Guess who?

7:37 am - Monday - August 14th - LPG&RVR - 62° F, humidity 40%, wind 0 mph out of the east by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 96° F.  Temperatures will begin to decline over the next 3 days back into the 80's, and high 70's....nice!  On this date in 2014 TLE and I rode our bicycles over to 'The Commons' near State Line to have lunch on the shores of Lake Tahoe....I miss those views......↴ 

....however, we will be seeing those views once again in just a few weeks when we head to Lake Tahoe for our 52nd wedding anniversary celebration.

While Sunday was definitely a much more easy going day as far as golfers, and cart rentals it did not start out so well for me.  As I drove down the hill to the Clubhouse, and past the driving range tee boxes I noticed there was an enormous amount of golf balls piled on the left side of the putting green, along with some discarded trash.  I parked the cart to walk down to the tee box and found approximately 1,000 golf balls littering a large area of the tee box, some trash, and the five small ball buckets which were there the evening before gone.  As I looked around I began to see a lot of golf balls in the parking lot, and on the large grass strip in the middle of the parking lot.  It appeared that some adolescents (would actual adults do something like that?) had decided to create a little havoc in retaliation for what happened Saturday night, so let me take you back in time to around 9:20 pm Saturday evening.

TLE and I had been watching another 'Touch of Frost' episode Saturday evening, and by the time it ended it was just after 9 pm, and the outdoor temps had dropped into the 70's which was a signal for us to turn off the A/C, and open the windows to let the cool evening breezes enter.  What greeted us along with the cool night breezes was the sound of loud music, and loud singing, which sounded like it was right outside our door, and not over 100' away in the lower RV section (sites 1-10).  Knowing there was no way I was going to be able to sleep with that racket going on I walked down to site #10 where a large group of some 60+ revelers were gathered singing that Lionel Richie song I mentioned in yesterday's post about Saturday.  As I mentioned, they were quite resistant to quieting down, but eventually did, and I was able to go to sleep.  The revelers were celebrating the birthday of one of their own and were all wearing Hawaiian lei's.....notice anything in the following picture of the trash I gathered at the driving range tee boxes?

Yup....you are correct....a Hawaiian lei.  Below is a picture of the pile of balls left by the revelers, which had to be cleared, or the tee box could not be used......

.....how do I know there were 1,000+ balls?  Well, one 5 gallon bucket holds 300 balls.....you do the math.....lol......

.....the silver lining to this malicious mischief is that I was going to clear about that many balls from the range first thing as our two 55 gallon barrels were completely empty.  Instead of having to roam the lower portion of the range with a 'Shag' bag picking them up, whilst getting bit by a million mosquitoes, I was able to stand in one place and pick them up in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken me without getting a single mosquito bite.

In addition to the ball prank they had chopped the hell out of the grass creating 100's of divots, which had to be reseeded by yours truly before the golfing day began......this was the other side of the aforementioned silver lining.  After that inauspicious beginning my day settled down to staging carts, marshaling, washing carts, and talking with customers.  On my first marshaling round of the course I found that someone had taken the lid off the metal trash can next to the restroom on hole #5 and turned it into a 'taco'....I wonder who did that?  Anyway, I was able to straighten it out, and reattach it to the trash can.....

......since I was taking Walt's place for the day I was working with Kathie, who takes her lunch from 1-2 pm.  Normally I would be going home at 2:30 pm, but there were a lot of carts returned during her hour lunch when I was giving her a lunch break, and it took me until 3 pm to clear the inventory, and put them away.  So, another 8.5 hour work day.

Of course, TLE was enjoying a day off by herself, and was there to greet me upon my return from toiling in the fields of LPG&RVR.  The high only reached 94° F, instead of the forecast high of 95......yeah, one degree does make a difference......at least to me....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

A lifetime penalty.....

6:00 pm - Sunday - August 13th - LPG&RVR - 94° F, humidity 12%, wind 9 mph out of the north......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 95° F, which ended up being 94° F.  On this date in 2020 we were staying at the fairgrounds in Cashmere, WA, and spent the afternoon 'junking' at two local antique malls....we came away with these unique blue glass margarita glasses......3 for $18.......↴

....we still have all three.

