Cabana boy....

Well, there is really no point in beating around the proverbial bush.....our whole Monday revolved around spending time with friends at the Hyatt Beach in Incline Village.  We have known Dan and Carol Gates going back to our college days.  Each year they come to Lake Tahoe to spend a week at the Hyatt Hotel and Resort, and occasionally rent a cabana on the beach.  Joining us for the day were Rhonda, Ron, and Dave with various adult children and grandchildren in tow......

 'They' call it Hyatt Beach now, but it was called Incline Beach back in the 50's

 The gang in the Cabana.....left to right: TLE, moi, Ron, Rhonda, Carol, Dave and Dan

Our host, Dan, with Rhonda's daughter, Dawn

......this is the first time since 1959 I have been to Incline Beach (now called Hyatt Beach) where I spent two weeks every summer from 1953 through 1959 when the property was developed into a large 4 star resort including golf course.  I have missed that view looking south.

I have known Dan and Ron since my college days, and got reacquainted with Dan and his wife, Carol, at a college reunion a few years ago.....this is the first time I have seen Ron since college.  We have stayed in touch with Dan and Carol, and this year when they came for their annual visit to Lake Tahoe they invited TLE and I to join them on the beach for the afternoon.  They rented a cabana replete with many satellite umbrellas, and a large couch which you see us pictured sitting on in the picture above (two up).

I had a few chores first thing Monday (wash the VW, dump the tanks, clean the pollen off the tables and chairs outside, etc.  We began our drive up to Incline Village about 10:45 am, and arrived just after 11:30.

Dan and Ron walked up from the cabana to meet us in the parking lot, and within a couple of minutes we were seated in the shadow of the cabana talking, laughing and enjoying the Incline Beach ambiance.....the conversation streamed continuously for four hours, and the time just flew by, but alas it was time to run a few more errands on our day off so we bid our hosts adieu.  We had a wonderful time and are so grateful for the invitation.

The temp Monday was pushing 90, and it stayed warm well into the evening.  We didn't close the screen door until close to 10 pm just before we went to bed......and so begins the 4th of July week......Tuesday will be the last sane day for a week......we won't come up for breath until next Tuesday.

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Ride Captain, Ride......

After all the stress of the past week I was looking forward to taking a longish bike ride......I haven't ridden up to the Emerald Bay Vista Point in a month, or more so I decided to head there first then make up the rest after the turn around.  I didn't push too hard knowing I was going to ride at least 20 miles, but still got to the top in just over 49 minutes.......

June 26, 2016......not bad but look at the picture below

.......while I broke 50 minutes without trying too hard I still know that back in late June of 2014 I made the ride from site 426 to the Emerald Bay Vista Point in 39 minutes and 25 seconds (see below)......I've got a ways to go to break 40 minutes again.  

June 23, 2014.....my best time to the top from site 426

On my way back I took a right on Lake Tahoe Blvd. to pick up the bike path I have written about previously, rode out to Sawmill turning left, and back to US-50 where I turned left and headed for the barn.  In all I covered just under 24 miles, and by the time I arrived back home an hour and forty minutes later I was feeling quite relaxed.  I took a long, hot shower and then retired to my anti gravity chair with some ice tea and then took a nap.

TLE did a few loads of clothes in the Splendide, and went shopping.  Around 2:30 my good friend Harry dropped by to hang out for an hour, or so, and then it was 4 pm.  TLE made Taco Salad for dinner, and we dinned outside at our picnic table enjoying 50's music on XM Radio.  Eventually the mosquitoes chased us indoors, and another day was in the books.  Sunday was the perfect day off......

Thanks for stopping by!

Paint it yellow......

Friday was the precursor for the 4th of July weekend just one week away.......beginning the day we had 200 sites occupied, and with the close to 100 arrivals we will edge towards 300 of the 406 sites occupied.  All of the craziness that typifies the 4th is already beginning to raise its head throughout the morning.  The more crowded it gets the more people begin to park in places that defy the imagination.....places they would never think of parking on a city street, but for some odd reason seems just fine within the confines of TVC.  Many of them create dangerous situations which must be reacted to quickly.

On top of all that we are now right in the middle of the yellow pollen season here at TVC when the pollen falls like a gentle rain 24/7 blanketing everything outdoors, and even manages to worm its way inside.........

.......red becomes yellow......our gray VW Beetle becomes yellow.  When it is like this even I who has no known allergies begin to sneeze.  Just looking at it makes me feel like I'm going to go into anaphylactic shock........

