RIP....Vin Scully....

 7:52 am - Monday - August 8th - Likely, CA - 71° F, 38% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east....mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 95° F. On this date in 2013 we were dry camping in the parking lot of Flathead Lake Winery near Kalispell, MT courtesy of Harvest Hosts.....↴

Still had the 2002 T-Bird then

After 3 days of posting blogs on time I have regressed to my procrastinating ways, and am now back in 'catch up' mode.  Let's see, I think I need to write about Saturday first, so here goes.

Saturday would mark TLE's third straight week of participating in the weekly putting contest, and she is beginning to get serious about improving now that she has overcome her shyness about putting in front of an audience.  We spent at least two hours at the putting green  Saturday morning, and the results for TLE were very encouraging, but I get ahead of myself.  

Saturday was also the first of three days with temps in the mid 90's, and consequently, we did not do much outdoors after we returned from our putting foray.  English Premier Soccer has returned for another 8 months, and our favorite team, Tottenham Hot Spurs, was playing Southampton, but it was not televised due to the Women's AIG Open (the female equivalent of The Open), which was being played at Muirfield this year.  Anyway, we do have 'Peacock' streaming service, and were able to watch it upon our return from the putting green.  Tottenham was really playing well the last 1/3 of the last season, and managed to finish in the top 4 by the end of the season, so we were expecting great things this season, and we were not disappointed.  Tottenham easily topped Southampton 4-1.

On another sports front, our L.A. Dodgers, at 75-33, have the best record in the Major League, which makes me happy.  On a sad note, Vin Scully, who called Dodger games on the radio for 67 years (most of my life) passed away this past week.  No one could call a game, or a homerun like Vin Scully, and my most memorable moment in time was the first game of the 1988 World Series as Kirk Gibson came to the plate with 2 outs in the 9th, a man (Mike Davis) on second, and the Dodger trailing the Oakland A's 4-3.  Kirk Gibson didn't start the game as he had a pulled hamstring, and a swollen knee....he could hardly walk, let alone run.....it was a supreme roll of the dice by Tommy Lasorda (manager then).  Here is the call....

.....I still get goose bumps when I watch this video.  My son, Chris (15 at the time I think), were watching the game at the time....all four of our other kids were asleep in bed.  When Kirk Gibson hit his iconic homerun we both started screaming at the top of our lungs, causing all four younger children to wake up, with a couple of them crying....lol.  I remember attending games at Dodger Stadium (we lived in Pasadena at the time, and were only 20 minutes from Dodger Stadium), and hearing Vin Scully's voice echoing throughout the stadium over thousands of transistor radios.....people were at the game watching it live, but wanted to hear Vin Scully's commentary....that is how good he was.  And, alas, another era in my life comes to an end.....Vin Scully....please rest in peace, and know your beloved Dodgers are fine, and doing well.

Around 3:45 pm we headed over to the Clubhouse for the weekly putting contest held at 4 pm.  All of my practice did not help me that much as I was eliminated in the third round.  TLE did not make it out of the 2nd round, but she was tied 2-2 going to the 5th hole in the first round before losing, and tied 2-2 in the loser bracket in her second round before losing......she really putted quite well, and I am so proud of her for her persistence.  By the way, she is using a 100 year old putter (one of the two hickory shaft putters my son shipped to us), and loves it.  Of course, it is a conversation piece each week, and she loves talking about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

When Friday is really Friday......

5:47 pm - Saturday - August 6th - Likely, CA - 88° F, 25% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE were working the 'close' shift at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone NP...the lady between TLE and I was our close shift manager, Kristin Dodge, who became a good friend......↴

So this Friday was really our 'Friday'.  I began my workday at 6:30 am once again, and by 7:30 am I had the 5 Club Car electrics staged, along with 5 Yamaha gassers, and had washed the 4 carts left over from Thursday.  From there I spent time pruning 'suckers' from some of the trees along the hillside across from the employee sites (suckers are branches that grow out of the base of the tree, and are not good for the health of the tree).  Then I spent time weeding around more of the electrical pedestals in the water electric row. 

We don't do any mowing, or weed whipping in the park before 10 am, and by 10 am I had finished with the pruning and weeding.  There were four large grass areas (small pavilion, group fire pit area, the grass area next to site 30, and the large grass area in the parking lot) which needed mowing, so for the next two hours I mowed grass, and dumped the attendant grass clippings.  I was back at tm he office a minute, or two before TLE's lunch break.  It makes it nice for me to have the hour each work day to sit in the office, and when it's my turn for a lunch break I only need 30 minutes to eat my lunch, and then I've only got 90 more minutes of work before my day is done at 3 pm.

While I was at lunch the weather completely changed.  It went from sultry, and a little hot to cool, windy, and a a little rain for good measure.  By the time I got back from lunch there were 10 carts awaiting my attention....  

......you may wonder what the carts look like when they are returned after 18 holes of use, so I took before and after pictures.....

