Ash and Pine......

7:54 am - Friday - June 7th - Ramona, CA - 60° F, 88% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the south by southwest.......marine layer this morning with a forecast high of 81° F.....the view this morning......↴

After opening the storage yard, Red Barn, and pool I retrieved the Stihl hand blower and headed up to Ash Street (see map below) to blow leaves, dirt and gravel off the entire length of the street.  This has been on the 'to do' list for a couple of weeks now and  thought I could knock out Ash Street by lunch, and hopefully Pine Street in the afternoon.....

.....it is boring, tedious work, but with the aid of my blue tooth hearing protection I listened to some tunes while I worked at clearing each of theses streets of a winter's worth of detritus.

By 4 pm I had finished 98% of Pine Street, and all of Ash Street (I call it the pool road).  All that remains now is to clean Oak Street from the kiosk up to the storage yard, and then Peppertree Street, which is relatively short.  To be fair, between Alika and I, we have done about 30% of Oak Street already.

 The view from the water tower Thursday.....

 .....looking down on Peppertree Street.....

 ....there's the Stihl hand blower

On Thursday's TLE works until 5 pm as she is the only one in the office in the afternoon, so I head home at 4 pm to take a shower, and then return to pick her up is she decides not to walk home.  After I took my shoes and socks off I was a little startled at how dirty my legs were.  The following picture is not for the faint of heart, so just scroll past it if that applies to you.....

The result of blowing dirt of roads for 6 hours

.....TLE decided to be picked up from the office at 5 pm, and I was back down there just before that time to give her a ride home.  We sat outside for about 90 minutes relaxing and enjoying the early evening before I lit the Sea-B-Que to grill a couple of Ahi (tuna) steaks.  I grilled them for about 3 minutes per side to get a good sear, but leave them a little 'pink' in the middle.  They came out perfectly.....I'm still thinking about how good those Ahi steaks were as I write this morning!

We watched a few recorded shows ('The Amazing Race', 'Elementary', and 'Alone') before heading off to bed about 11 pm....since we don't have to be at work on Fridays until 12:30 pm we usually stay up a tiny bit later on Thursday nights.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.....

6:51 am - Thursday - June 6th - Ramona, CA - 56° F, 98% humidity, wind - CALM......clear blue skies this day with a forecast high of 83° F.....only 4 more day sof wearing an eye patch to bed at night (cataract surgery).....the view this morning.......↴

Makes me happy to see the sun hitting the road before 7 am

It is nice seeing the sun and blue sky first thing in the morning, and Wednesday was the first day in a long time that happened.  While I do love it when we have the marine layer in the morning, it is nice to start the day feeling the warmth of the sun on your shoulders.  I know the days are coming when we will fondly remember the marine layer and pine for its return.

Rich and Marnie are off work Wednesday and Thursay each week so we (TLE & I) pretty much run our own show on those days.  Rich did leave me one project to do Wednesday......pull the shower mats from the restrooms and pressure wash them.  I went about my normal morning opening duties, including checking the water tower and found the tank down about 4,000 gallons so I set timers on each pump for 2 hours.  The Red Barn was already open as we have a group in the park that is using it for morning get togethers, and coffee.  The trash cans did need emptying, so I retrieved some large trash bags and did just that.  

Before I got to the pool to open it I was stopped by a gentleman as I was heading down the hill from the Red Barn asking me to check the voltage on his pedestal as his hard wired voltage regulator/surge protector kept shutting down the electrical flow into his motorhome.  Normal voltage in a park can run 12 volts above or below 120 and not hurt your appliances.  His voltage was at 115, which is fine, and will not cause harm, but many of these hard wired voltage regulators have very narrow parameters, and will shut down your system if voltage is at, or under 115.  There is nothing we can do about that, unfortunately, except what we are doing, which is upgrading our 50 year old electrical system.  By the end of July we should have all new pedestals, and much better voltage.  At my site the voltage routinely reads 122-124 and rarely, if ever drops below 120 volts....even when we had 3 electric heaters going during a lot of May!