I punched the clock around 7:20 am and headed quickly down to the maintenance/storage yard to retrieve the Ranger Cart and begin my rounds.  For the first time this season I began my rounds without a jacket, or gloves.......the air felt balmy, and the sun delightful.

When things get a little bit crazy I feel right in my element......I spend the better part of my time  directing traffic, helping folks into their sites, answering questions about the park and the local area, making unhappy people happy again.......and that is the main thing about my job, and the jobs of everyone here.  It is inevitable that some will become unhappy about something, and it is our job to put a smile back on their faces.  

The day passed quickly, which I like, and I was once again punching that clock just after 4 pm and heading for the barn.  Even though it wasn't our last day of work this week we decided to go out for dinner......it just seemed right.  We drove over to Lake Tahoe Pizza for their salad bar and a pitcher of Icky IPA......a nice way to unwind.  From there we headed for Raley's to pick up a few grocery items (the reason for driving the car) we were running short on......Snap-E-Tom, vodka, bread, half and half, milk, cheese, etc.

We were home by 6 and closing our windows for the first time in a week as the evening temperatures began to fall further than usual, but the forecast for the next week is continued daytime temps in the 80's.

As crazy as the weekend has begun it will pale by comparison to next weekend.....I told the newbies that if they want to imagine what the 4th will look like just multiply this Friday by a factor of three, or four.

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That's odd.......

Thursday was one of those very odd days......I had barely finished my morning rounds when I was called to dispense some propane for a customer, however, when I arrived our propane supplier (Bi-State) was there filling our tank....nothing odd about that, but what happened next was.  Within a few minutes the Bi-State guy advised us he had to lock our propane tank supplying propane to our laundry because our contractor had made modifications to the plumbing going into the laundry in anticipation of the installation of our new washers and dryers.  Nothing wrong with doing that, but since this equipment belongs to Bi-State we should have notified them in advance so they could inspect and approve what was being done.  If anything goes wrong as a result of what we did they will be held liable as it is their equipment.  Needless to say there were some unhappy customers who were in the middle of washing and drying their clothes.  As it turned out it was good Bi-State shut things down as their inspector, who arrived within an hour, found 2 leaks in the new gas pipe plumbing.  The contractor had just pronounced all was well after pressure testing the new plumbing.  When Bi-State did their pressure test they found the 2 leaks.  Eventually the tank was unlocked and propane began to flow to the laundry once again.

Next up I was asked to man the store/office for an hour while the office personnel had a much needed meeting.....the only problem was it went on for 2.5 hours.  As the clock edged towards 12:30 pm things began to get congested in the store/office as well as at the entrance.  I began requesting help on the two way radio.  Why is it that simple office meetings morph into time eating juggernauts? At any rate staff members began to filter back into the store within minutes of my call, and I was able to get back to my regular job.

I never really seemed to be able to get back on task the rest of the day.  One thing after another arose to block my attempts to return to my routine.  4 pm came around quickly, and I clocked out and headed for the barn once again.  TLE followed around 4:20.

We sat outside for a while watching the breaking news of the 'BREXIT' vote in Britain, and were ultimately surprised that the UK voted to leave the European Union......that vote is historic, and its consequences are yet to be realized.  It will be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next few months.  Personally I think any break away from bigger, more centralized government is a good thing and I believe we are seeing the same sentiment playing out in American politics......it will be an interesting election season here as well.

Well, as I began this post I end it......Thursday was an odd day.....

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Amped up......

Wednesday was the end of our current pay period and beginning the day having worked a little overtime a couple of days I was within 6.5 hours of 80 hours for the two week period so I knew I would be off by 2:15 pm.  The temps continue to be in the low 80's with the high each day arriving about 3 pm, and then it begins to cool off quickly.  I clocked in to start my day at 7:15 am, then headed down to the maintenance/storage yard to pick up my golf cart.

Just as the previous day, there were a lot of calls for propane service.......

.....I made my rounds, worked at fixing a few more fence posts along the various walkways we have, and ended the morning just before my lunch break escorting a State of California propane inspector around the park as he inspected all of our propane tanks.....there are 10 in all.  Ultimately we had covered 4 of our tanks when my lunch break approached, so I called Miguel (Head Ranger) on the radio and asked him to finish escorting the inspector to the last 6.  By the time I clocked out for lunch it was 12:30, so when I returned 30 minutes later I only had one hour and 15 minutes til the end of my shift.