Before....pretty typical....

.....after a good scrubbing with soap and water

......I managed to get all 10 carts washed, and put away by 3 pm, and was on my way home to begin my 4 day 'weekend'.  I returned to the Clubhouse at 5 pm to join TLE and about two dozen other folks celebrating one of our full time resident's (Wendy) birthday party.  By the way, our middle daughter, Kate, also celebrated her birthday on Friday.....

Kate and her family:  left to right-back row: Elijah, Kate, Nick, Charlise, 

and left to right: front row: Jolene and Levi

.... and then there was this great sunset.....

!Thanks for stopping by....

Things are slow.....

3:48 pm - Friday - August 5th - Likely, CA - 84° F, 30% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the west.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 86° F, which we will not attain today.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were lunching at Flathead Brewing Company.....how I love that smile!.....↴

Wow, here I am typing my blog on time two days in a row....lol!  Things have been slow lately, but Thursday things began to heat up with 13 cart rentals in all. Certainly we've had bigger days, but not for a few weeks now.  Thursday is also 'clear the balls off the driving range so we can mow' day.  As evidence things have been slow lately here is a picture of all of the balls I collected Thursday.....

That's about 4 small buckets of balls worth

....about 3/4's of a 5 gallon bucket. There were so few balls I just used the 'Shag Bag' to pick up the balls....it took me less than an hour, and less than that to wash to wash them.  After deploying 10  carts to begin the day, I then spent a big part of my morning watering dry patches of grass around the park.  There was also some hand weeding, but all in all it was a slow day.

I was home by 3 pm, took a shower, then typed my previous blog post, just as I should each afternoon.  I got into the mid 90's Thursday, and was I ever glad I had gone to work at 6:30 am.

TLE and I watched the season finale of 'Alone' to close out the evening....the surprise winner, to us anyway, was Juan Pablo who chose not to have a fire in his rustic cabin for 62 days, and chose to 'fast' the final 22+ days thereby saving calories by not having to hunt for, and chop wood, and not having to hunt for food....a surprising strategy, but it worked for him.

We were treated to another interesting sunset.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow motion.....

3:41 pm - Thursday - August 4th - Likely, CA - 91° F, 26% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were having a late breakfast at Alpina Coffee Café in South Lake Tahoe.......a very cool, funky place which we miss a lot.......↴

Wednesday I was back to work at 6:30 am.....I'm not fool, and I usually don't make the same mistake twice.  After staging ten carts for TLE, and setting some sprinklers on dry spots around the park I headed out on the slow motion John Deere riding lawn mower to mow tee boxes at 3, 15, 16, 17 & 18.  I mowed the 5 tee boxes, and made the round trip in around 2 hours.  

At this point it was about 11 am, and the three large lawns up the hill needed mowing again so I hopped on the Husqvarna and headed up the hill.  I managed to get two of the lawns mowed in an hour, and then it was time to give TLE her lunch break.  After my 30 minute break (1:30 pm) I headed back up the hill to mow the 3rd lawn, and it was time to wash the 8 golf carts which had been returned while I was at lunch.  I got them all done in the final hour of my day, and then it was home for a long, hot shower.

I retrieved TLE from the office at 5 pm, and it was still around 91° F, and would not cool down until well after 10 pm, so there was no sitting outside on the 'lido deck' this night.  We did get a beautiful, albeit, somewhat subtle sunset Wednesday night......

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Back to work.....

3:55 pm - Wednesday - August 3rd - Likely, CA - still 91° F, and 24% humidity with wind 7 mph out of the west.  On this date in 2o16 TLE and I were having dinner at Riva Grill on the shores of South Lake Tahoe.......↴

T

Tuesday was our 'Monday' this week.  I was up around 5:30 am in order to be on the job by 6:30 am, but I noticed the high was only going to be 86° F, so I decided to go to work at 7:30 am, take a half hour lunch, and be off by 4 pm....a nice change, and I enjoyed sitting talking with TLE for an extra hour.

It rained a bit Sunday night/Monday morning, and when the sun finally came over the local mountains the humidity shot sky high....OMG.....I sweated through my t-shirt in about 30 minutes, and stayed that way for most of the day.  By 3 pm I was wishing I had gone to work at 6:30 am....doh!

Tuesday was kind of a slow day, and for that I was grateful.  I made two rounds of the golf course over the course of the day, washed a bunch of golf carts, and pulled some weeds around the electrical pedestals in the water and electric pull through sites.

I was off work at 4 pm, in the shower by 4:15 pm, and relaxing in my recliner by 4:30 pm, when I should have been typing my blog post about Monday.....lol.  I guess I needed that nap!  I picked up TLE at work at 5 pm, and that was pretty much our day.  It remained humid into the evening, and we did not turn off the rear A/C until we went to bed at 9 pm.  By that time the humidity had begun to leave the air, and the overnight low actually got down to 54° F.....nice!

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Nine wasn't enough.....