After checking the voltage for our customer I headed up to open the pool, and record the PH and chlorine levels for the pool and Jacuzzi.  By this time it was around 10 am and time to pull the shower mats for pressure washing.  That task took me right up to lunch, and I was beginning the feel the 'heat'....it was all of 80° F......lol!

After lunch I dedicated most of the rest of my day to vacuuming the pool, which had not been done for a week.  As one might imagine all of that pool decking (concrete) really absorbs the heat from the sun making it feel much warmer than it is, but about half way through the task the breeze picked up a little making the rest of the job tolerable.

I spent the last hour with the Stihl hand blower moving leaves off the road up to the pool and off the road up to the Red Barn, which brought me to 4 pm.....quitting time.  I put away the Stihl hand blower, retrieved TLE from the office, and headed for the barn.  A long, cool shower was in order.  Just from that one hour of using the blower I was filthy from head to toe.  Once I was clean, and cooled down I headed outside to read, and enjoy the early evening breezes.....a nice way to end the day!

For our evening entertainment we watched a recorded episode of Masterchef Junior, which happened to be the finale.  An 11 year old boy named Che won.  It is amazing the level of talent they had this year ranging in age from 8 to 13 years old.  The three finalists were all 11-12 years old.

Around 9:20 pm we headed out to close down the park facilities (the storage yard, Red Barn, and pool).  We arrived at the barn a little after 9:30 pm to find it fully occupied with the RV group that had used it in the morning.  We let them know it was time to wind things down, and then headed over to close the pool.  By the time we returned they had finished cleaning and had already locked the doors for us....what nice people!

We were in bed by 10 pm looking forward to another sunny day Thursday.....thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.

Discount Tuesday!

6:44 am - Wednesday - June 5th - Ramona, CA - 58° F, 94% humidity, wind - CALM.......clear blue skies this morning with a forecast high of 85° F....it's going to be a warm one!  The view this morning......↴

We had a very short lived marine layer event Tuesday morning, and when the sun came out from behind the clouds at 9:30 am it quickly began to warm.  We have had no mouse incursions for three days in a row now, which is good news.  Around 10 am I walked down to the office to retrieve a package delivered by Amazon late Monday afternoon containing some Dicor self leveling caulk which will be used when I install our new Winegard HD satellite dish in the next few weeks.  I don't remember if I have mentioned it, but DirecTV is discontinuing their SD signal (Standard Definition) this year, and if we wish to continue to be DirecTV customers we will have to get an HD receiver and the new HD satellite dish.  I have already purchased and received the new dish (it's at my son's warehouse right now), but am waiting for Chris, my son, to bring it down to Ramona....the box is way too big for the Beetle.

I next went up to the trailer to retrieve my Intense 5.5 for another short ride.  I managed to ride 1.35 miles around the park this time including 3, or 4 short climbs.  I got winded on all the climbs, but recovered quickly after each one.  Feels good to be exercising again.

Tuesday is Taco Tuesday (2 original fish tacos for $6.99 including drink) at the local Rubio's Coastal Grill so we left to drive into Ramona around 11:30 am to get a haircut at Supercuts, and then have lunch at Rubio's.  What I didn't know is that Tuesday is also discount day at Supercuts......instead of their normal $21 for a haircut, it was only $16, so now we have two reasons to go into Ramona on Tuesdays......

 Two original fish tacos with chips and beans.....yum!

.....the final surprise of the day was had when we walked over to Goodwill (it's in the same shopping center a Supercuts and Rubios) and found out it was Senior discount day.....wow, three reasons to visit Ramona on Tuesdays!  TLE found a pyrex baking dish to replace one she broke a while back for $3.99, and I found two long sleeve sports shirts to use for bike riding.

