Day Off

It's our day to collapse and recover from work, then back to work tomorrow. We're going to work tomorrow so that we can have a three day weekend this coming weekend. My daughter is coming to visit and we'll go do some sightseeing in the city. We haven't had a chance to check anything out in the area yet so it will be nice to tour a little before we leave the area.

This morning I took the trash out to dump it and saw that our neighbor, who has the huge motorhome, was outside tinkering in one of his bays. I saw what looked to be a macerator laying in there and went over to ask him about it. I am getting ready to order a flo-jet macerator today so that we can dump our tanks without needing to hook up, pull out to dump, and then back in again and get settled. We are about 70' from the dump station and a macerator hooks onto your sewer line and using a regular garden hose you can pump the black and gray water a considerable distance to a dump station, a toilet, or a sewer cleanout. Makes it very convenient for dry camping if you have a house nearby or a sewer cleanout. After asking him questions about how his works we wound up talking about NASCAR. (The talk went from the amount of dry camping he does and his need for the macerator to dump long distances while at a race....ahh, now you see how we came round the horn to this new topic). Anyways....turns out he is a small investor in Childress racing. He knows all the drivers...told me all the scuttlebutt on different drivers....and how he's really close to getting sponsorship for Steve Light (not sure of spelling) for a car next year. He told me to keep an eye out for him. This guy has a three man team that tours the country racing go-carts. Not your typical back yard variety but ones that do 130 m.p.h and have no seat belts....wow !! Sounds like an adrenaline rush...It was fun to talk about NASCAR....he said that NASCAR wants to get the sport back to more of the way it used to be...bumping and pushing....hot tempers, etc. The stuff that fans like. Not sure I would agree. Seems there is enough excitement when 43 cars are traveling 180-200 m.p.h. that we don't need tempers flaring and dangerous antics just so the rednecks sitting at home with their PBR can get a kick out of it. We'll see...

Yesterday at work was rough....we arrived to find that both elevators quit working overnight so a guy that was trying to move out, when we were leaving the night before, was still sitting in the dock with all of his stuff there. So...with the elevators not working we had alot of ticked off customers. I had to lead people to the stairwells but that is not conducive to moving anything heavy. All the access doors have keypads and you can only gain entry through a door or elevator that will take you to your floor. I spent the day literally running from one problem to another. When the elevator repair person arrived at 11:30, she got them working just as a huge Mayflower moving truck backed in to unload someone. She keyed one elevator open for them to load the car and that stranded someone on the second floor....they would buzz the office...Linda would page me....I'd have to go up the stairwell and lead the person back to the first floor....Crikey !!! It was a pretty miserable day overall. The guy who was there at 8:00 when we arrived for work....he came back with the truck at 6:15 (we close at 6) so we got out really late last night by the time we did his paperwork. And there was damage on the truck....that's another whole issue.

The week was long...we are tired....today we'll rest a little...do laundry and get ready for another week.

Week Half Over or Week Half Started ?

It's been a bit grueling this week at work. We are hoping the new manager gets hired and starts soon so we can go to a new location. This is a very busy location and tomorrow it will be just Linda and I working. Hopefully it won't be too overwhelming.

The rv park is still busy. Last night they had people parked in spots that usually aren't sites....just to fit everyone in. There were a few openings tonight when we got home from work but they will probably fill up overnight. The other night we discovered another route to take coming home to avoid the Holland tunnel traffic congestion. It was crazy to sit in six lanes of traffic, inching ahead to get to Marin Blvd and hoping to get home by 8 p.m. some evenings. By taking this different route, we can get home by 6:45....in time to watch the last half of the evening news. Life is good....and it's a whole lot less stress than the other way.

Visit From The Boss...

