Homebound......

7:58 am - Thursday - December 17th - Seal Rock, OR - 48° F, 82% humidity, wind 14 mph out of the west by southwest.....heavy cloud cover, rain, today with a forecast high of 50° F.  On this date in 2018 we had two days left at our Amazon gig....as you can see we were patiently crossing off the days until our release........↴

I reported for work at 8:30 am Wednesday to help Greg draw some effluent samples from our septic system to be taken into town to be tested.  This is a bi-annual requirement.  Usually Greg handles this all by himself, but he had developed an infection in his left foot the day before, which required a visit to the local emergency room.  As a result he was hobbled a bit by pain, and in order to stand, or get around he required the use of a crutch, which prevented him from personally drawing the samples out of the various septic bunkers in the WDS yard.  In all I drew 10 samples for testing in about 60 minutes.  By 9:30 am it had begun to rain once again, abruptly ending my day of toil in the fields of SRRVC.  Before I put away the golf cart I drove up to our site to retrieve our accumulating trash from the trailer, and drove it down to the nearest dumpster.

After putting away the golf cart I was home about 9:50 am, and within a few minutes TLE was off to her two hours shift.  I wore my new rain jacket to work, and it worked well keeping me quite dry.  Over the next two hours it continued raining, and was still raining, quite hard, when TLE arrived home from work shortly after 12 pm.

Prior to the Wuhan flu we would often go out to eat, or to see a movie on a rainy day, but most local restaurants are closed until after New Years due to the extreme COVID restrictions enacted by the Governor of Oregon, and those who are open require advance reservations as they are only allowed to use 25% of their seating capacity, plus we have not found a movie theater open for business in 9 months.  All that in a county with just 17 deaths,  and 780 cases in 10 months..... why? On the bright side our entertainment budget is brimming with unspent funds, but the lack of any place to go to spend time away from home kind of keeps us homebound on rainy days.  So far we are coping just fine, but after looking at the extended 15 day forecast it appears we will have no interruption in rain until after the New Year.  We may need to schedule another long weekend somewhere on the Oregon Coast in the very near future.

You may recall I wrote about our 'leveling' (click here to read about that) issues back on November 27th, which required me to move the coach forward a few feet in order to move gravel around the front and rear wheels (lower the front wheels, and raise the rear wheels) to make it easier to keep the coach level for more than a few days.  I am happy to report that since.  It has been 20 days since that adjustment, and we have not had to relevel the coach once during that time.

As I write it is raining again, and it appears I will be called off work once again....we'll see....thanks for stopping by!

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Moving on......

 6:44 am - Wednesday - December 16th - Seal Rock, OR - 46° F,93% humidity, wind - CALM.....overcast, cool today with a forecast high of 52° F, and rain.  On this date in 2011 we were just 9 days from celebrating our first Christmas of our full time life in the Newell.....Rancho Jurupa Regional Park, December 16, 2011.....in just 6 weeks we would begin our year round travels.....↴

Predictably I was called off work via text message from Terry around 9 am.....it was raining 'cats and dogs', and the wind was blowing in the mid 20's.  I immediately slipped into 'day off' mode, with an English Premier match playing on the TV in the background, and a good book in my hands I settled into my recliner.  Nice to be in the warm, dry confines of the Newell on a very cold, blustery, rainy day.

There was no off day for the office staff, so TLE headed down to the office around 11 am for her 1 hour shift around 11 am, and returned about 12:10 pm.  Originally, prior to the cancellation of our holiday plans, we would have been up at 5:30 am to be online in time to get our seats assigned for our various flights, and then doing some more packing, but instead we were sitting in the quiet confines of the Newell feeling a little bittersweet about the abrupt change in our plans.

I am happy, as always, to report that TLE and I continue to be asymptomatic to the Wuhan flu, and Lincoln County, where we reside for the immediate future, continues to report just 16 deaths, and 780 confirmed cases from COVID in over 10 months.  Lincoln County has just a small fraction of all the deaths and cases in Oregon.  Many other counties report tens of thousands of cases, and hundreds of deaths.  Once again, I say, we picked a good place to ride out the winter.  Nationwide over 98% of people who have contracted the Wuhan flu have recovered.  While it is extremely deadily for a small percentage of our population, 98-99% are not at risk of dying.  All that being said, every death from any cause is tragic for those left behind.

The wind continued to blow until late afternoon when it began to abate, and the rain came and went all day.  We received notifiction that our new Dometic absorption fridge has been shipped and will arrive here in Seal Rock on December 23rd.  We have turned our defunct Dometic into an 'icebox' by buying blocks of ice, which we put in Rubbermaid dish pans to contain the melting ice.  With a block of ice in the former 'freezer' we can keep the temp in the low 40's, and in the former 'fridge' porton below 50.  Things which need cooler temps are in the dorm fridge in the trailer, and frozen items are in our basement Norcold refer, which is working well in its new roll as a freezer.  At any rate, we are coping quite well while we await the delivery of our new fridge.

