Stormy weather.....

9:11 pm - Tuesday - July 30th - Ramona, CA - 71° F, 66% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west.  It is night time, and since I will be going to work at 7 am I am writing about Tuesday this evening.

Tuesday began slowly for the Hockwald clan.  We had intended to be up early, and taking a walk, but sometimes it is just nice to stay in bed enjoying the sounds of the early morning with your eyes closed.  I finally pried myself out of bed around 7:40 am.  After pouring myself a cup of coffee I set about typing my blog post about Monday.  By the time I had finished, and posted my blog post and read a few other blogs I follow it was closing in on 8:30 am.  I needed a haircut, and we needed to do our weekly shopping, so we dressed quickly and headed into Ramona.

While TLE began her shopping day at Stater Brothers I walked over to Supercuts which opened at 9 am.  I was their first customer, and as luck would have it my favorite barber, Lorena, was on duty.  About a month ago she gave me one of the best haircuts I have had since Southwest Harbor, and I was hoping she would be available Tuesday....perfect! Within 20 minutes she had worked her magic, and once again I was very pleased with the result.

I reached Stater Brothers just as TLE was finishing in the produce section.  We were home before 10 am, and and TLE put away our grocery purchases I set about dumping out black tank whilst shade still graced the driver's side of the coach.  I was finished with my weekly task by 10:30 am, and all  that remained was to relax and do some more reading.  I did wander up to the trailer for about 30 minutes to put away some things that had been stacking up in the door way.....things I had left previously to put away at some future time....that time was Tuesday.

I was back home, and inside the Newell enjoying the A/C by 11:30 am, and that is where I remained until around 4 pm when I headed outside to sit in my recliner to do some more reading.  The temp, which only got to 90° F at the highest was now down to 82° F, and it was quite comfortable outside.  TLE eventually joined me and we read until after 6 pm when I finally lit the Sea-B-Que to roast an artichoke, and some asparagus.  TLE had prepared two dips for us......a garlic aioli, and a wonderful hollandaise sauce.....

.....we sat dipping asparagus and artichokes for about 40 minutes, punctuated frequently with 'ooohs and awwws'.   By the time we finished the sun was setting, and we retired to our recliners to read into the early evening.  Another perfect off day from work.....I'll leave you with another great Etta James song.....Stormy weather........

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Tennessee Whiskey.....

7:58 am - Tuesday - July 30th - Ramona, CA - 62° F, 90% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.

A few years ago we bought a single Coleman propane burner from Amazon to replace an old 2 burner Coleman stove we had been using for years to cook breakfast outside.  Even though the old stove was a two burner there really wasn't room enough for two pans side by side.  When we attended the Quartzite RV show a few years ago we saw this single burner Coleman being demonstrated, and were very impressed with it.  The price on Amazon was actually better than the price at the RV show so that is where we bought it.  Fast forward to Monday, July 29th....we have been carrying this cool burner around with us for several years and had only used it once.  This was mostly due to the fact that where spent our last two summers was not conducive to cooking breakfast outside.....

....for instance, in Yellowstone there were two many bugs the first part of the summer, and then when the bugs finally stopped being an issue we were getting up early on our off days to get in our 100 miles of hiking.  In the Grand Canyon it was winter and too, too cold to do anything outside on any morning.  In Maine last summer there were the bugs again, and most of our off days found us getting out early to hike.

All that being said, I suggested to TLE that we try and break the cycle of non-use and get the burner out and actually use it for the purpose which we intended.  I decided to wash the VW while there was still shade, and by the time we got around to breakfast it was past 8:30 am and getting warm, even in the shade of our awning, but we persevered and cooked breakfast outside.....finally!

It really is a an easy to use, wonderfully made burner, and we have determined that we will use it many more times this summer....we just have to get out there earlier to beat the arrival of the morning heat.

That was pretty much the high point of our entire day.  We sat outside reading after breakfast until close to 10 am, but it was getting quite warm by then so we headed indoors to read and enjoy our A/C.

I had not yet watched the entire Stage 21 of Le Tour de France, so around noon I watched the entire recorded 21st Stage....the ride into Paris.  They arrived in downtown Paris in late afternoon, and by the time they finished 8 laps up and down the Champs-Élysées the street lights had been lit.  Many of the riders were averaging over 40 mph for those 8 laps.  I can push about 25 mph on my road bike on the flat for about 5-10 minutes, but 40 mph for an hour plus?  Wow!  This is the first time I have ever watched pretty much every minute of all 21 stages.