Linda and I went in early to get some last minute things done around the facility before Mr. Dahn arrived for his site visit. He got there about 2:00 and stayed about a half hour. Nice guy...very soft spoken. He is very customer oriented and conscious of his competition, the impact of the economy and the need for a clean facility with an attentive staff. He thought our facility looked great and was very clean. We'll get a follow-up site letter explaining any areas that the new manager needs to focus on. Overall it was great to meet the man that we work for. Now that we don't have to prepare for this event anymore, we can now focus on the next auction that this facility will hold in September. A storage unit will go into lien and ultimately be sold at auction if payment is delinquent for more than 44 days. Not sure if we'll still be here when the auction is held, on September 8, but there is much that needs to be done before it can be held. Failure to do any of the steps exactly right will mean that the auction has to be canceled. Something happened to cause the last two auctions to get canceled. We don't want that to happen this time so we're being extra careful to follow all the procedures for putting an auction together. One of the Vice Presidents will come on the day of the auction to conduct the proceedings.

The Job...

Work is going great ! We've been there two days so far and have been really busy trying to get ready for the President's arrival on Tuesday, end of month reports and put things in motion for an auction coming up in September. I've spent the last two days doing some paint touch-ups, changing out light bulbs, renting out new units, cleaning some trash out of a unit so it is available to rent and counting inventory. Linda's been busy in the office with paperwork, phone calls and waiting on customers. Our assistants are great to work with...very helpful and the customers have been really nice. The roads here are horrible....really rough and the traffic is horrendous. The last two days we've had horrible thunderstorms and one hit just as we were leaving work tonight. Traffic was crawling, the streets had alot of water on them in some places and it was really pouring. Took us about 45 minutes to get back to the campground.

It seems so odd to come out of the rig in the evening and to be surrounded by skyscrapers. It's odd to be in a campground in the middle of the city.

Hitting The Road Again...

Linda is working 7-3 tomorrow and then we are hoping to hook up and head out to Lawrenceville, NJ to her brother's place, for their family get together. I have a hefty "to do" list to accomplish tomorrow while she is at work which will keep me busy. We dropped our Xterra off at her sister's house for them to keep till we come around again.

The national diesel pricing has dropped a bit. We filled up yesterday for $2.69 gal. We went back today to an area produce stand to get some more green beans and cucumbers. They had run out of sweet corn yesterday, before we got there, but they had an ample supply today so we got two dozen and processed 18 of them to put in the freezer. Turned the beans and cucumbers into summer style salads so we'll have good eatin' during the week we're in New Jersey for our training.

A friend of ours commented that I talk alot about food in our blog and it's true...I do. Food has had such a prominent role in my life and career that it surely is part of my psyche. I am very passionate about quality food and the people who create great food. For those of you who do not know much about me, I'll give you a quick history lesson. I grew up on a 125 acre dairy farm in Pennsylvania and my summers were spent working in the fields or barn. When not working I frolicked with my younger brother, riding our bicycles, playing or fishing in the stream that ran through our farm. We always had a large garden and when I was about 12, I ran a produce stand on the highway that was about a 1/2 mile from our house. I sold sweet corn (by the dozen and bushel), all kinds of veggies and any types of berries or fruit that my mom had not turned into jelly, pies or put in the freezer. My parents had the wisdom to teach my brother and I about money in that the profit we made from this produce stand was split between my brother and I to use for buying clothes for the upcoming school year. IF we had any money leftover, after buying our clothes, we could use it to buy something special like a bike or some toy we had our eye on. It was hard work and a lot of responsibility but we learned the connection between hard work and reward. We also learned how much a dollar could buy and how to spend it wisely to get the things we needed.

I got my first job when I was 16 and you guessed it....it was in the restaurant business. I went to college, after high school, and received my degree in Food and Hospitality Management. The first 10 years of my career were spent primarily working in bakeries, part of that time was running my own bakery. The second part of my career was spent in a variety of roles with Marriott Corp., Cornell University Dining Services and then at Pennsylvania College of Technology for the last 18 years as Food Service Director. So...yes, I talk about food a lot probably because I think alot about food and the food business.

