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!

Four in a row.....

 5:54 am - Sunday - September 6th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 56%, cloud cover 70%, wind 13 mph out of the southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were serving as lighthouse docents at Cape Blanco, OR....

You can see a lit bulb, and one that is not....when one burns out the platform rotates to power up the standby bulb

....these are pictures of the amazing Fresnel Lens used to project a light beacon many miles out to sea.

TLE had volunteered to work for Kathie Smith (TLE shares the office job with her) so Kathie could attend a funeral down in Reno, so I had Saturday all to myself.  By 9 am I was watching NCAA College Football, and continued to do so throughout the day.  The temp at 8 am was around 38° F; too cold to do any work.  By 9 am it had warmed into the mid 40's so I began to reinstall the carpet, and wood trim around the toilet.  It took less than an hour....

....once that was done I pulled the throw rugs, shook them out, and then proceeded to sweep the entire coach free of the outdoor elements which had invaded our home over the past few days.  By 10 am I was done with my work for the day, and settled in to watch more college football.

TLE came home for her lunch break, and I returned to the Clubhouse with her to practice putting in preparation for the weekly putting contest.  Including Saturday (September 5th) there are just two Saturdays left to qualify for the final to be held on September 19th.  Every person who has placed first, or second during the summer in any given contest is eligible to putt on September 19th for the 2026 putting championship, and I had not yet been 'in the money', so to speak (finished 1st, or 2nd).  I've made the putting final all four previous years, and in fact, last year (2025) I was in the money five times, but this year I kept falling just short, so I spent a good hour putting; something I haven't done this summer.

I returned home around 2 pm, to continue watching more college football, and then around 3:50 pm returned to the Clubhouse to see what the 'fates' had in store for me.  There were 22, or 24 putters on this Saturday, and through 6 rounds I had not lost.  I lost the 7th round after leading 1-0 through three holes, but my opponent had a hole in one on the 4th, and 5th holes to edge me out.  I then went to the losers bracket to win my next 3 matches and get to the final against the only guy who had beaten me.  He promptly holed out on holes 1 and 2 to go up 2-0, and my fate was sealed.  I made all my second putts on the remaining 3 holes, but so did he.  Nevertheless, I finished 'in the money' in second place, and have now qualified for the final in two weeks.....whew, that was close!  On this day I putted well, and did not beat myself.  I was beaten by a guy who made 4 hole in ones in four consecutive holes against me (4  & 5 in first match, and then 1 & 2 in the second match).  I putted the best I have putted this year, but just lost to a guy on fire for four holes.

Thanks for stopping by!

A repeat performance.....

 6:42 am - Saturday - September 5th - LPG&RVR - 35° F, humidity 47%, cloud cover 28%, wind 11 mph out of the south......clear, blue skies this morning with a forecast high today of 71° F.  On this date in 2010 TLE and I were in Pismo Beach, CA.....

.....we were spending the weekend in Ventura at an RV park there over Labor Day Weekend, and decided to drive up to Pismo Beach for lunch.  We still had the 2002 T-Bird Retro back then.

Just before I went to bed Thursday evening I noticed the small throw rug in the bathroom was damp.  When I felt the carpet around the Dometic toilet it was damp....doh!  This exact same thing happened a few months ago, and it turned out the water supply connection needed tightening.  I was a simple fix, and hasn't leaked again until Thursday.  This time I decided I needed to take the whole assembly apart, clean up the connecting 3/8" nipple threads, apply some new Teflon tape, and then reassemble....

....on the left (in this picture) is the braided supply line which connects to the RV supply line (gray PVC on right).  There is a galvanized 3/8" nipple in between the braided line and the PVC line.  That is what I removed, cleaned, and rewrapped in Teflon tape.  Once it was reassembled I turned on the water, and there was NO more leak.  In all it took me about an hour beginning to end.  The carpet piece was still drying out yesterday afternoon so I will reinstall that on Saturday.

A few days ago we received the new ultra violet light filter for the reverse osmosis system I wrote about a few days ago.  This new ultra violet light filter is the OEM part, which is what I should have ordered originally.  It took me less that 10 minutes to remove the old OEM filter, and install the new one.....this time NO leaks.....

New ultraviolet light filter installed and working!

.....will I ever learn the lesson that you ALWAYS replace OEM parts with OEM parts.  Cheaper is NEVER better.

I spent the rest of the day reading, and watching college football.  Yes, college football is back as of this weekend.  My USC Trojans won over Fresno State 39-0, and it wasn't really that close.

Thanks for stopping by!

They guessed wrong.....

 8:05 am - Friday - September 4th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 56%, cloud cover 56%, wind 10 mph out of the west by southwest....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were at Cape Blanco, OR....

.....watching another sunset.  Over the 15 years of our nomadic wanderings we have spent a lot of time on the Southern Oregon Coast.

We literally had no plans for Thursday as the weather guessers predicted we would have rain here in the Pitt River Valley from 5 am until 2 am Friday morning.  That, my friends, did not happen.  Did it rain?  Sure about 5 minutes every couple of hours.  The end result was the same as if it had rained continuously....we did nothing all day long.  Every time it started to rain we thought this was it, but then it would stop 5 minutes later.  Every time I would go outside to do something it would begin to rain, chasing me back inside, and then stop after just a few minutes.  All that being said, it did rain just enough to settle the dust for a few days, and that is a good thing.