Saturday was another busy day at LPG&RVR.  We host, along with Steven MacIlraith, the annual Rich Hamel Golf Tournament to honor the man, and his genius in building a golf course in the middle of no where.  Rich built, over about 9 years, the first 9 holes, and eventually sold out to Dennis Tate, who teamed with Steven MacIlraith, a golf pro from the Sacramento area, who designed the 10th through 18th holes.  Steven is the co-host of the tournament.  At any rate, we had an initial 40 golfers signed up in advance, and added another 10-15 golfers during the registration period between 8 and 9 am Saturday.  In all we rented 20 carts for the tournament, and there were another 7-8 personally owned carts in the tournament.

I was at work at 6:30 am, and had the tournament carts staged by  7:30 am, along with another 10 for our regular none tournament customers.  Once the tournament began I spent the next 3 hours driving the tournament photographer, Tia, around the course taking pictures of the various foursomes, as well as many scenic pictures.  I gave TLE her lunch break at 12 pm, and by 1 pm I was washing the first of 34 golf carts over the next 2 hours.  In all we sent out 40 golf carts, and those remaining 6 got washed Sunday morning, and that is a whole 'nother story.

I worked until 3 pm, and called it a day at that point.  My second overtime day in a row.  Getting off at 3 pm gave me an hour to take a shower, and relax before heading back to the Clubhouse for the weekly putting contest.  I won my first match easily by winning the first 3 of 5 holes.  I won the first hole, easily, in the second match, and lost the second.  On the third hole my opponent hit his put 8 feet short of the hole.  I putted next, and hit a good putt, which I believed would end up close to the hole, but my putt hit my opponents ball knocking him to within 3' of the hole.....I was left with an 8 foot putt, and made it.  That was the decisive hole, and my mistake ultimately cost me the match.  We were still tied 1 up after 5 holes, so it went to the dreaded 'closest to the hole' single putt playoff.....I put my ball within 18" of the hole, and my opponent put his about 12" from the hole, so my record of losing in a one putt playoff is now extended to five consecutive weeks....doh!

As I mentioned a couple of days ago we had a large birthday group in the park occupying 19, or 20 sites, and Saturday night was their last night.  TLE had to go down to their sites Thursday night to ask them to quiet down, and I talked with the organizer the next day about the problem, and was assured it would not happen again.  Well it did, and this time it was way worse.  They had a large 'boom box' playing 80's music, which is a crime in itself, quite loudly....so loudly that I could hear the music, and the loud singing of over 60 voices almost a 1,000 feet away (the song was 'All night long' by Lionel Richey....I hate that song).  I walked down around 9:20 pm to ask them to turn the volume way down, and after a few minutes of arguing, and being accused of 'ruining their weekend' they finally relented and turned the volume down.  This second visit in three days for a noise issue has resulted in a lifetime ban of every person in attendance from ever returning to LPG&RVR.  And with that I am now caught up once again....thank you for your patience!

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A new record.......

5:23 am - Sunday - August 13th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 54%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....the forecast is for clear, blue, sunny skies.....not sure about the crystal as there are fires to the north of us causing a bit of haze....the high today should be around 95° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were cruising down the Oregon Coast on US-101.....this view was just south of Canon Beach, OR....amazing......

As I write, I hang my head in shame.....once again I am a day behind, and dollar short in writing about Friday.  I knew Friday was going to be a busy day as I drove my cart down to the Clubhouse at 6:30 am.  We had a large group of people in the park, occupying almost half our sites, for the 80th birthday party of a gentleman named Craig.  They planned to golf together on Friday, and would need 20th golf carts to accommodate 40 of the close to 60 guests.  My first task was to stage those 20 golf carts for their 10:30 am tee time.  They planned to send a foursome off tee #1, and another foursome off tee #10 in 15 minute waves.  There were also our usual golfing customers who began teeing off at 8 am ahead of the group.  By 11 am there was a foursome on each of the 18 holes, and we had rented out all 40 golf carts.....it has been a while since the cart shack was completely empty.....

