What does a Snowbird do in January?

Last year we joined the hiking group here at Jojoba Hills. But we found their hikes too fast paced, and too hard for us.

This year a new group has been formed for the less energetic among us, called the Jojoba Strollers. I joined them for an easy, three mile walk out our back gate to an olive grove.

Oh my!  This was one of the harder stretches. Slightly down hill.

At the olive grove, we took a break and were treated to an olive oil tasting. The many flavors of oil and balsamic vinegar were wonderful, but a bit pricy. I was secretly glad that I didn't bring any money along. But the grove is just around the corner from Jojoba, and they have a store down in Temecula.

This is the closest business to Jojoba Hills. I did stop in once, to see what they had, but it is not much more than a milk,  bread, and cigarette store.

This was another "hard" spot. We had to climb over and up several uneven rocks. I was actually hurt doing this. The nice guy on the right was giving us a hand, and I unwisely extended my left.
Super ouch! That is my recovering shoulder. But it was towards the end of the walk, and I got home to put on an ice bag fairly quickly.

I may be relaxed, but notice how I am holding my left arm in a protective position. It is almost as if I am wearing an invisible sling.

Speaking of my shoulder, it is slowly getting much better. I go to a physical therapist once a week and have tried to do all the exercises he has recommended on a daily basis. The current thinking on such is "work to pain". That meaning, if it hurts, stop. Craig has been supportive, but hasn't had to hassle me to do what is required.

Another subject:

2018 will  forever be know as the year I became a spiralizer! Last fall I bought a little plastic machine called a Spiralizer on a whim. I also bought a cookbook, and have been using both several times a week! (This whole subject deserves, and will get posts of its own in the future.) 

Spiralized sweet potato

This was one of the prettiest and most complex meals I created.

Oven Fried Avocado Tacos with Chipotle Cream
Would you believe this whole plate is only 240 calories!

Other things I did in January include:

• Took a fun little two hour felting class in the craft room.
• Went to lunch out with the "Mad Hatter" gals.
• Took a beginning watercolor class at the park Art Center trailer.
• Joined with others to march in the 2018 Women's March in Riverside.
• Participated in a group "postcard writing" session to support Julia Peacock, a Democrat public school teacher running for US Congress against the Republican incumbent. 
• Watched the 2018 season of "Grace and Frankie", a wonderful comedy on Netflix starting Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. When Craig watches sports in one room of the coach, I often go into the other and watch something else.
• We watched Season 7 of the "Game of Thrones" together. We don't have HBO, so we have bought each season from Amazon as it has become available. 
• And we both relaxed and read a few new books.
• Finally I have spent many hours reviewing information and making reservations at State and National parks for our summer adventure. North to Oregon and Washington this year!

The weather here has been much nicer than it was last year at this time. A few cool days, but mostly sunny and pleasant. We really do need more rain though. I hope we get some in February. I won't complain about any accompanying chill.

I end this post with a couple more shots of the beautiful sunsets we have enjoyed from our windows and patio.

A different day. 
I like to play with using a tree as composition element.

Life is good!

Catch-up Part 2 - RV trip to Death Valley and a Christmas Visit

The best part of our Christmas season this year was a visit from our son Gil. 

We last saw him four years ago when he went first to Thailand and then to Myanmar (Burma) to start a new life teaching English as a second language. You can read more about him and his work on his blog at Leaving Amerika. He posts a lot of videos about this travels, and the above link gets you to the first of several he did on his trip to visit us.

He came to the USA for two weeks. The plan was that he would spend the first four days with us, and then we all would go down to San Diego to spend a week with his sister Deidre and her family. We decided it would be fun to take a quick RV trip to Death Valley while he was with just us. 

Since we were going to pick him up at LAX  in early evening, I decided it might be good to stay at a park closer to Los Angles, and leave the Alfa there while we drove to the Airport. I choose Prado Regional Park, because we had been there before, and it is East of LA so we could avoid heavy traffic when we took off for Death Valley the next morning. It really worked out well!

We dry camped at Death Valley for three nights. Gil used the pull out couch-bed, and it seemed OK.

Since this was only 12 days after my surgery, I had my arm in a sling, and could not even put my hand through a sleeve. I put together this highly fashionable get up with clothes from Goodwill. The underdress is a sort of sundress with an elastic top, that I could put on from the bottom up and leave the shoulder strap off. I was able to find two, so I could alternate and toss one in the wash while wearing the other. They were quite short, so modesty required my wearing long pants. The shirt is a 2XL man's shirt that was big enough to button over my sling. I also had a big black sweater.  

Craig, Gil, and Merikay in Death Valley

The weather in the Valley was perfect! Sunny and warm. We enjoyed seeing the geological sites and having a great family visit.

It was nice to have Gil to ourselves for a few days before  Christmas.

We took a short, easy hike through Golden Canyon. The rock formations are amazing.

Artists Pallet as seen from Artists Drive

Craig and I have been there before, but were happy to return a second time.

Not Bee Hives

On our second day we took a ride to a farther place in the park to see the Charcoal Kilns.

