Category Archives: California

Pelicans Fishing

We’ve had beautiful weather since Christmas here at Mission Bay RV Resort. It gets better every day. On Monday morning, Donna and I took a walk around the point that separates De Anza Cove from Rose Inlet and Fiesta Bay. There was a wide variety of ducks in the bay along the point.

Ducks on the bay

As we walked along, a brown pelican glided past us about 15-20 feet above the water. It pulled up suddenly then folded its wings and dove headfirst into the water. A few seconds later it surfaced and swallowed a fish it caught. We watched it repeat this performance four times.

As we rounded the point, we saw two more pelicans performing this fishing feat. It looked like they never miss – each time they dove they came up with a fish.

At the end of our loop, I came back to the coach while Donna continued on. She took an easy training run of four miles along the bay. I tracked her run with the Garmin Connect app – it sends a link to my e-mail and I can track her activity. (We’re thinking this will come in handy when she’s out hiking on her own.)

I’ve neglected my guitar for quite a while. In the afternoon, I plugged my Gibson ES-339 into my amp stand and worked on a song I haven’t played since we left Michigan. It’s a song by Weezer recorded in 2000 called Island in the Sun. I surprised myself – after about half an hour I was playing it better than ever.

I first learned this song when I joined a band called BackTrack. My friend, Gerhard Rauch is the leader of this group. When I joined, I was told it was a classic rock band. This sounded good to me – I was thinking the music would be Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Santana, etc.

The group had been practicing together for a while before I came along. Gerhard’s son, Ben, was playing lead guitar but he was leaving the band. I planned to take his place. They already had a play list going. Unfortunate for me, the play list was unfamiliar.

Some of the songs were more 60s pop than classic rock – like Time Won’t Let Me by the Outsiders or Gimme Some Lovin‘ by the Spencer Davis Group. Other songs were 90s music like Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears or the aforementioned Weezer song.

We played a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune I was familiar with – Lodi. We also played a couple of Tom Petty songs I enjoyed. The playlist included a song by Guess Who that was a real rocker, but I had never heard it before – Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon.

I was behind the eight ball trying to learn the song list while they were adding new songs every week. I was also working long hours in the office at the time. It didn’t work out – after a few months we mutually agreed to part ways. It was a fun time but also a stressful period. I was so looking forward to retirement and a life of leisure, playing whenever and whatever I wanted. Anyway, it was good to pick up my guitar again.

Donna wanted to rest on Tuesday – she’s on a training schedule for her 15k race a week from Saturday. I went to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center to play pickleball. I hadn’t played in over a week. It was a good time and I got some needed exercise over two and half hours.

I saw the most beautiful sunset on Tuesday evening as I drove along east Mission Bay. By the time I was able to stop and get out to take a picture, the sun had set. I was able to capture some of the color anyway, but I was few minutes behind the best display.

Looking across De Anza Cove toward the RV park at sundown

We have about two and a half weeks left here in San Diego before we move on to Arizona. I’ve been pretty lazy and I’ll have to get after a few things before we go.

The temperature reached 70 degrees yesterday. Today’s forecast calls for clear skies and mid-70s. We’ll go to Ocean Beach to play pickleball, then I’ll get out and enjoy the weather while Donna works on an article that’s due Friday.

Christmas Dinner with Friends

With Christmas falling on Sunday this year, most of the weekend’s NFL action was played on Saturday. It was was a relatively cold day here in San Diego – the high temperature on Saturday was only 59 degrees. It was windy with rain showers – a good day to be indoors and watch football.

The first game was set to kick off at 10am. I tuned in the satellite around 9:30am and had a problem. The Dish Network satellite signal was lost or interrupted every 10 seconds or so – I couldn’t stay locked on a channel. This puzzled me as the satellite was fine the last time I used it.

I thought about what had changed since Thursday night. I remembered seeing a rig with an exposed Dish satellite on the roof in the RV park and was surprised to see how high it was aimed in the sky. I assumed the satellites were lower in the southern sky, but at this latitude the dish points up at a high angle. Our actual antenna dish is hidden under a plastic dome so I don’t see where it’s pointed. I knew the Dish Network satellites here are at an azimuth of 158 and 171 degrees – almost due south.