Only cart in the shack was mine

20 golf carts staged for the birthday group

The rest for our other customers

.....I spent most of the middle of the day marshaling to be sure there were no bottlenecks, and miraculously, there were none.  I gave TLE her lunch break at the usual time, the went to work to begin washing and stowing the carts as the slowly returned.  B 3 pm I could see I was not going home early, so I took a 30 minute lunch, then returned to washing golf carts. By 4:50 pm I had washed all but two of the 42 golf carts we had rented.....2 actually went out twice.  That is by far and away the most golf carts I have washed in a single day.  By the time I headed home with TLE I had logged a 10 hour day.

During the day UPS delivered our new windshield for Club Car Villager #20, so I installed it during my lunch break.  The old one was beyond repair after almost two summers of UV exposure..... 

......I went to sleep Friday night knowing full well that Saturday would be just as busy with the annual Rich Hamel Golf Tournament teeing off at 9 am, and requiring more than 20 golf carts.  Stay tuned for that story!

Thanks for stopping by!

Warming up.....

 5:34 am - Saturday - August 12th - LPG&RVR - 56° F, humidity 67%, wind 2 mph out of the northwest......forecast is for crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today and a high of 93° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were dining at Icicle Brewing Company in Leavenworth, WA, a Bavarian themed town in eastern Washington State......our table had a force field around it protecting us from the Wuhan Flu virus, so no masks were required.....lol......↴

Thursday, about which I have been remiss in writing, was a busy day as I needed to get all my golf course mowing done in one day since Friday was going to be crazy busy with over 40 golf carts being rented.  As I had done on Wednesday, I reported for work with TLE at 7:40 am.  It was only going to be in the high 80's, plus I wanted to be on hand for TLE in case she needed my assistance with anything involving bending over like vacuuming, filling baskets with golf balls, etc.

I staged 16 golf carts to begin the day as there was a need for at least 14, and there are always walk up customers who arrive without an assigned tee time.  We ended up renting 18 carts that day.  

After a quick round of the course to check sand traps, etc. I pulled out the small Husqvarna riding lawnmower to begin mowing.  By the way, the small Husqvarna is a two bag mower with a 42" deck, but I have detached the tube which blows the mowed grass clippings into the bags mounted on the rear of the mower, so I don't have to keep looking for a place to dump clippings.  Anyway, I began mowing a little after 10 am around the tee boxes on the 10th tee, and by 11:30 am I had made a complete circuit of the course, and was mowing the last of the tee boxes on the 18th hole.  I was back at the Clubhouse in time to mow one of the two strips of grass on either side of the cart path leading to the 1st and 10th tees before stopping to give TLE her lunch break at 12 pm.  I took my one hour break, and by 2 pm was back mowing the second strip of grass, as well as around the putting green.  

By the time I finished there were about 9 golf carts in the cart return area awaiting their daily spa treatment.  As I washed carts more returned, and by 5 pm I had washed, and put away all but 2 of the rented carts.  I practiced putting for a few minutes while TLE finished closing the Clubhouse pro-shop, and we were home by 5:15 pm.

I'll go back to my 6:30 am to 2:30 pm work routine on Friday as it will be a long, busy day, and I'll probably end up working 10 hours.  We are expecting up to 120 golfers on Friday, which means we'll probably send out over 40 golf carts....we have exactly 40 to rent, so some will go out more than once over the course of the day. 

Thanks for stopping by!

That in between time.....

 6:15 am - Thursday - August 10th - LPG&RVR - 52° F, humidity 58%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast........crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Coulee City, WA having lunch at Banks Lake Brew and Bistro having one of the best hamburgers ever.....if you ever find yourself in Coulee City, check this place out......by the way it is not a brewery, but a coffee/bistro place.......↴

You probably noticed that I published my blog post about Tuesday early Wednesday morning, not in the afternoon, or the next day.  Since TLE has some restrictions on her physical activity such as not bending over I decided to go to work at the same time she does, 7:40 am, so I had time to compose the post before going to work.  I've gotten used to going to work at 6:30 am, so changing back was a little disorienting, but I wanted to be available for TLE in case she needed my help, such as bending over to pick up a bucket of golf balls to sell to a customer for the driving range, or help her read something.  Since her old prescription computer glasses don't work for her repaired right eye now, she is kind of in between until she gets the left eye fixed in a couple of weeks.  I'm sure she'll be able to figure out how to read stuff, and that will probably be just about the time she gets the second eye done.....lol.

