Snow + South = All Things Stop

Well storm number 2 passed through the south and we got a whopping 1.5" of snow with a little glaze of ice on top, which means that all things came to a grinding halt. If it weren't for our four housekeepers/servers calling off this morning, it might be humorous. All schools are still closed tomorrow even though we received no additional accumulation today. Amazing how everything down here closes at the slightest hint of a snow storm coming. Shops, schools, colleges, bus lines, etc. People are scared to death to try to drive in the snow so they just stay home. Thank goodness there are some "northern folks" that work here that will actually come in to work. Linda and I went out to supper, when we got off work, and the roads were bare. We don't go in until 11:30 tomorrow so we'll see if it's a repeat performance of today. Linda had the foresight to schedule three other employees to come in this morning, as we anticipated the call offs. One of the women stayed overnight in the guest suite so we'd be sure to have her here this morning. They got most of the work done but not all. Enough with snow....we'd had all we want to see this winter. Mother Nature has forgotten that the white stuff should stay north....far, far north of here.

Summary of the Week

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday morning we went to Denny's for their free breakfast. All the waitstaff had these t-shirts on which we thought were cute. The line, outside the restaurant, wasn't too long so we only had to wait about 15 minutes before we got in. The couple that was ahead of us in line was the same couple we had chatted with last year for this same event. Weird, huh ? Inside they were a lot more organized than they had been last year and we waited just a few minutes for our free Grand Slam. There was a balloon artist making neat animals out of balloons while people waited for their food. It was a fun event and hey, ya can't beat free food.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the cranes here in the park and the day after I put that post on,I realized my error in calling them whooping cranes because we went to the bird sanctuary and got to see Sand Hill cranes, like we have here, at their facility. Our friend Cindy let us know about the mistake...Anyway, there is one missing and I'm worried that something has happened to it. There is only one wandering around now...Don't know where the other one went to. Hoping nothing bad has happened. Is this the time of year for sitting on a nest or raising young ? Guess I need to study up on sand hill cranes.

Today we took our friend Jan to the hospital to get some blood work done. By the time she finished up there it was around noontime and since she had to fast for her test and we drove her to the hospital, none of us had eaten and we were starving. We went to Cinnamon Sticks and had breakfast. I had french toast stuffed with a strawberry cream cheese mixture. Very good ! We got our bellies full, got some propane and came on home.

In an earlier post I spoke of the windmills that are going up near my mom in Pennsylvania. Well, I heard on the news the other night that the new clean energy initiative (which I think is great) is not creating jobs in the US but that 80% of the money is going to companies overseas to build these products. Grrrrr......How is that going to create jobs here ? The news report said it was congress's fault because no specific provisions were put in the energy bill that the materials/jobs, etc. should be "American". Come On, Congress...get with it ! Isn't that the point of trying to jump start our economy and "create" jobs in our country....not send all our money to China so they can send the manpower and equipment back to us ? Duh !!

It's been chilly here...in the 50's. Tonight they are expecting 1-3" of snow through the panhandle area of Florida. Safe here...whew ! Friends and family up north are saying it's horrible up there. High winds and lots of snow. Oh no, I just heard where there is a possibility of ANOTHER storm next week for these same areas. And to think that Vancouver has had to truck snow in for the Olympics....they didn't have enough snow on the slopes. Hah...Maybe they need to move the Olympics to Maryland.

Full Day....

Today Linda and I drove to Clearwater to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium
. This is a Rescue, Rehab and Release aquarium for dolphins, turtles, otters and other marine animals. I had found this facility many years ago when I researched animal rescue facilities throughout the US and marked the locations of the facilities on a US atlas. Linda saw my notation and decided it was a good place to go for a day trip, while in Florida...she was right. One of the residents at CMA is "Winter", a bottlenose dolphin who came to the facility when she was very young and was found entangled in a crab trap. Hear about Winter's story here. What an amazing animal and a true inspiration to everyone. Linda and I took the behind the scenes tour of the facility so we got to see where they prep the food for the animals, where they do surgery on them, the new holding tank area that is under construction and we went inside the vehicle used for strandings to see what they do when they go to rescue a turtle or dolphin. It was very interesting to hear and see what goes on behind the scenes.

This turtle was put in the tank with the first dolphin brought to CMA
for art therapy. "Sunset Sam" did a great job painting this guy !


Today's menu for the residents...sounds yummy !


This little guy is blind so he has to be hand fed....he also likes the body rubs.


Time to play and exercise..


Saying hello....


View from the aquariums' parking lot....

As if that wasn't great enough, we also went to the bird sanctuary a little ways from the aquarium....more on that tomorrow.

