Still getting organized, and noisy neighbors : )

WELCOME to two new Followers:  Lizzie Jack and Jim and Sandie!

Lizzie Jack I'm glad you are coming along with me and Katie on our new adventure.  I don't see a blog listed for you, let me know if you have one, or start one!  Jim and Sandie, I was surprised to see I wasn't a Follower on your blog, because I know I've read lots of your posts, but I wasn't, so I signed onto your post today, and it looks like you did the same on mine. Welcome aboard to my new followers, and I hope you enjoy following Me and My Dog! : )

Yesterday was a busy day. I was feeling pretty good, and I decided to take care of some of the things that needed taking care of.

First I want to show you my noisy neighbors.  Last night as I was laying there with my bunk window open, I kept hearing noises near The Palms.  The stairs to the lake path are pretty close to me, but this was closer.  Like right under my window.  I ignored it, thinking someone was veering a little close on their dog’s night-time potty walk.  But the noise kept up, and I thought, there must be some kids playing by the tree right near my window.  I looked out, and saw something going up the tree.  I climbed down and got my camera, opened the window and waited. 

There was a lot of rattling inside the tree, the leaves were really rustling.  I took a few shots, hoping to get something in the tree.  Then… here come a couple of raccoons.  One is coming down, and the other (if you click on the photo to enlarge) is partially visible in the leaves on the right side of the trunk. 

 My noisy neighbors, leaving the neighborhood.

 The second critter climbing down the tree.

They were fat little critters.  I don’t know how they nest, but I hope there isn’t a nest in the tree.  There were little squeaky noises when they were both in the tree moving around, and I wondered if they were feeding their babies.  Like birds.  Or if  it was the raccoons communicating with each other - like, "What was that flash??  Let's get outta here!" 

Katie and I went to Wal-Mart and then La Mesa RV and got a few things for The Palms.  We got an attachment for our Winegard Antenna, a Wingman - thanks Fred!   (He's been e-mailing me some great information.)  Fred, do you have a blog?  If so, leave me a comment and I'll give you appropriate credit for all your good ideas.

 Winegard Wingman

You were right; it did give me a few more channels in English. The attachment was really easy to connect to the antenna, except that my fingers and thumbs couldn’t push the plugs in completely. Luckily Larry, my neighbor, was walking by and climbed on the roof with me and pushed them in all the way.  

Fred also sent me a link to a site that tells you which channels are available in your area if you type in your address.  Click here for that site. 

I messed around a little more with my TV and the converter box. The box was in the cupboard, and it has to be out for the remote to access it.  So I pulled the wires through the hole in the side of the cupboard and re-connected them. Then I Velcro’d the converter to the bottom of the RV. It didn’t look super secure, so I Scotch taped it on the back to one of the bars.  Not too pretty, but it doesn’t show, and it’s holding, and now the remote works from the living room or bunk and I don’t have to keep the cupboard door open. I'll probably get some raffia or something stronger to secure it more permanently.

 Converter attached to bottom of TV

While I was in Wal-Mart I saw the memory foam mattresses, and they had a full size. My Wal-Mart only had twin and queen and I needed the "full" size, so I picked one up.  When we got home I opened it up and let it air out and puff up. It didn’t smell bad, I was expecting an unpleasant odor, I’ve heard a lot about that, but this one was okay.  I took down the twin air mattress and all the pillows and bedding and deflated the mattress. Then I got the memory foam in the cover it came with, wrapped my mattress cover around it, and hefted it up into the bunk.  Then I put on the sheet and comforter.  What a workout all that was! I’m thinking changing the linens on the bed might be the hardest thing I do on this adventure.

I also got some Throat Coat tea and and Organic Echinacea Plus tea by Traditional Medicinals – thanks Teri.  I’m going to try the Throat Coat today. 

Thanks to Jim and Sandie - I think your suggestion of using a paper towel holder for T.P. is a good one. After I sent you the e-mail, I realized you did say "paper towel" holder.  I have that on my shopping list.