By 5 pm the afternoon breezes had kicked up enough to sit outside reading, but it was still too warm inside the Newell to turn off the A/C.  Around 6:15 pm I grilled another filet mignon (2 minutes per side for all four sides) and some nectarines for dinner, which we also took outside.  

After dinner we actually sat outside reading, of course, until 8:30 pm before heading in for the evening.  It was a very nice day off work doing absolutely nothing, but relaxing, reading, and eating our meals outside.....perfect!

Love this R&B song by Chris Stapleton!

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Bring it on home......

7:27 am - Monday - July 29th - Ramona, CA - 60° F, 86% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue skies this morning with a forecast high of 93° F. 

There are six 'skimmers' in all that I clean every single work day....one for the Jacuzzi, and 5 around the pool.  These skimmers pick up all manner of vegetable material, 100's of insects, some quite large, cellophane wrappers, sometimes small pool toys.  Below is just one day's bounty.......

.....note the very large bug in the lower part of the skimming net....it was as big as my thumb!

I was done vacuuming and sweeping the pool, and with my other pool chores just before 9 am, as I usually am, so headed down to the office for our morning meeting.   Sunday was July 28th, which is meter reading day....electrical meters that is.  I was surprised after checking our meter that our kilowatt consumption was not greater than it was considering we ran our A/C a lot since June 28th.......

....we began the month at 15,214.  Since we have been recharging the golf cart each night off our site power we will get a 5 kilowatt credit each day, or 75 kilowatts this month since the site next to us where I usually plug in the cart has been occupied since the 16th.  I finished reading all the meters of our monthly customers a little after 11 am, and by 11:30 am it was time for lunch, and the end of my short Sunday shift.

TLE was home a little after 2 pm, and by 3 pm we were driving into town to check out 'Mariscos Mar de Cortez' which had been recommended to us by several people as the best Mexican seafood restaurant in the area.  Before we ordered food I placed my order for a 24 oz. Negra Modelo.....TLE had iced tea.  Haven't had one of these big draft brews in a long time.....

....for our early dinner I ordered their 'Camarones Costa Azul' (shrimp wrapped in bacon, and then fried) combo plate......OMG!  It is rare that an entree will exceed the expectation created by the written description, but this one did by a mile.  I ordered it based on the description, and was blown away.  I cherished every single bacon wrapped shrimp on that plate......

.....TLE ordered their shrimp cocktail, and loved it right down to the very last bite.  Yelp, TripAdvisor, and all of the other rating services give them from 4 to 4.5 stars on hundreds of reviews.....we would be right at 4 stars.  Thank you Adrian and Caroline for the great recommendation!  We were home by 4:15 pm, with full bellies, and big smiles upon our collective faces.

We ran the A/C until after 7 pm, but finally the temp outside dropped enough that we dropped our screen door, and went outside to enjoy the evening air......

.....we sat outside reading and listening to music until almost 9:30 pm.  As the light faded our outdoor living area took on this very mello vibe, and the Sam Cooke songs kept on coming!

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Hot, hot hot!

6:41 pm - Saturday - July 27th - Ramona, CA - still 92° F with the same humidity and wind speed.

I did my usual pool stuff to begin the day, but by 9:30 am I was operating the Kubota loader to which Rich had attached a 'bush hog' (a large mowing attachment) mowing down the weeds growing in the small valley below our overflow parking lot along the creek.  It hasn't been mowed since early May, and the weeds had grown tall once again.  There is no way you can mow down there and not get completely filthy in a matter of minutes.......

 Me after mowing for about 45 minutes

.....by the time I finished is was just after 10:30 am so I parked the loader, washed it down with water from a hose, and then headed for home to do the same for myself.  I do not remember being that dirty in a long, long time.  By the time I showered and dressed again it was 11 am, and I still had 30 minutes until lunch, so I did a little cleaning in the maintenance building, and then headed for lunch.