Then I thought about the weather. On Thursday it was cloudy and raining – so no change there. But Saturday we had wind – a 20-25mph wind with gusts to 40mph. The tree at the front of our site was whipping around. I thought maybe a tree branch was blowing across the line of sight to the satellite. I hadn’t thought of this before because I didn’t think the line of sight was a high as it is.

I pulled the jacks up, fed about three feet of our power cable and water hose out then fired up the engine. I moved the coach forward about two feet to see if this would take the tree branches out of the path to the satellite. Bingo! Now I had great reception on all HD channels.

So, I was a couch potato all day Saturday. I watched football and read a book inbetween games.

Christmas morning we opened presents. The weather was much nicer – clear blue skies and the wind had abated. It was still cool out, but felt much warmer in sun. Donna went out for a long training run – she has less than two weeks until her 15k race. She ran a loop around east Mission Bay taking the path to Sea World then crossing the Ingraham Street bridges before coming back along Crown Point and over Rose Creek. It was a nine-mile loop and I was able to track her progress via the Garmin connect app that was synched with her Garmin GPS watch.

Later we joined Kris and Tom Downey and their daughter Meg in their Tiffin Allegro Bus. Tom mixed up Bloody Mary’s and we watched the Pittsburgh Steelers vs Baltimore Ravens game. It was an entertaining game. Tom had cooked prime rib on his Traeger grill and it was cooked to perfection. Donna made a side dish of maple-chile roasted Brussel sprouts with butternut squash and Kris had a side of mashed red potatoes with sweet potato.

Christmas dinner plate

I managed to snap a photo of the dinner plate but was so engrossed in the football games and conversation with Tom I neglected to take any other photos. We also had a mid-western dessert dish called seafoam salad – it was very good. It’s a tangy lime jello mixed with whipped cream over canned pears.

Tom and I sipped Woodford Reserve bourbon after dinner. It was an enjoyable evening.

Today we expect a few high, thin clouds but no rain. So far we’ve had more than two inches of rain here in December – much more than the average of 1.53 inches. I don’t have any plans for the day – we’ll see what pans out.

Blazing Noodles

The rain continued on Friday. Nearly three-quarters of an inch fell on Thursday and Friday, bringing the total for the month over 1.6 inches. This is more than the average December total in San Diego.

Donna and I drove up to Temecula to meet my step-dad, Ken for lunch. He wanted to have lunch at the Pechanga Casino. The Pechanga Casino is on the Pechanga Indian Reservation and it’s the largest casino in California. The casino floor encompasses 188,000 square feet – it’s larger than the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It’s not your typical Indian casino.

There are 11 restaurants in the Pechanga Casino. Ken wanted to meet at a restaurant called Blazing Noodles. It was an old favorite of his and my late mother. We posed for a couple of photos in front of a large Christmas tree in front of the restaurant.

Donna and Ken at Pechanga

Me and Ken

 

Blazing Noodles serves Asian style dishes. The food is good and the portions are huge. We all brought home boxes of leftover food. We exchanged Christmas gifts before we left. I may not see Ken again until we return to San Diego in April.

It’s windy here this morning with cloudy skies. It rained hard overnight and more rain is expected today. The current temperature is 56 degrees and it’s not forecast to rise any higher today and tomorrow is supposed to only reach 58 degrees.

We’re looking forward to Christmas dinner with Kris and Tom Downey tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great Christmas weekend.

Pre-Christmas Cocktail Party

It rained most of the morning yesterday. We had dry periods in the afternoon and the temperature reached 72 degrees. On the weather radar it appeared as though the storm tracked to the north of us in the afternoon. This looked good as our friends Sheldon and Jen had invited several people to their place for cocktails and hors d’ouvres at 6pm.

Donna made asparagus spears wrapped with boursin cheese spread on prosciutto to take with us. Several people huddled under the awnings on Sheldon and Jen’s Tiffin Allegro Bus. I commented on the lack of wind being a plus.

Party under the awning

The quality of my photos is poor – the lighting wasn’t ideal. About 10 minutes after we arrived, it started to rain. Then the wind picked up.

