The interlude.....

 8:10 am - Tuesday - June 21st - Cedarville, CA - 52° F, 30% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.  Our view this morning......↴ 

Our check in time Monday at Surprise Valley Hot Springs was 4 pm so we had a lot of time Monday before our departure time of 2 pm.  It's only 49 miles to the hot springs, and takes about 57 minutes, but we needed to do some small shopping in Alturas, plus order a takeout pizza from Antonio's Cuccina for an eary dinner.  We figured by the time we did all of that it would be after 3 pm, and time to head over the Warner Mountains to Cedarville for our two day interlude of self indulgent hot tub soaking, and just generally doing NOTHING but read, nap, and engage in funny, and somewhat humiliating putting contests.  More on the putting contests later.

I've been wanting to get a 'wedge' style putter for a while, and found one on eBay that fit my eye for $22.  It appeared to be like new condition, so I pulled the trigger and bought it.  Well, it arrived at the Clubhouse via UPS Monday morning, so I drove over around 9:30 am to retrieve it, and putt a little with it on the putting green.....

....yup, she is a beaut, and I love the length of the shaft, the weight, and feel.  Within minutes I was putting balls to within a couple of feet of the holes.  Satisfied with my purchase I headed back home to show it to TLE, at which time we decided to head back to the Clubhouse to have a late breakfast/early lunch.....something we have not done since January 31st when we began our intermittent fasting....Kathy's (Cafe Kathy) breakfast special of the day was biscuits and gravy with link sausages....OMG was it ever good!

After breakfast TLE and I headed out to the putting green to putt.....for the record TLE hasn't held a putter in her hands for 14 years, and I had low expectations. Now that I had received my new putter I had three others for her to try.  I thought she would like my Bullseye Acushnet blade style putter, and after trying all three she, indeed, settled on the Bullseye.....

....this was the style putter I used for years back in my 20's and 30's.  I acquired this one at the South Lake Tahoe Flea Market back in 2016.  At any rate, we began putting, and she immediately displayed an uncanny hand/eye co-ordination sinking her first putt from 20 feet...wait, what?  To be fair,  TLE was quite the athlete in her youth.  She excelled at track and field sports like the long jump, high jump, and middle distance races. In her entire college career she only lost one race.

After putting for about 30 minutes we headed back home to begin our  preparations for our two day interlude.  We were in the car a little after 2 pm heading into Alturas.  Our first stop was the aforementioned Antonio's to place our pizza order, then on to Holiday Market to do our small shopping while the pizza was being prepared. We were back at Antonio's by 3 pm, and on the road a few minutes later, arriving at Surprie Valley Hot Springs around 3:40 pm. We quickly retrieved our room key for lucky room #13, and entered......

....within minutes we were soaking in our own private, hot spring fed hot tub.  We are able to adjust the water temperature by opening, or closing the hot and cold water valves.  After a suitable soaking time we headed back inside to have a little putting contest....

That's a coffee cup we're using for the 'hole'

.....over the course of an hour TLE smoked me sinking 10 putts to my pathetic 4.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading outside, and enjoying the larger than life views out the back of our patio....

.....there were some adult beverages, at least one cigar, and a beautiful sunset....

....thanks for stopping by!

My dudes.....

6:59 am - Monday - June 20th - Likely, CA - 43° F, humidity 76%, wind - CALM....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  The temps over the next 10 days will be getting to look more like summer......↴

.....on this date in 2017 TLE and I were taking our first of many tours of Yellowstone NP....what an amazing summer!.....↴

