Christmas

We returned to Winston Salem a few hours ago and this is the local "scenery". Not what Carolinian's are accustomed to around here. Our co-managers said that no one would come to work here this morning, although the roads were clear. They had to drive out to pick up one of our employees but no one else would come in. Amazing !

We had a nice time up home for the holiday. We left right after work Thursday around 3:30 p.m.and drove to my son's place in Media, PA. We arrived there around 11:30. Our time was impeccable as my daughter's bus, in from Boston, arrived just before we did so we all got to Jay's house around the same time. We were all exhausted from a long day of driving (or riding) so we didn't stay up long to chat.

The next morning Jay made us breakfast and Linda, Becky and I headed out for my mom's house. I stayed Friday and Saturday night at my mom's. All of my family came to mom's house so it was good to see everyone. Saturday night I went up to my brother, Jim's house, to see his new evaporator that he uses to process maple syrup. It's a monster of a machine. It's twice as big as the one he used to have. With this one, he can do 225 gallons of sap and hour ! Wow... He currently has 2600 tree taps out, ready to gather sap for this next season. Last year, Jim produced 600 gallons of syrup....a down year from what he thought he'd produce.  This evaporator runs off fuel oil, whereas his previous one ran off of wood and needed to be tended to much more often to maintain the heat.

The other thing that my brother dabbles in, as a side business is his honey business. He has all of his hives "wintering" and hopes to have a better year of survival than last year. He lost around 70% of his bees last year, due to some unknown thing that is affecting many  bee colonies. He produces honey, candles and all sorts of by products. He takes all of his maple and honey items to different craft shows in the northeast during the fall months and sells them. He just finished up his season so he and his wife are exhausted and ready for some R & R.

Speaking of which...long days ahead. Since we took the extra day off for the holiday, we now have three, twelve hour days ahead of us before our co-managers come back to work. With that I'll bid you good night...Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have an even better New Year !

Button It Up....

Got to the campground to find that there is still snow on the ground, it's bitter cold and the water is frozen up at the spigot. We've decided rather than blow through propane the next couple of months and be worrying about the rig while we're at work...we're just gonna winterize it for a couple of months till the temps get a little better. I hate being cold and I'd have another full-time job tending to everything on our two days off to keep things thawed out, filled up and running smoothly. Not gonna do it....Would rather take the money we'd spend on the rig the next couple of months and dump it on our loan and pay it off quicker. So today I've spent time winterizing the rig....we'll go back to Winston tomorrow after I've dumped the tanks and finished up a few other things around here. Not sure if they'll pull it off the site or not. Hoping not..would be nice to have it in this spot when we come back in March or April. We'll see....

In work news, our boss got fired on Wednesday. Not surprising.... given the track record for regional directors (at least in our region). Linda and I gave him till the end of December. Turned out to be a little sooner than that. So that makes him the 8th one to bite the dust in the last year. The guy who has taken his spot is the east coast director of operations, which would seem to be a position higher up the ladder (as our boss used to be) so not sure that this is a good direction for his career to go in. Seems to be a challenging position that the last eight people haven't been successful at. (I give him till March)

 Linda and I got moved into the manager's apartment on Wednesday night, after finishing our work day. We'll work at getting things organized over the coming weeks. It's very nice and feels even more homey than our co-manager apartment. It is in the opposite direction of the dining room so we don't walk out our door directly into the dining room. We walk out into a hallway that is around the corner from the office. Our front door exits right into the front parking area, although we do have a corner patio area. In other words, we can duck out on our days off without getting cornered by too many people.

The community is starting to look a lot like Christmas. We had to order a tree stand for our 12' tree, as the previous one disappeared. That came in on Tuesday and the tree went up. It should be all decorated by the time we get back there Sunday. Lots of pretty decorations all around the community. We had a large choral group in this week to sing Christmas carols. It was nice but the management team didn't get to enjoy it much as we were tending to one of our residents who had fallen in the dining room. Turns out she broke her femur...Ouch !! She had surgery and will be out for a while, with rehab and such. My son, Jay broke his femur when he was 10 and talk about a painful recovery. After the surgery, where they pound 2 rods up the length of your femur, his poor little knee was the size of small basketball. Lots of morphine, TLC and another surgery to remove the rods and all was well. I feel bad for this lady....she has a long road ahead of her.

Next weekend we travel to Linda B's family Christmas gathering in Chambersburg, PA. We're hoping the weather cooperates since it will be a long road trip. The weekend of Christmas we're hoping to go to Philly to see my son and daughter (she's taking a bus from Boston to Philly) and then take my daughter up to my mom's. We have to be back to work on Monday so will spend Sunday on the road driving. If the weather is bad, all traveling plans are off and the tidings and good cheer will come in a Kahlua bottle and over the phone. We're wishing all of our friends, that we haven't seen in a while, a joyous and refreshing holiday. Some of you are finishing up your stint at Amazon and we've thought of you often, as you play "Santa's helper" this shopping season. Rest your weary bodies in a warm and sunny place this winter and get energized to work once again next spring !! Happy Holidays to you all!!

Quiet Here...

Hard to believe that just a couple of weeks ago this was the scene outside our rig. We had the table out, playing cards in our shirt sleeves, having a glass of wine and Linda with a beer....nice warm day. Today it was 48 degrees and tomorrow there's a 60% chance of snow showers. Brrrr!!

The campground is a ghost town too. We have a rig beside us, one on the lower tier but only a couple more than that. December rolls around and the wimps leave.....Hahaha.... Tried to button things up around the rig. Put the insulated water hose on so we can plug in the heat tape, if needed. I really hope we don't see any nasty weather here. I can live with temps in the 40's....just don't want to see the white stuff.

We are hoping that our apartment will be ready to move into when we get back to Winston. The new vinyl is down in the kitchen, bath, laundry room and entry way. The carpet went down on Tuesday. We're hoping the painting was finished up today in both of the bedrooms.  The new refrigerator arrived and the two new ceiling fans have been installed. We had to pick up a couple more switch plates today at Lowes. We'll have so much room we won't know what to do with it all.....

Our new co-managers have been training with us the last two weeks. They will now work on their own schedule and overlap with us on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The floating managers, who've been there since Sept., will leave on Sunday. They  have been a big help to us but we're glad to now have co's so we'll have stability in our staffing. We're making some good headway at getting things running the way they should. Dwight and Julie (our co-mgrs.) seem to be a good match for us in helping us to get the needs of the community met. So far.....so good....

Time With Family....

After a 5 hour drive, we arrived at Linda's daughter's house in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Great meal...all of Linda's kids, except for her oldest son, are here. Time well spent with her kids and the grand-kids.

This morning Teagan and his mom made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. They were scrumptious ! After breakfast we went to the aquarium where we had a great time looking at the seals, fish, sharks, etc.  The day started out warm and sunny but by the time we left to go to the aquarium, it had started to rain.

Tomorrow we had back to Winston Salem...

Promotion

Our work week was very busy. We went back to work last Sunday and had the big birthday celebration at our community. At some point I'll have to put some pictures on here but the wireless is so slow here at the campground, not gonna happen today. It was a busy day with about 125 people attending. We had a harpist perform for an hour and she was 14 yrs old ! Plays two other instruments besides the harp and started playing a musical instrument at the age of 5 ! Her harp is beautiful.....an ornate design all over it and she was amazing. Our hand bell choir played after her and then the last group to perform was the children from the local Baptist church. They were great ! The residents had a busy day and everyone was exhausted at the end of the day....the place was quiet as a church by 8:00 p.m. that night ! Everyone headed off to bed including Linda and I.


