HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

 5:59 am - Thursday - October 3rd - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 53%, wind ZERO mph out of the south by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F....the last of the high 80's days.  On this date in 1949 I was born to Arthur and Virginia Hockwald.....

I am now, officially, 75 years old.....three quarters of a century has passed since I was welcomed into this world by my parents.  Up until the diagnosis of arthritis in my right kneed with some loss of cartilage, I felt no different than I have for the past 30 years....in fact I feel the best I've felt since before my heart attack back in May of 2019....other than that knee thing....lol.  At any rate, I returned to my normally scheduled job duties Wednesday morning with a certain amount of joy, and a bounce in my step.

I staged 5 carts initially, and then proceeded to wash six others that were left over from Tuesday.  By 9 am my back was still fine, and my knee was loose, and limber.  It is amazing how a lack of green 'punching' can improve one's physical health, and mental well being.  I didn't head out to make my first round of the golf course until 9:30 am...we had no golfers teeing off until 10 am Wednesday.  By the time I returned to the Clubhouse it was 10 am, and time to begin mowing grass.  I haven't mowed any grass, and neither has anyone else, for over 10 days, and it was beginning to show.  Over the next two hours I managed to mow the parking lot grass, the large grass area next to site #30, 13 of the 15 pull through sites, the employee sites, and the large grass area at the group fire pit.  I arrived back at the Clubhouse just before 12 pm, and TLE's lunch break.

In all we rented just 7 golf carts Wednesday, and I rented two of them during TLE's lunch break.  After lunch I mowed the three residential lawns up the hill, and I was done mowing for the day.  I made 2, or 3 rounds of the course as Marshal, and found everyone obeying the rules.  By 3:30 pm I had just 3 of the 7 carts returned, and washed, so I'll have 4 to wash Thursday morning.  We now have just 6 work days left this season.

On the 'what is new' front TLE and I have become the proud owners of a 1969 Jeep CJ-5....

....it was fully restored within the last two years.  I wanted to own a CJ5 for about 20 years, and the right deal finally came along.  It was located in Prescott Valley, AZ so Charles and Phyllis picked it up for us, and we will see it in person for the first time in about 3 weeks when we arrive in Arizona for the winter.....oh yeah, we'll be spending the winter in northern Arizona.    We'll keep the VW, so we now own two cars again for the first time in 10 years.  The top is new.  It comes with half doors and full doors, has  a nice stereo system, and a beefed up roll cage.....

....the interior is immaculate, the tires are less than 18 months old, and this Jeep is ready to use!  We are very excited, and what a wonderful birthday gift to myself!

Thanks for stopping by!

On fumes.....

5:44 am - Wednesday - October 2nd - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 44%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I arrived at Port Townsend, WA and were staying overnight at the marina before taking the ferry to Coupeville (Whidbey Island)......

Did I ever need my day off on Tuesday!  I slept in until almost 7:30 am.  TLE actually got up first, which is an extreme rarity, and turned on the electric heaters.  By the time I got up the Newell interior was quite cozy.  Usually I'm the one quickly moving from heater to heater each morning, then getting dressed as quickly as possible as it is so cold, allowing TLE to get up when it is more comfortable....lol!

We needed to go into Alturas to do our weekly shopping, and make a stop at the local DMV to find out why our drivers licenses had not yet arrived.  It has been 7 weeks, and we should have had them 3 weeks ago.  Anyway, we were on our way into town around 10 am, and arrived at the local fuel station around 10:20 am to fill up the VW tank for the first time in a few weeks.  The low fuel light came on about 5 miles out of town, which I haven't seen for a long time.  I looked down at the tripometer to see our mileage was nearing 368....WAIT, WHAT?'  We've never gone that far on a tank of gas!  We ended up taking on 12.3 gallons, which is the most, by far we've ever needed....we must have been on fumes.  I believe the tank holds 12.5 gallons.  I'm glad that fuel gauge is, apparently, pretty accurate!

Our next stop was the DMV where we met Sonja, who is one of the most delightful DMV folk we have ever dealt with.  We told her our problem, and she said the new licenses definitely should have reached us several weeks ago, so she had us go to one of their touch screen computers and order replacement licenses, which we did, then she waived all the fees, and printed out temporary licenses which are good until November 29th.