We were home before 3 pm, and a few minutes later we were relaxing out on the 'lido deck' for the rest of the afternoon.  We both read books while listening to Classic Vinyl on XM Radio.  TLE brought out some snacks (cheese, crackers, sliced radishes, and a bottle of wine about 4:30......

.....when we eat out for lunch we usually do not have dinner....the snacks and wine were just perfect.  It began to cool off around 5:30 pm so we retreated to the Newell interior for the evening.  

We watched a few recorded shows ('American Pickers', 'Deadliest Catch', and 'SYTYCD'*) before calling it a day.  Back to work Wednesday with higher temps in the offing!

Thanks for stopping by!

*SYTYCD =  So you think you can dance

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.

"Wonderful tonight........"

7:08 am - Tuesday - June 4th - Ramona, CA - 58° F, 92% humidity (heavy dew last night), wind - CALM.......marine layer this morning with a forecast high of 82° F.....the view last night........↴

We were sitting in the salon of our Newell Monday evening reading, and listening to XM Radio's Classic Vinyl when one of the most beautiful love songs ever written began to play.....Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight".....

.

This is probably my favorite version of  "Wonderful tonight" by Eric Clapton

....every time I hear this song I think of my lovely Elaine....a mist falls across my eyes, because I know how blessed and fortunate I am to have had her in my life for the last 51 years.  When we met in December of 1967 we were both just barely 18 years old.  She had long blonde hair.....she had then, and still has today this amazing smile that just begs to be memorialized in photo after photo.....

 First date

Married 2 months.....Lake Tahoe, of course!

 TLE and Jeannie (my brother Philip's wife)

 Ft. Meyers, FL

 Left to right: Jill (sister), Phil (brother), Virginia (mother), moi, TLE

 At her brother, Creig's wedding back in the 80's (TLE left, 

Phyllis [sister] right)

With Roscoe and Geni in Georgia

 Florida Keys

......I said "Yes....you look wonderful tonight...".

I spent a couple of hours at the trailer (powered by my Honda 2000) working on my mountain bike.  I haven't ridden it since June of last summer, and here it is June of 2019.  It is a crime to let this bike sit unused.  I wiped a year's worth of dust off her, sprayed some silicon spray on her full suspension pivot points, cleaned and lubed her chain, checked the air pressure in her shocks, added air to her tubeless tires, and brake fluid to her rear hydraulic brake......

With my beloved Intense 5.5 at Cape Blanco, OR a few years ago

.....I built my Intense 5.5 (5" of travel front and rear) from scratch.  The frame was acquired through eBay for $800, and then I gradually over the course of a month purchased all the parts and put her together.   If I had bought it new, completely assembled, directly from Intense in Temecula, CA it would have cost me over $5,000.  I built it myself for around $2,500.....it is the best mountain bike I have ever owned.....I have had it for over 12 years, and she still rides like she is brand new.  After tuning her up I took her for a ride around the park.  It's the first time I've ridden a bike since we were in Fontana back in early April.  I rode up to the water tower, down to the office, and back to the trailer for a grand total of 1 mile.  She runs great!  I hope to increase my distance over the next month to a few miles each time I ride.

We sat outside on the 'Lido deck' for a few hours enjoying the afternoon sun, and breezes whilst reading and listening to Classic Vinyl on XM Radio....a perfect afternoon capped off with a bowl of TLE's amazing chili con carne.  I finished reading a book, and then installed another string of red LED lights .......perfect!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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 end of Eddy.....

