Maggie is feeling better

Maggie's system is back on track after two days of pills.  Yay!  She's learning "leave it" but that only works when we actually see her starting to suck up something she's found. The vet gave us a second week supply of meds in case she has another episode while we are traveling. The diagnosis was giardia.  Common, apparently, with dogs who will eat anything.  We don't remember having this problem with our other dogs. 

We are going to Long Beach tomorrow to see Steph and Pierce.  Steph is making homemade pizza from her dad's recipe.  I'm taking brownies for a really wholesome, good for ya lunch😊

We are watching the weather for next week. A system with cold rain is due the day before and day of our scheduled departure.  We just may leave a day or two early to keep from packing up in the rain and mud. We will decide Monday or Tuesday.  We have had two days of rain since the 19th of Dec - very unusual but nice for us.  Now it's decided to rain again and on our departure day. Go Figure. 

We've had to change our walking route. We got stopped yesterday by a park ranger when we left the campground and were walking down the back road along the day-use lake to the office to check for mail. We've done this walk every day since the first of December. It seems dogs aren't allowed past the campground.  Yes, there are signs in the park and playground but we (and others) always stay on the road and sidewalk and no one has said anything.  We were told there's too much abuse of the rule and so they are going to now enforce  it So, now we have to make a second dogless  trip down there for mail. We aren't supposed to get any more mail here, so for now it's not an issue, but we will have to come up with a plan for next year. 

Will take some pictures tomorrow of our get together and share on Monday.  

Another Week's Gone By....

...and it has been very uneventful.  The time, though, is flying.  We can't believe we will be leaving here in 8 days!  

The only "event" is that we had to take Maggie to the vet today. Little Miss Hoover (i.e., vacuum mouth) has ingested too much rabbit and duck poo and who knows what else over the course of our visit here and the bacteria has taken a liking to her gut. She's now on a week's regimen of a drug that should clear her system of whatever was trying to grow in there.  Everything should be back to normal by the time we leave.  We did find a very nice vet for future stays here. 

We have a date with Stephanie to visit her this Sunday!  We are looking forward to it.  As it is about 2.5 hr drive ONE WAY we will be taking the Maggster with us.    

The couple who have been living next to us are regulars/full timers and had to leave for their two week break between their six month stays - per park rules. They are a fairly young couple who have jobs and we rarely see them or hear them.  Perfect neighbors! Every year we have been in this space they have been next door.  Last weekend was another 3-day weekend and the place was really packed!  Of course they filled the site next to us for the long weekend.  Last  year when this happened we got noisy dogs and kids and we were not looking forward to this year.  We lucked out.  We got a couple who, after unhooking their rig, set up their 40+ inch HD TV under the awning and sat and watched racing all weekend!  No kids.  No dogs.  Just the sound of the cars zooming around the track!  How lucky can you get?  We just closed the windows on that side of the RV. What we don't understand is why they just didn't stay home if that is all they were going to do on their "camping" trip. 

New ducks - well, ducks we haven't seen so far - have started to arrive at the lakes.  We haven't figured out what kind they are, but it looks as if there's some migration going on!  Spring is coming?  

As I write this the coyotes are giving us a concert.  It's just gotten dark and they must be on the move.  Maggie and I will be most careful when we go out for the bedtime bathroom break!!

Happy Friday!

I know I'm due for an entry, but since the great stabilizer adventure, nothing has been going on - just day to day stuff. Steph invited us up to Long Beach today (the only day this week she and Pierce have off) but we opted out.  We got to thinking about it being Friday before a three day weekend and LA traffic heading out of town as we were due to come home and we chickened out. Maybe next week we can work something out.  We are anxious to see their place and to see them one more time before we leave on the first of March.

I did, finally, get brave enough to get a haircut.  The last one I got a week before Christmas was sooooo bad!  I usually get my "ears lowered" every four weeks.  At four weeks it was just long enough that I looked like a girl again.  It was still too short and she had thinned it our waaay too much!   I got Roger to keep my neck trimmed up and I have been working on the area around the ears, but the rest has been growing out every which way at so many different lengths I looked like "wild hair woman." ( I'm sure If the neighbors saw me without my walking hat, that would be my nickname!)  I'm sure Roger was getting tired of my having two months of a "bad hair day," so, yesterday - at eight weeks out - I couldn't stand it any more and I gave in. He drove me to the nearest Supercuts and sat and waited so that I wouldn't wimp out.  I was THAT afraid of a repeat performance.  The poor lady worked hard at fixing my issues.  I had to laugh at one point when I looked it the mirror and she was standing there with a look on her face that said, "what the h.... happened?" When I laughed, she said, "Oh, you saw my expression, huh? You are absolutely right - it is a bad haircut." It was priceless. So, I'm neatened up, not too short, and almost back to my normal look and she got a good tip for making me presentable again. I feel so much better and I think Roger is happier, as well.  

