The ugliness of it all.....

 8:17 am - Saturday - October 31st - Seal Rock, OR - 41° F, 87% humidity, wind 10- mph out of the east by northeast......clear, cold, blue skies today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2015, while southbound on US-395, we stopped in Riley, OR to spend a couple of nights until the high winds abated.......↴

It began raining a little after 8 am Friday, and continued raining until early afternoon, just as was forecast by the weather guessers.  After our whirlwind trip south to Bandon last weekend it was nice to just wake up, drink some coffee and enjoy the rain.  

Shortly after the rain abated I drove over to the Seal Rock Post Office to pick up a package for which I had received a delivery notification.  This is a very small PO, and the Postmaster is a man of very few words, but it is only 1/4 mile from SRRVC.  If your package is there he will instruct you to stand on a blue spot near the entry door while he brings the package out from behind the counter and sets it down on a table in the lobby. Only one customer at a time is allowed into the lobby. The blue spot is exactly 6 feet from the table.  You are not allowed to move off that blue spot to retrieve said package(s) until he has closed the door, and returned to his position behind the counter.  He cannot just hand you the package over the counter as the entire opening is blocked off by clear plexiglass.  You cannot pay for anything with a credit card, or check.....only cash is accepted....why, I have no idea whatsoever.  There is a very small opening in the plexiglass for passing through your cash.  This is the most COVID-19 secure PO facility I have encountered since March.  In contrast, the UPS facility in Newport at which I dropped off a return package last week has NO plexiglass between you and the cashier, and there is no restriction on how many customers can be in the lobby other than the capacity of the space itself.  Of course, masks are required in both locations as is the case for every other indoor retail space in Oregon.  There has not been a single new China virus related death in Lincoln County since we arrived 9/15/2020, and yet Oregon continues to treat its citizens as if this were downtown NYC.

We both spent a lot of time reading the rest of the day, and were totally surprised when all of our cloud cover evaporated around 4 pm letting the sun begin to dry out our environment once again.

As I gaze at our wall calendar I see that we are just a few days away from the end of another political season.  The votes will be counted, and results revealed, and then we can get back to just living our lives again.....maybe.  Things are more polarized than every before.....there is nary a sliver of life that is not polluted by politics.  Friendships have dissolved, and families torn apart by it all, which is shameful and pathetic.  We are fortunate to have located ourselves on the mid Oregon Coast where we are somewhat shielded from the ugliness of it all.  Nevertheless, we will continue on with smiles upon our faces, and we will continue to surround ourselves with like minded folks, and seek out the good, and the positive wherever it may be found in rural America.

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You can't get much lower......

 8:16 am - Friday - October 30th - Seal Rock, OR - 52° F, 100% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the south.....overcast today with a chance (lol.....just started raining) of rain and a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2015 we had just arrived at the fairgrounds in John Day, OR for a two day stay while driving US-395 south from Washington.......↴

I actually worked pretty hard during my two hour shift Thursday.  Blake and I were assigned the task of trimming a big hedge system which separates sites 23 and 24.  This hedge is about 100' long by 5' wide.  While Blake trimmed the top of the hedge down about 18" using the pole trimmer, I trimmed both sides back about 6" utilizing the handheld hedge trimmer.  Additionally, we trimmed the hedge at the rear of site 24, as well as the hedge on the opposite side from the hedge separating the two sites.  It took us just over 2 hours to trim the hedges, rake up all of the trimmings, and deliver them to the 'burn pile' (again, not burning on this day).  I was home by 12:10 pm relaxing, and awaiting TLE's arrival home at 1 pm.

We needed to make a Ray's Food Place run into Waldport, so around 2 pm we made the quick 8 minute drive into town, and were back home within 40 minutes.  We really like the Ray's supermarkets that dot the Oregon coast....we even shopped at the Ray's in Bandon when we were there last weekend.

