In the money again!

 8:10 am - Sunday - September 13th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 40%, cloud cover 7%, wind 14 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, but hazy skies this morning with a forecast high today of 65° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Bar Harbor, ME....

....we were up at 5 am to make the 20 minute drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to watch the sun rise.  Every day during the summer hundreds of people would make this pilgrimage to watch the sun rise, and we are glad that on this day we would be counted among those.....spectacular!

After composing my latest missive I headed out to the 'lido deck' to dump our black tank realizing at the same time that I would only be performing this ritual a couple more times before we haul anchor and head south for the winter.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned previously that we have great water pressure here at LPG&RVR, so it only takes about 10-15 minutes to thoroughly dump and flush the tank two, or three times.

After another successful dump/flush TLE and I headed out to do another 1 mile out and back walk; just the fourth of the summer.....

....we managed to complete the out and balk 1 mile walk in 19 minutes and 46 seconds averaging just over 3 mph, plus another 166 caloric units were consumed.  We've really beeen lazy this summer, but we need to get back to walking on a regular basis.

Upon our return I changed clothes and headed out to the 'lido deck' to watch some college football, and were there ever some great games to be watched.  In all I counted three significant upsets of top 25 teams beginning with Michigan (unranked) outlasting the University of Oklahoma (#11) 17-10, unranked Oklahoma State defeating #6 Oregon Ducks 39-31, and #4 Texas beating #1 Ohio State 24-23 on a last minute touchdown and extra point.  Texas was down 23-3 to begin the second half, but scored 21 unanswered points to win at the buzzer.

Saturday was also our final weekly putting contest of the summer before the final next Saturday (September 19th).  There were only 15 putters, and normally we would have run a double elimination format, but the annual Likely Fire Department steak dinner was at 5 pm, so we went with single elimination.  I'm happy to say that the magic that was mine last week continued this week, only this time I came in first place!  I still can't believe it.

Around 5 pm TLE and I headed over to the Fire Department dinner.  I think well over half the people there were from LPG&RVR (customers, residents, members, and employees).  For $30/person you get a larger than life Rib Eye Steak (TLE and I were hard pressed to eat half of ours), baked potato, corn on the cobb, salad and dessert.  When we arrived there was a line out the door, and it took us a good 15 minutes to get to our table with our food.  At the end of the dinner there is a raffle drawing for three prizes: 1st place is an expensive hunting rifle, 2nd place was an expensive wine refrigerator, and 3rd was a $200 gift certificate for the Likely General Store (we won that prize two years ago).  When it came time to draw the much coveted hunting rifle DeWayne Matthews (Fire Chief) asked a lady from the audience to make the draw.  You can't make this stuff up.....she drew her own raffle ticket out of a box of hundreds of tickets.  She only bought ONE raffle ticket.  How cool is that?

We were home by 7:30 pm, just in time to see most of the 2nd half of the Texas/Ohio State game, and then transition to the late game (8 pm start) featuring my USC Trojans vs. Louisiana.  As expected my Trojans won handily 49-30, but I was in bed long before the game finished sometime after 11 pm.

Saturday was quite a day....thanks for stopping by!

Two for ones......

 7:44 am - Saturday - September 12th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 37%, wind 21 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in Cape Blanco, OR.....

In those rock formations in the background (above) you can see what appears to be a caricature of a whale (below)

....in our 15+ years of travel we have found the Oregon Coast sunsets are consistently the most beautiful, and amazing we have seen anywhere.  Between Cape Blanco (Fall of 2014 & 2015) and Seal Rock (10/2020 to 10/2021) I have enough sunset pictures to make up a dozen calendars.

I still owe you a 'what happened on Thursday' since I dedicated yesterday's post to 9/11, so I'll do my best to describe Thursday's happenings first, before I transition into Friday's happenings, so you'll get a 'two for one'.

