A question I’m frequently asked by non-residents is, “What kinds of activities do you have for your residents?” Just like any other facility of this size, we have almost too many musical performances, guest speakers, and field trips. Currently, live exercise includes yoga, chair yoga, and a walking group. For us more mobile residents there’s bocce ball, shuffleboard, and chair volleyball, and talks are underway to expand into Tai Chi, strength training, and aqua fitness. We also have an assortment of exercise machines, like treadmills and various recumbent exercisers. Aside from the obvious benefits of exercise, regardless of the intensity, there is a yearly get-together of all the different Otterbeins to put their year’s training to the test in some healthy competition: the Otterbein Olympics, where residents get a chance to show off their athletic prowess and sample cuisine prepared by some of the finest chefs in Ohio and Indiana. 

Every year in late September Otterbein holds its Olympic Games. This year 14 Otterbein facilities participated in the Games at Otterbein St. Mary’s, located on the shore of beautiful Lake St. Mary’s in Western Ohio. These are no ordinary games, although there are plenty of athletic events open to all residents. What makes this event especially special (can I even say that?) is the other competition among all the chefs and their staff in what is known as the Taste of Otterbein. More on that below. For now, a few words on the sporting events.

Among the sports that all residents are encouraged to compete in are: bocce ball, shuffleboard, chair volleyball, corn hole, pickleball, and pop-a-shot (a game to see who can get the most baskets in 60 seconds). The non-participants are free to sample any or all of the delicious entrees in the Taste of Otterbein, and are certainly encouraged to cheer on their fellow residents as the latter compete. As an added bonus, Otterbein St. Mary’s provided short pontoon rides on the lake, and had vendors come in and set up axe throwing and a bungie-trampoline. Last year, there was wall climbing and a zip line, but those activities may have offered too big a challenge for us seniors, as they were not featured this year!

To give you a flavor of what the Olympics are like, I will use Otterbein Pemberville as an example. We were able to field 12 players for chair volleyball (two teams), and we were more than ready to take home some medals, as we had been practicing for three or four months, sometimes three times a week. But, here’s the deal. The 12 volleyball players are among our best and most agile athletes, which means a good number of them signed up to participate in several other sports as well. You can imagine what a scheduling nightmare that is! The two shuffleboard teams we entered had three of their members on the two volleyball teams, which made it nearly impossible to compete in both events. Somehow it all worked out, and we took home six medals, plus a silver medal for the baking competition and a blue ribbon for wood carving. We may not have set a record for most medals, but our practice and discipline paid off handsomely in the way we competed, thus giving us a boost in self-esteem in games well played.

Sadly, this year Otterbeing Pemberville took home only one medal in the Taste of Otterbein competition, a bronze for creativity. We hope to do better next year in that event. But winning or losing were not ever important to us. The sports brought us residents much closer together, laughing, competing, and never criticizing other players. As an exercise and team-building activity, the low-impact varieties we play at Otterbein, provide the most bang for the buck, especially as they all have very minimal start-up expenses, and can be played almost anywhere and at any time.

I gotta say, I didn’t see this one coming! When we lived in a house in a nearby town, we would get maybe 50 or 60 trick-or-treaters on a Halloween on a good, warm night. If it rained, perhaps 20 kids maximum. Here at Otterbein, there are no children, so we didn’t expect any visitors to show up.

I heard rumblings of plans for the villa courts, and now recall that somewhere a message was seen or heard that residents would not have to buy their own candy, that Otterbein would provide it. But nothing popped up on my radar to move me to action. I imagined a few residents dressing up and giving each other treats. Boy, was I wrong!

The old Boy Scout in me told me to do something, even though I doubted anything needed to be done. We had a flyer from the Big House that told us something vaguely like, “It’s going to be from 4:30 to 6:00.” What “it” was, well, I hadn’t a clue. However, I went to the local store at 2:00 and bought six bags of miniature candy bars. Not very large bags, and even at that, I imagined we’d be eating candy all winter until the chocolate got that white sheen on it that tells you it’s time to toss it out.

Our neighbors, who had moved into Otterbein in November last year were equally clueless and poo-pood my purchase as unnecessary.

Well, I should have guessed what was coming. Otterbein is not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but, as some pundit once quipped, you can see nowhere from your front porch. Houses out here are so far apart that trick-or-treaters would be lucky to score two candy bars before being run off the highway by all the trucks carrying the soybeans that are being harvested right now.

The onslaught started right at 4:30. By 5:00 we were completely out of candy, and the main body of marauding children was still two courts away and advancing rapidly. The staff in the Marketing office had been by at about 4:20 to offer us candy, but we had no idea at that time what was coming and politely turned them down. They were off elsewhere on campus when we ran out.

We had no choice but to retreat to our villa and pull the blinds! Talk about feeling cheap!

So, here’s the lesson learned… Otterbein is a gold mine for the kids. It’s safe, with plenty of parking for families bringing their little gremlins, there’s absolutely no speeding traffic, and certainly no trucks hauling soybeans to the elevators. The residents in the villas (I can’t speak for the apartments) were only too happy to pass out handfuls of candy to the waiting containers, and the children were only too eager to show off their costumes, most of which were assembled with painstaking care and pride.

And Kiki had a ball. She had been petted and fussed over to the point of collapsing. She put herself to bed at 8:00 and is snoring as I write this. Everyone had a fantastic time. Next year, I WILL be prepared!

“As a rule, man is a fool. When it’s hot, he wants it cool; When its cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting, what is not.”

-Benjamin Disraeli

Our friend coined the word “villenvy” from “villa envy”. We all have some upgrades in our villa that the others don’t have. For instance: cathedral ceilings, wall air conditioners (even though we all have central air), a custom sunroom built by a resident. You have to be very careful that you don’t succumb to the “grass is greener” thoughts. This is where it can lead you…to the point where we actually inquired about moving to a larger villa. We could do that for $30,000 and $6.000 more a year in rent. Really? Have we become that berserk? I suddenly realized we could buy new furniture and rearrange our present villa for a lot less and still come out ahead. Plus I think another move would kill me. I have cleaned for weeks, Harvey has planted a hosta garden and improved the landscaping in the entire front yard. Our granddaughter had a saying when she was a toddler: “You get what you get, so don’t throw a fit!” As my neurologist once told our doctor friend: “Keep your mouth shut and put your money under your mattress.” Now……let’s go furniture shopping.