I spent about an hour of the two remaining hours of my 7 hour shift finishing the 'pedestal report' I had begun on Thursday.  By a little after 1 pm I was done, and I was 'fried' from the heat.  I spent the last 55 minutes in the maintenance building with the A/C running putting away some new inventory, and cleaning the bathroom.....yes, we have a bathroom in the maintenance building.  I don't think the toilet had been cleaned for a couple of years.....yuk!

I was off at 2 pm on the dot and heading for home and sweet, wonderful A/C.  I watched the last 40 minutes of Stage 20 of Le Tour in which Egan Bernal consolidated his lead, and is virtually guaranteed to win Le Tour de France on Sunday when they finish with a ride into downtown Paris as they do every single year.  Hard to believe it has been just over 3 weeks since Le Tour began.....what will I do in my afternoons after Le Tour has finished?

I drove back down at 4 pm to pick TLE up from the office and ferry her home in the stifling heat.  It got to 98° F Saturday, and it is still over 90 as I write.....thanks for stopping by!

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Sensory overload......

6:18 pm - Saturday - July 27th - Ramona, CA - 92° F, 33% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest.......clear, blue, very hot skies....the high today was 98° F, and it is still over 90 at 6:18 pm.

Friday was a precursor to Saturday.  By that I mean it got hot, but was tame compared to what Saturday had in store for us, but I get ahead of myself.  Friday was a sweep and vacuum the pool kind of day.  I was sweating like a pig (do pigs really sweat?) before 8 am, and by 9 am my t-shirt was soaked.  I'm getting used to that as the temps continue to climb past the low 90's into the mid 90's and beyond.  

Friday was my split shift day so the first five hours of my split shift were over at 12 noon, and what a break that was because it was so hot from Noon to 5 pm when I went back on duty.  I spent the afternoon watching Stage 19 of Le Tour, and it was a memorable stage.  The riders had just begun to crest the second to last climb of Stage 19......Egan Bernal, the youngest rider in this year's Tour at 22 years, had reached the summit over 2 minutes ahead of the current wearer of the yellow jersey, and had taken over first place.  Of course they had a long descent at which Allaphillipe (the Frenchman who had the yellow jersey) was very good, and within a few minutes he was descending and making up the time, however, the stage was suddenly cancelled due to a serious hail storm at the bottom of the descent causing flooding, and large quantities of hail to cover the road.  It was too unsafe so they froze the times recorded at the top of the summit, and that was it for Allaphillipe.  It so unexpected, and dramatic at the same time.

The five hour interlude passed quickly and suddenly I was on my way back to the office to finish the final two hours of my split shift.  I helped Rich install a new sensor on the water tank which will enable us to check the water level over the internet, without having to drive up to the water tank several times per day......

.....above is a screen shot showing the tank is currently at 76% of total capacity, or about 2,500 gallons down leaving 7,500 gallons still in the tank.  When it gets to about 3,000 gallons down we turn on the pump, again remotely, to add water.....I love stuff like that!

By the time we were done I had about 45 minutes left in my shift, so I headed for the office to help with traffic control for the rest of my shift.  We were home a little after 7 pm, relaxing for a couple of hours until it was time to close down the park.  We're pretty full this weekend....I would say a little over 80% full, which is full for us, but this weekend's customers are pretty well behaved, and we didn't have to ask anyone to quiet down on our closing rounds.

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Escape to Antartica?

 2:04 pm - Friday - July 26th - Ramona, CA - 96° F, 27% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest......clear, blue, hot skies.....we have reached the forecast high for today of 96° F.  I am adapting quite nicely to mid 90's temperatures, and even though the heat takes it out of me, I do not feel like I need to escape to Antartica anymore.

Since I had vacuumed and swept the pool Wednesday I chose to wash down the entire pool deck Thursday, which I have not done since we arrived back in April.  I have used the Stihl blower to blow off the leaves, and dirt/dust, and have swept it using a hand broom, but had not yet utilized water to clean it.  By the time I finished washing down the deck it was just before 9 am and time to check in at the office.  Rich and Marnie are off Wednesdays and Thursdays so I just wanted to check in with our student workers to be sure they had enough work to keep them busy, and make a couple of suggestions in case they did not.

I then returned to opening the rest of the facilities as I do each day, and then rake and sweep the horseshoe pit area, then down to the mini golf to blow the ever present eucalyptus leaves off each hole.  After that I returned to 3, or 4 of the holes to sweep off whatever I was unable to blow off  the artificial turf.  

