Change is coming.....

 6:17 am - Monday - September 12th - Likely, CA - 61° F, 43% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the west by northwest.....cloudy, and rainy today with a forecast high of 79° F.  Rained most of the night.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Jackson Hole, WY.....↴

It was quite cloudy Sunday morning, and the sun was a little later than usual breaking above the Warner Mountains, and the cloud bank on the eastern horizon.....

Around 6:55 am

.....I only staged the five Club Car Electrics first thing as we only had 4 tee times reserved....our slowest Sunday in months.  After about 9 days of high 90's, low 100's weather the heatwave officially ended Sunday.  The forecast for the next 10+ days is quite favorable if you are one who prefers 70's temperatures such as I......

....notice all those overnight lows in the 30's?  That's what I'm talking about....good sleeping weather.  It also looks like there will not be much need for A/C over that same time frame!

In all I staged 10 golf carts Sunday, and 10 went out.  I took a ride around the golf course to check out the tee boxes I mow once a week.  From this high point near the 16th tee boxes you can see how hazy it was.....smoke from a couple of local fires.....

......the tee boxes needed mowing, so I returned to the Clubhouse to retrieve the John Deere around 10 am to mow the tee boxes at 18, 17, 16, 15 & 3, and returned just before 12 pm to relieve TLE for lunch.

Sunday was to be the last day for quite a while with temps in the 90's, so I'll be going to work at 7:30 am beginning Monday, and getting off work at 4 pm.  It will be nice not to be getting up at 5:30 am anymore, and I may be able to get back to writing my blog every morning....we'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday and Saturday.....

 7:34 am - Saturday - September 10th - Likely, CA - 52° F, 13% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the south.....we've got a little smokey haze on the horizon....no doubt from the wildfire west of us.  The forecast high for today is 95° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Rock Springs, WY at the local Walmart for an overnight stay......↴

Friday:

We went for a third morning walk in as many mornings doing the out and back walk to Jess Valley Road once again.  I didn't run the Strava program this time, but we did make the round trip walk in under 34 minutes, so I'm assuming we averaged around 3.6 mph.

A little later in the morning we drove over to the putting green to practice for the putting contest on Saturday.  I putted pretty well, but TLE hasn't putted for 3 weeks, and was a little rusty.  

Due to some wildfires in the area the skies were a little hazy, so that's as much as we did outside the rest of the day.

Saturday:

We began our day for the fourth consecutive day with another out and back walk to Jess Valley Road.  I did run the Strava program, and we did pretty well......

 

.....the putting contest was held at 3 pm Saturday since we also had the Employee and Member 'Thank You!' dinner at 5 pm.  There were 30 entrants in the putting contest, and it was all single elimination.  I putted as well as I have in weeks, and got to the semi-final (4th) round before I faltered....one win away from the final....doh!

.....we had a subdued sunset around 7:05 pm.....it wasn't long ago the sun was setting at 8:05 pm.  Saturday was also the second week of NCAA college football, and I was able to watch much of the USC v. Stanford game, which USC won handily 41-28.....14 of Stanford's 28 points were scored in the last 10 minutes, so it wasn't really as close as the score might indicate.

We are now less than one month from our finish date (October 9th)....how can that be?

Thanks for stopping by!

Starlink, day 2......

 8:44 am - Friday - September 9th - Likely, CA - 63° F, 13% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date  in 1949 TLE was born.....she is celebrating the 24th anniversary of her 49th birthday.....↴

....that amazing smile still melts my heart!

Once again, we began our day taking the 2 mile round trip walk out to Jess Valley Road, and back....

....it was a little cooler than Wednesday, and there were no mosquitoes.  We made the round trip walk in 34 minutes averaging 3.6 mph.....about 2/10ths of a mph faster than our prior efforts.....

.....I'm still pinching myself to be sure this is not a dream.....unlimited data...unlimited internet 24/7, and it doesn't involve my cell phone!  Thursday was day 2 of our Starlink adventure, and we are trying to figure out how, or if DirecTV fits into our future, all the while coming ever closer to cutting the proverbial 'cord'.  We signed up for YouTube TV yesterday for free for a month to see how we like it.  They have pretty much all the channels in which we have an interest, and it is just $59/month, plus we have unlimited 'DVR' service.....

.....I don't know much about speed tests, but 133 Mbps seems pretty good....it's actually been closer to 180 Mbps at times.  At any rate, for our purposes, it is lightning fast....way faster than even Verizon, which works pretty well here!

I spent a lot of time catching up on the dozen, or so YouTube channels I follow, and getting used to YouTube TV.  It was just one of those lazy days spent inside out of the heat, which, by the way, is beginning to dissipate as we slide back down to 70's temperatures, which are more typical here in Modoc County this time of year.  

