Eye for an eye.......

6:50 am - Tuesday - May 21st - Ramona, CA - 52° F, 87% humidity (drizzly right now), wind 3 mph out of the southwest.......cloudy, rainy today with a forecast high of 58° F.  The view this morning.......↴

Beginning to feel like Maine.....another rainy day

Monday was the day of my followup appointment with Pacific Eye Institute in Upland, CA to see how my surgically repaired right eye is healing.  This would be our first long drive in the VW since we replaced the fuel pump on Saturday, but our confidence was high.

We left on our two hour drive to Upland around 9 am, and arrived at PEI right at 11:05 am.....perfect.  I was called into see the optometrist exactly at 11:30 am, and TLE and I were on our way over to my son's office by 11:50 am.  I hadn't seen Chris since my heart attack, so it was good to hang out with him for a few minutes, pick up a few things from the Warehouse (my mountain bike shoes for one) and then head back home.  We left Chris' office by 12:30 pm, and were back in Ramona by 2:20 pm.....we made great time, and the entire round trip drive was uneventful.  We stopped off at Stater Brothers to pick up a few grocery items, and were back at RORVR by 2:45 pm.

TLE fixed me a snack (we hadn't had lunch), and then I drove the car up to the trailer so I could vacuum out the interior.  Now that the trailer is not hooked up to electricity all the time I must deploy our Honda 2000 generator to power up everything, including the ShopVac.  It's the first time I've powered up the trailer in a couple of weeks, and it felt good to putter around, vacuum out the VW and then set up my Workmate® portable work bench and bolt my bench grinder to it for the first time since Southwest Harbor last summer.  I also pulled out all of my sockets for my socket wrenches and other tools I only deploy when we are going to be somewhere for a long duration.  I was back at the Newell just before 5 pm.

Oh, by the by, the optometrist said my eye is healing just fine, thank you, and the vision in my right eye is almost equal to my left eye now.  He asked me to return one more time on June 10th for my final post op checkup.  

If all things had been equal, and I hadn't had a heart attack, the earliest we could have left for Alaska would have been June 11th.  Our original plan called for us to meet our traveling partners on June 1st in Dawson Creek, BC, Canada.  Had we been able to leave for Alaska from Fontana, CA on May 1st as had been our plan we would have been somewhere in the middle of nowhere when I had my heart attack.....sometimes plans get changed for one reason, and it ends up being the right thing to have done for a completely different set of circumstances.  I'm happy we were flexible enough not to press ahead with our original plans, and that I was near an excellent medical facility when I had the attack.  Who knows how things would have turned out otherwise, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

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Keep your eye on the ball!

10:42 am - Friday - May 10th - Rancho Cucamonga, CA - 56 degrees F, 20% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the southwest.....heavy marine layer and a little rain today with a forecast high of 64 degrees F.......just returned from my cataract surgery.  All went just fine.....can already see with my new right eye lens.....get the patch off at 12:45 pm!

Our plan was to leave 'home' around 11 am Thurday to make the 104 mile drive up to Upland, CA and the Pacific Eye Institute where I would have my eyes 'measured' to be sure they implanted the correct lens on Friday.  After a brief stop in Temecula to fill our gas tank (9+ gallons at $4.44/gallon.....California gas prices are outrageous!) we arrived at PEI just before 1:30 pm (my appointment was for 2 pm).  I had barely signed in when my name was called......that was fast!  I didn't even have time to get impatient....😁

We were out the door and on our way to my son's office before 2 pm.....cool!  We talked with Chris, Rochelle, Cynthia and their long time friend Phillip (we really like Phillip!) for about 40 minutes before heading off to COSTCO to pick up a few things, and then up to Trader Joe's for a few more things.

Our Jello plan was to get a late lunch at a chinese place next to Trader Joe's, but TLE noticed a place on the far end of the shopping plaza called September's Taproom and Eatery which got a rating of 4 stars from Yelp, so we made a 'game time decision' to eat there, and what a good decision that was......thank you Mr. Jello!

