• Sky Mountain Golf Course, Hurricane, UT

  • Maureen O’Shea at Torrey Pines

I need to give you the lowdown on this fantastic structure.

‘The shiny, new Las Vegas Sphere is more than just a 17,600-seat amphitheater-style venue. The entertainment experience venue now dotting the Strip has already picked up a handful of superlatives, too. Since its opening it’s become the world’s largest spherical structure at 516 feet wide and 366 feet tall. Meanwhile, the seating bowl’s 160,000-square-foot spherical LED “immersive surface” lights up at full 16K resolution, making it the highest-resolution LED screen on Earth. To add another wrinkle, the world’s largest beamforming audio system—think headphone-style sound without the headphones—tucks behind the immersive surface for a fully customized experience. And experience is the key. The Sphere’s three world firsts for shape, sight, and sound craft a fresh entertainment experience, one that has taken at least 60 patents to produce (though leaders have filed other patents throughout the course of the project, and expect to surpass the 100-patent mark).” -Popular Mechanics)

Sunday morning around 11 a.m. Lisa asked me if I would be interested in seeing The Wizard Of Oz at the Sphere. Of course I said yes! In no time Lisa determined that there was a matinee at 2 o’clock. She was able to find seat #13 and #14 row 27 and one seat #13 in row 26; tickets for Lisa, Tracy and me.

Lisa and Tracy had been to the Sphere once before and knew that parking was definitely a problem. Expect to park blocks away and take the monorail to get close; walking for quite some distance to the entrance of the Sphere would follow. We decided (in fact it was a no-brainer!)to take a Lyft ride.
We arrived at the Sphere with enough time to take the elevator to the top floor to see the view from there.

Entering the performance space, the seating is quite steep as are the stairs, so I was very careful to hold the railing.

The adaptation of the movie “The Wizard Of Oz” to fit the Sphere cost over $1.8 billion and it is totally amazing. You feel like you are right in the movie — you feel that close. The sound is unbelievably perfect. The seats are programmed to the show and shook with the tornado storm!

The Amphitheatre dome is so engulfing it is hard to describe. You feel like you are suspended in space and the horizon is so close you’re tempted to reach out and touch it.
It was windy many times and rain drops fell as well as confetti leaves. One scene when it snowed tiny flakes landed on my cheek. Not to be forgotten there was thunder and lightening in one storm where the whole seat was shaking!

When you have a chance to see your favorite entertainer here, I recommend you get the tickets and go. You will be just as thrilled as I was.
Enjoy our photos below.


Ttyl

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On April 24, 2025 I received an invitation to the 90+ Complimentary Honorary Luncheon May 8, 2025.  

I was quite curious as to how many members of the club would be over 90 years of age and who would be attending this luncheon. I became a member in the summer last year and apparently they have this luncheon every May and of course I wasn’t a member last May.   I should’ve realized it was open to all members to attend and congratulate all the Honorary members.  And it was the first luncheon in the spring, and everyone was to see their friends after a long winter.

I looked around the room of about 50 people and in the first row I saw a smiling face and immediately asked if I could sit in that row. It was Connie and she said the seat next to her was taken, but there was a space across the table which I immediately selected.

Connie

In no time the lunch of chicken pot pie and green salad with bites of apple was served by many volunteers. They not only brought our food, but came back to take away our plates and bring us the chocolate cake.  Everything was delicious

After lunch, the Prairie Mountain Fiddlers entertain us starting with a dance called the “schottische”. This brought back memories of my cousin Colleen and myself learning how to do this dance in my home living room. This dance is more like skipping, twisting and twirling. However, there were several couples who could do this dance and did it with us cheering them on.  

The band was very good and played a  lot of songs I knew from in the 1940’s.

Prairie Mountain Fiddlers

There were 23 of us in the 90+ age group in attendance. You can see that some had left before the photo below was taken.

The 90+ group of the day

All the activities at Good Companions Club are organized by Shauna. This gal is one of a kind. She is up beat and considerate. She treats everyone member as though they are the most important person in this moment. Her enthusiasm is mirrored in the many member volunteers behind every activity. We are so lucky to have Shauna at the club.

Shauna.

And here she is with me.

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For those of you who truly love golf I don’t need to explain how we went golfing that Saturday at 1 p.m. For everyone else, I’m sure you would think we were crazy. It is late October and you can already see the snow to the west in the Rocky Mountains. And the forecast was for wind from the west as well at approximately 20 kms. The golf course is closing for the winter. Sunday will be the last day to golf till spring.

My daughter Bridget made the booking a few days earlier and really didn’t think it would be warm enough for us to play with a possible high of 9°C. Then by 11:30 a.m. the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Bridget called me and said “Let’s go golfing Mom. I’ll pick you up shortly.” In 15 minutes we were at the golf course. Wehit a few balls on the range before our tee time.

On the first hole the wind was at our backs and both of us hit our drives long and straight. I was on the green in two shots and made a Par. Bridget had a Bogey

Bridget said, “Maybe, Mom, just maybe, today is the day l can score less than you”.

Bridget regularly out drives me on every hole. Hole #2 she said that she really loses her”tempo” and misses her shots. Well she ended up with a bogey and I had a double bogey..

The wind came up and was quite strong from the west. We both had a few problems, keeping the ball on the fairway and/or on the proper hole.

After nine holes I told Bridget that she had to play better on the back because she needed to make up more than seven shots.

River Spirit Golf Course, the Birch trees on #8 Millburn Nine

We were joined on the back nine by a man and his son. They were very nice people and good golfers. It turns out that the son had gone to Luther College in Regina, Saskatchewan the same time Bridget was going to Notre Dame College at Wilcox, Saskatchewan. They knew many of the same people so they had lots of conversation at the tee boxes.

On the back nine would you believe Bridget and I had identical total score with only a few holes that were different. We both scored 39 and if it wasn’t for that few holes on the front nine, Bridget probably would have scored less than I did. Maureen 79, Bridget 86

Fast forward to May 29., 2024. We played at River Spirit again. Bridget was the winner on this day by 11 strokes. Maureen 97, Bridget 86 .`

“

Great memories. Bridget is so much fun to golf with. She doesn’t take the game too seriously but tries to get better every time she golfs. Like most of us we need to polish up our short game.

Bridget and Maureen June 8, 2017 Pinebrook, Calgary

Ttyl

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