Near Lamar Valley....TLE got a little ahead of me on the trail....lol

Yellowstone River

Sunday was Father's Day, and my plans for enjoying this year's Father's Day involved just one simple thing.....watching the final round of the U.S. Open from beginning to end, and that is just what I did.  This year's Open was held at 'The Country Club' in Brookline, Massachusetts. 'The Country Club', as it has always been called, was established in 1882.  The golf course was added sometime in the 1890's, and the 1913 U.S. Open was held there (the first U.S. Open was played in 1885, so this year's event was the 127th installment).  A teenager named Francis Ouimet beat the best professionals in the world at the time.  A movie called 'The Greatest Game Ever Played' was made in 2005 about that event, and is well worth watching.  The broadcast of the fourth round began at 7 am, and I was in my recliner until the last putt was made at 3:30 pm.  And what an amazing day it was as Matthew Fitzpatrick (England) hit 17 out of 18 greens in regulation to win this year's National Golf Championship.  For much of the day there were 6-7 guys who had a chance to win, but in the end Fitzpatrick was standing alone at the top of leaderboard.

I would like to take this time to highlight the fathers in my little world......

Left to right: Daniel (married to grand daughter Cynthia,  and father of great grandsons Daniel and Jameson), Chris (my oldest son, and father of Cynthia and Christopher), Tim (my youngest son, and father of Crosby and Bowie), Rod (married to my daughter Sharon, and father of Brayden), and Nick (married to my daughter Kate, and father of Elijah, Charlise, Jolene and Levy)....all amazing men and fathers, all of whom I am proud to call sons.

....each of them is an amazing husband, father and friend, and I am proud to call them sons.  My actual sons, Chris and Tim, chose women exactly like their mother.....women who made them want to be better men....they are both great fathers.  Daniel, Rod and Nick are wonderful husbands and fathers, and take very good care of the women in my life.

At the end of the U.S. Open I changed into my bicycle riding clothes and headed out to ride the perimeter road around LPG&RVR....it's only 3.55 miles, or so, but the views are always stunning.  For first time since we arrived I rode the entire perimeter utilizing on only pedal assist level 1 on my Haibike SDURO ebike.  There are four pedal assist levels, and level one basically makes this 65 pound bike feel like a 25 pound bike, which is what my previous Intense 5.5 MTB weighed.  I managed to cover the 3.55 miles in about 22 minutes.

It was a great Father's Day for me, and I hope it was for you also....thanks for stopping by!

Moving day......

 7:54 am - Sunday - June 19th - Likely, CA - 45° F, humidity 69%, wind 2 mph out of the northwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I hiked to the top of Mt. Tallac in South Lake Tahoe....↴

The view from 9,675' elevation of Lake Tahoe

As I wrote yesterday, it rained for a couple of hours early Saturday morning, and we awoke to a cold and soggy LPG&RVR.  We expected Saturday to be busy, but when it begins like this you never know.  I began the day by staging 15 golf carts initially, and then headed up to the large Pavilion to mow, and trim the site before the next group arrived.  By the time I returned TLE was calling for more golf carts....you just never know.  I think we rented 22 golf carts Saturday, and there were probably another 8-10 folks using their own golf carts, so it was a busy day.

I still needed to mow the tee boxes for the 10th hole, so I took care of that before TLE's lunch break, as well as mowing around the Clubhouse, and around the putting green.  My time in the office while TLE was at lunch was totally uneventful, and I was able to spend most of the time watching the Saturday U.S. Open drama unfold.  They call Saturday 'moving day' at the U.S. Open, and there was a lot of movement.  The guys who were at the top of the leaderboard at the beginning of the round faded from sight under an avalanche of bogeys, and guys down the board rose to the top.  By the end of the day the leaderboard had been completely upended with the leaders moving from -5 to +2, or worse.....crazy!

After lunch I headed out to hole #3 do mow those four tee boxes.....the round trip took a little over one hour.  By the time I got back it was 3 pm, and the Cart Return area had about 8 golf carts ready to be cleaned and returned to the Cart Shack.  From 3 pm, until almost 5:20 pm I washed one golf cart after another, including two more Club Car gassers Bob fixed, and returned to service.  As of Saturday there are only 3 golf carts in the 'sick bay'....quite a change from two weeks ago when there were close to one dozen carts out of action.  I waited just outside the Clubhouse enjoying the early evening view, while TLE finished her work in the office....