We are having a warm spell again for about a week, but the nights are still cold - furnace runs at night and air conditioner during the afternoon. Maggie wants to stay outside in the cool dirt under the trailer. Well, we can't leave her out alone, and she won't tolerate being tied out, so we are having a battle with the little strong-willed princess!   We have made shade for her pen, and she will sit in it and look pathetic until we let her out and then she runs under the RV.  She refuses to "come."  I just brought her in a few minutes ago after a protracted discussion of what "come" means - Rog is napping - and she is sprawled out on the floor in front of the door and keeps looking at me and panting.  I'm not sitting outside, so she's just got to deal with it. She was funny this morning - chasing a lizard around the patio. Now when she goes out she goes looking for it.  

I've learned that my anonymous "Words With Friends" opponent is in New York - and buried under 15 inches of snow!  We have had some good games and are pretty evenly matched.  Only a couple of blow-outs by either of us and the wins have been pretty back and forth with the scores fairly close.  This is the second person I have tried  - you just tell the "computer" you want a partner with matching skills and they match you.  The first one dropped out after four words.  I've been playing this person now for about a month.  Still have no idea as to anything about him/her except that s/he lives in New York and I found that out by asking what time zone s/he lives in so I knew when to expect plays.  I also have two games going with my friend, Rachel, so I'm keeping my skills up.  Rachel still wins more than I do!  Some days, though, I wish I could switch letters on the games!!!  It's a lot of fun.  If anyone out there wants to play, my user name is GrandmaKeith.   

I've started an afghan challenge with Steph and Colorado Pam.  Every two weeks I get an email with a pattern for a new square to crochet from one of the yarn companies.  Since we each have our own stitch size I'm curious as to what the three of them will look like.  For instance, my 10 inch square came out 8 inches despite using a hook one size larger than instructed.  I have a tight stitch, obviously.  This could be interesting!

Yesterday we plotted our course east to Pensacola and figured out where our stops would be once we left California.  We will stop for a full day and visit friends from Lake Tahoe who are in their RV in Casa Grande, AZ.  Then we will stop in Houston for a few days to visit Rachel and Steve. The rest will be just driving days.  It will take us three days just to cross Texas from Las Cruces, NM to get to Houston!  Roger is already dreading it. We are due in Pensacola on the first of April.  Not only will we get to see our youngest and his family, but Roger's sister and her husband are going to come visit for a few days and possibly Mick and Lynda down in North Port, FL. We are looking forward to it and to the change of venue.

Enough babbling to fill the journal entry!!!   Maybe next time we will have something to tell you and some photos of some kind. As Rachel Maddow would say, "watch this space."

  

We Are More Stable - For Under $400 and Two Days of Installation!!!

Front is finished!

   

Let's see, if I lie here and stare at it maybe I'll come up
with a solution.  Why do they do this to me?

As normally happens with Roger's projects he had to abandon the instructions  half way through - when he got to the rear stabilizers today. There was no place on our RV that matched the instructions as to where to attach one end of the bars.  So, Roger puzzled it out and came up with a solution to make it work.  On these projects his brain gets a workout as much as his body - which by the way will ache like crazy when he is finished crawling around on the ground under the rig.  He'll be pretty "stove up" tonight and tomorrow. Only a trip to the local Sprouts store for fruit and veggies is planned for tomorrow's activities, so he can rest up and admire his handiwork. 

Not quite as many parts to work with as yesterday.

I'm a great supervisor!

Back end is finished!!!

It was long sleeved shirt weather today.  Clouds this morning for our walk but the sun came out this afternoon with a bit of a breeze.  

