SD - Day # 2

Friday was Day # 2 of the Subway Diet....I think most diets don't work, for me anyway, because you must change what you eat so dramatically during the diet that when you finally reach your weight goal you fight this continual temptation to go back to your "comfort food".  Personally, I have always liked Subway sandwiches so deciding to have one every day for the next 2 months is pretty easy.....right now....the trick will be when I hit my weight goal not to go back to the volume of food I was eating before, and to keep moving more than I was before I started the diet....by "moving" I mean regular exercise.  For the next 53 days I'll be eating one foot long Subway sandwich per day.....there are a number of low calorie subs on the menu.....most of them are around 620 calories for a foot long sandwich.  Right now I'm ordering the Subway Club which has a couple types of meat, 4 slices of cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc.  I eat one half at lunch, and the second half for dinner.  If I need a snack to make it to dinner TLE gives me a plate with a few carrots, and a few pieces of celery.  For breakfast she gives me oatmeal.  All this totals less than 1000 calories a day.  Naturally, beer is not currently part of my diet.....one good dark beer is close to 200+ calories....that is a diet buster.  Part of the trick is to have enough energy to also exercise and keep my metabolism at an elevated level.....the other part is to not get bored with my food options.  I am happy to report that I lost another pound on Friday for a total so far of 4.5.  I realize that weight loss tends to be uneven, and that I won't lose a pound every day on this diet, but it won't hurt my feelings if I do.

After breakfast TLE and I took a fast walk around the park.....there is a walking path that encircles the Cottonwood campground where we are staying, and one complete loop around it comes to just over .8 miles.....we did two loops for a total of 1.75 miles, but at a pretty fast pace.

After returning I headed into the trailer to take all my eBay pictures of the bike parts, plus write a description of each part along with part #'s, etc......that took the rest of the morning.  When I am doing this kind of work the time just seems to melt away.  I came up with 18 items off this current bike to list on eBay.....just to clear....not every component on every bike is salable on eBay, but being able to sell 18 components out of a possible 22, or 23 is pretty good.

Once I had all my pictures, and descriptions finished I headed back into the coach to start listing the items on eBay....one thing I have learned is not to list every item the same day....why?  If I do then they all close the same day and that is a lot of packing to do in one day!  Once I hit 6 items I called it quits for the day.....I'll list 6 more Saturday, and then the final 6 on Sunday.

As the afternoon stretched on the park began to fill up with the weekenders again.   This was not typical of weekends in December when we were here last time, but is probably indicative of the fact this park has been discovered by more local people over the past two years, and the relatively good weather we usually have in SoCal this time of year.....unlike that of many of our friends who are currently in Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas who are having serious winter storms right now.

TLE had recorded the live performance of "The Sound of Music" Thursday night so we sat down to watch it around 9 pm after watching "Bones".  Obviously this is a stage version of the iconic 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, so the temptation to compare this live stage performance the panoramic movie version is unavoidable.  All things being equal we enjoyed Carrie Underwood's performance, but to be honest she is no Julie Andrews, and who today is?

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3 in 1

Our Thursday can be broken down into 3 equal parts......1) finish taking the Specialized MTB apart, clean up the parts, and get them ready to list on eBay, 2) take a bike ride and 3) visit with another good friend.

  TLE went to take a walk around 9 am while I got back to work on the deconstruction of the Specialized MTB, started the process of checking each component to be sure it is functional, as well as cleaning each one in preparation for taking pictures, and then listing them on eBay.  TLE returned from her walk about 10 and headed off to do grocery shopping.  It took me until almost 1 pm to finish the cleaning process, and by that then it was time for me to take my bike ride to the top of Mt. Rubidoux once again.

The bike completely taken apart

The temperatures all day had been quite cool, and as I started off on my ride I was concerned, at first, that I had not dressed warmly enough, but within 5 minutes my body was up to operating temperature and I was feeling good about my clothing selection for the ride.  As you will recall, my last ride to the top took me just over 30 minutes to cover the 4.5 miles, and some 600 feet in elevation gain.  I am pleased to report that I have now cut the summit time down to 28 minutes 33 seconds.    My conditioning is returning slowly, but I am happy so far with my progress.  The views from the top were quite spectacular, and I wish I had taken the time to take at least one picture, but I had not had lunch yet, and my next stop was Subway for a foot long sandwich, so I started my descent back down the the mountain.

I'm sure many of you remember the young man, Jared Fogle, who lost 245 pounds in one year by eating only at Subway.....he would eat a 6" turkey sub sandwich for lunch with no cheese, no mayo, no oil, and then a 12" veggie sub for dinner.  Well, I'm going to try that for the next 55 days......all I need to lose is about 25 pounds, so I will keep you posted on the results.  Even before I started my Subway diet, I had been eating a little less, and moving a little more (walking and riding my bike) and as of this writing I've already shed 3.5 pounds.