Katie and I took a long walk late afternoon. We walked over to the pool, washing machine/dryer area and community building.  I thought we were further away, but it’s not a bad walk.  

I was anxious to try out the new mattress, so I decided to watch some TV in bed.  It’s pretty comfortable, but there wasn’t anything interesting on TV, so I gave up and turned off the lights.  That's when I heard the "noisy neighbors."  (I woke up without a back ache, so far...so good for the new mattress.)

I plan to stay in camp today and just take it easy. Watch TV, read blogs, Kindle reading, napping maybe.  Right now, time for lunch!

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  : )

I have TV! : )

I woke up feeling much better today - I wasn't expecting that!  But I'll take it!

Had a nice day, I went to two RV places to do some shopping, but they were both closed on Sunday, so I'll try again next week. Maybe tomorrow.

I need levelers still.  And a small cutting board.  I also don't have a T.P. holder. The bathroom is good sized, considering, but there isn't anywhere to put a T.P. holder, even a freestanding one, so I thought I'd see if they had any suggestions.  I've just been leaving the roll on the counter, and wouldn't mind continuing to do that, but I'd like to put it in a box or holder of some kind that would look nice.  I'll see what they say.

We went to Target and got a few things. They have a nice set of hangers that are pretty skinny and have narrow holder tops that fit into the slots in my closet, and they are fuzzy, so things won't slide off.  This is my closet now:

These are the new hangers:

Tomorrow I'm going to switch out the hangers and I'll show you the difference they make.

Here are a couple of ducks we saw on our afternoon walk along the lake.  I like the first one. I've never seen that kind of duck before.

 He's so pretty, and has a short neck.

 I think this is a Mallard, right?

I've been asked to post photos of the area around The Palms, so I took some pictures out the windows for you to see.

These are, of course, the actual photos, but in reality we are all pretty close together. Not all the RVs are really close, but right where I am, it's only for front-in, shorter rigs. Luckily I haven't had anyone pull in to my left yet, which gives me a feeling of lots of room, and the view out the cab windows is really nice, so depending on where I sit, I have a different view.

There are some kids here, and lots of people riding bikes around, walking their dogs, but everyone is pretty quiet. When it's dark, it's quiet.  Mornings are also quiet.  I was expecting more noise and more people congregating around their rigs, but I'm not seeing that.  Across from my kitchen window is a campground host, I guess a work camping couple. I've met a few people, but I haven't been out much except walking Katie.

 View out my kitchen window. On the right is the empty spot.

 View from the window over the couch.  

The stairs on the right lead down to the path that circles the lake.

 View out the small kitchen window - that's my neighbor with the flag.

 Another view out the couch window - the stairs and a little of the lake, and some cabins.

Looking out the cab window - in front of The Palms.

That is the path we take on our walks.

So, even though we're pretty close together, there are still nice views out each window.

Another thing I got at Target today was a converter for my TV. I have an older Magnavox TV that came with The Palms, but I wasn't getting any channels. I was going to just use my laptop for TV, but that didn't work. It took too long to stream the contents, and would stop and start, really frustrating.  Enough to make me start reading more!  So, today I broke down and got the converter.  It works fine, but I get only three channels in English. Since I'm so close to the Mexican border, I get LOTS of channels in Spanish.  I'm hoping that when I travel north I'll get more channels in English.

From Me and My Dog, I hope you had a nice Sunday, everyone!  : )

First cooked meal from the kitchen in The Palms...Magna pots review

From Monday, May 30

The spaghetti sauce I cooked at the beach was soooo good.  I was really surprised.  I threw away a lot of food from the condo, and still have food in the fridge and cupboard there, but did bring a few things to The Palms.  Here is what I found in the kitchen cupboards and fridge that was usable:

I had some little bags of angel hair pasta, and I used a half bag for the pasta.

butter
1 can of cut up tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1/3 large yellow onion
about 1/2 cup low fat sour cream
some marinated artichoke hearts
salt and pepper

I mashed the onions in my Magic Bullet and sauteed them in about 3T butter.  Then I just added the can of tomatoes, tomato paste and stirred.  It was kind of thick so I added the sour cream.  Then I looked through the fridge again and saw the marinated artichoke hearts.  I get the large jar at Costco, and transferred about 1/3 of what was left at the condo into a container and brought them with me.  I put in about 10 or so.  I think they added a little spice, too, because I only had salt and pepper.  Then I put in a little water to thin it more, put on the pan lid and left it for about 20 minutes while the noodles and bread were cooking.

