This is the life....

7:40 am - Friday - May 31st - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 44%, wind 1 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2014 I was riding a section of the 'Flume Trail' in South Lake Tahoe....at one point the trail overlooks the iconic Sand Harbor some 1,300 feet below......

I was riding the 'Flume Trail' with friends Mark and Michelle

As I begin to record the events of Thursday (yesterday) it occurs to me that tomorrow, June 1st, we begin our 147 month of nomadic life....that's over 12 years of traveling, and over 159 months of living in the Newell full time.  It does not feel that long to me, but we are so far removed now from our former sticks and bricks workaday lives that it feels like we have always lived this way.  While we are both aging, now well into our 70's, we both still feel young, healthy, and vibrant.  Our lives are no longer filled with the stress of living in a congested urban sprawl, crawling along at a snail's pace on over crowded freeways, wasting hours of our precious lives sitting in a car wishing we were somewhere else.  Well, now we are somewhere else....in RURAL America where there are no traffic jams, and rarely, if ever, is a siren of any kind (police, fire, ambulance) heard.  Just the sounds of nature.....the wind, rain, coyotes, birds, cows, and muted conversations of neighbors enjoying the great outdoors...this is the life!

While today is real Friday, Thursday was OUR figurative Friday this week.  It never seems like I have worked 4 days here at LPG&RVR.  The days fly by so quickly, and now I find myself sitting here at my laptop on Friday, the first day of our four day 'weekend', leisurely writing about the final day of the past four days of work.

Before making my first round of the golf course I staged 10 golf carts (5 electrics, and 5 gassers).  Some readers might wonder why we only stage 5 electric carts.  Well, that is because we only have 5 electric carts.  With new batteries these Club Car electrics can run for around 45 holes before they MUST be recharged.  The Yamaha gassers, of which we have 10 (1 is on the disabled list right now), can go for 90 holes on one tank of gasoline, which is around 3-4 gallons.  After three years of use we had to replace the batteries in the electrics at a cost of $1800 per cart, or $9,000 plus tax.  We paid around $50,000 for those five carts originally, so now we're close to $60,000 invested in 5 golf carts.  The 10 Yamahas cost us $4,000 each (used) in 2022, and other than changing the oil, and filling them with gasoline once a week, that has been the total expense.  The gassers are just more practical, and cost effective for a small operation like LPG&RVR.

I headed out to do my first round of the course around 8:30 am....it was a beautiful day in our neighborhood....

.....the goose/duck leavings report is as follows.....a lot on the blue tee box, and a moderate amount on the two white tee boxes.  Three of the four sand traps needed raking, including #18, below......

....the four sand traps (4, 12, 15 & 18) rarely come into play, so I only rake them when there has been obvious human activity in them.

By the time I returned to the Clubhouse 8 of the original 10 carts had been rented, so I staged the rest of the Yamahas, and by the end of the day all 14 had been rented.

When we have the Monday through Thursday four day shift I must clear the driving twice during that time (Mondays and Thursdays) so it may be mowed by DeWayne.  Monday I cleared three full 5 gallon buckets of balls, but on Thursday I had half as many to clear, and was able to get them in buckets soaking by 12 pm.....TLE's lunch break time.

Usually on the final day of my 4 day work week I mow around those tee boxes for which I am responsible.....3, 7, 10, 16, 17, & 18, and it takes me two hours to get to them all.....most of that time is spend driving from hole to hole in the ever so slow John Deere riding lawnmower....we are still awaiting parts for the 2 bag Husqvarna I prefer too use for this task.  I left right at 1 pm, and was back at the Clubhouse by 3 pm....in time to begin the daily spa treatments for the carts which had been returned.  By the time I was off work at 3:40 pm (I worked 8 straight hours) 5 of the 14 rented carts were still on the course.

I headed home to get a shower, and change clothes before heading back to the Clubhouse to hone my less than adequate putting skills, hoping to have a better showing at this Saturday's putting contest than the one last Saturday.  TLE was done closing the books on Thursday around 5:20 pm at which time we headed for home to begin our four day 'weekend' sitting on the 'lido deck' enjoying the early evening breezes....

A few fingers of single malt Scotch were enjoyed by moi, along with a cigar

....we remained on the 'lido deck' talking with Sirius/XM's Classic Vinyl playing in the background until after 7:30 pm, when our shorts and t-shirts attire was no longer compatible with the quickly descending temperatures.  A nice way to wind down our the final day of our work week.  Let the weekend festivities begin!

Thanks for stopping by!