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Racquetball

Thursday. I’ve been thinking about racquetball. I think I had a backhand breakthrough
just before I left on this trip. The backhand is supposed to be the most
natural stroke in racquet sports, but given that we all grew up hitting
balls with bats from one side, we tend to favor the forehand. I’m happy
with my forehand shot. It is mechanically sound, consistent, and I think
it’s as good as it’s going to get. The backhand, I’ve been working on, but
it is still a level below the forehand. Given that it is supposed to be the
most natural stroke, though, that just doesn’t seem right. Also, given that
every once in awhile, I hit a monster shot off the backhand, leaves me
convinced that there is room for improvement. If only I can discover what
goes right when I hit that occasional great clean powerful shot. I think I got it! It’s all in the wrist. You have to come through the ball
flat at the point of contact, just like you do with the forehand, but after
that, it’s all about the wrist. If you keep the wrist flat after you pass
through the ball, it restricts the follow-through. If you let the wrist go
right after impact, and let it roll palm up, it allows a full follow-though,
which provides that missing ingredient for a smooth powerful shot. It’s not quite ready for prime time. If you let the wrist go a little too
soon, you just hit the ball into the floor. It’ll take a few thousand more
hits, just drilling, so it happens naturally. But when I do get it, look
out. Although my new backhand may not actually result in any more
points scored, it will make a better noise when the ball hits the wall. Judy thought she would have loads of leisure time on her hands, but not so.
She is busy every day with errands, people to meet, meals, laundry, hot
springs; you know. She’d better quit messing around and stay home and do
some laundry soon. The clothes hamper is full. Motorhomes always have a propane hot water heater. It’s not very big, but
it has a very fast recovery. When we bought this motorhome we were pleased
to discover that not only do we have the propane hot water heater, we have
an electric one as well. When we’re plugged into shore power, we don’t have
to use any propane for the hot water heater at all. If we want to take two
showers in a row, though, and make sure we have plenty of hot water, we can
run both hot water heaters at once, and improve the recovery rate. In fact,
the recovery rate is so good, I got to wondering if I could run it out of
hot water at all, so I took a hot shower, and timed it. A ten gallon hot
water heater, electric and propane both running, fifteen minutes. It took a
fifteen minute shower to run out a ten gallon hot water heater! I’m
enjoying the luxury of full hookups. Did I mention my new birding binoculars? My new wonderful birding
binoculars? Thanks to our friend David from Wild Birds Unlimited, they were
waiting for us at the Pagosa Riverside Campground when we arrived. My old
ones were 8×35. These are 8×42. The 8 magnification is the same, but the
42 relates to more power at the light gathering end. Good optics. Great
clarity. An additional bonus is the close focus range. These can focus on
something only five feet away. Judy’s, by comparison, can’t focus any
closer than twenty feet away. She sometimes finds herself too close to
birds to see them well. Not me! It’s nice to have binoculars specifically
designed for what we’re using them for. A scrub jay visited the feeder today. We had a nuthatch on the tree, a
grosbeak on the seed feeder, and a hummingbird on the hummingbird feeder.
Then the hummingbird flew over to the seed feeder and landed on it. The
grosbeak flew to the hummingbird feeder. It reminded us of Annie and Rags.
Neither will eat their own food. They each just want to eat whatever the
other one is supposed to be eating. Now the white-breasted nuthatch is on the seed feeder again. What’s he
doing on a seed feeder? He’s not a feeder bird. He eats bugs from the bark
of trees. Nevermind. I just looked him up. He likes sunflower seeds too.
We’re feeding Wild Birds Unlimited “no mess” seed. It includes sunflower
seeds. No shells. No mess on the ground. Ooh. Just spotted a house finch. That’s the first one we’ve seen here. I
never heard it, so I didn’t’ even know they were here. Oops. There’s a brown-headed cowbird. A two dozen deer day.

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Durango

Tuesday Okay. Made some serious progress on the assets and liabilities. Got
started on the income. This job might work after all. Discovered a robin’s nest in the tree right across from us, next to the
river. When we’re plugged into shore power, we can watch an electronic display of
how many amps are being used. The electric hot water heater uses a lot: 12
amps. The humidifier and air filter we use take less than 1 amp. The
television doesn’t take much. The furnace fan only takes an amp. We have
an exact count of how much electricity we’re using, when it doesn’t matter.
When we’re boondocking, running off batteries, it doesn’t trigger the meter.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were an amp meter in the system that would tell
how much electricity you were using when you had limited electricity to use. I’ve been thinking about racquetball. I miss playing with Woody, even
though it’s like being a rich kid and paying the other kids to be your
friend. If I give him money, I can play with a pro-level player, and he’ll
play just hard enough for me to feel good about my game. Living in limited space. This is a nice big motorhome, but it would be a
pretty small apartment. 300 square feet. That’s not a very big house. I
like it. We have a nice living room. The bathroom is a little small, and
the bedroom is plenty big. I was reluctant to get slides. I thought it was
just more space than we needed. I like the coziness of the smaller space.
For life on the road, however, I’m a believer. The slides go out, and the
feeling changes. It moves us from traveling mode to living mode. Judy found a big-rig-friendly motorhome park guide and bought it. It will
help us pick the sites we can fit in. This park is listed. We like our motorhome so much. We have liked every motorhome we’ve had.
That’s why it is so startling to hear people talk about how unhappy they are
with theirs. We had a neighbor with a new Holiday Rambler Endeavor. He
didn’t like it at all. He had just come over Wolf Creek Pass and had smoked
the brakes. It’s a diesel pusher, but it doesn’t have a Jake Brake like the
Bounder. It has a PAC Brake. He describes it as a potato in the tailpipe,
and ineffective. He is going to sell it and replace it as soon as he gets
home. We rolled down Wolf Creek Pass in the right lane at 35 mph without
using the wheel brakes at all. Another guy is driving a 35 foot gas Class A. He didn’t get what he wanted.
They were moving up from a Class C. He wanted a pusher, but couldn’t bring
himself to make the jump all at once. He’s had it less than a month and
it’s not what he wants. The repair guy in Durango is living in a Monaco.
He doesn’t think it’s very good. Rags escaped. His getaway was thwarted, however, when he stopped to roll in
the dirt and I walked over and picked him up.