Rain check.........

7:13 am - Thursday - November 21st - Ramona, CA - 51° F, 92% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by northeast......heavily overcast , but not raining right now.  More rain forecast for today with a forecast high of 58° F.

I rained all day Wednesday pretty much flooding everything......the horseshoe pits, the mini golf course........

 Nothing to do here.....

 No leaves to blow here....

....and the pond!  At the beginning of this storm the pond level was down about 8 feet.....in just 24 hours it has recovered about 6 of those feet of water.....

.....and the water will begin to once again flow over the spillway within the next couple of days.......

.....there are not a lot of inside jobs here at RORVR so filling up a 7 hour work day with indoor work becomes more difficult each day it rains.  I spent part of my day fixing a 'running' toilet in the Red Barn, and a lot of time cleaning up the tool shed, and the maintenance building interiors.

I only worked until 3 pm once again as I ran out of things to do.  TLE had a chiropractic appointment at 3:15 pm in town, so I headed home by my lonesome.  The rain continued into the evening, and all night long once again.


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The rainy season has arrived......

6:36 am - Wednesday - November 20th - Ramona, CA - 51° F, 92% humidity (it's raining right now....shouldn't it be 100%???), wind 17 mph out of the west by southwest.....raining now, rained all night, and will rain all day.....forecast high for today is 5° higher than it is right now......56° F.

When Tuesday dawned we were expecting precipitation between 3 and 5 pm.  I was looking forward to a full, dry workday.  As TLE and I began our walk around RORVR* around 6:20 am the air was actually dry and balmy.

All that being said, we barely made it to 11:30 am before the first rain drops were felt.  The last time it rained was about 6 weeks ago, and since then it has been mostly warm with very low humidity so everything has dried out significantly.  As the rain intensified you could almost hear the dry, thirsty terra firma slurping up the more than welcome H₂O........

.

......I began my day working around the pool and playground.  There were a few large leaves on the bottom of the pool, which I fished out with the long handled pole net, then I retrieved the hand blower to remove all the leaves from the pool deck, along the edge of the pool fence, and from the artificial turf in the playground area thinking that once those leaves get all wet from 3 days of rain they will be much harder to remove.

I checked both pump houses and found them remarkably free of mice feces so those bait traps I have been maintaining must be working.  As a result of using the squirrel bait the last few weeks there are now fewer squirrels digging holes, and most of the holes which I have previously filled remain filled, and unused.

Once that was done I returned to the 'backyard' area to continue the cleanup I began last week, and had great hopes of at least beginning to build the fuel station to which I referred yesterday, but then the aforementioned raindrops began to fall on my head....

Kind of an obvious choice, right?

.....while the rainfall was still light I continued to pickup several piles of leaves I had created Monday, but just as I was hauling the last two barrels of leaves up to the storage area the rain began to fall by the bucket full.  Fortunately, it was time for lunch, but at the end of the 30 minute break it was still raining.  Nevertheless, I continued to work, but got progressively wetter as the afternoon progressed.  

Rich and I spent some time repositioning the large propane tank (about 100 gallons) which supplies said gas to cabin #24, and releveling the site where it sits.  We used the Kubota front loader with forks attached to the bucket (a recently acquired accessory) to lift it utilizing chains.  We then used shovels to level the pad, and then placed 4 large pavers on which to place the tank keeping it off the ground.  I spent a few minutes just before 3 pm spraying some mud off my cart, but by 3 pm (that's when TLE goes home) I was wet and cold, so decided (with Rich's permission) to call it a day as there really wasn't enough indoor work to keep me busy for another hour.

It continued to rain the rest of the afternoon, and evening, but as I write we have entered a small rainless window.  It is supposed to rain on and off through Thursday evening, and it appears we are back to long pants weather.

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*RORVR = Ramona Oaks RV Resort

Monday, Monday....

6:49 am - Tuesday - November 19th - Ramona, CA - 53° F, 45% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by northeast....high clouds today with a forecast high of 76° F....rain on the way this afternoon.......