I did, however, have one rainy day project I was saving for Thursday.  TLE and I keep very few hard copy files.  Ever since we have been on the road we will save paperwork that we get in the mail, or otherwise, and when there is enough to justify setting up our scanner we'll do it all at once, then shred the paperwork, or sometimes burn it.  Until we are ready to scan we store unscanned paperwork in a pouch behind the driver seat....

....that pouch was overflowing with paperwork needing scanning, so I removed it all and began to sort through all of it separating it into three piles....scan, store, throw away.  The purpose of the scan pile is obvious....it is stuff we need to save by digitizing it.  The 'store' pile is full of owners manuals for appliances, and other equipment we have purchased in the past couple of years such as our Predator 5000 dual fuel generator, the Eco Worthy dual axis solar tracker, Bluetti batteries, etc.  I will need to find a place to store these manuals. After about an hour of sorting I had a stack of 'throw away' paperwork which was larger than the scan/store piles combined....

....the pile on the bottom is the scan pile, and the pile on the top is composed of owners manuals.  Now that the paperwork is manageable I'll do a second sort, and winnow out more to throw away, such as duplicates, etc.  That was my project for the "rainy day".

The temp never got higher than 53° F, and it was windy on top of that, so even without the promised rain, it was a day, if one was not required to be working, to stay inside where it is warm.  We passed the time reading, and watching some YouTube videos, stopping periodically to listen to the rain on our riveted aircraft aluminum roof.  Our electric heaters remained in the 'ON' position until we went to bed.  As I write Friday morning the sun has broken through the clouds, and soon we will be able to see if Eagle Mountain attracted any snow.

Thanks for stopping by!

No plans? Yeah, right!

 8:10 am - Thursday - September 3rd - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 89%, cloud cover 95%, chance of rain 100%, wind 7 mph out of the north by northwest.....heavy cloud cover with occasional rain showers, and a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

....working at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store.  I worked in the fountain that summer serving ice cream.  We had a surprise visit from long time Whatsnewell readers Jill and Gary.  They began following our nomadic adventures when we worked the beet harvest back in 2013.  The view this morning....

We, initially, had no plans for Wednesday other than to relax after our four days of work.  Sure, there were a few small projects I wanted to tackle at some point, but I was flexible.  I could do them Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday....lol.  As I was in the process of trying to restore order to my disheveled coif TLE called out from the Salon advising we should probably go into town to do our weekly shopping 'today' as Thursday it would be raining, and by Friday the Labor Day weekend crowds would be upon us.  I immediately replied that we should, to which she replied, "Let's go around 11 am".  So, in a manner of speaking, the 'die was cast', and our 'no plans' day suddenly had plans.

I like our days off work as I can linger over the current iteration of my daily blog posts.  I didn't begin to compose the 'what happened on Tuesday' post until around 8 am, and didn't finish until almost 9:30 am.  On days off work I can be more creative, and expressive with an endless amount of time available, but on days we work I tend to get a little more stilted, and perfunctory with the composition.  When we work I get it done in about 25 minutes, or less, and am not always happy with the end result.

We were in the VW a little after 11 am, and arriving at Dollar General ( we skipped ACE Hardware) around 11:25 am.  By the time we finished with Dollar General and Holiday Market it was getting close to 12:30 pm.  You will recall that a couple of weeks ago we checked out Double A Coffee Community for the first time, and loved it, so we decided to revisit them on our way out of town.  We both ordered Americanos (large for moi, and small for TLE), and decided to split their Hot Pastrami Panni sandwich....

Look at that layer of lean pastrami!

.....Halloween is still 8 weeks away, but the decorations are already popping up everywhere.  Dollar General has a whole aisle dedicated to Halloween decorations, and Holiday Market a whole 'end cap'.  Personally, I don't get it.  Anyway, we had a delightful interlude sipping our Americanos, and consuming our hot pastramis on this chilly, blustery day.

We were home by 1:30 pm unpacking the Beetle, and stowing away our purchases.  Speaking of purchases I did buy 4 metal sunflowers to put in one of our flower beds.....

....by the time I put away a few of our grocery purchases in the trailer I was getting much colder, so I headed indoors for the balance of the day.  Sometime around 4 pm I got inspired and decided to tackle a couple of small projects, such as finding out why the display on our brake controller would not shut down as it always has for the 16 years it has been installed.  I had to unscrew the Technosha Prodigy brake controller (for the trailer brakes), and then unplug the cable.  Once I did that, of course, the display went dark.  When I plugged it back in it showed the normal 'NC' meaning no connection to the trailer, which is what it should show, and within minutes the display went 'dark' as it should.  Hmmm, that was easy....

....the display is once again 'dark' as it should be. I next turned my attention to the switch which turns the recessed LED strip lights around the salon on and off.  They would NOT turn on the other morning, and I couldn't figure out why at the time.  I thought maybe the switch was defective, so I rotated it in order to unscrew it from the wall when it began to work again.....doh....

When the switch is rotated downward the lights work, but when it its normal position facing outward they do not.....hmmmm?

....normally the switch faces outward, but as I rotated it counter clockwise to get at the phillips head screw the lights turned on again.  Obviously, it is not the switch, but some issue with the wiring connected to the switch.  Well, at any rate, they are working again.  Further investigation will be necessary to determine what the wiring issue is.

In just a few minutes I totally (in the case of the brake controller) fixed one problem, and partially fixed another (in the case of the light switch).  Time to take my victories, enjoy them, and relax again....lol....so I did.

Thanks for stopping by!