7:25 am - Monday - June 3rd - Ramona, CA - 57° F, 90% humidity, wind - CALM......heavy marine layer today with a forecast high of 77° F......the view this morning......↴

Have I told you I love Sunday's here at RORVR?  I have?  Well, I'm telling you again....I love Sundays at RORVR!!  Since we only work for 5 hours on Sundays we rarely ever begin big projects.  It is just a status quo kind of day.  After opening the storage yard, the Red Barn and pool I took care of a few small tasks on the 'To Do' list......replace a sprinkler near the kiosk, clean a couple of BBQ's, move some cots out to the two permanent tents in sites 10 and 11 (wooden platforms with large tents, BBQ's, water, electric), etc.  After lunch I helped a woman in site 58 check her outdoor propane fireplace for a propane leak (her fireplace was fine....the propane bottle she was using has a leak in the valve).  That was my Sunday....TLE spent the day in the office, but reported things were not that busy.  We were off work at 2 pm....TLE chose to walk home, while I drove the golf cart home.  I took a nice nap, and then read a book for part of the afternoon.  We had planned to sit outside for the afternoon, but it was just too cold......I don't think it ever got over 68° F, and the marine layer never really burned off until after 4 pm.  The park was not that full over the weekend, and while we did have the usual rush of departures Sunday morning, we had about as many new arrivals in the afternoon.  Right now I would say the park is about 50% occupied.  As the marine layer disappears, and it becomes warmer things will pick up significantly as they always do at almost any RV park during the summer season.

Our streak of finding mice in our mouse traps for five consecutive days ended at five.....no mice were found Sunday morning....finally.  I'm going to have to find out where they are getting into the RV.  Every mouse we have trapped has been in the water bay, but there are only two places (around the sewer dump valve, and where the city water comes into the water bay) where they could get it, but they are both sealed tight with caulking filling all the gaps around those pipes.  They must be ingressing somewhere else and heading for the water bay.  So far we have had no intrusion into the living area of the Newell, so we've got that going for us.

As we often do no matter where we are living, we order things from Amazon, and almost always get our items within 2 days.  Since we arrived here at RORVR we have been getting most things from Amazon in less than one day....seriously!  TLE and I ordered a few things Saturday evening after work, and all but one item was delivered Sunday afternoon!  I guess that's one of the benefits of living in SoCal, and being so close to so many Amazon fulfillment centers.  

We continue to enjoy our lives here at RORVR, and are looking forward to some warmer weather as the 'Catalina Eddy' begins to break up over the next 10 days!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.

'Saturday in the park......'

7:05 am - Sunday - June 2nd - Ramona, CA - 56° F, 84% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west by northwest.......cloudy (May/June gloom) today with a forecast high of 74° F......the view this morning.......↴

Saturday in the park by Chicago

Another 'Saturday in the park'.......the marine layer did not dissipate until after 12 pm.  It was quite cool, and I wore my RORVR hoody sweatshirt zipped up until then.  After opening the park, and checking the water tower level I reported back to Rich to see what was on his agenda for the day.  He gave me a new mixer valve to install in Cabin # 94's shower.  The old one was leaking, and was probably 10 years old.....no one knows.  I've changed a lot of shower mixer valves over the years, and it is normally a 10 minute project beginning to end, but then there is the 'Hockwald way' which means it will take two people working for an hour to get it loose without breaking anything.  When there is such a long interval in between mixers calcification begins to accumulate around the valve making it difficult to remove. Nevertheless, after a lot of tugging by Rich and I it finally came out.  After using a cylindrical wire brush to remove calcium deposits from the guide and smooth out the walls we installed the new mixer in a couple of minutes.

The old plastic stubborn mixer valve......the new one is brass

By the time we closed up the cabin it was after 11:30 am so I headed back to the office area to work on another project.....cut back the ice plant along each side of the gravel driveway leading to the tool shed so it would be possible to back the company pickup truck in there without driving over the ice plant.  This job took me up to lunch at 12:30 pm, and after lunch until almost 2:30 pm to complete.  Things were slow in the office so TLE came outside to do some weeding in the office flower beds.  When I was ready to pick up all the ice plant I had cut TLE came over to help me load 7 trash barrels full of the stuff.  A trash barrel full of ice plant weighs around 60 pounds.....about twice the amount of weight I am allowed to lift right now, so TLE helped me put each barrel on the back of the golf cart then unload it back in the storage yard where we pile branches, weeds, grass cutting, plant cuttings, etc.

