We’re in Oceanside, California now, just in time for the great Fall weather at the beach.
Unfortunately, we arrived just as the big HEAT WAVE was in full force, with temps at the beach in the friggin’ 90’s. Very unusual for the Southern California coast, it was. Then, we got the wind, high humidity, and rain from Hurricane Kay. Only the second time in twenty-five years that a Baja hurricane has ventured this far north.
The night before the big blow, we attended a “reunion” party/Rams game event at our granddaughter Jessica’s house in Vista, which is only a dozen miles from Oceanside. Lots of kids and grandkids were there, Jessica’s (and Abe’s, her boyfriend) house was nice, the pizza was good, and the Ram’s got their asses handed to them by the Buffalo Bills. Our sons Jeff and Tim were there (with wives Carol and Shanon), as were grandkids Jessica, Joshua, Craig, and Dakota. Good times.
It was miserable for a few days… reminded us of godawful Miami Beach. (There’s a reason that sun-loving East coasters frolic in Miami… because Southern California is too far away.) Anyway, lots of perspiration, sticky tee shirts, uncomfortable sleeping, body odor, and such. No bueno. Now I know what Hell is like… and why I hate Florida.
The mini storm has passed and the temps are dropping… only high 70’s today. Still high humidity, but tolerable. I miss Oregon.
Our son Jeff and wife Carol dropped by Paradise by the Sea for a few days in their ancient 1999 Damon Daybreak Class Z motorhome. It is not their long-term solution but will suffice until they hit the road in 2023 as full-time RVers. They’ve begun to amass RV “adventures” already, with inoperative entry step, generator, refrig (only runs on LP), broken exhaust pipe, etc. If you own an RV, then you know the drill.
(Speaking of that, my TV satellite dish is on the fritz… we’ll probably replace it this week. The good news: the Starlink satellite internet system is working fine. Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. In addition, my laptop computer, which is getting pretty old, experienced some problems recently. I took it to Best Buy and the prognosis was grim: the CPU is failing. So, I bit the bullet and bought a new HP laptop that I will now have to configure like my old one. Another project. Where’s is that Economic Stimulus money when I need it?)
Jeff and Carol have a “rescue” dog named Chongo. He is an 80-pound Pit Bull mix with a very mellow temperament.
Chongo got along well with our dogs and only had to put Vinny in his place one time (as in, “There’s a new Sheriff in town, Vinnie, and it ain’t you!!”) This is exactly what the little troublemaker needs, because he is a little too energetic when approaching strange dogs. Chongo could have eaten him for a snack but settled for a figurative ass chewing… which little Vinnie accepted in fine fashion, seeing as how he is the number three dude in our own pack.
Our friends Reed and Linda are situated in the space next to us and have a new addition this year: a Golden Doodle dog names “Lucy”. She’s about five months old, 18 pounds, and is a firecracker who loves to rumble (bitey face wrestling) with Baby. They wear each other out!
Our other neighbors, Mike and Diane Hernandez, got sucker-punched by the remnants of Hurricane Kay, when some high winds destroyed their RV awning. That will cost them. We saw the trouble coming and retracted ours, saving us a few thousand dollars. Ya gotta keep your eyes open and ears to the ground when RVing, that’s for sure.
Poor Charlie and her f’d up left foot! She’s been dragging that thing around since our first week in Coos Bay (she injured it while walking the dogs on the beach). The docs up there x-rayed it and found no fracture. That was almost two months ago. Charlie’s client Doctor Robert Steele, who lives a few blocks from here in Oceanside, dropped by one morning to examine the foot. He ordered a CT scan. The results are in: comminuted fracture of a bone in her instep, which will require surgery when we get back to Mesquite.
What a trooper she has been to put up with the pain for the past two months!!!
I drove up to Los Angeles on Tuesday to see my brother Terry. He’s lived in the same house for fifty years with his wife Kay, while the whole town (Monterey Park) has morphed into Little Shanghai. They’ve remodeled their home a few times, have a very nice property, and a backyard that features a Koi pond, steep landscaped cliffs, and varmints. The last time I was there I had to remove a raccoon that my brother had just shot. It is not one of my favorite memories.
Terry has health issues to the point that he can’t do much more than eat, sleep, watch TV, count his money, and doodle around on his computer. He is all hunched-over and uses a cane: it’s sad. His wife Kay is a college professor whom I have known since high school. We talked and reminisced a bit and then I took Terry out for lunch at his favorite Mexican joint near Santa Anita racetrack.
My little trip up to see my brother was only 77 miles in length but it took me 2-1/2 hours of intense freeway driving, sharing the road with a half-million impatient motorists and 18-wheelers. What a nightmare! Now I recall why we moved to Nevada… too many people!!!
My trip back to Oceanside took about 3 hours because I had to stop by Temecula Valley RV and pick up a replacement King Tailgater Pro (for Dish satellite TV service). We’ve been having reception problems, and the Dish and King techs finally came to the conclusion that the well-used satellite dish was the culprit. Another $500 … what the Hell.
On a positive note, Charlie’s foot injury means that she will not be going back to New York in October to visit her long-lost relatives on her father’s side. Accordingly, I was able to cancel airline flights, hotel rooms and such to the tune of about $1,700 which we’d already paid.
You win some, you lose some.
