More familia time.....

 9:11 am - Sunday - May 30th - Spokane, WA - 57० F, 51% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....sunny, cool, blue skies today with a forecast high of 78० F.  On this date in 2018 we finished our hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain near Bar Harbor, ME.....↴

It's weird to wake up in someplace other than the bedroom of our Newell, in fact it is quite rare that we do.  We both slept quite well in the California King bed provided by the Historic Davenport Hotel.  We slept with two of the windows open, which kept the room quite comfortable without the aid of HVAC....

.....we planned to have breakfast with my brother Philip and his wife Jeannie at 10 am at their hotel, which is just a short drive from the Davenport.  I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to be able to spend time with them.  It is one of the downsides of our nomadic lifestyle that we do not see them as often as I would like.  

From there we both drove over to my sister Hilary's home on South Hill to caravan over with my other brother, Dwyer, his wife Lori, and their kids and grandkids to see my mother's headstone which had not yet arrived when we were last there in July......

.....it's so rare that my brothers and I are together in the same place, so I had to get an 'usie' to memorialize the occasion.....

....TLE and I needed to pick up a few things so we bid adieu to everyone promising to meet up at the wedding rehearsal venue at 5 pm.  We made a quick stop at the local Trader Joe's where most people were not wearing masks, and then headed over to Fred Meyers were we found conditions to be the same.....it is so nice to walk into a store and not be wearing a mask.....

.....we then headed back to the hotel  where I took a couple of naps, and watched a little PGA golf before heading off to the church for the wedding rehearsal....

Caroline and Jake have a large wedding party!

....the rehearsal, amazingly, was over by 6:30 pm, which was quite fortuitous as we had reservations at a local Mexican restaurant at 7 pm to have dinner with our extended family.  In all we took two large tables to seat all 18 of us....

Table #1 - the 'adults'

Table #2 - the 'kids' and grandkids

....once again I must say how happy this makes me to be able to spend so much time with everyone....this is life at its best.  Dwyer, Lori, Philip, Jeannie, TLE and I talked non-stop for over two hours....oh, by the way, the food was great, too!

And thus comes to and end day #2 in Spokane.  The main event is at 3 pm on Sunday (today)....time to go get some breakfast!

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The wedding weekend begins.....

 1:54 pm - Real Saturday - May 29th - Spokane, WA - 69꠶ F, 26% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72꠶ F.  On this date in 2018 we were at Thurston's Lobster Pound in Bernard, Maine partaking of some brews and apps.....↴

We had an approximately 3+ hour drive into Portland to catch the first of two flights to Spokane, and needed to stop off at COSTCO in Albany on the way to pick up TLE's 3rd pair of eyewear (trifocals-progressive), so we were in the VW by 7:50 am and on our way.....way too early for retired folk....lol.  We reached COSTCO a little after 9 am, and were on our way northward again by 9:40 am.

The drive north on I-5 was uneventful, and we arrived at AirPark around 11:30 am to drop off our car for four days, and catch the shuttle to the airport (PDX).  Our flight time was 12:50 pm, and we arrived at the terminal by by 11:45 am.  We breezed through TSA, and were at Gate C-8 an hour before takeoff.  The plane ended up only being two thirds full, so TLE were able to share 3 seats.....plenty of room to spread out our stuff.  The entire flight time to Seattle (SEATAC) is around 40 minutes, and you barely get to altitude when you begin the descent.  We were on the ground by 1:45 pm, with the next leg of our trip on a commuter prop jet....we actually walked out on the tarmac to walk up the stairs to our plane....cool.  We landed in Spokane (GEG) around 3:45 pm, picked up our luggage (everything arrived on time), and then our rental car (2019 Subaru Outback)....everything worked like clockwork....

.....my sister and her husband were hosting the first event of the wedding weekend at their home on South Hill around 5:30 pm, so by the time we reached the Historic Davenport Hotel at 4:30 pm, we had just one hour to get settled, take showers and drive up to their home....