By the time that was done it was approaching 11:30 am, and time for my lunch break.  When I returned I had two hours left on my 7 hour shift, so I retrieved the riding lawnmower to do my monthly mowing of the roads up to the water tank.  There are two ways up to the water tank, but I utilize one of them about 99% of the time, however, both need to be kept clear.  When I use the riding lawnmower I get a lot of dirt and vegetable matter on my person......

.....if you click on each picture and enlarge it you will see what I mean.  Needless to say, when I took my shower at the end of my shift there was a lot of dirt in the shower pan when I was done.

By the time I put away the riding lawnmower it was quitting time (2 pm) for me, so I bid TLE adieu for 3 hours and headed home to watch Stage 18 of Le Tour de France as has been my custom for almost 3 weeks now.  Stage 18, 19 and 20 are in the French Alps and involve some pretty serious climbing.  It is within the confines of these three stages that the winner of Le Tour will be determined....there are at least 5 riders who can still win.....very exciting.  This has been probably one of the most unpredictable tours in years.

I picked TLE up from the office at 5 pm, and that was another Thursday in the books.  Next Thursday will be August 1st.....cannot believe we are almost into August.....where is the summer going?

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"At last!"

7:25 pm - Wednesday - July 24th - Ramona, CA - 84° F, 43% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west by northwest.....cooling off quickly.  I'm going to try something new and write about Wednesday before Wednesday is over.  I'm not doing too well at remembering to write my blog after I get off work at 2 pm.

I'm not sure if I have updated you on my weight loss, but I am down to 197.0 as of about five days ago, and holding steady since then.  One of the byproducts of weight loss is losing inches, and the byproduct of losing inches is tightening your belt.  Below you see my 'work' belt that I have worn doing summer jobs for the past 5 years.  I have never gotten past the 3rd set of holes, but Wednesday morning I made it to the fourth set of holes.....another milestone......

.....other than that amazing factoid my Wednesday was as routine as they come.  The variable Wednesday was the high temp went 4° F past the forecast high of 95° F all the way to 99° F at 1:35 pm....thank God I was off work at 2 pm!

I had turned on the A/C when I took lunch at 11:30 am, and left it on when I went back to work, and was I ever glad I did when I got home a little after 2 pm and it was already ice cold inside the Newell....sweet!

I spent the time from 2 pm to 5 pm watching Stage 17 of Le Tour, and finished just before 5 pm when it was time to drive the golf cart down to the office to pick up TLE from work.  The clouds had moved in during that 3 hour time period, and the temp dropped quickly into the mid 80's, so we turned off the A/C, opened the windows, dropped the screen door into place, and sat outside about 45 minutes before TLE went inside to prepare dinner.  While she toiled in the kitchen I drank a cocktail, and smoked a cigar......

.....we were eating by 6:15 pm, and then sat outside for a while longer after dinner enjoying the cooling evening air.......

.....it even sprinkled for a few minutes further cooling the evening air.  I was expecting to run the A/C until 8, or 9 pm, so being able to turn it off at 5 pm was quite a blessing, and totally unexpected.

I'll leave you with another great 60's song by Etta James.....At Last.....amazing song!

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"I'd rather be blind..."

7:07 pm - Wednesday - July 24th - Ramona, CA - 84° F, 41% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the west by northwest.....cloudy.....forecast high today was 95° F, but it actually hit 99° F at 1:35 pm before it began to cool......

Tuesday was a stay at home day, but we did head into town around 8:30 am to do our weekly shopping at Stater Brothers.....so much better shopping in the morning.....much shorter checkout lines for sure!  By the time we got home it was closing in on 10 am, and time to dump the black tank before the sun got to the driver's side of the Newell where most of the dumping activity takes place.   We turned on the A/C as soon as we got home, and then while TLE began to put away the groceries I took care of the dumping.

It took me about 30 minutes to dump, and sanitize the black tank for another week's effluent, and then I spent the better portion of the rest of the day indoors avoiding the high temps.  A good way to do that is to turn on and watch the recorded 16th Stage of Le Tour, and that took several hours.  After State 16 there are just 5 stages left.....they will finish, as always, in Paris on Sunday.  Hard to believe we are over two weeks into this year's installment.

