San Clemente

As I explained in a previous post, we are spending a couple of weeks in San Clemente. We rented a cute little one-bedroom place through VRBO. It’s about two blocks from the North Beach area of San Clemente. This location, along with the near-perfect climate, allows us to walk the dogs every day along the beach.

San Clemente has built the San Clemente Beach Trail, a roughly four-mile trail that runs along the bluffs, paralleling the railroad tracks. There are restrooms at each end and at the pier, which is roughly at the midpoint. The pier also has several nice restaurants and a store nearby. There are several parking and access points throughout the trail.

We own a condo here in San Clemente; our daughter Jill and her husband and children live in it. We’ve spent a lot of time in SC over the years.

Here’s what the trail looks like, from near the North Beach parking lot, yesterday morning. The pier is just barely visible at the lower left corner.

Here’s a couple of more photos, from later in the day, taken from the Calafia Avenue parking lot.

Homeless...Again

Yesterday, we put our trailer back in the shop in order to - hopefully! -

get our front slide out repaired. Here’s a photo of it parked outside.

When we dropped it off, the guy was pretty candid about their ability to fix things. He said they have a lot of experience with these things, but that they have had instances where they have simply given the RV back to the customer. His usual recommendation is to have it repaired at the factory. The big problem for us is that this thing is manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana, while we are in Southern California, some 2300 miles away. While we appreciated his candor, we are pretty concerned about what our next step might be.

Today, I got a call from my guy Dave at American RV. He wanted to know who specifically he should talk to at Heartland. They tore apart the slide and think they both know what’s wrong with it AND how to fix it. Since it’s still under warranty, all this work needs to be coordinated with Heartland. Needless to say, we are pretty excited that there seems to be a path forward.

While the trailer is in the shop, we rented a cute little 1-bedroom place in San Clemente, not too far from Jill and Joe. We are also a block and a half from the North Beach area in San Clemente. The pics below are from our walk this morning. This was the first time Copper and Dodger have seen the ocean; they weren’t quite sure what to make of it.

Last phot: this was taken a week or so ago. We’ve got our idiot children (Coppper and Dodger) an our beloved grandchildren camped out on our laps. Tough duty!

A Tale of Two Watches... and a Fred Shook Story

The photo above is of my two watches, my beloved Timex Ironman and my Garmin Fenix5. They are as different as night and day.

People that know me know that for years (decades?) I’ve worn a cheap Timex or Casio digital watch. I’ve prided myself on never paying more than $10 for one of these watches. I bought one once for $5, which was a red-letter day for me. 

Didn’t know I was a cheapskate? It’s in my genes. I get it from my dad (and namesake) the original Fred Shook.

Here’s the Fred Shook Story

My siblings and I and our children could fill volumes with stories about Dad. Here’s one that I never tire of telling.

Mom worked for years at Sears. As an employee, she enjoyed a 10% or 15% discount on everything she bought at Sears. One time - I think I was in high school - Dad decided he needed a new tent. He knew the manager of the sporting goods department - let’s call the guy Dave. So, Dad went to Sears one night and asked Dave if he could set him up with a deal on a tent. Dave said, “Fred, I’ve got a tent in the back that was returned and I need to send back to the factory. It’s got one of the tent stake loops torn off. I can let you have it for $5.00.” This was for a family-sized canvas tent that probably retailed for over $100 - in the 1960’s.

So Dad, in one of his finest hours, asked Dave for an employee discount on the $5 tent. When I asked Dad how Dave reacted to took him asking for the discount said, “He got kind of pissy about my asking for the discount.”

So, like I said, I come by my frugality naturally.

My usual practice with a Timex or Casio has been to buy a cheap one and wear it until the battery gives out and then throw it away. Usually, I would end up replacing the wristband several times and therefore spending more on the wristbands than on the watch itself.

Today, I have no use for a watch that has an alarm, stopwatch or countdown timer; my iPhone does all that stuff. I’d decided that I just needed a watch to tell time. I was about decided that my next watch would be an inexpensive Timex Expedition. These rugged watches just tell time.

Enter the Fenix. When I retired, the Technology group at Pilot Chemical gave me this. It’s actually a perfect gift for me. I think a perfect gift for someone is something that an individual needs or wants but would never buy for himself. That describes the Fenix perfectly; it’s the ideal gift for a cheap gadgeteer. I’ve owned it about six weeeks now and am still learning stuff about it. It does about 8000 different things.