Nothing more to report other than we spent the evening binge watching another 4 episodes of season 5....we're up to episode 20 out of 23.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

And the Jello jiggled.....

 7:45 am - Tuesday - December 15th - Seal Rock, OR - 46° F, 93% humidity, wind 21 mph out of the south......heavy cloud cover, wind, rain today with a forecast high of 51° F.  On this date in 2011 I posted the following unattributed quote: "Laziness is the art of resting before you get tired".....I guess that epitimizes the fulltime lifestye, no?

I wrote about 'packing' yesterday, but today I will write about UNpacking.  Around 8:30 am we received a text messsage from our oldest daughter, Meredith, advising that many of the friends with whom our kids spend a lot of time have recently tested positive for the Wuhan flu, and as a result our kids are self isolating for the next couple of weeks.  Apparently there has been a recent explosion of COVID cases in SoCal in general.  She expressed concern for our health, and traveling in an airplane to spend time with our kids who have all been exposed, and suggested we not fly south on Wednesday as a precaution.

Admittedly, TLE and I have been discussing this concern between the two of us for a few days now, but were still committed to making the trip.  This new information kind of solidified a feeling we have had, and as a result we decided NOT to make the trip.  Within an hour, or so our other kids began chimming in suggesting we not come south for Christmas.

By the time we had made our decision it was time for me to report for work.  Terry and I spent all of my two hour shift trimming more hedges at sites #10 & 18.  Around 11:15 am it began to rain lightly, so we rushed to finish what we were doing.  By the time I arrived home just after 12 pm my coat was beginning to get wet, but I was still warm and dry underneath.

I spent the afternoon cancelling our flights, a hotel room near my cardiologist where we were going to spend the evening Thursday, and our rental car.  Then I called my cardiologist's office to change my in person appointment to an audio/visual one.  They agreed with my decision not to travel, and sent me a link to Microsoft Teams (like Zoom) for my 3 pm appointment on Thursday.  Next up was for me to unpack my suitcase, return the clothes to their proper places in my closet, and return the suitcase to the trailer.  It is such a nice suitcase, and I was really looking forward to using it, but such is life.....you make plans, and then life happens.

After finishing the cancellation of all our Christmas plans I spent time reflecting back on how we have been living our lives since our government began their "Six weeks to slow the spread" program in March.  We spent the first two months (March and April) at the very rural property of our good friends Tom and Darlene, the formed a travel plan beginnin in early May that would keep us in rural America 95% of the time (Northern Arizona, Southwestern Utah, Western Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Northern Idaho, Eastern Washington, Whidbey Island, the Olympic Peninsula) coming to a stop in very rural Seal Rock, OR.  During the past 9 months we rarely have been in any location with more than 20 deaths from the Wuhan flu.  Never have we felt unsafe during that time.

You will recall I often commented during our travels this summer that the danger from COVID was in densley populated areas of our country, not in rural America, and that theory has been born out over and over again.  Being mobile such as we are has enabled us to live in areas where life is pretty much going on 'as usual' with the exception mask wearing in grocery, and retail establishments.  We don't wear masks while walking around town, on the beach, hiking, in our car, or in our RV site.  The only time we wear masks for long durations is while at work within the park, otherwise only inside public buildings for minutes at a time.  We are not 'locked down' in our homes, or wondering from where our next meal will come.  There is much more I could say about how half the population no longer trusts government, because of the totalitarian, heavy handed way government in general has handeled this pandemic, but I would just be spitting into the proverbial wind, so I will leave that for another day.  There are consequences to government overreach, and we are seeing that born out increasingly day by day.

After checking the local weather forecast showing high winds overnight we opted to stow our patio awning for the first time in 2, or 3 weeks just as the sun was setting.  It rained on and off most othe afternoon, but stopped early evening.  More rain is forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.....time to get out my snorkel....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

Packing day......

 7:41 am - Monday - December 14th - Seal Rock, OR - 41° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM....heavy cloud cover with a forecast of rain, and a high of 50° F.  On this date in 2014 Nick proposed to our daughter, Kate.......↴

The rain forecast for Sunday in the morning did not materialize, so I was able to work a normal 2 hour shift.  Sunday's are always kind of laid back, and this Sunday was no exception.  Normally we would see a flood of RV's departing, but the park is virtually empty with about 4 customers, and I think only one of them was leaving.  Shortly after Terry dropped me off at the Newell the rain arrived, and it rained well into the afternoon.