.....we're on the 12th floor (the very top) in a corner room.....the suite is wonderful!

We were fashionably late arriving at my sister's home around 6 pm, but stayed on until after 9 pm.....it was great to see both my brother's, and one of my sisters....we bid all adieu and headed for home......that was a long day!

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The Kaibosh.....

6:23 am - Friday - May 28th - Seal Rock, OR - 48° F, 100% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2017 we were in Squaw Valley, CA at High Camp with Tim (our son), and Laila (daughter-in-law).....↴

Thursday was supposed to be dedicated to our neglected 'burn pile', but overnight rain completely put the Kaibosh on that idea.  At one point it looked like I would not even get to work, but, alas, I did.  TLE went to work at 9 am, and around 9:20 am she called me on the walkie talkie to advise our customer in site #21 had lost their electricity, so I got dressed, walked down the hill, picked up the golf cart and headed over to see what was what.  Sometimes people turn on too many electrical things in their 30 amp 5th wheel and pop the pedestal breaker at their site, but that was not the case Thursday.....there was no popped breaker, and there was no electricity.  I headed over to the main service panel for that part of the park and found the breaker for their site tripped, so I reset it, and order was restored.  That the breaker at the main panel blew would indicate  they were not using too much electricity, or the breaker at their pedestal would have tripped first......it is time to replace it.

It began to rain again as I was wrapping up my visit at site #21, but someone needed to do the site checks so I retrieved the list from TLE and continued on in spite of the rain.  By 11 am I was done, and with the rain there was nothing left for me to do, so I headed for home.  

Friday we drive into Portland (PDX) to hop on a jet for our flight to Spokane (GEG) to attend the wedding of my youngest sister's daughter, Caroline.  My daughter Meredith will be there, along with our youngest daughter Sharon and her family, and most of my siblings.  It will be a fun weekend.  We'll be there until Monday when we hop on the return flight.  In the mean time I needed to finish my packing, which I started last Sunday.  The longer you give yourself, the fewer things you forget....at least that is my working theory, as I almost always forget something.  I just hope it's nothing too important, or costly.

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about just that and remembered we had not yet packed our wedding gifts for Caroline and Jake.....that would have been costly!  I got up and located the items, and put them by TLE's suitcase.  If only I had just gone back to sleep....two hours later I did, and now here I am at my laptop composing today's missive for your reading pleasure....at least I hope it's mostly pleasurable, right?

That's it for today, except to say that I am able to post pictures again as it appears Blogger has fixed the problem.....have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

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4.5......

 8:04 am - Thursday - May 27th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 100% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the south (totally calm here in Site A-2)......rained overnight....cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were riding our bikes on the Centennial Trail in Coeur D'alene, ID......↴

I work by myself most Wednesdays, and this one was no different.  It's been a couple of weeks since I mowed and edged sites A-1 to A-3, so after retrieving the lawnmower, Stihl string trimmer, pole trimmer, and blower I headed up the hill and got to work.  It takes me around 2 hours or more to do the job.  Just as I was finishing Terry asked me to head down to the beach trail and trim it up also...... 

.....I finished with that task around 1 pm.....just about the time our new gravel delivery arrived....time to finish site #37, which I left unfinished about 10 days ago.  While I was at the barn picking up the loader I walked over to Fairwinds to see how the finished deck looked....

.....and it looks magnificent!  Well worth the wait!

It took me until 2:30 to finish up the site, and then it was time to put the Massey-Ferguson back in the barn.....wow...a 4.5 hour day.....kind of made up for missing work on Monday.

I spent most of the afternoon relaxing out on the 'lido deck' just sitting in the sun, and enjoying the delightful weather.  TLE was home by 4 pm, and we made plans to have a sunset fire after dinner, which consisted of a bleu cheese hamburger patty, sliced tomatoes, and avocados.....

