Demolition.....

6:06 am - Tuesday - May 14th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 64%, wind 1 mph out of the north by northwest......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2019, 5 years ago now, I had a small heart attack due to 98% blockage in one of my arteries.....

.....doing well today.  As you know, TLE and I walk 2 miles most days when we are off work, and I'm doing great!

Monday was a beautiful, blue sky sort of day with temps in the high 70's.  I staged 9 golf carts (5 Club Car Electrics, and 4 Yamaha fuel injected gassers), and we rented 8....not a bad Monday.  After staging the carts I headed out on my first round of the course and found the goose/duck leavings to be less than usual.  The view at the 17th tee was worth memorializing....

.....after all the mowing I did Sunday, I decided to take it a little easier on Monday.  There are a few areas of grass needing a little extra water than is being provided by the sprinkler system, so I ran some hoses, and set up some small sprinklers to take care of those areas, then picked up a few tools from my trailer and headed down to the playground to begin disassembly of the rickety jungle gym.  Here is what it looked like at the beginning.....

....and here is the result after a few hours of demolition work.....

.....there are still several other pieces of playground equipment that are all metal, and plastic and still in good, serviceable condition....

.....I was about 1/3 the way done with the disassembly, but around 11 am I had to leave that project and head to the driving range for the first time this season to clear the range of golf balls so DeWayne could mow it early afternoon.  I picked around 1.5 five gallon buckets of balls in about 45 minutes.  I used the shag bag, instead of the ball picking machine, as it was faster with so few balls.  I was in the Clubhouse giving TLE her lunch break by 12 pm.

After lunch I headed back to the playground and continued the disassembly of the old jungle gym, finishing around 3 pm.  By that time 5 of the eight rented golf carts had been returned, and by the time I finished with them 2 more had arrived.  The 8th one was still on the course at 3:45 pm, so I'll deal with that one first thing Tuesday.  Having worked through lunch I was done with my 8 hour workday at 3:45, so I headed home to take shower, and a nap before returning at 5 pm to ferry TLE home for the evening.

Thanks for stopping by!

I need a tow.....

6:04 am - Monday - May 13th - LPG&RVR -  45° F, humidity 68%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were passing through the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (near the Great Salt Lake).....

Usually 'we' do not mow on the weekend, but with all the rain we've had we are way behind on mowing, and string trimming, so after making my first round of the golf course I picked up the Stihl string trimmer and headed down to the 'Meadows' to trim the grass around the children's play ground equipment.  It was about 6" high, and I don't think I've ever seen it that high, ever.  Within an hour order was restored, and the equipment was once again available for play.  While I was there I noticed that one of the pieces, a 'jungle gym' of sorts was in pretty poor condition....

....Dennis had mentioned its condition, and asked for my opinion....I agree...it is rickety, leaning, and needs to come down, and be replaced....one more thing to add to the 'do do list'.

From there I headed up to the employee sites to trim around the utilities in preparation for mowing.  By the time I finished it was around 10:30 am, and time to do some mowing with the big Husqvarna.  I mowed all of the employee sites, the big group area fire pit, and one of the permanent sites up the hill before it was noon, and time for TLE's lunch break.

After TLE returned from her lunch break I did something I have not yet done this season....I took a 30 minute lunch break to mainly take a nap...lol.  Once my batteries were recharged I headed back to the Clubhouse to pick up the ever so slow John Deere riding lawnmower to resume the mowing around the tee boxes I began on Saturday.  I was about 1/3 the way to the #3 tee boxes when Bob came by in his golf cart and jokingly offered to tow me out there.  I told him I would love that, and before you knew it he was doing just that.  I put the John Deere in neutral, and then disengaged the rear wheels, and we were off in a cloud of dust.  Without Bob's assistance it would have taken me 15 more minutes to get there, but instead it took less than 5 minutes.

It took me around 20 minutes to finish mowing around the four tee boxes at three, then I was off to the 15 hole (right next to the #5 tee boxes) blue tee box, which was in dire need of trimming.  After that I mowed the #16 tee boxes (all four), and Bob met me at the bottom of the hill to tow me to the sod farm next to the 8th green to mow a strip of grass between the sod farm, and the 8th fairway.  He waited around until I finished, and then towed me back to the Clubhouse.  In all Bob saved me an hour of driving time....lol!  Until we get the small Husqvarna working again Bob has offered to tow me out to the mowing sites, and tow me back to save time, and I don't know why we didn't think of that before.

By the time we returned to the Clubhouse 10 of the 13 golf carts we had rented had been returned, so I got busy washing them, and putting them away.  I finished around 4:55 pm, then headed down to flip the sign to 'Night Registration', then headed back to await TLE's exit from the Clubhouse.  We were home around 5:25 pm, and I was tired.  A couple more days like that and we will be caught up on our mowing.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Moms Day!

