Signs of the times.....

6:43 am - Wednesday - November 27th - Ramona, CA - 45° F, 80% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast......cloudy with rain forecast to begin around 8 am......high today is forecast to be 56° F.....the view this morning......↴

Tuesday I was back to my somewhat normal routine.....pool, horseshoe pits and mini golf course.  The horseshoe pits were heavily used over the weekend, and needed a lot of attention.  There were very few leaves on the mini golf holes, but about half of the golf balls were missing this time.  I found two of them, but still had to replace a bunch.  All of that took me up to lunch time.

After lunch I joined Rich to install one of our two new road signs......

.....our current sign, which is right at the entrance just has the name of the park, and by the time you see it you are passing the entrance.  The new signs have the name, a description of our services, the phone number, and website address. We placed one of the new signs about 100' west of the entrance on Highway 78 so it can be easily seen by those traveling eastbound.  The second sign will be placed about 100' east of the entrance so it can be seen as you are going west, well before the entrance, probably next week after the current rain storm passes through.

That took me right up to 3 pm, which was my quitting time Tuesday as I needed to go with TLE into town (another chiropractic appointment) to get my hair cut for Thanksgiving.  I waited in the car for TLE to finish her appointment, then we drove over to Supercuts.  While I got my haircut, TLE bought a few last minute items for Thanksgiving dishes she is preparing.  I was in the chair getting my ears lowered within a couple of minutes, and TLE arrived just as my stylist was finishing.  We headed directly next door to Rubio's Coastal Grill for 'Taco Tuesday'.....it's been a couple of months since we had some of their wonderful fish tacos.

Apparently, just as we were leaving the park to head into Ramona a water line broke in the office parking lot.  When we returned around 4:45 pm Rich and Dave had already rented a pavement cutting machine from town, had cut out a 3'x 3' piece of pavement, and had a hole dug down about 3 feet to the shutoff valve.  Fortunately the leak was right at the shut off valve, and they had it repaired before 7 pm.

Wednesday we head north after work to spent Thanksgiving with our kids......thanks for stopping by!

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Deviant behavior.....

7:04 am - Tuesday - November 26th - Ramona, CA - 38° F, 97% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue, cold skies this morning with a forecast high today of 64° F.  This view this morning........↴

Monday was as different a Monday for me as you could possibly imagine.  The only routine thing the entire day was I did the pool tests, and pulled out a few large leaves, but from there the entire day was a deviation from the norm.  After the pool I headed up to the storage area where I met Rich at the CONEX (large shipping container) which was used by the electricians who set up our new electrical system to store their tools, and supplies.  They cleaned everything out that was theirs, and what is left now belongs to us.....unused cable, and various electrical components.  At some point in the next ten days the rental company will be here to retrieve the CONEX, so we needed to get it cleaned out as soon as possible.

We used our new to us 2011 Ford F150 to move those items down to the maintenance building where they will be stored until needed.  Before we could move those items into the building we had to clear out the rear room of the maintenance building, which prior to this day has been used as a general catch all storage room.  Much of the stuff in that room is not being used, and will not be used again including a large wooden desk, and some old flat screen TV's.  Once everything was removed off the desk and from the room we proceeded to cut the desk into pieces using a circular saw to it could be more easily hauled out of the building, and up to the large roll away in the storage area with the other refuse which we were throwing away.

Next we hauled the refuse, including the desk parts, up to the roll away, and then proceeded to remove the now empty wooden shelving in the CONEX down to that room in the maintenance building and then fill the shelves once again with the electrical stuff.  That will be a good rainy day project, and since we have a lot of rain forecast for the next couple of weeks I'll be getting to that sooner than later.

Rich and Marnie bought pizza for lunch (Thank you!) which we consumed a little after 12 pm.  After lunch Larry (the owner), Rich and I headed up to the roof of the office building to find where rain water has been ingressing and seal those areas.  That took the rest of the day, and it was quite messy working with the black tar like sealant.  Thankfully, I changed clothes for this task and was wearing an old pair of shorts, and an old t-shirt.  I'm not sure if we found the areas that were leaking, but we will find out very quickly when the next storm arrives Wednesday morning.  Personally, I think the only way we will solve the leaking problem is to have the entire roof 'hot mopped'.....we'll see.

And that was my Monday......thanks for stopping by!