For dinner TLE made her now world famous 'Chicken Marsala' once again, and this time it was even better than last time, and I thought last time was one of the best I had ever had.  You can tell TLE is enjoying her job, and her time here at RORVR because she is taking time to make some amazing dinners the last few weeks.

We listened to Pandora's Sam Cooke channel, and I want to leave you with this YouTube video of a song we heard last night by Etta James called "I'd rather be blind...."....amazing song!

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No limitations.....

6:53 am - Tuesday - July 23rd - Ramona, CA - 70° F, 73% humidity, wind - CALM.....cloudy with intermittent rain this morning with a forecast high of 95° F.

When we got in the VW Monday morning I noticed the odometer had just passed 160,000 miles when we drove down to Carlsbad last week.  We bought it 5 years ago with just over 124,000 miles.....she's running better than ever!

Monday morning at 10:30 am I had my two month followup cardiology appointment at Arch Health Medical with Dr. Mulvihill.  We were on our way down the hill to Poway by 9:30 am arriving at Arch Health by 10:10 am.  So far we have never waited past the appointment time at Arch Health and Monday was no exception.  We were called into the inner sanctum at 10:25 am, and were seeing Dr. Mulvihill within 10 minutes.  My LDL was down 70 points to 138 (that's perfectly normal), but my HDL was down to 37 from 74 (that's too low).  It was decided I should cut my lipitor dosage in half from 80 mg to 40 mg per day.  Everything else was in the normal range.  That combined with my weight loss made my doctor very happy.  I have been released to regular activity with no limitations.

We were out the door of Arch Health by 11 am and on our way over to COSTCO to do a little shopping, then a stop at Autozone to pick up a few automotive type things before meeting up with a friend from my childhood....David Rothwell.  I haven't seen him in 40 years, but we have been friends on Facebook for a number of years.  He and his wife Christina live in Escondido so he reached out inviting us to lunch at a local, funky micro brewery called 'Plan 9 Alehouse'.....

.....Yelp gives them 4 stars on 565 reviews, and we would be right there.  They serve their own draft brews, and those of other local micro breweries.  David had given us a choice between Plan 9 Alehouse, and Stone Brewing Company, but after he described Plan 9 as 'funky' we really had no choice, right?

.....they have a large garage door they roll up on hot days, and Monday was quite warm, so we sat out near the opening just inside the door where we got a nice breeze......

...we arrived at Plan 9 about 30 minutes early so we ordered a couple of brews.....'Turd Ferguson' for me (a hoppy brown ale produced by Plan 9), and an Imperial Stout for TLE (produced by Stone Brewing Company), plus some sweet potato fries with this amazing mustard dipping sauce with horseradish.......amazing!

For lunch TLE and I ordered the 'The Cow Goes Bleuoo' (bacon bleu cheese burger) to share, and it was equally amazing.........

......David and Christina arrived about 1:35 pm, and from then until after 4:30 pm we talked non-stop.  It was as if not one day of the 40 years had transpired.  I neglected to take an 'usie' so I stole this picture of them from David's Facebook page.   All that being said I do not really remember eating the burger after the first bite, as we were so engrossed on our conversation.  It was just one of those magical afternoons where the time melted away, and the conversation flowed from one topic to another.....

..... we learned that Christina is an accomplished home brewer of beer.   By 4:30 pm it was getting quite warm outside on the street, but we still remained quite comfortable just inside the door.  Nevertheless, it was time for us to head home, and bid adieu to David and Christina.  Thank you so much you two for a wonderful afternoon, the memory of which will endure for a long time!

We arrived home to heavy cloud cover, high humidity and very sultry, hot conditions.  Within minutes we had our groceries inside, and both A/C's running to cool down the interior.  Within 10 minutes it was quite comfortable, so I turned off the front A/C and let the rear A/C do the work the rest of the evening.  It did not begin to cool until after 8 pm, but we were finally able to turn off the A/C and let the cool air of the evening flow through our open windows.

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Wonderboom......

7:53 am - Monday - July 22nd - Ramona, CA - 65° F, 85% humidity, wind 0 mph........cloudy today with a forecast high of 93° F.