3:30 pm - Wednesday - August 3rd - Likely, CA - 91° F, 24% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F, which has been exceeded at this hour.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were boating on Priest Lake with George and Brenda Cheney (Idaho)......↴

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Well, here I am again two days behind in posting my latest missives.  So what did we do Monday?  Monday was shopping day, and we left the Newell around 8:30 am to make the 20 minute drive into Alturas.  Our first stop was Rite Aid for adult beverages, and then on to Holiday Market to buy another week's supply of produce, dairy, meat, etc.  We were home a little after 10 am.

I changed clothes and headed over to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls to warm up for a round of golf.  I was back at the coach about 10:50 am to pick up TLE, and head to the first tee for our 11 am tee time.  Monday was actually  a good day for me.  I managed to hit all 18 tee shots well, and was really hitting my fairway woods crisply.  I was within 150 yards of all four par 5 holes after three shots, but my short game failed me somewhat.  I managed to par one of them, bogeyed two, and double bogeyed the other one.  I actually missed a birdie on the 18th by an inch, but did par it.  I also bogeyed three of the four par 3's, just missing two par putts.  

I had originally only planned on playing the front nine, but I was feeling so good after 9 I decided to play the back nine.....TLE opted to have me drop her at home so she could finish another load of wash.   My back was a little 'tired' after 18 holes, but I recovered quickly.  Certainly my best 18 holes in years.

Lying 2 on the 18th hole....just missed the birdie putt

Monday was a mostly chilly day......only 81° F, and we were able to sit outside for a couple of hours in the early evening for a change.  We headed inside around 8:30 pm as it was getting a little chilly.

Can't believe it is already August.....just two months to go before we roll our wheels once again for parts as yet unknown.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm a bad boy!

 7:46 am - Monday - August 1st - Likely, CA - 69° F, 47% humidity, wind - CALM out of the west by northwest......cloudy today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2017 (on our way to hiking over 100 miles while in Yellowstone NP that summer) we hiked both trails on the sign, and covered over 12 miles......↴

Well, I have been remiss once again.  I had good intentions of writing a blog post about Saturday, but got wrapped up in a good book, then spent a couple of hours at the driving range, and completely forgot until it was time to go to bed Sunday night.

Saturday: As has been the case for the past number of days the high temp for the day was 101° F, and we spent the greater part of the day inside the Newell staying cool.  We did venture out around 10 am to practice putting in advance of the weekly putting contest, and actually had a late breakfast at the onsite Café before heading back to the cool confines of the Newell until almost 4 pm when we returned for the putting contest.  Alas, TLE and I did not make it out of the first round, but she (TLE) putted much better.  I, along with a number of other good putters, did not make it out of the first round either.  I was tied with my first round opponent after 5 holes, so we broke the tie by hitting one putt at hole #1 to see who would be closest.....I hit a bad putt, which only went halfway, and lost.  A good time, as is always the case, was had by all in spite of the hot, muggy conditions.

We didn't turn the A/C off Saturday night, and ran it until 3 am Sunday morning when the outdoor temps had finally cooled sufficiently to open all the windows....so that brings us up to date on Saturday, now how about Sunday?

Sunday: The skies were heavily overcast Sunday morning, which led TLE and I outdoors to the 'lido deck' to read, and sip our morning brews.  If we can't sit outside at night due to the heat, we'll do it in the morning.  It actually stayed comfortable outside until almost 10 am when TLE headed inside, and I got dressed and headed over to the Clubhouse to hit a large bucket of balls, and then practice chipping onto the putting green.  In all, I was gone almost 2 hours, and returned with a completely soaked with sweat t-shirt.

I spent the rest of the afternoon inside, other than a 20 minute interlude when I washed the VW Beetle.  We are surrounded by a lot of ranches, and agriculture, and every time we drive into Alturas the front the car gets plastered with a million bug carcasses.  I have to use a bucket of soapy water (Dawn) with a 'Doughboy' to scrub the bugs off the front of the car.  We'll be driving into Alturas Monday morning so I, at least, wanted the VW to be clean when we drove into town.....it will look as bad as it did before I washed it after we complete the 40 mile round trip drive....oh well!

The daytime high only reached 99° F Sunday, but it was hard to tell the difference.  We will drop into the high 80's on Monday, which will be a big difference, and we should be in the 80's through Friday, if the forecast can be trusted.

As you can see, we have reached August 1st, and within a few days we will have been at LPG&RVR for 4 months, which is hard to believe.  The time has flown by here, and before we know it we will be welcoming in September.  

By the way, I was very pleased with my driving range experience Sunday.  After hitting balls for an hour my back felt fine.  I was also pleased with my progress in my short game (chipping onto the green from under 50 yards).  I was able to consistently place 5 out of 7 balls within 10 feet of the hole by the time I finished.  With the temps dropping into the 80's once again I'm pretty sure I'll play some golf on Monday before going back to work for another 4 days.

Thanks for stopping by!