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The beginning of Thanksgiving week......

7:03 am - Monday - November 25th - Ramona, CA - 36° F, 89% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  Just finished riding my Haibike up to the microwave tower for my 3-4 times weekly downhill plunge....it was cold out there!

Sunday will go down as the warmest day Thanksgiving week, and perhaps for the next two weeks as the forecast shows more rain on the way with a bunch of days in the 40's and 50's.  TLE and I began our day with a local hike right here in the park.....

......I managed to climb up on the rocks to take a couple of pictures.....TLE was convinced I would fall to my death as she continually reminded me to be careful.  I managed to get up and down without incident.  In all we walked just over 3 miles, and averaged over 3 mph for the entire walk.

The weather forecast called for a high of 75° F, but it never seemed to be that warm.  When I saw the forecast high in the morning I anticipated being able to sit outside watching the games on the outdoor TV, but it never seemed warm enough to go to the effort of setting things up.  I took care of my weekly black tank obligations, and spent the rest of the day enjoying some good football games which saw the Seahawks win a close game (17-9) over the Eagles, the Saints outlast the Panthers 34-31, and the Patriots win another close one 13-9 over the Cowboys.  Several games were marred by terrible officiating errors, which continues a disturbing trend this season.

Nothing else to report about Sunday except that we had our WiFi restored, finally, late Saturday evening and no longer had to sit our phones on the window ledge to get a cell signal.

Thanks for stopping by!

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What a shrimp!

8:15 am - Sunday - November 24th - Ramona, CA - 40° F, 86% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, blue, chilly skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.

Over the past few weeks I have been tossing one item after another into the trailer, shutting the door, all the while thinking I would spend some time the 'next' weekend putting things away, and straightening up the trailer, but 'next' weekend never seemed to arrive, and it was getting difficult for me to maneuver around the interior, and especially difficult to get my new MTB in and out.  The last straw was the large bike box (the box in which the new MTB arrived) I threw in there a couple of weeks ago.  That combined with everything else was making me look like a 'hoarder'......the space was no longer usable.   So, inevitably, 'next' weekend finally arrived Saturday.  After posting my latest missive I walked up to the trailer to do the deed.....I had to pull a couple of my bikes out and move the bike box just to get out the Honda 2000i generator to power up the trailer.....got to have plenty of light, and some XM Radio tunes to get the job done.....for sure.

I next identified several boxes, and other items which needed to find of their way to the dumpster, and put them outside.  Then I proceeded to break the large bike box down, and fold it up so it could be stored out of the way in the very back of the trailer with the other items which see infrequent use.  Why am I saving the bike box?  Well, I am going to attempt to sell the Intense 5.5 and if  I am successful, and need to ship it I will need a box in which to pack it.  After that I just spent time putting stuff away, and then turned my attention to removing the well used Continental 27.5" x 2.4" front tire from my Haibike SDURO MTB so I could install the brand new Schwalbe Smart Sam 27.5" x 2.6" folding (matches the almost new rear tire) tire I purchased on eBay in its place....there is not much in life that makes me happier than working on a bicycle.....even something as mundane as changing a tire.  I've never worked with tires, and tubes this large before, plus the rims on this bike are wider than any I've ever had, so it was not surprising to me that it took a while....it was almost like (exaggerating here for effect) changing a motorcycle tire.  

My current UST (tubeless) tires on my Intense 5.5 are only 26" x 2.1" tires, and the Mavic rims are not that wide......I ran them at around 30-35 PSI.  Once I had the new tire mounted, and put the front wheel back on the bike I checked the inflation, which was recommended to be set at a paltry 20 PSI for best results.  I checked the rear tire and found it was already at 20 PSI, so that confirmed the instructions.  

Next up I began to work on getting the air pressure in my front and rear shocks set so I could benefit from the maximum amount of travel (travel is the amount distance a shock will compress from its fully extended position to the point where the compression stops.  In other words I want to be able to utilize as many of the 6" of travel possible when hurtling downhill over rough terrain to smooth out my ride a much as possible. Once I was satisfied with with my adjustments I took the bike out for a test ride to.....where else?....the microwave tower where the downhill begins.