This morning at 4am a coyote was outside our door - I'm sure of it.  It was loud and close.  Maggie went to the door and woofed at it once but then turned around and sat on the landing outside the bedroom and guarded us for a while. No repeat of the shivering and shaking.  When Roger took her out this morning he passed by a weekender site where they had barbecued last night and then left their garbage container outside.  Well, needless to say there was trash strewn all over the place.  What a mess.  They obviously didn't read the flyer about the coyotes that came with their check-in package

I played around with the permissions on this journal this afternoon and found a place where I could change the comments permissions.  Now anyone should be able to leave comments without having to have a Google account. Sorry I didn't realize that earlier.  Someone who hasn't been able to comment, please try again and let's see if it works.  Thanks.

OK, you're done now.  Let's go for a walk!
Not sure if this is for me or for Roger, although she prefers his walks as he lets her do more sniffing than I do.  

The Project Continues!

 It's around 1pm, we've had our walk and lunch and Roger is at the Lowe's picking up something he needs to finish the project.  

I've put on a pot of pea soup for dinner but have too much garlic in it - my eyes are watering like crazy.  Gotta open up the house again today!!!  So, while he's gone, I'm going to attempt to finish last night's entry.

The download speed right now is pretty good so here are the pictures I wanted to post on last night's entry:

OK, where do I start?

All right, I'm ready!

Drilling holes for a bracket in the I beam.

Attaching the stabilizer rods.

One side done!!!

It's Saturday Again and Roger Has a New Project

The sun came out today after a week of clouds and rain and we were so excited when we set out on our walk this morning.  We forgot it was Saturday until we got out of the geezer area and into the campground area where we encountered dogs and kids everywhere. Why do kids need to bring their motorized scooters camping?  Now, the kid being pulled on his skateboard by the German Shepherd made sense. We aborted the walk and headed back into safe territory!!  

We did see one of the regular walkers, though.  Disc Man.  This guy is probably in his 50s and he takes his walks every day - toting a portable disc player!  Now, we don't know how long it's been since they made those, making him further behind the technology curve than we are.  

Last night I took the Magster out for her after dinner visit to the doggie bathroom area and we saw a coyote aka boogey-dog!  It was after the sun had set but before it got dark.  He was loping along the fence line about 50 yards away from where we were.  We hurried home. 

Roger started his latest project today - story later - and I opened up the house and aired it out.  Seemed silly, though, when I thought about it.  Open the windows and door and turn on the vent fans to suck out the stale air and dog smell - all the while sucking in the pollen while I'm trying to dust and vacuum! Hmmm... seems counter productive but it is so nice being opened up again.  A Benedryl and eye drops got me through it!

I took Maggie's bed and blankets out in the sun and breeze to air them out.  As you can see, she liked having it outside.  She and Skunkie (her oldest toy) had a few naps while getting some sunshine.  She would get too warm, go into the shade for a while to cool off, then back into the bed.  So much for airing out the dog bed!

Roger's Project  

Travel trailers and 5th wheels are notorious for rocking/swaying back and forth even sitting still and with the front and rear stabilizers down and locked.  Front to back is usually good, but side to side is always an issue and I do whine about it often.  Most of the new and high end rigs come with hydraulic stabilizers midships that steadies them.  We could get them after market if we wanted to shell out $5K!  In our place when you walk across the room the little pull things on the blinds bounce against the slats and rattle.  That noise and just the feeling of being in a mini earthquake when someone walks across the room and especially when dog is chasing her ball is something we don't like.  Well, Roger has found a solution - install more stabilizers designed to stop the side to side motion of the rig and and not bust our budget!  

We went to Camping World the other day and bought what we hope will do the trick. Night before last Roger took the parts out of the box to check them.  Lots of parts!!!

Yesterday we got to take a trip to Lowe's to buy tools - tools that he has at home but didn't bring.  He always brings a tool bag full of tools - I can hardly lift it there are so many - but anticipating all the ones he will need on a trip is hard.  He is getting to the point where he has a home set and an RV set of everything.  "Have Tool Bag - Will Travel."  

Later he got to drill bigger holes in the landing gear with his new drill bit!! As you can see, the ground is still a bit damp for crawling around under the RV so today was the start of the big project.  

With his Mr. Fix-it t-shirt on, it went pretty well today and he did get one side and the front half finished.  As you can see by the following photos there were lots of stops to read the instructions!!



