I spent a couple of hours on the pickleball courts Thursday morning at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. My real task for the day was changing the oil and filters on our Can-Am Spyder. Here at Mission Bay RV Resort, working on vehicles is prohibited. So, I parked the Spyder in the overflow lot next to our trailer and went to work. I was arguably still on the property, but I thought I could get it done without raising an issue. Doing the work in our site would have been a problem for sure.

Oil changes on the Spyder take a lot of time. To access the crankcase drain plug and oil filter housings, you have to remove the plastic body work from the left side and also the tray under the engine. There are two drain plugs – one for the crankcase and one for the oil reservoir. There are also two oil filters on our model – one for the engine and another for the hydraulically operated shift mechanism that utilizes engine oil.

The job took me about an hour and half. While I was working on the Spyder, maintenance personnel from the park cruised by on golf carts several times. Most didn’t take any notice of me, but a couple of them just waved at me as they passed by. I was careful not to spill any oil or leave a mess.

Thursday night Donna came home from her trip to Atlanta around 7pm. Her TV appearance went well, but the trip overall was a disaster. When she entered the security check at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, she opened her carry-on bag to remove her laptop computer. The laptop case and computer weren’t in her bag! She remembered putting it under her sweater in the bag. However, her bag wasn’t in sight or under her control at all times that morning and it’s a mystery when and where the laptop went missing.

The problem was made worse when she figured out that her back-up to an external hard drive wasn’t properly completed. The eight chapters of the book she’s been writing for the last two months didn’t back up and are gone with her laptop. It’s an unbelievable situation. There’s no way she can meet the December 20 deadline now.

Depite feeling really low on Friday, Donna soldiered on and put up Christmas decorations inside and out. She put up lights on the coach and our little tree in our site.

Christmas decorations

I don’t have any exciting events or pictures to add at this time – things have been fairly routine here. As this is our fourth winter here at Mission Bay RV Resort, it’s easy for us to fall into a routine.

One thing that seems different this year is the weather. It’s colder than usual and we’ve had more cloudy days than I remember in the past. Usually the rainy season comes around Christmas time and runs through February. But rainy and cold in San Diego are relative terms – February is the wettest month with about two inches of rain for the month. The average temperature reaches a high in the mid – 60s from December through February.

Friday was cool with a high in the upper 60s. Clouds moved in overnight and this morning we have a low marine layer and I wonder if it will burn off today. There’s a chance of showers tonight – the area could use some rain and I don’t mind when it happens overnight.