Enjoying the Splash Party

The Splash Party is a get together for its members, put on by the Austin Pond Society and held one week before the actual Pond Tour. As well as celebrating together with food and margaritas, the necessary business of handing out signs and tee shirts to owners and volunteers alike is also combined at the same time.

I have no idea if years ago, the then powers in charge decided that a party was a great idea or that  it was the only way to get all of the owners on the tour together in one place for their respective signage and welcome package. Whatever the outcome way back then, it has turned into a wonderful way to bring together the Pond enthusiasts and their friends including all of the volunteers without whom, the tour could not happen.

This year, the party was hosted by Jeannie and Steven Ferrier and they did a bang up job with lots to eat and drink in very nice surroundings.  Their yard was in tip-top condition with many wonderful plants that by themselves led to many discussions.  Their pond is located right next to their swimming pool on a raised area in one corner of the yard which also has a large patio with lots of seating. A very pleasant arrangement indeed and ideal for large parties.

I thought I would get there early as the party was only a short distance from my house  but when I arrived, the party was in full swing with many members having already arrived before me. I wandered over to the building in the corner where B.J. , Glen and Darren were hard at work handing out directional signs, and packages containing a tee-shirt and several other goodies including a ceramic candle holder, as a memento for showing the ponds on the tour. There was a steady stream of people with most of them staying to sample the food and drinks and join in the conversation. True to form, I stayed with bottled water which for me, has now become a pretty standard beverage of choice on these sort of occasions.

I wandered around and mixed and mingled a bit although I confess to not being very good at it. If it is a new person that I just met, I quickly run out of things to say although I did have an interesting fifteen minute conversation with a young and very tall man who during the conversation, informed me that he was an airline pilot for one of the freight companies. That opened up a whole new field of discussion which I found to be very interesting and I confess to bending his ear for some time. I forgot to mention that another old age failing that many of us can relate to is the inability of the short-term memory to remember a person’s name. I swear that as soon as someone introduces themselves and mentions their name, my mind has gone somewhere else and it never gets into my memory. Doesn’t matter what I try, it’s a real problem for me and can be embarrassing when I want to get someones attention.  I usually end up with a “Hey you…” or I just talk into space in the hope that the other person is paying attention. Yet, I can remember the names of people who I grew up with many years ago. Humans are such a contradiction…

I seemed to have an attraction to tall people that evening as I also had an extensive conversation with a young lady who was also much taller than I. Of course, it doesn’t take a heck of lot to be taller than me and it’s hard to believe that I played as soccer goalkeeper for more than twenty years in my younger days all the way up until I was seventy-two then I had to give it up as my vertical leap was probably about 3 inches and the high shots were beating me. My team decided I was a liability to them and even though I was still good at the ground shots, it didn’t take much to beat me in the air and they just hated to lose so I retired from playing. The lady in question was very interesting and I had the pleasure of meeting her again when she visited my ponds on the tour.

I wandered around with both of my cameras in hand and took as many shots as I could. The videos were a flop and I need to work on that aspect of my blogging. Probably would help if I used the camera stand instead of just pointing the video camera as some of the shots require a lot of editing. I seem to have a lot of pictures of the ground and sky or of the trees and not too many of the subject. You get the picture.

Enjoy the video.