Wash, rinse, repeat....

 7:38 am - Friday - May 15th - LPG&RR - 48° F, humidity 26%, cloud cover 4%, wind 1 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe....

....having dinner at Sidellis Brewing and Restaurant after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2.  The view this morning....

We slept in again until after 7 am on day two of our four day weekend.  We began watching The PGA tournament (second major of the year) around 9 am, and had it on until after 3 pm.  In between I deployed the corner piece for our sunscreen so we can sit outside Friday watching The PGA, which is being played near Philadelphia this year....

....it was too cold and breezy to do that Thursday.  The TV will sit upon the Rubbermaid outdoor storage unit.  Eventually we'll deploy the sunshade for the front of the Newell as it gets steadily warmer.

As you will recall I showed up a day early for my scheduled haircut at Kaleidescope, so I had to drive back into Alturas Thursday for the actual appointment.  TLE decided to remain home, so  I left at 1 pm, and was back by 2:10 pm.  This is probably the longest (7 weeks) I have gone between haircuts in many years.  I was really getting shaggy, but order has been restored.  Once again the round trip drive was uneventful....just like we like it.  The VW is running like its old self, and the memory of the catastrophic coolant loss/broken turbo water pump is becoming a distant memory.

As is most often the case on our four day weekends we did not stray far from our site, other than the trip into town.  I haven't been over to the Clubhouse since late Tuesday when I went to pickup TLE from work.  The campground, at least what we can see from site #55, is slowly filling to capacity.  All of the deciduous trees, which usually don't leaf out until late May/early June, are fully leafed out now portending a possibly warmer summer than usual....we hope that is not the case....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

A day early.....

 7:44 am - Thursday - May 14th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind ZERO mph......crystal clear, blue, sunny, windless skies this morning with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe.....

....working at Tahoe Valley Campground....it snowed overnight, and stuck....MAY 14TH!  The view this morning....

As is our custom we did not break our slumber until after 7 am on day one of our four day weekend.  Tuesday ended with wind, and Wednesday it continued unabated.  The forecast high for Wednesday was 71° F, but it never got above 67° F.  I spent some time in the trailer finally finishing the organization of my work bench small hand tools....

.....which I keep in two small containers.  I use these tools on a regular basis, and don't want to have to dig into a bag of tools to find them.  So, with that the work bench is finally more usable...you'll notice my three remote controls....one for the TV, one for the radio, and one for the Sirius/XM tuner.

I 'thought' I had an appointment for a haircut at Kaleidescope at 1:30 pm so around 11:50 am we headed into town in our recently repaired VW Beetle, which ran wonderfully again.  We arrived in Alturas around 1:15 pm so made a quick stop at ACE Hardware to buy a full size hacksaw....

....I have a couple of very small hacksaws, but I need a big one for an upcoming task in our RV site.  We pulled into the parking lot of Kaleidescope right at 1:27 pm only to find out my appointment was for Thursday at 1:30 pm, not Wednesday....DOH!  Well, I'd rather be a day early than a day late....lol!  Since we had time we headed over to Lazy 'B' to split  their bacon cheeseburgers with fries....

....this is the best (as far as we are concerned) hamburger place in town, and the food is so consistent.  Believe, it or not, the fries on my plate are just one half of the normal serving.  As always, the food was great!

We didn't need too much food at the grocery store, since we had done a 'big shopping' the week prior, but we did stop in at Holiday Market to buy some produce, as well as check the 'on sale' meat section finding a wonder London Broil for half price (around $8.00).  Last Winter we lived on meat from our freezer that we had bought at 1/2 price at Holiday Market all last summer.

We were home around 3 pm at which time I took a long nap.  It was too windy to do much outdoors, so we stayed inside the warm confines of the Newell for the rest of the afternoon.  Thursday promises no wind for much of the day, with some wind late in the  afternoon, so we'll be able to watch a lot of the first round of The PGA outdoors on the 'lido deck'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tournament time.....

 7:37 am - Wednesday - May 13th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 1%, wind 4 mph out of the west by southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F....quite a drop from yesterday's 87° F, and quite appreciated!  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were touring the Kennecott Copper Mine.....

....near Salt Lake City, UT.  The view this morning....

Tuesday we hosted the golf playoffs for Northeastern California High Schools which involved around 44 golfers from near and far.  From this group of 44 players a set number will advance to the next round based on their scores. The course was closed to the public as the tournament would probably take all day, and it did.  As we did two years ago we did not charge the players/schools for range balls.  We just filled the baskets and set them on the railing that runs alongside the wooden deck on the north side of the Clubhouse where the tee boxes are for the Driving Range, and kept refilling them until all the golfers had hit as many balls as they wished.  We started with a full 55 gallon barrel of balls, and ended up with less than 30 balls left in the bottom of the barrel.  I'm not looking forward to picking up all those balls....lol!