Next up was a stop at Holiday Market....probably the next to last time we will shop there this year.  On our way home we stopped off at the food truck in Likely to get carne asada tacos (for moi), and a quesadilla for TLE to take home for an early lunch.  Those tacos are so good!

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on finalizing my 2023 taxes.  I didn't have all the W-2's in April so I filed for a 6 month extension, and that is up on October 15th, so time to get it done!

I'm looking forward to returning to my normal 4 day a week job on Wednesday.  That will seem like a 'cake walk' compared to 'punching' greens for 8 of the last 12 days.

Thanks for stopping by!

8 days a week......

8:17 am - Tuesday - October 1st - LPG&RVR  - 48° F, humidity 29%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2011 I was at soccer fields in Moreno Valley, CA....I was the center on two matches, and an assistant referee on two others....it was hot....

Well, it has been a couple of days since I posted, so let's get started.  Sunday was the second of my two days off from 'punching' greens, and I spent most of it doing relaxing.  I actually felt pretty good Sunday, which surprised me just as much as it did Saturday morning.  Nevertheless, resting was the order of the day.  I anticipated that we would have one last day of 'punching' greens, but there were four left (#2, 10, putting green & the sod farm), and we've never done four in one day.  I guess I was optimistic, or was it that my body could only only do it one more day?   Could we finish in just 8 days?  We'll see.

At any rate, other than working on a small project in the trailer for about an hour in the morning I spent the day ensconced in my recliner watching the final match play round of the President's Cup, and wasn't it exciting?  Yes it was!  Twelve individual match play rounds were scheduled for Sunday, and we only needed to win 5, and tie a 6th to win.  The International squad had to win 9 of the 12 matches to win, so they were at a definite disadvantage.  In the end it was too big of a disadvantage.  The USA team won 8 matches, and tied a 9th to win handily.

For dinner TLE had me fire up the Sea-B-Que one more time to grill two lovely filet mignons, to which she added a baked potato.  The steaks were oh so tender, and cooked my moi to a beautiful medium rare in just 9 minutes at 500° F.

Fast forward to Monday morning. TLE still had two more days off work before returning to her job on Wednesday, but I had to get up, and gird myself for what I hoped would be my last day this season 'punching' greens.  I reported to Clubhouse for work around 7:45 am to find that José had already 'punched' the putting green, and had already raked all the plugs into 7, or 8 neat piles.  Apparently he did that Sunday afternoon.  Anyway, I could see he was serious about finishing Monday.  By the time we all drove out to the 10th green he had already punched half of it, so Mike and I began loading the plugs into the John Deer Gator dump bed to haul them away.  We managed to clear the 10th green of the plugs by 8:30 am.....

The 10th green finished...punched and sanded! 

....next up was green #2, but José sent us back to the putting green to clear those plugs before joining him at the 2nd green.  We finished with the putting green by 9 am.....wow!  At this point I was becoming more convinced that we would finish all four greens Monday.

By the time we got back to #2 he, again, already had half the green 'punched', so we got to work clearing those plugs, and finished around 10:15 am.  While we were clearing the plugs from #2 DeWayne and John had been spreading sand on #10 to fill all of the holes, and were ready for us to scrape off the excess sand shortly after we finished clearing the plugs from #2.  We had #10 scraped by 11:45 am, so we took a lunch break.  That is the first time in 8 days we actually had one green scraped before 12 pm.

José bought us all lunch, which was a clear sign we would finish Monday, because he always buys us lunch on the final day....YAY!  We went back to work around 1 pm reporting for work at the #2 green, which was ready to have the excess sand removed.  From there we proceeded to the putting green, which was also now ready to be scraped, and had it done by 3 pm.  By this time I was out of gas, but we only had the 'sod farm' to punch now, so we all headed there to do just that.  Within 60 minutes we had punched the 10' by 200' sod farm green, and were done!  José and DeWayne remained behind to sand the sod farm green, while the rest of us headed for home.....it was 4 pm, and we were all ready for long, hot showers.  As you know, we have never done four greens in one day this season, but we did it Monday when it counted!