I never figured myself to be the type of employee to stay and get the "gold watch" so now is the time for new adventures and for learning new skills. That is what is truly wonderful about this lifestyle. Every day we get the chance to re-invent ourselves. Try new things we've always wanted to "dabble" in, develop new skills, make new friends, see different cities and towns and just have a ball. Tomorrow is the start of one of those new adventures for Linda and I....off to a new job. Let the adventure begin !

Boomer's day.....

Boy, yesterday was rough ! Today has been better....have fewer "moments". Have tried to stay busy and that helps a great deal. This morning we mowed the lawn and then the sewer guy came to pump out our holding tanks. We then decided to go to the indoor farmers market in town and look around. Most of the booths are run by the Amish. Loads of fresh baked goods, fresh pretzels, fresh meats and produce. We went to the booth known for their hoagies and got a super size tuna salad hoagie for lunch...$4. We then had a cinnamon sugar pretzel for dessert.....yummy !!

We took Boomer with us as we are trying to keep an eye on him to see if he's going to mope or not eat since he saw the whole thing unfold yesterday and isn't quite sure what to make of it all. He's been quiet but did eat his supper (no breakfast but that's not unusual). We took him to our friends house to run and he seemed to be OK....he ran and chased the ball we'd throw and explored the yard. We've lavished him with lots of love today so he hasn't felt any neglect in that department. Tonight we went for a walk and he was an "angel". He has never walked so nicely nor behaved so well than he did today. We're hoping that since his alpha buddy isn't leading the way now, that he will be very good to walk with and much more obedient. During our walk he made a new friend. Across from where we are staying is Bender's Potato Barn and they have a small menagerie of animals out back. Boomer loves horses and there were three miniature ponies in one area and he got so excited when he first saw them. He smooched this pony although he really wanted to crawl under the fence and play with them. When he tried to do that and smooched the one ponies hoof, she didn't like that too well. We tried to explain to him that if his lips are smashed there will be no more smooching but he didn't have his listenin' ears on. We walked for about 45 minutes and now he is relaxing on the living room floor.

This morning we heard from Mini U about our training dates. We will be going to Whippany, NJ July 7 - 11 to train there and then travel to Woodbridge, VA to train for another two days. I spoke to the manager at the Whippany site and she was delightful. I think we will have a great time learning about our new jobs from she and her husband. We are excited to get started.

Awaiting Instructions....

We are waiting for our company to finalize the details of where we will train. It looks like we may spend some time in New Jersey training and some time in Virginia. We are supposed to get more details tomorrow.

We got some errands done today after I finished applying the last of the sealant to the slide outs and storage bay areas. The syringe system that comes with the sealant is really nifty. I removed every other screw from the trim pieces on the slideouts and the 1.5" needle goes in the screw hole slick as a whistle so the sealant can be injected into the wood. The sealant follows the grain of the wood and if there is the presence of fungi (rot), it follows that path so the sealant will fill the channel created by the fungi. I must have slept through science class the day that they told us that wood rot/decay is caused by a fungi. Hmmm....I guess I just thought if you have a problem with wood getting wet on a consistent basis, you get rot....not that it's actually caused by fungi.Cool, huh ?

So anyway, for a couple of areas under the slideout that appear to be spongy to the touch and weren't near a screw hole, I took a small drill bit and angled off of the screw hole to "aim" towards these spots. Like I said the syringe is really awesome....just point and shoot the sealant (kind of looks and has the consistency of diesel fuel) into any hole where the wood needs hardening. I also brushed some sealant on the area under the shower where there had been a leak and it made that wood really strong. Total cure is 1-3 days so we'll let you know how things are in a couple of days. The tests they've done on this sealant show the penetration area as much as 16-20" from where initially injected....pretty amazing ! Other products that were tested against it only had a few inches.