 Taken on our morning hike today....first time I've caught 

the skies just before sunrise

Up above the water tank

I began Monday riding my new to me Haibike SDURO up to the microwave tower, and then down the wonderful downhill we have here at RORVR.  The bike was much more comfortable with the minor changes I made.....I love the new ergonomic grips!

With the moderate Santa Ana winds this weekend came a pool full of leaves, once again, so you know what I spent my morning Monday doing, right? Right.  It took me until 11:45 am to finish the pool, then it was up to the horseshoe pits to put them back in order after a weekend of heavy use, and then down to the mini golf holes.  Apparently they were heavily used also, and out of 14 golf balls provided for our customers' use just 5 remained.  Keep in mind, these are 'USED' golf balls, so why are they not returning them?  Anyway, that took me up to lunch time.

After lunch I headed back to the barn area to replace a wooden post which someone had backed into and broken over the weekend.  The post held two signs, one warning about the wild life, including rattle snakes, and a second advising 'No vehicle travel beyond this point', as well as had a hook to which the one end of the chain blocking the fire road was attached.  I replaced the 4"x 4" post with a 4"x 6" post, dug the hole about 12" deeper than the prior hole, and had the signs reattached, as well as the chain by 2 pm.

I spent the rest of my shift working in the 'backyard' (the area between the tool shed and maintenance building) picking up where I left off last Thursday.  I finished my day not quite finished with the 'backyard' work, but I should be done within a couple of days.  There are still a lot of leaves to remove, and a new fuel station to build.  Right now all of our gas cans (used for our truck, as well as lawnmowers, leaf blowers, string trimmers, and chainsaws) sit on pavers on the ground.  There is a pop up shelter over them to keep the rain, and weather off of them. To access the gas cans one must spend a couple of minutes in the bent over position transferring gas from the large 5 gallon gas cans to smaller 2 gallon gas cans, or you can kneel on the ground.  I'm going to move a cabinet out of the shed over to the outside wall of the tool shed to hold the gas cans, and build a rain deflector over it so we can refuel standing up, not bent over, or kneeling on the ground.

That was my day.....thanks for stopping by!

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Accents......

6:59 am - Monday - November 18th - Ramona, CA - 50° F, 39% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.

I spent most of Sunday morning working on my new Haibike SDURO.  The Rock Brothers pedals, ergonomic handlebar grips (both red) arrived from Amazon Saturday, and wanted to install them on the bike. I love being able to add these color accents that play off the existing colors on the bike.....it just makes it pop!

Once those items were installed I transferred my Garmin GPS based cyclo computer to the new bike.  I like this cyclo computer because it displays all 8 data points (riding time, speed, time of day, distance traveled, average speed, calories burned, elevation, grade %) in which I am interested on one screen, whereas the Yamaha PW LCD display unit, which is hardwired into the system, only gives you speed, and trip mileage on one screen.....

.....finally, I moved the seat back on the seat rails as far as it would go so I don't feel like I'm right on top of the handlebars. I've just about got the bike dialed in to where I want it.  I haven't adjusted the air pressure in the air shocks (front and rear) to my weight as I've been getting used to the bike......I'll work on that next weekend.  I'm also going to replace the Haibike factory seat with something more to my liking, but that will come later.

By the time I returned home TLE had returned from Stater Brothers where she stocked up on some necessities for the next week.  Within minutes I had the outdoor TV setup, and was sitting in my anti gravity chair watching NFL football, and that is I remained, for better (mostly better), or worse, the rest of the day.  There were a couple of nice naps added to the mix for good measure.

Around 4 pm it began to get chilly outside, so I headed inside for the duration of the afternoon.  We have one more day of high 80's temps on Monday, and them the temperatures plunge into the 50's for two, or three rainy days, and then settle into the 60's for another 10 days, or so.  The balmy afternoons, and evenings are just about gone.

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Double Feature........

8:36 am - Sunday - November 17th - Ramona, CA - 77° F, 16% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the east......Santa Ana condition coming!  Clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.