Angel hair pasta drained and ready to serve

 And here we are:  first meal cooked on the stove in The Palms

See the artichoke hearts in the sauce?

In a past blog post I wrote about throw-together meals using just what's on hand, sometimes it's a success and sometimes it's in the garbage.  This one is a definite success.  And I have enough left over for another 3 or 4 meals.  I'm not sure I like spaghetti that much, but I might freeze some.

I swear, if I have sour cream and/or artichoke hearts in a recipe it's a winner (for me).

The new pans were great, cooked evenly, seemed fine, no problems.  Nothing spattered on the stove top, I don't know why, maybe I put the lid on early enough - usually I get the stove dirty when I cook something like this.  The lid fit perfectly.  They cleaned up easy, too.  I put the left overs into a container and left the pots on the stove while I ate.  Later when I went back to wash them, I was surprised at how easy it was to clean the leftover sauce from the pot.  All in all, completely happy with them. I washed and dried them, and put them back - nested together and attached the bungee cord. One thing I will say, though, is there is a small scratch inside the large pan. This time I wrapped them all in the plastic bags they came in, and brought coffee filters from home that I will put in between the pots next time I use them so they won't scratch each other.

The stove cook-top was big enough, and the burners lit easily and were easy to cook on. 

I used the oven part of my toaster oven for the bread, and it was perfect.  It's small and close, so halfway through I turned the toast over to toast both sides.  In my oven in the condo I didn't have to do that, but this was toasting it pretty fast on one side and not at all yet on the other, so I guess I'll have to watch for that to make sure both sides of things are getting baked/toasted through.

I just finished cleaning my plate while I'm typing this, and it was really good. The pots get a two thumbs up, and so do the stove and toaster/oven.

Thursday, June 2

I know there are a lot of problems with Blogger lately, I've experienced some, too.  But you know what it's doing to me  - that I haven't read anyone complaining about?  I've been reading your blogs every day, hardy missing any.  Then I'll click on one and there will be three days worth, or more.  It keeps happening, and then  I have to go back and and leave comments on old posts and work my way forward.

So, if you aren't getting many comments from me lately, that might be why.  It's not happening with everyone, but enough that I'm aware of missing some.  I was up to date with Gypsy, and all of a sudden she was in New York, and I missed half her trip, same thing with Travels with Emma and Happily Hitched - and those are just a few. Are you having problems with that, too?

Saturday, June 4

Now we're up to date.  I had bits and pieces that didn't fit anywhere, and since I've been sick all day I haven't done anything to write about.  And I don't feel like writing tonight.  This is a good day to post the older snippets.

I think I have a full blown sinus infection, if it isn't better by Monday I'll call the doctor and see if I can get something to knock it out. I slept in late, than took a long nap and now I'm going to bed again when I finish this.  Katie and I did take a couple of walks today, there is a duck in the lake with five ducklings, so cute. I'll bring my camera tomorrow and see if they are still along the edge where we've been walking.

I just had hot tea and toast for dinner.  It's all that sounded good, and all I felt like fixing.  I got some Dudley's bread at Henry's Market, and it's really good toasted.

Katie is really friendly with the kids we've met during our walks, but she is kind of leery of the dogs. I'm hoping she will get more socialized while we're here. She's very submissive.  

I hate being sick, but one of the good things about being sick on a weekend now that I'm retired is I don't feel like I'm getting cheated out of a day.  If I sleep through the next few days getting better, I still have tons of days following to do what I want.  I used to hate wasting a day off being sick. 

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get to an RV store.  I need something to better level The Palms. We're not bad, but not spot-on level.

