'A Sunday kind of love.....'

7:26 am - Sunday - August 18th - Ramona, CA - 59° F, 87% humidity, wind - CALM....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 86° F....suweet!

I really dislike having to get up at 6 am when I do not have to go to work.  I dislike it, but I did anyway on Saturday.  TLE and I have birthdays about 3 weeks apart.  In California you must renew your license every few years by your birthday.  In our case we last renewed them in South Lake Tahoe almost 5 years ago.  We both got notices from the California DMV within about 3 weeks of each other advising we would have to visit a local DMV to renew our licenses, take an eye test, and a written test.  We had to do this 5 years ago after decades of getting automatic renewals every few years.  When you get to a certain age there are no more automatic renewals regardless of how good your driving record (neither of us has any accidents, or tickets in the last 9 years).

We attempted to get 'reservations' online about 2 weeks ago, but the only ones available in the entire area were at 3:30 pm on August 29th in Escondido for me, and at 2 pm for TLE in San Marcos on the same date.  Well, if you have ever been to a California DMV in a big urban area you know by 2 pm in the afternoon they will be way, way behind, forget about my 3:30 pm appointment.  Getting a reservation at most California DMV's only gets you in the front door more quickly to the next long line.  TLE found that the Poway DMV is open on Saturdays from 8 am to 5 pm, so we figured we would just drive down there at 7 am, and get in line, so that is why I was up at 6 am Saturday.

We arrived at the Poway DMV by 7:35 am and found the line only 75' long....by 8 am when they opened the doors it was 200' long!  They had employees outside before 8 am getting those in line checked in, and assigned a number.  Our numbers were G-26 and G-27, so that meant there were only 25 people in front of us renewing their licenses......

 Already up to G-13 and it's only 8:30 am!

......we sat patiently talking about this and that, totally unconcerned with how long it might take, and why should we be?  We had no where else to be.  Before we knew it TLE's number (G-26) was being called, and it was only 8:45 am.  My number was called about 5 minutes later and we were off to the races.....

......I passed my eye test, filled out some paperwork about why I no longer had to wear glasses for distance vision (cataract surgery), then was sent to get my 5 year picture taken, and take the test.  Both TLE and I had been taking the online practice tests on the DMV site, and were ready.  There are about 25 questions, and I think I missed 2, so I passed.  TLE missed a couple, also, but in the end we had our temporary drivers licenses with the permanent ones to arrive within 4 weeks.  We chose not to get the Californa 'Real ID', which will be required after October 1, 2020 to board domestic airline flights as we forgot to bring our birth certificates.  Doesn't really matter, because we both have 10 year U.S. Passports, and they can be used, if the need should arise, to board an airplane

The Poway DMV is in the same parking lot as the Poway Super Walmart, so we drove across the parking lot and did a quick grocery shopping before heading back to RORVR.  We were home a little after 10 am....not too bad!

On our drive home TLE suggested we head to the Ramona Ranch Winery later in the afternoon (around 3 pm) to sip some of their great Savignon Blanc accompanied by some snacks.  We spent the time between our arrival home, and 3 pm outside watching two recorded English Premier Soccer matches.

At 3 pm sharp we were in the VW heading 1 mile down SR-78 to Ramona Ranch Winery.  We had the whole patio to ourselves.......nice.....

....we bought a bottle of their Savignon Blanc (chilled) and spent the next 90 minutes relaxing, and enjoying the great views...

.....by 4:30 pm we were on our way home again.  The temp only got up to 84° F Saturday, which made for a quite pleasant time sitting outside.

In closing I'll leave you with another great Etta James song dedicated to The Lovely Elaine.....'A Sunday kind of love'......none of what we do, and how we live would mean much without her in my life.......

A Sunday kind of love....

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!

A pleasant surprise......

7:20 am - Monday - June 10th - Ramona, CA - 67° F, 52% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast......clear, blue skies with a forecast high of 99° F (hit 97° yesterday)....the view this morning.....↴

We knew Sunday was going to be a scorcher, and it did not disappoint.  By the time we reported for work it was already in the mid 80's heading for a high of 97° F.  By the time I finished opening the pool I was already sweating and it wasn't even 10 am yet.

Sundays, as you know, are short days for us.....we only work from 9 am to 2 pm, and was I ever thankful I would not still be working at 4 pm!  Rich encouraged me to stay out of the sun for which I was grateful, so I started doing some more cleanup in the tool shed.  I was walking into the shed when I noticed, for the first time, what appeared to be some sort of street sign affixed to the inside of the shed door, but backwards so you could not see what it was.  Being a curious sort of guy I removed the two screws holding it in place to find out it was a warning sign for our park exit.....we have these spikes which prevent people from entering the wrong way, and bypassing our security gate.....one sign advises you are going the wrong way, and severe tire damage will result.  The other, the one I found on the shed door, faces the way you would exit and warns you not to back up or you will have severe tire damage.......

....I'm not sure who took down the 'SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE, DO NOT BACK UP' sign, but it was obvious to Rich and I that it should be put back on the pole, so I did just that.  I took down the one sign which was still there and then remounted them back to back with a piece of wood on one end to act as a spacer.....came out pretty nice.....

.....now people are properly warned about 'severe tire damage' no matter which direction they may find themselves going.

After I finished reinstalling the sign I moved over to the supply building to continue the reorganizing I had begun a couple of weeks ago when it was raining.  There is an air conditioning unit in that building so it was the perfect place to work on a very hot day.  By the time 2 pm rolled around the heat was beginning to overcome the small window A/C unit.  I picked up TLE from the office and we headed for the Newell.

There are reported to be 40 wineries in the Ramona area, and one of them, Ramona Ranch Winery (Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 33 reviews) is just a mile down the road from RORVR.  They only do wine tasting on the weekends, and we had meant to visit them after work on a Sunday since we first arrived, so I took a quick shower, got dressed and we headed down the road arriving at the winery about 2:40 pm.

They have this lovely covered patio area just off the tasting room where we headed after tasting 4 of their wines.  We settled on their Savignon Blanc (2017) to sip while we sat outside.  They charge $2.00 per tasting, and a glass is $8.00.  Even though it was 97° F the steady breeze we encountered, plus the very low humidity made it quite pleasant....

.....much to our surprise they provide live music on the weekends from 3 pm to 6 pm.  On this day there was a guitarist providing the entertainment, and he was very good.....

.....by 4 pm we had consumed two glasses of their Savignon Blanc and it was time to head home for a nap.  Next time we go we will take some snacks to enjoy with the wine, and spent a little more time.  This winery and the patio setting was a very pleasant surprise!

We spent the evening watching recorded FIFA Womens World Cup matches.  We were finally able to turn off our A/C units around 8 pm when the temp got back into the 70's once again.  That's the first time we've run our A/C since the first day we arrived at RORVR, and I am sure it will not be the last!

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.