  

(Added 5/28/21 as the problem cited below has been fixed)

(I got stuck here this morning trying to load some pictures, and it appears to be a Blogger issue as I have tried it on my phone, also, with the same Blogger error message.  I'll just finish this post with text only.....sorry)

I started the fire about 7:30 pm, and we sat watching the sun descend towards the marine layer on the horizon, and then disappear for another night.  Around 8:45 pm we headed back indoors for the night.

(Added 5/28/21 as the problem cited below has been fixed)

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Perfect.....

 7:44 am - Wednesday - May 26th - Seal Rock, OR - 46° F, 100% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east.....sunny, cloudless....my kind of day.  Our forecast high today is 58° F....my kind of temp!  On this date in 2013 TLE was directing traffic at Gate 2 of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.....I was taking the picture......↴

I only had two assignments Tuesday....perform the bi-weekly filter cleaning at the WDS plant, and help Terry replace the check valve on the water heater in his Class A motorhome.  Fred and I had  the filters clean, and reinserted in their underground bunkers by 10:30 am, and I was off to Terry's site to help him.

As you may recall, he tore his rotator cuff when he fell through the old, rotting deck at Fairwinds, and using his right shoulder to do any wrenching is definitely out of the question.  As is almost always the case the space under the kitchen sink where the water heater resides is quite limited, and suitable for those small of frame, like children.  Nevertheless, this was a job for an adult.  I made my first attempt to unscrew the check valve using channel locks, but I could not get enough leverage to break it loose.  I moved up to a large crescent wrench, but could still not get a good angle on it.  Next up was my 1/2" drive ratchet with a 1" socket, and a breaker bar attached to the end of the ratchet.....that did the trick, and I was soon installing the replacement check valve.  No plumbing job every goes unrewarded.....as soon as Terry turned on the water the plastic female fitting which connects to the male end on the check valve began to leak, and I could not get it to stop.  After 3 tries I was ready to hoist the white flag of surrender, when I decided to look at the old check valve to see if there was anything different about it.  There was....what I discovered was a rubber washer which stuck in the male end of the valve....that belonged to the female plastic fitting.  Once that was transferred, the leak stopped!

I was home by 12:30 pm, just in time to visit with TLE before she headed off to her four hour shift (1 pm to 5 pm).  It was cold, and blustery most of the afternoon, but the rain did not return.  TLE was home by 4 pm as the phones were not ringing.  Hopefully it will be sunny Wednesday, and I can get the awnings stowed before we leave for the airport on Friday.

Oh, I did have my audio/visual appointment with my cardiologist, Dr. Mulvihill at 1:30 pm.  My bloodwork was good, and my cholesterol continues to be, as Dr. Mulvihill says, perfect.  I'm good for another six months!

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Rainout......

 7:45 am - Tuesday - May 25th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 100% humidity, wind - zero mph out of the north.....cloudy, and rainy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date one year ago we arrived in Meeker, CO and snagged a spot right on the White River......↴

The weather guessers forecast a cloudy day Monday, and we got that, but what they did not forecast we did get.....rain all the day long.  It has been a while since I was called off work due to rain.  We did, however, see our very first deer here at SRRVC....right out the driver side window in site # A-1.....

....and that my friends was pretty much my day.  TLE worked a four hour shift from 9 am to 1 pm, and arrived home in the rain.  Most of the time it was just misting, but occasionally it was torrential....thankfully there was no wind.....either way there would be no manual labor for moi on Monday.

The weather right now is very perplexing....we seem to be going back in time, rather than forward into Spring.  Just when everything seemed to be drying out, we've had two straight days of rain.  This is my first time spending any amount of time on the Oregon Coast in the month of May, so I have no idea if this schizophrenic weather is normal this time of year, or not.

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One for the ages.....

 7:33 am - Monday - May 24th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 88% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the south.....cloudy, drizzly....forecast high for today is 53° F.  On this day one year ago we were touring Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, CO......↴

It began raining just before 10 am Sunday, and continued to do so well into the afternoon.  No worries though.....Sunday was the final round of this year's PGA Championship, and we planned to be sitting in front of our TV t watch it all unfold.  Phil Mickelson, at 50+ years of age, was leading by one stroke at 7 under par as he began the final 18 holes.  The first 6 holes the lead flip flopped back and forth between Brooks Koepka and Phil, but at the end as the fans surrounded the 18th green,

 Phil stood alone at 6 under par leading two other golfers by 2 strokes, and history was made.......

