'Lido deck' life.....

 7:53 am - Monday - September 21st - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 19%, wind 6 mph out of the west.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY....near the North Entrance of.....

.....Yellowstone National Park where winter came early that year.  This is the General Store where we worked for four months that summer.  I wrote about that here.

Time is marching forward day by day, and soon we will be offering up our 'until next times' to our family here at LPG&RVR.  The sun is noticeably lower in the sky as it repeats its daily arc across the increasingly southern sky from east to west.  In a few days we will be taking down the sun shade which has dutifully kept the summer sun from direct contact with our front cap and windshield these past months, and within 2 weeks we will begin to organize the trailer for VW insertion sometime near the beginning of the 2nd week of October.  That I am even mentioning the word October seems surreal, but it is undeniable that today (Monday) is September 21st, and our last work day is a mere 12 days in the future now.  Tonight the sun will officially set at 7 pm....it seems like it was setting well after 8:40 pm just a couple of weeks ago.  The sun isn't cresting the Warner Mountains until well after 7 am now, and within a week, or so the daylight portion of our day will be less than 12 hours.

With the overcast skies we had Sunday it remained cold on the 'lido deck' until after 12 pm, and that is when I moved out to the 'lido deck' to watch NFL football.  The main afternoon game (for me anyway) was the Raider vs. Charger game being played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.  The Raiders have delivered one dismal season upon another for the past decade, or more, but something seems different this year.  They make very few mistakes, and have won two games in a row to start this season for the first time in 10, or 12 years.  My oldest son is an avid Raiders fan, as I have been since the 70's.  He and his wife often head to Las Vegas on weekends when the Raiders are at home, and as an extra treat they were able to attend the Raider vs. Chargers game in L.A. this past weekend.  It turned out to be a well played game by the Raiders who won 24-14.

I remained on the 'lido deck' well after 5 pm when TLE rang the dinner bell.  Sunday evening's dinner fare was a Cobb Salad, one of my favorites.  While we ate we watched the Sunday night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Kansas City Chiefs.  We weren't expecting much of a game, but the Colts' offense showed on Sunday, and at the end of regulation time (60 minutes) the game was tied 27-27.  Overtime in the NFL consists of one 10 minute over time period with each team getting at least one possession of the football, unless there is a defensive touchdown; at least that is how I think it works.  Anyway, ultimately each team kicked a field goal to remain tied at 30-30 with 3 minutes to go in the overtime.  The Chiefs got the ball and marched down the field to kick the winning field goal as the overtime expired.  It was a good day for watching football outdoors.

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We're adults, after all....

 8:32 am  - Sunday - September 20th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 34%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast......partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Fairmont Hot Springs, MT.....

.....with Tom and Darlene McCloud.  They were on their way back south to Arizona on I-15 from Canada, and we were heading east to the sugar beet harvest in Sydney, MT via I-90.

We slept in again Saturday until after 8 am....two days in a row!  It feels like we're doing something wrong, and are going to get in trouble, but then we remember we're adults, and require no outside supervision....lol.  We can do what we want on our days off work.  Saturday was the day of the annual putting contest final which features all those who have finished either first, or second on any given Saturday during the summer, putting for bragging rights.  Around 10 am I drove cart #20 over to the Clubhouse to practice putting for 30, or 40 minutes, then returned to spend the rest of the day (until 3 pm when the putting contest was scheduled to be played) on the 'lido deck' reading, and watching NCAA college football.  

There were a number of upsets of Top 25 teams such as #8 Ole Miss upsetting #7 LSU, unranked Kentucky upsetting #9 Texas A&M, #23 Louisville upsetting #16 SMU, and unranked West Virginia upsetting #20 Missouri.  My USC Trojans (#12) won a close game (as they should have) at unranked Rutgers 42-35.  Other than those upsets, everyone who should have won, won.  Oregon came back from a humiliating loss to an unranked team last week to win 84-0 over Portland State, so I'm sure they're feeling better about themselves.

Soon it was time for the putting contest finals at which only 8 of the former 1st and 2nd place winners were on hand.  Since there were only 8 of us the format was double elimination.  I lost my first match to the ultimate winner, Don Kittleseon, who is a club pro at another golf course.  At the end of 5 holes in my losers' bracket match I was tied 2-2 after 5 holes, so we went to a one hole putt off....closest to the pin after one putt.  I made a terrible putt losing to Terri Plumlee, so after two rounds I was out.

At 5:15 pm we attended the Club Members annual dinner.  We are not 'Club Members', however, all employees are invited.  It was potluck this year, and as usual, there were many great dishes, and a great time was had by all.  We were home by 6:30 pm, and I was ready for another nap....lol.

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Sleepin' in......

 7:50 am - Saturday - September 19th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 1%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Seal Rock, OR.....

watching an amazing Coastal Oregon sunset.  A million dollar view in trade for a couple hours of work a day, four days a week for a year!  The view this morning....

.....Fall colors are everywhere now!