The nice thing about finishing the annual punching of the greens Monday is that I still have Tuesday off before returning to my regularly scheduled job.....staging carts, washing carts, and 'marshaling'.....on Wednesday.  We now have just 7 work days left with 4 days off work separating the 4th and 5th workdays.  We'll be packing up in earnest those four days, and will officially roll our wheels southward on October 14th.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shopping spree.....

7:20 am - Sunday - September 29th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 39%, wind ZERO mph out of the southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  It actually got to 91° F on Saturday.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I had arrived in Sydney, MT in advance of the annual beet harvest, which began October 1st....we stayed for 3 weeks at the Richland County Fairgrounds.....our first sunset.....

 The bi-annual President's Cup (golf) is being played this weekend near Montreal, Canada and is the last major golfing event of the 2024 season.  It is basically a match play event played over 4 days, and it is a lot of fun to watch, so it would be no surprise to any of you if I told you we spent the better part of Saturday watching the events of the day unfold.  It was also a day of doing little, or nothing....just trying to relax as much as possible to allow my body time to recover from 5 consecutive days of 'punching' you know what....lol.  Actually,  my knee and back did not feel that bad, which surprised me.  I would have to guess that faithfully performing my PT exercises all week had a little to do with my fast recovery.

As you will recall, TLE and I won a $200 gift certificate to the Likely General Store.  We don't normally shop there as things are quite a bit more expensive than in Alturas, we have have gone in from time to time to buy something we forgot to buy when we were in Alturas like half and half, or butter, or whatever.  We decided to drive into 'town' around 12 pm to begin our $200 shopping spree.  TLE bought a number of canned goods to add to our emergency stockpile, along with some rice, and dried beans, as well as another case of water.  Additionally we purchased some winter gloves, glove liners, and thermal socks to add to our collections, and some hardware items (clamps) for my tool collection.  We ended up spending $193 on merchandise, so to finish the shopping spree we bought two Drumstick® ice cream cones to consume on our way home.....there were 26 cents left over, which we donated to the store.

We spent the balance of the afternoon watching the President's Cup, as well as some of the USC vs. Wisconsin NCAA football game being played in Los Angeles.  USC started slowly ending the first half behind 21-10, and did not appear to be on their way to a victory, however, in the second half they scored 28 unanswered points to win 38-21....nice!

As I write this morning my knee still feels great....as a matter of fact I hadn't really thought about it until now, which is a good thing.  Usually it is stiff first thing, but not the past two mornings....time to do those PT exercises and keep the knee loose!

Thanks for stopping by!

Five days in September.....

7:55 am - Saturday - September 28th - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 39%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Providence, RI having lunch at Trinity Brewhouse.....

.....the view this morning.....the leaves are turning quickly now....

I've been absent from the blogosphere world for about 5 days now, and for good reason.  Monday was the third day of green 'punching' here at the Likely Place Golf and RV Resort, and I was facing 5 consecutive days of that same activity.  I needed every minute of every morning to get my knee and back ready for 6-7 hours of some of the hardest work you will ever do, so I decided to suspend writing the blog in favor of being mostly physically fit to make it through each day.  Last year we had a crew of 8, and were able to punch 3 greens a day.  This year we have a crew of 6, three of whom are over 70, including myself.  The first few days we struggled to finish 2 greens per day.  What I have discovered this week is it does not matter how old you are, you will be 'whipped' at the end of each day.....some just more whipped than others....lol.

After the weekend hiatus from green 'punching' I felt pretty good as I drove Club Car Villager #20 out to the 7th green to begin the day.  Mike Picot (mower Mike) and I have worked together for 3 years now scooping up the thousands of plugs into the John Deere Gator, which has a dump bed.  Mike and I estimate that the average size green here generates around 90,000 plugs, which means we will have scooped, when finished with the 18 primary greens, 1,620,000 plugs into that Gator.  We use large snow shovels to scoop up the plugs....