We both ordered a pint of their Alosta Brewing Company Mrs. Adams Oatmeal Stout, plus a couple of happy hour apps.....Potato Skins and a plate of Bang, Bang Chicken (chicken nuggets) to chase the brews......yummy......

.......we arrived at September's just before 4 pm, and by 5 pm were on our way to our son Chris' home where we will spend the next two nights!

In most newer tract homes nowadays the master bedroom is an ensuite (bedroom and bathroom combined), but Chris and Rochelle's has two ensuites, which includes the typical master ensuite, and then a guest room ensuite.  We almost feel like we are staying in a hotel when we visit them overnight.  Plus just off the kitchen is a full on coffee bar....doesn't get much better than that!

We were in bed by 10 pm in anticipation of arising at 5 am Friday in order to arrive at PEI by 7am......thanks for stopping by!

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Weeds.......

6:59 am - Friday - May 3rd - Ramona, CA - 49° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM......sunny this morning with a forecast high of 75° F.  The view this morning.....↴

Sunny this morning!

I began Thursday opening the pool, doing the pool/Jacuzzi tests, recording the results, and adding water to the pool.  When that was done I continued what I had begun the day before.....sweeping up a winter's worth of windblown debris, dust and dirt around the pool deck.  It took me the rest of the morning to complete that task, and by the time I had arranged all of the pool furniture it was lunch time.  I picked up TLE from the office about 12:25 pm and headed back to the coach for our 30 minute lunch.  It takes me about 10 minutes to eat my sandwich, and then I spend another 15 closing my eyes and just resting.  We were back to the office by 12:55 pm where I dropped off TLE, and headed back to the pool/playground area to begin pulling all the weeds which had taken root during the winter...... 

.....the 'grass' on either side of the sidewalk is actually artificial turf.  As you can see from the picture (2nd one up from here) there were weeds lining the sidewalk which grew in the seam between the artificial turf and the sidewalk.  The tree well was completely choked with weeds.....

 Starting to overflow, and I'm not done yet!

 All the weeds are gone!

.....those weeds are now history.  I also pulled weeds around the playground set seen in the background in this picture......↴

.....about 1/3 of the area under and around the equipment was covered with weeds growing up through the wood chips.  Needless to say I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees Thursday afternoon.  In all I filled a trash can to overflowing by the time 3:45 pm rolled around.  I quickly swept any remaining debris off the sidewalks, dumped the trash can full of weeds, and then headed back to the office area to put away the tools.  In all I spent all of Thursday working in the pool/playground area, and they are now both ready for the season to begin on Memorial Day weekend just under 4 weeks away.

Thursday also completed our first week living at RORVR*.  Around 8 pm Rich and Marnie (managers) came by to ride with us on our first CLOSING.  It takes 15-30 minutes to close up the facilities which consist of the pool area, the storage area, and the Community Center (the big red barn), then we check in on both restrooms to be sure they are clean, and that all the toilets are functioning as they should.  Finally we run down to the office to be sure it is locked, as well as the tool sheds, and supply shed.  Over the course of the 30 minutes we also circumnavigated the park to be sure all was quiet.  Naturally, it is very quiet right now almost a month before Memorial Day, but we are booked solid for that weekend and will get a taste of what the park feels like when it is full.

We both have a ways to go before we have finished all of our training, but things are progressing rapidly.  I love that I am given an assignment and the latitude to complete it as I see fit.  So far Rich is pleased with what I am doing, and has complimented me several times on my thoroughness.  We both have received more "Good job!" compliments in our first week here at RORVR* than we did in the entire 3 months at our RV park job last summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

*RORVR = Ramona Oaks RV Resort

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Work, actually......

6:59 am - Thursday - May 2nd - Ramona, CA - 54° F, 80% humidity, wind - CALM.....overcast this morning with sun later....forecast high is 70° F.  The view this morning.......↴

While Sunday was basically an orientation day, Wednesday was the first day of actual work, and work we did.  In the morning we (Rich and I) checked the water level in the water tank, and turned on the pumps to add 2,500 gallons.  Next we went through the pool opening ritual checking the PH and chlorine levels in the pool and Jacuzzi.   Rich gave me a tour of the 'Pool Party' room which includes a kitchen, tables, chairs, etc.  This room can be rented.