Isn't it great to see big crowds again?

g

.....he became the oldest professional golfer to win a Major at 50 years, and 11 months of age.    What a day!

The only other thing we did Sunday was to do a practice 'packing' for our trip to Spokane next Friday via Alaska Airlines.  We'll only be gone for 4 days, but we are going to a wedding, and there will be numerous wedding events for which we will need to dress up in our Sunday best....could we get everything into two suitcases, and a suitor?  The answer at the end of the day was yes, but barely.

During that process both TLE and I, inevitably, began to thin out our clothing herd just a tad, ending up with one large black trash bag full of used clothing to be donated to Goodwill the next time we venture north to Lincoln City.

And so, with the finish of the PGA Championship our second three day weekend came to a conclusion.

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More normalcy and sanity......

 8:04 am - Sunday - May 23rd - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 100% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2020 we were dining alfresco at Rockslide Brewing in Grand Junction, CO, and sampling a flight of their brews.....↴

As is often the case on Real Saturday TLE cooked up a batch of peppered bacon.....we get this bacon at Ray's Food Place in Waldport, and it is the best peppered bacon we have ever had.  When I hear TLE call out that I should put up my TV table, and I see her deliver a plate of bacon and eggs, I know I am loved.....

Proof of love.....

.....after breakfast we took a loop walk heading first up NW Cross Street to Seal Rock Street, then down to the exit driveway of SRRVC, through the park, and back to site # A-2.....

.....covering just .85 miles, and burning a modest 154 calories.  Just after returning home we jumped in the VW to head into Newport.  Both TLE and I have glass screen protectors on our cell phones, and both of those protective screens had cracks in them, so we determined to visit the local Verizon store to get them replaced.  I had been thinking about replacing my Galaxy Note 5 phone which is now 16 generations behind the current Galaxy Note 21, but did not want to pay $1,100 for a new one.  I had been on the Verizon website to see what deals I could get, but hadn't found anything exciting enough to get me to pull the trigger.  As we entered the store we were pleasantly surprised to see zero people wearing masks....bravo Verizon....

....another sign of normalcy, and sanity.  While Josh was installing TLE's new screen protector I began to ask him about their 5G phones, and if there were any deals to be had.  Of course there were, and sometimes the only way to find out what they are is to talk to someone face to face.  Within an hour I was leaving the store with a brand new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra for just over $600, and in addition to that Josh made some changes to my current plan lowering my monthly costs by almost $50....the annual savings will pay for my new phone!  We have dealt with Josh before back when we upgraded TLE's iPad months ago.  I've always had a good service experience with Verizon, but this particular store goes to another level of service.  Now the torture of learning a new phone begins.  Fortunately, all of my data, and programs were transferred over to the new phone, so I will not have that with which to deal!

After a quick stop at Fred Meyers, which still requires face masks, we were home by 1:30 pm relaxing, and watching wall to wall coverage of the PGA Championship.  After 3 rounds Phil Mickelson is leading by one stroke at 7 under par......if he wins at 50+ years of age he will be the oldest player to win a major championship.  Looking forward to Sunday's round to see how it turns out.

We had a 'sunset' fire without the sunset as it was very heavily overcast, but it was nice to spend a couple of hours enjoying the ambiance of our 'lido deck', listening to a little Fran Sinatra, sipping a couple of fingers of Scotch, and burning a good stogie.....thanks for stopping by!

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Compliant?