The plugs being pushed into piles so Mike and I can 

scoop them up and put them in the John Deere Gator

Scraping the excess sand off each green after they have been 'sanded'

.....José began 'punching' the first green of the day around 8 am, and in spite of all my physical therapy before work I was ready to be done by 10 am, and we still had 4-5 hours of work to go....lol!  The 6th and 7th greens are two of the largest greens on the course, and we did not finish them until 4:30 pm.  With an 8 man team a 'punching' day was around 5.5 to 6 hours long, and we were always done for the day by 3-3:30 pm each day, and that was doing 3 greens each day!  As I drove home for the day I wondered how on earth I was going to do this for 4 more days this week, and then 3-4 days next week.

Without TLE's help each day massaging my back each morning, and evening I do not know how I would have gotten through one day, let alone 5 consecutive days of 'punching' greens, but I did.  Each day we would meet at 8 am at the next green to be punched, and by 10 am each day I was out of gas, but I just put my head down, and kept moving forward, and somehow by Thursday we were punching 3 greens a day with a smaller crew.  By Friday Mike and I were operating on 'fumes', but we kept at it, and finally around 4:30 pm Friday we had finished scraping the excess sand off the third and final green of the day.....#1.  We now have just the 10th green, and the 2nd green, plus the putting green to finish on Monday.  I'm not sure when we will do the 'sod farm' green, but I'm pretty sure that will be later in the week.

As I sit here writing we have just 7 days of work left in the season,  and it appears we will be departing LPG&RVR on the 14th of October.  This next Thursday I'll officially turn 75...where have the years gone?  I've been saying I'm 75 for 6 months now, so my birthday will kind of be anticlimactic....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

What's going on?

 6:17 am - Wednesday - September 25th - LPG&RVR - 51° F, humidity 47%, wind 4 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  

Just a brief post to let you know all is well.  We've been punching greens for 4 days now, and I've been spending each morning before work doing the PT exercises for my right knee so I can make it through each day with the least amount of discomfort as possible, so I have not been writing my blog.  I'll catch you up this Saturday when we're off work again.  I'm working 5 days this week....Monday through Friday.  The good news is the PT exercises are working as they should, and my knee is doing better than expected.  My back is also adjusting to the harder work, and this morning is the best it has felt in a week!

Thank you for your patience!  Just wanted to let you all know we are fine, and all is well in our Newell world.

Thanks for stopping by!

The finale.....

8:05 am - Sunday - September 22nd - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 57%, wind ZERO mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2017 we got a foot of snow at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone NP.....

Shortly after I finished typing my blog post Saturday morning I went through all of my knee exercises to loosen up my knee, which was pretty stiff after two consecutive days of being on my feet all day shoveling putting green plugs, and scraping excess sand off each green.  It takes me about 20 minutes to run through all the exercises, and by the end of that time my knee had loosened up, and was feeling normal again, and I had back my range of motion.  

My back was another issue.  It was really stiff after those same two days.  I sat in my recliner for about an hour with the heat pad on it, and finally it began to loosen up.  Once I was ambulatory again I headed out to the trailer to begin putting some things away in anticipation of the eventual need to insert the VW in about 3 weeks.  There is a lot to organize, then stow, and starting 3 weeks early is never a bad idea.

The season ending putting contest finale was at 4 pm Saturday.  Last year I got to within one match of playing in the championship match before losing to Greg Plumlee who went on to win.  This year I didn't get out of the 2nd round....lol.  Oh well.  TLE and I had a lot of fun in spite of my early exit.  Greg Plumlee, who won last year's championship, showed why he is still the best putter by going undefeated, and winning in a one hole, closet to the hole putt off with Wendy Benner.

Saturday was also NCAA College football day, and there were a number of interesting games throughout the day.  My USC Trojans lost a heart breaker to the Michigan Wolverines (current National Champion) on the last play of the game....27-24.  In the night cap game the Colorado Golden Buffaloes (playeing in Boulder, CO) came from way behind to tie Baylor on a Hail Mary pass as time expired, and then scored another touchdown in overtime to clinch a most improbable win.

The weather has been great the past few days, and is slowly warming back into the low 80's for a few days, then back into the 60's and 70's for the duration....at least that is the way it appears on the long range forecast.  All that being said, today (Sunday) is the first day of Fall, and there continues to be that crisp feeling in the air that feels exactly like Fall weather should feel.  With the sun slowly angling lower and lower in the southern sky, plus rising later and later (6:50 am this morning), and setting earlier and earlier (6:58 pm tonight) the warmth in the air disappears quickly, and by 5 pm you're looking for a jacket.