Combined with the very low 20 PSI of pressure in each tire the shocks performed quite well, and even though I was pleased on my initial couple of downhill rides right after I got the bike, I was even more pleased with the results after my fine tuning efforts.  This time it felt like I was riding on a cloud.  Words are inadequate to convey how happy I am that I am able to return to my beloved sport of mountain biking at age 70, and enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I summit a long, tedious climb, and the thrill of descending downhill at speeds approaching 25-30 mph once again.  With each successful downhill run I can feel the confidence, and skill returning.

I was back home a little after noon time.....while I was riding TLE sent me a text message asking if I 'was still alive', since she had not heard from me in a few hours.  When I was younger and heading out on a Saturday with my friends to mountain bike she would send me on my way with a question......."Is your life insurance paid up to date?"....it was her way of saying "Be careful".

I took a nice, long nap in the afternoon during the annual USC vs. UCLA crosstown rivalry game.  It was close for a while, but USC pulled away at the end winning 52-35.  There were several good NCAAF college games on Saturday with a couple of upsets....a perfect Saturday for me.

As the sun began to dip below the eastern horizon once again TLE informed me 'we' were going to grill shrimp for dinner.  I've grilled a lot of protein over the years on our Sea-B-Que, but never shrimp.  After I had lit the Sea-B-Que I began to 'grill' TLE about how to BBQ the shrimp. She told me to use our stainless steel grill rack we use when grilling delicate, flaky fish, to let it heat up to 'MEDIUM', then put the shrimp on and let them cook for 10 minutes without turning them over.....just shut the lid and wait 10 minutes.  When I pulled the shrimp off the grill after 10 minutes I was still unsure if I had succeeded in grilling perfect shrimp.....the doubt was short lived........

.....the shrimp came out perfectly!  TLE added some caramelized veggies as a side.....the spicey shrimp were amazing, and I am still thinking about them as I finish today's blog post.....yum!

Thanks for stopping by!

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The place of the fish.....

8:46 am - Saturday - November 23rd - Ramona, CA - 54° F, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south.....sunny, partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 70° F.

For the past 3 nights our water tank has lost about 7,000 gallons of water overnight.....way, way beyond the norm for the middle of the week......so we notified all the residents of RORVR that we would be shutting down the water system from 9 am to 12 noon to look for, and fix the leak.  Before all the festivities got underway I was sent to site #51 to read the meter.  As soon as I arrived there it became quite apparent where the leak was.  The same sprinkler valve we had trouble with about 10 days ago was now gushing water at a prodigious rate, and flooding site #51 (the tenant was out of town this week).  How we missed this on Thursday I have no idea, but there it was.  Fortunately, it was an easy fix.....since we have not been using these sprinklers for a couple of years we (Rich and I) just removed the defective valve and capped off the pipe.....took about 25 minutes, and no more leak!

 The leak was right across the street from our site

Once the mystery of the disappearing water was solved it was basically a normal short Friday.....I finished removing water off another couple mini golf holes, then retrieved the blower and blew the leaves off all 9 holes.  The pool did not need cleaning, so I just fished out a few leaves, and suicidal frogs, then spent the rest of my morning clearing the interior roads of leaves and gravel (not much dust due to 2 inches of rain this week).

We were off work at 1 pm, and on our way into Ramona around 2 pm to do some 'junking', take TLE to her chiropractic appointment......

 More building murals

.....and then head directly to 'El Michoacan (prounounced Mitchwacãn) to enjoy some authentic Mexican food from the Mexican state of Michoacan.  This restaurant is about 3 doors off Main Street, and is truly a hidden culinary gem.  I had been telling TLE about this little Mexican restaurant my friend Claude Banker and I had eaten at about 12 years ago when we spent the night in Ramona whilst on a 350 mile multi day bicycle tour.  I could not remember the name, or location of this restaurant, but while discussing a possible restaurant at which to have any early dinner several people, including Marnie (our office manager) said this was the place.  As soon as we walked in the front door I recognized the interior from 12 years ago, and the food was as good as I remembered......

El Michoacán (pronounced Mitchwakãn) 

is one of 31 states in Mexico.  Meaning: 'The place of the fish'

Michoacán, Mexico

 Our table

 Magical chips and salsa

Giant fireplace

......it was about 3:30 pm when we entered, and the restaurant was empty of customers (a little early for the dinner crowd), but we were shown immediately to a table, and within minutes had ordered our drinks and food.  I ordered #50 (what I had 12 years ago....two shredded beef tacos and a chile relleño), and TLE #14 (fish taco and chile relleño).  I kept looking for this restaurant when we would drive through town, but I never saw it because it was just off Main Street.  This was, by and far, the best Mexican food we have eaten since we arrived in Ramona, back in April.  I chased my food with a couple of Negra Modellos.