On Tuesday we got a call from some folks who said they were our new co-managers. Hmmm...Linda and I were confused since our boss had not said anything about another couple coming to work with us. We called him but were unable to connect with him till the next day. He came by our place to talk to us and told us that he wanted to promote us to be the Managers of our community. We did accept the offer... I think he expected us to be over the top with joy but we told him...."we've been doing this job for the last three months so now we have the title to go with the work we've been doing". Plus we'd had a trying day the previous day so we were a little beat up and not sure if we wanted to be managers. We discussed the problems at our community and our boss is totally behind us ! We felt a whole lot better after our meeting with him....we both had many sleepless nights over recent events but now we feel better. So, with the announcement that co-managers are arriving and knowing that we reside in the co-manager's apartment....the renovations needed to get started ASAP on the manager's apartment so we have a place to live. Thursday after work we moved our items two doors down to an empty resident apartment until the renovations are finished. The renovations require two coats of Kilz, due to smoke in the apartment, ripping up and replacing the carpet AND vinyl, throwing out everything like switchplates, ceiling fans etc. Everything is SO disgusting....nicotine was running down the walls. Need a new refrigerator too...Our maintenance guy, as well as one from another community are working full steam on the apartment....we won't be able to move into the space until everything is done (probably middle of next week. We've picked out our carpet color....need to figure out whether we'll have laminate or vinyl put in the kitchen and bath area, buy two fans, new switchplates, window treatments, etc. Moving into a new place on top of training a new couple plus all the other stuff that arises every day ! We'll have lots of space in the new apartment. There are two bedrooms, a full size laundry area, dining area, large living room, full kitchen and small outside patio area. It doesn't have the wonderful courtyard view like our old apartment....this one faces the front of the building but we are able to park closer and scoot right out the front door to get in our car and go somewhere.

The new co-managers will move into our old apartment on Saturday and Sunday, then start with us on Monday. The floating managers, that have been with us since September, will stay with us till beginning of December so we can work side by side with the new couple and train them. Dwight and Julie just finished their training in Denver, CO so they are brand spanking new to our company. We met them on Wednesday when they stopped by to look at the apartment. They stayed for lunch and we got to know them a little bit while we ate. They seem nice so we're looking forward to getting to know them better and having them as part of our team.

We will still be off Thursday - Saturday next week, as originally planned, for the Thanksgiving holiday. Will probably wind up being around the time we need to move into the new apartment. Whew....never any down time here. I go back for my final post-op appointment next Wednesday....should be released for full duties. I wasn't able to help Linda with any of the furniture moving yesterday..today I climbed up the ladder, on the rig, to check out things on the roof and my abdomen wasn't real happy about that for a while. It keeps improving but I know it will take a little while yet for things to be totally healed and for me to be able to lift things like I used to. Truly...Time heals all wounds....








 

Friday

It's Friday morning....the grass is crunchy with frost and the steam is rising off of the ponds here as the morning sun burns off the chill. The Wi-Fi and Verizon broadband reception is really unreliable here so makes it really tough to post to the blog. After trying or minutes on end to get something to upload, I give up so consequently I'm behind in giving news from our end.

Last weekend, here at the campground, it was camper appreciation weekend. Problem was it was really windy and really chilly. They brought in a large portable stage (tractor trailer with drop down platform)and folks used huge cast iron pots to cook up chicken stew and brunswick stew. Linda, Boomer and I went out for a walk and noticed the make shift wind breaks they had set around the base of the pots to try and keep the flame going. The wind was brutal and we cut our walk short cause it was so cold. Not sure how many people attended the event....we didn't go over. The campground was packed though. Seemed really weird to see a campground so full for the first weekend in November.

This weekend is quite different and more typical of what I would expect. We could shoot off a cannon through the campground and wouldn't hit anyone. Maybe about a dozen rigs here that are occupied. Starting off as a beautiful day so will be great to go out and walk around with it being quiet. The daytime temps have been great this week....high 60's, low 70's...perfect sweater weather.

This week, at work, was really long and we're exhausted. I was supposed to go to a 2 day training an hour away from us in Burlington, NC. Sunday is our long day at work and with this only being my second week back at work, by Monday I was hurting and not feeling real great so I didn't go to the training on Monday. I did go on Tuesday and got back to our place around 3:30 in the afternoon. Usually we'd get off work then but we had to drive to Mt Airy to check out something for work so off we went....a 2 hour trip. We stopped up here and got something to eat for supper but had to be back at work, by 7:30 for a training meeting with our servers. That went till 9....then back at it for a 14 hour day on Wednesday...Whew...we are pooped !

Sunday is a big event at work....our 9 year birthday celebration for the community ! We have great food planned....baked brie, beef roll ups with horseradish dipping sauce, baklava, spiced hot cider, huge punch fountain, a huge birthday cake with our facility's picture on it and a bunch of other items. We have a harpist kicking everything off at 2, our hand bell choir playing and then 50 children from the Calvary Baptist children's choir singing at 4:30. We're planning for about 200 people being there so we'll see what happens. A number of the original charter members, who were the first to move into our community, still live there so they will be recognized as well. Should be a great day !!

Birthday Dinner...

My sister and her husband arrived Tuesday, just a few minutes after we got off work. We decided to go out to dinner for my birthday so we went to the Village Tavern. We've heard great things about this restaurant and it's only about three miles from our place. The restaurant was awesome ! It was a beautiful post and beam structure with soft lighting, an open display kitchen, wood fired pizza oven and a great outside patio area.

I had Shrimp Bayou which was good but a little on the salty side. Linda and my sister, Phyllis had the shrimp scampi which was amazing. My brother-in-law, Mickey had tilapia and he said it was very good. For dessert, the server brought out a birthday sundae that we all shared. We had a great time with them..it's the first time that I think we've socialized with them outside of family events. It was a fun evening and the restaurant is certainly a place we'd go back to again. Once we got back to the community, I gave them a little tour of the place. Some of the residents were sitting in the atrium listening to some music, playing on a boombox. Paul, one of the residents who used to be a dance instructor "back in the day" asked my sister to waltz so they took a spin around the dance floor. He told me the next day that he really enjoyed dancing with her and that she was really good. She and my BIL used to take ballroom dance classes and actually won an event many years ago out of hundreds of other couples. I remember watching them dance, back when they took these classes, and it was a lot of fun to watch them do all the fancy moves.

That evening, after they left to go to their hotel, we got hit with a horrible storm. We were under a tornado watch until 3 a.m. and Boomer was pacing most of the night. It poured rain all night and most of the next day.

I went back to work on Wednesday...working a reduced schedule of 40 hours until my final appt on Nov 24th. I also have to adhere to the low weight restriction on my lifting until then too. Feeling good...if I'm out and about too much or walking for too long, I start to feel a little sore and achy in my abdomen and know I need to sit down and take it easy.