We got the oil changed in the car today....went to visit Linda's 16 yr old niece who just had her gallbladder out and got some papers notarized. Took Boomer to Petsmart to get his nails trimmed and that was a lost cause....took two employees and they still couldn't get him still enough to do it. That boy is a hand full !! Guess it will take knock out drops to get his nails cut without any bloodshed....his or ours. After doing those errands, we came back home and are now relaxing for the remainder of the evening. Linda's brother and sister-in-law gave us some fresh Chinese pea pods the other day...fresh from their friend's garden...and we had the last of them for supper. Wow, were they outstanding ! So crispy and bursting with flavor. Can't wait to visit farmer markets along the road on our upcoming travels to taste regional culinary delights from all over this great country. Don't think Mini U has any locations in Maine cause I have a hankering for lobster about now....darn !

We Got It !

We got the call today that we got the job we interviewed for almost two weeks ago. We will be full-time roving managers for a storage company that has 90 facilities in 10 different states. We will be filling in for site managers who are taking vacation or if there is a change in management at a facility, we will cover the facility until a new manager is hired. We are excited! This job is ideal in that we can do what we love most....travel and see different parts of the country...but also work all over the country. Each of the sites has a little store, kind of like a U-Haul store where you sell moving supplies....tape, boxes, packing supplies, etc. and hundreds of self storage units in all different sizes. We will stay on-site as most of the facilities have power and access to water. Even if there is a slow period of time, when there isn't a need to cover a facility, we are guaranteed a base rate each month.

Linda has a doctors appt next week so they are working out when and where we will train. Trying to finish up projects around the rig before we head out. Tonight we ran to Lowes and got the supplies we needed for the toolboxes on Bertha. When the guys built the bed and installed the tool boxes underneath of Bertha, they didn't secure the tool boxes enough. They are attached on the bottom but not at the top and there is too much flex in them. They do not lie flat against the I-beams that the guys welded up underneath the bed so if we hit a bump the boxes would shimmy and shake really bad. So much so that it has created stress cracks in the metal bottom where the bolt goes through. We bought bolts, bumpers to take up the slack in space between the I-beam and box,rubber washers and locking nuts to pull the whole thing together. It was really tough drilling through the tool box and I-beam.....my arm muscles are really fatigued tonight from bearing down on the drill to get it through the steel. Whew !! But two hours later, we had the four bolts through and everything finished up. Much better ! Hardly any play in it now. Will seem good not to have guys pull up along side of us, going down the highway, and point frantically at the tool boxes cause they think they're gonna fall off. Wouldn't have been a pretty sight to have our tool boxes fall off onto the highway as we're driving.

Tomorrow I have another project I'm gonna tackle on the rig. I have found some soft spots in a few areas under the slideouts where it appears to be starting to rot and I've bought some sealant that I will inject into the screw holes on the end of each slideout. The supplies arrived today and it should be a fairly straight forward job. After reading the test results of this product and it's penetration ability, I'm anxious to see the final results. More on this later...

DUH or A-ha ?

Since we've been staying in Chambersburg, we usually go to Linda's brothers house on Sunday so we can watch the race and do our laundry. There is a 70's style den set up in the basement, where we can watch TV and not disturb him upstairs. The laundry room is in the next room so it's handy for us as we can hear when the washer has stopped or the dryer beeps at the end of its' cycle. Yesterday Linda was comfy on the couch so I took my turn to go and retrieve the clothes from the dryer and start a load in the washer. A couple of weeks ago we had bought some Gain at Sams Club as we were running low on liquid laundry detergent. I thought it looked awful "milky" as I poured it into the washer and looked at the bottle....Turns out that Gain also makes fabric softener and not just detergent. For the last two weeks we've been "washing" our clothes in fabric softener....Just think how clean they might get if we actually used detergent ? They sure do smell nice though....