After a few minutes, Sheldon decided enough was enough and he started moving food into his coach and herded everyone inside. Their coach is 45 feet long and has four slide-outs. I was surprised to find enough room for everyone to comfortably party – someone said they counted 23 people in the coach.

Our friends Sini Schmitt, Tom and Kris Downey and Iain and Kate Gilbert were there. We had a good time with multiple conversations going on all evening.

Our hosts Jen and Sheldon

Lots of laughs in here

I bugged out when the music got louder and people began dancing. Donna stayed for another hour and came home around 9pm.

It rained off and on all night and the rain continues to fall this morning. Donna was up early to drive Sini to the airport. They had to go downtown first and pick up Sini’s son, Beau. Sini and Beau are spending Christmas in Seattle with her other two sons and daughter-in-law. Sini left her car with us – we’ll pick her up when she returns a week from tomorrow.

I found a new email in my inbox this morning. It was from Healthcare.gov. It told me I needed to finish enrolling. In bold red letters it said “Action Required!” It said I needed to pay my first premium by December 31st and had a link to the Healthcare.gov site.

This is the third time this week I’ve received this email. The thing is, I paid my premium and already received a confirmation from the insurer – Avera. I looked up Avera’s number and called to see if there was a problem. After a few minutes on hold, an agent was able to look up my account in less than thirty seconds and confirm the payment was made. She said the email I received was from the government, not the insurer.

Apparently the Healthcare.gov people send this email to everyone that applied for insurance without bothering to check if they already paid. They call it a reminder. I don’t consider an email with bold red letters telling me action is required a friendly reminder. This is government bureaucracy at work. Enough said.

Today will remain cloudy and cooler with the high in the mid-60s. It looks like it should dry out this afternoon. There are flooded roads this morning, but with the rain tapering off the roads should clear soon.

Getting Healthcare While We’re Covered

With the year rapidly coming to a close, Donna and I needed to finish up on routine health care while we still have coverage. After January 1st, we’ll join the ranks in ACA healthcare market place. For us, it basically means we’re self-insured for all but the most catastrophic events. I already posted my rant about the un-affordable debacle that Obamacare created.

On Monday, we both had appointments with Dr. Tim Van Kirk at Eye-Tech for eye exams. Donna’s prescription hadn’t changed, I had a slight change for reading. This exam included a baseline retinal photo showing the current state of the health of our eyes. My left eye is completely healthy with good color in the macular area, nice blood flow and no sign of leakage or diabetes.

Retinal photo of my left eye

My right eye is a different story. I’ve been blind in my right eye since I had a motorcycle racing accident at Spokane Raceway Park 14 years ago. The accident was pretty serious and I sustained a number of injuries including Terson’s Syndrome from head trauma that affected my right optic nerve. The retinal photo looks healthy for the most part – it’s not quite centered correctly because I couldn’t see the target for the photo. The area around the optic nerve – the circular light spot in the photo – shows the damage.

Right optic nerve damage

These photos will be useful in the future as they establish a baseline and can be used for comparison if anything changes. The eye exam was very comprehensive and took over an hour for each of us.

I made the usual Monday happy hour stop at Dan Diego’s and found another Belgian ale on sale for three dollars. This one is distributed by a French Abbey, but it’s brewed at a monastery in Chimay, Belgium. It’s an amber ale, 6% ABV and very tasty.

Mont Des Cats amber ale

I liked the Maredsous I had last week better, but it sold out.

For dinner, Donna made turmeric chicken and served it with Israeli couscous and steamed broccoli. This has become a favorite dish.

Turmeric chicken, Israeli couscous and broccoli

On Tuesday morning, I had another healthcare appointment. It was time for my annual check-up with Dr. Ryan in Point Loma. Everything went well – I just have to wait for the results of blood work – but I feel good.

Tuesday turned out to be a gorgeous day. We had blue skies and the high temperature reached 77 degrees! The wind was light and variable. It doesn’t get much better. I noticed the sail boat which is usually moored in De Anza Cove was gone. The guy that owns it takes it out every few weeks and spends a day cleaning it once a month.

