Range day.....

 7:20 am - Tuesday - June 30th - LPG&RVR - 54°  F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 2%, wind 12 mph out of the north by northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were overnighting in Sheridan, WY.....

Left to right: 1982 Newell Classic, 1999 Newell and 2002 Newell

....with our friends (Forest/Cindy - middle Newell, and Tom/Darlene - far right Newell) while on our way to Alberta, Canada.

Mondays after a busy weekend means a lot of range balls to harvest. In this case the 55 gallon barrel was virtually empty....

.....the day began slowly with me putting out just 3 of the Club Car electrics.  Ultimately we would rent 13 carts, so that was a pretty slow day for us.

On the other hand I had 17 dirty carts left over from our very busy Sunday to clean, fuel and stow.  By the time that was done it was almost 9:30 am.  I knew from past experience that it would take more than 2 hours to clear the driving range, and woods on either side so I called Claude (off work on Mondays) to see if he was willing to help, and he was.  We began clearing the range at 10 am sharp and finished a little after 11:30 am, so by myself it would have taken close to 3 hours.  We garnered 6 five gallon buckets of balls, each filled to the brim.  By the time we unloaded the buckets from our carts and I filled them with water so they could soak over lunch it was time to give TLE her lunch break.

Unlike Sunday, Monday's lunch break was very unbusy.  I sold 4 rounds of golf, and answered 3 phone calls.  When I headed back outside to work there were only those first three Club Car electrics to clean, so there were still 10 outstanding at 1:30 pm.  I spent the next hour washing and drying those 6 buckets of balls, and still only had the three Club Car electrics to wash, so I washed and stowed them.  By 3 pm there were still 10 carts outstanding so I headed home for a one hour break, returning at 4 pm to find 7 more carts needing their spa treatment.  Within 40 minutes I had them washed and stowed leaving just 3 carts for Steve to wash Tuesday morning.....much, much better than 10!

I then headed down to the 'Night Office' to flip the sign, and post the availability.  TLE opted to walk home after she was done, and was home by 5:15 pm, and thus began our next four day weekend.

There were three round of 32 matches (knockout round - win, or go home) and they were all close games.  The first game between Brazil and Japan was decided by a late goal in 'added time', and the next two matches (Germany v. Paraguay, and Netherlands v. Morocco) both went to 'penalty kicks from the mark'.  Surprisingly, Germany lost 4-3 in 'kicks' to Paraguay (major upset),   and Morocco won 3-2  in 'kicks' over Netherlands.....both big surprises.

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A cold, blustery day.....

 5:51 am - Monday - June 29th - LPG&RVR - 39° F (!!!), humidity 43%, cloud cover 64%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest.....cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I made a quick stop at Devil's Tower on our way north to Alberta, Canada....

.....this was our first time visiting there....we were there again in 2020 for a couple of days.

Sunday began cold and cloudy and pretty much stayed that way all day long.  I wore my hoody sweatshirt all day long, and as has been the case the first two days of this four day work week, I wore long pants, and a long sleeve shirt.  I was greeted by 16 unwashed golf carts at 7:30 am.  Thankfully, no one was scheduled to tee off until 10 am, so I took my time washing and detailing them, then put them away.  By 9:00 am I was staging carts for the day, and by 9:30 am people were showing up for their 10 am tee times.  I enjoyed being able to take my time cleaning the carts, and even had time to refuel some of them, and used compressed air to blow the dust out of the engine compartments.

Once I was sure TLE had enough carts for the next hour I spent time rolling up the numerous hoses we use to water the dry areas of the parking lot grass, and then the 4 very long hoses we use to water the entire 'Night Office' grass area.  There are two hose bibbs down there to water about an acre of grass, so two of the hoses are close to 200' long, and take quite a while to coil.

By the time I returned to the Clubhouse TLE needed more carts so I staged 10 more carts.  By the end of the day we had rented 25 carts, and by 3:30 pm only 7 of them had returned, so I will have a boatload of carts to wash Monday morning.....it is what it is.

I was home relaxing prior to returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home when I got a call around 4:40 pm from her advising one of the Yamaha gassers had quit running out at the 10th hole.  The 10th hole is about 700 yards from the Clubhouse, so I called Claude, who was also off work, and asked him to meet me out there so we could tow the disabled cart back to the Cart Return area.  In all it took us about 30 minutes to get the cart towed back to the Clubhouse where I hooked up a charger to the battery for just 5 minutes.  Sometimes the something weird happens in the electrical system, and they act as if the battery is dead, when it is not.  A little extra 'juice' for a few minutes is enough to get them started again, and reset the sytem, and that was the case this time.  This happens once, or twice a month with different Yamahas.  Not quite sure what the issue is, but it is rare, and fixable.

By the time I put away the charger, and extension cord TLE was ready to head for home, and thus ended another LPG&RVR day.  Just one day left in our four day work week, and then the four day weekend begins!