6:14 am - Sunday - Mothers Day - May 12th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 64%, wind 1 mph out of the south......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F....glorious!!!  On this date in 2018 TLE and I arrived at Smuggler's Den in Southwest Harbor, ME to work the next 5 months....we only made it to August 6th....you can read about why here......

 After another wonderful 4 day weekend it was time to return to work.  After 4 days off I always look forward to getting back to work, and Saturday was no exception.  When I checked the tee time sheet I saw that we would need at least 20 golf carts, and we ended up renting 23.  That is by and far the busiest day since we arrived April 10th.  With all the rain lately we're kind of behind the 8 ball when it comes to mowing, and string trimming, so after my first round of the golf course that is what I did. When I reached the 15th hole I could see fire in the distance, and it appeared to be a structure fire.....

....it was still going when I returned to the Clubhouse.  As it turned out this was a proscribed burn.  In other words, it was intentional.  This was a derelict structure, and the local volunteer fire department was doing some training.

I mowed the 5 water/electric sites, and did a lot of string trimming in the morning before TLE's lunch break, then headed out to mow around the tee boxes for hole #3.  

As you know, I've been using the small Husqvarna 2 bag mower (42" deck) to do the tee box mowing since early last season, but one of the two ignition coils has bit the dust, and Bob has not been able to find a replacement anywhere in Northern California, so I am once again reduced to using the very slow John Deer riding lawnmower.....1.7 mph....lol.

The afternoon went quickly, and being putting contest day I was off at 3:30 pm to change clothes and return at 4 pm.  We had 34 people putting Saturday, and I managed to make it past the first round.  In the second round my opponent and I were tied after 5 holes so we went to a one hole, closest to the hole, putt....I left my putt around 12" from the hole, but my opponent sank his first putt to win....oh well...at least I putted well.  Nothing you can do about a hole in one....lol!

Upon our return home TLE and I sat on the 'lido deck' for the first time in weeks, and enjoyed the early evening before heading inside for the night.

Oh, by the way.....HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY  to all the mothers out there, including those in my life......TLE, Rochelle, Sharon, Kate, & Laila....what amazing moms you all are!

Thanks for stopping by!

City water transition......

 6:07 am - Saturday - May 11th - LPG&RVR - 41° F, humidity 63%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2015 I rode my Cannondale Bad Boy bicycle up to the Emerald Bay Overlook at Lake Tahoe from Tahoe Valley Campground.....17.1 miles roundtrip.....

Friday was a landmark day here at LPG&RVR.....for the first time in weeks I transitioned form pants, and a long sleeve shirt to shorts and a t-shirt!  It appears, at least for the near future, that Winter has released her grip, and is allowing some semblance of Spring to make an appearance, and nary a complaint can be heard....lol.

TLE and I took another 2 mile out and back walk around 9:30 am, and while we both wore long pants, and long sleeve shirts there were no gloves, or watch caps seen.  It was a delightful morning, which felt more like Spring, than Winter, and the temp was close to 60° F....

Eagle Mountain in all her snow capped glory

....after a suitable cool down period I drove the golf cart over to the Clubhouse to dump our trash, and spent some time on the putting green, then returned to change out our heated water hose, for a normal water hose, plus install our water filters for the first time this season....

....to keep the dual filter system off the ground I appropriated a 3' post from the shop, added a 2x3x12" cross member, and borrowed the post hole digger from the 'Caddy Shack'.  It took me way longer than it should have, but in the end it is done, and there are no leaks....so far....lol! I chose not to do any more weeding until our next 4 day weekend....what's the hurry, right?

Additionally, I finally decided where to place our two market umbrellas....

....TLE and I drove back over to the Clubhouse around 4:50 pm so TLE could pickup of the cash register drawer from Kathy, and I spent more time putting.  Will all the practice help Saturday afternoon....your guess is as good as mine.

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Over 50 before 10.....

8:08 am - Friday - May 10th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 45%, wind 1 mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were on a train into Boston from Wakefield, MA.....

When it gets over 50° F before 10 am on any day of our 4 day weekend it's time to take a walk, and that was how our Thursday began.  Even though it was over 50° F we were both wearing jackets, pants, and gloves.  We managed to average 3.3 mph over the course of the 2 mile out and back walk, which has become our favorite 2 mile walk anywhere....

.....once back I began work on two projects I had designated for accomplishment on Thursday....first install the new Flag Pole Buddy mounting system I ordered off Amazon a week ago.  Up until Thursday I had been using 3 suction cups to affix the pole to the rear of the trailer, and they have worked well until our return to LPG&RVR in April.  They would hold the pole for a day, or two, then give way with the flag pole falling to the ground.  I tried several times to get them to stay in place, but was unsuccessful, so I ordered the mounting brackets.  I had to remove 2 of the 5 telescoping extensions to get down to the 2" diameter extension required by the mounting brackets, which made the flag pole about 8' shorter, so I mounted the brackets higher on the side of the trailer to get the flag up as far as before.....