Now that we are just a few days from driving into Portland to catch a flight home for Christmas we have begun preliminary packing to see how everything will fit in our new suitcases.......

.....about a month ago we purchased two of these new SwissTech suitcases.  We've been getting by with a very old one for the last few years, as we have limited storage space for something we use very rarely, but the wheels on the old one were getting out of round, and the zippers were failing, so we pulled the trigger.  Where we're going to put them when we are traveling in the Newell I have not idea, but we'll figure it out.  After my initial dryrun it seems there will be plent of room for what I want to take.

Due to the rain I did not ride my bike, but I may have a chance to ride again on Monday.  There really is not much else to report about Sunday, so I bid you all adieu until tomorrow.....thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

An unexpectantly nice day.........

 7:57 am - Sunday - December 13th - Seal Rock, OR - 50° F, 88% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the south.....heavy cloud cover with rain most of the day forecast and a high of 51° F.  On this date in 2013 I had reached the summit of Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside, CA on my Cannondale Bad Boy once again......↴

Frankly, we were expecting rain Saturday morning, afternoon and evening, but the guessers got it wrong.  We actually had sunshine, and no rain until early evening.  After seeing we had a nice day with sun streaming in the windows we thought we might visit a few beaches we hadn't seen between Seal Rock and Newport in the afternoon when it 'warmed up'.  Well it never warmed up, in fact it seemed to get colder with windy conditions, so instead I decided to take a 7 mile ride on my Cannondale Bad Boy.  

Before it came to that, though, there were a few English Premier games, and some interesting NCAA football games to watch.  Finally, around 1:30 pm I changed into my riding clothes and headed south on US-101 to my new favorite turn around place at Bay Mart (mini market), and back.  There was a headwind on this day, but with every headwind on an 'out and back' ride you get a tailwind, so it all evens out.  I managed to complete the ride in 29 minutes and 59 seconds, a new record for me.  My average speed was 14.4 mph, and according to my Garmin cyclo computer 500 calories were consumed....

.....that's my third such ride in 5 days, and I'm beginning to think I can continue to repeat this ride 3-4 times per week as long as the weather cooperates. 

The NCAA football nightcap beginning at 4:30 pm featured USC vs. UCLA in the Rose Bowl.  I love this annual intra city rivalry, and this year's edition was no disappointment.  The score seesawed back in forth the entire game with USC finally coming out on top 42-37 as a final 'Hail Mary' pass by UCLA fell to the ground, and timed expired.  My father went to USC, so it's only natural that I would root for his alma mater.

I did manage to deploy all of the window awnings early enough in the day to give the sun a chance to dry them out after so much rain the past few days, and then put them up as the sun slipped towards the western horizon once again.  I also managed to wipe down the VW while the sun was shinning, and make her look pretty for a short time.

I have no funny stories to share this day about the misadventures of Clarke and TLE, but based on the comments I received I think the door story was well received.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

Real Saturday.....real rain......

 8:39 am - Real Saturday - December 12th - Seal Rock, OR - 39° F, 93% humidity, wind 14 mph out  east.....mostly sunny right now, and through the afternoon with a forecast high of 49° F.  On this date in 2018 we were in Campbellsville, KY working at Amazon.  After work we headed to Brothers BBQ for dinner.....some of the best St. Louis Spare Ribs ever......↴

Just as the weather guessers predicted, we awoke to a steady rainfall Friday morning.  In fact, it had rained all night.  And again, just as predicted, the rain continued unabated all day long.  We watched  a couple of recorded UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) soccer matches, then read for a while.  Around 2 pm we drove into Waldport in the rain to get some ice for our IGLOO ice chest, and some eggs.  We found out there is a new mini mart right here in Seal Rock (about 1/8th of a mile away) which just opened Friday, but they do not have their ice machine in operation yet.  It will be nice for the future when we just need a couple of things.  We went over and checked it out on our way into Waldport. We spent late afternoon, and into the night binge watching season 5 of 'Arrow'...I think we watched about 6 episodes before heading off to dreamland.  Just another rainy December day on the Oregon Coast.

As I write about Friday on Saturday morning the sun is streaming in the front window for the first time in a few days.  It's amazing how a little sunshine will lift your spirits, and change your outlook.  Instead of hunkering down today as we had thought would be our lot (rain was forecast all day), we are going to head out later this morning to walk on a few new beaches between here and Newport.  Sunday we will begin packing for our 10 day trip to SoCal to see our kids, grandkids and great grandkids for Christmas, and we will have plenty of time for that as it appears I will not be working Sunday based on the weather forecast....it will start raining again this evening, and rain all day Sunday.  On Wednesday we will make the 2.5 hour drive into Portland to catch our flight to SoCal.