By the time I arrived back home TLE had been home for a while, and had already finished putting away the groceries.  Around 4 pm our good friend from our last sojourn here at RJRP, Amos, arrived to visit for a while.  He was the maintenance supervisor at RJRP before his retirement, and lived in his trailer Monday through Friday, right next to us for most of the year we were here.  Every other weekend his wife Cindy would come and spend the weekend, and then on the alternate weekend he would go home to Banning.  We spent many evenings with he and Cindy around our campfire.  Since we left in February of 2012 Amos took disability retirement from the County of Riverside due to recurring cancer.  He has been on chemo for the last 18 months, and it appears that the cancer is at a standstill for now.....he looks great!  It was wonderful to see Amos, and spend a few hours catching up.....he has a wonderful attitude about his situation, and is just trying to live every day of his remaining life to the fullest.....yes he is terminal.  He is one of those people who has led a very full life doing the kind of bucket list things throughout his life that we all wait too long in life to start doing.  He says he has no current bucket list, but is just spending time with all the people who have been apart of his life, which has involved a lot of traveling all over the USA......he just returned from a trip to Colorado a few days ago.

While we were visiting with Amos my daughter, Meredith, dropped by on her way home from work, and the four of us continued talking until after 8 pm.  In one of Amos' many incarnations he was an executive chef at a large country club in Colorado, so he and my daughter have a lot in common.....Meredith is a graduate of the Cordon Bleu School of the Culinary Arts in Pasadena and has worked for several well known restaurants.

Well, that was our "3 in 1" Thursday......thanks for stopping by!

DD

We started out Wednesday attending a required Defensive Driving class at Riverside County Park Headquarters, right next door to RJRP.  We did take this class when we were last here back in 2011, however, any record of our attendance seems to have been lost, so we were put on the list to attend again.   We were expecting the class to be 1.5 to 2 hours when we arrived for the 9 am start.......yes, I wrote 9 am......no getting up before the sun comes up.  As it turns out the class lasted just 1 hour, and we were free for the day by 10 am!

I previously made a lunch "date" in Pasadena with a friend I first met back in January of 1963 when we moved to Pasadena in the middle of the 7th grade.....Tom Carrozzo.  Tom is my oldest and best friend who has been there in every phase of my life.......middle school, high school, summer camp (twice), college, and best man at my marriage to The Lovely Elaine.....Tom's father, Al, presided at our wedding.  Summer camp in 1966 was the best summer of my pre-adult life....Tom and I worked in the cafeteria that summer "busing" tables at a church summer camp in northern Minnesota....probably less than 60 miles from the Canadian border.  After all the campers had finished a given meal we would put a record on the cafeteria record player and play it over the sound system, singing along  to the Beach Boys, Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. while we swept the floor, and cleaned off the tables.  We had this routine each day that summer.....after the breakfast shift (6 to 9 am) we would go down to the swimming docks for 3 hours and work on getting the perfect tan.  After the lunch shift (12 noon to 3 pm) we would spend 3 hours water skiing, and after the dinner shift (6 to 9 pm) we would go fishing for Northern Pike.....the sunset in northern Minnesota was about 11:30 pm, so the sun was still up until very late.....that was our routine for 3 months at SEP (Summer Educational Program).  I pretty much lived on 6 hours of sleep a night the entire summer.  That 3 months left me with a treasure trove of stories and memories, many of which my children have heard more than a few times.

Tom bought a Honda S-90 motorcycle at the end of the summer in 1965, and shortly thereafter taught me how to ride a it.  We spent a lot of hours riding that motorcycle all over the San Gabriel Valley.  You may remember back in May of 2012 I wrote about my brother-in-law, Elliott, restoring a Honda S-90 and letting me ride it after we put it back together.......it was like going back in time.

On a Colorado River canoe trip in 10th grade.....going from left to right Tom is #2, and I am on the end of the line

Tom and I have continued our friendship over these 50 years........yeah, it's kind of unreal to say you know been friends with someone for over 50 years.  Another good high school friend, Richard Read, joined us for lunch, and as always it was a great time of reminiscing, and laughter.

Even as I sit here writing this entry the memories of all the adventures Tom and I had over the years are thick in my mind.....I think we could both write a book about those years when we were young and thought we would live forever.

I got back home around 3:30, and took a nap about 4......TLE woke me up from a deep sleep around 5 pm for dinner.....Taco Salad......yum!  We later watched Survivor and CSI before calling it a night.