.....and we drove home together around 5:30 pm with big smiles upon our faces as we began our 4 day weekend.  On Monday we'll head over the Warner Mountains to Surprise Valley Hot Springs for two days to enjoy their mineral hot springs in our own private hot pool located just outside our suite.

I managed to capture another nice sunset just before 9 pm.......

.

Thanks for stopping by!

Whoa!!!

6:20 am - Saturday - June 18th - Likely, CA - 42° F, humidity 76%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest......heavy cloud cover and drizzling as I write.  On this date in 2014 Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers) pitched a no-hitter......↴

Friday just kind of snuck up on us.  We needed 14 carts for the existing signups, but I staged 20 just to be on the safe side, and then headed out to mow the tee boxes on 15, 16, 17 and 18.....

Taking the long ride out to the 15th tee boxes

.....I left on the John Deere riding lawnmower around 9:45 am, and by the time I returned around 11:15 am there was only one cart left on the line.....whoa!  I immediately staged 7 more carts (we only had 3 running carts left), and hoped that would suffice, and then headed into the office to give TLE her lunch break.

Usually lunch time is pretty slow for me, and I read most of the time, but not on Saturday.....I answered one phone call after another, and then processed 4 people through for rounds of golf, and carts finishing just as TLE walked back in the door from her break.  Just as I was getting ready to go to my lunch break Lynn came in to say that the small Pavilion was ready to be mowed, and that we had another group arriving within the hour, so instead of going to lunch I hopped on the speedy Husqvarna riding mower and headed over to mow the grass.  It took me just 20 minutes, and it is a good thing I did it right away, as the new group began arriving just as I finished....whew....what a morning!

The afternoon was no different. I arrived back from lunch around 1:50 pm to find 8 golf carts in the cart return area, so I began cleaning them, and did not stop cleaning golf carts until just before 5 pm.....25 golf carts cleaned in 3 hours!

There is rain forecast for Saturday (we've already had some of that), and as a precursor to that storm the winds began to freshen late afternoon, and we had wind speeds in the 15 mph area for several hours before it abated, leaving us with a beautiful, windblown sunset......

.....this week Saturday will be our 'Friday', and then begins our four day Father's Day celebration.....on Monday we are heading to Surprise Valley Hot Springs for two days where we will have our own private mineral springs fed hot tub.

Thanks for stopping by!

Free range.....

6:20 am - Friday - June 17th - Likely, CA -  48° F, humidity 45%, wind 5 mph out of the west by southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2013 we were riding our Cannondale tandem around Sioux Falls, SD.....here we are at the actual Sioux Falls......↴

We put out 20 carts Thursday, and 14 were rented.  I arrived at work with 4 Yamaha carts in the cart return area from the previous evening, so once I had the first 16 carts staged I got to washing them, so they could be staged, also.  Mike was on duty as course Marshall Thursday so I was able to focus on clearing the golf balls off the driving range once again.  It had only been two days since the driving range was cleared, so there were not that many balls to retrieve, but it still still took me a couple of hours beginning to end.  I ended up with two 5 gallon pails of balls to clean.

Once that was done I headed back down to the creek which dissects the driving range to do some weed whacking along the fence line....

Before....

.....after

The view back towards the Clubhouse from the 250 yard marker

.....before I weed whacked along the creek I had pulled out about two dozen golf balls along the fence with the 'Shag Bag'....I found 32 more balls buried DEEP in the grass after weed whacking about 8-12" of grass, and I was positive I had gotten all the balls before I started.....doh!  By the time I finished it was time to give TLE her lunch break.

I arrived back from my lunch break to find 8 of the 14 golf carts already returned, and ready to be cleaned to I took care of them, and then turned my attention to cleaning the two 5 gallon buckets of range balls.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning and putting away the remaining carts, and taking a tour of the tee boxes I am responsible for mowing once every week (3, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 18), and found they were ready, so Friday I will motor out there in the ever so slow John Deere to take care of them.  I spotted a hawk along the 17th fairway dive bombing for fish in the pond, and managed to catch 'him' (I have no idea its sex) in flight......