We have three Alpine Coaches clustered together here at Mission Bay RV Resort. One is in the site next to us and one is across the street. They’re both front-door double-slide models while ours is a mid-door triple-slide.

Alpine Coach neighbor – we’re on the left.

In the afternoon I climbed up on the roof of Sini’s coach and took the air conditioner shrouds off again. Some water leaked through the A/C intake grills on the ceiling of her coach. These grills are directly below the A/C evaporator housings. I looked around and didn’t see anything obvious. We sealed a seam on the evaporator housing with silicone, but I’m wondering if there’s a problem with the seal below the unit where it sits on the roof.

On Tuesday night, Donna made mini meatloaves in muffin tins. They were good – she served it with blue cheese smashed red potatoes and sauteed zucchini, peppers and onions.

Mini-meatloaf plate

At sunset, clouds moved in. I wasn’t expecting this. Rain started falling around 9:30pm. It rained off and on overnight and it’s overcast this morning. This wasn’t in yesterday’s forecast. Now the weather guessers are calling for a 40% chance of rain by evening – this will put a damper on the happy hour gathering we were invited to with friends here in the RV park.

Today is the winter solstice – meaning that the sun is at its southernmost point in the sky. It’s the shortest day of sunlight in the northern hemisphere. The actual solstice occurred at 2:44am local time when the north pole was tilted at its farthest point from the sun. Days will start to get longer beginning tomorrow. It’ll be a few months before the longer periods of sunlight bring warmer weather though.

The Coldest Month

We had some weather here in San Diego on Friday. A cold front blew in Thursday evening and brought rain with it. The weather guessers said the rain would start Friday, but it started Thursday night. Over the next 24 hours or so, nearly an inch of precipitation fell. Southern California needs the water, but that was a heavy rain storm by local standards.

The cold front lingered over the weekend although the skies were clear and sunny. The thermometer hovered around 60 degrees for the daily high. Overnight lows were in the mid to upper 40s. It seems unusually cold to me, but looking at the almanac, I see the average high temperature for December is 65 degrees and the average low is 48 degrees – making December the coldest month here on average.

I looked back at this blog to December of 2015 and found it was cold last year too. This week the forecast calls for a warming trend with highs reaching the low 70s before another cold front arrives for Christmas weekend.

We had planned to drive up to Menifee in the rental car on Saturday to have lunch with my step-dad, Ken. He called me in the morning and cancelled saying he had some kind of stomach bug and wasn’t up to company or lunch. We’ll go up there next weekend.

In the afternoon, Mission Bay RV Resort had their annual holiday celebration. They decorated the little grass park area by the snack shack and served pulled pork with beans and potato salad – $7/plate.  We went over there with Sini around 4pm and claimed a table in weak sunlight. We were joined by our friends, Kris and Tom Downey (Open Road 365). There was a guy on a small stage in a white suit and gloves and hat with his face painted white. He would alternate between standing still as a statue and playing guitar and singing. He must have been freezing.

We sat together and talked while we dined and were amused by the attempts of a crew to start fires in portable fire pits. They were trying to light large pieces of wood – logs that had been split into halves and quarters. But without kindling, it wasn’t going to work. They started with newspaper, which burned hot and fast, then went out with the logs barely smoking. Then they tried cardboard – with about the same result. A guy came over with a propane burner on a long tube – it looked like a mini flame thrower – and I think he was successful after several minutes on one of the fire pits. They wanted to cook s’mores over the camp fires. We were cold and cut out of there a little past 5pm.

Donna picked up a few beers for me while out shopping. On Saturday night, I watched the football game on NFL Network and had a seasonal beer from Port Brewing in San Marcos – a town I where I bought my first house in north San Diego County – called Santa’s Little Helper. It’s an Imperial stout. Whenever you see the word Imperial in a beer description, it means it’s a strong ale. This was true for Santa’s Little Helper – it’s 10% alcohol by volume (ABV). It’s a bit heavy with notes of coffee and chocolate.