One of the rental cabins has propane heating (Suburban heater just like ours), and the vent which exhausts carbon dioxide and brings in fresh air to the combustion chamber had been filled with acorns by an industrious woodpecker.  We had to remove the exhaust cover and using a shopvac sucked out all of the acorns.....there were about 30.   Another one of the 4 rental cabins needed some new blinds installed on the bedroom window, and a new toilet tank valve and flapper as the old valve was causing the toilet to 'run' continually.  I took care of the toilet repair, while Rich attended to the installation of the new window blinds.  By the time we finished with the cabin it as time for lunch.

TLE and I left for lunch around 12:20 pm, and returned to the office right at 12:50 pm.  I spent the rest of the afternoon trimming weeds around the pool perimeter fence, and along the slope surrounding the pool on two sides.  Once the hill was trimmed I moved inside the pool fence to pull weeds around the pool, and then sweep up the weeds, and debris left over from the weed trimming outside the fence.  I finished that task just as the clock struck 4 pm.....the end of my 7 hour work day.

So, here is how our schedule will work.  We will work 7 hours per day (up to 8 if we wish) four days a week, and just 5 hours on Sundays for a minimum of 33 hours per week.  That is perfect for me as last summer when I was working 8 hours per day, 5 days per week I always ran out of gas after 7 hours.  On the days when we are assigned to 'Close' we will add ½ hour to our time card for that day.  The 'Close' assignment involves locking the pool/Jacuzzi gates, and checking all the restrooms to be sure they are in good condition for the evening.  This is done around 8 pm on the days when we close at 8 pm, and 9:30 pm on the weekends.

We now have a golf cart at our disposal for the days we work, and will be parking it at our site each night to recharge Wednesday evening through Saturday evening.  At the end of work on Sundays we will return the cart at  2 pm to the office area since we will not be working on Mondays and Tuesdays, and will pick it up again Wednesday mornings.

We watched Survivor and The Amazing Race before hitting the sack around 10 pm.  I haven't been right this season about who would be sent home at 'Tribal Council' on Survivor one time this year, and my streak continued Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Rain check..........

6:53 am - Wednesday - May 1st - Ramona, CA - 52° F, 75% humidity, wind - CALM.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 70° F.  So here we are....another month has passed and it is now May.....1/3 of 2019 is in the history books.....what comes next?

The view this morning.....overcast again, but no rain today

When we first woke up Tuesday it was overcast, but the street was dry, however, within 30 minutes it began to drizzle, and that was how Tuesday went down.......drizzle, rain, hard rain, drizzle......wash, rinse, repeat.  I like to save boring, repetitive tasks for days like Tuesday.  One of those boring, repetitive tasks which must be done a few times per year is to scan paperwork into my computer so we can shred and dispose of all the paper.  The last time I had this much scanning to do was before we reached Campbellsville.  Since then there have been a lot of doctor visits, and along with doctor visits comes a boatload of paperwork.  There have also been vehicle repairs to the VW and the Newell, and those two categories (medical and vehicle repair) contained 95% of the paper to be scanned.

Before any scanning can be done I go through all of the paperwork I have been saving for the past few months and ferret out the duplicates, envelopes, and anything else which does not have to be scanned and/or shredded.  Once I have done that I go through the remaining pile and separate it into several categories such as medical paperwork/invoices, social security/medicare mailings, vehicle repair invoices, etc.  On this day 99% of the paperwork fell into the three listed categories, as it usually does.

Since there is no room near my laptop for our HP Envy scanner/printer/copier it is located on the shelf behind our bed, and I connect to it via WiFi.  Since the HP Envy and my laptop are separated by 30 feet scanning becomes a two person job.  TLE sits on the bed and places one sheet at a time on the scanner deck and I operate the software on the laptop.  Once everything is scanned I separate the pile of paper just scanned into two piles.....the paper I need to keep, and the paper which can be shredded.  The shred pile usually contains 80-90% of what I just scanned.  I do hang onto paperwork regarding the maintenance and repair of our vehicles, but the rest can just be scanned and shredded.