Thanks for stopping by!

It is what it is......

 7:39 am - Saturday - September 21st - LPG&RVR - 43° F, humidity 54%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2015 we were walking along 'North Beach' at Cape Blanco Lighthouse.....

We began day two of the 2024 edition of 'green punching' around 9 am Friday.  Jose, the course superintendent, had a goal of getting 3 greens punched and sanded, but I was pretty sure, being two men down from last year, that we would be lucky to get two done, and I was, in the end, right.  We began working on the 9th green Friday, which is the largest green of the 18, and being the largest, it took the longest.  By 11:45 am, when we stopped for lunch, we had punched two greens, with one of them about 50% sanded.

I headed for home where TLE was enjoying the first of her four day weekend.  She had prepared a tuna sandwich for me, which I appreciated.  Punching greens is hard work, and I was definitely in caloric deficit.  When we took our lunch break Jose was still thinking we would get 3 greens punched and sanded, but when I returned at 1 pm the plan had changed, and we began scraping the excess sand off the 9th green.  By the time we finished removing the excess sand from the 9th and 8th greens it was 4 pm, and time to call it a day.  

So, after the first two days we have processed 4 greens, and I think that will be the pattern for the next 7-8 work days....as my friend Mike Picot often says...."It is what it is!".  Shortly after arriving home I was in the shower....my back and my right knee were barking loudly, but the hot shower slowly did it work, and by the time I exited the shower about 15 minutes later I thought I had a chance to survive the day.  I'm hoping by Monday my body will be getting more 'hardened' to the work.  Each of the first two years I've punched greens it has taken me 2-3 days for my body to adjust.

After sitting in my recliner for about 30 minutes with a heat pad on my lower back we headed out to the 'lido deck' to sip Margaritas, and talk about our week.  Once again we employed our portable propane fire pit to hold the early evening coolness at bay.  The sun is officially setting at 7 pm now, but it really slips behind the western mountains around 6:50 pm.  Our sunrise is getting closer and closer to 7 am now, and we are now counting the weeks, not months, until we roll our wheels south for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Punch and Judy"

7:21 am - Friday - September 20th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 69%, wind  ZERO mph out of the east by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE were standing at the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.....

We got the news around 8 am Thursday that we would begin 'punching' the greens at 9 am.  This is the day we think about all summer.  Punching greens is one of the hardest jobs I've ever done, and none of us really look forward to this day, but it is something which must be done annually to preserve the health, and integrity of the green complexes.  Normally, with a full crew, we can punch 3 greens per day, but we're a couple of men down this year, so our goal is two greens per day.  As I've mentioned previously there are 20 'greens' that must be punched....the 18 greens of the golf course, the putting green, and the 'sod farm' green.  It will probably take us the better part of 10 days to do them all.  For now my 4 days working, and 4 days not working schedule is on the back burner.  I'll be working Friday, a day I would have normally been off work, and then Monday through Friday next week, and a few days the next week.  That will take us into October.

So, what does 'punching the greens' entail?  The obvious part is the actual punching of the green using a motorized machine....

.....once the entire green has been punched, and all of the plugs shoveled up, and hauled away, then sand is spread over the entire green, after which we drag the green with a special screen which forces the sand into the holes....

.....shoveling up the plugs.....⇧

.....once all the holes are filled with sand we begin to scrape off the excess sand from the green surface.  Within a day, or two of sanding the greens they are fertilized, and within a few weeks they are back to normal.  With full crew we can process 3 greens per day at 2 hours per green.  With our current crew each green takes 3 hours.

The first day is always the toughest as your back gets used to all of the shoveling, and scraping, but by the 2nd, or 3rd day you get used to it, and the work becomes more routine.  As I sit here typing this morning my back is barking, but I'll take a couple of Tylenol, and get on with the job.