Santa’s Little Helper

Sunday was another day of NFL football for me. I watched the Kansas City Chiefs lose a heartbreaker when Tennessee kicked a field goal on the last play of the game. Then I tuned in the Chargers game. My Dish Network receiver started losing the satellite signal intermittently for a few seconds. Then the downtime got longer and longer. During the second half, it lost the signal completely. I spent about an hour and a half chatting on the computer with their technical support trying to figure out what was going on. I missed the entire second half of the game. The Dish technical support was no help at all – he had me doing the same tests and checking the same settings – which I had already done before I called them – over and over again.

I followed the play-by-play on my laptop and commiserated another last-minute loss with an IPA from Stone Brewing that Donna bought for me. It was one of their “Enjoy By” series of ale. These ales are meant to be drunk immediately, not stored or aged. Some big, high-gravity, high alcohol beers are better when aged – just like wine. This IPA had an ABV of 9.4%, but it was meant to be enjoyed by 12-25-2016. It was an unfiltered IPA with a pale hazy appearance. It was a good beer, but I think the “Enjoy By” releases are gimmicks rather than a specific brew process.

Enjoy By IPA

Today we have clear blue skies. The temperature is supposed to reach 70 degrees this afternoon. Donna and I have eye exams scheduled – other than that I have no plans for the day.

A Day Away

I have just a quick post this morning.

Yesterday, Donna and I went to the Pacific Beach Recreation Center for pickleball – Donna hadn’t played for a couple of months. I was pleasantly surprised to find Hans Kohls (Metamorphosis Road) at the rec center. We had a good time over a couple of hours of games. Donna wasn’t too rusty and I enjoyed playing a few games with Hans.

We’ve reached the 62-night limit here at Mission Bay RV Resort – you must exit the park for at least 24 hours after 62 consecutive nights. This is better than the policy in the past which limited stays to 31 nights. They consider a month-long stay to be 31 nights, regardless of the calendar month.

We’re still deciding on where to go for our 24-hour exile. I’m favoring an Elks Lodge. There are four lodges in San Diego county with RV facilities – Chula Vista, El Cajon, Vista and Oceanside. We really don’t need hook-ups – just a dry camping spot for the night.

We’ve moved most of our outdoor gear to Sini’s site for the 24-hour period which makes it easier. We just walk our stuff to her place and then we’ll walk it back to our site when we return. It’s so nice to have friends in the neighborhood!

I also checked our tire pressures and found them to be three to five pounds per square inch low. So I broke out the air compressor to correct the tire pressures. This is something that should never be ignored. I also pulled the windshield covers to put them away while they’re dry – I like to do that the day before we leave to ensure that they’re aren’t wet from overnight condensation, morning mist or rain. I’ll park the Spyder in our trailer, which will remain here while we go away. We’ll return Thursday for another month in San Diego.

I have to add a couple of links. We’ve been featured in an online publication called  MRV The Buzz in an article about full-time RVers here. I don’t think this qualifies us for celebrity status by any means, but it’s kind of cool. Donna also got a link to one of her dozens of television broadcasts from her trip to Atlanta. You can view it here.

With the moves over the next two days, I probably won’t post again until Friday.

Informal School Reunion

After her trip to Atlanta, Donna wasn’t feeling up to par. She wasn’t sure if it was from spending hours cooped up in an airplane with 100 sneezing, coughing people or if she was just stressed out over her laptop loss.

We were planning to attend an informal reunion of Clairemont High people on Saturday afternoon, but Donna decided to stay home and rest. I went by myself as she didn’t need me to do anything. I wasn’t on the original group distribution list of attendees but somehow Donna was on it – Donna didn’t go to Clairemont High, her only connection to the group is through me.

Donna told me the original venue was Offshore Tavern and Grill but had been changed to the High Dive on South Morena Boulevard starting at 1pm. I rode the Spyder to the High Dive and arrived about 10 minutes early. I looked around and expected to see people I knew, but there weren’t any familiar places.

The get-together was organized by my good friend, Carole Sue Bringas. I phoned her but only got voice mail. I figured since I was a little early, I’d just take a seat at the bar and see who might show up. I ordered a Bloody Mary. The High Dive makes an outstanding Bloody Mary garnished with a Gibson onion, banana pepper, cheese cube, celery and wait for it – bacon!