Today we drove out to Wilkesboro, NC to check out the W.Kerr Scott dam and surrounding campgrounds. We have seen the listing on the Workamper web site for the Army Corp of Engineer positions that go up for bid each year and thought since this location is so close to us, that we'd check it out. It's a gorgeous area and a pretty, fall day to take in the sights. Boomer enjoyed getting in the water at the boat launch. We got some info on the bid process from a volunteer at the visitor center and went to check out the site arrangements for the workers at Bandit's Roost campground. Seems to be a fairly small campground....nice setting and the two sites, for the contracted positions is located right near the entrance gate. Everything was nice but after talking about it, we decided that this would be an ideal type of position once we wanted to slow down in a job and stay put for 4 or 5 months. It would seem to be a rather slow paced job and really long hours each day. Even worse than what we work now ! We'll file the info away for "someday", in case we need it.

Check Up

Yesterday was my first follow up appt with the Dr since my surgery. It will be two weeks ago tomorrow that I had it done and he was really pleased with everything. All of the stitches are doing well, everything is where it should be (that's always nice to hear) and he released me to go back to work part-time. I still have the weight restriction of nothing over 20# and that will remain until my next appt, and final one, in a month. So he wrote me up a slip saying I can come back to part time hours and stupid me, after processing so many leaves of absences and doctor's notes for others over the years, I should have had him give more detail cause what he wrote didn't fly with our benefits people. So I'm faxing him a letter asking for more clarification....like I can work 40 hours, instead of my usual 60+ and cannot lift over 20# during x amount of time. Hopefully my doctor will get that refaxed to me today so benefits will clear me to work. Lots to do...we're trying to get a maintenance person hired, a new housekeeper is starting and a big event coming up in a couple weeks. So for a little while this morning I'm still sitting in my sweats and relaxing....


My sister called me yesterday and she and her husband are coming to see us tomorrow. Mickey has to pick up a tractor in the area so they will stop in and say hello, while in the area. Will be nice to see them and chat for a bit before they head north again.

Looks like another rainy day here...had hard rain yesterday which we really need. Grass is nice and green right now and really lush. Hard to believe it's the end of October. Speaking of which....just two more days till the big "5-0" for me. I contemplated on that for a little bit, yesterday while I sat waiting for the doctor to come in...More on that later....

Pilot Mountain

On Saturday Linda and I decided to drive up to Pilot Mountain. Since we drive past it to get to the campground, we had to backtrack a bit to get there. It was a gorgeous crisp, fall day so we thought it would be an ideal time to get great views from on top of the mountain.

With my physical restrictions, the typical activities that one does on Pilot Mountain such as hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, bicycling, etc. are not ones that I can do. I was hoping as we drove to the top that the overlook area would be relatively close to the parking lot to limit the amount of walking I'd have to do. Well, it wasn't too far but was down a pretty good grade so I took it real slow and Linda had a hold of my arm to make sure I didn't cover too much ground too quickly. Funny how the steep grade could be felt in my abdomen as we came back up. We did have some awesome views from the overlook though.

If you look real close, those dark buildings way off in the distance are Winston Salem.

Once we left Pilot Mountain, we drove back to Mt. Airy and went to Wal-Mart to get some things. Our weekend is cut short since there is a big event today at work and Linda is expected to help out if needed. If these things were once in a while, it wouldn't be so bad but they've been twice a month and always on our days off which means we get one day off instead of two and have to cut camping short. We're just a little bit grumpy today. Too much to do (and I can't help)and not enough people to do it all.

Tuesday

Linda got off today at 3:30 so we've been hanging out. I taught her how to play the new computer game I downloaded...Zuma's Revenge. When my kids were little they had tried to show me how to play video games but I couldn't ever figure out how to make Mario "swing" or "jump", etc. I was a video game idiot, to say the least. This game is just about shooting colored balls till you get a combination of 3 and then they smash and disappear. As you advance up through the levels, the playing field changes, faster speed, more rows of balls coming at you, etc. Fun but it's weird how playing these kinds of games makes you tense up really bad. Linda stopped playing after a little while and said "Whew"...and said it was very stressful. It is in a way....that must be the rush that kids feel or have felt for years playing these games. I can understand how addictive it could be though. You want to keep advancing to the next level to see what new challenge lies ahead. For me, recuperating from surgery...I can feel that tenseness in my stomach as I play the game so probably a good thing that I not do it for hours on end.

Today it was a crazy day for Linda here. Fire marshal was here to do inspection and our city health inspector was here (we got a 99). In this part of North Carolina, food operations have to post their inspection scores which I think is a great idea and should be the norm all over the country. All tests complete and good rating all the way around.

We took Boomer to the dog park....a place we haven't been to in a long while. He had a blast, romping with the other dogs there. He's sacked out on the floor in front of me....visions of that female german shepherd dancin' in his head...

Body is gaining a little bit every day. You really realize how much different "life" activities and movements affect your body when it's been cut and repaired and feels all the bumps and turns. It doesn't hurt to roll over in bed anymore. I can almost walk a normal stride without it pulling on my abdomen. It's the little things in life that make up a pain-free day. That and a bottle of Ibuprofen !!

Lazy Sunday...

Saturday Becky flew back to Boston to enjoy her last week of unemployment before starting her new job at Berklee. We're so excited for her. What a perfect position for someone who loves music so much...to work at a school exclusively about the music business, providing an education to young people who share that same passion for music. I can't wait to hear all about her job in the months ahead as she gets settled in there.

My days are pretty uneventful, as I guess they should be. Walking, lounging, napping, eating, internet browsing, and then off to bed for a new day of the same events. Can't sit for too long or I get very stiff and sore so I take a little stroll around the walking path or through the interior hallways here. I took an hour long nap just now and awoke to the shrill e-call siren going off in our apartment. That made the ole tummy muscles contract a wee bit. Luckily it must have been a false alarm as it stopped after just one loud, annoying blare. It is a beautiful day here..in the high 60's with a light breeze blowing.

The hard thing for me is my "Do Not Do" list is way longer than my "Can Do" list. I feel really bad for Boomer that he's cooped up with me too and I can't take him out for walks. I've figured out a way to at least let him go outside. If I hook the retractable leash over the door handle, it will retract far enough that he can go out in the back yard to pee. A "No Hands Approach" to walking the dog....
That way it won't jar me if he sees a squirrel and takes off on a dead run (that would really hurt). Think I will reheat our leftover shrimp fajitas and eat it out on the back patio while Boomer lounges in the grass enjoying the last rays of sunlight. More later....

Recovering

My surgery went well Wednesday morning. Linda was getting a little nervous cause it took longer than they had told her for me to come out of recovery. My body doesn't care for anesthesia and the nurses couldn't get me to wake up. They finally did and then took me to my room where I spent most of Wednesday dozing. The anesthesia reared its' ugly head again as it tried to get out of my system. Guess they didn't give me near enough of the anti-nausea medicine. Anyway, I was discharged from the hospital around 6 p.m.on Thursday and after stopping by the apartment to pack up some items, we headed to the campground. It's been so great having Becky here to help Linda with things. My pain and discomfort isn't too bad...Get tired out easily and need to lay down and rest a little before I get up and go again.

I'm taking it easy. Tomorrow Becky flies back to Boston. On Thursday, while I was napping, she got the call we've been waiting for. She got the job at Berklee's School of Music that she interviewed for. She's going to be a Program Assistant in the Student Activities dept. What a great opportunity ! We're so happy for her. She starts on November 1st.

Guess that's all for now. My thanks to everyone who sent their good wishes and prayers for my surgery. I appreciate it so much and can't wait to get to the point where I'm fully recovered and don't have any restrictions. Driving me crazy not being able to do stuff and having to sit on the sidelines while Linda or Becky do it. This too shall pass....

Day of Pre-Op...

