Blast furnace.....

 5:58 am - Thursday - August 6th - LPG&RVR - 56° F, humidity 17%, cloud cover 1%, wind 13 mph out of the southwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 99° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Astoria, OR.....

 ....visiting the 'Goonies' house from the movie 'Goonies'.

On the first day of our four day work week the forecast high was 98° F.  For the following three days the forecast shows 99°, 100° & 99° F.  I began the day wondering if I would make it until 3:30 pm.  To be fair, our employers do not expect us to work outdoors when it is that hot, and on this day, Wednesday, there was not a lot to do.  Upon arrival at the Clubhouse I saw only one person signed up to play golf at 8 am, so there would not be a lot of carts to deal with.  I staged four to begin the day, knowing that people always show up without a 'tee time' to play golf, and there were just two.  We rented three carts in all.  

When we drove our cart to the Clubhouse at 7:30 am there were just 6 RV's in the park....SIX!  After staging the four carts I spent time straightening the workbench in the 'Caddy Shack', which took awhile, then another hour plus checking the distilled water levels in the 30 six volt batteries (six batteries per cart times 5 carts).  They were all doing pretty well, and just needed a little water in each cell to be 100% full.

Next I turned on a few sprinklers around the park to water some dry spots in the grass, then hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna to mow around the two gazebos, and the four 'buddy' sites.  By that time it was 12 pm, and time for TLE's lunch break during which I answered 2 phone calls, and checked in one RV over 90 minutes.  Thankfully the Clubhouse was being kept very cool with the 'swamp cooler'....there is no AC in the Clubhouse.

When TLE returned I headed back outdoors to what felt like a blast furnace.  I still had two hours to go on my shift.  Two of the three carts we rented had returned, so I slowly washed them.  I usually dry the carts afterwards, but it was so hot barely any moisture remained on them after just a few minutes.  I spent the rest of my shift moving sprinklers around on the parking lot grass, and the 'Night Office' grass.  At last it was time to head for home....I made it!

Instead of taking a shower right away, I just changed clothes, and sat in my recliner where I promptly fell asleep for an hour before waking up and realizing I needed to take my shower before I returned to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home at 5 pm, so I did that, and had just a few minutes to relax before it was time to get TLE.  I am not looking forward to Thursday, Friday, or Saturday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Time marches onward....

 5:57 am - Wednesday - August 5th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 7%, wind 13 mph out of the west....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 98° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Kalispell, MT.....

....aka: Big Sky Country, watching a rain squall move across the horizon.  The view this morning.....

....the Warner Mountains and Eagle Mountain are once again visible.

Each of the previous three weekend days I have sat in my anti gravity chair looking at those two blue/gray camp chairs in which I installed new side tables using Masonite.  That was over a month ago, and I still hadn't painted them in order to water proof them.  Tuesday I decided it was time to get that done....

.....I used blue masking tape to mask off the aluminum before applying three coats of paint....a primer coat, then two additional gloss black coats.  In all it took me less than one hour beginning to end, and I believe the final product looks way better than I expected it would.

Once that was done I was free to settle into another day on the 'lido deck' reading, napping, and just enjoying the outdoors.  TLE has been battling her allergies as of late, so she has been remaining indoors on our days off work.  By the time 2:30 pm rolled around the temperature had surpassed 92° F on the 'lido deck' and it was time to surrender, and head indoors to the cool confines of the Newell.

Late afternoon the winds switched, and began coming from the south by southwest and blowing the Washington/Oregon wild fire smoke back north, and by sundown we could see the Warners and Eagle Mountain again.  By the way, sunrise is now 6:01 am, and sundown is 8:13 pm.  We are now getting up on work days in the dark.  By August 19th sunset will be well before 8 pm.....time is marching onward.

Thanks for stopping by!

The smoke has arrived.....

 8:04 am - Tuesday - August 4th - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 13%, cloud cover 7%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear skies, but smokey today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Kalispell, MT.....

....overnighting at the local Walmart Supercenter.  Kalispell lies just a few miles north of Flathead Lake, and about 20 miles to the southwest of Glacier National Park.