On Wednesday we rented 12 golf carts....not bad for a Wednesday.  At one time we had groups of players on each of the first 9 holes, so I made a couple of 'marshaling' rounds.  On my initial round of the course I raked a couple of sand traps, but left the others to be weeded first before I rake them.  There have been zero duck/goose leavings for a few weeks now, which is nice.

In order to stay close to the Clubhouse in case TLE needed me I kept busy by doing some spot watering, and hand weeding.  I would get an occasional call from TLE as the morning progressed, but I heard less and less from her as she adapted to her new vision.  By the end of the day any residual blurriness from the surgery had mostly gone, and she was seeing quite well out of that eye at distance.  She was using a magnifying glass, when needed, for close up stuff, and seemed to have figured things out.  I did enter a few things in the cash register for her early on, but she was taking care of that by herself at the end of the day.  I'll go into work at the same time she does for at least one more day.

I actually took my 1 hour lunch break Thursday, and took a nice nap before returning to work to find 9 golf carts awaiting their daily spa treatment, but before I could wash them TLE advised one of our customers had noticed a kayak in the water in the pond along the 17th hole.  We don't allow customers to put kayaks, or boats in our ponds.  They can fish the ponds, but no boating.  Anyway, I drove out there to see what was what and found this kayak floating near the shore.....

.....in order to retrieve the kayak I had to take off my shoes and socks, and wade out to get it, and pull it to shore, which I did in short order.  I had no way to transport the kayak, which, by the way, was not one of ours, so I headed back to the Clubhouse to get a small trailer to haul it back, but before doing that I called Dennis (owner) just in case he knew about it, and he did.  Apparently a local high school girl is training for an upcoming triathlon, and has been given permission to train in that pond with her kayak....I'm glad I called first....lol.

Since I had solved the kayak mystery, I returned to washing the golf carts.  Once I had them washed and put away I headed out for one more round of 'marshaling', and it was time for me to head home (4:40 pm) to get a quick shower before returning to give TLE a ride home in the golf cart.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Her first.....

 6:08 am - Wednesday - August 9th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 55%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were spending a few days on the shores of Banks Lake in Coulee City, WA......↴

We now come to Tuesday, August 8th, and TLE's cataract surgery scheduled at 7:40 am.  We were up by 6 am, at which time I took a shower, then took the elevator to the 1st floor of the hotel to get some coffee, but just for me as TLE was fasting in advance of her surgery.  I've lost track over the past few years of how many times it was me fasting in advance of surgeries....there have been numerous.  For TLE, however, this was her first ever surgery....in her entire life.  She's never even had a broken bone.  The role reversal made me feel a little disoriented.

TLE needed to be at Klamath Eye Center for her surgery 20 minutes  before the surgery, so we timed our departure from the hotel to arrive at the eye center at 7:20 am.  There was the usual pre-surgery paperwork, and consent forms to complete.  They called her name around 7:50 am....a tad late...and she left me.  Once she was gone I headed out to the car to type my daily missive.  I managed to complete it around 8:30 am, and headed back into the waiting room, fully expecting to be there for another hour, but within 15 minutes I heard my name being called....I looked up to see her nurse who advised me she was out of recovery, and ready to go home.....wow!  That was way faster than I expected.  

I had barely parked the car in front of the entry door when TLE emerged being guided by her nurse, who helped her into the car....the time....8:50 am.  We drove back to the Fairfield Inn & Suites, where we headed directly to the dining area to get a late breakfast, and some coffee for both of us.  We found a nice alfresco table with a view of the lake.....

