When I got up the first time this morning, at 0200 or so, I was still miserable and sore. I tried to stay up so I wouldn’t wake Diane, but I went back to bed anyway. Woke up again at 0500 and decided to stay up and keep Max company. We slept on the couch until 0830 or so. I was still really rummy, but I took Max for his morning walk anyway and that helped my disposition. After shoveling a breakfast dinner down my throat, I was sure I’d survive the day. I was pleased.

By the time I got almost semi-normal, Diane declared that she was hungry and needed a hamburger. She does that once in a while. After searching for a likely spot, she found a place called Eat Crispy Burger in National City. It’s a lot like Shake Shack but newer. Becca, the girl behind the counter, told me it had only been open for two weeks. The hamburgers were really good, so it was a great choice.

One of the positives about the eatery location was that it was close to the Super Wally Mart that we’ve visited before. We had things to get, like normal.

So, we ate, gave Max a ride around the store in a cart, then went home. As soon as we got back to the RV, however, Diane discovered that she failed to get one of the critical items that was on her list. So, she left us alone and went shopping on her own.

Max and I didn’t do much while she was gone, but I didn’t lay down and sleep, which may have been good for me. I figured if she could go out and shop in the shape I was in, the least I could do was to stay semi-alert in her absence.

When she got home, she gave me handed me a really nice long-sleeved shirt. Here’s what it looks like.

It’s very nice and I love it.

Nothing else is going to happen today so I’m wrapping this up.

Oh, OK. One more photo of Max for his fan club. He’s either watching sail boats, birds or anything else that moves. I suppose he could be deep in thought, too.

Now, g’night.

This morning Diane made me get a COVID booster and a flu shot. The pharmacist who gave them to me used the same hole twice, I swear. And she wasn’t in a hurry as she pushed the needle in very slowly, both times. Now my left arm hurts and I must cease doing anything that requires my left arm to move. Diane got her vaccines too and is without complaints.

One thing I’ve been meaning to share with you about this RV Park is that a garbage truck makes the rounds to our three dumpsters every day at least once. I don’t think they are all full every day, but no garbage spends the night in Fiddler’s Cove. Kind of nice. Diane’s thoughts about zero garbage accumulation are no food for rodents.

As the day progressed, my reaction to the shots got worse and worse. Not only the physical pain from the needles but I think I actually went through all the agonies of flu and COVID together before Diane made me take a shower and go to bed. I was actually miserable. I guess that makes me a whiner, but I don’t care. I just didn’t feel good. The shower was nice.

Since that reaction dominated my thought process most of the day, that’s pretty much all I’ve got to share. At least I got the news about garbage out to you. That was important.

I’m stopping now, right after this …

This was taken on 9/28/24 from behind our rig. I had to clarify that because I’m far to happy in this photo for it have been taken on the 29th. You can see the San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge in the background.

Here’s what the bridge looks like at night.

Yes, Saturday is usually my day to indulge myself a little and watch college kids learn the joy of victory and the sadness of defeat. All at the same time. Things worked out for my mental well-being because my Oregon Ducks, who deserted the PAC-12 for the BIG 10, beat UCLA, also a PAC-12 deserter. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the reasoning behind these changes and that’s OK, the Ducks are still my team. My only complaint about the game was that it didn’t start until 2000 which means that it didn’t end until 2 hours after my bedtime. I stayed up until he bitter end, though,

During the day, while Max and I played with the TV remotes, and dabbled a bit with electricity, Diane went in search of some thrift stores in Coronado. I’m pretty sure she already knew where they were and drove right to them. That’s OK for her, but me and electricity, without supervision is illegal in my section of this family. I wasn’t too concerned, though, because it was only 12VDC. That’s not the stuff that will kill you outright. That’s 120VAC which I ensured was not in my vicinity.

What prompted this electrical expedition was that I discovered the digital antenna that resides on the RV roof wasn’t getting any power to amplify the signal to the TV. Consequently, though it found a bunch of channels, they didn’t work all that well. It didn’t take long for me to discover the problem after I took everything out of the electronic repository, a cabinet above my driver’s seat. What I found was the two wires connected to the antenna completely cut neatly, attached to nothing.

Before going on with this narrative, I must share that having the electronics (Dish receiver, A/V switch and bunches of confusing wires) above my head while driving is a hazard when we forget to close the door on that cupboard. I’ve been bonked on the head more than once when the Wally fell on me while cruising down the freeway. One cannot help but wonder how something like that could be so easily missed, but we do it often. I’m happy to report that I haven’t run off the road even one time when things fall on me at 60 mph. Nope. I’m a pro.

Just before Diane returned, I managed to get everything back in place and the antenna programmed so had I not included that in my narrative she would have never found out what I did. That’s OK. If this becomes a big deal, I’ll fall back on when I saved Max’s life by inserting myself into the middle of a dog fight. I still have the scabs.

G’night.

Today is not a joyful day for us. Jerry battled COPD for over 20 years before he couldn’t fight any more. Nelda, his bride of 57 years notified us that she was holding Jerry when he left us.

We will miss Jerry’s unrivaled humor, his smile, his laugh, and his random phone calls just to check in. Though it’s been a while since we’ve seen him, there hasn’t been a day when something we saw, or heard reminded us of him. That will never end.

He will be missed.

We pray for Jerry, that he will enter God’s Kingdom. There were some shaky moments during our encounters, where we were having more fun that the law allowed and knew we all were in serious danger of going the other way. I have no doubt he prevailed and will keep an eye on us as we travel the road toward our next meeting.