When I left work on Monday at 3:30 pm there were still 18 carts out on the course, so that was my first task of the day.  I washed 3 at at time, staged them, and then washed three more until I had all 18 staged.  As the morning progressed we began pulling out more carts from the cart shack to keep up with the demand.

The players, coaches and parents began arriving around 9 am, and by 9:30 am the parking lot was packed.  They began teeing off two foursomes at a time,  one each at the 1st and 10th holes until all the players were on the course.  Over the course of the day we rented all but two carts in the cart shack.  Most of the rentals ($25/cart) were to parents who wanted to spectate around the course.  I gave TLE her lunch break around noontime, and continued to rent one cart after another.

Meanwhile, the restaurant was putting out food and drinks at a rapid pace, and except for the Mother's Day dinner they served, this was the busiest they have been so far this season.  Once TLE was back from lunch I headed back outdoors to begin washing and stowing carts, but there were none.  In fact, not one cart was returned by my quitting time of 3:30 pm as all of the players were still on the course.  Since my 8 hours were up, and the owners don't like to pay overtime (who can blame them) it fell to Jose (General Manager) to wash and stow them.

On a side note, we finally received the cart number decals for the 6 'new' EZ-Go Golf Carts purchased over the winter from a course in Idaho, so I spent the afternoon first washing the new carts, and then applying the number decals so we can now rent them.  This will boost the number of carts we can rent to 40.

TLE was home by 5:30 pm, and thus began our second four day weekend since we arrived back on April 27th.  The intervening 2.5 weeks have flown into the past so quickly.  Later on today (Wednesday) TLE and I will head into town for my first haircut of the season at Kaleidescope.

Thanks for stopping by!

Good news!

 5:56 am - Tuesday - May 12th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 26%, cloud cover 23%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were touring Valley of the Gods in Southeast Utah....

.....near Goosenecks State Park with Glenn and Laureen (TLE's sister).

We had a slight break in the 'heat' Monday with temps dipping down to 83° F, but for me it was not noticeable.  The morning was mostly windless while I spent the first 90 minutes of my day clearing the driving range after a very busy weekend with many, many balls being hit into said driving range.  On Tuesday we are hosting the annual High School tournament for Northeastern California, so we need all the range balls we can muster in our large 55 gallon barrel for the young guys to hit in the morning, plus it is time to mow the range.

I staged 10 carts initially, and we rented close to 20, so Monday was a good day.  Many of the carts were rented to golf teams who had arrived a day early to play the course in advance of the tournament Tuesday.  Just before lunch I mowed the large Gazebo grass area, plus buddy sites 49 and 50.  I then gave TLE her lunch break, then after lunch I mowed the employee sites, washed carts, and washed/dried the range balls.  By 3:30 pm only 7 carts had returned, so I'll have a bunch to wash and stow first thing Tuesday.

We received good news Monday.....our employers have hired a person to work opposite me beginning Thursday.  Up until now, as you know, Claude, TLE and I have been staging carts on our days off, giving Kathie a lunch break, and washing/stowing carts in the afternoon, so all that will end, and we can go back to regularly scheduled programing for the rest of the summer.  I met Steve, and talked with him for about 15 minutes about the job.  I think he'll fit in very well, here, but only time will tell.  So, for now, we are once fully staffed.

I was off work by 3:30 pm, and in the shower by 3:40 pm.  As is my habit, I took a nap, then returned at 4:50 pm to wash and stow the final electric cart, and then take TLE home.  Just one day remaining now in our second four day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mother's Day....

 6:01 am - Monday - October 11th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 31%, cloud cover 31%, wind 1 mph out of the east by southeast.....partly cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2018 we were workamping in Maine....

....at Smuggler's Den RV Park in Southwest Harbor, ME.  It took me the better part of an afternoon to get the trailer and RV into that site!

Mother's Day (Sunday) began quietly, and slowly, but by the end of the day we had rented 13 carts.  After staging the first 10 carts I decided I needed to mow as many of the RV pull through sites as possible as it had been over a week since they were last mowed.  The 2 bag Husqvarna is out of action right now, so I used the larger 3 bag Husqvarna.  I don't like to use it because the three bags fill up with grass after 3, or 4 sites, and the trailer into which we dump those three bags can only hold 6 bags of grass, so then I have to pull the trailer out into the local pasture to dump the grass.  This adds about 15 minutes per load to the time it takes to mow the 15 sites, plus the small gazebo.  The bags on the '2 bag' Husqvarna have been removed, so there is no need to dump grass, saving loads of time.  At any rate I managed to get 9 of the full hookup, pull through sites, all 5 of the water/electric sites, and the small gazebo mowed before lunch time.