We must have been really tired, because we didn't get out of bed until AFTER 8 am Friday morning!  After posting my latest blogosphere offering I decided to wash the Beetle for the first time in a few weeks, and then around 11:30 am we headed over to Canby to have coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Coffee Adventure before returning to Alturas to do our weekly grocery shopping.

It's less than 38 miles door to door from site #55 here at LPG&RVR, and we were there before 12:30 pm.  The drive is always enjoyable, with very little traffic.  This little coffee shop opened three summers ago, and we have always made time every year to make the drive there just to have their coffee.  On occasions when we are going, or coming to and from Klamath Falls we make a point of stopping there at least once.  We were on the road back to Alturas a little after 1 pm, and back in Alturas 20 minutes later making our first stop at Holiday Market, then over to Grocery Outlet before heading back to LPG&RVR where we arrived around 2:30 pm.

After unloading the VW I headed out to the 'lido deck' to enjoy what was left of a balmy afternoon.  I read, and napped until after  5pm before heading inside for the evening where I continued reading.  It was a wonderful first day of our four day weekend, which is the 2nd to last of our four day weekends.

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Just 8 left....

 8:19 am - Friday - September 18th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 51%, cloud cover 15%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest......kind of hazy, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Denver, CO.....

Not that far from downtown Denver

.....visiting Red Rocks Amphitheater.  Many famous Rock Bands have played there over the years, including the Beatles and Stones, plus there is an onsite museum detailing all of those bands.

Day four of our four day work cycle came, and went quickly as it always does.  After staging the 6 EZ-GO golf carts I got busy washing the 12 carts left over from Wednesday.  The sun is not high enough in the sky to hit the 'Cart Return' area when we report for work now, so I wait until after 8 am to begin washing carts so I can do it in the warmth of the morning sun.  For the first time since last May I worked all four days wearing pants, long socks, and a long sleeve shirt.

After washing the carts I spent time disconnecting the positive and negative cables from the battery in Club Car #26 (round nose) to clean the terminals, and the cable ends as it seemed the starter was not  getting full power making it difficult to start.  When I reconnected them it started as it should, and cleaning the terminal seems to have done the trick.  On the other hand, #77 Yamaha runs like it has a fouled plug, but I pulled the plug and it was clean, so back to the drawing board on that one.

By the time I finished with the carts it was around 10:45 am, and time to begin clearing the range balls off the driving range.  DeWayne is only mowing the range once a week on Thursdays now, so unless we are running out of range balls we don't clear it on Monday's anymore.  Based on the 55 gallon barrel being about half empty I estimated we could glean between 2 and 3 buckets of balls.  Claude was not busy so he helped me clear the range, and it is a good thing he did as it took us 45 minutes to fill 3 five gallon buckets, and without his help it would have taken me well past TLE's lunch break.....thank you Claude!

Just as I finished filling the buckets with water I noticed the group using the large gazebo had departed, and I knew another group would be arriving soon, so I hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and had the grass mowed in less than 10 minutes.  By that time it was 12 pm, and time for TLE's lunch break.  Things were moderately busy during that 90 minute interlude, and soon I was back outside washing golf balls, and then golf carts as they began to return.  I stayed busy until 3:30 pm, then headed for home to begin my 4 day weekend.

And with the finish of Thursday we now have just 8 work days left in our 5th summer season here at LPG&RVR.

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Best midweek day in 8 weeks!

 5:40 am - Thursday - September 17th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 44%, wind 10 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2020 I had finally set up our outdoor lighting....

.....at our camphost site at Seal Rocks RV Cove.  The on site managers loved them!  the rope lights faired quite well in the salt laden air, but the Christmas mini lights eventually succumbed.  I still have those white rope lights, and they still work!

The temp dropped into the low 70's Wednesday, which made for a delightful work day.  It turned out to be a great golf day at LPG&RVR with a total of 23 carts rented.  Our first mid week 20+ cart rental day in 8 weeks.  The more carts rented the busier I stay, and that is what I prefer.  On the down side, many of them were rented after 12 pm, meaning many of them did not return by 3:30 pm, and that would be around 12, so I'll have a busy Thursday morning.

For the first time in a few weeks I rented carts 26-30, the old round nosed Club Car gassers, and they all ran well except for 26, which had intermittent issues with starting, but the golfers did make it back without having to be rescued, however, I'll have to spend time Thursday figuring out the issue.  We also had issues with Yamaha gasser #77, which feels like it has a mostly fouled spark plug.  It, too, made it back without needing a rescue.

Thursday I'll be clearing the driving range of range balls, but I decided to clear the woods on either side of the range Wednesday, so all I'll have to worry about Thursday is the driving range proper, and there are a lot of balls out there.  I checked the 55 gallon barrel in the Clubhouse and it is half empty, so there are between 2, and 3 5 gallon buckets of balls out there.  In all I filled one shag bag with the forest balls.