When was the last time you went to a theater to see a double feature?  Back in the 60's every theater offered a double feature on their 'single' screen whether it was a walk-in theater, or a drive-in  theater.  Typically there was an 'A' and a'B' movie.  They used the 'A' movie to draw you in to see the 'B' movie, which was usually the first movie shown at a double feature.  Many times I actually liked the 'B' movie better than the 'A' movie.  Gradually, over time the double feature disappeared.  With the advent of multiplex theaters you can once again choose to see a double feature, only you have to co-ordinate between the screening times of two movies you wish to see, and then pay for two separate movies.  Back in the 60's it might cost you $2.50 to $4/person to see a double feature, but today it can cost you upwards of $25-30 bucks per person to see two movies at a multiplex theater, even with student, or senior discounts.  TLE and I have not been to a 'double' feature since we first dated back in the late 60's.  There are several movies out right now that we want to see, but two in particular grabbed our attention......'Midway' and 'Ford vs. Ferrari'.....both of those movies were playing at the Angelika Film Center and Cafe in Poway Saturday.  Wednesday evening I opened my Angelika app on my phone and bought tickets (with assigned seating) to see 'Midway' at 9:55 am, and 'Ford vs. Ferrari' at 12:50 pm.  In between those movies we planned to have lunch at the Angelika Cafe.......

.....we arrived at the Angelika around 9:20 am, got our free cup of coffee....yes, coffee is free Saturday morning....and went out to their alfresco dining area to sip our coffee, and relax before the first feature.....

.....by the bye, they do have very good coffee!  We leisurely strolled into theater #5 around 9:45 am to our assigned seating (seats 10 and 11), reclined our seats, and got ready to be entertained......

....what a way to see a movie!  We both really enjoyed Midway.  The battle scenes made you feel like you were right there in the cockpit with the pilot dropping bombs on aircraft carriers.  I love seeing well done historical movies....sometimes real life is more interesting than make believe.  We were out of the theater by 12:15 pm, and placed our orders for our food.  Within 5-10 minutes we had our food, and had plenty of time to enjoy our choices....a Caesar Salad for TLE, and a bacon cheeseburger for moi chased with a chocolate peanut butter stout brew......

.....next up was Ford vs. Ferrari, which details the life and times of Carroll Shelby, who actually won the 24 Hours of LeMans in an Austin Martin.  He was the first American to win that race.  Ford Motors decided  in the 60's that they wanted to develop a race car which could compete with Ferrari at LeMans and win.  They partnered with Carroll Shelby, the builder of the well known Cobra, to build the Ford GT40.....

......it took a couple of years, but they finally won LeMans over Ferrari in 1966, and the next three years.  It still remains the only American built car to win LeMans.  In 1966 the first three finishers were Ford GT40's....

.....this is the best racing movie I have seen since Gran Prix back in 1966 (starring James Garner and Eve Marie Saint).  We were out of the theater around 3:30 pm, and found a Cobra car show in full swing in the parking lot.  How fitting, right?

We made a quick stop at COSTCO to pick up my prescriptions, and were on our way home by 4:30  arriving there a little after 5 pm.  What a great day spent with The Lovely Elaine.....thanks for stopping by!

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The deck.......

6:58 am - Saturday - November 16th - Ramona, CA - 42° F, 89% humidity, wind - CALM......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.

I began Friday with an early morning ride on my new Haibike SDURO mountain bike.  Haibikes are designed and engineered by a German firm, but manufactured in China.  The engineering of the electric motor assist bike is way above average, but the price is much more affordable than most comparable electric assist MTB's being sold today.  It has a 500 watt battery, and a Yamaha motor which can help power you along your route for up to 60 miles on one charge depending on the assist level you utilize.  The bike will top out at 20 mph on the highest assist level.  The bike I bought weighs in at about 50 lbs. compared to the 22 lbs. my Intense 5.5 weighed.  You can choose one of four assist levels depending on terrain, grade, etc.  The lowest assist level basically counteracts the added weight and makes you feel like you are riding a 22 lb. bike.  The next level up makes it possible for me to ride up to the microwave tower without stopping, or pushing the bike.  Even with this assist level there were a few times I thought I might have to move to the next assist level, but I didn't, and made it to the top without stopping.  I still got the workout I was looking for, but was able to cover more ground......