While TLE was at lunch I handled a few phone calls, and sold three 9 hole rounds of golf, so I stayed relatively busy.  After lunch it had gotten into the high 80's, and my body was having none of it.  It takes me about two weeks of warm weather to acclimate properly, and I am not there by a long shot.  I spent the afternoon watering grass, made around of the golf course to see how the tee boxes for which I am responsible are looking, and they can go another day, or two.  By the time 3:30 pm rolled around 7 of the 13 rented carts had been returned, washed, and stowed, so I'll have six to wash and stow first thing Monday.  

By 3:40 pm I had finished a nice hot shower, and was taking a nap in my recliner.  Around 4:50 pm I headed back to the Clubhouse to retrieve TLE, and put away the 5th electric cart so it can be recharged overnight.  The restaurant was open for Mother's Day dinner serving lobster and steak as the entree.  Normally they do not serve dinner on Sunday evenings, but this was a special occasion.  They had a good turnout from what I could see.  By the time TLE and I headed home the tables inside the restaurant were full of patrons, and the alfresco area on the deck was beginning to fill.  TLE and I thought about joining everyone, but we were tired, and decided to have a quiet evening together.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mother's Day Eve.....

 6:12 am - Mother's Day - May 10th - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 31%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....partly cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe....

....at Classic Cue for brews and fish tacos....best in the Tahoe Basin.  The view this morning....

Saturday it was back to our 4 day workaday life.  It was a busy day in the park with over 25 golf carts being rented.  All that being said, my job is relatively stress free compared to TLE's office job where the only break she gets is when I give her a lunch break.  The morning went quickly, and soon it was time to do just that.  I had barely sat down when the phone rang....one of our golfers had experienced a tire blowout on the 7th tee, so I had to shut the office, retrieve a jack, tire iron and wheel to change that tire.  Amazingly I was back within 25 minutes....some days things just go your way.  As it turned out the Schrader valve had popped out of the wheel rim causing the tire to go flat.  We'll get that fixed on another day.

When TLE returns from her lunch break I only have 2.5 hours left in my day.  Of the 25 carts we had rented 12 returned before 3:30 pm, so I'll have 13, or 14 to wash first thing Sunday.  We had 42 putters signed up for the weekly putting contest.  Sadly, I exited in the second round again.  I putted well, but my 2nd opponent putted just a little bit better.  By the time I was finished putting TLE was ready to head for home, so we did.  I hadn't eaten all day, and was starved, so TLE made me an open faced steak sandwich with some Au Jus dipping sauce....OMG, that really hit the spot!

I did spend time during the day watering around the putting green, the parking lot grass, and the large grass area down at the 'Night Office', but otherwise my entire attention was on the Clubhouse area staging carts, and washing carts.  It was, by and far, our best day this season so far, and Mother's Day promises to be just as big not only for the golf course, but the restaurant, which is flourishing by the way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Day four of the four day weekend....

 6:01 am - Saturday - May 9th - LPG&RVR - 41° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 13%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies this morning with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I had just arrived at Goosenecks State Park....

All by ourselves initially

Glenn and Laureen's 1984 Newell on the left

.....we were traveling with Glenn and Laureen (TLE's sister) that summer.  They were a few hours behind us, but eventually arrived in the afternoon.  The view this morning....

Our final day of our four day weekend began a little after 7 am.  We still had a few more things to do to finish our 'lido deck' setup, and we got a little more done adding another camp chair, and the 'smudge pots' (tiki lamps) to ward off the mosquitoes, which have arrived this year earlier than normal.  I received my first mosquito bites in over 8 months.  I did not miss those irritating little creatures one iota...lol.

Around 9 am I drove over to the Clubhouse to practice my putting, and found the putting green to be a little faster than a week ago.  They are almost up to the speed I prefer.  I putted for almost an hour (without any mosquito bites) before heading back to site #55, at which time I pulled out our outdoor TV for the first time since last September to watch a little golf while I relaxed in one of our anti gravity chairs.  That is when I got my first mosquito bite of the season.

TLE gave Kathie her lunch break Wednesday and Thursday, so I fell to me to give her one on Friday.  Considering it was a Friday it was not super busy in the office.  There were no phone calls, just two checkins, and one couple playing golf.  It appeared we had rented around 10 golf carts Friday, but only one had returned when I left to return home at 2 pm.  I returned again at 4:30 pm to help Claude wash and stow the 8 carts which had returned, so I will have two more to wash Saturday morning when TLE and I return to the workaday world for four more days.  

TLE arrived at the Clubhouse around 4:40 pm to get the register tray from Kathie, while Claude and I relaxed on the deck enjoying a glass of Sangria.  Once TLE was ready we headed home for a late dinner.  TLE made her wonderful Chicken Verde Enchilada Casserole for dinner, which we consumed alfresco on the 'dining/gaming deck' with Claude.  By 7 pm it was beginning to get cool outside, so we bid our adieus to Claude, and headed inside for the evening as our outdoor lighting was coming to life....

....thanks for stopping by!