Learning the ropes....

 8:37 am - Friday - May 16th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 47%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Durango, CO.....

Thursday I had to surrender and give my knee a day to calm down.  I've got 2 weeks until my appointment at Great Basin Orthopedics where I hope to get my second cortisone shot in as many years, so I need to pace myself so I can at least do my job with as little discomfort as possible.  That will mean resting my knee on each four day weekend between now and May 29th.

Our last shopping foray into Alturas was last Wednesday, so it was time to replenish our produce stocks, and pickup a few things at ACE Hardware.  Thursday was also the first round of the PGA Championship Tournament being held at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The PGA is one of the four major golf championships held each year (The Masters, The PGA, The U.S. Open and The Open) where all the great golfers in the world come together to see who will pass the test.

We left for Alturas around 10 am making stops at ACE Hardware, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market before making the return drive to LPG&RVR.  We arrived home, without incident, around 12:3o pm.

It's been over 7 months since we last had all of our rope lights deployed, so I spent part of the afternoon rolling them out, and connecting them to an ON/OFF timer in the Newell electrical bay.....

You can just see the beginning of the white string of rope lights in the background of this picture

.....we have a shorter blue rope light string that I run along the passenger side of the coach, and a longer red rope light string we run around the border of the 'lido deck', which is proscribed by the scalloped cut of the artificial turf.  We have another very long white rope light string that runs from the right rear corner of the Newell back along the passenger side of the trailer, around its back then back along the driver side of the trailer and Newell.  The final string of white rope lights runs under the VW Beetle to discourage pack rats from taking up residency in the engine bay.  This is not a difficult task, but takes time.  Once that was finished, and I had turned on the power to be sure they all worked (they did), I took the rest of the day off to rest, and watch the PGA.

I alternated between icing my knee, and applying heat via heating pad for the rest of the afternoon and evening, and by the time I went to bed my knee was feeling much better.  I'll do some more of that on Friday while watching The PGA, and then head back to work Saturday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

Where did my swing go?

 8:06 am - Thursday - May 15th - LPG&RVR - 43° F, humidity 40%, wind 13 mph out of the north by northwest.....high clouds today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2015 we got a few inches of snow at Tahoe Valley Campground....

As you know I've had issues with my right knee for about a year now.  As Dr. Fyda (orthopedist) told me last summer, the problem with my knee is my age.  I've got a little arthritis in there accompanied by some 'bone on bone' due to loss of cartilage which causes a lot of stiffness, and loss of range of motion.  I do daily exercises to counteract some of what is going on in there.  Last year I received a cortisone shot to reduce the pain, and swelling, and it worked.  In fact that pain did not return until mid April at TWW.  Since then there have been good days, and bad days, and Wednesday was a bad day.  Nevertheless, I did my knee exercises, then did our 2 mile out and back walk with TLE.  My knee was barking the entire time, but by the time we returned it had quieted down, and I was walking mostly without pain....

.....it was another mostly cloudy day with a slight breeze out of the west.  In spite of my discomfort we managed a respectable 3.2 mph covering the 2 miles in just over 37 minutes....

....once we were back I puttered around in the trailer repairing a bungee cord we use on the sun screen, and finally plugged in my bench grinder, after bolting it to the Black and Decker Workmate.  I've had the Workmate since 1979, and am amazed at what good condition it is in after 46 years.  If only my right knee had weathered those years as well....lol.

I finally headed over to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls with my Callaway driver.  I haven't swung that driver in 7 months, and was concerned with how well I would do.  Well, a 7 month layoff in any sport is not good, and really not good when the sport is golf.  I'm not sure how many balls I hit, but maybe 1/3 of them were shots with which I would have been happy out on the golf course....the rest were terrible.  Oh well, it's only the first day, and I'll go out and hit more on Thursday and Friday to see if I can round into shape my swing from last year.  You will recall that on one of my last days of work last October I went out to play 9 holes after work, and shot one of my best 9 hole scores of the summer.  I wrote about round that here.  Now I feel like I'm starting all over again.  As my good friend Charles Wilson says....."It is what it is", and it certainly is.

While I was searching for my 'swing' at the driving range TLE was doing a little gardening.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but she planted some more wildflower seeds in our three flower beds after our trip to Alturas last week, so we'll be having a new crop of flowers in about a month.  As the afternoon progressed the sun made an appearance for the first time in a number of days, and things warmed up considerably.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Burning daylight....

 8:16 am - Wednesday - May 14th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 72%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 61° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were enjoying a flight of brews at Cold Water Brewing and Grill in South Lake Tahoe, CA.....

'Sleeping in' after four consecutive days of breaking slumber at 5:30 am to go to work is one of my favorite things......now.  There was a time in my life when being in bed after the sun rose was unthinkable.  I referred to it as 'burning daylight'.  Right now the sun rises at 5:47 am each day, and still being in bed at 7:30 am on a weekend would have been unthinkable 14 years ago.  Of course, that was during my workaday life, which after 14 years of retirement seems like someone else's life now.  Nevertheless, daylight was precious back then because there was so much to be accomplished during the short 48 hour interval in between work weeks called 'the weekend'.  One of the alluring qualities about working here at LPG&RVR is that the work week is the same length as the 'weekend'.....four days working, and four days NOT working.  By the time each of our four day weekends comes to an end at the end of each 8 day cycle we are both ready to go back to work.   This morning, Wednesday, TLE and I didn't get up until 7:45 am....we burned 2 hours of daylight....how delightful....lol!

