We are enjoying a cool summer at our mountain cottage in Linville Land Harbor in North Carolina. The month of July has been a particilarly busy time for our golfers. We have had several tournaments for the members to join. The first two Wednesdays were our annual member member tournament and the final two Wednesdays were our individual championship days. The ladies also had their tournaments, an invitational and their individual championship. We are looking forward to our family reunion from the 28th of July until the 6th of August. Anyone who is interested in looking at the Land Harbor website may go to linvillelandharbor.com and be connected. The temperatures here have been generally in the upper 50's at night to the low to mid seventies during the day. Land Harbor is in northwestern North Carolina about 20 miles from the Tennessee border and about 60 miles south of the Virginia border. It is truly a lovely mountain area to visit. I hope everyone is having a great summer.... keep smiling.

For the past two years, I have been participating in a winter golf league known as the "Snowbirds". We play on Tuesday mornings at The Links golf course in Hudson. Depending on the time of year, we range in strength from about 25-40 people. There are weekly prizes within our group for overall score based on a point system and on the 5 par three holes, a closest to the pin competition. Near the end of the season, usually in March or April, we have a team tournament and prizes are awarded at our yearly luncheon. A majority of the guys are from various places in the north and winter down here. A good number of us call this home even though we are out town in the summer. Most are about my age but we have some hearty players that are in their mid to upper eighties. I played with an 89 year old last week who looks like he is about 75 and plays accordingly. If any one would like to join the group, you can leave me a comment with a contact point or visit the Links on Tuesday mornings at about 7:30. That is when we get our pairings and tee times. A lot of the guys that I have played with had trouble finding enough players to play every week and are very happy to have found us. Because we have a lot of players, the course gives us a break on the prices and a guaranteed weekly block of tee times. Because of the prices, I don't get the opportunity to play as much here as I do in the summer, but this league guarantees that I can play once a week and keep me from getting too rusty and too irritable if I don't get to play my favorite game. Hope to see you on the links....keep smiling!!

Since retirement began, I have had more time to do some things that for the most part escaped me previously. Reading for pleasure was a bit of a low priority and I wanted to change that. In the last 2-3 years, I have been able to read between 25-35 books per year. The authors ranged from H.G. Wells, Ernest Hemingway and James Michner to Tom Clancy, John Grisham and Ken Follett among others. The other major interest of mine is golf. Golf requires quite a bit of time and practice to be able to score in the 80's or below. I was fortunate enough to be able to find a beautiful place to play in the summer at Land Harbor. For one yearly fee you are able to play as often as you like. I took advantage of this for the second year in a row and had a terrific summer. I will expand on these hobbies and on Land Harbor in the near future. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving....keep smiling!!!

Most of the good and blessed things in my life have occurred before I retired two years ago (at 62). I was married in 1967 to my wife and best friend Carol, we have four great children (3 sons and 1 daughter), four terrific grandkids (3 boys and 1 girl) and numerous relatives and friends. We have a home in Hudson, Fl and a cottage in Linville, NC that we have had since 2005. The cottage is a great place in the summer for golf and just relaxing and socializing. It is in a community called Linville Land Harbor and is at an elevation of about 4,000 ft. in the Blue Ridge mountains. The high temperature on our deck this summer was 84 degrees and most of the time the temps are about 55 at night and 75 during the day. I will be telling you about the people and places that we have encountered since retirement in upcoming blogs. As my late, great  father in-law Charlie used to sign off... keep smiling.