We pray for Nelda, too. You have an entire village of friends, and we all love you.

Peace.

Before leaving on our trip today, Max demanded a long walk. To ensure we don’t get away without honoring his wishes, he does this.

He knows for sure we would never step on him. So, he got his walk. He would have got the walk even if he just reclined in his little bed.

After bowing to Max’s demand, we made the planned trip to the 32nd Street NEX at the Naval Station. In conjunction with that was a stop at the Anchors Catering and Conference Center which is also at 32nd Street. The NEX stop was just to look at stuff for fun, but Anchors was a destination for information.

Before visiting either place we went to the NEX food court for lunch. Subway won the honor. I had a 6″ #99 and Diane had a 6″ #11. They were awesome.

The building in which it resides is the form CPO Club for the 32nd Street base. CPO is code for Chief Petty Officer. I was one of those in my former lifer. That was many years ago, of course. Anchors used to have a daily lunch buffet Monday thru Friday. It currently only has the buffet on Wednesday and Fridays and the menu is the same: Prime rib and a whole bunch of other delicacies. The cost is $25 per person but it’s all you can eat, just like it is on a cruise ship. That seems appropriate, don’t you think? So, we’re geared up to go tomorrow 11am-1pm. One of us is going to eat for the entire 2 hours.

At the NEX facility we were again amazed at the prices of everything. They are incredibly high on pretty much everything. Back in the day, when we were on active duty, the NEX was a place of refuge for saving money on common items and we shopped there a lot. I should say “exclusively” shopped there. It’s not like that now.

We managed to fiddle around on base until rush hour so we knew the trip back to Max had the potential of being brutal. Giving it a little more thought, we determined that all the dense traffic would be coming at us as everyone at NAS North Island appeared to be evacuating the island. That turned out to be true. Thankfully.

Actually, it’s not an island. It’s a really long, skinny isthmus. A really big wave could easily make it an island.

There was interesting Seal activity this morning when they began playing war at 0600. There was a lot of gunfire going on but they either stopped at 0700 or found a way to attack each other in a quieter manor. Later, when normal people wake up, we could hear them counting cadence in unison while doing exercises, and a lot of yelling by their instructors (I’m sure) to motivate them as they navigated obstacles (my guess). It was pretty entertaining as we tried to envision what was actually going on. I think we were pretty close.

It’s another beautiful day here at the bottom the Western USA, unlike the dangerous weather going on in the Eastern USA. They’re having a terrible time and we’re praying for all of the people affected.

Now I must stop and contemplate a bowl of popcorn to finish off my eating efforts for today.

Today was Max’s Day out at the beach. He’s been a really good little critter and he’s been limited to multiple walks each day, but he needed a place to run. So, we chose Fiesta Island which is in the middle of Mission Bay. Not a place you’d think was devoted to a large dog park. Actually, an enormous dog park. Not a lot of grass but considering that hundreds of dogs visit this place every day, Max didn’t run much because he was focused on smelling each and every spot where a dog peed, crapped, or walked on. Consequently, we moved around very slowly and there was no concern that he would run off.

Then we finally got to the water of the bay. Things changed. He loves the water and was kind of conflicted about whether to run in the water or keep on smelling everything in slow motion.

He made a snap decision and ran into the water and made a couple passes to ensure he was pretty well soaked. Then he got out of the water and ran through the loose sand to ensure he was well covered. Now is when you flash back to the part where he smells all the spots dogs ahead of him touched in some way. That happens on the sand, too. This results in a very smelly dog. Happy dog, yes, but very, very smelly.

In the end, he was well pleased with his day on the island. The ride back to the RV was long because it was late afternoon and not a good time to brave the San Diego freeways so we chose to navigate surface streets all the way. It took 1.5 hours to go 27 miles. But we got to meander through downtown San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, and Imperial Beach. The trip to the beach was all freeway and took about 35 minutes. Going over was tense all the way and the trip back was a joy. We got to see stuff.

Once ‘home’ I got Max outside and tethered to the back of the bus where I left him while I gathered stuff needed to cook dinner. Diane put the salmon filets in the fridge before we left so we were going to George Foreman them but, after all the work I went to get the cooker, she decided the filets weren’t thawed enough so they were relegated to tomorrow for lunch. Instead, I nuked what was left of the chicken & dumplings we had a few days ago, and yesterday. It was the third trip for that feast, and it was good. It made Max happy because he gets to lick the bowls, and he loves chicken.

Then, after dinner, Max needed a walk so that I could give him a shower. He really smells good when we’re done, and he gets really excited when I’m drying him. When I let him out of the bathroom, he runs a race all over the place, going just as fast as he can. It’s really hilarious.

Then I took a proper shower to get Max’s shampoo off of me. I know, I should have just smeared it around a bit and rinsed myself, right? But I’m not that fond of Hartz Mountain dog shampoo. I like my Dove stuff.

It’s after 2200 now so time to get ready for bed. See you tomorrow.

Yes, it’s autumn already. Seems like that just happened 10-12 months ago, right? This one is different. Mostly, it marked our third week tethered to a 50-amp source with a constant view of the bay, and our fourth week on the road. We’re poised on a moment where we will soon be setting a record for being away from home. The current record is 4 weeks when we cruised the Panama Canal a couple years ago. Or was that last year? I forget, but that’s OK.

To celebrate the day we chose to not do anything that required effort. Well, Diane did. My days are structured around how simple I can make them without sweating or running out of breath. So, we watched movies and football games. And ate stuff.

Since we didn’t do anything, I have no pictures to commemorate the day, so here’s a random one of Max enjoying a neck scratch moment.