Mechanical issues......

 7:38 am - Wednesday - August 19th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 11%, wind 10 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On  this date in 2018 TLE and I were near Bar Harbor, ME....

At the start....Cadillac South Ridge Trail

Almost there

The reward

....hiking to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  We hiked both the north and south trails that summer.

We slept in until after 8 am Tuesday, and that is easy to do when it is so quiet.  Sunday my Club Car Villager #20 began to give me problems.  It ran fine driving over to the Clubhouse at 7:30 am, but when I went to drive it about 30 minutes later it would turn over, but not start.  I called Bob, our former mechanic who still lives here, and he came down the hill to help me diagnose the issue.  He got it running again for me, and I drove it around the park taking care of a few errands.  It ran normally the entire time.  Then I parked it again at the Clubhouse, and 5 minutes later it would not start again....same issue.

Later in the day I noticed there was no fuel in either of the fuel filters so I called Bob again, to tell him what I discovered and he suggested the fuel line might be clogged at the gas tank, so I blew compressed air backwards through the line, but it would still not start, so he suggested I replaced the fuel pump, which is easy to do....maybe a 20 minute job.  I did that and it began to run again, and ran well.  I headed for home at 3:30 pm thinking I had fixed the issue, and when I returned to pickup TLE at 5 pm it was still running fine, but as we were driving home it stopped running again....doh!  I managed to get it running and drove home and parked it.

Monday morning I went out to see if would start and it didn't.  First thing Tuesday morning I decided to walk over to the Clubhouse and get another Club Car and the tow bar to tow my cart over to the 'Caddy Shack' so Jose could work on it when he has time.  I'm now driving Club Car #1, a two seater, until Jose can get it running again.  

Upon my return to the Newell I retrieved my book and headed out to the 'lido deck' to read, and listen to music, and that is what I did until almost 4 pm when the heat of the day, and lack of a breeze drove me inside where our AC was keeping the interior at a comfortable 76° F.  

Claude's freezer stopped working in the past couple of days so he had some defrosted Top Sirloin steaks he gifted us to grill that evening.  Around 5:30 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que and grilled them to a perfect medium rare.....

....those Top Sirloins were so tender! TLE added a side salad, and some type of macaroni salad, both of which were delicious.  Thank you Claude for the unexpected steak dinner!

Thanks for stopping by!

Not the norm.....

 8:24 am - Tuesday - August 18th - LPG&RVR - 67° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 25%, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in Walker, CA.....

.....having lunch at Walker Burger....best burger in the Eastern Sierra, and about 90 minutes later we were standing at the top of Conway Summit....

....enjoying the view of Mono Lake, and Lee Vining, CA.  We were on our way to Mammoth Mountain to mountain bike with friends for a few days.

We were up around 7 am Monday morning, which is kind of early for us on the first day of our four day weekend, but I had promised Claude I would drive into Alturas later in the morning to pick him up at the local auto body shop where he going to have some work done on his Chevy pickup.  I was on the road just before 9 am, and picking him up at 9:20 am.  We were back at LPG&RVR by 9:45 am....that was a quick turn around.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the 'lido deck', and I mean the rest of the day.  I didn't renter the Newell until after 5 pm.  Even though the high temp of the day was 89° F there was a steady, cool breeze blowing all afternoon making it possible to remain outdoors.  I read, napped, read, and napped some more.  

TLE made stuffed mushrooms for dinner accompanied by a nice side salad.  I'm here to tell you that was a restaurant quality dish.  I wish I had taken pictures, but alas I did not.  Not long after we finished dinner I noticed we were getting an interesting sunset....

Looking northwest

Looking more southwest

Looking west

Looking north

.....it's rare that we get a sunset which stretches across the entire sky.

The park continues to be very unbusy.  I do not remember an August like this the previous four summers.  Since the 4th of July weekend this place has been mostly a ghost town.  We'll get busy for a day, or two, but then it gets quiet again.  Not sure if it is the price of gasoline, or all the fires, or a combination thereof, but what we are experiencing right now is not the norm for this time of year.  Time to wrap this up, and head outdoors for another day on the 'lido deck'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have I told you I love Sundays?

 8:14 am - Monday - August 17th - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 17%, cloud cover 59%, wind 12 mph out of the west.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Oregon....

....visiting the world famous Multnomah Falls.....one of our bucket list items.

I love Sundays!  The rush of Saturday has come and gone, and now folks begin to pack up their stuff and return to their workaday lives.  There were very few golfers Sunday; I think we rented 8, or 9 golf carts, and all but one of them had returned by 3:30 pm.  I did mow the 'Night Office' grass around 11 am, but that was the extent of any hard work done.  