.....the 6" of travel in the front and rear shocks made the downhill portion of the ride smooth as silk, and the Magura hydraulic disc brakes with large rotors were significantly more than adequate than I expected.  I, of course, bought a slightly used bike with about 500 miles on it.  Doing so saved me over $1,000, and I still got the bike I wanted.  Being able to test ride Rich's Haibike SDURO really helped me make the decision to buy this bike, and has re-energized my love for mountain biking at 70 years old!

Friday's work consisted solely of fixing the deck/stairs on cabin #24, which had pulled away from the cabin about 2".......

 Before we pulled the deck back the gap between the stairs and the cabin was over 2" wide

......we utilized two 12 ton bottle jacks to lift up the deck before we pulled it back to the cabin using my come-along winch......

Internet picture of a come-along winch

....we put a chain around two of the support posts, and attached one end of the come-along winch to it, and the other end to the main 'I' beam of the cabin......

 We raised the deck about 2" before putting 12"x 12" pavers under each pier

......we removed a couple of planks on the deck so we could use 6" wood screws to reattach the headers to the main deck.....

....it took 3 hours in all to do the job, but we were successful!  All four guys (Rich, Dave, Alika and moi) were on the job.  At noon we knocked off for hamburgers and hot dogs courtesy RORVR......sweet.  By the time lunch was over it was time for TLE and I to head home for the day.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some minor modifications on my new mountain bike.  The handle bars that come with the bike are way too long, so I first removed the brake levers, shifters and grips, then cut 3" off each end to make them the same length as the handlebars on my Intense 5.5.  Next up I wanted to raise my stem a about an inch, so I removed the stem and installed two more spacers under it to raise it up a little higher.

By the time I finished working on the bike it was closing in on 3 pm, so I headed home to take a shower before shuttling TLE into town to her Chiropractic appointment with Dr. Turpin.  She has been complaining about pain in her neck and right shoulder for a few months now, and Marnie (office manager at RORVR) recommended her to Dr. Turpin.  This was her third appointment, but my first time accompanying her.  After she finished getting her latest adjustment we headed further into town to get a new watch battery for my Nixon chronograph.  The batteries on this watch do not even last 2 years, which is kind of disappointing, but it is what it is.  Fortunately TLE had found an online coupon at a local store granting the bearer one free battery.....cool!  We were back home a little after 5 pm and settling into our weekend of leisure.

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From chaos, order........

7:09 am - Friday - November 15th - Ramona, CA - 44° F, 82% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the east by southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 73° F.  Got my new Haibike SDURO Thursday afternoon, and rode it up to the microwave tower this morning.....SUWEET!!!

After finally moving all the masonry accoutrements to the storage area Wednesday I began to tackle the storage area reorganization.  When you first walk into this area between the maintenance building and the tool shed it is kind of overwhelming, and even daunting to wrap your mind around the task of transforming chaos to order.  We store all sorts of equipment there such as ladders, wheel barrows, trash cans, PVC pipe of all lengths and diameters, pressure washers, lawn mowers, spare tires for the golf carts, safety cones, gasoline, fertilizers, weed spraying equipment, hoses.....you name it....it is there.  I began the task around 9:30 am after I had taken care of the pool tests, and except for lunch never stopped moving all day.......

.....there are a ton of oak leaves which have been accumulating for who knows how long that needed to be raked and disposed........

.....there was a lot of PVC pipe scattered all over the area, which I stacked on bars attached to the side of the shed......

......there was a lot of stuff which did not belong there, and half my job was moving that stuff to the tool shed and/or maintenance building where it belonged.  By the end of the day I think I was about 60% done with the task, and things were beginning to look much better.

Just before lunch my new Haibike SDURO Full Seven, LT 6.0 arrived via UPS......a day earlier than promised!  TLE helped me load the large bike box on the golf cart to I could haul it up to the 'lido deck' to await assembly after work.  By the time I got around to opening the box it was closing in on 5 pm, and by the time I finished putting it together it was dark, but not dark enough that I did not have time to take a test ride!

This is a used bike with about 500 miles on the odometer, but it is a 2018 model, which means the battery is only a year, or so old.  Frankly, other than the tires being a little dusty, the bike looks pristine......I went to bed Thursday evening full of anticipation about my first ride on the fire roads in the park.

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