A little work, and a little ride......

 7:37 am - Tuesday - October 6th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 94% humidity, wind - CALM.....clear, and cool today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2018 we had just arrived at Liberty RV Park in Jersey City, NJ to visit NYC for the first time.......↴

.....and there she is (NYC) right across the Hudson River.......↴

We thought it was going to be foggy Monday, but we got the opposite.....clear, blue skies.....

.....TLE bought an 8 pack of these neck gators, which double as face masks.  I chose black for my working mask.  Easier to breath through, and your glasses don't fog.....

....I spent my 2 hour shift cleaning the restrooms and sites.....there is one women's and one men's with a single shower, and a couple of toilets each.  They are not currently in use as they would only be used by the tenters, but since they are not allowing tenting right now they are closed.  Nonetheless, they still get dusty, etc. so we clean them....this is the first time in 3 weeks.  After my shift was over I did a little tuneup work on my Cannondale Bad Boy and make the round trip ride into Waldport and back.  There was a slight tail wind out of the north so I covered the distance to Waldport in record time......

Still a beautiful day!

....the return ride was not as fast as the wind out of the north had stiffened, and I was fighting it all the way.  My cyclocomputer statistics bear witness to that fact.......

.....at the turnaround I was averaging 16.1 mph, but my overall average after arriving back at SRRVC was down to 13.3 mph, and it did take me 45 minutes and 27 seconds of riding time.  I did, however, burn 665 caloric units.

TLE worked in the office from 10 am to 12 noon, and then 2 pm to 5 pm, so she got in 5 hours in one day.....that's 30 minutes more than I've worked in two days.....lol.  We continue to enjoy our time here on the rural Oregon Coast.  Nothing like the smell of salt air, the continual sounds of the ocean as the tides rise and fall, and the fog rolling in, and then out again.  One never gets tired of the view whether it is sunny, foggy, or rainy....it is just spectacular!

Thanks for stopping by!

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On a clear day......

 7:16 am - Monday - October 5th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 100% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north....clear, cool today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2017 we were getting ready to board a plane in Denver for the second leg of our trip home to SoCal for a wedding....↴

Sunday it was back to work once again.....another 2 - 2.5 hour shift and then free for the rest of the day.  My assignment this day was to trim all the grass inside the WDS fence.  I'm not sure what WDS stands for, but this is the area where all the septic filters are, and there is no way to get a lawnmower in there to mow around all the manhole covers, so the tool of choice here is a weed whacker.  It took me about an hour to tame the grass, and move onto my next task.....

......which was helping Terry clean out the rain gutters on several outbuildings around SRRVC, which involved the use of a tall ladder.  Within 90 minutes we were done, and it was time to head home after a grueling 2.5 hour shift.....lol.  TLE has been working more hours than I as they are shorthanded in the office right now, and Sunday was no different  in that she worked 6 hours in all.

Around 3 pm I headed down to the office to join the rest of the staff and friends for a BBQ meal prepared by Terry and Michelle.  We had pulled pork and/or chicken sandwiches, BBQ beans, wonderful coleslaw, and interesting conversation.  When I walked down for the meal it was warm outside so I wore only shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops.  Within an hour a breeze had arrived, and I was getting cold quickly so I headed home.  TLE came home about an hour later.....

The fare

......while I was wating for TLE to come home I re-glued the bullnose strip on one of our entry steps, which suddently popped off Sunday when I was exiting the coach.  I used my GE clear silicone caulk to glue it back into position.....

.....other than that it was another reading day for both of us.  It remained clear the rest of the afternoon, and were treated to quite a beautiful sunset as a result.  There were a few clouds on the horizon which made for an amazing effect......

.....due to an ever present heavy marine layer we don't always get a sunset, but when we do it can be spectacular!

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The 22nd anniversary of my 49th birthday.......

 7:59 am - Sunday - October 4th - Seal Rock, OR - 55° F, 94% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north.....overcast, and cool today with a forecast high of 61° F.  On this date in 2013 I was working the graveyard shift at Sidney Sugars (5:30 pm to 5:30 am).....it was about 29° F.......↴

I began my birthday celebration Saturday cooking bacon out on the 'Lido Deck' on our portable Coleman butane burner.....that splash screen we bought a few months ago is really working quite well.......

Coleman butane burner, square cast iron ribbed skillet, grease splash screen, and plenty of bacon!

