Michael left for golf on Monday (5/20) coming home later with an 87 that he wasn’t very happy about.  I spent a couple of hours on the internet before heading to my volunteer meeting at 10:30.   It was a contentious meeting….not with the participants, but in discussing what is happening with our management company.  As volunteers, this is something we have been fighting for 6 years and we are tired of it.  We run 5 major drives per year.  For each of these drives, we collect….something!  Either food or school supplies or Angel Tree…whatever.  In the beginning we had big cardboard boxes for people to put their donations in….the HOA staff didn’t like that….didn’t look good enough….so we decorated the boxes….still not good enough….so we bought 2 nice plastic bins.  Well this year….without even consulting us to see what we needed, or even mentioning it to us, they commissioned a wooden collection thing for us…and decided it would live outside of the Lake House.  We got wind of it and talked to them and said ‘NO!  Our stuff is not going to live outside.  We collect food, we collect paper (which would get damp and soggy), not to mention it would be easy for Angel Tree gifts to just walk off!’  So, we go up yesterday and there is a truly ugly piece of wood cabinet sitting outside.  We ignore it and put out our bins.  Within 1/2 an hour, our bins are gone and ugly piece of wood sitting hidden in lobby.  Rose (president of club) and I go up STEAMING MAD to talk to them.  Rose mentions that the home owners OWN the Lake House and that the HOA is managing it for us….WE are the customers.  Rose is generally so soft spoken and mild mannered…but she was MAD!  Anyway, for the moment, we have our bins back…but we are TIRED of this fight! 

Anyway, the rest of the afternoon and evening is spent knitting and sewing.  I think I have about 15 more squares to complete and then the squares for Anne’s quilt will be done.