Campfires are an important part of our lifestyle, and sometimes we go too long in between fires due to wind, or rain, or it's just TOO cold.  Thursday the conditions were perfect, so we decided to have our 3rd one since arriving at SRRVC September 15th.  I lit the fire around 5 pm, and we lingered there until just before sundown......

....when we decided to walk down to the US-101 turnout right across the street from SRRVC......

Usually you cannot get within a 100 yards of Seal Rock

....we were startled to find the tide was at its lowest point, and it was so low it was possible for people to actually walk all the way out to Seal Rock....this is by and far the lowest tide we have witnessed so far......

.....the sundown wasn't too bad either.....👍👍👍

.....we returned to our campfire in about 10 minutes and remained there until well after 6:30 pm as the last of the logs burned down.  As we were walking back into our campsite I couldn't help but notice how pretty our site looks with our outdoor lights.  I think we have managed to create a pretty inviting environment here at SRRVC.....

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Severed limbs......

 7:54 am - Thursday - October 29th - Seal Rock, OR - 45° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear and cool today with a forecast high of 58° F.  On this date in 2017 we were having dinner in Page, AZ at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant.......↴

The biggest take away from Wednesday's two hour work shift was the enormous mushroom we found.....it was about 12 inches in diameter.....like something out of 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'.....lol......

....we spent a lot of time removing a number of low hanging limbs from trees that were partially obscuring the views from a few sites.  In all Blake and I transported three loads of severed tree limbs to the 'burn pile' (not burning on this day).

I was off work at 12 pm, and TLE was off at 1 pm....her schedule has been changing from week to week, but she expects it to stabilize once Gail (Blake's wife) has finished her training.  Since we arrived 6 weeks ago we have been averaging between 22 and 30 hours combined per week, but now that Blake and Gail have arrived our hours should drop down to under 20 combined per week.

As we transition into late Fall the temps have rarely exceeded 60° F, and the wind has gone from mostly CALM all day to breezy most days now.  As a result of the breezes, and sometimes wind I finally, after 6 weeks, secured the patio awnings using our nylon ropes, and added four 'de-flappers' to each side of the awning fabric to keep the awning more stable, and to reduce the noise the flapping fabric can make......

The nylon ropes anchor the frame arms on both ends of the patio awning to the ground making it more stable in winds up to 20 mph

The 'de-flappers' keep the awning fabric from flapping in the wind

.....the winds here have, for the most part, been almost non-existent, so I have avoided making it more secure.  The more stuff I have on the patio awning the longer it takes to stow when the winds do rise....especially when they come up quickly.

We had another clear sky sunset Wednesday evening.  I think we've had more of these in the past 10 days than we had the previous 5 weeks combined.....

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Rinse, wash, repeat.....

 7:44 am - Wednesday - October 28th - Seal Rock, OR - 45° F, 93% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north by northeast......clear, cool, blue skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2018 we were getting ready to work our first 10 hour shift at Amazon for our third Peak Season....no pictures.

Tuesday two hour work shift consisted of 30 minutes cleaning the filters at the septic plant, and 90 minutes of troubleshooting a bad TV cable at site #43, and then running a new line to that site to restore television watching for future occupants of that site.  About mid afternoon we took another walk on Seal Rock Beach......I'll let the following pictures tell the the rest of Tuesday's story......

.....some sea anemones.......

.....sighted our first starfish since are arrival......

.....many more starfish......

.....we had a super low tide Tuesday....the lowest since we have been here.....usually these rocks are under water......

....The Lovely Elaine quite at home in this beach environment.....

.....our windswept beach.....

....Jonathon Livingston Seagull?...

....yes, it was cold.....

....and thus ends another day on Coastal Oregon...

......as we slowly drift toward the end of October the weather seems to have stabilized, and we feel as if we are in a 'wash, rinse, repeat' cycle......the last 10 days have been delightful, and even idyllic.

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Unusual.......