Thursday, September 10th:

In less than 3 weeks we will be able to sleep in every day until late April 2027, but for now we are in those 8 day cycles where we can sleep late on four of those days, but need to be up by 5:30 am on the other four, and Thursday was one of the four days every eight days that we do not have to rise early, so we didn't.  By the time I finished, and posted my daily blog about Wednesday's events it was after 9:30 am.....how delicious!

The only substantial thing I accomplished Thursday was to install a new center console in our 2001 VW Beetle.  The center console is like an arm rest, but it does have a lid can open to access whatever one might put in there like current registration, insurance cards, etc.  The one that came with our Beetle had a damaged hinge, which prevented it from being adjusted to whatever height you prefer.  It would remain in a given position for a few minutes, then fall.  I found a previously owned on on eBay about 10 days ago when we were at Holiday Market shopping.  I had finally had it with the malfunctioning one on the way into Alturas, so as soon as we arrived at Holiday Market that day I began searching for a replacement on eBay.  The replacement arrived on Wednesday, so around 10 am Thursday I removed the old one, and installed the new one....

.....the old one was black on top, but gray on the bottom.  This one is all black, but unless you knew there was a difference you wouldn't even notice.  In all it took me about 15 minutes beginning to end to install the 'new to us' center console.  Over the years I have replaced the right door 'card', the grab handle on the passenger side, and the glove box; all off eBay.

Once that was done TLE and I did something we have rarely done this summer....take a 1 mile out and back walk.....

.....we averaged just under  3 mph for 1.01 miles taking just 20 minutes and 36 seconds to do the walk, burning a meager 168 caloric units.

I spent the balance of the day relaxing on our 'lido deck' until late in the day.  With temps back into the low 80's I can use my anti gravity recliner all day long.  I spent time reading, and napping as is my custom on days off work.  

TLE and I watched a documentary that evening on Nolan Ryan, the pitcher, on Amazon Prime. It's over an hour (1 hour 42 minutes), but if you are a baseball fan it is well worth it.  It gets 5 stars on Amazon.  He pitched well until age 44 when he tore a tendon, or ligament in his right elbow, and retired.  He pitched 7 no hitters during his 27 year career, the final one at age 43.  He played for the Angels, Astros, and Rangers during his amazing career.  At his prime his fast ball could hit 108 mph.  He holds around 56 Major League Baseball records.  He won over 300 games, and had just shy of 5,800 strikeouts in his career.  Randy Johnson is in second place strikeouts wise, and he is 1,000 strikeouts behind Nolan Ryan.  Anyway, if you are so inclined, check it out.  The title of the documentary is 'Facing Nolan'.  I believe you can find it on Netflix, and Amazon Prime, and an abbreviated version on YouTube.

Friday, September 11th: 

I had a hair appointment Friday morning at Kaleidescope at 9 am, so we were up right at 7 am....no sleeping in until 7:30, or 8 am on this day.  It seems like my hair is growing at a faster rate than a few years so, and getting a haircut once a month is no longer working.  I'm going to have to reduce the intervals between haircuts to avoid an out of control coif.  Anyway, we were on the road in the Beetle before 8:30 am, and I was enjoying the convenience of the new center console that works as it should.....lol.  We arrived at Kaleidescope at 8:50 am, the same time Sheila arrived....great timing.  On this day TLE was also getting her hair length, and bangs adjusted, so she went first.  By 9:35 am we were on our way to do our weekly shopping making stops at Dollar General, and Holiday Market where we found two large London Broil steaks on sale from $36 down to $18....killer deal.  It's like buy one, get one free (2 for 1).  They'll go into the freezer to be enjoyed at a later day, perhaps after our return to The Wilson Wilderness.

We were home by 11 am with virtually the entire day still in front of us.  After helping put away our purchases I retired, once again, to the 'lido deck'  where I remained until almost 5 pm reading, napping, smoking a cigar, and listening to music (Classic Vinyl, channel 26, Sirius/XM Radio).  The mosquitoes are slowly disappearing as the overnight lows begin to eliminate them  I think I got one bite all afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have you forgotten?