When we went shopping Wednesday TLE bought 3 top sirloin steaks which were on sale at Holiday Market for $6.99 due to their age, so around 5:15 pm I turned on the Sea-B-Que to grill one of them for dinner.  I pulled them off the grill when they hit 125°, and they came out a perfect medium rare.....

....TLE added a baked potato, along with sautéed onions, and mushrooms to complete the dish, and we chased it with a glass of Pino Noir.....a nice way to end a lazy day!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Dishy......

 8:23 am - Thursday - September8th - Likely, CA - 68° F, 23% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 92° F....at last....the heatwave is ending, and the temps are coming down!  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were walking the South Cape Trail at Cape Blanco, OR......↴

We have gotten away from walking for numerous reasons, but mostly laziness.  We say it is because of the heat, or it is too windy....blah, blah, blah.  Anyway, we resolved to begin walking again on our days off, at least, so first thing Wednesday we headed out to Jess Valley Road again.  It is a nice walk, and I never, ever get tired of the view.....

....as I have related previously, the walk out and back is just around 2.03 miles in total.  A perfect distance for us.  The forecast high temp for Wednesday was 98° F (it got there), so we were out walking by 7:30 am, and back just after 8 am.  It takes around 35 minutes to walk the two miles.

We changed clothes quickly and headed into Alturas to do our weekly shopping.  Usually we would have waited until our fourth off day to do our shopping, but I had scheduled a haircut at Kaleidoscope for 9:30 am.  We arrived at Sheila's shop just at 9:30 am, and while I got my ears lowered TLE made a Rite Aid run.  She returned just as I was getting out of the chair.  From there we headed over to Holiday Market to buy mostly produce....this is one of the things I love about being nomads!  Since we have limited refrigerator, and pantry space we must shop more often, and as a result always have fresh produce and meat.  We were home before 12 pm.

As you know from reading my four work days compilation, we received our Starlink package late Tuesday afternoon, and I had decided to 'install' it Wednesday after we returned from shopping.  By this time it was 96° F, and I knew I was in for some heavy perspiration.  Saying I was going to 'install' it is really an overstatement as the hardest part of the installation was running the 65' cable into the coach through the electrical bay, and up in to my hanging closet by my side of the bed (driver side).  That took about an hour.  Once that was done all I had to do was plug the 'dishy' cable into the router, and then the power cord into the router.  Once the router had power we had internet within 10 minutes.  How much easier does it get?

The router

The 'dishy'

The simplicity of the setup, and installation is pure genius....anyone can do it!  I joined a couple of the Starlink Facebook groups a few months ago, and virtually every post I've read over the intervening time has raved about how easy the setup was.  The problematic ones are few, and far in between.  I ordered our Starlink package online on September 1st, and had it in my possession by September 6th, and there was the Labor Day weekend in between....amazing.  Say what you will about Elon Musk, but what he has accomplished in somewhat of a short timeline with Starlink has revolutionized the mobile internet issues all of us nomads face on a daily basis.  All you need is a view of the northern sky.    

Once the 'installation' was complete I put away my tools, and settled in to stream some TV programming.  Now that we have Starlink we will have to begin to make some hard choices.  I've had DirecTV since 2004, and my Winegard Traveler satellite dish is only 3 years old....I paid over $1,000 for that high definition, automatic dish, and putting it, figuratively, on the shelf kind of bugs me, but life marches on, right?  Right now my monthly bill for DirecTV is $149.  Starlink with the RV endorsement only costs me $135/month (without the RV endorsement it is $110/month).  Additionally, now that we have Starlink I will not need the U.S. Celluar phone I've been paying for since we were in Southwest Harbor with no Verizon service back in the summer of 2018.  I pay almost $80/month for that phone.  By cancelling DirecTV, and U.S. Cellular I'll save close to $230/month....that is significant.  I'm already paying for several streaming services, and have access to several others via friends, and families, for free.

Eventually I will install the 'dishy' in a more permanent fashion, but for now it can sit on the ground where there is NO foot traffic, or danger of it being run over, and stepped upon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Workdays summary....

4:41 pm - Wednesday - September 7th - Likely, CA - 95° F, 34% humidity, wind 18 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today and hot!  Forecast high of 97° F has come and gone.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting Flaming Gorge, UT......↴ 

Since I posted about Friday our four work days have passed, and we are now off work for the next four days.  So what happened on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?