 7:56 am - Tuesday - October 27th - Seal Rock, OR - 37° F, 81% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the east......clear, cold, blue skies today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2017 we were boondocking at Lone Rock Beach on the shores of Lake Powell getting ready to enjoy our evening fire.....↴

It doesn't begin to get light here at Seal Rock until about 7:15 am right now.  I remember long stretches of time during our summer travels this year when it was already getting light around 5 am.  I've been going to bed around 10 pm each night, but not getting out of bed until close to 7:30 am.  During my workaday life (seems so long ago now) I got up before dawn a lot, and I really grew to dislike it.  I am thankful we are working at a place like Seal Rock this winter where we don't go to work until 10 am, and where we can let the daylight awaken us....no need to be awake before dawn.

I spent my entire two hour shift Monday with Terry trimming more hedges.  Over the course of the 6 weeks we have been at SRRVC we have trimmed a lot of hedges, and we are almost done.  They will not grow as quickly during the cold winter months, so they will not need attention again for a few months.......

Taking a break in the cart between hedges

......TLE's start time, once again, was 2 pm, so we spent a couple of hours together before she trundled down the hill to the office.  Once she left for work I went out to the 'garage' (trailer) to put some things away, which have been piling up on my workbench.  I think I'm going to have to go through the wall cabinet again to thin out some more stuff that I am not using.  Every time I go in there I find things I forgot I had....things I do not think I will ever use.

The daytime high for Monday was just 54° F, and it was a little breezy, so I did not spent a lot of time outside.  I did, however, spend more time reading....I'm up to book 15 of the 'Preacher' series by William J. Johnstone.  TLE was home a tad after 4 pm, and within a couple of hours we were watching another amazing sunset.......

.....according to Terry and Michele (our managers) we are enjoying unusually delightful weather this October.  Being able to enjoy so many clear sky sunsets in succession is pretty rare this time of year.  We will cherish every single one we get as we know the weather will turn soon.

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Hedging my bets.......

 7:57 am - Monday - October 26th - Seal Rock, OR - 37° F, 41% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the east.....clear, blue, chilly skies today with a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2013 we were in Odgen, UT at Rooster's Brewing Company for lunch.......↴

I have been wanting for some time to trim down the hedges that border our site between the Newell and our ocean view to expand same.  Sunday Terry surprised me by assigning me just that task.  A few weeks ago Bill (the owner) did a walk around the park with Terry and Greg, and one of the things he stressed was improving the individual ocean views from each site as much as possible, and Terry has been working toward that goal since then.  I spent my entire 2 hour shift doing just that for our site.  One of the largest hedges is right in front of the firepit, and pretty much used to obstruct our view of the ocean when sitting by the fire.....no more.......

......next up was the hedge just to the right (center of picture below), which I cut almost to the ground......

......then the hedge that runs the length of our 'Lido Deck'......I cut that one down a good 24 inches......

....next up was the hedge directly behind the Newell, which not only had to be lowered about 2 feet, but cut back from the rear of the coach so I can more easily access the radiator.....

......and finally the hedge in the rear of the site to the driver's side of the Newell....site A-2.....

.....by the time I finished with site A-2 it was almost 12 pm.  As I was gathering my equipment together Terry returned with the golf cart to haul it back to the landscape shed for me, and I was done.....I didn't even have to leave my site.

The long Stihl pole hedge trimmer I used for this job is quite heavy, especially when you extend it out as far from your body as possible to get to those parts of the hedge the furthest from where you are standing.  By 12 pm my arms and shoulders were screaming "NO MORE!"..... 

.....TLE went to  work her 2-4 pm shift a couple of hours later, and I had the place to  myself.  I watched the final round of the current PGA tournament (ZOZO Championship) until well after TLE returned home from her shift.  Of course there were a couple of naps thrown in for good measure.  The skies remained clear all day long, and as a result we had another amazing sunset......

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