During TLE's lunch break I was able to watch a good portion of the final round of the FedEx/St. Jude Championship in which Scottie Scheffler returned to his dominant form winning by 8 strokes.  He began the fourth round just 2 strokes ahead of the second place players, but while they self destructed, he went four under par winning handily in almost Tigeresque fashion.

When I returned to the 'Cart Return' area after lunch 8 of the 9 carts rented Sunday were ready for their daily spa treatment.  By 3:30 pm I had put away the final cart, and headed for home to begin our four day weekend.  I ran the AC for short while to cool down the Newell interior while I took a shower.  I returned to the Clubhouse to pickup TLE so she could join me for our four day weekend.  Claude came over around 5:30 pm with a smoked Tri Tip steak, which we ate in our new dining canopy.  We ate and talked until close to 7 pm before bidding adieu to Claude, and heading indoors for the balance of the evening; a very nice way to end a work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little behind....

 7:39 am - Monday - August 17th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 59%, wind 12 mph out of the west by southwest....cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I took a 100 mile round trip drive out to the Schoodic Peninsula.....

....which is at the northern most part of Acadia National Park.  We even found out there was good Mexican to be had in this lonely northern Maine outpost in Milbridge, ME.

I overslept Sunday morning, the final day of our four day work week, so I didn't have time to write and post for Saturday, so here goes.  Saturday was another delightful weather day with the temp in the mid 80's, and a light breeze all day long.  The two week heatwave we endured seems a distant memory now.  We actually put out 15 golf carts Saturday, so  was kept busy.  When I wasn't tending to golf carts I was watering the 'Night Office' grass, and spot watering around the parking lot grass, which does have sprinklers, but there are always a few dry spots, especially when it gets into the 90's.  It was a rather routine day with no surprises.

I had ordered some side view, and rear view mirrors for Club Car Village #20 on Amazon a while back, and they arrived via UPS late morning, so I spent time installing them....

.....the side view mirrors cost $11 each, and the rearview mirror was $15.  Very easy to install, and now I can see what's going on behind me....lol!

By 3:30 pm only 6 of the 15 carts had been returned, so I would have 9 to wash first thing Sunday.  I headed for home to change clothes, and return at 4 pm for the weekly putting contest.  I hadn't made a single putt in two weeks, so I had no idea how I would do.  As it turned out I did pretty well making it through 7 rounds before making a mistake on one hole which cost me the the match....

....so my streak of not making it to the final has been extended for another week.  The the above photo you can see Steve Whalen (lower right) who works opposite me taking care of the carts, and mowing.  He is a good putter, and made it through 8 rounds before being eliminated.  The other folks are Joel and Donna....super nice people!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cool temps speed the passage of time....

 5:49 am - Saturday - August 15th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 32%, cloud cover 11%, wind 12 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were near Coupeville, WA (Whidbey Island)....

....courtesy parked on the property of good friends Bob and Karen Fenstermacher (means window maker in German) with this view....

When the weather cools down it seems that time moves faster, at least on those days we work, and that was the case Friday.  Things are still slow here at LPG&RVR, but we did rent 10 golf carts.  The park began to fill later in the morning, and by the time I headed for home at 3:30 pm 10 of the 15 pull sites with grass were full, so this weekend promises to be a little busier than the past few weekends.

Even with a mostly empty park the work continues.  Grass must be watered, mowed and trimmed. Weeds must be eradicated.  They never stop growing, and to keep the flora under control weekly intervention is necessary, so I spent about an hour weeding around the large gazebo sites, then mowed the employee sites, followed by a trip out to the golf course to mow around those tee boxes for which I am responsible.....3, 10, 16, & 18.  I was back by 11 am, so I appropriated one of the string trimmers and headed down to the 'Night Office' lawn to trim around the hose bibs, and trees, then down to the playground to trim around the swing set, and 'Jungle Gym'.  By the time I finished it was time for TLE's lunch break.

We've been having an issue with Verizon the past couple of weeks for cell phone broadband and for our Clubhouse Verizon internet and land line phones, so no phone calls were received.  Thankfully, we also have Starlink in the Clubhouse, so we do have internet for office functions.  The time passed quickly, and at 1:30 I exited into balmy breezes, not a blast furnace like last week; what a welcome change!

By 1:30 pm the carts we had rented had begun to return, and by 3:30 pm all but one of the 10 had returned.  I headed for home where there was NO air conditioning running for a change.  All the windows were open, and it was quite comfortable inside with the outside temperature barely at 83° F.  I retrieved TLE from the Clubhouse at 5:05 pm after flipping the sign down at the 'Night Office' office, and posting the availability.  The day had passed quickly, and suddenly TLE and I were celebrating 'hump night'; just two days left in our four day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to regularly scheduled programming.....