I spent a good majority of today between the doctor's office and the anesthesiologists office, getting my pre-op stuff done for my surgery on Wednesday. They are not sure whether they will knock me out or give me a spinal for the surgery. Is up to my doctor and depends on length of surgery. Becky, my daughter, went with me to the doctor's office so she heard the detail of what he expects to do. Was probably more info than she cared to hear but now she knows...Surgery will probably take around two hours, depending how much he has to repair once he get in there. The hysterectomy is pretty cut and dry but the mesh sling to neck of my bladder and other stuff he might need to do could make the surgery go longer than an spinal would keep me under for. In a way, I'd prefer a spinal, although I've never had one because it wouldn't make me nauseous like general anesthesia does. We'll see what the doc says....

Anxious to get it over and done with...then Linda won't be a nervous wreck anymore. It has been a rough week here at work. Last night during supper one of our residents suffered a stroke. I found him when another resident told me they thought he had dozed off. When I got to him I could see that wasn't the case and from the paralysis on his one side, it seemed pretty evident he had or was having a stroke. We got the EMT's here pronto but it's not looking very good that he'll recover. Last Friday our oldest resident passed away. She was a great lady...you would never guess she was 96 years old. It was really quick too for her...one night I chatted with her and her daughter while they were working on a puzzle and the next day her daughter said she was sick and that we should call an ambulance. It will be a great memory for her daughter of having spent that night playing with her mom in our community while working on that puzzle together. A lesson for all of us....never take for granted the time you spend with your loved ones. We never know when it could be the last time. Working here has made Linda and I realize that and makes us want to get back out on the road to continue with our adventures. We're working hard to get to that goal !

And it Shall Be Called Fun-Mart....

Ok, how cool is it that you can go to Walmart AND buy a funnel cake while you're there. Way Cool, I think ! We're camping...we were in the mood for crackers, cheese, a little wine and some beer and figured we'd hop down to the local Walmart to get these items. There is an Autumn Leaves festival going on in town this weekend, drawing over 200,000 people. We drove through the downtown area (or attempted to) yesterday and discovered that the whole downtown area was blocked off for a craft show, etc. We navigated out around it and headed back to camp. Nothing we need and didn't care to walk a long ways from parking spot to check it out. Meanwhile back to my Walmart story....we pull in the parking lot and there are all of these vendors set up across the front of the store. Probably around 10 vendors, one of which was the Boy Scouts, who were making funnel cakes. Set up right outside the exit door....how strategic a set-up is that ? It was very yummy...the crackers, cheese, wine and beer weren't bad either. :)

In other news...my daughter is coming to hang out with me and play nurse for a few days after I have my surgery. Her flight, from Boston, left at 8:30 this morning. Only thing is, she's not on it. Seems she thought that a 5:30 a.m. departure wasn't worth getting any sleep for and pulling an all nighter would be a better idea. Around 2:30 she said she was so exhausted that she laid down to sleep for a little bit. She and her roommates set three alarm clocks so she'd get up in time. (Guess what she's getting for Christmas) At 8:00 my phone rang and it was Becky...sun coming through the window woke her up but was too late to make her flight. She called Continental airlines and they told her to come in and see if she can get on the 11:00 flight. We'll see....if not, this will be life lesson #348 for her. More later on whether she makes it to North Carolina or not.

Dixie Classic Fair

Yesterday was our day to finish around 3:30. I had heard, from one of our residents earlier in the day, that the fair was in town so we thought that would be a fun thing to do last night.


We weren't really sure where the fair was located but finally stumbled upon signs for it and got there just fine.We had such a good time. The Dixie Classic Fair is in its 128th year of operating and it's like the county type fairs that we have up in Pennsylvania. Livestock, displays, music, home-made items that get judged and awarded ribbons and lots of yummy food. Since we hadn't eaten since lunchtime, we thought we'd just eat our way across the fairgrounds. The big difference in southern style fairs and "yankee" fairs is the food made by the local churches and civic organizations. They DO have hamburgers and hotdogs but then you can get pintos and cornbread, collard greens, chitterlings (what the heck are those ?). Linda and I looked high and low for something in the vegetarian realm (nope, collard greens don't fit in that category) and when we didn't find it, we opted for fresh cut fries. Had a big ole plate of them for starters. Then we hit the funnel cake stand. Later we bought 1/2 a pound of mixed fancy nuts.  Part way through our travels we came up on a small booth where everything was made from apples. Apple streudel, apple dumplings, etc. Since we were pretty full, we decided on a apple cinnamon stick, which was very yummy. Everything in that booth looked and smelled awesome and it wasn't your typical fair booth. It was a local person and everything was home-made. After all of this we were really stuffed but we went by this one booth that really caught our eye. The guy was working over a really huge wok and he was stir frying all sorts of fresh veggies and then he added soba noodles to all of it and soy sauce. The flames were shooting into the air and it was quite a show and it smelled wonderful. Well, we had to try it. It was very good...little salty tasting from all of the soy sauce..but a great choice.

We did do other things besides eat.....we went in the building where the home-made exhibits were. Beautifully made quilts, decorated cakes, 4-H booths, pies and cakes and baking powder biscuits (none that looked as good as my mom's blue ribbon winners) and lots of jams and jellies. The photography entries took up the width of the whole building. It was wonderful to see so much talent. I couldn't believe the eye that some of the elementary school kids had....great shots ! Here is one of the entries by a youngster that I thought was really cute. Shows the patience that our canine companions have for their owners...

We went to the grandstand and heard 14karat gold perform (they were awesome)and then the main attraction came out. The group is called "The Tams" and they were great ! What energy they had....wow, the guys doing the back-up to the lead singer were getting a heck of an aerobic workout. A number of people were dancing near the stage. I'd swear this one older lady was a stripper in her youth....my, she was really putting the moves on. All she needed was a stripper pole out there in the middle of the blacktop where she was dancing and she'd been all set ! And it was all free entertainment too....

It was a fun night out...so glad we got to experience it. 

Relaxing....

Sorry for the lapse in posting. Linda and I have been so crazy busy at work since the other management couple left our community that we haven't had a spare minute. We've been very busy with new move-ins and trying to get their apartments ready so they can move in. This week alone we had four apartments being moved in to and it came down to the wire getting everything done. I was shampooing carpets on my time off to get the one ready and on top of all that we had the President of our company come to visit us on Thursday. When that happens we don't get a lot accomplished because we're talking with him, touring him, etc. and everything else comes to a standstill. I had a tour to give to a family member looking for their father so did not get much time to spend with him. The little bit we did talk was nice. He is a very down to earth guy. Grew up in Binghamton, NY which is pretty close to where I grew up. His grandfather was a physician in Sayre, PA which is where my kids spent their high school years. Linda did a great job of showing him around and telling him about our community.

It's really busy around the campground this weekend. Our rig has been moved to the end of the park, away from our normal spot. There is a Heartland RV gathering here so lots of that particular brand in the park. Next weekend is the Autumn Leaves festival and we've heard that 250,000 people will be in the area next weekend for that. Amazing ! I can't imagine where that many people will stay in the area or what the attraction will be to draw them here. Holy Cow...Mt Airy doesn't seem big enough to draw those kinds of crowds. We probably won't be out and about much next weekend. Last weekend it was Mayberry Days in town and there were lots of people around for that. This year's the 50th anniversary of the Andy Griffith show so that drew a lot of people to town. After next weekend things should quiet down and we'll go back to our regular camping spot.