We were home a little before 5 pm with smiles upon our faces, and thus began our 2.5 day weekend....thanks for stopping by!

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2 Inches.....

6:44 am - Friday - November 22nd - Ramona, CA - 40° F, 97% humidity, wind - CALM......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.

When I left off writing about Wednesday I predicted the water would be flowing over the spillway in 1-2 days.......

 Wednesday afternoon....↗

......well, it was less than 12 hours until that happened.  Apparently, according to reports, we received 2 inches of rain in the 2+ day storm which translated into a 7-8 foot rise in the water level in about 48 hours......

Thursday morning......↑ 

 Lake Lorenzo is back to normal!

......the pool has been closed since Monday evening, and it was still closed Thursday morning when I went to do the tests.  I pulled a bunch of large leaves off the bottom of the pool, and liberated 4 frogs from their impending watery grave.

I hauled a bunch of debris that Rich had pulled from the spillway area Thursday morning up to the storage area, then turned my attention to building the fuel station I wrote about a few days ago.  The interim rain event precluded me from doing any construction, but the rain had abated enough Thursday that I was able to put it together......↴

.....I finished it just before 3 pm.  The cabinet was procured from the shed which is within the 'backyard'.  It wasn't being used for anything so I repurposed it to store the gas cans upon.  No we can access the gasoline without standing on our heads.  I scavenged around the 'backyard' and maintenance building to come up with the materials for the rain deflector/sun shade.  The two pavers came from my collection up in the storage area.  Not a dime spent on materials.

After dropping TLE off at home I went back to the pool area to retrieve a squeeggee to begin to push the water off mini golf holes 1 and 2 so when the sun comes out on Friday they will have a better chance of drying out by the weekend.  By the time I finished it was almost 4 pm, and time to put my tools away and head for the 'barn'.

 It rained a few times for 1-15 minutes during the day, but I managed to remain mostly dry.  Nevertheless, by the time I reached home I was cold and looking forward to the warm interior of the Newell.  TLE had turned on all the heaters  when she got home at 3 pm, so it was nice and toasty when I walked in the door a little after 4 pm.

Coming up.....short Friday.....thanks for stopping by!

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Rain check.........

7:13 am - Thursday - November 21st - Ramona, CA - 51° F, 92% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by northeast......heavily overcast , but not raining right now.  More rain forecast for today with a forecast high of 58° F.

I rained all day Wednesday pretty much flooding everything......the horseshoe pits, the mini golf course........

 Nothing to do here.....

 No leaves to blow here....

....and the pond!  At the beginning of this storm the pond level was down about 8 feet.....in just 24 hours it has recovered about 6 of those feet of water.....

.....and the water will begin to once again flow over the spillway within the next couple of days.......

.....there are not a lot of inside jobs here at RORVR so filling up a 7 hour work day with indoor work becomes more difficult each day it rains.  I spent part of my day fixing a 'running' toilet in the Red Barn, and a lot of time cleaning up the tool shed, and the maintenance building interiors.

I only worked until 3 pm once again as I ran out of things to do.  TLE had a chiropractic appointment at 3:15 pm in town, so I headed home by my lonesome.  The rain continued into the evening, and all night long once again.


Thanks for stopping by!

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The rainy season has arrived......

6:36 am - Wednesday - November 20th - Ramona, CA - 51° F, 92% humidity (it's raining right now....shouldn't it be 100%???), wind 17 mph out of the west by southwest.....raining now, rained all night, and will rain all day.....forecast high for today is 5° higher than it is right now......56° F.

When Tuesday dawned we were expecting precipitation between 3 and 5 pm.  I was looking forward to a full, dry workday.  As TLE and I began our walk around RORVR* around 6:20 am the air was actually dry and balmy.

All that being said, we barely made it to 11:30 am before the first rain drops were felt.  The last time it rained was about 6 weeks ago, and since then it has been mostly warm with very low humidity so everything has dried out significantly.  As the rain intensified you could almost hear the dry, thirsty terra firma slurping up the more than welcome H₂O........