Oh dear, I've run out of bandwidth tonight trying to up and down load photos from phone, computer, the "cloud" and back again, etc.  The WIFI is slow this time of night anyway, and the downloads are limited, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow (Sunday) for the photos and more.......    I'll try and do it early when no one else is on their computer!  Of course there will be more photos taken tomorrow as the work progresses.  Stay tuned.  P.S. no injuries today - fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Potpourri

We've had two queries now in the last couple of days as to why we haven't posted an entry in the journal!  We're sorry, we didn't realize that our readers were that interested in what we are up to.  Usually, if we don't post anything it means we are just leading our normal everyday lives and there isn't much to write about unless we make stuff up.   But, since you asked:

We are fine - doing very well, actually.  I had one uncomfortable arthritis-acting-up day a few days ago.  I am becoming a believer in the old wive's tales of "weather forecasting by arthritis!"  I'm feeling fine now and Roger is feeling good, so no need to worry about us.  

We are now experiencing what is probably normal winter conditions for here.  The last few days have been more like the weather that we anticipated for Jan/Feb.  We had that wonderful reprieve in Dec/Jan with warm, sunny days.  Well, we have run out of them - I hope they aren't allocated so many per year here because we used up a lot.  The temps are in the 50s/60s during the day and down into the 30s at night.  It has been mostly cloudy to partly cloudy the last few days and looks like it will be for the near future.  (The last warm clear day was our trip to the zoo day last Wednesday!)  We've had rain (Yay!) at night and it seems to be coming in a pattern we remember - about every 3-4 days.  We know California and the West are in severe drought conditions, but maybe this area will rebound from the little bit of moisture we are now getting.  Today the landscapers came by and trimmed all the pampas grass we had at our site that was really pretty and providing shade and privacy.  They are fixing drip systems, planting and cleaning. They must think Spring is coming and ole Phil (you know, the gopher that looks for his shadow - we can't spell his name) back in Pennsylvania is wrong.  They do keep the place looking nice. I can't imagine what the landscaping contract for this place must cost them.  

Some of the ducks are thinking about "Valentine's Day" and the making of little ducks!  This pair of wood ducks were doing a lot of dancing around each other when we passed by.  Wood ducks build their nests in hollows of trees. The park has many of these man-made "hollows" for them and they seemed to be popular! Looks as if this pair is "apartment shopping."  

We decided today that the state law in California about driving while talking with a cell phone to your ear must have a special exemption in San Diego County.  It's amazing how many people are still glued to their phones while navigating traffic.  Very scary, too.

When we go for our walks one of the things we do is look at RVs.  There are some pretty cool ones out there but since ours is practically brand new, we aren't in the market to buy another one - yet.  All we get to do is look and check out what other people have.  We have discovered that some folks have a sense of humor about their rigs and make them quite entertaining.  I try to take photos when I don't see a car or people around.  

This sign is on the door of
a very tiny trailer:
 "Cramalot Inn."

A member of a barbershop quartet? 

."

Remember the "shoe people" photo from when we first got here?  Well, here's another couple we can call "the neater shoe people."  Inside must be pretty immaculate.

This rig is a bit unnerving, spooky almost.  It has been here since we have and we have only once seen it with any windows uncovered and that was when they had to move to a new site.  We started calling it the "Boo Radley Place." (To Kill a Mockingbird)  Like Boo Radley, though, we have since discovered that the poor man who lives here is a recluse.  He  is extremely disfigured from burns.  We talked to him once while on a walk.  He was taking photos of ducks near his RV and we pointed out a beautiful osprey just down the road. He went down there to "shoot" it, too.   

I imagine that sunlight hurts and that is why he keeps his windows "boarded up." He, obviously, is a skate board enthusiast - or was.  The other side is covered in stickers for boards.  

RVs come in all sizes and shapes and ages with model names having to do with the outdoors, sports, animals , etc. Pop-up campers, over-cab campers, tiny to large trailers, Airstreams, medium to large 5th wheels, big expensive motor homes all find their way into almost every RV park. Modest to Extravagant with everything in between allows for not too much class distinction when RVing as everyone has to get out and dump the black tank the same way!  It's sort of a class leveler when you are pumping sewage!! Two doors down there is a 48 foot motor home that costs about $450K and they tow a Beamer convertible.  It's one of the nicest ones in this park right now but they dump the same way we do!

This obviously custom made RV caught our eye while we were taking our walk. We think that unless the living quarters are made of lead lined walls, this "tow" vehicle just might be a little over-kill since it is designed to pull an 80,000 pound, 53' long cargo trailer!  

We will keep our eyes open for more fun RVs to share with you. Everyday there is a new batch coming in!  Stay tuned!