Carol and I attended Bronwen's concert on Sunday. She still plays clarinet in the Festival of Wind Orchestra. Katie and Billie attended too, and they were both very well behaved. Billie squeaked a couple of times, but for the most part seemed to really enjoy and get into the spirit of the music.

I hung up my crutches a few days ago, and I have now taken off the air cast. I have made a couple of quick trips to Loblaw. Everything is still tender, and I do not stand around just for the heck of it. Both feet get tired and painful quickly. It reminds me a bit of Madeline Kahn's scene from Blazing Saddles where she sings "I'm Tired". Of course she is tired for a completely different reason, and her routine is funny. My feet do not feel so funny. None the less, I am up and about and looking forward to tennis this summer. I told Carol this morning that there have many days in the last 50 years of playing tennis when my feet have felt much worse. This does not mean that I am heading to the attic soon.

While on the subject of Eugenie Bouchard - she is having a wonderful French Open and has made the semi-finals at a grand slam for the second straight time - a Canadian eh?

Head phones if you have them

Lissie was born Elisabeth Corrin Maurus, and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. Her father is a physician and her mother is an interior designer. She has some Scandinavian ancestry.

15 Feb 1953 -- 05 May 2014

This would mean that I fell at least 9 feet before coming to a complete rest.

Carol had asked that I check out the wiring for one of the central vacuum outlets that runs through the attic. Without going into all of the gory details, while moving about in the attic, I stepped back into the opening, thinking that I was putting my weight on a piece of the home's structure, only to have it collapse under my weight; turns out it was a piece of ceiling trim.

The first part of the drop was broken by my left underarm catching on a ceiling joist. I hung there for about 1 second before crashing the rest of the way to the ground, hitting each step of the near perpendicular ladder with my left foot during this part of the fall.

Although quite startled, my immediate thoughts were that quite a few things had gone right in the last few milli-seconds. A fall from 9 feet and nothing apparently punctured or broken.

My left arm was a bit scraped, I was limping a bit; all of this would heal pretty quickly. My pride was shattered though.

Today I decided that X-rays would be wise. My left foot had grown, and was so tender that it was hard to get up in the night to pee. No fractures detected, but I am now in a splint and have an appointment with an orthopaedic specialist on the 7th.

Vacuum installation guys will be here to check out the wiring on the 8th.

Arrived home April 18th about 6PM. We have been fighting with Rogers until early this morning trying to get our phone, cable and internet restored. The good news is that Katie , Jay, Bronwen and Glenn came for an overnight.

Carol had her last tennis lesson today and I wanted to get a couple of photos that I could use on the new Silver Sands website. There is a photo hanging in the clubhouse that I have admired for some time, and wanted to get for the website, but every time I tried to shoot a copy, there was too much glare from the glass. I decided that I would take my own and render it in B&W. The photo itself is not old, but the people in the photo are getting there.

For those of you who do not get photos of Billie everyday, we are sending you a video of Billie playing the piano. The witch-like cackle you hear in the background is Katie thinking that the musical gene has jumped from her to Billie. I think that there is some Dr John at work there.

Went for a little bicycle ride to La Quinta with some nice people from British Columbia. Our longest ride of the year - could not walk or sit the next day.

At the beginng of this week Estrella Cabeza Candela was ranked number 96 as a singles player. She lost in the qualifying round at Indian Wells and has dropped to number 101 in the world. She is still a hell of a tennis player. Estrella has been billeted (it is the tennis version of the "couch" tour) with one of our neighbours for the PNB tournament, and as a way of saying thanks she agreed to play a demonstration match at Silver Sands.

It has been a treat.

Bronwen and Glenn arrived last Saturday. Sunday was the Flea Market at the College of the Desert to buy inexpensive shoes followed by watching a Polo match at the Polo Fields in Indio (including picnic lunch), Monday was the fast and furious visit to Joshua Tree National Park, and Tuesday our guests left for Las Vegas for an overnight, returning Wednesday evening. Yesterday (Thursday) we visited Bill and Linda's, enjoyed Fish Tacos at Shanghi Red's, and got lost at the Palm Springs Street Fair. It is 6AM Friday and it is raining in Palm Desert. Oops, it just stopped. Oops it just started again.

Do you see the tree on the left in the photo below? That is a Date Palm. For various reasons (including, who would want a 60 foot tree leaning as the one in the photo on their front lawn?) 65 of these trees were removed from the common areas of Silver Sands in the past 18 months. You would think that you would notice it when 65 trees, each 60 feet tall, go missing. Well I didn't. Other more observant people did notice. There has been a hue and cry about replacing them. Even though I had not noticed them disappearing, I am concerned enough that I have joined the Landscape Committee for Silver Sands to determine how they should be replaced. I have volunteered to help with the recommendation for different types of palms that do not lean and do not grow to 60 feet. This will be fun and I will learn something new -- so long as no one issues me a shovel.

Where is the date palm photo?