Did I happen to mention previously that I LOVE Sundays?  No doubt I have, but I love them even more now that I go to work at 7 am, and am done by noon, and with our days off being Mondays and Tuesdays I really get 2.5 days off work.  Of course, it hardly seems fair to call something you like doing work, because I do like my job.

After finishing the pool (sweep, vacuum, test) I spent most of the rest of my 5 hour shift at the mini golf course.  The golf balls we provide have a way of disappearing over the fence and down the hill into RV site 42, as well as other places around the course.  I spent about 30 minutes just looking for stray golf balls and came up with 8.  No doubt I may have missed a few, but 8 is quite a lot.

By the time I was finished with the mini golf course it was noon, and time to clock out for the day.  I headed home, took a shower then ensconced myself in my recliner to watch Stage 14 of Le Tour, and eventually write my blog post describing Saturday.

TLE was home by 2 pm just as I was finishing my blog, and watched the balance of Stage 14 with me.  Around 5:30 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que in preparation for grilling a filet mignon.  When we were at Stater Brothers last Tuesday we had the butcher cut a couple of filets to order for us.  We usually cook one at a time, and cut it in half to share.  These two filets were cut so I could grill them on all four sides, which is how you get the most even cook.  I let it cook for 2 minutes per side, and it came out perfectly......

......to chase the amazing filet TLE opened a bottle of Malbec we purchased at Trader Joe's......

.....smooth as velvet!  I simultaneously grilled 4 peach halves on the Sea-B-Que for the same 8 minute duration, and they came out perfect!  What a wonderful counter point to the sauteed onions and mushrooms, and steamed broccoli......

.....I brought out our Wonderboom blue tooth speaker to play the Sam Cooke Channel on Pandora whilst we ate.....

......I also use this speaker to play music while I am doing my pool chores.  Sunday I played Vivaldi's 4 Seasons, and Handel's Water Music over the two hour period I was there....I love hearing this classical music echoing around the pool environs while I work.

Sunday was a very good day with a high of 92° F.  TLE and I talked for about an hour after dinner about how much we love being where we are right now, and how good life is.  We are in the perfect place for us.

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Hot spots....

1:42 pm - Sunday - July 21st - Ramona, CA - 91° F, 33% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the northwest.....clear, blue, hot skies.  We have reached the forecast high for today.

Our housekeeper called in ill Saturday so I volunteered to do the restrooms in her place after I finished with the pool.  I will always take an indoor job when it is hot.  Each restroom takes me a little over an hour, and keeps me out of the direct sunlight.  The housekeeper also cleans the pool restrooms, and the single bathroom at the Red Barn, so I took care of them also.

In between restrooms I visited the pool a couple of times and caught a few guys sneaking beer into the pool area....one guy I had already talked with before, so I told him if I caught him with beer again he would be banned from the pool for the balance of the weekend.  It seems that more and more people subscribe to the credo "Better to as forgiveness, than permission".

I was done with all the bathrooms by 1 pm and with an hour in my day remaining Rich asked me to take the Kubota loader up to the storage yard and put as much brush in the large dumpster we have there as it will be unloaded by the disposal company early next week.  It's the second time I've spent significant time operating the loader, and I am gradually improving my operational skills.

The temp only got to 85° F Saturday, and it was a very pleasant day.  Beginning Sunday our temps will get into the 90's and stay there for the foreseeable future.....the foreseeable future being the next 14 days, so we continue stepping up the temperature ladder.  I've gotten used to temps in the 80's now, so it's time to get used to the 90's I guess....if it weren't for the honor, I'd just as soon pass......mid 80's seems perfectly fine to me

I spent the entire afternoon after work watching Le Tour de France taking a couple of naps along the way.  I picked up TLE from the office at 4 pm, and we spent a few hours sitting outside listening to music and reading.  Once we get past the high temp of the day each day it cools quickly, and sitting outside could not be more pleasant.

We watched another recorded episode of 'Elementary' before heading out to close down the park for the evening.  We only had what I would call one 'hot spot' Saturday night, and after talking with them they turned down the music volume, and then turned it off at 10 pm as instructed.  You never know how those discussions will go, but these people, although inebriated, were reasonable and co-operative.  A 'hot spot' is a single, or multiple contiguous sites where the noise levels of talking, laughing and/or music are too high for the time of night.  I find that if we talk to them early on they will quiet down.  Once it is past 10 pm it gets more difficult to get them to co-operate.