All that being said, life continues to be good.  We love where we are living, and are now thinking about remaining here through the summer with a one month break in April to attend a wedding in SoCal, visit our friends Tom and Darlene in Arizona to pick up TLE's new to us Ekhornes chair (see picture below) they picked up for her at a local flea market, get our alternator rebuilt, and frankly, just run the Newell for a few thousand miles....

Tom and Darlene paid $30 for this Ekhornes recliner....they cost, used, between $300 and $700....she had wanted one of these for a long time.  I don't think the seller knew what he had....

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!

The perfect storm.....

 8:44 am - Friday - December 11th - Seal Rock, OR - 47° F, 93% humidity, wind - CALM.....heavy cloud cover, raining.....rained all night, and will rain the rest of the day with a forecast high of 47° F.  On this date in 2010 we were on a long weekend at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside, CA....a little more than 13 months before we went full time in the Newell.  We still owned the 2002 T-Bird......↴

I reported for work at 10 am unsure as to how long 'work' would be viable as the sky was threatening to unload a bucket load of moisture any minute.  I retrieved the golf cart from the shed, and picked up Blake at the Landscape Shed.  From there we headed over to sites 9, 10, 11 and 12 to see how many picnic tables we could scrape before the predicted precipitation arrived.  I was on my second table, and so was Blake at 10:45 am when we felt the first rain drops.  By 11 am we had finished four tables between us, and the rain was falling pretty steadily so we packed it in, and returned our tools to the Landscape Shed.  I dropped off Blake at his 5th wheel and headed home to change into some dry clothes and get warm again.  Oh well, I almost worked ten straight 2 hour shifts without rain.

After spending parts of two days troubleshooting our Dometic fridge's non-working status we have come to the conclusion it is either the cooling unit, or the heating elements.  The circuit board appears to be functioning correctly.  To replace the cooling unit would cost anywhere from $745 for a rebuilt one, or close to $900 for a new one.  Taking into consideration the age of the Dometic (13-15 years) we made the decision to purchase a new one through Camping World.  With our Good Sam 10% discount, and no sales tax in Oregon (the sales tax in California would have been another $100) it will cost us just over $1,100 for a new Dometic, and another $75 for shipping.  

Not only has the year 2020 been a year scarred by the Wuhan flu fiasco, but it has been a year of reckoning for our appliances.....it's like the perfect storm.  So far, in last 13 months, we have replaced our water heater, our Norcold basement fridge, our toilet, rebuilt the black tank dump valves, replaced our bedroom TV, our satellite dish, our Splendide washer/dryer, and now our Dometic refrigerator.  And to top off that our Detroit Diesel gear driven alternator quit working on our drive from Coupeville, WA to Seal Rock, OR, and will have to be rebuilt in the near future.  I keep telling myself "It's only money....".

TLE was home a little before 12 pm.  Shortly after she arrived home we went outside to move the dorm fridge into the trailer to keep it from getting wet.  It appears we will have rain on and off for the next 10-14 days.  But, and there is always a 'but', before we could do that TLE informed me the entry door would not close.  I thought "How can that be?", but she was right....it would not shut.  It appeared that there was something wrong with the latching mechanism.  I was able to manually make it work, but when I would go to shut the door it would not engage.  I finally removed the trim piece around the door handle to see if there was anything obvious with the mechanism that was keeping it from working.  Not only was there nothing obvious, it appeared to be in perfect working order....WTH!  I tried spraying lubricant into the locking mechanism, but still the door would not shut.  Finally I unscrewed the entire locking mechanism to move it out of the way so we could at least close the door while I worked on the locking mechanisim....mind you, it is raining the entire time, the wind is blowing the entire time (about 30 minutes at this point), and it's now getting cold inside the Newell.....  

The latch when the door is closed....the latching mechanism is wrapped around the strike post holding the door closed

The latch when the door is open....when closing the door the strike post hits that mechanism, and is collapses to allow the post to engage the latch, and shut

....so, I removed the locking mechanism and went to close the door.....it still would not shut....well, that is just impossible.....unless (as I shortly discovered) the lower dead bolt had deployed way back when TLE opened the door (now 40 minutes later), and it was the deployed dead bolt that was preventing the door from closing the entire time.....DOH!.....

The real culprit

.....well, that was 45 minutes of my life I will never get back......LOL!  Needless to say TLE and I had a good laugh......we both completely missed the fact that the dead bolt was deployed.  Sometimes being too focused is not a good thing.

The rain continued unabated all afternoon, and into the evening, and it was still coming down when we went to bed.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which over the course of a year adds up to enough to by a tank of diesel for which we thank you very much!