.....while I was outside I pulled out the 'outdoor TV' and watched an English Premier League match....it passed the time until the bacon began to take on a nice grilled look.....

.....while I was otherwise occupied TLE was cooking up some 'spent grain' pancakes, and scrambled eggs......a perfect birthday breakfast.......

.....I continued watching the balance of the English Premier match while I enjoyed my birthday breakfast.  On towards Noon we hopped in the Beetle and drove into the Safeway supermarket in Newport.....we've shopped at the Fred Meyers right across the street, and Ray's in Waldport, so TLE wanted to check out the Safeway......

......I spent the rest the day working on a few small projects including cutting two pieces of aluminum to cover the vent openings on our through bay (storage bay which can be accessed from with side of the Newell).....

......there is one of these vents on each bay door.   My reason for covering them is to prevent the salt laden moisture which permeates the Seal Rock, OR neighborhood from ingressing into the bay and making things damp.  Whoever installed these vents provided for this possibility by welding in two machine screws on the inside of each vent, and adding two wing nuts so a covering could be attached in the future......

I installed one of these on each door

....I always keep a sheet of aluminum for things just like this.  I spent time watching some college football, reading, and dumping our black tank....when it's due it's due....birthday, or not....LOL!

TLE made up an Hors d'oeuvre plate for dinner (still full from breakfast).....apples, pears, olives, cheese and gluten free crackers.....

....a nice way to end the day!

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Seventy-one.....

 7:46 am - Saturday - October 3rd - Seal Rock, OR - 54° F, 100% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northeast......overcast, and a little foggy today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 1949 I was born.  I guess that makes me 71....WOW!

Baby Clarke circa 1949

Clarke Rucker, my namesake, and my father's best friend

As I sit here 71 years later looking back on my life, and how quickly those 71 trips around the sun have flown by I am struck by the extremely temporal nature of life.  When you are young the years seem to move glacially, and then as you near the sunset of your life things seem to speed up to near lightspeed.  It does not seem that long ago that I got my first brand new bike for Christmas......

Circa 1957

.....and suddenly I was a teenager living and growing up in Pasadena, CA with 4 siblings......

Circa 1964

....and then I was off to college, and then home for Spring Break......

Circa 1968

.....college seemed to go on forever, but then June of 1971 came, I graduated, and was married to TLE August 29th of that year, and life sped up dramatically......

Circa 1971

......fifteen years later we had five children, and wondered where the years had gone.....

Circa 1986

......before I knew it our kids were adults, and getting married......

Circa 2015

.....and the family Christmas pictures are getting bigger.....

Circa 2018

.....four of our children are married, we have 7 grand children, and 2 great grand children, and it all seems like a big blur.  As Ferris Bueller said....."Life moves pretty fast....you don't stop and look around once and a while you could miss it".....and that is so true.

Now we find ourselves almost 10 years into our full time adventure, trying to slow down the passage of time and cherish each moment remaining in our lives.....no one knows when their number will be up....I certainly don't, but I, along with TLE, have resolved to live each day as if it were my last.....no regrets.......

.....my life has been good, rich, fulfilling, and amazing, but it is still hard to believe it has been 71 years since my day of birth.....thanks for stopping by!

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Yes, they make me happy.....

8:15 am - Friday - October 2nd - Seal Rock, OR - 54 ° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM.....rained most of the night, but has stopped.  Forecast for Friday is for partly cloudy with a high of 64° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were finishing our 2nd 12 hour shift at the Sugar Beet Harvest in Sidney, MT......↴

Thursday was day two of our 'highway pickup' project.  The remaining section of US-101 to our south is shorter than the section to the north which we completed Wednesday, so we thought it should take about an hour, and for the first 30 minutes it was.  We reached the turn around point on the east side of US-101 around 10:30 am, crossed the street and began to work our way back north to the entrance of SRRVC*......

Wearing our day glow color co-ordinated face masks 

with our safety vests

.....what we had not counted on was that the west side of US-101 in this section has three turnouts, which are quite large, and as a result of people stopping there quite frequently, there was a lot more trash as one might expect if one was actually thinking about it.  We finally arrived back at the SRRVC* entrance around 11:30 am having filled 3 bags quite full.  After turning in our pickers and safety vests to Greg we headed home for the day.  Yeah, I know, another grueling workday at SRRVC*.....LOL!