Thanks for stopping by!

Unexpected rain.....

 6:06 am - Sunday - June 28th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 49%, cloud cover 34%, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest.....cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were working the 'CLOSE' shift at the General Store.....

....in Yellowstone NP at Mammoth Hot Springs....the General Store is right next to the hot springs.

There was NO rain in the forecast for Saturday, but that is what we got for the second day in a row....

.....as a result we did not send any golfers out until 9 am when the rain stopped.  After that we put out 25 golf carts.  Just like Friday, I put them out 1, or 2 at a time just in case it began raining again.  Once there was a lull in customer traffic I took a broom and spent about 30 minutes brushing the cobwebs off the wood roof structure on the Clubhouse deck.  That was the easy part.  Then I had to clean off the dining tables, and then sweep the entire deck.

I neglected to mention that I had 13 golf carts to wash/stow left over from Friday, so in between staging golf carts I washed, and stowed those 13 carts.  That took me most of the morning, but I got them done.  Over the course of the morning/afternoon many of them were staged again as golfers continued to come out of the wood work.

By 3:30 pm I had washed/stowed around 13 returning carts, so I'll have a bunch to wash again Sunday morning.  I headed home to change for the weekly putting contest, and was back about 3:55 pm.  I did not put well Saturday, but I managed to last through 4 rounds before being ousted.  As always, we all had a great time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain day.....

 6:22 am - Saturday - June 27th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 61%, cloud cover 79%, wind 15 mph out of the northwest.....heavy cloud cover with rain this morning, and a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Keystone, SD.....

....with Tom and Darlene McCloud having ice cream....Keystone is where Mt. Rushmore is.

We were expecting no rain until late afternoon Friday, however, it began the minute we headed over to the Clubhouse to begin our workday, and continued until after 10 am.  A number of folks decided to play in the rain, but most waited for the rain to stop.  By early afternoon we had rented 20 golf carts, but that meant they would be coming back late, and sure enough at 3:30 pm only 11 had returned, meaning I'll have 9 to wash first thing Saturday.

During the day we received noticed from Rochelle, my daughter-in-law that their son, Chris,  and his significant other, Zoey, had had their baby......Lacy May....

....she came in at 10 pounds 5 ounces (!!).....already crawling...no, not really...and 20 inches in length.  Zoey is not a big woman, so this baby was delivered by C Section.  She is already wearing diapers for a 1 month old baby.  Anyway, our third great grand child is here safe and sound, and surrounded by love.

Since it had rained so hard until mid morning there was really no mowing, or trimming to be done until things dry out a little, so I hung around the Clubhouse staging one, or two carts at a time as customers paid for golf.  At that point we weren't sure if the rain was over so no point in pulling out a lot of carts only to get them wet, and have to them away again.

The clouds eventually parted around noon time allowing the sun to begin to dry things out, and that is when most of the golfers went out to play golf.  I was home by 3:30 pm, returning to the Clubhouse just before 5 pm to give TLE a ride home.  It began raining again around midnight, and continues until now.

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Cooling down....

 5:51 am - Friday - June 26th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 56% (looks higher than that), wind 17 mph out of the west....cloudy today with a forecast high of 72° F.....rain in the forecast for this evening.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park....

....getting ready to begin our jobs at the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs in a couple of days....here we are on a bridge over the Gardiner River.

After not doing much the past couple of days I got ambitious Thursday.  I haven't washed the Beetle in a few weeks, so while it was still cool, I headed outside to do just that.  It took me a good 15 minutes just to clean all of the bugs off the front of the car.  The only thing that works when it gets that bad is one of those 'Magic Erasers'.....

That black grill just below the license plate was chock full of deceased flying insects

.....by the time I finished it was getting warm, but I wasn't done yet.  There have been some nasty hardwater stains in the shower for a long time now, and nothing I've tried would make a dent in them, so I took the same 'Magic Eraser' I used on the VW and went to work in those stains (I've even tried CLR, but it didn't work either).  Much to my dismay, the 'Magic Eraser' did not have the desired effect on those stains.  Next I retrieved a pretty course 'Scotch Brite' from the trailer, and then used it in conjunction with 'Bar Keepers Friend' and that worked....

....it took a lot of 'elbow grease', and about 30 minutes to finally get rid of those hard water stains....that tub hasn't looked that good in a few years, and now I know how to get rid of them.

That was pretty much it work wise for me Thursday.  The weather was warm, and sultry, and not at all comfortable on the 'lido deck' so I spent the balance of the day inside reading, and watching FIFA World Cup soccer.  There were two upsets Thursday.  Germany lost to Equador 2-0, and the USA lost 3-2 to Turkey (I'm sorry, I'm not going to use their new, preferred spelling and pronunciation).  To be fair, the USA and Germany had already 'advanced' to the knock out round, and the USA was playing 9 new players who had not yet played in this World Cup.  The game was tied 2-2 with about 60 seconds to go in 'added time' when Turkey scored the winning goal.