Weather has taken a drastic turn since the official start of fall. Almost overnight we went from daily highs in the 90's to being in the 70's. We've also gotten a good amount of rain recently...which has been sorely needed. Overnight temps get pretty cool which has made for great sleeping weather. We're loving the cooler, fall-like weather !

Linda and I have been getting our check-ups and such, since it's been a few years since we've done so. I've also decided to go ahead with surgery to the downhill slide my body has decided to take as I've gotten older. Will get it done on October 13th and will be laid up for a while. Will be in the hospital overnight and then should be released to go home and begin the healing process. I'm not a very good patient so will need to find something to keep me busy without it involving lifting or overdoing. (Sounds like reading a book will be in order.)I'm anxious to get the problem fixed....not looking forward to being out of commission for a while. That puts alot on Linda the days that she and I work alone. We're trying to figure out how to get some overlap with some other employees schedules to help her out with pouring coffee at suppertime, etc. Once I get my strength back, I can help her with answering the phone and making my marketing calls. I really like my doctor....he's very thorough and I feel confident that he'll do a great job with the surgery.

Our weekend got off to a wonderful start, on Thursday night, when we got to have supper with our friends Wendy and Cindy...here in the park. They had been camping here this week and luckily we got to hang out with them Thursday night and Wendy fixed pizza for supper. This morning we took them to Sue's Restaurant in nearby Dobson for breakfast. Great food...with great friends ! This was the first time that we've had a chance to see their rig. They have a Newmar Dutch Star and it's gorgeous. We got the grand tour, inside and out. Today is the 1 year anniversary for them owning their rig ! So glad we got to see them while they are in the area. They are leaving soon, for a three week trip to China, but we're going to get together again with them in November when they get back. Looking forward to that !

Well, guess that catches you up on what's been happening with us. Hope you all are having fun with what you're doing !

Change in Schedule

We're working a new schedule now. The floating managers, that are here helping us, wanting us to go on the manager's schedule so we gave them Wednesday off to do the turnaround for the new schedule. Our days off will now be Fridays and Saturdays. We finish work around 3:30 on Thursday and have to be back at work to open Sunday morning.

This weekend Linda went up to her grand-daughter's "dedication ceremony (like a baptism). She left Thursday right after she got off work. I stayed here and worked on shampooing carpets in our vacant apartments to try and get ahead on all the projects that need to be done around here. I accomplished quite a bit over the last two days so I feel good about what I can check of the daunting list we have. Linda got back about 7:30 tonight. Took her around 5 hours to drive to Virginia Beach from here.

On Thursday one of the maintenance guys, that works at another property like ours, came to help us with getting our vacant apartments refurbished. He left this morning but in those 2.5 days he got several apartments totally painted and most of the things done so they are ready to rent. He was a maniac ! Worked like a whirlwind...if we could only get everyone to work at that pace, we'd have all the vacants done in no time at all. Whew ! He expects to come back at the end of this week to help us again. Good thing..as we learned Thursday that our maintenance guy is going to have surgery on his ankle on the 30th and who knows how long he'll be out.

His bombshell comes on the heels of hearing from our activity director that she needs to go on medical leave, due to her pregnancy and won't return till after the baby is born (due date is in December). Oh great ! So...two key positions and they'll both be out on medical leaves. On top of getting rooms turned around, with all kinds of carpet replacement, painting, and odds and ends to be done...we have lots of personnel issues (like these) to take care of. Not sure I've ever worked in a place that is such a train wreck ! Linda is doing a great job coordinating all of the carpet installs, ordering of lighting, etc.

I think we will like this new schedule. We only have three overnight on-calls to handle..the rest fall on the co-mgrs schedule. Plus our long days are our first two days...get 'em out of the way right off the bat..then a couple partial days. Should be a piece of cake. Will let you know how it goes...

Little Bit of This and That...

The campground was
packed this weekend. Not an empty site in the park. We were talking to the folks next to us as they were tearing down camp to go. They are from the Netherlands and just bought their rig a few days ago. They are going to try out camping for a few months, then store the rig in Florida and catch a flight back home. They are traveling till around October before flying out of Florida for home. Nice folks !

Right after they pulled out the guy in the next site over was getting ready to leave. He had a very big, (I'm guessing a 39 or 40' unit)triple axle toy hauler. I was giving Bertha a bath and wasn't trying to be too nosy but he got my attention when he started beating on his rig. I look up and it appears that the bedroom slide hadn't gone in all the way. He was wailing on it with the backside of a hatchet. His rig didn't look very old but if I were to hazard a guess, I'm thinking that probably the warranty would be null and void if he's been beating on the slideout with a hatchet. Just a guess...After he tried the hatchet, then the cordless drill came out and he was trying to do something with the little corner pieces on the bottom right side of the slideout. Must be that didn't do the trick cause he went back to using the trusty ole hatchet. The whole family stood there watching him too. I peeked up from waxing (had finished with the washing part by now but heck with this kind of entertainment, it was worth staying outside to do some waxing)and they were all gathered around him. He got it to his level of satisfaction and then they were ready to leave. I'm glad I wasn't riding home with him cause he hooks on with a 2500 series of some brand of truck to this monster of a toy hauler. Gets it hooked and revs it a little to get the momentum to leave the site. With each burst of power, you can see the front end of the truck pull up a bit. Oh boy....he's got way too much rig for that baby truck he's driving.

Weather on Sunday was absolutely perfect. Temps in the upper 70's, great breeze and the night actually cooled off enough that we could open the windows while we slept. It was great. Today it got hotter ( in the 80's) but not unbearable. I talked to my mom on the phone today and up in PA where she lives, she woke to 30 degrees. Oh my...

We went out to eat twice and went to the Mexican restaurant that our good buddy Tom recommended. Dang, not only does he know his maintenance stuff but that boy knows how to pick great restaurants too. Had a great meal both times !

In the same plaza as the Mexican restaurant, is a Tractor Supply store. I wanted to go in there to look around...just for the heck of it. Oops ! They had their metal tool boxes on sale....(you know where this is headed don't ya ?)Ta daa..... After much deliberation and measuring, Bertha got a new place for her tools. The big stuff like the generator and air compressor. They needed a home other than in the back seat with Boomer. Now we actually would have room for passengers in our back seat, should the need ever arise. It's really cool and everything fits and it looks so much more organized than before. I love it ! And like I said it was on sale....

Work is so much better this week than last week or last month. The floating managers arrived Saturday night and we sat down and chatted with them. And get this, they have the same work ethic and us ! They follow company standards, expect people to show up for work and be held accountable when they don't, and want the same things that we do. Wow, is it ever refreshing. Turns out that they worked at our location for a year, in the same position that we are in. They encountered many of the same things we did with the managers and ended up leaving because of it. They know the building and are there to back us up. They would like us to work the managers schedule which would mean Fridays and Saturdays off so we'll have to figure out how to make that work (might mean we go back to work tomorrow and then we'll be off again Thursday night...oh boy !). We're optimistic that we might be able to turn some things around at our community but we'll wait and see how it goes.

It's a new week...Hope everyone had a great Labor Day. We sure did !The campground emptied out today so only a handfull of rigs remain..it's quiet here. Linda's sitting on the swing while I write this. Sound of traffic on the distant highway. Boomer's watching people walking by and there's the smell of campfires in the air. Ahhhhh.....aint it grand !

Sunday..