Once I have determined what needs to be shredded I go out to the trailer and set up my shredder, and usually within a few minutes the pile is turned into confetti.  From beginning to end the process took between 2 and 3 hours, but on a rainy day who cares, right?

Around 2 pm we drove into town to do a big shopping at Stater Brothers, and the rest of the day was spent reading and taking a couple of naps.  We'll be back to work on Wednesday, May 1st getting more familiarized with our job responsibilities.  It appears we will have several days of 60's and 70's weather....actually for the next two weeks....perfect!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Doctor, doctor.....Mr. MD.....

6:55 am - Tuesday - April 30th - Ramona, CA - 53° F, 92% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the south.....heavy cloud cover still, but no more rain. Forecast high will be 61° F......

The view this morning

Title taken from Good Lovin' by the Rascals....circa 1966....enjoy

We awoke Monday to rain which had begun shortly before we went to bed Sunday evening.  It was a very gentle rain....just the kind of rain we prefer here in SoCal.  I had my pre-surgical appointment Monday morning in Rancho Cucamonga at my primary care physician's office.  Just as 2.5 years ago, in order to have cataract surgery, I had to be certified to be in good health by my PCP* to have the surgery, and this time is no different.  The appointment was scheduled for 10:30 am so we began our drive around 7:30 am.  It should only take two hours to cover the 107 miles, but you just never know about traffic, especially when it is raining and the possibility of accidents increases exponentially.  It takes about 35 minutes to get from RORVR**  down the long hill to I-15, and as hoped we were merging onto that Interstate by 8:05 am.  Based on traffic Google maps indicated we would arrive in Rancho Cucamonga around 9:30 am.  By time we had merged it was raining buckets of rain......

Windshield wipers on high

.....hard to believe we are having this kind of rain in SoCal in late April, but you won't see many complain after years of drought.

In spite of the early rain along the southern end of our route we did arrive in Rancho to blue skies by 9:30 am just as Google maps predicted.  It's a good thing we were an hour early as I left the form my doctor needed to complete sitting on my computer.....doh!  Since we were early we headed directly for Pacific Eye Institute  in Upland to pick up another form.  Even with the detour we still arrived with form in hand at my doctor's office by 9:50 am.

I didn't have to wait long before I was called in to get my vital statistics before seeing the doctor, then it was another short wait before my doctor entered the ubiquitous small room to do my examination.  He was finished within 20 minutes, I had my completed form, and a prescription for another 10 months of my blood pressure medication.

From there we headed for COSTCO to pick up three prescriptions.....the blood pressure refill, and two other eye drop prescriptions for my upcoming cataract surgery.  By the time we left COSTCO and got on I-15 southbound it was 12:15 pm and were entering Ramona by 1:55 pm....even though it rained again on the return trip we made very good time.

Before continuing our drive to RORVR** we stopped off at a local watering hole called 'Reds, Whites and Brews' to order a 'flight' of local craft brews.....Yelp gives them 5 stars on 29 reviews, plus we had heard about this place from a couple of people and wanted to check out their beer offerings.  They also serve many local red and white wines, but that tasting session would have to wait for another time, as they do not serve food at RW&B***, and we hadn't eaten since breakfast....😉  We sampled 4 craft brews in all, and the one I loved the most was Peanut Butter Milk Stout......OMG!

A couple of my readers commented on the good deal I got on the Winegard Slimline satellite dish and asked where I got it.  My initial reply was that I got it on eBay and that it was listed as 'used', but had never been used, or installed.  I thought this was a one of a kind deal, however, the same seller is listing another for the same price......here is the link if you are interested: 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Winegard-SK-SWM3-Traveler-DirectTV-RV-High-Definition-Slimline-Satellite-used/123748489960?epid=1161758140&hash=item1ccffc1ae8:g:RTwAAOSwf5FcxFEa

eBay item # 123748489960

I received mine via UPS a few days ago, and it is all there in the original box, so this is the real deal if you are interested.

By the time we arrived home it was raining once again, so we stayed inside and listened to the rain on our riveted aircraft aluminum roof.  It rained on an off until after 9 pm.  We were in bed a little after 10 pm with smiles on our faces.