Bloody Mary with bacon

Just as the bartender set down my drink, my cell phone rang. It was Carole Sue. She told me I was at the wrong place – they were on the patio at the Offshore Tavern and Grill. I don’t know how the location got crossed up but I paid for my drink and headed over to Offshore.

When I arrived there, Carole told me that most of the people I was hoping to see had cancelled at the last minute. Jim and Rosellen Taylor weren’t there, neither were Debbie and Bruce Bednarski or Rick and Cathy Siordia. Most of the people there were from the class of 1975 or later, I was class of 1974. I still knew some of the people and had a good time reminiscing over a beer and chips.

Tommy “Mod” in the foreground at the Offshore Tavern and Grill patio

Marty, Dale, Sherry, Steve and Walter

Kevin Barry and Carole Sue

Sunday was NFL football day for me. Sini had to move from her site and relocate to site 158. She packed her gear – I gave her a hand with the sewer hose, but she wanted to do the work herself. I rode with her as she drove through the lot to her new site, then I got out and directed her as she backed into the site. She set up the coach and connected everything herself. She’s feeling pretty good about being able handle the coach as well as the set-up chores.

Donna was feeling much better on Sunday and went for a training run. She covered eight miles and felt good. She’s on track with her training for the 15k race in January.

We had partly cloudy skies and the highs reached the upper 60s. Today I expect more of the same with some clouds this morning and clear skies this afternoon. No pickleball today due to the floor being refinished in Ocean Beach. I’ll play tomorrow at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center.

 

Donna Discovers a Theft

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.

Dinner Without Donna

Donna had a busy day Tuesday. She hammered away at her book deadline and also had to prepare for her trip to Atlanta. She had an early flight scheduled out of San Diego to appear on television programs aired via satellite in a number of markets across the country from a setting in Atlanta. She was speaking as an organizing and decluttering expert.

She took time out in the afternoon to go with Sini for a manicure. When they left, I headed over to the Offshore Tavern and Grill for a couple of cold ones with the guys. Around 5pm Donna texted me saying they would be done in five minutes.

I found a table for us and they joined me at the tavern for dinner. Having dinner out would allow more time for Donna to finish packing for her trip. Sini ordered the taco Tuesday special and said it was good.

Taco Tuesday special

Donna and I went for our usual – the poke (poh-key) plate. This is sushi grade tuna served over chopped cabbage and scallions with Asian dressing and fried won-ton wrappers with sliced avocado on top. It was delicious.

Poke plate

On the way out of the tavern I saw a cool Volkswagen Beetle from the early 70s. These used to be a common sight around here.

Cars like this were once a common sight

Wednesday morning Donna was up and out of here early. The forecast called for warmer weather, but it didn’t happen. We had a low overcast ceiling and cool temperatures most of the day. The high finally reached the lower 60s once the clouds departed around 3pm.

The Ocean Beach Recreation Center was closed while they refinish the flooring, so I didn’t get out for pickleball. In fact, I didn’t get out at all. I spent most of the day reading a book

Before I met Donna, I was single guy for five years and mostly cooked for myself. I had a few favorites I would make, but nothing like the dishes Donna prepares. Over the last 10+ years we’ve been together, I’ve been completely spoiled. I handle the grill, but other than that I don’t cook much.

Wednesday night I was on my own for dinner. Donna anticipated this and bought a frozen chicken pot pie at Trader Joe’s. I like pot pie and I can handle cooking one. I even know how to run the microwave/convection oven now! I preheated the convection oven to 400 degrees. Then I wrapped foil around the rim of the pot pie so it wouldn’t burn the thin crust there and popped it in the oven. An hour later, dinner was ready.

Chicken pot pie hot out of the oven

Dinner is served

Of course a meal like this deserves a good brew. I paired it with Duet IPA from Alpine Beer Company located in east San Diego county.

Duet IPA

Today I plan to play pickleball in the morning at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. This afternoon I should do some maintenance work on the Spyder that I put off yesterday. We have clear skies and it should be a warmer day, so I can’t use the cold weather excuse.

This evening’s dinner plan is pizza delivery from our favorite place, Mountain Mike’s. Donna should be home by 7pm.