We left Winston Salem, bound for the campground, around 7:45 this morning.Last night was a pretty sleepless one as we had two phone calls overnight, one at midnight and the other at four. The alarm was going off in the central fire alarm panel, in the front foyer....so the person on the other end of the phone told me. When I checked it, it indicated there was a problem with a battery. After calling the 800 number provided to trouble shoot the problem, Len walked me through what to check for. Got it resolved, temporarily, at 5:00 a.m. so we headed back to bed.

Saturday had been a busy day at work. One our newest residents had her housewarming party and 40 people attended. She had a great time showing up her apartment and Linda and I were busy giving tours of our community. After supper, one of our favorite performers...Levon Myers..entertained the residents. One of the benefits that our residents get to take advantage of, when they move into a Holiday community, is the travel program. This entitles them to travel to almost any other Holiday community, in the US and Canada, and stay for up to a week free. The only community where it wouldn't be free is in Hawaii. Since it's a premium property, the residents would need to pay $75/night...still a great deal! Anyway...a resident from our sister property in Florida is staying with us, while he is visiting his family in the area. He came back to the property, from dinner, while Levon was playing. He marched right out onto the dance floor and started dancing....He had a blast ! Eight members of his family, who came back from dinner with him, stood there and cheered and then they joined in. It was so much fun and the female residents enjoyed taking a turn as his dancing partner.

The other couple told us on Thursday that they'll be leaving at the end of this week to go work at another Holiday community in Durham. While we're happy in one sense, there are still a number of things that we have not been shown how to do so we're hoping that some floating managers will be assigned to our community to help us out. The days and week will be really, really long if we don't have any help.

Some of the new residents have been having housewarming parties in our private dining room. Linda and I set the room up for one such party to take place today. Here are some pictures...

Tomorrow Linda has a medical test at the hospital. She's been prepping for that all day today...not much fun. She'll be glad when it's over. Then we'll come back to the campground to finish our days off. We got word this week, at work, that the Chief Operating Officer for Holiday, will be coming to visit the North Carolina properties this week. He'll be at our place Wednesday afternoon. I'm interested to see what sort of man he is and how much he interacts with the residents. Stay tuned....

My cash cow is dry.....

Going into a Camping World store seems to have almost the same outcome, for me, as going into Sam's Club. You can never seem to get out the door without spending a bunch of money. Yesterday we drove to Colfax to get a new ladder for the rig. When we first hit the road, in 2007, we had purchased one of those Little Giant knock-offs that you can buy at Sam's Club for about $100. You push the knobs on each side of the ladder, pull it apart, then it articulates upward until another set of knobs pop into the holes at the desired height and it's ready to use. It was heavy as the dickens to carry around the rig. Very sturdy to use but a work-out just to get it set up and tore down. We had carried it around on the back of the truck so not sure if rust had made the knobs seize up or what but I had my last wrestling match with it a couple weeks ago. It just wouldn't go back into its original form so it found its way out next to the garbage can, here at the campground. The ladder we bought yesterday folds up into about 4" square.
I love it !! Did some stuff on the rig today and it's now stowed away in the basement, ready for its next assignment. We also went and bought a matching battery for the one we got last weekend. Our friend, Tom, e-mailed us after the last post and reminded us that it's best to replace both at the same time as the older one will draw down on the new one, compromising it. So off we went yesterday to get a matching battery. Thanks, Tom....you are our RV maintenance adviser and we love it.
Last weekend we stopped by the local tire shop (they have a shop for automotive installations and another shop next door to take care of large trucks/RV's). Marvin is getting us prices on new tires for the rig. We will need them before we go back to full-timing. He's pricing out Goodyear's like we currently have on the rig and also beefier Michelin's that would require different rims. The new Excels come with the Michelin tires, which are holding up better than the Goodyears. Not sure which way we'll go...will depend on the price but safety and longevity are also considerations.

Memorable Moments...

Been Three Years...

Yesterday was the first day of class at Penn College, kicking off the fall semester. Three years ago the first day of the semester would be my last day before us hitting the road to go full-timing. I'm sure this year's first day of activities, at Penn College, where no less hectic than three years ago and if anything maybe more hectic. Three years ago I had started working with the architect on the first residential dining facility that Penn College has ever had. There are nine operations on campus but they are all stand alone operations and none are in a residential (dorm) facility. The groundwork was laid out three years ago and that facility will be opening this semester. We left Pennsylvania for a few months but I had promised the President that I'd return in November to do some additional consulting on the design phase of the project. We returned and stayed for a few weeks before hitting the road again...this time bound for Virginia.

The morning we pulled out it was pouring down rain and the rig was surrounded by water, at the campground, where we were staying. I had to wear my aqua sock shoes cause the water was up to my ankles as I hitched us up to leave. Being our first time working with the new hitch, this is when Bertha got her dimple on the bed of the truck. We left under soggy skies and have loved every minute on the road since then.

Perhaps in the near future, Linda and I will get back to Williamsport to visit and I can see the fruition of the project that was started three years ago.

Monday..

Today was a pleasant day. Linda and I drove up the road to the Dobson area and had breakfast at a little place called Sue's Restaurant. We had a great breakfast of eggs, home-made biscuit, and hash browns for $7 total. Linda had bacon with her order but it was a super cheap, and filling meal. This place isn't much to look at but it's where all the locals go. The waitress was goofing around with one of the guys and told him she had something for him. She disappeared for a minute then came out with a bag of depends for men. Linda said that this guys face turned three shades of red and everyone was busting up so apparently there was some running joke between everyone about this.

While we were out we picked up a new battery for the rig. We discovered two weeks ago that one of ours was boiling over and making a mess of the battery compartment so figured it was time to replace the one that was leaking. This battery was original to the rig so it's lasted for almost 4 years.

Rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We made our call to the Dr. to find out why we flunked our blood work.Turns out both of our cholesterol counts are too high and the Dr. wants to put us on some meds for it (no thanks). Mine was even higher than Linda B's, which is really surprising cause mine has always been pretty low. This time it was 213 and Linda's was a little less than that. Yikes ! Well, goodbye Chunky Monkey ! It's been a great relationship while it lasted but it's over. My birthday is looming right around the corner and there's no time like the present to drop some weight, get my eating habits back on track and get some much needed exercise (yeah, gotta find time to squeeze it in when we're on call). I want to be alive for when we get back on the road to soak in all of the great things we're gonna see and experience. Waiting for a couple more tests to come back and Linda has some things to finish up.

Back to work tomorrow....

A Day of Rest....

Yesterday was a killer day at work so we are so glad that today is our day off. The week felt incredibly long !!