 7:58 am - Real Saturday - May 22nd - Seal Rock, OR - 48° F, 82% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2020 we were blessed to 'dine in' for the first time since the Wuhan Flu struck.....at the Feisty Pint in Grand Junction, CO.....↴

Friday was a day to which I was not looking forward.  It would involve over 200 miles of driving, and many errands.  I have an audio/video cardiologitst appointment next Tuesday (May 25th) and Dr. Mulvihill asked that I get some blood work done at Quest Labs prior to that appointment.  The nearest Quest facility is in Salem, OR in the local Safeway grocery store, and I secured an appointment for 1:15 pm on Friday.  It's just shy of a two hour drive one way.  I am required to fast for a minimum of 10 hours prior to having my blood drawn, so unless I was up at 3 am eating, this was going to be more than a 10 hour fast.  

TLE also needed to pick up some new eyewear at the COSTCO Optometry Dept. in Albany, so we decided to do that on the way to Salem, and left around 10 am.  After a 90 minute, uneventful drive we arrived at the COSTCO around 11:30 am.  As we walked up to the entrance we realized most people were not wearing masks, including the 'greeter'.  Like Walmart, COSTCO is no longer requiring masks.  Since they may not legally ask you if you have been vaccinated, they just ask "Are you CDC compliant?".....I sincerely do not know what that means, but I am a compliant person generally so I just nodded, and entered the store.....

.......most customers were not wearing masks.  I have no idea if they have been vaccinated, or not, it's really none of my business, and I am not concerned, or fearful.  I know some of you think I'm stupid, and selfish....that's your privilege.  I do not have the Wuhan virus, and, therefore, am putting no one at risk except myself.  Is there a very small chance I may contract the virus here on the extremely rural Oregon Coast, of course there is.  Every year over the past 30 years I declined to get a flu shot I took a similar chance I am taking now.  The last time I had any form of flu was 8 years ago, and I got pretty sick, but that did not change my opinion about getting vaccinated.  Every time I get on the Massey-Ferguson loader, or operate a chain saw, or pole pruner, or ride my mountain bike down a 13% grade at 30 mph I take a significantly much greater, imminent risk of being injured.  I accept those risks, just as I accept the risk of getting any number of infectious diseases every day of the week by moving around in public.  I don't think I'm being stupid, or selfish.....just making informed, risk assessed decisions.  If you have decided to get vaccinated, good for you.  I'm sure you did a lot of research, considered where you live, thought it through, and made what you believe is an informed decision based on all those criteria....I respect you for that.  Please respect my right to disagree, just as I have disagreed with all of you who have chosen to get an annual flu shot for the past 30 years, but have still respected you for your decision to do so.   By the way, fewer than 50% of all adults get an annual flu shot. I have done my research, and come to a different conclusion than you.  I have lived 95% of my life the past 10 years in rural America, but if I lived in a densely populated area like many of you I might possibly come to a different conclusion, but I do not....I live where I live.  The risk here on the Oregon Coast is minimal.....since the pandemic was declared 15 months ago only 21 people have died in Lincoln County from the Wuhan Flu (none in the past 3 months), and there have only been 1300+ cases.  As of May 20th approximately 30% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated, and the vaccination rate is decreasing rapidly.

I am not soliciting positive, or negative comments on my views, or trying to create controversy.  If you have nothing kind to say, please don't, because it will treated like spam, and not published.  If you have a reasoned, well articulated contrary view I'm happy to hear it, but if you believe your only recourse is to name call, and insult then it would appear you apparently believe you have already lost the argument.

After we picked up TLE's eyewear we headed next to the local UPS store to drop off a package, and then further north to the nearest In 'N Out Burger.....we haven't had a #2 combo since mid February.....

......In 'N Out Burger was packed....the drive through line was 50 cars long, and the inside ordering was just as crazy.  They require masks inside, and there is no 'dine in', but you can eat outside at one of their many tables.....it's starting to feel like things are getting back to normal.

After picking up a few things at the Target store, which was in the same shopping mall as In 'N Out Burger, we began our 109 mile drive home.  It took us just shy of two hours for the return drive, and once again it was uneventful, and traffic moved right along.  We arrived back at SRRVC around 4:45 pm.....whew, that was a long day!

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