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"This Is Iniquitous......"

There was a 1966 movie entitled "A Man for All Seasons" about Sir Thomas More.....it is one of my all time favorite movies.  At any rate, near the end of the movie when More has been imprisoned he is awakened in his prison cell very early one day......as he gets up from his bed he says "This in iniquitous!"........iniquitous is a highly underutilized word, and I love when I can find a way to use it......TLE and I usually repeat this phrase on mornings when we are required to arise early, like Tuesday.  

As I walked from the bedroom  at 5:15 am to the kitchen to pour my first cup of coffee I heard TLE say in a somewhat husky, but alluring voice, "this is iniquitous".....and, indeed, it was.  Of course, our reason for ending our slumber so early in the morning was Kiosk duty once again.  After Tuesday we are off until Saturday at 9 am, but it still does not make getting up before the sun rises  any more enjoyable.

The day in the Kiosk started out slow, and remained slow all the way till Noon.  Around 8:30 I went back to the coach since it was so slow, and worked on taking the Specialized mountain bike apart I bought last week so I can clean up the parts, and then list them on Ebay.......around 10:30 I went back to the Kiosk to relieve TLE and finish out the shift, and then she returned to pick me up in the golf cart so we could clean Cabin #1.

We had Cabin #1 cleaned by 1 pm and headed back to the coach......I took an hour nap, and then around 3:30 we headed out on our tandem to do an 8 mile loop around Fairmont Park.  We have intended to start doing this loop several times, but there was either rain, wind, or some obligation that got in the way.   We had even intended to leave much earlier than 3:30 since sundown is at 4:40, but I got distracted trying to remove the crankset from the Specialized frame, and lost track of the time.  In spite of sundown looming just over an hour away, and the wind picking up we got on the tandem and headed out of the park.  We managed to do the 8 miles in just over 40 minutes, so our return was just before 4:15.  Thankfully the wind never got any worse, and began to subside by sundown.

Wednesday we must attend an mandatory driver education class....the same one we attended just over two years ago during our last stay at RJRP, and one that must be attended by all staff members (paid and volunteer) every 2 years.

That was our Tuesday.......

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Good Friends....

Sunday night we slept with the bedroom window on my side open.....I have missed that sooo much!  I have gotten so much in the habit of closing up the coach at night due to extremely cold temperatures I had forgotten how nice it is to have a window open at night.  For reasons unknown to me I just sleep more soundly.

After I posted my blog entry detailing Sunday's adventures, and put in a call to take care of a question one of my clients had TLE and I headed over to clean one of our two cabins.  One thing we have learned from our experience here two years ago is that on long weekends the cabins get a little dirtier than normal, and cabin # 2 was no exception.....normally it takes us about 40 minutes to clean a cabin, but today it took 90 minutes.  It's all good though.......where do we have to be, right?

Well, on this day I had a lunch appointment with a long time friend Theda Mae, whom I first met back in August of 1981 when I started a new job working at an insurance agency owned by a friend of mine.  Theda and I share the same birthday, so we have always had a common bond, and have remained good friends over the years even after we went our separate ways to work for different brokers.  Usually, when I was in town, we would have lunch on, or near our birthday each year, but I've been out of town for our last two birthdays. We met at the Golden Spur Restaurant in Glendora where we had many lunches back in the 80's and 90's.  Since we are both retired we had the luxury of just sitting and talking for over 2 hours.

After we said our "until next times" I headed down the street to visit my good friend Gary, the one who owned the insurance agency I went to work for when I first met Theda.  I stopped in unannounced, but, fortunately, he was in his office so we sat and talked for about an hour.  Gary and I go back to our college days, and worked in the same insurance agency after we graduated.  Starting in 1981 I worked as office manager in his agency for over 10 years before moving to a brokerage in Arcadia, CA.  Back in those days I played a lot of golf, and he and I would meet at a local municipal golf course at 6 in the morning some days to play 9 holes before work.  I eventually became more involved in soccer and mountain biking and haven't played golf very much in about 20 years.

I left Gary's around 3:30, and made my last stop around 4 pm at the Ontario Mills to have new batteries put in 6 of my watches.....well 5 of mine, and one of TLE's.....at $10 a pop that was an expensive stop!

Finally got back "home" by 5:15 just in time to watch the MNF game between the Seahawks and Saints, which was won handily by the Seahawks.  I know my friends Bob and Karen who live in Washington will be very happy....right now the Seahawks have the best record in the NFL.

