball and it is more recreational and less rules.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, our resort sends players to a neighbouring resort from 5 - 7pm. Then on Saturdays, that group comes to our resort. They announced today that for the summer, it looks like the other resort will be allowed to come over to play on Mon-Wed-Fri from 5 - 7. So that means there will be waterball for 2 hours at 11am and then again at 5pm EVERY DAY except Sunday! Holy crap - these old folks are HARD CORE!

Of course, I'm right in with them.... I went to the neighbouring resort today. After 4 total hours of waterball, I am exhausted. And waterlogged. One of the guys I play with said that the bad thing for him these days is that once he gets out of the water, the wrinkles still don't come out.... hmmmm, I might have written that already in another blog.... oh well.

After the first session, I chatted with one of the players afterward. Without much prompting, she told me that she left her husband 4 years ago and he is stalking her despite the restraining order she has against him. And because she is slim and single and on the youngish side for the resort (meaning in her 60s), the other women don't like her because they think she is after their husbands because she sometimes wears a 2-piece bathing suit. Holy Crap....

Plus, the first day I played on the 'competitive' team, one woman told another to 'shut her mouth' because she didn't want to listen to her anymore.....whoa! So I just play my hardest and cheer all the good plays even for the other team. They all think I'm 'nice'. HA HA.

When I got home today, I took two Advil. I think I strained about 4 different muscles today. After my first game of waterball, I had to go out and buy water shoes (only $7 at Walmart), and a couple of hats, plus sunglasses for the pool. So with my wide brimmed pink 'old lady' hat and my wrap-around mirrored glasses, I suspect you wouldn't actually be able to pick me out of the crowd of 60 - 80 years olds in the pool. Which is sad, really..... When selecting my sunglasses at Target, I was entertaining my inlaws by doing 'land jumps' pretending like I was in the pool leaping for a ball to see if the sunglasses would stay on. My new glasses make me look like Spiderman.

BUT, I am really enjoying waterball, and I'm pretty good at it, and it is good exercise... So I'll keep doing it.

I also went to TOPS yesterday morning. There were 20 people at the meeting and that is a summer attendance when no one is supposed to be here! And they have 12 KOPS!!! Ok, that won't mean anything to most of you, but some of you reading this might be impressed! (it's a weight-loss group if you don't know)

I currently have water in my ear and no amount of jumping up and down is helping get rid of it this time.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!