Category Archives: Jojoba Hills

Jojoba Hills, Paul Goldberg Blog

and Life Goes On

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The time just keeps galloping along. Being on the Jojoba Hills SKP Resort Board of Directors as the Treasurer has filled a lot of my time. We are meeting twice a month and deadlines for motions and proposals is 5 days before. These deadlines are creating a flurry of emails, many requiring a response until the deadline is past. Some people in the park seek me out to influence how I will respond to proposals. This is to be expected, but each interaction requires time and thoughtful choice of words. This is not a complaint, I am enjoying all of it. 

I just came back from giving a tour of the park. It lasted 4 hours. The “Tour” is an opportunity to present the park to prospective members and to encourage, or in a limited number of cases to discourage, their getting on the waitlist. Encourage can take from 2 1/2 hours to 4 (apparently). The other is 45  minutes, barely enough to drive around the park and point out what there is. A tour by an “official” tour guide is required to even get on the waitlist. 

The community is very warm and friendly. Everyone we pass recognizes me in the tour cart and will stop us to introduce themselves and welcome the visitors. Several people have interesting stories to tell and particularly if the are Founders or just very long time in the park I will encourage them (as if they need any encouragement) to tell a bit of their story of joining the park, or helping to build it. On a warm sunny day with many people moving about, this adds to the tour time. 

I am busy, fulfilled and having a grand time.

 

Jojoba Hills, opinion

Onward into the Future

Okay, so the title is a bit pompous. It’s after 10 PM and I shouldn’t be starting this now but I am and I will likely not finish before tomorrow. 

We ended 2021 with a bang and I hope not a super spreader event. We gathered about 150 of our masked and vaccinated members in Friendship Hall for an incredible dinner and great dancing until midnight – New York time that is. So many of us volunteered in the serving that it would be best to say the community did the work. Our team of volunteer retired professional chefs and their helpers prepared a meal of salmon, beef, potatoes and asparagus that was pleasing to the eye and the palate and the veggie offering was also excellent. 

The band started as the main meal service ended and Carol and I were on the dance floor for most of the numbers.

Things did get a bit silly when Georgia requested the Bunny Hop and many of us dug into childhood memories and joined in. 

We slept in and then after weekly chores tried to decide what to do with this unplanned day with gorgeous sun and a heat wave, temps were headed into the mid 50s. Are we really in southern California? We decided to take a ride. Do we turn left or right, North or South? There are some roads off of CA 79 that we have not explored, so we decided to see what we could see. An abandoned Buddhist Retreat Center for one, camels in a farm yard for another. We didn’t take pictures of either since the grounds of the retreat center were fenced off and the camels were behind a high chain link fence. 

Eventually we found our way to Borrego Springs where there was a musical event in the Christmas Circle – that’s a place not an event.  We couldn’t stay long because the singer was so off pitch it was painful. We swung by a couple of our favorite boondock places just to see  if they were occupied and I turned the wheel over to Carol for the return. 

This evening I finished reading “Israel a Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth” by Noa Tishby. She spoke at a Jewish Federation event in Rochester and they kindly sent me the book. I would like to have everyone I know read it! Other than her own story I did not learn anything I haven’t known for many years. I take that back. I did not know how the BDS movement was funded. Instead of  many small contributions it is funded from a large Arab organization in the US . It derives its ideas from the Arab Boycott of Israel that predates the creation of the state by the UN in 1947. 

Back to the super spreader New Years Eve party. It is happening. After 2 years of very few cases in the park, we are aware of several cases among our staff and a growing number among our members. All large gatherings have gone back to Zoom for the time being. Neither Carol nor I are showing any symptoms and to the best of our knowledge our table was not among the source of the infections.

Jojoba Hills, Paul Goldberg Blog

In Jojoba Hills SKP Resort

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I see I left my “story” in Tucson 3 weeks ago. The remaining drive to Jojoba Hills was uneventful arriving with a full tank of propane and 3/4 tank of diesel fuel and likely to remain so for the next few months. 

With me on the ground providing guidance and Carol at the wheel we backed the coach into place in a single smooth move. It took us a few years to actually figure out the best way to do that. There is an allowance of about 6 inches for easily spotting the coach. Opening the door stops about an inch short of hitting the front column of our awning, as planned.

Enough about trivia. I’ve been working with the Finance Committee on getting the budget prepared for the coming year. It will be presented for approval at the annual meeting where I will be elected to the board of directors for a three year sentence. . . er term. Given my long term activity on the Finance Committee I, expect to be asked to serve as Treasurer. Something to keep me away from the Bridge Table. Our budget is over $1,000,000 with a substantial Reserve Fund so the responsibility is not trivial. Fortunately the Finance Committee does the bulk of the grunt work with the numbers. 

Carol has opened her mouth a couple of times about the condition of one of our public spaces. I will leave it up to her to tell the gory details, but this job makes the work on the Boondock bathhouse look like practice for the big time.  At least she will stop pestering me about what she will do for volunteering. At the moment she is in the Mailroom helping to distribute the incoming mail into our mail boxes. This is no minor job 2 days before Christmas. 

We have no travel planned as of now unless you count our trip to Sicily which has now been pushed out to August. There are friends to visit in Palm Springs area, a relatively short drive away and lots to do in the area. I went to the card room and there were no other Bridge players present. It is chill and raining and many are out of the park for the holiday. 

Tomorrow we are going into town with friends for Chinese food. They’re not even Jewish and I am not sure they get the significance. For a long version of the story read this with acknowledgment to my brother-in-law David Coen who sent it on to me.