 7:25 am - Friday - September 11th  - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 39%, cloud cover 2%, wind 15 mph out of the west by southwest.....partially cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2001  Islamic Terrorists flew passenger jets into the twin towers in Manhattan, NY, and into the Pentagon in Washington D.C......

....today's blog will be brief, and a tribute to those 2,996 innocent people who's lives were snuffed out by those terrorists 25 years ago.  So many seem to have forgotten.  The question is "Have you forgotten?".....

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?" - Darryl Worley

....I haven't.  Please take some time today to reflect on what happened a quarter of a century ago, and what we are facing today, and in the future.

Thank you for stopping by!

Time for the 'until next times'.....

7:35 am - Thursday - September 10th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 92%, wind 15 mph out of the southwest.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Gardiner, MT where we lived that summer while working at the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs.....

....Mammoth Hot Springs is in Wyoming, so we were crossing state lines twice a day 5 out of every 7 days.  We came home from work on this date in 2017 to find two deer in repose on our artificial turf....how cool is that?  Our RV site was right on the Yellowstone River....what a great summer it was!

As I sit here wondering what to write about Wednesday I realize that as of today, September 10th, we have exactly 12 days of work left, and 12 days of days off work; 24 days total, or 3 weeks and 3 days....lol.  When you break it down like that it seems so short, and it actually is.  Sometimes you get wrapped up in the ebb and flow of day after day working, or relaxing that the time slips away from you, and suddenly our 5th summer season here at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort is slowly slipping into the rearview mirror.  It has been another great summer season spent with 'salt of the earth' folks.  Some of those folks will begin their annual migration back south for the winter this weekend, so there will be a steadily increasing 'until next time' scenarios playing out over the next few weeks, and on top of that, I saw more geese heading south.

TLE celebrated the 38th anniversary of her 39th birthday on Wednesday, and had a steady stream of folks stopping by to deliver her their birthday well wishes.  Sunny, who is the restaurant concessionaire for the foreseeable future, made her a special birthday dinner of her choosing, which was a double/double Smash burger (I got one too!), but I get ahead of myself.

In spite of the limited warming trend we are experiencing right now, it is very cold in the mornings, and I find myself wearing my hooded sweatshirt until well after 9 am most mornings.  It is right on the edge of being too cold (first thing) for shorts.  Since the forecast high was 90° F I added a short sleeved t-shirt to my work attire ensemble.  Upon arrival at the 'Cart Return' area I found 5 carts left over from Tuesday awaiting their daily spa treatment.  The tee times sheet indicated we would need at least 10 golf carts staged to begin the day, so I staged them, then washed/stowed the 5 holdovers from Tuesday.  In all we rented just 12 carts Wednesday, and by 3:30 pm all but two had returned.

Between the beginning of the day, and the end at 3:30 pm I replaced the right front wheel on the 2 bag Husqvarna as the existing one had a bad bushing, so the wheel was wobbling on the axle.  I borrowed the left front wheel from the defunct John Deere mower as it had two good bushings.  We'll have to get a new bushing for the wheel I removed.

Later in the morning I helped TLE install a new printer (a Brother) to replace the old Epson, which is beginning to fail.  They've had the Brother being stored down at 'Night Office' for over 5 years, and it is still in good working order, it just needs to have a new black toner cartridge installed.  It has been ordered, and should be here next week.  Otherwise we were able to install the appropriate 'drivers', and get the computer to connect to it, so all we need now is the new toner cartridge.

I gave TLE her lunch break at 12 pm, and stayed very busy for the 90 minutes answering numerous phone calls, and checking in 6, or 7 RVs.  At 12 pm it was getting warm, but not bad, but by 1:30 pm it was hot.  10 of the 12 golf carts had been returned so I busied myself with getting them washed, and stowed.

When 3:30 pm finally came around I was more than ready to head for home to take a shower, and a nap, in that order.  Sometimes I take the nap first, but it was hot, and there was no way I was going to live with myself without washing off the dust and sweat from another hot LPG&RVR workday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Propane guy....