Thanks for stopping by!

* PCP = Primary Care Physician

** RORVR = Ramona Oaks RV Resort

*** RW&B = Reds, Whites and Brews

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.

Eye of the storm......

6:21 am - Thursday - April 25th - Fontana, CA - 57° F, 73% humidity, wind - CALM......clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  This is the last day you will see Fontana, CA as our location this year.  We roll our wheels in less than 3 hours for Ramona Oaks RV Resort!

Wednesday was the day of my appointment at Pacific Eye Institute where I would receive the results of my three glaucoma screening tests.  To be fair, I was pretty sure I did not have glaucoma, but there is always that little niggling doubt in the back of your mind until you know for sure.  Ever since Dr. Dovich raised the possibility of glaucoma back on April 3rd I have been awaiting this appointment to find out for sure, and to finally be able to schedule my cataract surgery.

We were out of the 'house' by 10 am, and on our way to Pacific Eye Institute for my 11 am appointment.  Driving out Arrow Route it takes almost exactly 30 minutes, and this day was no different.  We arrived just after 10:30 am at which time I signed the patient roster, and took my seat in the 'waiting room'.  As I have opined previously, there is no way you are not going to wait past your appointment time in a room entitled 'The Waiting Room', right?  However, at 10 minutes to 11 am my named was called.....hmmmm....I'm thinking I might be in an out before 11:30 am.....seems reasonable, does it not?  The technician numbed my eyes and did that funny glaucoma test where they blow little puffs of air into each eye to record the pressure, and had me look at some eye charts.  Once that was done I was thinking Dr. Dovich would walk through the door and give me my results.....NOT!

After those eye tests I was returned to the waiting room around 11 am where I waited for my name to be called again......I was not called until 12:20 pm.  By this time TLE is getting a little fidgety as she has a hair appointment in Claremont at 1:15 pm.....we both thought this was a good, safe time as my appointment was at 11 am after all, right?  Of course, we are directed to the little, tiny room where you wait some more.  By 12:45 pm TLE is texting with Amanda, her hair stylist, that we might be late, and she replies to TLE that if she can make it by 1:30 pm she can still squeeze her in.  At last Dr. Dovich arrives just before 1 pm.  Within minutes I find that I do NOT have glaucoma, and that other than the worsening cataract in my right eye, my eyes are totally normal....whew!

We are sent back to the waiting room where we were to wait for my name to be called again, this time by the surgery scheduler.  Within minutes we are called into another small room where within 5 minutes we have my eye measurement appointment scheduled (May 9th), and my surgery scheduled (May 10th) and are sent on our way with a surgical folder of things I need to do before the surgery.  We will drive up to Upland from Ramona the morning of the 9th the the first appointment, then spend the night at my oldest son's home, and then drive back to Upland for my early morning surgery on the 10th.

It is now 1:15 pm, and I am pretty sure we can make it to Maxx Salon in the remaining 15 minutes, and we make it with a couple of minutes to spare.  I drop TLE off and then begin my search for a parking spot.....finding a parking spot between Noon and 2 pm in Claremont is pretty daunting, but within 10 minutes I am successfully parked, and walking over to the salon.

While TLE is getting her hair done I get on the phone to call my primary care physician, Dr. Azzawi, to make an appointment to renew my blood pressure meds, and have him complete the paperwork Pacific Eye Institute needs to confirm I am healthy enough for cataract surgery.  Again I must wait.....a total of almost 20 minutes on hold to get an appointment for Monday, April 29th.

Shortly after hanging up the phone TLE comes walking out and we are ready to go.  We walk down the stairs and right into a local bistro named Bardot Cafe (4 stars on 890 reviews) where we decide to have a late lunch.  It is after 2 pm now and I am just ready to relax, have a good brew, and a Caesar salad.......

Caesar salad with grilled salmon....OMG! 