I had just finished unloading the final barrel of ice plant when I got a call over the 2-way radio from Rich asking me to get the the keys to the Kubota loader from the office, and bring it up to the storage yard where he was attempting to unload some large metal posts with concrete attached to the bottoms.  He had used the Kubota to load them on the company pickup, but thought he could roll them off the back of the truck, however, they were a little too heavy and awkward for him.  Using a large chain attached to the loader bucket I lifted each one off the truck as Rich gave directions.....my first time using the tractor and no small animals, or children were harmed.  The metal posts with concrete were removed from the area of the propane station so it could be moved to a better location.  Rich was digging a trench for the new electrical conduit which will power the propane station in its new location, which, in turn, necessitated moving the old posts which were laying the path of the trench.

Caroline, our housekeeper, had been trimming the hedges on the north side of the Red Barn before lunch, but she went home for the day not feeling well, so for the last 90 minutes of the work day I finished what she was doing hauling away the hedge trimmings, cleaning up, and putting away her tools.  Every day here at RORVR is different, and I like that a lot.  The time seems to fly, which I like even better.  The work is satisfying and varied.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.

Catalina Eddy......

6:59 am - Saturday - June 1st - Ramona, CA - 57° F, 86% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southwest......cloudy today with a forecast high of 75° F.......the view this morning.......↴

We're temporarily back into the 'May/June gloom' scenario caused by a local weather phenomenon called the 'Catalina eddy'.  Typically, in May and June each year, the normal northwesterly winds are funneled inland by the channel islands,  of which Catalina Island is one, which can be blocked by the local mountains causing a reverse vortex which creates a thick marine layer.  This marine layer is rarely ever more than 100 miles in diameter, but can extend as far inland as the Mojave desert on some mornings, and can be as much as 6,000' thick.    I look forward to a healthy 'May/June gloom' cycle when I am in SoCal during the summer as it means lower temperatures for as long as it lasts.  Some years it has extended far into July making for a cooler than normal summer.  Never fear, however, by Tuesday it will be gone for a while and we will have temps as far as the 'eye can see' (well, about 10 days, anyway) in the 80's.

We began our work day Friday at 12:30 pm, which will be our norm for the summer months.  TLE had  a very busy day in the office taking one reservation after another, and checking a small group into the park for the weekend.  I spent the first half of my work day doing a lot of small tasks (install a new door handle assembly, glue some vinyl flooring back down, assembling new new shelving for housekeeping, blow the leaves off the mini golf course, spray weed poison on a bunch of weeds, blow dirt and rocks off of one of the interior roads), and in the afternoon got to learn how to operate our Kubota front loader tractor, as well as the Craftsman riding lawn mower.  I took the riding lawn mower up on the road to the water tower to mow down the weeds on the dirt road, and along each side of it.....that was fun....😉......that was pretty much my day.

I picked up TLE from the office around 7: 15 pm, and drove with her up to the water tower to check the water level.  It was about 1,500 gallons down so I ran one pump for an hour to add a 1,000 gallons for overnight.  Around 9:30 pm we headed back out to 'close' the park (lock the storage yard, Red Barn, and pool, as well as check the two bathroom facilities to be sure there were no clogged toilets and plenty of paper (towels, and TP).

On the domestic front our mouse traps have collected 4 mice in the last four days.  I think the most we have ever caught was 2 over the course of two days, and then nothing, but the local mice seem to be quite active, and successful in entering our home.  We have 7 traps deployed in the basement compartments, and I am hoping the plague is over.....(not.....just checked and caught another in the water bay! 5 days in a row now!).  We were in bed a little after 10 pm.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - The Amazon Affiliate link below is the only one that works correctly for some reason.  I am trying to fix the numerous other links you will find on my blog pages, but for now if you wish to use our affiliate link please use the one below......↴

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.