Saturday:

It was my first of four work days on the Labor Day weekend.  The park was full, and we had enough people signed up for tee times that we would need 19 golf carts initially, so I staged 20 to begin the day.  There were no carts to wash first thing, so around 9:30 am I headed out on the John Deer riding lawnmower to mow the tee boxes I mow every week....18, 17, 16, 15 and 3.  I was back a little after 11:30 am to stage an additional 5 golf carts.  I relieved TLE for her lunch break, and returned from mine around 1:30 pm to find 10 golf carts already returned, and ready to be washed and put away.  By 3 pm I had washed 15 carts, with 6 still outstanding.....  

Sunrise around 6:40 am

.....I was back at the Clubhouse just before 4 pm for the weekly putting contest.  In my first round I was tied with my opponent, DeWayne, and won the round on the 5th and final hole.  MyWh second match was against the owner of LPG&RVR, Dennis Tate.  After 4 holes I was up 1 with one hole to play, and win.  Unfortunately, I missed an easy 3 foot putt and was tied with Dennis.  When we are tied after 5 holes we go back to the first hole and make one putt and the one closest to the hole after one putt wins.  I put my putt within 6 inches of the hole, and thought I had won, but then Dennis sank his 21 foot putt to win the match....doh!  You gotta make those short putts.  We were playing double elimination, so my next match was against Mike, and we were tied going to the second hole when I missed another short putt, then repeated the fiasco on the 3rd hole.....as we entered the 4th hole I had to win the next two holes to tie, and go to a one hole playoff, but Mike putt his first putt close to the hole, as did I, meaning we tied, giving him the match win with one hole to play.  All that being said, I putted well for the first 9 holes, and fell apart after that, but I still had fun, and that is what it is all about.

Sunday:

Sunday was another very busy golf day, and by noon time we had rented 19 golf carts, and that was it for the day.  It was close to 98° F by that time, and people tend to lose interest in playing when it is that hot.  I was able to get all the rented carts washed and put away by 3 pm, and headed for home.

Monday:

Although Monday was Labor Day, it was our least busy day in 4 days.  We rented just 9 golf carts, and watched the RV park empty as people headed back to their workaday lives once again.  After staging 10 golf carts I headed out to rake the four sand traps located at holes 4, 12, 15 and 18.  Monday was also the designated day to clear the driving range of golf balls so it might be mowed.  In all I collected 3 five gallon cans of balls, and had them all cleaned before 12 pm.  I was off by 3 pm, and recovering from the 99° F day's high in the air conditioned confines of the Newell by 3:05 pm.

Tuesday:

You might recall that just late last week I ordered my Starlink package, and was advised late Thursday that it had been shipped via FedEx that very day, and would arrive here at LPG&RVR by Tuesday.  Knowing FedEx had the package caused me to have concern that it would really arrive Tuesday, so I checked the FedEx tracking several times, and was assured the package was out for delivery....

Sunrise Tuesday around 6:40 am

....Tuesday was the least busy day of the four work days this week, and the forecast high for the day was 101° F.  I made several rounds of the golf course marshalling, and and in spite of only renting 8 golf carts managed to stay busy, and had all the rented carts washed and put away by 3 pm.

TLE was home a little after 5 pm, and thus began our 4 day weekend.  The FedEx guy had still not arrived, so I opened the front curtains to be sure we would see the truck if, and when it came into the park.  Within 20 minutes I saw the truck, and went outside to see if he had our package.....

.....and he did!  Had I known how easy it would be to install it I would have done it right then, but I decided to wait until Wednesday morning to do it.  I can't believe it got here on time, and I guess I owe FedEx a big thank you....this time....lol!

Stand by for the next installment and the installation of our new Starlink 'Dishy'....thanks for stopping by!

September 1st and 2nd......September already....WOW!

4:27 pm - Friday - September 2nd - Likely, CA - 95° F, 21% humidity, wind 21 mph out of the south by southwest.......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 96° F, but it actually got up to 98° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls, ID.....↴

Thursday - September 1st - Likely, CA:

Wow....we are now into September with a little over a month to go on our contract before we head south for the winter.  We've now been here at LPG&RVR for 5 months.....our time here has flown by!

I began to write this post about Thursday last Friday, but never finished it, so I will attempt to do that now (September 6th).  TLE and I began Thursday with a two mile walk out to Jess Valley Road and back (2 miles round trip).  We haven't done that walk before, and it was a nice change of pace.  We did the two miles in about 35 minutes averaging 3.4 mph.