Still waiting to hear about the job we interviewed for last Tuesday. We know they are working on our background checks and references. I'm hoping we'll hear more by end of week. Once we know for sure we have it, I'll give more details about it...Don't want to jinx ourselves by spilling the beans now. Linda was off yesterday and although she got called this morning to go to a different facility, than she's ever been to, she declined so she could spend time with her niece. We were watching Linda's 7 yr old niece, Karlee (the hula hoop twirler from our pictures) this morning while Karlee's mom worked. We had a good time talking to her and running errands to Lowes and Wal-Mart.

Talked to my mom Saturday and she's been busy making jams and jellies lately...getting ready for the craft show circuit. She made 66 jars this week...Wow !! She made some blackberry jams and jellies, some sweet cherry and some strawberry rhubarb. Yum !! Every time I talk to her and she tells me about making jelly I think of her going out in the blackberry patches, climbing a ladder to get wild grapes or bending over picking strawberries. She doesn't do that as much any more as she used to (especially the climbing part)but she is still an awesome cook. She bought a trunkload of rhubarb from a local lady and she got 15# of rhubarb out of that and has been making all sorts of stuff. I love strawberry rhubarb pie and am happy to be a guinea pig for anyone who wants to make one. Yesterday Linda's sister gave us pieces of strawberry pie, that a neighbor lady made, and it was outstanding. Summer time is a great time for strawberry shortcake, pies and all that yummy stuff. My last trip home, mom stocked me up on sweet relish. She makes a zucchini relish and tomato relish that is to die for on a burger. In fact we had a smattering of it on our veggie burgers last night...on top of the melted cheese, sauteed onions and mushrooms.

Well June 12 came and went and our TV still works. Yeehaa ! I was worried but thought we'd take a "wait and see" approach to it before buying a converter box. Although our rig and TV are from 2007, when I looked up the model number on the govt. website, it said that it wasn't a digital one and we would need the box. We don't have a satellite....just count on "local flavor" wherever we are. If we are in a metropolitan area, sometimes the selections are quite good. Here in Chambersburg, we get NBC, PBS and the ION station. Summertime usually isn't a great time for shows but we can usually find something to watch or we just play cards. Many of the parks where we have worked or stayed have cable TV included in the site cost so we get plenty to choose from during those stays.

Hard to believe that we are almost half way through June....wow, the summer is just flying by. Most people are probably planning their summer vacations....I've been on one for six months now...I just want to get back to work !

Caledonia Park

Today we decided to take the boys to run and then go to Caledonia State Park to hang out for a while. We got a table close enough to the water so Boomer could swim but still be tied up. Schroeder was perfectly content over near the picnic table with us. Linda and I played cards and developed some follow up questions for yesterday's interview that we can ask the next time we hear from them. After we'd been at the park for a little while, Linda's phone rang and it was the nursing agency she just signed on with in Mechanicsburg. They asked her to work tonight and she told them that it would take her till 4 to get there and they said that was fine. So we gathered up the cards (I think I was almost ready to win anyway) and headed home so she could get changed for work. She just called a little before 4 and said that she was almost there and had run into a heavy downpour that had everyone going really slow. They have been calling for thunderstorms to pop up in the area this afternoon.

Yesterday we had the last of our interviews. It went very well and they said that they would begin the background checks and references. We are excited about this position as it will accomplish several key things for us. First, it allows us to travel and see the country. Second, we get to work together at a job that will utilize skills that we each possess and last, but not least...it's pays enough to pay our bills. That is the problem we've found with workamping jobs is that they don't pay enough to quite cover everything. The couple that interviewed us said that we would hear something within the next 10 days so we'll be anxiously awaiting that phone call. The other two jobs we interviewed for on Monday also went very well but not ideal jobs for us. We could and would do them (if offered) if we don't get this other job so we'll see what happens. Until something changes, Linda will keep working assignments from the nursing agency...they pay very well and it has been nice for her to be near her family here in Chambersburg.