Life at Campland on the Bay

Ok, so I've been more than a bit remiss about posting for the last couple of months.
One would think that living at Campland On The Bay would be like living the life of vacation - a semi-permanent staycation, and constant party. But the reality of our "regular" life overlays "unsatisfactorily" upon the experience.

In case you hadn't noticed, or are reading at some time in the future, it's winter. Yeah, I know, winter in San Diego is hardly something to complain about. But, in the RV, we have no patio. When it rains, the rain pools two inches deep all around the entrance to the RV, so we have to sloug through it. When it rains, if thee is any real wind, we have to roll the awning up so it doesn't tear - so our only protection from the rain is also removed. When it rains, the rain beats on the roof - which at times is enchanting, and other times (like when you're trying to sleep, for instance) is less so... On the plus side, we had long ago converted the RV to electric operation for both the water heater and an old fashioned "electric oil radiant heater" that does a good job keeping things reasonably warm at night.

Another aspect is that we are trying to have an otherwise normal life. We started out with our one car, and the theory was that Barbara was going to play bus driver, get up at 7 with Delilah and I, we were all supposed to wrestle over the shower, the space, get dressed, eat, and get on the road - Delilah to school before 8:30, me to work soon after, Barbara does her thing - then back around, she picks up me, then D then back home around 6, oh - dinner time, then time to wrestle Delilah into bed, 8:30, maybe time for a round of skip bo, a little reading for B, an attempt at some WoW for me...

Part of the supposed allure of Campland is that it has "free WiFi". You get what you pay for. Did I mention that it's raining a lot this year? What, you say, does that have to do with WiFi? Everything. WiFi operates in a radio band that was declared a "free for all" frequency band by the FCC years ago. You see, Microwave ovens heat food by making the water molecules in the food jigger around at their characteristic frequency of about 2.4GHz. Microwave ovens are very high power - more powerful than many back woods radio stations - so if you were transmitting on purpose at that frequency, and someone turns on a microwave oven, they'd suddenly be tuned in to your microwave instead - and be listening to "Popcorn's greatest hits"... So, the FCC said "as long as you guys can put up with the noise, you can have it" and a whole lot of modern devices hopped on the spectrum. Which is fine, unless you are trying to use it in the rain. Or with a microwave. Or other people using similar stuff. Long story short - WiFi here is almost good enough to update your blog once a month or so... Almost...

On the plus side, there are lots of activities. If we had time to do them, I'm sure they'd be fun. One of the regular activities that we've learned to do is the "laundromat". Hum. Now I remember why we buy clothes washers...

Seriously though, the cafe here is nice - they have a BBQ and do a fine job at all sorts of carnivorous fodder. Then there's "The Company Store" - which has all the amenities, at twice the regular price, but dang it's convenient. They do have a nice playground that we get to at least weekly, and a great pool that we've braved perhaps a half dozen times. And as the name suggests, it's on the bay - a hundred yards that way is the bay, with ducks and seagulls, sand and, well, the bay - wet and cold. Just like they said. Did I mention it's winter??? :)