......we sit enjoying the balmy breezes in Bardot's alfresco dining area, of course, right?  We talk about the relief we both feel that I do not have glaucoma, and that we finally know when my cataract surgery will be.  We talk about rolling our wheels Thursday morning, and what needs to be done.  We decide we will stow the sun screen, patio awning and window awnings just after sunset as it will be cooler.  I'll roll up the gray water hose, and disconnect from the city water so we'll only have the electric to disconnect Thursday morning.  We'll pull forward out of our spot Thursday morning about 50 feet, drag the artificial turf into the trailer, then insert the VW and be on our way to our next adventure.

We paid our bill around 3:15 pm and began our 'rush hour' drive home arriving just after 4 pm.....by 7 pm we were disconnected from city water, with all of the hoses and awnings stowed.  Our sojourn here at the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge is now at an end.

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.

How did it all begin?

7:16 am - Saturday - April 20th - Fontana, CA - 56° F, 81% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south by southwest.....overcast this morning with a forecast high of 70° F.

Friday morning I composed my 2,712th blog post since I began blogging back in May of 2009, and sometime either late this year, or early next year I will pass the 3,000 mark.  Over that time there have been some 1,243,384 page views.  There are some days when I think it would be nice to take a break, but that feeling quickly disappears.  Sitting down to compose my blog each morning just after I wake up has been my habit since I began blogging on a daily basis back in October of 2012.  Frankly, I cannot imagine doing anything else first thing in the morning.  My original purpose when I began blogging was that this would be like a diary for me, and our children, and grand children could read it to find out where we were, and what we were doing.  That anyone else besides my family reads my daily missives is somewhat of a mystery to me, but I am humbled, and grateful that so many choose to read my ramblings each day.  I go through periods of time when my writing seems to me to be a little perfunctory, but I do strive to be somewhat interesting whilst transmitting a sense of what our life looks like living full time in our 1982 Newell Classic.  
  
When the dream of living and traveling full time in an RV first crossed my consciousness I began to search the internet for information about how to do it.  One of the first sources of information I found was a blog by the name of 'The Adventures of Tioga and George'.  George began blogging back in May of 2003, about a year before we purchased our original 1987 Fleetwood Tioga Arrow, a 26' Class C motorhome, and that is how I found George's blog.....he owned a 1991 Fleetwood Tioga Arrow, a 27' Class C motorhome.  And that is how it began.  I read through all of his blog posts finding out about how he had installed a solar system on his Tioga in an effort to avoid staying in RV parks.  He wanted to RV on his own terms, and stay where he wanted to stay, but off the grid.  This kind of RV lifestyle had great appeal, and as we edged ever closer to our full time dream coming true I endeavored to set up whatever RV we obtained to be able to function off the grid.  My goal was not to do it 100% of the time like George, but as often as the opportunity presented itself.  While George's Tioga was 27' long, my rig with trailer is 62' long, so a lot of George's boondocking choices would never work for us.  At any rate, I wanted to option to live off the grid when I chose.   

It was because of George's blog that I decided I would do the same, and so on May 28, 2009 I wrote my first blog post introducing ourselves formally to the blogosphere.  I only wrote 39 blog posts in 2009, and the same in 2010.  I only posted when we were out using the Newell.  I began posting daily in October of 2012 when we arrived in Campbellsville, KY to work at Amazon for the first time.  I wanted a daily record of that experience.  Frankly, I only intended to do the daily posts until we finished our Amazon contract, but by the time we left Campbellsville just shy of 3 months later I was hooked on the daily routine, and have continued that ritual ever since.

And so here we are today, April 20th, writing about the events of April 19th.....so what happened on April 19th?  The registration on the VW is due to be renewed in July, and in California one must get their vehicles 'Smogged' (tested to see if they pass current emission standards for that particular vehicle) every other year.  Since this is a 2001 VW my test years are always the 'odd' numbered years....easy to remember.  We left home around 10:30 am to drive over to Joel's Automotive.  I have been going to Joel's for car service since the mid 90's, and even though his shop is a good 30 minute drive from the Elks Lodge we continue to go there for repairs, and smog testing when we are in SoCal.  We arrived there just after 11 am to find Joel's smiling face behind the counter.  We need no  repairs this year, so it was just the smog test, and true to form the car was tested and returned to us with a passing grade within 20 minutes.