....by the time I finished my rounds of the tee boxes it was almost 5 pm, and the end to another day at LPG&RVR....we love it here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Just two hats on Wednesday.....

 6:21 am - Thursday - June 16th - Likely, CA - 50° F, humidity 52%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were riding our tadpole recumbent trikes on the Fish Lake Trail near Spokane, WA......↴

It has been a while since we began our work 'week' on a Wednesday, so I didn't quite know what to expect cart wise.  I went ahead and deployed 20 golf carts to begin the day.....might as well be optimistic, right?

Once the carts were staged I headed out to make an inspection of the golf course before the first golfers hit the course.  Only one sand trap needed raking, and only one flag (#6) had been blown down by wind overnight.  Otherwise, the course was ready for play.  On days when Mike is not acting as course 'Marshall' I wear only two hats, and split my time between the golf carts, and out on the course monitoring play to be sure there are no bottlenecks.  It is really one of the cool things about my job.  I often will sit on a high point of the course like the area between the 5th and 15th tees where I can see several fairways at the same time....of course, the view is not too bad.....

My favorite view

....Wednesday was probably one of my easiest days in a while, and sometimes you just need one of those days.  In all we rented around 15 golf carts, and they trickled back into the cart return area at a reasonable pace all afternoon allowing me to spend more time out on the course monitoring play.  There were no bottlenecks on Wednesday, just a lot of people enjoying the course at a leisurely, but steady pace.

When we first arrived there were about a dozen golf carts in 'sick bay' (not working), but in the past two weeks we have added a new worker (Bob Longacre) whose job is to get those carts fixed, and to repair any others which might break down over the course of the summer.  So far he has returned about 1/2 of the 'sick bay' carts to action, and should have a couple more back in action by the end of the week....thank you Bob!

When 5 pm arrived I still had 3, or 4 carts out on the range, so I know I'll be dealing with them first thing Thursday morning.  Thursday will also see me picking up, and cleaning golf balls off the driving range once again.  I was home a little after 5 pm, and in the shower within minutes.  TLE arrived home just as I was exiting the shower.  We headed outside to enjoy the early evening views, and breezes shortly thereafter, and didn't head back inside until after 6:30 pm....a nice way to end a work day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Laid back day.....

6:23 am - Wednesday - June 15th - Likely, CA - 40° F, humidity 54%, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 83° F. On this date in 2012 TLE and I were attending a car show in Couer d'Alene, ID......↴ 

It was still cold Tuesday, but it did get into the low 60's for an hour, or two.  TLE and I took a walk right after I finished posting my latest missive.  Because the temperatures have been fluctuating so much from day to day here I'm never sure how much to wear for our walks.  I almost had it right Tuesday, but I should have worn gloves, because I spent most of the walk with my hands in my pockets to keep them warm....

.....I spent time pulling weeds.....mostly dandelions....out of the grass next to our coach, and then using a systemic weed killer to kill the rest.  It's not that I enjoy weeding, I don't, but the grass looks so much better without the dandelions, and other broad leafed weeds, and what else have I got to do on the first day of summer?  Yup, Tuesday was the first day of summer, but you would not know it here.  I'm not even sure we have really had 'spring' yet, if you know what I mean.

I delivered Kathy's bike back to her custody, made a run to the post office, and picked up a package from the Clubhouse which had been delivered by UPS.....an almost new Callaway Big Bertha 7 wood.  I also repaired a broken snap on the sun shade caused by the winds we had the other day.

It was pretty much a laid back day for us at LPG&RVR.  It got a little windy late afternoon, but settled back down by 6 pm.  TLE made a wonderful enchilada casserole for dinner, and we watched a couple of episodes of OBI-WAN-KENOBI (Star Wars) on the Disney channel (streaming).  And with that our Tuesday came to an end, and another four day work week begins.

Thanks for stopping by!