.

......I began my day working around the pool and playground.  There were a few large leaves on the bottom of the pool, which I fished out with the long handled pole net, then I retrieved the hand blower to remove all the leaves from the pool deck, along the edge of the pool fence, and from the artificial turf in the playground area thinking that once those leaves get all wet from 3 days of rain they will be much harder to remove.

I checked both pump houses and found them remarkably free of mice feces so those bait traps I have been maintaining must be working.  As a result of using the squirrel bait the last few weeks there are now fewer squirrels digging holes, and most of the holes which I have previously filled remain filled, and unused.

Once that was done I returned to the 'backyard' area to continue the cleanup I began last week, and had great hopes of at least beginning to build the fuel station to which I referred yesterday, but then the aforementioned raindrops began to fall on my head....

Kind of an obvious choice, right?

.....while the rainfall was still light I continued to pickup several piles of leaves I had created Monday, but just as I was hauling the last two barrels of leaves up to the storage area the rain began to fall by the bucket full.  Fortunately, it was time for lunch, but at the end of the 30 minute break it was still raining.  Nevertheless, I continued to work, but got progressively wetter as the afternoon progressed.  

Rich and I spent some time repositioning the large propane tank (about 100 gallons) which supplies said gas to cabin #24, and releveling the site where it sits.  We used the Kubota front loader with forks attached to the bucket (a recently acquired accessory) to lift it utilizing chains.  We then used shovels to level the pad, and then placed 4 large pavers on which to place the tank keeping it off the ground.  I spent a few minutes just before 3 pm spraying some mud off my cart, but by 3 pm (that's when TLE goes home) I was wet and cold, so decided (with Rich's permission) to call it a day as there really wasn't enough indoor work to keep me busy for another hour.

It continued to rain the rest of the afternoon, and evening, but as I write we have entered a small rainless window.  It is supposed to rain on and off through Thursday evening, and it appears we are back to long pants weather.

Thanks for stopping by!

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*RORVR = Ramona Oaks RV Resort

Monday, Monday....

6:49 am - Tuesday - November 19th - Ramona, CA - 53° F, 45% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by northeast....high clouds today with a forecast high of 76° F....rain on the way this afternoon.......

 Taken on our morning hike today....first time I've caught 

the skies just before sunrise

Up above the water tank

I began Monday riding my new to me Haibike SDURO up to the microwave tower, and then down the wonderful downhill we have here at RORVR.  The bike was much more comfortable with the minor changes I made.....I love the new ergonomic grips!

With the moderate Santa Ana winds this weekend came a pool full of leaves, once again, so you know what I spent my morning Monday doing, right? Right.  It took me until 11:45 am to finish the pool, then it was up to the horseshoe pits to put them back in order after a weekend of heavy use, and then down to the mini golf holes.  Apparently they were heavily used also, and out of 14 golf balls provided for our customers' use just 5 remained.  Keep in mind, these are 'USED' golf balls, so why are they not returning them?  Anyway, that took me up to lunch time.

After lunch I headed back to the barn area to replace a wooden post which someone had backed into and broken over the weekend.  The post held two signs, one warning about the wild life, including rattle snakes, and a second advising 'No vehicle travel beyond this point', as well as had a hook to which the one end of the chain blocking the fire road was attached.  I replaced the 4"x 4" post with a 4"x 6" post, dug the hole about 12" deeper than the prior hole, and had the signs reattached, as well as the chain by 2 pm.

I spent the rest of my shift working in the 'backyard' (the area between the tool shed and maintenance building) picking up where I left off last Thursday.  I finished my day not quite finished with the 'backyard' work, but I should be done within a couple of days.  There are still a lot of leaves to remove, and a new fuel station to build.  Right now all of our gas cans (used for our truck, as well as lawnmowers, leaf blowers, string trimmers, and chainsaws) sit on pavers on the ground.  There is a pop up shelter over them to keep the rain, and weather off of them. To access the gas cans one must spend a couple of minutes in the bent over position transferring gas from the large 5 gallon gas cans to smaller 2 gallon gas cans, or you can kneel on the ground.  I'm going to move a cabinet out of the shed over to the outside wall of the tool shed to hold the gas cans, and build a rain deflector over it so we can refuel standing up, not bent over, or kneeling on the ground.