We finished our second green around 3:30 pm at which time I headed back to the Clubhouse to wash, and stow 12 golf carts, finished with that around 4 pm, and was home taking a long, hot shower a few minutes later.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clearing weather......

5:54 am - Thursday - September 19th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 87%, wind ZERO mph out of the south......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were west bound on I-90 near Anaconda, MT.....

To begin Wednesday I staged all 5 of the Club Car electrics....there were only two names on the tee time sheet, so I though 5 would suffice for a few hours.  By 10:30 am only two of the carts had been rented, so I stowed the three unused Club Car electrics, and brought out 5 Yamaha gassers.  We ended up renting those 5 Yamahas, but that was it for Wednesday.

I made a round of the course around 9 am, and ended up spending around 40 minutes trying to get the sand trap at hole 15 to look decent again.  It had rained just enough the prior two days to soften up the soil in the trap.....after doing some extensive weeding, and then raking it for the first time in a few weeks it looked pretty good....

....the surrounding scenery wasn't too bad either....

.....upon my return to the Clubhouse around 10 am I set out to finish mowing what I had not mowed the day before.....the three lawns in the residential area, the parking lot grass, the small pavilion grass, the grass at the restrooms, the two pull through sites I had not mowed the day before, and finally the back in sites down in the Meadows.  I finished just before 12 pm, just in time to give TLE her lunch break.  Unlike Tuesday, Wednesday was a little slower during the lunch hour, for which I was grateful.

I was off work just before 3:30 pm. At that time there were still 3 golf carts on the course.  They were just finishing the 12th hole around 2:45 pm when I passed them on my final marshaling round of the day.  I figured they'd be back at the Clubhouse by 4:30 pm at the latest, so I determined to return then, wash them, stow them, then take TLE home.  At 4:30 pm they were still not back, so TLE called them.  They were just teeing off at the 18th hole....wait, what?  By the time she reached them it was 4:45 pm, and the carts were not returned until after 5 pm.  They began their 18 hole round at 11:15 am, so we're talking 6 hours to play 18 holes with virtually no one on the course....lol!  At any rate, I got them washed quickly, and we were on our way home by 5:20 pm.

To add a little context, we give our customers 5 hours to play 18 holes here at LPG&RVR, and expect the carts to be returned within that 5 hours.  I'm not a very good golfer, but I can play 18 in just over 3 hours, and I usually play 2, or 3 balls on each hole....again, here at LPG&RVR.  

Thanks for stopping by!

More rain....

5:41 am - Wednesday - September 18th - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 92%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2020 I was flying our drone over Seal Rocks RV Cove.....

Unlike Monday, which began with threatening skies, followed by rain, Tuesday began with rain, followed by heavy cloud cover, then clearing near the end of the day.  I worked for about 90 minutes first thing Tuesday, then headed home until 12 pm, when I returned to give TLE her lunch break.  Little did I know that all that pent up golf demand from the past two days would unleash itself upon me during that brief 60 minute interlude.  Within that 60 minute period the phone rang a lot, and I rented 8 golf carts.  In all we rented 9 golf carts, and the final 8 I rented were it for the day.  TLE, on the other hand, had a very quiet day renting just one golf cart just before lunch, and very few phone calls....lol.

I took a 30 minute break after giving TLE her break, then with the skies beginning to clear, jumped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and began mowing.  At first I thought I would just mow a couple of the large grass areas, but before I finished mowing at 4:20 pm I had mowed 12 of the pull through sites, the large grass area next to site #30, the large group area firepit lawn, one of the 'buddy sites', the large lawn around the Night Registration Office, and most of the tee boxes for which I am responsible!  I returned in time to wash, and stow 7 of the 9 rented golf carts, at which time TLE had finished closing the Clubhouse office for the night.  I managed to work 6 hours Tuesday, in spite of the rain, and did the same on Monday, in spite of the rain. 

Thursday will see the skies beginning to clear as the last of the storm system moves out of the Pitt River Valley.  By the weekend we'll see temps in the 80's, then back into the 60's and 70's for the balance of September.  We will probably not begin punching greens until tomorrow (Thursday), to give the greens a  chance to dry out more.  If they are not dry enough the plugs created by the punching machine will not come out of their holes.

