Friday evening we took our neighbour Terry and we 3 went downtown to Palm Springs and went into a store called Crystal Fantasy. It's kind of a metaphysical type store, they also sell native american style flutes, as well as some quite interesting merchandise. Once a month they hold a drum circle, and that's why we went there. It was held at 7 PM, and the leader was Scott who seemed to be a co-owner of Crystal Fantasy together with his wife. They have a pug dog.
The circle is held in a large back room located at the back of the store, there is very pretty artwork on the walls, and there were a lot of chairs set out in a circle. And drum we did. Lary and I took flutes, but the ones I had taken were drummed right out. Lary seemed to have a hardwood B flute of Mad Max that could carry over the drums, but it was very intense drumming, but very enjoyable too.
Almost hypnotic. We drummed our hearts out for 2 hours and then came home, pleasantly tired but kind of energized too. Lary played his flute a lot, and another man played his rim blown flute, as well as a cajon, and a djembe type drum. It was a very interesting time. Both Terry and I had djembe type drums, mine is bigger and a lower pitch than hers, but we both beat away on them. She also has brushes like you could use in a band to play cymbals or something like that, so she gives her fingers a rest, and uses the brushes at times. Nice sound.
Lots of fun visiting with her a wee bit on the way there, though we didn't really chat while drumming, we couldn't hear ourselves anyway. It was fun and stimulating, there seemed to be no direction, just drumming happened spontaneously, like wildfire breaking out. Some very talented and intense male drum players were there.
Saturday evening we attended the Baked Potato dinner here in the park, it was hosted by Phil and Rita, and was a big green salad that you put your own trimmings on, and later a baked potato with garlic rosemary bread. The baked potatoes were very salty on the outside, but inside they were delicious.
They served kind of chili and a cheese sauce over them, and once again, you could add bacon bits, sour cream and green onions to the potato. We didn't think we'd be full, but we sure were. Dessert was cake with berries and whipped topping, very good.
And after that there was a dance with the guitar player Daymor Moses, we sat with Bob and Jo Anne, Sharon and Chris, Mel, Monty and Coro once our mostly elderly dinner table mates had left for the evening.
The temps were in the upper 80s, so we had been in the pool nearly every day, enjoying the warm water and fun company, too. The days are slowly lengthening, so the sun doesn't disappear as early as it was doing. Because of the high Mount San Jacinto behind Palm Springs we tend to lose sunshine a bit earlier than it truly disappears from the sky. Currently it disappears from the pool at about 4:30 PM, or a bit later.
Sunday we did hardly anything, just hung around the house, reading the paper and being lazy, and in the afternoon we watched the Red Carpet for the Oscars, then the Oscars themselves. I just adore all the fashions, and of course the winners and the speeches, it's all fun. I enjoy seeing the snippets of the latest winning movies.
After dinner Sunday the wind started to come up as forecast, and this morning, Monday, we awoke to temps below 60, and a windy, cloudy day. There were wind warnings for winds up to 60 or 65 miles per hour today, erg. Dave and Wendy have been down in the San Diego area for a week, and I think they delayed their move day from today til tomorrow, due to high winds in the forecast. It's no fun moving a lengthy trailer and truck in high winds, can be downright scarey.
I forgot to say that our gas prices are now over $4.00 a gallon and seem to be increasing every day. Lary gets our gas from Von's which is a grocery store, kind of related to Safeway, and when you buy a certain amount of groceries, $100 I believe, you get seriously discounted gas at their station. So that's what we do. Another idea is Costco, but their pumps are always very busy. Today, Monday we saw gas at a Shell station for $4.35 for regular!!!! and still climbing- we guess.
We shopped today for a few things, in the weekend's paper we got a big brown grocery bag, and you could fill it at Office Max, and everything in it would be discounted by 20%. So we did that and got some stuff we needed for here.
On the way home from shopping there was dust being kicked up by the wind in the empty lots around town, and there were very inky blue/black/grey clouds in the sky. We got a few drops of rain, but not much so far. There is wind everywhere though, and at 4:30 PM the temps are down below 50 this afternoon already. Weird time of year here.
Forgot to say that both Lary and I have been reading the author J.A. Jance, she is a woman writer, and we are both enjoying her prolific writing. I am reading the series about Joanna Brady, a modern day sheriff in Bisbee, Arizona. As we know that area pretty well, it is very interesting, and the books are very interesting and enjoyable.
Lary is reading books by J.A. Jance too, but he's reading the J.P. Beaumont series, he's a detective in Seattle, also the Walker family series, they are located in S. Arizona, people with problems who solve them, also books with Ali Reynolds as the main character, she's an ex Los Angeles newscaster, who has relocated to Arizona. She seems to get involved in trouble and solve it, too. Great reads, our favourite is still Joanna Brady, the female sheriff and young single mom out on ranch property outside Bisbee.
No comments:
Post a Comment