I clocked out on time and rode my Intense 5.5 home to find that Adam (maintenance supervisor) and Gordy (fellow workamper and electrical expert) in the process of installing a new 200 amp duplex breaker (two 200 amp breakers) in place of the 100 amp duplex breaker that controlled not only our site, but 5 others.  Apparently, when our sites were converted to 50 amp a number of years ago they never updated the breaker, and that is why we have occasionally had the breaker pop under a seemingly light load.  At any rate, they completed the installation in short order the power was restored.  Hopefully now with the new cable we installed and the updated breaker we should have no further problems in our section......YAY!!

Since TLE was on until 4:30 I decided to take a bike ride and was on my way by 3 pm on what turned out to be a 17 mile loop.....it took me just over an hour and I was home and in the shower just before TLE arrived home from work.  We ended up having dinner with John and Deb on the spur of the moment and spent an hour, or so giggling and laughing with good friends.  

We watched the 'Person of Interest' series finale which we had recorded from the night before.  We both liked how they wrapped up the show, but we will miss the series.  After two months of NBA playoffs it's kind of weird not to be watching another game.

Thanks for stopping by!

Electrifying!

Tuesday was packed full of work.......the first task I wanted to get to after completing my first round of the park, and whilst it was still cool, was to get to work connecting the new temporary cable between site 427 and 429 to see if that solved the problem I have written about previously.  With the help of John, my neighbor here, I turned off the power at the main service panel, then using a large allen wrench unscrewed the large lugs that hold the old cable in place at both pedestals.  Once the old cable was removed at each end we inserted the new cable and re-tightened the lugs.  Then the moment of truth was at hand......when I turned the power back on would there be sparks and smoke, or would power be restored?  Well, there were no fireworks, and power was once again restored all the way to my pedestal at 426.....YAY!

 The new cable temporarily installed

Safety cones and caution tape

Over the next few days we'll dig the trench between 427 and 429, permanently install the cable in each pedestal, then bury the new cable.  We didn't see any point in digging the ditch until we knew for sure we had properly diagnosed and fixed the problem.  Interestingly our electrical contractor quoted $3,000 to do what I, with a little help from my friends, did for under $100 of labor......so far we have a total of 4 man hours of labor invested with another 3-4 projected to dig the ditch and permanently install the new cable.

After that I installed some more green screen behind our site to discourage campers from walking through our site, which continues to be a problem.  I pumped a lot of propane over the course of the day, kept watch on the entrance when the RV's arriving began to line up, and spent time tightening hundreds of nuts and bolts on the fencing that borders all of our designated walkways.

By the time I finished with that there was just enough time left in my day to make one final round of the park before clocking out.  I was home by 4:30, showered and relaxing in my outdoor recliner by 5 when TLE arrived home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Outdoor living.....

Slept in until after 7 am Monday......one could already feel the warmth in the air preceding the predicted high of 82.  I really had nothing big planned for the day, but did have a repair job to do on my portable macerator pump setup.......back when we were still in Riverside in my daughter's backyard my portable, no name macerator pump failed.  I had only bought it, brand new, for $79 a year before.  Well, so much for saving a few bucks.......I ordered a new one on eBay a week, or so ago and went for the brand name this time, Shurflo, spending $120.  I spent a couple of hours wiring it up, then testing it, and all went well.

I sat outside for a couple of hours reading and napping as it was a little cooler than inside, although it was not really uncomfortable inside where TLE spent most of her day avoiding the pollen which is beginning to rain from the pine trees once again. 

Around 4 pm we drove over to the El Dorado Beach area to MacDuff's Public House for dinner.  It's off US-50 a couple of blocks and we had never noticed it until we visited the Tru-Value Hardware store across the street a week ago.  It looked very inviting with a wonderful alfresco dining area......our kind of place.....plus Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 1,195 reviews......

Enormous patio

 Enormous portions....two giant beer battered fish filets

Good to have TLE across the table smiling at me

.....whenever I see 'Fish 'n Chips' on a menu I have to order it, and I did.....we received our entrees within 10 minutes of ordering and I have to say my 'Fish 'n Chips' had two of the largest beer battered filets I have ever had......one would have been more than ample!  The early evening temps were just delightful and perfect for sitting outside for an hour, or so enjoying good draft beer and good food.   We can see why they get a 4.5 rating from Yelp.

We were back home before 6 enjoying the last few hours of our day off before our work week begins once again Tuesday......thanks for stopping by!