Friday night one of our servers quit without notice so Linda and I spent some of Saturday interviewing. We conducted five interviews, interspersed with a server calling off for breakfast and supper and two of the three servers, for lunch, were fifteen minutes late which really threw service off. On top of that, we had sixteen guests for lunch (thirteen of which were there for a new residents' house warming party)so it was not a good time for the servers to be late. That meant Linda and I had to jump in, after pouring coffee and tea, to get things started. Other things in the mix yesterday was taking down a defective smoke detector which set off the alarm the previous two nights (waking us and the resident in the wee hours of the night when we were sound asleep), giving a tour to a family, setting up for the house warming party and tearing down and washing the table cloths...putting away, making marketing calls and sending out mailings. While all of that was going on, our regional boss calls and asks what we're going to do to get move ins. He had already asked that he be e-mailed at 10, 3 and 6 with this info. Well, with all that our day consisted of, he didn't get any of those e-mails from me. We are getting increasingly frustrated with this company and their focus on numbers and nothing else, like resident satisfaction or facility readiness. We have a sprinkler system that hasn't worked in 2.5 years (yes, the grass tends to die without water), carpets that are in dire need of shampooing (but that requires labor dollars), a dishwasher that doesn't get the dishes clean (but dang new washer arms are awfully expensive), filthy balconies and patios that need pressure washing but that would entail getting a lift (yep, you guessed it...that costs money). So, Linda and I are the best dang coffee pourers we can be and hang in there. We love the residents but it's really tough to stay positive when they pay so much as it is and get slapped with annual rent increases of over 4% and don't get the services they should for what they pay. This week we won't have our shuttle bus running cause the bus driver is on vacation. When we were trained our trainers told us that there always needs to be transportation to take them to their medical appointments. Call a cab if you have to but that is something that needs to happen. We asked why a cab wouldn't be used and yep, it costs too much. ....Just another day at the office. Whew !! Come 9 p.m. we were ready to go to our apartment and collapse !

Today started out rainy. We ran into rain on our way up here, from Winston Salem, and it was coming down pretty good while we set up. Yep, we were pretty much soaked to the skin. Pretty crowded in the campground when we arrived but as usually happens, they start pulling out mid morning. There is a late checkout on Sundays (3 p.m.) so that makes it really nice for the locals to stretch out their weekend as long as possible before returning home. We were told that there is a really large rally next weekend so our rig will be on a different site when we come up next weekend. They like to keep the groups together so they can use the pavilions for their pot lucks and gatherings. Not a problem for us....just so we have a space somewhere. Last weekend we met a couple, from Florida, who came up for a week or so...just to get away. They are taking advantage of the storage plan ($1 a day to store your rig here and they will put it onto the site, hook it up to electric and start the frig for you before you arrive) so they'll come up again this fall. The husband wants to sell the sticks and bricks home and full time it but she says she isn't ready to do that. We chatted about the FT lifestyle and he got even more excited about the idea just hearing our stories. Penny's body language (arms folded across her chest) told me she wasn't budging....

No definitive plans for the rest of our time off. We went last week to get our annual check ups and need to make some follow up calls tomorrow on some of the results. Hopefully my new eyeglasses will be in tomorrow so we'll pick them on our way back into town Tuesday. Other than that, chill out...relax and regroup.

A good time....

Our friend, Lindig, came to visit us at the campground. We first met Lindig when we all worked together at Amazon, in Coffeyville, KS. Lindig's rig was parked next to ours and we would take Lindig with us when we'd go sightseeing on our days off. It was great catching up with her on the jobs we've all had since we last saw each other. She has had similar disappointments, as we have, with the companies and managers she's worked for. We recalled fondly what great people we met, while working at Amazon, and how much we enjoyed working there. The bosses were great, the "regulars" were great and there were things to see and do while in the area. It was just the grueling nature of the work that made it tough. You could give 110% there and it was appreciated. It was great to see Lindig....we had lunch at the Mayflower seafood restaurant which was less than great today. Had hoped for a wonderful meal, as we've had in the past but today wasn't to be the day.

Hump Day...

It's our middle of the week day here at work. Go in at 11:30 and will work till Sunday morning at 6 a.m...on call 24/7 till then. Then we know we're on a downhill slide to going CAMPING ! Yippee !!

Has been very humid and hot here..in the 90's again with heat index up around 100. Linda and I sat out on the back patio last night and once you get out there in the humidity (even at 10:00 it was still very hot and humid), and sit for a while, it doesn't feel too bad.

Nothing much going on the next couple of days. Shouldn't be too crazy here at work...no big events to work. Might have a new resident moving in...who knows. Although she has signed her rental agreement, we're really not sure when she'll arrive on our doorstep to move in.

Ordered some new eyeglasses on Tuesday...can't wait for them to get here so I don't have to look out through a haze of scratches. If you recall the ones I bought on-line didn't work (bi-focal field messed up). The eye Dr. said he sees that a lot...cheap Japanese plastic with poor peripheral field vision and lots of unhappy customers. Linda's are fine but she has the line bi-focal. Guess the Japanese haven't mastered the no line bifocal yet. We have a vision plan through work so will pay most of what these new ones will cost...my cost is $145. Will be worth it !

Gotta run....time to get ready for work !!

Rainy Monday...

Although the forecast didn't call for it and the radar didn't show it, while it was happening, it rained for most of the day. Not a downpour type of rain but a drizzly, cloud oozing with moisture and gotta let it go, kind of rain. We decided to go for a drive up towards the Virginia border to see what we could find. It was only about 11 miles to the border and when we got there we stopped at the Virginia Welcome Center. We looked around at all of the brochures and one caught my eye. It was for a general store in a nearby town. We got directions so we could find it and hit the road.

Red Hill General Store was really cute. It had all sorts of nifty things. Anything you might need to make yummy food...they had it. Old fashioned ice cream makers, crocks if you want to make homemade sauerkraut, jerky machines, wood stove supplies and even old fashioned bottles of soda. It was fun to poke around and see everything they had. They had one section that was gluten free products you could bake. That was nice to see since I dealt with some students at the college, when I worked there, that had problems with gluten.

As we took the exit for the general store, I had noticed a sign for a farmer's market. Once we left the general store, we headed to the farmer's market to check it out since it was around lunch time and we were both getting hungry. There we found lots of locally grown veggies so we bought a big, juicy tomato and some veggies for our lunch and dinner meals. Once we got back, I ran into Walmart and bought some rolls and we had tomato sandwiches with two thick slabs of tomato on them...Yum ! For supper Linda made one of our favorite veggie meals in the pressure cooker (got the idea from seeing all of the pressure cookers at the general store). Carrots, cabbage, potatoes and vidalia onions....Double Yum !

The rest of the day was uneventful. The rain cleared up and the humidity came back. When we arrived here, on Sunday morning, the temps were very cool compared to what we've had for the last two months. It was only in the low 70's yesterday which was so awesome.

Back to work tomorrow...sad to see our days off end but the great thing is that we get to see our friend Lindig next Sunday...when we come back up here. Yippee !! She is driving cross country now and will meet up with us here next Sunday. We worked with Lindig at Amazon, in Coffeyville, Kansas so it's been a while since we've seen her. We're excited to catch up with her and hang out for a while.

Hoe Down...

Yesterday we had our VA Hoe Down. It started with a VA benefit workshop, letting folks know about the Aid and Attendance benefit that so many veterans don't know about and could sure use the monthly benefit they are entitled to. We had a good sized crowd for the workshop.

After the workshop, we had a little bit of time before lunch started so anybody that wanted to take a tour of the community could do that. At 12:30 we kicked off a great meal of BBQ Pork sandwiches, BBQ chicken, southern style slaw, fresh guacamole and chips, potato salad, fresh corn on the cob and ice cream treats for dessert. We had a full house and everyone had a great
 meal. Once the meal was over, we kicked into high gear, clearing the tables so folks could sit back and enjoy the Centennial Squares as they danced up a storm.

The Centennial Squares are a team of square dancers that put on an exhibition and then invite some folks from the audience to participate. What great fun ! Our regional chef, who was at our place for the day to help out, joined in on the fun. Afterwards he said he didn't realize the song was going to be so long...he was sweating bullets by the end of it. One of the ladies who came to visit for the day, brought her tap shoes and joined in on one of the songs She tapped up a storm.. This lady is probably close to 80 years old and wow, could she dance ! I only hope I am that mobile when I'm her age.