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Rewind

As I left off in my last entry we arose at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am Sunday.....I really don't like waking up when it is still dark....reminds me of the days when I did that on a regular basis to be sure I could comply with a schedule designed by someone else.  While there are some things I got up early for in my prior life I miss......like being a soccer referee, or going mountain biking....most of the other things I don't miss even a little bit.  I'm pretty sure I won't miss getting up at 5:30 am after we start rolling our wheels again, but for now it is what it is, and it is only a couple times a week.

When we open the Kiosk my job is to raise the three flags that fly over the park every day.....Stars and Stripes, California State, and Riverside County.  TLE pulls the cash out of the safe, and counts it before putting it in the cash register drawer.  It only takes about 10 minutes and we are ready for the 7 am opening of the park.  It was a surprisingly easy morning, and by the time we were off at 9 am it was even slower.  Most of the traffic was that of those exiting the park to head back home to their workaday lives.

After the vacuum

We were allowed to leave our 5 hour shift early since we had to move our "home" back to site 258.  Of the 6, or 7 RV's that came in as a group (the people in our site being part of the group) our site was the last to be vacated at around 12:30.  Once they were out we were able to complete our relocation within about 10 minutes.....the rest of the afternoon was spent setting our space back up for the remainder of our stay here in RJRP.

In between all that activity I had the NFL on in the background........for me the best game of the day was the Broncos vs. Chiefs game, which came down to the Chiefs failing to convert on a fourth and 4 inside the Bronco 20 yard line .  I'm a Broncos fan, and have been going back to the John Elway days.  The night cap found Peyton Manning's brother Eli (Giants) outlasting RGIII and the Redskins in another good game.

I was still putting up our awning lights as the sun set, but that was the last major thing I needed to do Sunday....there are a few other small details I'll take care of Monday, but then we will only have to worry about the periodic Santana winds that swoop down on us forcing us to put in the awnings, and stow our patio furniture in the trailer so it won't be blown into the Santa Ana River.

We finished off the night by watching Amazing Race, and then the Mentalist......it was a very nice Thanksgiving weekend filled with family, friends, football, and good turkey.

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Rivalry Saturday....

Saturday's weather was mostly sunny, and almost balmy......a wonderful Fall day to be sure.

This is always one of my favorite college football days when long time rivals square off on the gridiron.....Michigan came within one completed pass of upsetting rival Ohio State.  Underdog Auburn beet 'Bama in the most spectacular end to a football game (college, or professional) I have ever seen.  It was a great day of football, and a great evening for spending more time with family and friends.

But, before all of that we had a 5 hour shift to serve in the Kiosk from 9 am to 2 pm.  We were thinking the traffic on Saturday would be light after the normal early morning rush of fisherman, and for a while it was like that, but ultimately the traffic during our 5 hour shift was steady and kept three of us busy the entire time.  The first rivalry game of the day was at 9 am, so I could only follow the game by checking the score of the Michigan vs. Ohio.  It came down to a missed two point conversion that separated Michigan from victory.  

TLE left the Kiosk  when Marie came on duty at 1 pm to go do some shopping, and I stayed on to finish the shift.  By the time I got home the #4 Auburn vs. #1 Alabama game was in full swing.....the lead changed hands numerous times during the game with both teams coming up with big plays when it counted, but it all came down to a missed field goal attempt by Alabama with 1 second left that was caught in the end zone and returned over 100 yards for a touchdown by Auburn.  My USC lost the nightcap to UCLA, and were never really ever "in" the game

Around 3 pm our kids began to arrive at RJRP for an early evening fire, and dinner.....TLE had prepared her famous Jambalaya, and I took care of the fire.  We also invited long time friends Bill and Carol whom we know from our days of involvement in the local AYSO soccer region going back to the late 80's....of course they also know all of our children from that same shared soccer experience.  We hadn't seen them for some time, so it was sweet to sit around the fire reminiscing about days gone by, getting current on each others lives, and talking about our life on the road.  Carol is very interested in doing something similar, but I'm not sure Bill is on board quite yet.....I just know he'll come around.....:D

We sat around the fire for almost 6 hours laughing, listening to 60's music, and watching the various college football games in progress.  I was tending the fire when Nick, Kate's boyfriend, called me over to the TV to see if Alabama could win their game with the aforementioned field goal.....if he hadn't called me over just then I would have missed the most amazing finish, as previously mentioned, to a football game ever.....just as I walked up I saw the field goal attempt come up short, and then saw the Auburn player catch it in the end zone and begin his historical 105 yard run for the winning touchdown......thank you Nick!

Around 10 pm we began to break up the party.....we had an early morning on Sunday....we get to open the Kiosk at 7 am, and needed to be there by 6:30 am.....an iniquitous hour to be awake.

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