We awoke Monday to smokey skies.  There are numerous wildfires in Oregon and Washington contributing to our currently smokey conditions here at LPG&RVR.  You may have heard about the catastrophic fires burning on the northside of Spokane where entire neighborhoods have been burned to the ground.  Reminds me of the Pacific Palisades fires almost two years ago.  My sister lives on the south side of Spokane, and is fortunate to have downtown Spokane, and the very large Spokane River between her home and the fires.  This is the first time this summer LPG&RVR has been impacted by wild fires smoke wise.  

Around 9 am TLE and I headed into Alturas to do our weekly shopping, and the smoke is much, much worse there (Alturas is 20 miles north of Likely).  As we neared Alturas the hazy skies reminded me of driving into the L.A. basin on a smoggy day; not much difference.  We made our usual stops at ACE Hardware, Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market before heading back south to the much less smokey LPG&RVR.  Sometimes a little perspective on how bad it could be if we were living 20 miles further north helps.

We were home a tad after 11 am, and once the car was unpacked I headed out to the 'lido deck' to spend the rest of the day.  I did set one of our sprinklers to water a dry patch of grass next to the coach, but that was the extent of my physical activity for Monday.  I read, smoked a cigar, drank ice coffee, and napped until after 4:30 pm in spite of the 92° F high for the day.  There was just enough breeze to keep the 'lido deck' comfortable.

Our good friend Claude Banker, who works, and lives here at LPG&RVR, had to make a run up to his mother's home in Oregon last Thursday as she had been admitted to the hospital unconscious.  I believe she was either 105, or 106 years old, and has been in failing health for a couple of years.  Anyway, we got a text from him Sunday that his mother had passed without regaining consciousness.  So he and his family have been in our thoughts and prayers since then.  I'm sure he and his family would appreciate your thoughts and prayers right now.  She had a very long, and full life.

I just took this picture towards the Warner Mountains, and Eagle Mountain....

....you cannot even see the mountains, or Eagle Mountain because of the smoke.

Thanks for stopping by!

Slowing down time....is it possible?

 7:55 am - Monday - August 3rd - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 0%, wind 8 mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

.....doing a 5 mile hike at the Glen Creek trailhead near Swan Lake Flat.  Interesting fact....there are a lot of swans living in Yellowstone National Park....a lot.  We hiked over 100 miles that summer.

It was after 7:30 am when TLE and I finally pried ourselves out of bed to begin the second day of our 4 day weekend.  As soon as I stepped outside I could feel the coolness in the air.  When you can still feel the coolness in the air it means the heat of the day will be 2-3 hours later than it has been the past few days.  By 12:30 pm Saturday it was too hot to be outside, but on Sunday I enjoyed the 'lido deck' until after 2:30 pm before the rising temps chased me back into the cool confines of the air conditional Newell for the balance of the day.

On our days off TLE can spend extended time in the morning watering, and tending to her many plants and flowers....

....of which there are many.....

.....the day passed slowly, just like you want a weekend day to pass.  I think how quickly time seems to pass is more of a state of mind, right?  Now matter how quickly, or slowly you perceive the passage of time there are really still 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week.  Sitting on the 'lido deck' enjoying the sights and sounds of the day, and clearing my mind of the yesterday and tomorrow thoughts seems to work for me.  Notice in the pictures above how deep blue the sky is.  Often, on days I work, I don't even notice that.  Oh, and by the way.....no smoke here from any of the fires raging in Oregon and Washington.

The park remains quite empty as I write, but by Friday it will be full again as the annual Rich Hamel Golf Tournament will be kicking off on the 8th.....

....starting tomorrow, Tuesday, the daily high temps will move up to 97° F, then up to 99° F through Sunday when they will begin a slow decline to 89° F by next Wednesday, the 12th, further declining to 85° F by the 17th.  We work Wednesday through Saturday this week when those three 99° F days arrive.  By the time we go back to work on the 12th we'll be out of this heatwave!

Time to get dressed for our weekly shopping foray into Alturas, so have a great Monday wherever you may find yourselves today, and thank you for stopping by!

Daily routine contrast.....

 8:17 am - Sunday - August 2nd - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 21%, cloud cover 0%, wind 13  mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Southwest Harbor, ME.....