 5:49 am - Friday - August 14th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 41%, cloud cover 8%, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

.....hiking the Cascade Lake Trail.

And back to work we go for another four day stretch.  Thankfully, the temperature dropped overnight from 90° F Wednesday, to a more civilized 85° F Thursday.  For the first time in a while I wore a sweatshirt to work, and wore it for at least an hour before it warmed up enough to remove it.  Wednesday had been a slow day, so there were no leftover carts to wash.  I staged 11 carts initially, and we rented 9; another slow day.

The sun is not rising now until 6:10 am, and it is just beginning to climb above the Warner Mountains to the east as I write.  Within a couple of days the sun will be setting before 8 pm, so the days are getting shorter and shorter.

Thursday I needed to clear the range balls off the driving range for mowing, but before I did that I did some mowing with the Husqvarna 2 bag mower.  In all I mowed both group gazebos, the parking lot grass, a few of the pull throughs, the large grass area next to site #30, and the group firepit grass.  By the time I finished, and cleared the grass off the mower deck of the Husqvarna it was 11 am, and time to clear the driving range before TLE's lunch break.  I all I harvested just 2/3's of a 5 gallon bucket.

Lunch passed quickly, and suddenly it was 1:30 pm.  Instead of the usual blast furnace I had faced the last four day work week I was greeted with balmy winds out of the southwest; what a nice change!  I set some sprinklers to run while I washed the returning carts.  By 3:30 pm only 5 of the 9 carts had returned, but I headed home anyway for my usual cool shower, and nap before returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home.  Thursday was a nice first day back to work.

As I write the Salon electric heater is running as it was only 55° F inside the Newell this morning.  That's the first time we've run the heater in a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for stopping by!

And on the fourth day you shall shop....

 5:49 am - Thursday - August 14th - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 38%, wind 14 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F. On this date in 2012 TLE and I were on the Oregon Coast.....

....traveling south on US-1....Nehalem Bay is in the lower left corner, and the long beach is Manzanita Beach.  One of the most amazing views along the southern Oregon Coast.

We often make our shopping run on the first, or second day of our four day weekend, but on this occasion it was the 4th day of the four day weekend due to my previously scheduled haircut appointment at Kaleidescope.  The appointment was for 9:30 am, so we were in the car by 9:10 am to make the 20 minute drive into Alturas.  We arrived at 9:29 am....perfect!  Within 15 minutes Sheila had restored order to my coif, and we were on our way to ACE Hardware for our first shopping stop of the day.

We like to go to ACE Hardware on Wednesday's because they have free popcorn.  It's a great idea for them.  You get a bag of popcorn then walk up and down the aisles eating the popcorn looking for whatever you are wanting to purchase that day.  Since you're walking slowly so you can eat the popcorn the odds are that you will see something else you want to buy, that you did not have on your list.  Get people in the store, then slow them down by giving them something to eat, and enjoy.  You end up with more sales; at least that is my unproven opinion....lol.  As anecdotal proof I had intended to purchase one item, and one item only, but as I was strolling around eating my popcorn after finding what I wanted I stumbled upon something else I had forgotten I needed; so there you go!  

After ACE Hardware we stopped at Modoc Family Pharmacy (used to be Rite Aide) to see what was what there, and we found out that Coffee Adventure (Canby, CA) is expanding to Alturas, and will have a booth inside the pharmacy building, so we won't have to drive all the way to Canby to get our Coffee Adventure fix in the near future.

We made our usual stops at Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market before beginning the return trip to LPG&RVR.  On our way out of town we decided to stop at a new local eatery (Double A Cafe), which is next to the UPS/FedEx store, to check them out.  It is an upscale coffee house serving all the usual coffees (hot, iced, blended, and otherwise) plus a great selection of Paninis....

....I ordered my usual Mocha Frappuccino, and TLE an iced Americano.  For our lunch we decided to split a jalapeno, bacon, cheese Panini; basically a deconstructed Jalapeno Popper.  We added a bag of salt/vinegar kettle chips for good measure.  The place has that funky vibe we love, and they even have alfresco dining options if you are so inclined; we were not so inclined on this 90° degree day.  What a pleasant surprise Double A Cafe is!

We were home around 12 pm, emptying the day's purchases from the rear of the Beetle, and carrying them into the Newell interior to restock our pantry and refrigerators.  It wasn't long until I was in my anti gravity chair for the next few hours to read my book, and enjoy the occasional nap.  I managed to make it to 4 pm before the heat of the day changed my mind.  And with that day four of our four day weekend came to and end.  We're both looking forward to working the next four days in much cooler temperatures.

Thanks for stopping by!