Much like Monday, Tuesday was a cold, blustery, rainy, winterlike day.  Our custom here at LPG&RVR is to do our two mile out and back walk on our days not working, but every time one of us would suggest taking that walk the rain would begin to make its presence known with its 'pitter patter' on our riveted aircraft aluminum roof.  Finally around noon time it appeared we had a window of an hour, or so without rain, so we quickly got dressed, and began our walk.  Within two minutes snow began to fall around us.  Well, that was enough for TLE as she pirouetted in mid stride whilst announcing her intent to return to the warm confines of the Newell.  In turn I replied that I would see her when I returned from walk in about 35 minutes.

On this particular day my right knee was feeling pretty good, and I was able to set a pretty fast pace....

All by myself

.....as I made the turn around at the one mile mark I checked my STRAVA program, and saw that I was averaging 3.4 mph for the first mile....the fastest pace I've set walking in quite some time.  Thankfully the snow only lasted for about 30 seconds after TLE's abrupt departure, and I was able to continue that brisk pace until the 2 mile mark.  The elapsed moving time for the 2 miles was 35 minutes and 13 seconds, so my prophecy of seeing TLE in 35 minutes was more than mere bluster.....lol.

I spent the balance of the day inside the Newell with TLE staying warm, occasionally napping, and watching the YouTube channels to which I subscribe.  I've gotten way behind, so it has been nice the past couple of days getting current.  One channel I've begun to follow in the past week is 'The Repair Shop', and British production, and it is quite good.  Check it out.

We had the front curtains in the salon open all day, and that view makes me happy every day....

....what a beautiful place in which we live!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain day.....

 7:55 am - Tuesday - May 13th - LPG&RVR - 37° F, humidity 93%, wind 6 mph out of the northwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 50° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were crossing the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.....

....heading west on I-80 in our Newell.

It was unlikely I would work more than a few hours Monday as the weather guessers were guessing that it would be raining on and off most of the day, and with temps in the mid 40's I doubted many would be golfing.  In fact, only 4 people braved the elements Monday.  TLE and I were at the Clubhouse by our usual 7:30 am, and it was drizzling.  I didn't stage any golf carts at all Monday.  The aforementioned golfers didn't go out until around noontime, so TLE just gave them keys to the Yamahas parked near the front of the cart shed.

I finally headed for the Newell around 9:30 am since there was nothing to be done on such a blustery, wet, cold May day, but returned at 12 pm to give TLE her lunch break.  The Clubhouse was like a ghost town when I arrived, but finally about 12:30 pm a few people began to trickle in for lunch.  TLE was back promptly at 1 pm, and I again headed back to the warm confines of the Newell for the balance of the afternoon.

All afternoon the rain came and went, as I took a couple of naps, and caught up on some of my YouTube channel subscriptions.  Once again, around 4:45 pm, I returned to the Clubhouse to clean the two rented golf carts, stow them, and pickup TLE so we could begin our four day weekend.  The weather forecast is for more cold, cloudy, rainy weather throughout this week, and weekend, but it appears we will begin to get clearing skies, and temps back into the 70's by the middle of next week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mothers Day!

 5:46 am - Monday - May 12th - LPG&RVR - 38° F, humidity 62%, wind 19 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy with rain in the forecast later this morning, and a forecast high for the day of 45° F.  On this date in 2018 we arrived at Smuggler's Den in Southwest Harbor, ME....

.....little did we know at the time that we would not make it to the end of the summer working there.

After a couple of days in the low 80's we returned to the low 70's on Sunday, and that was nice, but we also got ferocious winds well over 20 mph, with gusts into the 40's.  Not a great day for golf, but we did, nevertheless, rent 12 golf carts.....not a lot compared to Saturday, but considering how windy it was, not a bad day.  

We resell used golf balls we find around the course in our Clubhouse Pro-Shop, and in keepign with that Jose delivered a large box of perhaps 300 balls a few days ago to be cleaned for resale, so I worked on that project for much of the morning, and into the afternoon.  I had considered doing more mowing, and trimming, but we avoid doing any of that on the weekends to give our customers as much quiet as possible for the few days they are here.

I gave TLE her lunch break at 11:30 am instead of the usual 12 pm as it was very unbusy in the office, but she was expecting a large group to begin arriving early afternoon for a week long stay, so she wanted to spare me having to deal with that, which I appreciated.  I can handle most things that come up in the office, but I am not nearly as proficient at it a she is, so I accepted her offer.

The restaurant was very busy for a Sunday, and that was because of the wind.  I'm sure folks were looking to get out of the wind for a little while, and enjoy some good food.  By the way, Kathy, who ran the restaurant for the past number of years, retired at the end of last summer, so we have a new cook, John, who is doing a pretty good job so far.  In fact, we actually have two cooks, as well as several servers this year.