......hiking to the top of Acadia Mountain in Acadia National Park.  The view this morning.....

....I haven't done "the view this morning" for a long time now, but I thought I should today.  Why?  Well, for two reasons. Look how good those ZipDee Awnings look after 44 years!  Number two, look at the hillside across from us....there are NO weeds, and NO bushes; just trees.  I'm thankful it was not I who cleared that hillside, because that was a lot of back breaking work for Romero, who is the one who did all of that. He also cleared the weeds, and brush behind our site....

We did not stir from our slumber Saturday morning until close to 8 am.  One might think that altering your daily routine on your four day weekends so dramatically from the four days you work would be a little difficult, if not down right disorienting, but we look forward to contrast of getting up well after 7 am on our 'weekends', as opposed to when we work....the days we work we arise at 5:30 am, and go to bed at 9 pm each day.  On our weekends we get up no sooner than 7 am, but usually closer to 7:30 am, and go to bed after 10 pm most evenings.  It seems to work for us, but am I ever looking forward to sleeping in until after 7 am every day this winter.

I spent a good portion of the morning outdoors working on small projects, such as installing the new lighting in the new dining canopy.  Before the original canopy was destroyed by the micro burst wind event a couple of weeks ago we used those solar powered Edison lights, but they were difficult to install, so I opted to buy the same solar light we use on our 'lido deck'.....

Bright mode

....when activated by detected movement it turns completely on and is very bright (above).  Otherwise, when the sun sets it comes on in 'dim' mode (below), and remains in 'dim' mode all night unless it detects movement.....

Dim mode

.....before it got too hot I also did some weeding out in front of the coach, then settled in to watch golf.  TLE has done a wonderful job of creating a green environment on the 'lido deck'....

Peppers

Alovera

Geraniums, lavender

....when I sit on the 'lido deck' I am surrounded by greenery.  These are just a few of the plants TLE tends to each day, and she is doing a marvelous job of keeping them healthy, and vibrant.

I remained on the 'lido deck until close to 1 pm when the rising temperatures, and lack of any breeze to mitigate those rising temps drove me indoors for the balance of the day....that is until we made our weekly appearance at the weekly putting contest.

As bad as I was last week, I was that much better this Saturday.  I got through 6 rounds before my own mistakes eliminated me from getting 'into the money'.  I've had a really dry spell this summer.  I was just two matches away from being in the final.  This was probably the hottest putting contest (temp wise) in the five years we have been here.  Usually we are getting nice breezes in the park by 4 pm, but Saturday there was no breeze.  If there had been I do not think we would have noticed how hot it was.

Upon our return home TLE pulled out a couple of filet mignons for me to grill on the Sea-B-Que.  Spending time on a hot 'lido deck' grilling steaks was the last thing on my mind Saturday, but the alternative was even less attractive; grilling them indoors, and raising the temperature of the interior, which was 70° F when we returned at 5:30 pm.  TLE added sides of green beans, and a black bean, tomato/ corns salad....

.....after dinner we watched an Amazon Prime movie called 'Redemption' staring Jason Statham.  It had a 4.5 star rating out of a possible 5 stars on Amazon.  It was good, but TLE and I would put it at 3.75 stars.

Thanks for stopping by!

When real Friday collides with metaphorical Friday.....

 7:49 am - Saturday - August 1st - LPG&RVR - 67° F, humidity 18%, cloud cover 29%, wind 14 mph out of the northwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Bar Harbor, ME.....

....taking in a movie at Reel Pizza Cinerama....we got the real big bag of popcorn.  Looks like a shopping bag, no?  We didn't get pizza, but that is the whole point of this place....order a pizza, and watch a movie....great concept.

At last, the final day of our four day work week arrived.  Every four day shift seems to go fast, and then we must shift gears, and try and slow down the four day weekend.  I knew when I egressed from the Newell Friday morning that it was going to be hot.  There was no coolness in the air, just an uncomfortable warmth portending much suffering later in the morning, and into the afternoon for those of us who work outdoors.  About once a month real Friday coincides with our four day work week metaphorical 'Friday', which isn't really a Friday much of the time, but feels like a Friday.  Friday was one of those double Friday's which happens once a month.  I hope I'm not being too obscure....lol.