To my friends at Pilot Chemical who gifted me with this wonderful watch: THANK YOU! I think of you every time I look at my watch. I will never forget the kindness you have shown me.

Who Names a City After a Color?

We are staying in Orangeland RV park, in the city of Orange, CA, which is located in Orange County. Why the fascination with the color orange? 

It’s not the color, of course. It’s the citrus fruit. Orange County, which was split off from Los Angeles County in the early 1900’s, was at one time almost entirely citrus orchards. That’s long since gone away; Orange County has one of the largest populations for any county in the US. For our Ohio friends reading this, think about Orange County being Butler County to Los Angeles’ Hamilton County.

Our RV park is chock full of citrus trees of all types. We’ve enjoyed fresh-squeezed orange juice a couple of times, as well as delicious margaritas (is there any other kind?) garnished with freshly picked limes. 

The photo above shows a little bit about exactly where we are located. The barren sandy ditch that dominates the scene is what Californians laughingly call the Santa Ana River. The river divides the city of Orange, on the left, from the city of Anaheim. The Santa Ana river is managed over its entire course, with all of its water diverted for irrigation, well upstream of this photo. The Santa Ana River Trail, which we are walking on, is heavily used by bikers, runners and walkers; it stretches for dozens of miles along the “river”.

The large building on the right is the Honda Center, home of the NHL Anaheim Ducks. The large red “A” with a halo on it stands in the parking lot of Anaheim Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (weird, but that’s their official name). The stadium is slightly visible in the center horizon. The futuristic-looking building next to the “A” is the Anaheim AMTRACK station. In a brief moment of rationality in otherwise car-crazy California, the urban planners put a train station in a logical spot: one can actually take a train to Anaheim Stadium to see an Angels game.

The last item of note in the photo is the road crossing the river. This street is Katella Avenue. If one were to follow Katella a couple of miles west (right in the photo) one would come to Disneyland. In the summertime, Disneyland shoots off fireworks every evening at 9:30; they are audible here and visible on the horizon between gaps in the trees. As you might imagine, Orangeland RV park is heavily populated in the summertime with families visiting Disneyland, as well as other local tourist attractions. 

A First World Problem

This is a post about perspective.

Readers of this blog know that we’ve been struggling with problems with the slideouts on our trailer - our home. Last Thursday, we had a mobile RV repair guy come out to our site to look at the slides. There are two of them that are giving us problems, one fairly minor and one significant. The guy poked and prodded, cleaned and lubed the one not giving us too much trouble. He then turned his attention to the big one, which has plagued us since Texas with intermittent problems.

His judgment: “This is really bad.” He showed us that one of the support wheels is out of alignment and looks like it is in imminent danger of falling off. If that happens, the slide will jam. He doesn’t know why this is out of alignment; the various trim and molding pieces need to be removed to fully diagnose the problem. This is all beyond his capability to do in a field repair.

Here’s where we began thinking things are really bad. Getting an RV repaired in a timely manner is impossible - in Ohio, in Texas and in California. After numerous phone calls and anguished discussions with service managers, we were able to get an appointment - for Thursday, August 23. The next nearest appointment: September 25th. Also, no one knows how long these repairs will take - it could be weeks. 

We immediately started looking for a place to live for at least a couple of weeks, after our home will go into the shop. Between scheduling the service and findings place to stay, by Thursday evening we were totally stressed out. 

In the evening, Cathy read a Facebook post from a teacher friend of hers. This lady’s grandson is scheduled for open heart surgery - the day after he starts kindergarten. He’s five years old. WE have a five-year-old granddaughter, who is also starting kindergarten in a few weeks. 

Suddenly, our problems shrank into insignificance. Neither of us is undergoing surgery. Our granddaughter isn’t undergoing surgery. We’ve got enough money to handle this disruption in our lives. Somehow, losing our home temporarily receded in importance to simply another first-world problem. You know, like if the Starbuck’s barista doesn’t make your espresso quite right. 

Just in case we might have needed a reinforcement of this lesson came another event, right on the heels of the first one. Most of you probably know that our son Scott is a brain cancer survivor. The only treatment he is undergoing right now is an MRI every six months to ensure that nothing untoward is occurring in his brain. He had his most recent MRI on Friday. On Saturday, he received the following report: “No gross findings to suggest residual or recurrent tumor.” 

These dry words  - the best news we’ve heard since our grandson was born - make all of our little problems seem trivial and childish. Suppose our trailer - our home - were to.burn down tonight? So what? It’s just stuff. So long as Cathy and I - and the dogs - are together, everything else is just a first-world problem.