I read for a while, and then went outside to put up some more patio lights.  I carry around a few hundred feet of mini lights, but haven't had them out since we left RORVR**.  I had been thinking for a few days where I would put the rest of the lights....well, not quite the 'rest' of the lights, but most of them....and finally decided to attach them to the rope fencing around our site.

Around 4 pm TLE I walked down to our beach for a brisk walk up and down the storm tossed beach.....

The Lovely Elaine....it is chilly!

.....the waves were crashing over the rocks, and the air was filled with salt laden moisture.  As we walked TLE pointed out what appears to be a shell mound left over from centuries of Native Americans who lived in this area who harvested muscles from the rocks.  The area behind that shell mound used to be a large meadow, and no doubt they lived in that meadow, which had stream of fresh water flowing through it....the stream still flows onto the beach......

.....we have seen these type of shell mounds in Florida near Cedar Key back in 2013.  There the mounds were about 50 feet in height.......

.....I managed to snap a picture of the new lighting I installed Thursday.....looks pretty good, and it makes me happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

*SRRVC = Seal Rocks RV Cove

**RORVR = Ramona Oaks RV Resort

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Very fresh......

7:18 am - Thursday - October 1st - Seal Rock, OR -  55° F, 100% humidity, wind - CALM.....heavy overcast this morning, clearing later, with a forecast high today of 67° .  On this date in 2015 our solar panel installation at A.M. Solar had been completed in just 6.5 hours......↴

We went from two 150 watt solar panels to 4....two 150 watt panels, 

and two 160 watt panels, for a total of 620 watts

I was expecting to do some weed whacking Wednesday, but around 9 am Wednesday morning I got a text from Terry to meet with Greg at 10 am to do 'highway pickup'.....in other words, pick up trash along a 1 mile section of US-101 that is in front of SRRVC*.  TLE left for work at 9 am, but returned soon thereafter advising she was going to work with me.....cool!  Greg was at our site a little before 10 am with the 'picker's, and trash bags provided by the Oregon DOT.  We were to proceed north along the western shoulder of US-101 up to the entrance to Seal Rock Recreation Site (a parking lot that gives tourists access to the beach), and then back south on the eastern side of US-101....always facing traffic.  

We set out shortly thereafter and begin picking up trash consisting primarily of thousands of cigarette butts, but also paper, soda cups, coffee cups, etc....we found 8, or 9 single socks, a wine bottle, a glass soda bottle, large, liter size pop bottles.......

.....by 11 am we had reached the entrance to the beach access parking lot, and had each filled a bag....did I say there were thousands of cigarette butts?.......

.....almost exactly 1 hour since we began.  We took a short break, and then crossed the highway to the east side, and began working our way back to SRRVC* arriving back at the entrance to the park just before 12 pm, and the end of our 2 hour shift.  Traffic was quite heavy during our two hours walking the west and east shoulders of US-101, but after 15 minutes you kind of get used to it.....kind of.....we ended up filling 5 bags with trash.  It's the first time TLE and I have worked together since our last days at RORVR last January.

Wednesday morning when I was trying to take my blood pressure I discovered my Beurer Health blood pressure monitor has passed onto the next electronic life, so right after we finished our shift we changed clothes and drove into Waldport to see if Hi School Pharmacy had another one.....they did not, but we were just a block from 'Fresh Mexican Food', the local Mexican restaurant, so we decided to check them out.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 80 reviews....we would be more at 3.5......

....we were quickly seated, and within minutes had ordered our menu choices.....Chile Relleño/enchilada plate for TLE, and the Chile Relleño plate for me (no enchilada)....we both ordered ice tea.....sorry for the fuzzy picture....my 'usie' skills were not well used on this one....lol.  Overall everything was good, and did indeed taste fresh....not the best Mexican food we have ever had, but pretty good for the Oregon Coast.

After a very pleasant lunch we dropped some donations off at a local thrift store box, visited the local Napa Auto to buy some motor oil and window washer fluid, and while I was doing that TLE filled up the VW gas tank at the Chevron station next door.....they still pump the gas for you here in Oregon, and they even wash your windows.

We were back home by 2 pm, and spent the afternoon reading.  What did I do about the blood pressure monitor?  Well, I really like the Beurer one as it has Bluetooth capability.  When I take my blood pressure each morning it automatically transfers that day's data to a program on my phone where it is stored.  I found one on eBay for $40, and ordered it....it should be here by Monday.  They had the same one on Amazon, but for some reason it cannot be shipped to my current address....that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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*SRRVC = Seal Rocks RV Cove