I rode the scooter to Dr. Leek’s office Friday morning. He examined my hand and removed the stitches. He said it looked good and now I need to work on motion and hand strength. We set another appointment for four weeks out. He told me I could cancel the appointment if everything is going well three weeks from now.
I knew Donna was busy on her book revision, so I didn’t come straight home. I rode the scooter to Ocean Beach and stopped for lunch. I kicked around the beach. It was a beautiful day. The north end of the beach near the jetty is called Dog Beach. It’s one of the few beaches in the county where dogs are allowed on the sand.
Dog Beach
I made another stop at the Model Yacht Pond. Two guys were sailing their model sailboats on the pond. The sailboats are interesting. The boat in the photo is about 40″ long. Servo motors with clever linkages are used to trim the sails. A servo operating a block-and-tackle on the stern applies tension on the carbon fiber mast. This is used to keep the mast from whipping about in gusty winds. The model sailboats are cool, but I’m a motorhead. I’ll come back to the pond next Sunday to see the power boats.
Radio-controlled model sailboat
Last week, when we bought our new smartphones, Christian (the Verizon guy) told us they would send return packaging via mail in 10 to 14 days to return our old phones. On Thursday, I received an e-mail from Verizon with a USPS label attached and instructions to return my phone by October 24th. This confused me. I went online to the Verizon site and started a chat session to ask what I needed to do. I had two phones to return but only one label, and if I waited to receive the packaging that Christian said we would get, I would miss the October 24th deadline.
I spent an hour online chatting with a customer service representative who didn’t understand my issue. She was also the slowest typist ever. I would sit and stare at my screen which said a message was being typed for several minutes before I would receive a one-line question. I finally came to the conclusion that we have two returns with different instructions. My old Samsung S4 needed to be sent with the label that was e-mailed to me. Donna’s old Samsung SII will be sent when we receive the packaging for it. There’s still a disparity in the credit amount we should get for the old phones. I need to go back to the Verizon store and straighten that out, the customer service representative had me going in circles until I gave up and ended the chat.
On Friday night, Donna’s sister, Linda joined us for dinner. I grilled a Morrocan-spiced rack of lamb which Donna served with a brown rice pilaf and sauteed zucchini, peppers and onions. Later we watched an old movie – My Cousin Vinny. It’s a great movie. Joe Peschi and Marissa Tomei are both outstanding in this comedy classic.
Morrocan-spiced rack of lamb
Saturday morning I rode over to the Pacific Beach post office and mailed my old phone. At 11am, my daughter, Shauna, picked me up. We made the 90-minute drive up to Menifee to visit my stepdad, Ken. We stopped at the Kentucky Fried Chicken near his place and bought an eight-piece meal to have for lunch with Ken. Ken loves Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can’t even remember the last time I had it.
Anyway, we sat and talked for a couple of hours before we headed back. On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe’s in the La Jolla Village Square. Donna had sent me a text message with a long list of groceries to pick up there. I’m glad Shauna was with me because the store was a zoo and she knew where to find everything.
Donna and Linda were in Lakeside at a country music festival with Mona. They made plans to attend this event a few weeks ago when Mona told them she had two extra tickets.
Linda, Mona and Donna at the country music festival
Last night I watched an entertaining Moto GP race race from Phillip Island, Australia. I won’t spoil the results in case a reader has it recorded. Donna came home from the festival around 9:30pm, halfway through the race.
The Mission Bay RV Resort has the usual weekend crowd with lots of kids in the park. Today is NFL football day. I think I’ll do some hand exercises while I watch the games. I broke out my number 14 Dan Fouts throwback jersey – I hope to see the Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs and go 6-1.