Dropping like flies!

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I’ve been playing Mahjongg for a year. It takes four players although you can play with three. We have five players in our group and we recently found a sixth fill-in if we need one. If all five show up, one person sits out each game on a rotating basis.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to get three people, especially in the summer. Not only are there vacations but people schedule surgeries or procedures during the summer. People are more likely to fall and get injured. We are a “mature” group so injuries are frequent. I am the youngest and the healthiest (at least most of the time).

This week was an “off” week. One player is recovering from a joint replacement. Another is in rehab (the medical kind) after a fall. My last message from her said she was learning how to put on a bra! Two are on vacation.

This group is a great team. We whine, we support each other, and have helpful tips on who to get to do work on your house. They recalibrate our thoughts if we go off the rails and make us giggle. There are doc recommendations for everything from bone surgery to face boogers and reviews on current books and movies. It’s also an exchange on what’s going on in the neighborhood. It’s one stop shopping for information.

We have kept it simple, rotating houses. The host only has to have a table and tiles. They put out pretzels or some sort of easy snack. Everyone brings their own drink and no one dresses up (although showers are appreciated!). No work. Easy peasy.

We will be back to four people next week (hopefully) and there will be catchup to do. Maybe with chocolate-covered blueberries and pecan crunchies. The conversation will be scintillating. It’s my version of therapy or at least one of them. I count my morning mocha as therapy too. Cheaper than shrinks!

 

50 thoughts on “Dropping like flies!”

  2. It sounds like a wonderful group of women to call friends! Focusing on your game brings you all together on a regular basis and supports the bonds of friendship. I’m just a wee bit jealous, Kate. 😀 But I have never played Mahjongg. That intrigues me, too!

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  3. Sorry I was MIA but we are in the heat of our new roof construction and oh there is woe. I have been not good for nothing and I just want them to get the dang thing done. Our neighbors had the same company and it took a month and the day it was finished they asked us to watch their house. They were headed to her Mom and Dad’s to recuperate… Ha! I gave up Mahjongg until things settle down here. Hope you get caught up and back in the flow!

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    • I hate, hate, hate workers at my house. It used to be just inside but after an 8 week deck (that should have taken 2) I get really agitated just thinking about it. We need to redo our bath. Yikes!

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      • We have some damage from Hurricane Ian… Got a new garage door, needs to be installed and painted and our ceilings in the great room/gathering room need to be painted after the texture is redone in spots. Also Jerry wants to paint and put some kind of finish on the garage floor. We will have to repaint and replace some of the gutters because the roofers have torn them up. They will be paying for them. I am just so over it. I am not tackling any baths… I just can’t. Maybe next year.

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  5. Well your group sounds like a good “therapy” source as well as fun. As we get older we need “whine outlets” more than ever (or maybe WINE outlets?). Friends get us through a lot of things and also make us realize that we aren’t alone in our journey into aging…..it’s nice to know everyone is falling apart at about the same rate (!)

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Not being alone on the journey is big. Sometimes when I think I’m the only one, I find out that many of us feel the same way. Blogging is like that too. I’ll blog about something I did that was stupid and find out it’s not stupid at all. That’s what friends are for!

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  6. My neighbors aren’t friendly like that – now Marge would have been game for a card game – she was game for anything. When my grandmother came to Michigan to visit, usually a month at a time, she and my mom would always play euchre. I never played, but they always enjoyed playing. My therapy is walking and feeding the squirrels. This morning I was doing just that and a woman about my age came up to me and was giggling after I threw a peanut, hit a squirrel on the head and apologized. I turned around and said “cheap therapy: a bag of peanuts and my furry friends.” She told me it was her first time walking anywhere after she was walking on May 19th in her neighborhood with her Shih Tzu (which I had to Google to spell it) and she and her dog were attacked by two large Pit Bulls. A neighbor down the street came running out of his house when she screamed and shot one dog dead. Another neighbor shot the other dog dead. Her dog lived, but barely as it was torn up badly around the head and neck and lost a lot of blood. The woman said she was in therapy for three months. I heard that story and told her I would not be okay yet after such an ordeal and she should consider herself lucky to be alive and mentally okay – yikes!

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    • Wow, just wow! Thank God for neighbors. My last neighborhood wasn’t friendly either. We tried to have picnics or get togethers but no one reciprocated. People here don’t entertain (you get to an age and it’s a lot of work!) but they are always ready for a coffee or a walk. Or maybe a chat over an imaginary washline!

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      • Yes, I was amazed when she told me that story. She lives on the borderline of my city (Lincoln Park) and Detroit on a main street and I forgot to mention that the second person who shot the second dog was a woman, an older woman, who was a widow. Her husband bought her the gun 20 years ago when he was ill and she got her CPL license. Then he made her go to the target range and practice. She said she considered herself a sharpshooter.

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    • There wasn’t one in my last neighborhood. In fact, there wasn’t any neighborly stuff going on there at all. People here are much friendlier or maybe because we’re mostly all retired we have the time to chat.

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  11. I know you’re kidding about the scintillating conversation, but honestly it’s so hard not to step into some verbal land mines these days. Good to know there’s plenty of comfort level among all of you. – Marty

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  13. We have a tough time getting Bridge players in the summer too. Instead of multiple games and places to play during the week, there’s only one consistent group through the summer . . . and that usually only 1-2 tables.

    Like your Mahjong group, the conversation runs the gamut!

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    • So far nothing is critical although the woman who came out of rehab has fallen several times and had significant injuries. She is in her 80s. Sharp as a tact but she does dumb things (like climb ladders to clean stuff and in this case was spraying a bee’s nest). We worry about her as she lives alone.

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  17. Your group sounds like fun. Kind of like those old bridge clubs, but without the pretense. Someday I’ll learn to play mahjong and will, fingers crossed, find a group as good as yours.

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    • I’m not really a card/game player so this was a surprise to me. I only did it because I liked the person who asked and they needed another person. I promised to go to 5 games and then decide and the rest is history. It’s a challenging game with layers of strategy (at least for me).

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    • They are! I’ve been introduced to a few different snacks I’ve never had before. The chocolate covered blueberries are wonderful! They even smell like blueberries!

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  19. That sounds like a wonderful group! It really is special to be part of a group of friends that is close like that 🙂 I have a bunch of knitting friends met through our blogs and have gone to online get togethers and a few in person ones. It has meant the world to me.

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    • The first 2 or 3 times we met, the host also served drinks (water, flavored water, ice tea, etc.) but everyone has their favorite so it was easier to bring what you like instead of having a host carry a broader selection of drinks they don’t drink. I really like low maintenance.

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    • We are hoping. There will be 3 for sure. The one that had the surgery but thinks she can manage. The rehab person came home yesterday so we’ll see. She was our instructor and plays in at least 4 other groups. We are the most inexperience so she may prefer to play with one of the more challenging groups. Time will tell.

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