By the way, the replacement Starlink system has been working flawlessly since I set it up....not even a hiccup.  I have to say, based on all the comments I've read on the various Starlink groups on Facebook about Customer Service, that I was a little concerned about the process when our original system went down, but within 10 days I had a new system, and the communication from Customer Service during the entire process was exceptional.  I had answers to my questions within hours each time, and I cannot say it could have gone any more smoothly.  Each time they shipped something (first the new cable, then the new system) to me it was via overnight FedEx, which is costly.  So, thank you Elon Musk for such an amazing resource, and for providing such exceptional customer service!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rain delay.....

 5:43 am - Tuesday - September 17th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 85%, wind 6 mph out of the west by northwest......heavy cloud cover today with a chance of rain, and a forecast high of 60° F.  The high Monday only got to 53° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were checking out the tide pools at Seal Rock Beach.....

With the forecast of rain for most of Monday the beginning of green 'punching' was delayed at least one day, and perhaps two as the rain will continue Tuesday as well.  I did not stage any golf carts, but we ultimately rented 3.  With almost certain rain the forecast, and the park close to empty, there was not much for me to do Monday.  I did make one round of the course, and did rake two of the sand traps.  By that time two of the three twosomes were almost finished with the front 9, and that was all they ended up playing....it was just too cold.

Eventually the rain did arrive, so after giving TLE her lunch break I worked another 30 minutes, and then headed into Alturas.  Why?  Well, my debit card got 'hacked'.  I had found a suspicious charge to my checking account made via my debit card, and reported it to my bank.  They agreed, refunded the charge, and cancelled the card necessitating my drive into the local branch of my bank in Alturas to get a new temporary debit card issued.  The process took less than 15 minutes, and I was on my way back to LPG&RVR.  The permanent card will be mailed to me, and I should have it within the next week, but at least I have a working debit card again.  That's the first time I've darkened the door of my bank since 2020, and it actually went quite smoothly!

I was back at LPG&RVR by 2:30 pm at which time I called it a day, and headed back to the Newell.  I had been raining at LPG&RVR for over an hour by the time I returned, and now there was really nothing for me to do.  I drove back over to the Clubhouse around 5 pm to pickup TLE, and that was our day.

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Fall is here......

5:44 am - Monday - September 16th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 88%, wind 2 mph out of the west by northwest....rain today with a forecast high of 54° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were taking the first of many walks on Seal Rock Beach (Seal Rock, OR).....

TLE and I did something Sunday we have not done for quite a while....in fact, not since August 22nd.....we did our 2 mile out and back walk.....

.....so, that makes 43 of those walks we have done now, and if we stay vigilant, we can still reach our goal of 100 miles before we head south in less than a month now.  We managed to average 3.2 mph, and my knee did not bother me, even a little.  And 37:34 is the fastest we have walked it since I began having problems with my knee.

It was cold Sunday....cold enough that we had to bundle up for our walk, and cold enough that we did not spend a lot of time outdoors.  A weather front is moving into the Pitt River Valley, and it appears we will have rain starting around mid morning (Monday), and lasting into the early hours of tomorrow morning (Tuesday). This week we work Monday through Thursday, and not one single one of those days will involve temperatures above 69° F.  We were supposed to begin 'punching' the greens Monday, but with rain forecast for most of the day, I think we'll be starting Tuesday instead....we'll see.

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Football, dinner and raffles......

8:33 am - Sunday - September 15th - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 51%, wind 3 mph out o of the north by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Cheyenne, WY having lunch at 'Shadows Pub & Grill'.....

 I watched a lot of college football Saturday, because I could.  Most games were pretty one sided as is often the case early in the season, but there was one between LSU and South Carolina that went down to the last field goal attempt, which South Carolina missed.  For the first time this summer I did not participate in the weekly putting contest.  

Around 5 pm we headed into Likely for the annual Volunteer Fire Department dinner/raffle.  The donation per person for dinner (large Rib Eye steak, baked potato, salad, dessert) is $30, plus we bought a dozen raffle tickets, and 8 separate raffle tickets for the 3 grand prizes....1) a scoped rifle, 2) a $200 gift certificate, and 3) a $100 gift certificate.  It must have been our day, we won a rifle case with one of the dozen raffle tickets, a shot gun sleeve, and two extremely large Margarita glasses with our meal tickets, and the $200 gift certificate.....I really wanted that rifle....at least I've got something the case.....

