February 1, 2000, Tuesday- a wash job was in order this morning for Hobbes and the picnic table gave him enough elevation to save our backs. After a few walks around the park, he was dry enough to put into the car for our trip into the Temecula area. Our park is 18 miles east of Temecula, and in the middle of nowhere. Based on the growth in Temecula, it won't be long before the development reaches this area. Everywhere you look, the bulldozers were pushing dirt, new homes and shopping centers coming out of the ground, and land sale signs were on every piece of dirt.
February 2, 2000, Wednesday- our second windy day in the Outdoor Resort's. Windy enough that we didn't feel like riding the bikes or swinging the golf clubs on the five holes that are open on the par three course. We did find that AT&T is closing out people from the one rate program that had been available to all. If your address was not in their home service area- it was sayonara. A check of Livingston Texas showed we were treading on thin ice. So, a quick change of address to Steve's in Denver will hopefully let us continue with our current setup. We cruised into Temecula, 18 miles or so away, and did some light shopping in the Target before heading back to the ranch.
The Outdoor Resorts group is not real user friendly with their focus on lot sales and not rentals. When we checked in, the word was "no e-mail hookups". And with marginal cell service at the coach- when we went into town or drove to the top of the nearby hillside, we picked up mail over the cell phone. Today's download was 13 inbound. The first 6 pieces came in a few seconds, then the 7th started, and the line across the screen was going no place. It was obvious the some graphics were inbound. After 20 minutes, and less then a third of the way downloaded- we were bounced off-line. Fortunately the park just added e-mail service today, and they hadn't figured out what the charge should be- so we hooked up free, and it took 12 minutes over a land line to download this message. Karen, bless her heart, had scanned in the yellow pages for kennels in Phoenix, and was e-mailing a file of 900KB. Since there were only 3 kennels on the display page- a 3 line text version would have been easier. Next week we'll try to book space for Hobbes when we head to NYC for a bar mitzvah, and our sailing trip, all in March.
After dinner, we met Barbara and Dick in the club house for a few games of euchre. It was fun to play with folks that were good card players- it kept the game moving and interesting.
February 3, 2000, Thursday- it was a morning of projects. Sue & I finished a drape/visibility curtain for the first bay- so that the "stuff" is hidden while the cabinet is open with Hobbes' leash, or the TV being on. It looks 100% better already. Our new indoor/outdoor thermometer is hung, and a few dozen other little jobs were finished. Spoke to Steve today after his cardiologist appointment. It seems that on December 3, in an hour and a half, his heart "corrected" some 92 times by the pacemaker/defibrillator. It was during a period that he had returned from too much travel, with a bad cold, and was driving to Santa Fe from Denver, with Debi, during a snowstorm. Scary!
After dinner we went to the clubhouse and shot a round of pool. It takes a while to get the eye back and the hand to follow.
February 4, 2000, Friday- what a difference the wind makes. The last two days had calm winds to a light breeze. It made the neighborhood livable. Since we are in the Temecula wine country, we followed a recommendation of some folks that we met in Palm Springs, and did lunch at the Thornton Winery. What a great experience. The food was first class plus, and a bottle of award winning wine finished off the experience to the nines! The entire "wine region" is about five miles long, and although there are acres and acres of grapes, it looks like each vineyard must purchase truckloads of grapes in order to produce the required volume in order to be profitable.
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February 5, 2000, Saturday- each time that we used to fly to San Diego from Colorado, the radio beacons on the ground would provide a highway to follow in the air. As we've made our way through the southwest, we've past most of the ones on the route- Grand Junction, CO, Moab, Bryce Canyon and Mormon Mesa, UT, Las Vegas, NV, 29 Palms, and Thermal in CA. The last unseen town was Julian. So, it as 46 miles down the country road, to the southeast, and off we went, viewing the mountains, flats, and vistas throughout. Arriving in the middle of nowhere, Julian, we were in for a big surprise. The four or five block downtown, full of historic buildings, was teeming with tourists. Every business was a quaint eatery, a real estate office, or a gallery. We had to go back three blocks to find a parking space. Who would have thought that such a place existed, an hour plus from the nearest real towns. Our tour then headed west back towards Encinada, and then north to the Temecula area. Tomorrow, towards San Diego we go.
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