The local 'The Hat' world famous Pastrami Dip place is just up the street from Joel's so that is where we headed next.  TLE and I split a single Pastrami Dip and an order of onion rings......

1/2 of the world famous Pastram Dip

......the Pastrami Dip is so big, and has so much meat there is no way to eat a whole one by yourself and have onion rings, and don't get me started on their amazing, magical onion rings!

I had my scheduled Pacific Eye Institute appointment at 2:15 pm to have three tests run to determine if I have glaucoma, or not.  The results of those tests will be revealed when I meet with Dr. Dovich on the 25th.  At any rate, when we finished eating it was just 12:30 pm, and we did not need to be at Pacific Eye Institute until 1:45 pm, so TLE found a couple of thrift stores where we could do some 'junking' to pass the intervening time.  I did not find anything without which I could not live, however, TLE found one clothing item that she had to have.

We arrived at Pacific Eye Institute around 1:40 pm, and I was called in for my three tests around 2:20 pm.  I can take a nap pretty much anywhere, and that is what I did to pass the intervening time.  The tests were completed by 2:40 pm, and we were on our way home to the Elks Lodge arriving home just about 3:15 pm.  We turned on the A/C before we left at 10:30 am, and it was into the low 90's outside, so we arrived home to a cool Newell interior.  Love those 37 year old Duo Therm A/C's!

And so, there you have it.....another day in our lives out there for public examination, and/or comment.  Thank you for stopping by to follow our story!

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.

The eye of the storm......

8:15 am - Wednesday - April 4th - Fontana, CA - 54° F, 84% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the southwest......heavy cloud cover with a forecast high today of 66° F.

Tuesday was the appointment for which I have been waiting for over a year.  I was supposed to have the cataract in my right eye replaced with an artificial lens over a year ago, but the surgery had to be postponed until after October of 2018 due to my stroke in December of 2017.  Since I wanted to have it done at Pacific Eye Institute in Upland, CA I had to wait until we returned to SoCal.  My appointment was for 9:30 am, and it takes about 2 hours from beginning to end.  The process involves measuring the eye, an eye test to see what I can read at distance, and close up with my right eye, an examination by an optometrist, a check for glaucoma, getting both eyes dilated (I hate that) and then a consultation with the surgeon, who in this will be Dr. Dovich.  We were out a little before 11:30 am.  I'll have to return on April 19th for a few more tests, then on April 24 I will have my final consultation with Dr. Dovich and the date for surgery will be set.

From Pacific Eye Institute we headed west on Arrow Route over to Central to pay a visit to 'The Hat', one of the best hot pastrami places on God's green earth.  We eat there at least once every year we visit SoCal, and our proximity to the Upland store could not be ignored.  Since my eyes had been dilated I could not drive.....your eyes are extremely sensitive to light for about 5-6 hours afterwards.  While I sat in the car with my eyes closed (I forgot my sunglasses) TLE picked up our pastrami sandwiches, and we headed home where we arrived around 12:30 pm.  I basically sat in a darkened Newell salon for the next few hours finally venturing out side again around 4:00 pm wearing my sunglasses to apply the gray Rustoleum paint to the LPG tank.  It took about 5 minutes to apply the primer, then I let it dry for 30 minutes, then applied the gray Rustoleum, and let it dry for about 40 minutes before removing all of the masking tape......

Before, just in case you may have forgotten

 Finished painting, now it's time to remove the masking tape

Ready for prime time....

......this is my last painting project on the Newell for a while, and I think it came out way better than I expected.  I may now cross item #5 on my 'to do' list:

5) Repaint the LPG tank with Rustoleum....again not the whole tank, but that which is visible when you open the LPG bay door.

By the time I had removed all the masking tape, and put away everything it was approaching 6 pm.  My eyes were finally back to normal, and I could open the curtains and turn on the lights once again.

For our evening's entertainment we watched a couple of recorded programs ('NCIS: New Orleans', 'Chopped') then watched 'Survivor'......once again we were 'blind sided' along with Eric, who thought he was in control....that's how it always happens.

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