After lunch I spent some time making small repairs to a few of the windshields on the Yamaha gasser golf carts.  The hinges on them are failing, and needed a little reinforcement so they continue to fold down as they should.  The rest of the afternoon was filled with washing and stowing returning carts, and by 3:30 pm (quitting time for me) they were all back in the cart shed for the night.

I returned to the Clubhouse just before 5 pm to retrieve TLE, and ferry her home.  This week Monday will be our 'Friday'.  It always amazes me how fast our four day work week goes.  As I sit here composing today's offering I can see the clouds moving into the Pit River Valley, and with them will come the forecast rain.

In closing I would like to thank all the mothers in my life who are raising the next generation of Hockwald's......Rochelle, Kate, Sharon, and Laila, but most of all The Lovely Elaine who raised five children to majority, all of whom are amazing, productive people.  By this August we will welcoming into the world our 10th grand child, so life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

Close, but no cigar.....

 5:53 am - Sunday - May 11th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 51%, wind 6.9 mph out of the south by southwest....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were visiting the 'Valley of the Gods' near Goosenecks State Park in Southern Utah....

....with Glenn and Laureen during the Wuhan Flu scare.

Saturday was our biggest cart rental day of the season so far with 24 carts being deployed.  LPG&RVR was also hosting their annual 'Two Man Scramble' which used 8 of those 24 carts (there were 14 couples in all, six of whom had their own carts.  Needless to say I was busy staging carts, and then washing them as they returned throughout the afternoon.  In between all of that I did some a lot of mowing, and string trimming around the RV park.  It was also close to 81° F, which seems hot when you've been living in temps ranging from 50-70° F for the past few weeks.  Anyway, by 1 pm, just after TLE's lunch break, I had exchanged my long pants, and long sleeve shirt for shorts, and a t-shirt. Since I worked overtime on Friday I decided to clockout around 3 pm....there were still 6 golf carts out on the course, but I had cleaned and stowed 18.  I went home to clean up, and take a nap, then returned for the weekly putting contest at 4 pm.

As the putting contest began I had no expectations as I had not done very well last Saturday, but then I surprised myself by easily winning my first round, then winning 3-0 against my nemesis Greg Plumlee (the putting champ the past two years), whom I had never beaten in 6 previous attempts.  I won the next two rounds and found myself in the semi final round.  Through the previous four rounds I had made second putts consistently in the 3-6 foot range, but suddenly in the 5th round I was missing much shorter putts...doh!  Anyway, I came in third (tied for 3rd) out of 28 contestants, and out of the money, but was greatly encouraged by my improvement over last week.  That's the best I've done this early in the season going back 3 years.

By the time I the putting contest was over it was after 5 pm, and TLE was counting out her money drawer so I drove down to the 'Night Office' to flip the sign, and post the site availability for anyone arriving after 5 pm.  By the time I returned she had closed the office, and we were on our way home by 5:30 pm.  Two more days, and we are into our four day weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Straight forward.....

 5:46 am - Saturday - May 10th - LPG&RVR - 38° F, humidity 72%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were on a commuter train on our way into Boston for the day....

The first day back at work I usually spend more time than usual staging our golf carts in numerical order as whoever works opposite me, at least for the prior 3 years, does not put them away in a manner that makes it easy to do so.  TLE likes them in numerical order (lowest number to highest number), and so do I.  TLE shares the office job with Kathy, who doesn't care if the carts are in any particular order.....she just wants to now what carts are staged.  It's not a good, or bad thing, it just is what it is.  Once that is done the following three mornings are a breeze for me.

Each year the owners buy 8 new American flags which are installed at the entrance to the park (4), and by the restrooms (4), and the past four seasons it has fallen to me to remove the old, weathered flags from from the flag poles  from the prior summer with the new, fresh ones, and that is what I did Friday morning.  I had enough time to do the 4 flags at the restrooms, and will do the four for the entrance on Saturday, or Sunday.

I haven' been able to make a round of the course mowing around the tee boxes for which I am responsible this season yet, so around 10:45 I set set out on the Husqvarna 2 bag machine to mow around #3, #10, #15, #16, #17 and #18.  My intention was to get them all done by lunch time, but the grass was pretty long at the #3 tee boxes, and at #15 (blue tee) so by the time I finished with the tee boxes at #16 it was almost 12 pm, so I headed for the Clubhouse to give TLE her lunch break.  I'll have to finish 10, 17 and 18 in the next few days.

By the time TLE returned from lunch I had four golf carts to wash, and stow, so I got busy.  In all we rented 15 golf carts Friday, and the golfers continued returning them one, or two at a time all the way to 3:30 pm, so I never left the 'Cart Return' area.  By the time I was done stowing the final cart it was 4 pm, and well past quitting time, so I headed for home for an hour before returning to retrieve TLE at 5 pm.  It was a pretty straight forward, laid back day for me, but a very busy one for TLE in the office.  It is beginning to get busy here at LPG&RVR.

Thanks for stopping by!