Summer is here......

7:58 am - Wednesday - June 28th - LPG&RVR - 56° F, 61% humidity, wind - mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  This will be our last day of 70's temps for the foreseeable future....summer temps are here to stay, apparently...

.....and on this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Keystone, SD experiencing our first significant hail storm......we were hit with golf ball size hail for about 10 minutes....no damage to the Newell, but a tail light on the VW was cracked.....↴

After a very busy Monday TLE and I scaled back our ambitions Wednesday, and just settled for a leisurely trip to Alturas for our weekly shopping foray.  Our VW registration is due 7/22 so our first stop was at the Alturas DMV, where you can walk right up to a window, and take care of your business with no appointments, no waiting....we paid the $148 tab for our 2023-24 tag, and were back in the VW within 5 minutes.  

We haven't done any 'junking' for a few weeks so we paid visits to our two favorite local thrift shops, and spent about an hour in all browsing.  TLE found nothing without which she could not continue living, but I found an oversized Phillips head screw driver I wanted.  I thought it might cost $2-3 dollars, but the owner charged me just 25¢....I'd be stupid not to buy it for that, right?

After a quick stop at ACE Hardware to pickup a few things (gallon of Acetone, a refill for our butane lighters, and new portable fireplace grate) we were on our way.  Of course, you might be wondering 'why a GALLON of Acetone?'.  Well, on our next four day weekend, which begins July 4th we are going to remove the 10 year old vinyl plank flooring in the Newell, and finally install the new vinyl planking we bought at the Lowe's in El Centro this past winter.  The Acetone is to clean the linoleum moisture barrier over which the new vinyl planks will be installed.  The old planks will leave a sticky mess, and we want the new planks to have a fresh surface on which to adhere.......

New fireplace grate

....next up was Rite Aid where TLE bought some emory boards, and some new toenail clippers.  They have a Thrifty Ice Cream parlor in Rite Aid, and we've never availed ourselves of its ice cream, so we got a couple of scoops of Black Cherry ice cream....haven't had ice cream in months.

Our final stop was at Holiday Market where TLE bought mostly produce....they have the best produce!  After that stop we began the 20 mile drive back to LPG&RVR arriving home without incident around 1:30 pm.  While TLE put away the groceries I did some weeding around the edges of our site, and around the edges of our grass.

Around 3 pm TLE and I drove our golf cart over to the Clubhouse to work on our putting game for about 90 minutes.  I recently bought her a new to her (pre-owned) putter off eBay for about $29....it is a mallet style putter with a short shaft, and medium size grip....

Slazenger #4 mallet style putter, 33.5" long

.....she took an immediate liking to it, and frankly, she is putting much more consistently.  She does want to find a new grip that is not as big in diameter, so the search is on, but for now she really seems to like it.

We didn't get home until just before 5 pm at which time TLE began to prepare dinner, and I went outside to the 'viewing deck' to smoke a cigar and drink some iced coffee....

.....by the time TLE announced 'dinner is served' the evening had become quite pleasant with no mosquitoes, and no wind, so after dinner we adjourned to the 'lower deck' to play 5 spirited games of Backgammon....

.....TLE won the first game with double 4's on her final throw to beat me by one stone, but I recovered in the second game.  She won the 3rd game, and I the fourth, so it came down to the 5th, and tie breaking game, which went back and forth, but had me as the victor in the end.  If you look deep into the background of the above picture you can see what looks like rain over Eagle Mountain, and a close up (below) shows that it was raining quite hard over there......

....I sat outside finishing another cigar wondering if that rain would reach us, but it never did.  I love being able see rain so far away (15-20 miles.....not sure), and watch it move across the valley.  Tuesday was a laid back day off for us, and another day well lived.

Thanks for stopping by!