From Me and My Dog, Katie, have a great Saturday night, everyone!     : )

First morning of retirement

Today is the first day of retirement for me, at least that is what I've been thinking, but it doesn't really seem different yet. Since I always have Friday off, today is like a normal Friday off, and then I have the weekend.  I think Monday is actually my first day of retirement. But I have worked my last day.
 

 My picnic table is on this side

Anyway, here I am, no scheduled work anymore, unless I work remotely from The Palms.  I do have some things to do for Tom, but I'm a little under the weather today and will probably take it easy for a few days.

When I got home from work yesterday I was soooo tired and had a sore throat. I'm wondering if that's why I've been so tired the last few days. I attributed it to the stress of all the changes going on in my life, but now I'm thinking my body was trying to fight off some germs.  I had some toast and tea and went to bed at 6:30 last night.  I woke up at 10:30 and read blogs for a  couple of hours, then slept again until 7:30 am. I hate going to bed with a sore throat.  And waking up with one.

Katie and I took our walk around 8:30. We took our garbage over to the garbage area, and met our next door  neighbor.  A man who has a rig the same size as The Palms, he's a single man about my age traveling with two cats in a Fleetwood Jamboree.  We talked for a while and exchanged stories, he's very nice and seems to be a quiet neighbor. I wasn't sure if anyone was even there for the past two days. Then Katie and I went on with our walk. There is a pathway right below our front bumper, and we took that path around the lake a bit.

Overlooking a walking path that follows the lake edge

 The floating cabins across the lake

 Katie during our walk on Thursday evening.

 Walking this morning

The path by the water near our site

 About the only photo with her head up.

She's very interested in all the new smells.

Some sort of dove - different than the ones at my condo

We spent most of the day at the condo, doing the laundry, checking things out. My washing machine was leaking at one of the connections, so I taped it and this time it held and I was able to do a load with no leaks.  When we got there, three workmen were putting new rain gutters on the front and back of my condo. They look nice.

I was really tired and finally gave up and took a nap in my sleeping bag, which is staying at the condo for when I stay there.  I had dinner, and then we packed up the laundry and came back to The Palms.

From Me and My Dog, have a good Friday evening, everyone!  : )

I'm all moved into Santee Lakes!

I'm all moved into Santee Lakes - an official full-timer!

My first full hook-up camp site.  My first paid-for camp site.  It was surprisingly easy.  My son, Tom, helped me out and got me all hooked up. I watched carefully so I will be able to do it next time.  He's never been at a full hook-up site before, but I think men just know these things.  We dumped the grey and black tanks, so I'm ready to go.

We got The Palms all set up and then went back to work, where I finished the day and then came back here after work. 

When I got home from work, I got everything set up inside and tested out the water, electricity and added the chemicals and some water to the black tank.  The park ranger said it was better to keep the hoses closed and open them when they are getting full.  Better than leaving them open while I'm parked for the month, so that's what I'm doing.

This month will be a learning experience for me, so if I mention something I'm doing or not doing that isn't right, please feel free to comment and set me straight. 

It a nice evening, but a little breezy.  Katie and I took a walk around one side of the back of our lake when we got home.  Poor Katie is so tired. She's used to having four days a week to sleep all day, and lately she's been with me every day and wakes up every time I move.  Today she slept in her bed in the car while I was at work, and she wouldn't get up.  Right now she's again asleep in her bed.  It's going to be an adjustment for her.  Kind of like the wife who has her husband retire and all of a sudden he's underfoot every day, disturbing her routine. Katie's going to have to get used to having me around every day.

I cooked some spaghetti at the beach on Monday - and I'm having leftovers tonight.  I'm starving, so I'm going to heat it up now.  I have a post ready publish about that meal and the Magma pots review, but I haven't had a chance to post it yet.  Maybe tomorrow.  It was soooo good!

Sorry, no photos tonight. I'm going to have to remember to bring my camera on our walkabouts. There was the coolest bird at the lake edge, maybe tomorrow I'll see him again when I have my camera.

From Me and My Dog, have a great June 1, everyone!  : )