The rifle case will hold two 'scoped' rifles

....we were home a little after 7 pm with our spoils.  By the way, the Rib Eye steaks (donated by local cattlemen) were delicious!  All of the local cattle are grass fed.

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Would you like to own a Newell?

8:02 am - Saturday - September 14th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 36%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were overnighting at 'RV Park at the Bridge' on the Washington side of the Columbia River....you can see the Astoria-Megler Bridge, which connects Washington with Oregon, in the background (right).....

 .....we would arrive in Seal Rock, OR the next day where we would live for the next 12 months.

We were up just before 7 am Friday, which is kind of against my 'religion' on non work days, but I had an 8:45 am haircut appointment at Kaleidescope in Alturas.....who made that appointment, anyway!?  We left around 8:20 am, and arrived, without incident, a 8:40 am.  I was in the chair 2 minutes later, and by 9 am we were back in the VW headed for Rite Aide. 

I'm sure you have heard that Rite Aid has been in bankruptcy proceedings, and for a while we thought the Alturas Rite Aid would be closing as the shelves got pretty bare for a while, but they seem to be restocking, and the pharmacist told TLE that they will be remaining open....there is no other pharmacy in Alturas....the nearest would be either Reno/Sparks, NV< or Lakeview, OR.  From Rite Aid we headed over to Holiday Market for our groceries, and were home by 10 am.  

Ever since we took down the 'dining/gaming deck' I've wanted to try and make that area more level, so about an hour after we got home I set about to do just that using just a rock rake I keep on Club Car Villager #20.  Below is the 'before' picture, which I always seem to forget to take, but did not forget this time.....

Before.....

....and after

......I worked on leveling that 10' x 10' pad, on and off, until mid afternoon, but finally got it level, or what passes for level in site #55.  It was high on the right side of the picture, so I raked dirt from the right side down to the left side, and moved one of the umbrellas down there after I finished watering the loose dirt so it will compact over time.  We'll be getting rain all day Monday, so that should put the final touches on the compaction......

....I also rolled up a couple of pieces of carpet, and stowed them in the trailer.....

......and while I was at it I installed a decal on the side of our trailer....I've always liked this motto, "Live Free or Die", which is the motto of New Hampshire.....the "Don't Tread on Me" part comes from the Revolutionary War, and the Gadsden Flag.....both mottos are associated with the independent spirit of early Americans......

.....TLE had me grill a couple of filet mignons for dinner to which she added a side of roasted potatoes......red skin, and sweet, with some onions for good measure.  We ate inside, but retired to the 'lido deck' around 6:30 pm to watch the sun set, while once again employing the portable propane firepit.

In closing I would like to announce that my good friend Steve Ward is selling his 1982 Newell Classic 38' motorcoach (2 feet longer than mine).  As I have written here (many more pictures of the interior) back in 2019, this Newell is one serial number different than mine.  They were both delivered to their original owners in March of 1982, and both owners had the same last name, so we are assuming they were related.....

Steve and Patti Ward....current owners...at a Newell rally in Creede, CO back in 2009

.....the coach has spent its life in the western USA, and the past 30 years in the southwest.  It is currently in Hemet, CA.  Steve found this Newell in Yuma, AZ back in 2008, where she had been sitting unused for about 10 years, and brought her back to life.  There is no deferred maintenance, and all systems work as they should.  It has a basement fridge/freezer like we do, plus an ice machine in the kitchen.  The rear A/C will have to be replaced as it has quit working recently.  The tires are around 7 years old.  It has a Detroit Diesel 6v92 TA (turbo aftercooled, 350 horsepower), and an onboard diesel generator.  The 6v92 is a mechanical engine, meaning there is NO computer, or electronics.  He is asking $20,000....that is way below the market for Newells of this vintage.  As you can see, it looks almost identical to mine.  If you are interested, please leave a comment in the comment section.  This Newell will go fast, so don't hesitate too long to contact me.

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