.....I am happy with the result, and now I am able to open the rear ramp door at any time, which is necessary on rare occasions, without removing the flag pole.

After lunch, and a nap I headed back outside to do some more weeding along the border of our 'lido deck'.  I purchased a 3'x9' piece of artificial turf to fill in the gap between the large artificial turf, and the Rubber Maid storage bin we've placed over by the electrical pedestal.  Now we can walk to the bin without walking on dirt, or gravel, and it looks much better sans weeds.  Just weeding that small section took me the better part of two hours......

....I still need to finish weeding at the rear of the 'dining/gaming deck', and maybe that will get done Friday....we'll see.  By the time TLE and I finished rearranging the lava rock border, and installing the new piece of artificial turf it was almost 4 pm, and our day was fast coming to an end.

For our evening entertainment we began watching Season 3 of 'Welcome to Wrexham'.  In case you have not heard of this docuseries, it is about two Hollywood actors (Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) who buy a soccer club located in Wrexham (Wales) that has fallen on hard times.  Their goal is to improve the club so it can eventually be promoted up through the English soccer leagues to the Premier League.  It is a true story, and you are watching it playout right before your very eyes on TV.

Thanks for stopping by!

High plains drifters.....

 7:38 am - Thursday - May 9th - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 57%, wind 2 mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 68° F....now that's more like it!  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were having dinner at Tahoe Pizza Company....the best pizza in the Tahoe Basin......

We've been at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort for  a month as of Wednesday, and we have yet to take a road trip, so that is just what we did.  We were in the VW headed for Susanville around 8:30 am.  The drive south on US-395 was uneventful for the first 40 miles, and then over the rise coming right at us in our southbound lane was a CHP vehicle...at that point we could not understand why he was doing that, so we slowed almost to a stop thinking he might open his window and tell us why, but he just moved slightly to his right, so he was straddling the center line, and drove past us.  As I continued forward at about 10 mph, not knowing what might be coming, I could see the CHP vehicle which had just passed us in my rear view mirror stopped at the top of the rise, to the north of us, we had just come over.  Then I looked back to the south and saw what the commotion was all about....

....it was a semi pulling a very WIDE load......we pulled onto the shoulder, and stopped as the behemoth passed us going north.  In all there were four CHP vehicles escorting this WIDE load.  If you look closely you can see another semi behind the trailer....this semi was attached, via a large diameter pole, to the rear of the trailer, and was pushing....now that is the WIDEST load I've ever seen....lol.

We arrived in Susanville around 10:20 am and spent a couple of hours junking, then shopping before beginning our drive home.  Instead of heading back north on US-395 we decided to take a highway we haven't previously traveled before, back north....California 139.  CA-139 takes you northward through high desert/plains terrain to Adin, where CA-139 turns east to Canby, then to Alturas, where we picked up US-395 again to return to LPG&RVR......

Eagle Lake coming into view

Eagle Mountain to the east

The grand loop road trip

....it took us about 90 minutes to reach Canby where we stopped off at Coffee Adventure, a new bakery/coffee shop, for coffee and lunch.  TLE and I split their roast beef and Swiss sandwich, which was toasted for us.....the coffee and sandwich really hit the spot.  

After our brief interlude at Coffee Adventure we continued to Alturas, where we made a quick stop at Holiday market for some produce, then headed for home, arriving back at LPG&RVR around 3:30 pm....what fun day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Too cold to do much, so we didn't......

6:54 am - Wednesday - May 8th - LPG&RVR - 31° F, humidity 70%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today...finally...and a forecast high of 58° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting Buffalo Bill Cody's home in North Platte, NB.....

Tuesday was one more day in a long line of recent days where morning temps were in the low 30's.....when will Spring arrive?  Hope deferred makes the heart weary....lol.  The day began cold, with heavy cloud cover, but morphed into a beautiful, sunny, partly cloudy day.  Nevertheless, I never took my coat off when outside.  There was just enough of a light breeze requiring the wearing of long pants, and quilted coats.  How cold was it?  It was so cold I did not venture outdoors until well after 10 am, and even then I was only outside a few minutes at a time until after 12 pm.

I did do some weeding around the 'lido deck', but there is a long way to go before our site is weed free.  Around 2 pm I drove the cart over to the Clubhouse to spend time with Del, our new employee who is taking Walt's place this summer as my counterpart.  I took him around the RV park showing him where we mow, and what our shared responsibilities are.  It took around 90 minutes before I handed him off to Dennis Tate, owner, for the balance of his orientation. 

And that my, friends, was the totality of the first of my four day weekend.  I did, also, dump the black tank, while TLE defrosted the refrigerator, and did a few loads of wash....a typical first day of a four day weekend.  On Wednesday we'll drive into Susanville, where we have not been since this time last year, to do a little shopping.  The weather is warming ever so slowly, but by Friday we'll be back in the much sought after 70's through May 17th.....nice.....

....and look at all those sunny, essentially non-cloudy days which await us!  Thanks for stopping by!