That was my day.....thanks for stopping by!

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Accents......

6:59 am - Monday - November 18th - Ramona, CA - 50° F, 39% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.

I spent most of Sunday morning working on my new Haibike SDURO.  The Rock Brothers pedals, ergonomic handlebar grips (both red) arrived from Amazon Saturday, and wanted to install them on the bike. I love being able to add these color accents that play off the existing colors on the bike.....it just makes it pop!

Once those items were installed I transferred my Garmin GPS based cyclo computer to the new bike.  I like this cyclo computer because it displays all 8 data points (riding time, speed, time of day, distance traveled, average speed, calories burned, elevation, grade %) in which I am interested on one screen, whereas the Yamaha PW LCD display unit, which is hardwired into the system, only gives you speed, and trip mileage on one screen.....

.....finally, I moved the seat back on the seat rails as far as it would go so I don't feel like I'm right on top of the handlebars. I've just about got the bike dialed in to where I want it.  I haven't adjusted the air pressure in the air shocks (front and rear) to my weight as I've been getting used to the bike......I'll work on that next weekend.  I'm also going to replace the Haibike factory seat with something more to my liking, but that will come later.

By the time I returned home TLE had returned from Stater Brothers where she stocked up on some necessities for the next week.  Within minutes I had the outdoor TV setup, and was sitting in my anti gravity chair watching NFL football, and that is I remained, for better (mostly better), or worse, the rest of the day.  There were a couple of nice naps added to the mix for good measure.

Around 4 pm it began to get chilly outside, so I headed inside for the duration of the afternoon.  We have one more day of high 80's temps on Monday, and them the temperatures plunge into the 50's for two, or three rainy days, and then settle into the 60's for another 10 days, or so.  The balmy afternoons, and evenings are just about gone.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Double Feature........

8:36 am - Sunday - November 17th - Ramona, CA - 77° F, 16% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the east......Santa Ana condition coming!  Clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.

When was the last time you went to a theater to see a double feature?  Back in the 60's every theater offered a double feature on their 'single' screen whether it was a walk-in theater, or a drive-in  theater.  Typically there was an 'A' and a'B' movie.  They used the 'A' movie to draw you in to see the 'B' movie, which was usually the first movie shown at a double feature.  Many times I actually liked the 'B' movie better than the 'A' movie.  Gradually, over time the double feature disappeared.  With the advent of multiplex theaters you can once again choose to see a double feature, only you have to co-ordinate between the screening times of two movies you wish to see, and then pay for two separate movies.  Back in the 60's it might cost you $2.50 to $4/person to see a double feature, but today it can cost you upwards of $25-30 bucks per person to see two movies at a multiplex theater, even with student, or senior discounts.  TLE and I have not been to a 'double' feature since we first dated back in the late 60's.  There are several movies out right now that we want to see, but two in particular grabbed our attention......'Midway' and 'Ford vs. Ferrari'.....both of those movies were playing at the Angelika Film Center and Cafe in Poway Saturday.  Wednesday evening I opened my Angelika app on my phone and bought tickets (with assigned seating) to see 'Midway' at 9:55 am, and 'Ford vs. Ferrari' at 12:50 pm.  In between those movies we planned to have lunch at the Angelika Cafe.......

.....we arrived at the Angelika around 9:20 am, got our free cup of coffee....yes, coffee is free Saturday morning....and went out to their alfresco dining area to sip our coffee, and relax before the first feature.....

.....by the bye, they do have very good coffee!  We leisurely strolled into theater #5 around 9:45 am to our assigned seating (seats 10 and 11), reclined our seats, and got ready to be entertained......

....what a way to see a movie!  We both really enjoyed Midway.  The battle scenes made you feel like you were right there in the cockpit with the pilot dropping bombs on aircraft carriers.  I love seeing well done historical movies....sometimes real life is more interesting than make believe.  We were out of the theater by 12:15 pm, and placed our orders for our food.  Within 5-10 minutes we had our food, and had plenty of time to enjoy our choices....a Caesar Salad for TLE, and a bacon cheeseburger for moi chased with a chocolate peanut butter stout brew......