 5:50 am - Wednesday - September 9th (TLE's birthday) - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 9%, wind 8 mph out of the south....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were cruising Highway 1 on the Olympic Peninsula.....

Meet Nate and Tammy!

....when we spotted a 1969 Newell just ahead of us.  We both pulled into a turnout to talk about our Newells, and take tours.  We love serendipity!

Tuesday the temps rose into the high 80's, and by Wednesday we'll reach 90 for the first time in 10 days, but by Saturday we'll be back into the 70s for good.  Tuesday was also the first day this four day work cycle I've worn shorts.  We were moderately busy Tuesday renting 13 carts, but we did see an influx of RV customers later in the day, so it should get busier from Wednesday forward.  I initially staged 10 carts thinking that would be enough, but there are always 'walk-ins'.  Once the 10 carts were staged I washed the 5 carts left over from Monday, then finished washing the range balls from Monday's harvest.

A little after 8 am a lady from the RV park approached me asking where propane could be purchased, to which I replied "In Likely at the General Store".  She was an older woman, probably in her late 70's, or early 80's, and was not able to remove the two 10 gallon propane tanks off her trailer tongue in the empty state, let alone reinstall them in their full state.  She asked if I would be willing to do that for her, and take them to the General Store to be refilled later in the morning, and I replied in the affirmative.  The gentleman who pumps the propane at the General Store was down in Madeline buying some hay for his cattle, and would not be back until sometime between 11 and 12 pm, and would let me know when he was back.  Just before 9 am I went down to her site (#11) to pickup her tanks, and await the call.

In the mean time I did some weeding, and then headed out to the driving range to see how many range balls were in the forest on either side of the range.  It took me about 45 minutes to fill one shag bag of balls from the forest.  I've found doing the clearing of the range in two shifts works better for me.  My right knee does not like the uneven surface in the forest, so on the usual days (Monday and Thursday) I only clear the range balls from the driving range proper, then finish the next day in the woods.  Much easier on my knee, which feels great most of the time since I started taking collagen a couple of years ago.  I still have the instability caused by loss of cartilage, but the pain is mostly gone.

I got the call from the General Store around 11:50 am, so I quickly loaded the two 10 gallon cylinders into the VW hatch, and headed over to the General Store to get them filled, returning around 12:30 pm....a little late for TLE's lunch break, but she understood.  from 12:30 pm to 2 pm it was quite busy in the Clubhouse office, and I was glad to see TLE returning promptly at 2 pm.  I managed to get 8 of the 13 carts washed and stowed before 3:30 pm, so will have 5 to wash first thing Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

A typical long weekend Monday....

 5:50 am - Tuesday - September 8th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 10%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in Cape Blanco, OR....

.....on a day off from being docents at the lighthouse.  This is called 'south beach'....so, so beautiful there, and such a great place to spend the Fall.

As I sit at my laptop on Tuesday morning it is still dark, and the sun will not rise for another 35 minutes yet (6:35 am).  It is pitch black outside.  By the time we head to work around 7:25 am the sun will barely have crested over the Warner Mountains to the east.  The sun gets lower in the southern sky each day, and here we are one week, and one day into September already.  When we begin our next 4 day work week next Monday we will be at the middle of the month, with just over 2 weeks remaining in our fifth season at LPG&RVR.  Yesterday, Monday, I saw formations of geese flying south, and a few trees have begun to change to their Fall colors.  By the 22nd of this month the sun will be setting at 6:58 pm, and the sun will not be rising until 6:49 am.  One of the things about living this far north here in California during the summer, and very far north in Arizona in the winter is you get to experience all four seasons.  There is a very definite Fall, a very definite Winter, a very obvious Spring and of course Summer, but not to the extremes that exist in our northern states.