It was a long day and my feet were hurting by the end of the day (another pair of socks bites the dust). Many of the residents told us how much they enjoyed the day, which makes the long day and fatigue worth it. We are now up at the campground relaxing so today will be a day of rest. (Linda is taking her turn at a nap...mine will come shortly.)It is very cool this morning (70 degrees) and compared to it normally being in the 80's by this time, it is very refreshing. We sat outside, under the awning,and finished off the drinks we bought at McDonald's on the way to the campground. A nice change of pace and weather.

We had a new resident move in yesterday during all of the craziness. She and her daughter came up to the office to see Linda and another resident, who recently moved in, was also there. Bernice, our new resident, introduced herself to the other resident and come to find out they grew up together....one street apart. What fun that was as they hugged and had a great reunion. They ate supper together and I'm sure they will be great pals once again....In the short time we've been there, we've seen these "reunions" happen several times. Neighbors reunited....distant relatives found...all so heart warming and wonderful.

Monday..

Tomorrow we'll head back to Winston Salem, as we need to be to work at 11:30. Right now the local TV stations have interrupted regular programming to track a storm that has produced a tornado warning. It is moving away from us here....it's a severe storm that is producing as many as 194 lightening strikes an hour. We haven't had any heavy rain yet although the warning said we could get some. The worst might be over...at one point three bolts of lightening came down and it looked like a claw scratch across the sky. It was really awesome !

We took a picture of this rig that has been here at the campground for about two weeks. It's a Teton brand 5th wheel and the big truck pulling it has a matching paint job....very pretty. We drove by and stopped to chat with the guy who owns it. He's a fulltimer, originally from Delaware. I asked him if he's had any problems getting parts for his rig, since Teton went out of business and he said no...he can get anything he might need. Only thing that would be a problem would be the fender skirts. Very pretty rig.

Here's one of the ponds at the campground. I took Boomer down there yesterday so he could go swimmin'....it drops off pretty quick so he waded in up to his belly and then turned around to come back to shore. It cooled him off for a little while. Got up to 97 yesterday and 91 today....too darn hot ! I went out around 9 this morning and washed the rig...it getting another rinse off tonight with the storm passing through.

Got a busy week ahead. We have several new residents moving in this week. On Saturday, we have a VA benefit workshop to talk about the Aid and Attendance benefit that many people do not know about. Along with the workshop is a special lunch and entertainment. We have over 30 people signed up to attend the workshop so we'll be looking forward to our day off on Sunday. Hope everyone has a great week !

Our Friday is Here....

We know we're heading "home" when we see this....

We're all set up. They left the rig on the site so only took us a few minutes to drop the back jacks, hook up the utilities and put the slides out. We left work around 7:15...got our wake up call at 5:30 with the call off of the dishwasher. Couldn't get back to sleep so figured we might as well get up and hit the road. This was the second morning of getting woken up at 5:30. Yesterday it was the alarm monitoring company calling to tell us there was an alarm going off in the fire panel. It's been going off every so often the last week but our maintenance guy thought he had the problem resolved by changing out the back up battery to the 3rd floor panel. Seem he swapped out the wrong battery. So I swapped out the truly bad one and so far it's been ok.

Found out the other day that our boss, the regional director, is leaving the company. The "official" notice, from corporate, is that he's leaving to spend more time with his family. The truth is, as he told us, is that he resigned back in May but was asked to stay on for a while to help the company. When he was asked a short while ago what his intentions were, he said he'd like to stay and continue with the company. At that point they told him that he'd turned in a resignation, they had accepted it so he needed to go. His boss has been demoted to take over his job so a huge impact to not just one person, but two. Our General Sales Manager told me that this is now the 5th change in that position she has seen since joining the company in January. Awesome...

Great news this week....we made our last payment on Bertha ! She is now wholly ours and not shared with the credit union. Now we can start applying the amount that was the truck payment and get the rig paid off. Hooray !!

Just saw a neat piece on Sunday Morning show about a micro sculptor. He uses a microscope to make art that fits in the eye of a needle or other similarly small areas. It was incredible ! His name is Wigan and he was ridiculed, as a child by a teacher.The teacher told him, "You are an exhibition of failure, and all the children in the school need to know about you, because this is what happens if you don't listen to me, children,' - you know, that type of thing? So, that made him feel that small." His mother noticed. Her advice then still guides him today.

"She said to me, 'You are now going to continue to make small things.' And I said, 'Why?' And she says, 'If you keep making small things, your name will get bigger!'


He laughed: "She said, 'The smaller your work, the bigger your name'." So he started sculpting super small items. His pieces are viewed through a microscope in order to be seen by people going to his art gallery shows. One of his pieces is Charlie Chaplin balancing on the end of an eyelash. He commands as much as $100,000 for one of his art pieces...pretty neat for someone who his teacher thought would be a failure.


No big plans today....we're pretty exhausted so I foresee a Nascar nap in my future. Need to call my mom and wish her a happy birthday...she's turning 85 tomorrow. Also think that a seafood dinner from the Mayflower might be in order. Stay tuned....

Back To Work..

We left the campground at 8 this morning and drove the 40 minutes back to Winston Salem to get ready for work. We had a very relaxing weekend and decent weather. When we arrived on Sunday we went into town and had a late lunch at the Mayflower restaurant. We wanted to eat there the last time we were up but they are closed on Mondays. The place was packed with people and after eating we can see why. Linda and I both ordered the broiled scallop dinner. The dinners come in regular and large sizes. We got the regular size and after getting ours, I can't imagine how much food you'd get with the large order. We had 15 scallops (not the tiny ones either), coleslaw, baked potato and 4 hush puppies. The hush puppies looked like large onion rings...large, O-shaped rings that were fluffy and very yummy. All of this for $7.99....unreal ! We could only eat half of our meal so took the rest home with us. This will certainly be a favorite of ours on future trips.

On Monday we parked downtown so we could walk around and check out the little shops. We went to Floyd's Barber Shop, which is a landmark for Mount Airy. The walls are lined with thousands of pictures of people who have come in to see Floyd. He's been in that same spot for 63 years and still cuts hair. The place was filled with people, looking the pictures, and just chatting like you do in any local barber shop. "Floyd" (I don't think that's his real name) is 86 years old and was such a nice guy....he loves posing for pictures and telling stories. Oprah's picture was on the wall (a much younger Oprah), Lou Ferigno, of course Andy Griffith and other celebs. The barber shop is right next door to the Snappy Lunch...home of the pork chop sandwich. We didn't go there to eat...we could see that there was a line waiting to get seated.

Downtown is really cute...reminds you of what most downtown areas used to look like before strip malls and Wal-Marts came to small town America. Andy Griffith sure put Mount Airy on the map...without his notoriety I'm sure this town was have succumbed to the same demise as most other towns have.

On our way back to the campground one evening, with Chunky Monkey in hand, we took a little drive up the road past the campground. There we found the little white church with the resting place for Eng and Chang
Bunker. Gorgeous area...it overlooks the valley and mountains in the distant.

Since the Bunker twins had 21 children between them, there were several Bunkers buried in that cemetery.

It was a fun weekend...now it's back to reality till we can return next weekend. Hope everyone has a great week !