.....next up was Ford vs. Ferrari, which details the life and times of Carroll Shelby, who actually won the 24 Hours of LeMans in an Austin Martin.  He was the first American to win that race.  Ford Motors decided  in the 60's that they wanted to develop a race car which could compete with Ferrari at LeMans and win.  They partnered with Carroll Shelby, the builder of the well known Cobra, to build the Ford GT40.....

......it took a couple of years, but they finally won LeMans over Ferrari in 1966, and the next three years.  It still remains the only American built car to win LeMans.  In 1966 the first three finishers were Ford GT40's....

.....this is the best racing movie I have seen since Gran Prix back in 1966 (starring James Garner and Eve Marie Saint).  We were out of the theater around 3:30 pm, and found a Cobra car show in full swing in the parking lot.  How fitting, right?

We made a quick stop at COSTCO to pick up my prescriptions, and were on our way home by 4:30  arriving there a little after 5 pm.  What a great day spent with The Lovely Elaine.....thanks for stopping by!

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The deck.......

6:58 am - Saturday - November 16th - Ramona, CA - 42° F, 89% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.

I began Friday with an early morning ride on my new Haibike SDURO mountain bike.  Haibikes are designed and engineered by a German firm, but manufactured in China.  The engineering of the electric motor assist bike is way above average, but the price is much more affordable than most comparable electric assist MTB's being sold today.  It has a 500 watt battery, and a Yamaha motor which can help power you along your route for up to 60 miles on one charge depending on the assist level you utilize.  The bike will top out at 20 mph on the highest assist level.  The bike I bought weighs in at about 50 lbs. compared to the 22 lbs. my Intense 5.5 weighed.  You can choose one of four assist levels depending on terrain, grade, etc.  The lowest assist level basically counteracts the added weight and makes you feel like you are riding a 22 lb. bike.  The next level up makes it possible for me to ride up to the microwave tower without stopping, or pushing the bike.  Even with this assist level there were a few times I thought I might have to move to the next assist level, but I didn't, and made it to the top without stopping.  I still got the workout I was looking for, but was able to cover more ground......

.....the 6" of travel in the front and rear shocks made the downhill portion of the ride smooth as silk, and the Magura hydraulic disc brakes with large rotors were significantly more than adequate than I expected.  I, of course, bought a slightly used bike with about 500 miles on it.  Doing so saved me over $1,000, and I still got the bike I wanted.  Being able to test ride Rich's Haibike SDURO really helped me make the decision to buy this bike, and has re-energized my love for mountain biking at 70 years old!

Friday's work consisted solely of fixing the deck/stairs on cabin #24, which had pulled away from the cabin about 2".......

 Before we pulled the deck back the gap between the stairs and the cabin was over 2" wide

......we utilized two 12 ton bottle jacks to lift up the deck before we pulled it back to the cabin using my come-along winch......

Internet picture of a come-along winch

....we put a chain around two of the support posts, and attached one end of the come-along winch to it, and the other end to the main 'I' beam of the cabin......

 We raised the deck about 2" before putting 12"x 12" pavers under each pier

......we removed a couple of planks on the deck so we could use 6" wood screws to reattach the headers to the main deck.....

....it took 3 hours in all to do the job, but we were successful!  All four guys (Rich, Dave, Alika and moi) were on the job.  At noon we knocked off for hamburgers and hot dogs courtesy RORVR......sweet.  By the time lunch was over it was time for TLE and I to head home for the day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some minor modifications on my new mountain bike.  The handle bars that come with the bike are way too long, so I first removed the brake levers, shifters and grips, then cut 3" off each end to make them the same length as the handlebars on my Intense 5.5.  Next up I wanted to raise my stem a about an inch, so I removed the stem and installed two more spacers under it to raise it up a little higher.

By the time I finished working on the bike it was closing in on 3 pm, so I headed home to take a shower before shuttling TLE into town to her Chiropractic appointment with Dr. Turpin.  She has been complaining about pain in her neck and right shoulder for a few months now, and Marnie (office manager at RORVR) recommended her to Dr. Turpin.  This was her third appointment, but my first time accompanying her.  After she finished getting her latest adjustment we headed further into town to get a new watch battery for my Nixon chronograph.  The batteries on this watch do not even last 2 years, which is kind of disappointing, but it is what it is.  Fortunately TLE had found an online coupon at a local store granting the bearer one free battery.....cool!  We were back home a little after 5 pm and settling into our weekend of leisure.

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 for which we thank you very much!