Monday was a normal RV Park Monday after a long weekend (Labor Day).....you could almost hear the 'vacuum' begin to suck the weekend RVers out of the park.  By noontime it was a ghost town once again.  To begin the day I staged 6 carts not expecting to rent them all, but as the morning progressed we continued to rent carts, and by 2 pm we had 14, or 15 carts on the course.  Not a bad 'vacuum' day as 'vacuum' days go.  I still had 5 carts left over from Sunday to wash and stow, but I didn't wash them until almost 10 am because it was too cold.  There was frost on the seats of those 5 carts.

Around 10:30 am I headed out to the driving range to clear the range balls, so they could be washed, dried, and poured back into the 55 gallon barrel in the Clubhouse.  Our mower, DeWayne Matthews, is in Montana attending a wedding, so there was no mowing to be done.  If no mowing is to be done, why clear the driving range, right?  Well, the barrel was about 1/2 empty, and I didn't want my counterpart to have to clear that many balls on Thursday.  Thursday is supposed to be a light day for clearing range balls, and we both look forward to that.  Typically on a Thursday we pick less than a 1/2 bucket of balls.  On Monday I cleared over 2 buckets.

By the time I finished washing one bucket of balls it was time for TLE's 90 minute lunch break.  I think I answered one phone call, and sent out two golfers for 18 holes.  Otherwise it was pretty slow. After lunch I managed to wash all 8 carts which had been returned, washed and dried the rest of the golf balls, spent time talking with customers, and then stowed the 8 carts.  It was after 3:30 pm, and time to head for home for a hot shower, and a nap before giving TLE a ride home at 5 pm.  The temp got to maybe 74° F, and it was a very laid back kind of day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hours of cart washing.....

 5:52 am - Monday - September 7th - LPG&RVR - 35° F, humidity 43%, cloud cover 1%, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast.....cloudless, blue skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I were living at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort....

....it was our first season there.  Here we are taking a walk out Likely Place to Jess Valley Road.  We never get tired of this view.

Sunday was TLE's second day of work this cycle, and my first.  As you will recall she substituted for Kathie Smith on Saturday so she could attend a funeral.  This is what greeted me at 7:30 am Sunday morning....

....24 golf carts left over from Saturday.  Apparently we pretty much rented every golf cart we had Saturday, which is a good thing.  Our first golfers were not teeing off until 9 am so I had plenty of time to stage what carts had been washed and stowed Saturday (about 10), then begin washing the dirty ones 8 at a time.  Sunday was not quite as busy as Saturday, but we did rent 23 golf carts, nonetheless.

It took me most of the morning to get all 24 carts washed, and eventually staged for rental.  By 11:30 am we had rented 13 carts, and I had 10 more staged, which ended up being just exactly what we needed.  From about 11:30 to noon time I used compressed air to clear the grass off both of the Husqvarna mowers.  A lot of grass collects on top of the mowing decks when mowing, and it needs to be cleared before they are used again.  

I gave TLE her usual 90 minute lunch break, and then headed back to the 'Cart Return' area to begin washing/stowing more golf carts. By the time 3:30 rolled around I had managed to wash/stow 18 of the 23 rented carts.  I'll begin Sunday by washing the remaining 5....much better than 24...lol! In all I washed 42 golf carts Saturday.

I was very cold Sunday, and I'm not sure it got much above 62° F before the temps dove back into the high 50's.  I ended up wearing my hooded sweatshirt after lunch until I headed home at 3:30 pm.  Instead of taking a shower as I usually do, I changed clothes, sat down in my recliner, and took a nap.  When I awoke at 4:30 pm I took my shower, then headed down to the 'Night Office' to flip the sign, then back to the Clubhouse to join TLE and Claude for a seafood dinner courtesy Sunny's Likely Place Grill.  The dinner was by reservation only, and the restaurant was packed!  We sat eating shrimp and crab's legs, laughing, and talking until almost 8 pm before finally heading home for the evening.  I wish I had taken pictures.

As is our habit on work days, we were in bed by 9 pm....thanks for stopping by!