Just before TLE's lunch break I decided to mow the small gazebo grass.  I wasn't sure when the next group would be arriving, but it was getting long so I cut it.  As it turned out the group scheduled to use it arrived right after lunch, so great timing on my part!  The afternoon was a flurry of activity as I washed cart after cart.  By the time 3:30 pm arrived those 12 carts I mentioned earlier were still outstanding.  By the time I returned to pickup TLE at 5 pm another four had arrived, so there were will 8 out there somewhere.  All that remains between us and our next four day weekend is one more day of work.

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Fall is on our doorstep.....

 5:52 am - Wednesday - September 16th - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 42%, cloud cover 33%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were living in Seal Rock, OR.....

....taking our first walk on Seal Rock Beach, right across US-1 from our camphost site.

The RV park since the Labor Day weekend has been so much busier, which means I'm busier, which means work time passes more quickly....all good things.  Once again our first golf customers didn't tee off until 9 am, even though there was no frost delay on Tuesday.  I staged 4 of the Club Car electrics, but only 3 went out before 10 am, so I restowed the fourth cart, and staged 5 of the Yamaha gassers.  Over the course of the day we rented 17 carts; very good for a Tuesday.....lately.

I spent time reinstalling the repaired right front wheel/tire on the 2 bag Husqvarna, and then proceeded to wash the 8 carts left over from Monday.  After they were washed I then refueled each of them, then used compressed air to blow the dust out of the engine bays and centrifugal clutches.  It has been a dry summer, and dust is the enemy of long life for centrifugal clutches.  We had the same issue with the clutches on the Polaris RZRs we rented back in 2023 and 2024.

I was kept busy throughout the morning staging more golf carts, and answering customer questions about the course, and the property, and soon it was time to give TLE her lunch break.  Lunch time was moderately busy for me, but the big rush came after TLE returned.  I think 7, or 8 RV's arrived in a 25 minute period.

Six carts awaited me at the wash station, so I got busy washing them, refueling them, and blowing the dust out of the engine bays.  Around 2:30 pm I took another run around the course, and took a couple of pictures....

.....the trees are beginning adorn themselves with the traditional Fall colors, so it appears Fall is on our doorstep.  By the time I returned just before 3 pm TLE had rented 5 more carts, so I'll have a buttload of carts to wash first thing Wednesday.  There were two more carts to wash and stow, so by the time I finished with them it was time to head for home to take a long, hot shower, and take a nap before returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a lift home.  So with the completion of Tuesday's work we had reached the end of another pay period, and 'hump night' leaving just two more days of work before our next four day weekend.  By the end of Thursday we'll have just 8 work days left this season.

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A productive Monday....

 5:56 am - Tuesday - September 15th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 5%, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE had just arrived at our home for the next 12 months.....

....Seal Rocks RV Cove.  Our employee site was on the hill behind the office (foreground), and this was our view, and was separated from the rest of the campground.  One of the best workamping jobs ever.....great place to live for the next 12 months.

For the second consecutive day it got down to freezing overnight, and we were met with frost on the putting green as we arrived at 7:30 am for our first of four work days.  Due to the frost there was a 90 minute frost delay for those wishing to play a around of golf.  As a result our first golfers did not tee off until 9:30 am.  There were six carts left over from Sunday for me to wash, but it was too cold to take care of that until closer to 9:30 am.  I initially staged 4 carts for the 9:30 am folks, and then later an additional 12 carts. By 3:30 pm 8 of them were still outstanding.

I spent time repairing the hose on the air compressor in the 'Caddy Shack'.  It had developed a leak last Wednesday (my last work day), and I had to cut off about 4 feet of the hose, and reattach the shortened hose so I could blow grass off the two Husqvarna mowing decks, and didn't have time to splice the four feet back to the hose that day.  In the interim I found a coupling to splice the two pieces, and was able to restore the full length of hose.  

Next up I was able to repair the right front wheel of the 2 bag Husqvarna with two new bushings.  As you will recall I discovered the bushing on the outside of the wheel had broken, and I didn't think we had any other bushings, so I borrowed the right front wheel from the defunct John Deere mower which had two good bushings.  As it turns out we do have four of those bushings, so using a chisel I pounded out the remains of the old bushing, and pressed in the new one.  While I was at it I replaced the inside bushing as well, since it had worn unevenly for a period of time before I discovered the problem with the outside bushing.  It was actually a pretty straightforward repair.  By that time it was almost 12 noon, so I put away my tools, and headed inside to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break.

The office was pretty busy during that time with phone calls to answer, and customers to check into the RV park, so the 90 minutes passed by quickly.  Soon I was back outside washing and stowing golf carts.  I made one pass around the golf course since our Marshal (Claude) is off Monday through Wednesdays.  All was well, and folks were obeying the rules.  By the time I returned it was almost 3 pm, and there were a few more carts to wash and stow, so I took care of them, closed up the 'Caddy Shack', and was home by 3:30 pm.

As of this writing (Tuesday morning around 6:22 am) we have just 10 more early mornings left, and 12 more days off work, plus another 5 months after that of no early mornings until we return for our 6th season here at LPG&RVR.

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