I haven't hit a golf ball for about 10 days, mainly because my lower back had been stiff, and we were in Tahoe City for four of those days, so I decided to head down to the driving range early Thursday afternoon to hit a few.  My back had been a little stiff, and, frankly, out of the bucket of balls I hit there were maybe....maybe 5 that were good....the rest were bad.  I'm not an excuse maker, but with a stiff back (I tried to stretch, but it just wouldn't loosen up) I wasn't able to rotate very far, and it threw off all my timing.  I was inclined to hit another bucket to work my way out of it, but better sense ensued.  I decided to work on my short game, and I'm glad I did.  There was a lot to celebrate there.  I hit shot after shot onto the green, and many were near the hole at which I was aiming.  After I returned home TLE applied some ICY/HOT to my lower back, and I took some Tylenol.

Friday - September 2nd - Likely, CA:

We began Friday, just as we had Thursday, with a 2 mile round trip walk out to Jess Valley Road and back bettering our time by about 14 seconds, and once again averaging 3.4 mph....

....it had been 8 days since we last shopped, so after our walk we changed clothes and drove into Alturas stopping at Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market, and spending a lot of money, which did not include any alcohol.  We were home a little after noon time, and since it was 'Bacon Friday' (we have bacon in some form every Friday) TLE made me a BLT for my first meal of the day.

It was another warm day with the temp hitting 93° F.  We've got about 8 days of a heatwave beginning Saturday with the hottest day being next Tuesday when it will hit 101° F, allegedly.  Since it was too hot to do anything outside we watched the entire Tottenham vs. West Ham soccer match with the final score being 1-1 at 'Full Time'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another project.....

 12:09 pm - Friday - September 2nd - Likely, CA - 95° F, 11% humidity, wind 19 mph out of the south by southwest.....forecast high for today is 97° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were acting as docents at the Cape Blanco Lighthouse near Port Orford, OR......↴

When last I wrote it was about Tuesday, and now two more days have passed, so it is time for me to get caught up once again.

Wednesday I began to tackle the task of installing our new Renogy 3,000 watt inverter.  Our current inverter, a Heart Interface 2,000 watt inverter, is old technology, and is about 38 years old.  It is not a 'pure sine wave' inverter, and in order to use our induction burner, and Breville oven while boondocking, and using the inverter, we need a pure sine wave inverter.  This is the Heart inverter I am removing.....

.....and here is a picture of the new Renogy 3,000 watt inverter......

....the old Heart Interface must weight about 70 lbs!  The new Renogy one weighs about 10 lbs!  Anyway, it took me about 90 minutes to remove the old Heart Interface, and install the new Renogy 3,000, but when I turned it on a red light lit up (fault), and then there was a single beep then it shut down after 3 seconds.  After numerous attempts to troubleshoot the problem I called Renogy (by the way, they are located in our old stomping grounds....Ontario, CA).  Within 10 minutes it was determined that there must be an internal short inside the new unit, so I contacted Amazon to begin the return, and replacement process.....bummer!  I had to then remove the Renogy inverter, then box it up so UPS can pick it up Friday.  The return process with Amazon was painless, and very easy.  Now I'll have to order another one, and install it next week.

In addition to that news, I also ordered Starlink (Elon Musk's satellite based internet service).  TLE and I have been discussing doing this most of the summer, and after deciding it would be better to have our own internet source not based on our cell phones, and the fact we can get rid of DirecTV, and the extra cell phone service we've had (U.S. Cellular) since August of 2018 saving us around $220/month.  With the RV endorsement Starlink will cost us $135/month....nice!  We will then stream all of our TV via Starlink.  We should have our Starlink kit by Tuesday, September 6th.  By the way, Starlink has a great Android app, and it is supper intuitive, plus the ordering process is very easy.  We ordered on Wednesday, and it was shipped via FedEx Friday morning (today).

Even before we decided to go to Tahoe City a week early to celebrate our anniversary, we had decided to do our local dinner celebration at a place called California Pines Lodge, about 10 miles west of Alturas.  The reason we went on Wednesday was because they are not open on Mondays (our actual anniversary) and Tuesdays. I made a 6 pm reservation over the phone Tuesday, and we left the Newell around 5:30 pm Wednesday to make the 35 minute drive.

California Pines is a large subdivision outside of Alturas, and boasts its own hotel, lodge, restaurant, and bar next to a man made lake......

....we had received mixed reviews about this restaurant, but decided to give it a try.  I ordered their 10 oz Filet Mignon, and TLE their Chicken Picata.  Both were priced quite reasonably (my filet was just $26).  We paired a Robert Mondavi Pino Noir with our entrees, and for $18 it was very good......

....was my filet good?  Yup, it was.....not the best I have ever had, but for the price, very good.  TLE says I can grill a better one.....thank you TLE!  TLE on the other hand was not happy with her Picata....she said the chicken was a little dry, and that it, and the sauce needed more seasoning....oh well...a split decision....lol!  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the view, and the very good service, as well as the always good conversation.  We were home before 8 pm with very full tummies!

Thanks for stopping by!