We actually rented 9 golf carts Friday....the most in one day all 'week'.  I didn't need to stage any carts as I had left the older, square nosed Club Cars staged overnight.  I had one cart to wash, and dispensed with that pretty quickly.  Now, what to do?  Well, since Claude went to visit his mother (106 years of age) in Oregon I made a round of the course in his stead to be sure all was well, and then later in the morning to rake three of the four sand traps.  I usually use the phrase 'sand' trap metaphorically, but one of the four now (the fourth hole) actually has sand in it.  Claude reshaped the sand trap, cleaned out all the small rocks, and all the weeds, and Jose put a bucket (loader bucket) of white sand into it to turn it into a real sand trap....lol!  It is really confusing our golfers.

For the third day in succession I watered the dry spots in the 'Night Office' grass, and the parking lot grass.  They are now all green for the first time a long time. I  also watered the grass between the Clubhouse deck and the putting green, so it is all green, too.  Additionally, I mowed the employee lawns, which Claude so kindly trimmed before leaving for Oregon.  There was the usual 90 minute lunch break for TLE, then the final two excrutiatingly hot hours left before my four day weekend began, and at last it was time to head for the cool confines of our 1982 Newell where I took a long cool shower, then a long nap before heading back to the Clubhouse to assist TLE in beginning her four day weekend.

There are 12 days remaining until temps dip back into the 80's, and we only work 4 of those days....YAY!  Typically, after the middle of August it begins to cool off here in Modoc Country, and by early September we're usually back into the 70's.  We'll see if that past trend continues this year; I sure hope so!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Dog Days of Summer......

 5:48 am - Friday - July 31st - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 1%, wind 12 mph out of the west......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 95° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Southwest Harbor, Maine.....

....which is about 15 minutes from Bar Harbor.....we were having dinner at Beale's Lobster Pier.  Wonderful Lobster rolls, and Allagash White (Belgian White); the best Belgian White I have ever tasted to this day.

I had one cart left from Wednesday to wash/stow Thursday morning.  I didn't have to stage any carts as I had left the 8 Club Car square front carts staged overnight.  So, on Tuesday we rented just 4 carts, and Thursday we rented three.  It's hot, the park is almost empty, and its late July....aka: The Dog Days of Summer.  Speaking of late July, Saturday is August 1st.  It seems like it was just June 1st, but here we are 3 months into our 5th season here at LPG&RVR with just 2 months remaining.  

After washing the lone cart left over from Wednesday I spent about an hour troubleshooting an issue with the 2 bag Husqvarna that is my weapon of choice when mowing.  There are two belts the engine uses to spin the cutting blades in the mower deck, and to propel the mower forward (the drive belt).  The drive belt appears to have stretched over the years, and there seems to be no way to tighten it.  When going uphill it feels as if the brake has been applied, but it is just the belt slipping.  Jose has ordered a new drive belt, which will be 'fun' installing.  Anyway, I was able to get it running a little better, so took it out for a spin to mow around the two gazebos, the group fire pit lawn, and the large lawn by the 'Night Office'.  The area around the 'Night Office' has a lot of ups and downs, and the mower did not like that, but I got it done.  Hopefully, by the next time I need to use it we'll have the new belt installed.  The mower has almost 1200 hours on it, and it is about 14 years old.

Of course, Thursday is 'clear the driving range' day, so around 10 am I did that garnering just a third of a bucket of balls....five of the balls were found in the driving range proper, and the rest were in the trees on both sides of the range.....

The five from the driving range

The rest from the trees/brush

I did a little string trimming around the Clubhouse deck, and then spent the rest of my day watering dry areas  around the park.  Over the course of the morning we rented just the 3 carts, I mentioned earlier, and that was it.  After TLE's lunch break I washed the three carts, and put them back on the line for Friday.  We need to get those carts run, and I'll leave them there until they have all been run at least once around the golf course.

By the time 3:30 pm rolled around I was hot, tired, and sweaty from the 94° F day.  I took a cool shower, took a nap, and then returned to the Clubhouse to retrieve TLE.  Just one day left in this four day work week, then our four day weekend begins anew.

Thanks for stopping by!