It did cool down to just 85° F Thursday, then on Friday the temp will drop into the very low 70's, and by Saturday we'll see 60° F, and rain if the weather guessers are correct.

For dinner I grilled a couple of filet mignon medallions, to which TLE added a side salad, and a baked potato....delicious!  Time to get ready for the first day of or four day work week (Friday through Monday this time).

Thanks for stopping by!

To the shops.....

 7:40 am - Thursday - June 25th - LPG&RVR - 66° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 39%, wind 14 mph out of the west by northwest....partly cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Keystone, SD.....

....courtesy parking near Mt. Rushmore, which you can see in the background.

We needed to make a run into Alturas for our weekly shopping foray, so we designated Wednesday as that day.  We were on the road before 10 am, and in downtown Alturas by 10:20 am.  We had done a pretty big shopping last week, so we made just two shopping stops....Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market.  TLE found a nice salmon steak on Grocery Outlet which we ended up grilling that evening.  The rest of the shopping was pretty routine, and by a little after 11 am we were heading back down Main Street toward home.  We made another quick stop at 'Java Doc' to acquire a large Mocha Frappuccino for moi....

....they are strictly a drive through affair, which is fine.  I should have taken a picture of the 'large' Mocha Frappuccino....it is enormous, and lasted me all the way home, and another hour after we arrived....life is good!

We were home at exactly 12 noon, and within minutes had all three TV's (salon, outdoor and trailer) tuned into the latest FIFA World Cup matches...yes I said matches.  There were two matches in each of the three timeslots Wednesday....12 pm, 3 pm and 6 pm, so we had double the viewing pleasure.  There were no big surprises Wednesday....the teams we thought would advance to the 'knock out round' with victories, or ties did just that.

I spent most of the afternoon on the 'lido deck' until almost 4 pm before succumbing to the rising heat, and retreating indoors for the balance of the afternoon.  Here in Modoc County at over 5,000' elevation the heat of the day does not arrive until 4, or 5 pm each day, and begins to dissipate pretty quickly after that.  Usually, within a couple of hours it is back into the 70's, so we've got that going for us.

It appears we have another cooling trend arriving tomorrow, Friday, which will see temps dip into the 60's and 70's for the next week plus, only getting back into the 80's after the 4th of July....nice.  In fact we may have rain again  beginning Friday night through Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Annual service.....

 8:30 am - Wednesday - June 24th - LPG&RVR - 71° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 75%, wind 13 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies this morning with a forecast high of 87° F, down from 90° F yesterday.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were visiting Devil's Tower.....

.....in Wyoming.  One of those ubiquitous bucket list items, right?

Something I have not done for over a year is service our two 44 year old A/C units.  That they still work, and work well, is remarkable to me, hence I am remarking.  A service basically consists of removing the filters, cleaning them, and then vacuuming the condenser coils free of lint buildup.  Considering it has been over 12 months they looked pretty clean, but that is the reason we use filters, right?  98% of the time we can only run one unit at a time as it just gets too cold.....

The front A/C....Rotary Duo-Therm Sunchaser XL

These units are no longer in production

....the only time we run both at one time is when it is over 100° F, and then only for an hour, or two during the heat of the day.  Typically, just running the rear A/C unit keeps the salon at a comfortable 76° F.  To be sure they both get exercise on a regular basis TLE will turn on the front A/C when she takes her lunch break on days we work, and it will run for 3, or 4 hours until I get home.

Anyway, that was the extent of my physical activity for the balance of the day.  As has been our habit for the past 10 days we watched more FIFA World Cup soccer matches, or fútbol matches as the rest of the world calls them.

On a side note, with the end of the War with Iran world oil prices per barrel have fallen from a high of $110/barrel to just under $70/barrel as of this morning....down over $3/barrel since Tuesday...

....which means gasoline/diesel prices per gallon should begin to drop, also, which will make our return trip to northern Arizona much more affordable in October.

We normally eat dinner around 5 pm when we are at LPG&RVR, but we wanted to eat alfresco so we delayed our dinner until 7 pm when the temperature would be back down in the mid 8o's, and the sun much lower in the horizon.  TLE made Missouri Pot Roast sandwiches, served on a Kaiser roll.  We invited Claude for dinner, and had a great time as we always do. 

You may not know that Claude and I, when we were much younger, used to do long range, multi day bicycle tours.  I recorded those trips in 'journal' form and posted them on Crazy Guy On A Bike (crazyguyonabike.com).  This link will take you to four of those journals, if you are interested.  Our longest tour was just under 500 miles from Indio, CA to Lone Pine, CA through the Mojave National Preserve, Baker, CA, up through Shoshone, CA, through Death Valley, over the Panamint and White Mountains to Lone Pine, CA....I entitled the journal "Mystical Mojave Meanderings".....check it out....

.....it does not seem that this was 18 years ago, but it was.

Thanks for stopping by!