3 Yr. Anniversary For Our Home...

Yep, it was 3 year's ago today that our rig rolled into the campground where we were renting a small camper and our adventure began. Our Excel came from Guthrie Center, Iowa and was delivered to us because we didn't have our truck outfitted yet with a bed or hitch (were still researching it). Since the RV dealership guys had to bring it through an ice storm in the mid-west, we felt the $1000 delivery fee was well earned.

I think she's holding up pretty well for 3 years of full-time living. As our full-time friends know, a whole different level of construction is needed for a rig called "home" on a day to day basis. There have been some issues over the years but I think it still looks as good as new on the outside and inside. Our rig is hunkered down, on the day of its birthday, in 17 degree temps (although with the wind chill it feels zero) with 30-40 m.p.h. winds outside. We appreciate the heavy weight of our rig on nights like this....very little sway.

When we had the closing on the sale of our house, end of October 2007, we rented a small camper in the campground near us until our rig could be built and delivered to us. Two adults and two large dogs in a small camper for nine weeks. Wow ! You had to go outside just to change your mind. Then our rig came and we started moving in....we thought we had downsized all we needed to from having two houses... well we had to downsize even more. Then the fun (and learning) began....On Valentine's day, 2007 we had over a foot of snow in a big snow storm, then another foot on St. Patrick's day...then a 10 day period of wind chills of -10 to -20. Wow, did we get initiated by fire (or ice) ? That was some winter in PA. For those of you not following our blog in those days, go to our older posts at the bottom of the page and you can relive those days. Ones I'd sooner forget...at least the ones with lots of snow and cold.

We are looking forward to going to a warmer climate for a while. Let our rig warm up along with us.....Happy Birthday to Destiny !! We wish her many more years of safe travels with us at the helm.

Oh So Slippery...

Linda and I were asked to go to the three former Mini U sites and bring the trucks back to our site. We had been watching the weather report and it called for a little snow this morning and wouldn't you know it, just before we left the house (at 8 a.m.) it started snowing really hard. We figured we'd go to the furthest location first and get that out of the way. It was so slippery driving, even with four wheel drive on. We couldn't go over 30 m.p.h. and most times it was around 20. The further we went the worse the road was and the more accidents we saw. As we approached the last toll plaza, there was a tanker truck laying on its' side across several lanes. Yow !! Looks like they had to bust out the windshield to get the driver out cause the truck landed on the driver's side door. The town of Fort Lee is situated on a hillside and each street we went by there were cars trying to get up the hills, sliding, getting stuck. It was not looking good at all ! We made it to the storage site, white knuckled and very relieved to have made it. Knowing we'd have all those slippery hills to go down before we even got to the turnpike where there were wrecks galore, we decided to leave the truck there till later. We left there and started back...charting a course for one of the other sites. The roads improved as we got closer to lunchtime. Finally around 3 p.m. we got all three trucks back to our site. Linda had some work to do in the office and then we called it a day. A long day on wicked roads. For many drivers on the road today it was a rough ending to 2009...with a battered car to show for it.

Drying Out....

We had a really drenching rain here Tuesday night late into Wednesday morning. Wow, did it make a mess. Apparently there are some areas around the windows that aren't "tight" as the water was streaming down the inside of the brick wall around the 3rd story windows. As if that wasn't a big enough issue to go into yesterday morning, I then found on the 3rd floor where someone had pulled the pin on a fire extinguisher and discharged the powder all over the place. That was an even bigger mess ! That fine dry chemical was up the fronts of doors on units, all over the floor for about a 30' section and then anyone who walked through it tracked it further down the hallway. Ick !! That took me a while to clean up and I would love to get my hands on the person that did it. The bright spot yesterday came when Steven showed up with our repaired circuit boards for the two entry gates that have been inoperable for the last two and half weeks. Now all three gates are working properly and the property is secure !! Now we can track everyone who enters the property and catch or eliminate those who try to vandalize things.

Today it is very windy, making the wind chill in the 20's....it is bone chilling ! We only worked two hours this morning to help out our assistant manager and then we took the rest of the day off so we don't get too many hours for this payroll period. Our assistant finishes up her classes on Saturday so we should be able to get back to a normal schedule of Sundays and Mondays off. The business also seems to be slowing down a little bit so we don't worry as much leaving her to work alone. We're only a phone call and step away from helping her, should she need it. These cold temps make my mind wander to warmer climates....like Florida. How nice it would be to get away and soak up the sun. We're hoping we might get time to do that after New Year's but it depends on when we finish up here. Our fingers are crossed !!