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Just like we like them!

6:46 pm - Saturday - July 20th - Ramona, CA - 79° F, 44% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west.......clear skies......the high today was 85° F....a very pleasant day!

I can see now why I always wrote my daily blog post first thing every morning.....by the time I get home from work around 2 pm I am ready for a nap, and before I know it the afternoon has flown away and it is going on 7 pm with no blog yet written.  Maybe I'll have to start writing my blog posts for a given day that very afternoon, not the next day's afternoon like I have been doing. 

So what happened Friday?  Well, as is my custom I swept and vacuumed the pool.  I'm sure you've noticed that since the summer got busier customer wise I have been vacuuming the pool Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.  That seems to be working to keep the pool at its best.  On Thursdays and Saturdays I spend time cleaning the lounge chairs, and other pool furniture, sweeping up leaves from the deck, etc.  It takes about an hour to do that, as opposed to two hours when I sweep and vacuum.  

Friday is also my split shift day, so I begin work at 7 am, and am done with my first 5 hours by 12 pm.  I have 5 hours off work before returning at 5 pm.  Fridays we usually have a lot of arrivals.....well, a lot for RORVR.  We had 17 this Friday, and they typically arrive between 4 and 7 pm so I spend a lot of time near the entrance from 5-7 pm directing traffic, and keeping the entrance clear so regular customers don't get backed up behind people checking in for the weekend.  I also visit the pool several times to police people bringing alcohol, food and other beverages  into the pool area.

I received a new hat I ordered from Amazon on Friday.  It has a piece of material to keep the sun off my neck......

....I won't be wearing it all the time, but on those occasions where I am working in direct sunlight for long periods of time I will be glad I purchased it....only cost $15..........

 The entrance to the park off SR-78....empty now, but a few minutes later three RV's arrived and things got busy.

....a few weeks ago the owner of the park leased and had delivered to our lower parking lot a large water storage tank.  It holds about 25,000 gallons of water for fighting fires, if there should be any......

Emergency supply to be used to fight any fires on our property

.....it took about 6 days to fill it using our well water, but now it is full.  I hope we never have to use it! We do have several fire hydrants in the park, but if a fire should sweep over our 10,000 gallon synthetic material (think melting plastic) water tank, or if it should be drained fighting a fire, we now have the extra 25,000 gallons.

So that was our uneventful Friday.....just like we like them....thanks for stopping by!

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Enjoying the here and now......

12:44 pm - Friday - July 19th - Ramona, CA - 82° F, 46% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the northwest.....sunny, cloudless and pleasantly warm.  Is already Friday again?  Seems like it was just Monday a couple of days ago.

I'm still not sure if I like going to work at 7 am when it is 7 am, but I definitely do like it when it's 2 pm and I'm done for the day.   Nonetheless, I do so enjoy doing the pool when the shadows are still covering the entire pool area......

.....I didn't have to vacuum, or sweep the pool Thursday, so I was able to spend time re-installing the split rail fencing across the entrance to the playground area....

....I had to dig a couple of post holes, but the work was mostly in the shade.  Within an hour I had the fence looking like it had not been gone for 3 weeks.

Once I was done with the fence I got back to painting the yellow bollards around the park.  I had done 11 of them the previous time, and was able to get another 4 done before lunch, and 3 more after lunch.  By that time it was 1:30 pm and time for me to begin to clean my roller and brush before clocking out for the day.

I spent the three hours until 5 pm watching Stage 12 of Le Tour de France finishing just before it was time to retrieve TLE from the office.  

As I was cleaning the pool Thursday I made an effort to look around and appreciate my surroundings, enjoying the sounds and smells of the early morning.  Have you ever noticed when you come to the end of your stay at a location you begin to suddenly become aware of things you had been ignoring before.  You begin to look upon your surroundings with a fresh eye, and wishing you had spent more time doing so before your time was short.  While we've got months to go here I am trying each day to live in and enjoy the moments.  Time moves so quickly that it easy to become complacent, and just look forward to the next thing, the next place.  I want to cherish and enjoy this place to its fullest, and do not want to suddenly realize one day a few months from now that I have not done so.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel.