Motherhood.....

6:20 am - Mothers' Day - May 14th - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 62%, wind 2 mph out of the east by northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2019 I had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital in Escondido, CA.  It was determined I had a single blockage, had Angioplasty, and a stint installed....↴

.....four years later I feel the best I have felt in years....life is good!

We were very busy Saturday.  After examining the tees times sheet I immediately staged 14 golf carts, and later in the morning another 10....in all 24 golf carts went out, plus numerous privately owned carts.  There was a twosome, or foursome on every hole for hours, but everyone moved along at a good pace, and there were no backups.

After staging the initial 14 carts I headed out to the 3rd tee boxes to check on, and remove any duck/goose leavings, then weeded and raked the usual four sand traps.  I stopped briefly between the 16th tee box and the green to walk through the woods looking for lost golf balls, and managed to find 10 pretty decent balls, which will go into my collection of recovered lost balls, which numbers close to 200 now.  I should never have to buy another golf ball in my life.

I was back at the Clubhouse around 10:15 am to find just 6 of the original 14 carts remaining, so I staged another 6.  They lasted until about 12:30 pm, when I staged the final 4 before going to lunch.

Over the course of the day I made 4 complete counter clockwise circuits around the course checking to be sure there were no backups, and found none.  Eighteen of the carts had returned by 4 pm, and by the time 5 pm rolled around there were still two, or three out, so I called it a day, and headed for home.  TLE did not get home until 5:30 pm as she was having issues with closing, but she got them resolved as she always does. I'm glad it is not me doing her job....lol...I'd be there until 8 pm.

Today (Sunday) is Mothers' Day, and I would like to thank my wife, The Lovely Elaine, for being an amazing mother to five children....I do not comprehend how she did it with such grace.  She never once complained during the child rearing years about her job....she had the hard job in the family...commuting 30 miles to work 5 days a week in terrible traffic, was a picnic compared to being a mother.  You make me want to be a better man every day.  I would also like to wish my two daughters, Kate and Sharon, a HAPPY Mothers' Day....they have 5 children between them, and do a marvelous job of being mothers and wives to two great guys.  Happy Mothers' Day to my sister Hilary who has raised two of the most amazing daughters, to my sister-in-law Jeannie (married my brother Philip) who raised two great kids, and makes my brother very happy, and there is my sister-in-law Lori, who also has raised two more amazing children, and makes my brother Dwyer very happy, also.  To my two daughters-in-law, Rochelle and Laila....I am in awe of what great mothers you have been, and continue to be. You make my sons better men, and for that I will be eternally grateful.  To Cynthia, my first grand child, you are just like your mother....you are raising two amazing great grandchildren.  Motherhood is highly undervalued in today's culture, but without good women who happily raise good, productive children, and make their men want to be better men, our world be look like 'Lord of the flies'.  Good women, who are great mothers are the civilizing influence of the world.

Thanks for stopping by!

Appreciation.....

 6:13 am - Saturday - May 13th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 70%, wind 0 mph out o f the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting the Kennecott Copper Mine near Salt Lake City, UT.....look at the size of those tires........↴

By the time our 4 day weekend is over each 8 day cycle I am totally ready to go back to work, and that is how I felt Friday.  It is why I love these 4 days on/4 days off 'weeks' .  The four days is always just enough down time.  I never felt that way during my workaday life when we had just the traditional 2 day  weekends. Even when we had longer 3 day weekends it never seemed to be enough.  Four is just right!

We're beginning to get into that sweet spot of the spring when the temps are hovering somewhere in the 70's, the skies are blue, and there is very little wind....breezy is fine, windy is not.  Still looking forward to mornings where no heaters are required to make the Newell interior livable first thing in the morning....in fact, I'm looking forward to nights when no heaters are required whilst we slumber.  The overnight lows have settled into the 40's range for the foreseeable future.

TLE began the day defrosting our Dometic absorption refrigerator, which she had not sone since before we left Glamis North Hot Springs.  She almost immediately regretted that long interval.  The cooling fins in the back of the fridge part are usually just covered with frost, but over time that frost had turned to ice, which means it will take here twice as long to defrost as usual.  The same with the freezer compartment.

While she did that I took care of dumping of our black tank, which must always be the approximate same time interval, or bad things begin to happen....lol.  Fortunately, we can go around 9-10 days between dumps, and with the great water pressure here it takes about 1/3 the time to fill, and flush the tank, so it is not a long, drawn out deal like it was at GNHS with the very low water pressure, and having to hookup, and then restow the sewer line before and after each dump.

My long time friend, and ex-brother-in-law, Claude Banker, was on his way to Oregon with his wife, Gail, to celebrate his mother's 103 birthday,  and decided to stop by LPG&RVR on this way there.  We haven't seen Claude and Gail in about 2.5 years as they live in Kansas now, near Gail's son.  At any rate they arrived around 2:30 pm, and after hugs headed directly over to the restaurant at the Clubhouse for a late lunch, and a lot of conversation.  I talk with Claude every month, or so, but it is always way better to talk in person.  The time flew by, and soon it was after 5 pm, and time for them to head back into Alturas where they spent the night at the Niles Hotel.  They'll continue the last leg of their journey to his mother's home on Saturday.  Claude and Gail, it was so great to see you!  Thank you for taking the time to stop by!

Friday evening TLE and I headed out to the 'lower deck' to play Backgammon.  You will recall she beat me pretty handily at Yahtzee Thursday night, but on this night the dice favored moi....she won the first game pretty easily, and I was thinking "here we go again", and then I won the next 4 in a row.  You just never know what 'Lady Luck' will do on a given night.  We sat and talked after the games.  We've begun a new tradition....each evening we tell the each other what we appreciate about the other.  It is really interesting to hear the other's perspective.  We are both somewhat surprised each night by the other's observations, but that is a good thing.  Others rarely perceive us the way we think they do.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Devil made me do it.....

 7:31 am - Friday - May 12th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 57%, wind 1 mph out of the northeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I had just arrived at Smuggler's Den Campground in Southwest Harbor, ME until October....we had to shoehorn ourselves into the spot....regrettably, we had to quit our jobs, and were gone by August 6th.....I wrote about that here.....↴

We head into Alturas once a week to do our grocery shopping, and almost always make a stop at ACE Hardware to buy something hardware/garden related, and Thursday was that day this week.  We wanted to have lunch at a burger place in town called Lazy B Grill, which we had heard had great burgers (Yelp gives them 5 stars on 16 reviews...they've only been open since 2021), so we left home around 11 am to make our customary ACE Hardware stop, then have lunch, then do our grocery shopping at Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market.

Our ACE Hardware stop this week involved buying some more spray paint for the Adirondack Chairs, and two tables.  The tables need touching up after two years of use, and while I just touched up the Adirondacks, they'll need touching up by the end of the summer.

We arrived at the Lazy B Grill just before 12 pm, and the restaurant was already packed.  It was still a little chilly outside, so we chose indoor dining.  One thing to note is this place is a tad understaffed, the service is a little slow, but the burgers are amazing!  Certainly well worth the wait. After perusing their menu TLE and I both chose their El Diablo Burger.....a 1/3 lb patty smothered with BBQ sauce, topped with bacon, pepper jack cheese, and grilled jalapeños, all on a Brioche Bun......

The 'El Diablo Burger' is #7 on the menu

The 'El Diablo Burger' in person

....it is rare that TLE and I order the same thing, but after reading the description we could not help ourselves.....

.....they are open 6 days per week (closed Sundays), and have ample alfresco dining.....

......the burgers were cooked to a medium, and the meat was delicious.  This is a spicey burger, and I personally went through two glasses of ice water....lol.  We will definitely return!

By the time we finished our lunch, and did our grocery shopping it was after 1:30 pm, and time to head home.  While TLE put away the groceries I puttered around in the trailer, and decided to do something with the red Xmas lights that have been sitting on my tool table since we arrived.  These lights adorned the COA office at Glamis North, and still have a lot of life left in them....

....they are a nice edition to our environment.  So, after a few weeks TLE and I have created three specific decks outside....the 'lido deck', of course, the 'lower deck' (pictured above), and the 'viewing deck' (pictured below)....

.....we were still full from lunch when dinner time came around, so TLE brought some 'pico de gallo' salsa out, and some Santitas taco chips for us to snack on while we played 'Yahtzee'....TLE won four of the first five games, so easily won the night, but I rallied to win the sixth, and final game, and somewhat restore my dignity....lol.  It was our first game night in some time, and even when we retreated to the Newell interior around 7:30 pm it was still balmy outside.  Looking forward to more game nights on the lower deck as the weather continues to warm!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm not 19 anymore....

7:50 am - Thursday - May 11th - LPG&RVR - 41° F, 74% humidity, wind 0 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2015 I rode my bicycle from South Lake Tahoe up to the Emerald Bay Vista Point at Lake Tahoe......↴

I've had the new NGK spark plugs for the VW for about 2 months now, and the new OEM Bosch ignition coils for about 2 weeks, so why am I procrastinating?  The weather Wednesday was ideal....sunny, and windless, so I thought why not raise that VW hood and get dirty.  In order to get at coils 1 & 2 I must remove four screws holding a bracket which sits on top of them.  Coils 3 & 4 can be accessed without removing anything.  I always start with a few tools which I believe I'll need to get the job done, and end up with a dozen, or so before the job is done....

.....to get at the spark plugs you must first remove the ignition coil which connects to the top of the spark plug, then, using a socket wrench, remove the old spark plug.  That was the easy part.  I then gapped the new NGK plug to .040, then screwed it into the #1 cylinder head.  Again, that was easy.  What was hard, and took me the better part of 45 minutes to accomplish, was to detach the socket from the new NGK spark plug.  There is this little rubber washer in the socket which grips the top of the spark plug so you can insert it down the deep hole, into which your big fingers will not fit.....

....each time I tried to detach the socket from the spark plug the extension would pull out of the socket before the socket would release.  I tried several different extensions hoping one would have a tight enough fit to pull out the socket, but was unsuccessful every single time.  Finally, it occurred to me that I should coat the rubber washer inside the socket with some 3 IN ONE oil, and that did the trick.  Once I figured out the solution to the problem the rest of the job went pretty routinely....

Half way done

All four spark plugs and coils installed

The OEM Bosch coil

....after installing the final plug, and coil I foolishly put everything back together before starting the engine to be sure all was working as it should.  My arrogance was soon rewarded when I turned on the engine and heard it misfiring....doh!  Was the 'Hockwald Way' about to intervene and abort what seemed to be a successful job?

With my tail tucked between my legs I opened the hood up, and once again removed that bracket which sits on top of coils 1 & 2, and began to check the plugs on each coil to be sure each was properly seated, and quickly found two which were not completely seated, so I made sure I heard the positive click this time, and then before putting everything back together, started the engine....SUCCESS!  No misfire, and idling smoothly, just as it should.  When will I ever learn?

Once I put everything back together, I turned my attention to the pile of boxes, old coils, shop towels, and spark plugs.....

....gathered everything up, and threw it all away.  Way back when I watched the YouTube video on how to change out the ignition coils the producer mentioned he had tried after market coils, but found they failed after a month, or so, and he recommended that OEM Bosch coils be used to avoid having to do the job more than once.  I wanted to get the bad coils replaced quickly, and bought whatever aftermarket coils were available at NAPA, and as you know, had one of the two coils I replaced a few months ago fail.  When that happened I was determined to find some OEM Bosch coils, which I did on eBay a couple of weeks ago.  They're about three times more expensive, but I hope will outlive me.  The original Bosch coils went over 178,000 miles before beginning to fail. Lesson learned....learn from those who have gone before you!

I guess I spent 2-3 hours in all taking care of this task...all I know is when I went inside to clean up it was approaching 12:30 pm, and time for lunch.

TLE and I took another of our 2 mile out and back walks improving our mph to 3.5, and covering the 2.03 miles in just over 37 minutes this time.....

....the rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and it was time to turn on the Sea-B-Que to grill some chicken thighs for our first outdoor dinner in 10 days, or so.  The clouds passing overhead were beautiful.....

......while we were eating I got a Facebook notification that the wife of a good high school friend had passed.  Both Susie and Randy were good friends, and I will always remember Susie from the last time I saw her in the late 90's....so healthy and vibrant.  Of course that was 25 years ago, and many of my high school mates have passed into the next life over that time.  It was kind of sobering to read the news, and really hit me hard.  Another stark reminder that I'm not 19 anymore....I'm almost 74 now, and my time on earth is finite.  I sometimes think about who will pass first....TLE, or me.  I wonder, briefly, on occasion what my life will be like without her...I really don't like to think on that too long.

Thanks for stopping by!

Way ahead of last year.....

 7:36 am - Wednesday - May 10th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, 66% humidity, wind 0 mph out of the west......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were on a train into Boston for a day of sightseeing......↴

For the first time in over a week we awoke Tuesday to clear, blue skies here at LPG&RVR.  The overnight low got down to 27° F, and we knew it would in advance, so I disconnected the Newell from 'city water' for the night.  There was frost on everything, but the day promised to be much better than Monday.  Even though the high was only 59° F, there was no wind, no breeze, so it felt warmer.  I found myself wearing flip flops, and a short sleeve shirt....still too soon for shorts, but getting there.

By 10:30 am I was outdoors sweeping off the artificial turf on the 'lido deck', and under the picnic table.  Oh, by the way, we now have a piece of turf under the umbrella for when we watch the sun set....

.....when I'm in the middle of our 4 day work week things begin to stack up on the work bench, because I don't always have time to put them away, so my first task Tuesday morning was to restore some order to the trailer interior.

We haven't walked in a while due to the cold, rainy, windy, snowy conditions much of the past two weeks, so TLE and I took our 2 mile out and back walk around 2 pm.  We managed to cover the 2.04 miles in 37 minutes, 41 seconds averaging around 3.3 mph......

....upon return I headed over to the Clubhouse to work on chipping, putting and driving.  After such a long layoff I was pleasantly surprised that my chipping was pretty consistent, and my putting was coming right along, but the biggest surprise was how well I hit my driver, and #3 wood off the tee, and my mid range, and short irons were extremely good.  The big area I need to improve upon is my fairway woods, which are, and were very inconsistent.  All that being said, I am way ahead of where I was this time last year, so I'm planning to play at least 9 holes on Wednesday.

By the time I returned home it was after 4:30 pm....where did the day go?  While I took a shower TLE prepared dinner....a nice dinner salad with croutons and bleu cheese dressing.  We've been watching a new crime series on BritBox called DCI (Deputy Chief Inspector) Banks, and are now in season 4.  There are so many very good series of all genres on BritBox.  The writing, and acting is exceptional.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wind, rain, sleet, hail, snow........

 7:22 am - Tuesday - May 9th - LPG&RVR - 31° F, humidity 76%, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, frigid, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Gloucester, MA at Stone's Pub & Eatery for a late lunch....two Murphy's Stouts please......↴

.....the view this morning.....frost on everything....↴

Monday, May 8th,  was the day for the northeastern California high school golf championships being held here at LPG&RVR.  There were 4 high schools represented.  Most of the high school kids participating had played a practice round on Sunday.  Little did they know that Sunday would be the best weather we've had in a week, and that Monday would be like a cold day in January with torrential rain, at times, sleet at times, hail at times, and snow at times.  

TLE and I arrived at work about 20 until 8 am, and within an hour it began to rain, and I mean hard rain....sideways rain!  The tournament was scheduled to begin at 11 am, so maybe the rain would stop, and the sun would make an appearance between now and then.  Miraculously, it did as the kids walked down to the 1st and 10th tees, as well as the 9th and 18th tees.  They sent two groups off from each of those four tees, but within 30 minutes the rain returned....not hard, but enough to make things uncomfortably wet.

Hail on the putting green....

....then snow

Prior to the beginning of the tournament I made my usual morning rounds to clear the tee boxes at #3 of duck/goose leavings, then weeded and raked all four sand traps before returning to the Clubhouse just as the torrential rain began.  Between 9 am, and 10:30 am the kids practically emptied our large 55 gallon trash can of range balls as they warmed up for the tournament.

Finally, around 10:30 am they were all gathered together to discuss the format, and assign starting holes.  As they walked down to the 1st and 10th tees it began to rain, then snow, and for the next 3-4 hours it would alternate between rain, wind, hail, sleet and snow with brief 15 minute interludes.

Once the tournament began I headed down to the driving range to retrieve some of the balls as our supply of range balls was nearly gone.  Over the course of the next hour I managed to clear the outer portion of the range before it began to snow  again.  I was getting cold, and thankfully it was time to give TLE her lunch break during which time I managed to get my gloves dry, and warm my extremities.  I, in turn, took a one hour lunch break as I knew many of the 13 golf carts being used by the organizers of the event would be returning between 3 and 4 pm, and that it would take me up until 5 pm to get them all clean (and they were very muddy) and put away.

By 3:30 pm the last groups on the course had returned to the Clubhouse, which was now packed full of the participants ordering, and eating late lunches.  In the end, Modoc High School (Alturas, CA) won the contest.  Many of the owners of LPG&RVR attended Modoc High School back in the day, so they were quite happy.

I can only imagine how cold, and miserable those kids were as they walked the entire course carrying their own golf bags for 3-4 hours, but every single one of them completed the 18 holes, and posted a score.  I wonder if I would have stayed the course under such conditions.  I have to say that Monday was the most miserable work day in two seasons for me, but we all got through it, and the reward was the many thanks we received from parents, the organizers, and the kids who played.

TLE and I were home by 5:15 pm.  I was cold, tired, and ready for a long, hot shower.  TLE prepared Minestrone soup for dinner with a few pieces of sourdough toast....the perfect meal for a wet, cold, miserable day.  On a high note, the weather outlook is wonderful for the next week, or so.  Our next work days will be Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, all of which are forecast to have highs of 78° F, and clear skies each day.  Are we done with winter like conditions?  Well, last year it snowed 8 times between April 12th, and Memorial Day.  Monday was only the 3rd snow, and we still have 3 weeks to go....lol.

Thanks for stopping by!  

NO rain....

 6:24 am - Monday - May 8th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 72%, wind 11 mph out of the south.....cloudy with a forecast of rain later this morning, and a high of 45° F.  On this date in 2012 we were visiting Buffalo Bill's home in North Platte, Nebraska......↴

Finally, a day without rain.  Sure, the temps were still frigid, and there was this blustery wind which would cut right through your coat, but there was NO rain, and that meant I could actually get a few things done outdoors.  We sent out 12 golf carts in total Sunday, but many of them were being used by 4 high schools for practice rounds before their one day tournament on Monday.  

I made my initial rounds of the course scooping duck/goose droppings off the #3 tee boxes, and a few greens, then weeded, and raked all four sand traps.  There were fewer weeds than last time, and if I can stay on top of it, they will be less and less of a problem over the summer.

Bob, our mechanic resurrected an older Husqvarna riding lawnmower whose mowing deck is the same size of the slow John Deere.  It hadn't been running for a few years, and needed some parts to get her fully functional again.  The reason for the resurrection was that this mower is two times faster (it breezes a long at a brisk 6-7 mph) than the John Deere (top speed is 2.5-3 mph), which means it will take me about half the time to circumnavigate the course on days when I mow around the tee boxes on 3, 10, 15, 16, 17 & 18, and they needed mowing Sunday in preparation for the High School tournament.  I headed out for the inaugural trip around 3 pm, and returned around 4:15 pm.  With the John Deere it takes me over 2 hours to make the same circuit.

I returned just in time to begin washing the carts which had returned, and was finished a tad before 5 pm.  I wore my vest, and winter coat with hood (the one I bought in Yellowstone back in the summer of 2017) most of the day, plus my watch cap, and gloves, but at least there was NO rain.  Time passes much more quickly when you are busy.

As I write the skies are darkening, and it looks like the rain forecast to begin around 9 am is on its way.  According to the weather guessers the rain will be with us until around 6 pm.....I don't think the high schoolers will enjoy that too much....their tournament begins, rain or shine, at 11 am with a 'shotgun' start.  I hope they have their rain gear with them.

Thanks for stopping by!