.....the eye patch will stay in place for 24 hours, at which time she should be able to see pretty well out of her repaired eye.  

Check out time was at 12 pm, so we had plenty of time to go back to the room and relax before beginning our drive back to LPG&RVR.  Ironically, my monthly haircut appointment was on the 8th in Alturas, so I had to notify Sheila at Kaleidescope, and reschedule.  The earliest available appointment she had available was not until August 23rd, which was too far away, so I decided to get a haircut at a local Great Clips in Klamath Falls (no Supercuts there).  We checked out of the hotel around 10:30 am, headed directly to the local Great Clips where I was seated and getting a haircut within minutes.  By 11:10 am we were on the road heading back to LPG&RVR.  

As has always been the case so far the drive was uneventful, and we were home by 1:10 pm.  For those of you who might wonder if I have exaggerated the bugs damage to the front of the VW here is a picture of what the new grill looked like at 1:10 pm when we returned home.....

....those deceased bugs are 100% grasshoppers....time to get out the tweezers again....lol!

We had a relaxing afternoon, and I think TLE took at least one nap.  As the sun slipped over the western horizon for another day we were gifted with a nice sunset.....

....thanks for stopping by!

Surgical precision.....

 7:55 am - Tuesday - August 8th - Klamath Falls, OR - 62° F, humidity 64%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were hiking near Glacier National Park.....MacDonald Falls in the background.....↴

Monday was our travel day up to Klamath Falls for TLE's scheduled cataract surgery, but before we jumped in the VW for the 2 hour drive we took our customary weekend out and back walk to Jess Valley Road......

....we were just a few seconds slower than Sunday.  We managed to get an earlier start than Sunday beginning our walk around 6:40 am, and were back before 7:15 pm.  While I typed my blog post about Sunday TLE began packing for our overnight trip.  We wanted to leave around 8:40 am so we could be at Rite Aid by 9 am to pickup a prescription required for TLE's surgery (eye drops), and we did.  We arrived at Rite Aid just after 9 am, and were on our way for the final 90 mile drive to Klamath Falls by 9:30 am.

The drive, as usual, was uneventful, with us arriving at the local Walmart Supercenter around 10:30 am where we picked up a few items, including some more Repel mosquito repellant.  That stuff is 40% Deet, and really works well for me.  From there we headed directly across the street to the local Goodwill to make a clothing donation, and then see if they had anything without which we could not live.  For me the answer was no, but for TLE she found a couple of sport skirts.

Next up was lunch at Nibbley's Café where we have dined previously.  We sat on their patio, and it was such a nice afternoon we chose to sit in direct sunlight, which is not usually our preference....lol.  We both ordered their special of the day......the French Dip.....with a side salad, and two cups of coffee....they have the best coffee!....

....the check in time for our hotel reservation (Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott) was 3 pm, so we ate a leisurely lunch before paying our tab around 1 pm, and heading next to the local UPS Store to drop off an Amazon return, then over to Fred Meyer to refuel the VW.....averaged over 30 mpg again!  Next we spent some time in the store buying a few things TLE likes to get there.  While we were there I called the hotel to see if we could check in at 2 pm, and was advised our room was ready.....cool!

We arrived at the hotel just after 2 pm, checked in, and went directly to the room where we spent the afternoon relaxing, and napping, and watching a FIFA World Cup game between Australia and Denmark.  Australia is co-hosting the World Cup with New Zealand.  Anyway, Australia won 2-0, although the game seemed much closer than that.  England also won their game, but had to go to 'kicks from the mark' to determine the winner.  England won 4-2.  As you most likely know by now, the USA lost their round of 16 match in similar fashion (kicks from the mark) 5-4.  Ironically, the USA missed two penalty kicks during regulation, and should have won 2-0, but lost because of those missed penalty kicks.  It is the earliest exit from the World Cup ever for the USA....time for some retooling.

As I write, I am sitting in the VW in the parking lot of Klamath Eye Center, where TLE is now undergoing her cataract surgery, typing this blog post.  She should be in recovery by 9:40 am.

Thanks for stopping by!