On Friday, December 15, we drove back to Jojoba Hills, and spent one night there. This gave us a chance to show Gil our spot there and the nice features of the park. 

On Saturday, we left the Alfa there and drove down to our daughter's home where we had an early holiday celebration on Sunday. This was because they were all going off to New Zealand at the end of the week.  [From Craig] This picture and the next 3 were the first ones taken with my new Nikon D850, which was delivered to Deidre's a few days before.

Deidre

Deidre is always a great cook. In the past I have been able to help out with meals preparation when we visit, but my handicap sidelined me this time.

Gil

Gil doesn't cook much at home, but was quite willing to lend a hand in the kitchen.

We have always enjoyed playing games on holidays. This was a word game that our English-teacher son was checking out as a possible game to take back for his classroom. (Craig was the fourth player and the photographer.)

The days passed quickly, with warm family time. Soon it was time for them all to leave. For us the date of December 25 is not important. It is the family get together for the holiday that has meaning, and we did that on the 17th and all week!

We did not go back to Jojoba when everyone left. Instead we stayed and took care of their golden retriever Sandy. 

We tried to go to the San Diego Zoo one afternoon (without the dog), but were turned off by the crowd and the inability to find a parking space in the Zoo's parking lot!

On another day we went over to Balboa Park and walked through the Museum of Man. We have visited the park many times and always find something different to enjoy.

The roots of a tree at Balboa Park

Of course we took the dog for evening walks down to the cliffs. It is such a beautiful place!

Well, this ends my catch up post. 

One last picture
was taken with my almost-new camera!

Catch Up, Part One: Merikay's surgery and more

It has been almost four months since I have posted to this blog. 

I started writing this post in early December, but got bogged down because I was, for about five weeks, a one handed person. 

You see, in August while in Alaska, I took quite a fall and hurt my left shoulder.  There followed a four month period of waiting for it to get better, and treating it at a walk-in clinic in Alaska, X-rays in San Diego, physical therapy, two cortisone shots, and finally an MRI. I ended up getting surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and damaged tendon. 

The first few days after surgery were tough, but since then the biggest bother has been the inability to use my arm. I had plenty of discomfort, and continued to wear a sling until the first week in January when I saw the surgeon again.

I started Physical Therapy in Temecula on January 9. I asked Craig to go with me so he can be my 'Nurse Ratchet' and push me to do all that I should.  I know without help, I'm likely to wimp out on it.

Except for that, and taking care of some other things like getting the Alfa body work done, it has been a pretty quiet autumn. We stayed with our daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons in San Diego while the work was done. 

Jeremy (17) and Dylan (14)

During that stay, our older grandson, Jeremy, had his Eagle Scout final review. He had put it off until this fall so that we could share it with him.

We are very proud of him.






Our daughter's home is only two blocks from the cliffs, and we enjoy walking there when visiting. It is a beautiful place to get to know my new camera, a Sony RX10 iii.

There are often surfers out below the cliffs. 

This shot is with the widest angle setting, which the camera comes up on when first turned on.

I tried out the zoom here. 

We went down to the tide pools below the cliffs.

There I did another test of the lens range  to see how it did on capturing this very small crab and whatever those things are in the hole behind him.

I think I am going to have fun with it this summer after my shoulder gets better and I can hold a camera again. But for now, I am posting some others I took before the surgery!

We picked up the Alfa and settled back into our spot at Jojoba Hills on October 11. 

Speaking of our spot, our location is both good and bad.

Having an unshaded western exposure is not good in summer or hot weather because the sun  really heats up the coach and makes it harder for the AC to keep up.

But in cool weather, the same exposure warms the coach in the afternoons and also give us a great vantage point to see the most spectacular sunsets.

I've had some fun playing with reflections:

And with seeing silhouettes:

This weather vane is on top of a neighbors shed. I had not noticed it before the evening I went out with my camera to shoot the sunset.

Before my surgery on November 29, Craig and I started a big project on the Alfa: the removal of the decals on her sides and back. 

For my non-rving friends:  RVs that are colored, with elaborate swirling patterns, have "full body paint." Some white RVs also are fully painted, but some, like ours have just the base white of the fiberglass with the swooshes and stripes applied as decals. Over the years, the decals fade and crack. (See the window reflection picture above.)

Removal is not an easy job. Craig first removed the colored layer of the decals using a heat gun, a scraper, and for some, a 3M Stripe Off Wheel. Then we both spent many hours removing the glue left behind by rubbing and wiping with paper towels saturated with acetone. We are not quite finished with that step because we ran out of work time before my surgery. I had been able to help then, even though it hurt a bit, but now, after surgery, it will be a long time before I can reach and rub again. So Craig will have to finish the job by himself.  

When all of the glue has been removed, there will still be shiny shadows where the decals had been.

It is hard to see them in this picture, but if you look just forward from the back windows you can see where a decal had been.

 We are not sure what the next step will be. We are considering having new swooshes and stripes painted on, or having a full body paint job done, or just leaving it all white and getting it buffed and re jell-coated. For now just finishing the glue removal is a big enough job to  think about!

To be continued:  

 I promise