What's your "ability"?

It was really great to see all of my colleagues at Penn College when I visited on Wednesday. Since joining the management staff in the culinary dept at Busch Gardens, it has become very apparent that, at least in the area where I work, that we have a lot of problems with our employees. Tardiness, call offs, disappearing during their shift, texting on their cell phones, failure to clean up properly at the end of the night and leaving early are things that I've had to deal with. Boils down to reli-"ability"...account-"ability", respons "ability" and depend-"ability". Webster's dictionary says the definition of "ability" is - competence in doing. Clearly there is a lack in competence for these young people and it is rather disheartening and frustrating to deal with. Disciplinary write-ups don't have any affect on them. I haven't found anything that motivates them. There is a large margin allowed for tardiness in our area. When someone is scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. start time, to me, that doesn't mean arriving at 11:30. When I ask my supervisors around 10:30 if the person scheduled for 10 has called off, they say it's too early."Might have been traffic" is the response.....What happened to leaving home a few minutes early to account for traffic ? Linda's area doesn't abide by the same rules that my dept does nor does another dept within culinary. Seems that I picked the country where they don't hold people accountable and allow such behavior. And it's not all of the young 'uns that do this. There are several employees that are 16 and 18 in age that are great to work with. I can count on them to be there when scheduled and they do their work. The "problem" employees are all college age. I've come to realize that this is the age where "everything is negotiable". I encountered this a lot during my 18 years at the college. It became more pervasive in the last 8 years or so. They don't take "no" for an answer....there has to be some way that they can negotiate things to get their way. In a customer service oriented business like food service, people with this mentality work this for all its worth.When I was a kid, sometimes the answer from my mom was "because I said so" and that was good enough for me. I didn't challenge her....didn't negotiate for a better answer. I knew that the "board of education" awaited me if I pushed my luck or I'd be told to "go sit in THE chair" until I was told to move. Good enough for me....not today, folks.
The more I work at other food businesses, the prouder I am of what we created at Penn College in the Food Service dept. Penn College has a team of competent, trustworthy, customer service oriented individuals who provide an awesome service to their customers. The other thing that has been amazing to me is how a large organization such as BG is so lacking in training for their employees. No staff meetings, no orientation for new hires, nothing to put a new employee into that oh so important "comfort zone" of what the job entails, where do you report to work, how do you resolve problems or questions, etc. Another area that makes me proud to have been part of the Penn College team.....an extensive training program to guide new employees through the early phases of starting a new job. When I saw the faces of my former colleagues, on Wednesday, it made me very proud. I know there are days when they get discouraged if they have a lot of absences and they are short handed but believe me, you have it much better than other places. The food service employees, at Penn College, have a lot of heart and are a very talented group of individuals. Although it felt really strange to go back there, after having been gone for 8 months, it was really good to see everyone and say hello. It made me very proud of what we created and what they are continuing. Their success rests in their "ability" to provide outstanding service to their customers. Competence in doing......

Quick Trip

Linda had a drastic change made to her work schedule here at the campground that has cut her hours from 32 down to 10. When this played out last week, it became apparent that she and I would have Tuesday and Wednesday off this week so we started to figure out what we'd do with two whole days off. This hasn't happened in many months so we wanted to make the best use of our time.
We decided to visit both of our families so we left Monday night after work and went as far as Linda's brother's house in Vienna, VA. We had a nice time there...spent the evening and had breakfast there before heading out for Chambersburg, PA....where Linda spent her childhood and where some of her relatives still live. We arrived at noon and had lunch with her brother,sister and niece. A short visit but a nice one ! We got back on the road and headed for my mom's house, in Mansfield, PA. Last weekend, after deciding that we'd go visit family I had called my sister and brother to see if they could get together with us, at my mom's house. My mom's birthday is tomorrow....she'll be 83 so it was good timing for our trip north. We wanted it to be a surprise for my mom, as she'd never suspect us coming to see her. It had been arranged that they would arrive at mom's house around 5:30 and then we'd get there between 5:30 and 6:00. Our timing worked out well, as we arrived about 5:45. She was surprised, to say the least ! We stayed at mom's house Tuesday night and had breakfast with her the next morning before hitting the road again. We went to Williamsport and Linda visited with her son, daughter in law and grandkids while I visited with folks at Penn College, where I worked for 18 years. It was great to see everyone and chat for a bit.
Upon leaving Williamsport, for the trip home, we ran into rain and in some areas it was pretty heavy. Down through the Washington, DC area it was raining really hard and we had to slow way down, put on the four way flashers and take our time. Once we got past D.C. we ran out of the rain, the sun came out and the rest of the trip went smoothly. We arrived home, safe and sound around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday night after two days of visiting with family. We wanted to get this trip in as we probably won't get home again until Christmas, due to our next job taking us to Kansas from October through Christmas. Quality time spent with all during our quick trip.

Good Times...

Becky and Jay (my kids) came down for the weekend and we went to Busch Gardens on Friday. We took in some of the historical sites and went to the beach at Yorktown. Was fun to hang out with them for a few days. They headed back home on Monday morning. Today (Tuesday), we're getting some wicked thunderstorms. Boomer and Schroeder aren't likin' them at all. Warning out till 9 p.m. tonight...should be an interesting night.

Really "dismal"...

I had today off from my job at Busch Gardens and Linda didn't need to be into work, here at the office, until 10. She wanted to go to Wal-Mart and get some things so we went out the door to get in the car. We were hit with a stench as soon as we came out the door. It smelled like there was an electrical fire or something smoldering close by. We were concerned so we drove through the campground and stopped by a fellow workampers' rig to ask him if he might need to check things out in the campground. He said that the smell was coming from the Dismal Swamp fire. Made sense since we had encountered the same smell, at Busch Gardens, about a week ago and found out that the smoke had drifted up to the Williamsburg area.
As we drove out of the campground, there was a smoky haze in the air that just hung over everything and the stench was so unbearable that it made me feel like I wanted to hold my breath. We had the car windows down so the dogs could put their heads out the window but we could barely tolerate doing that. The news has had recent reports that the Dismal Swamp fire is mostly contained but apparently there is a lot of smoldering and the smoke is drifting into our area. It seems odd that something that is on the North Carolina/Virginia border could have such an impact on our area but it has. I feel sorry for anyone that suffers from respiratory problems on a day like this. Hopefully the fires will go out soon and no one will have to deal with this problem.

Good Clean Living !

We've been full timing now for a while and we had a pleasant surprise the other day when Linda went for some blood work. Our friends recall what horrible headaches Linda was plagued with for quite a while. These occurred when we were in our sticks and bricks house, back in Woolrich, PA. The pressure in her head was intense and a battery of tests did not show any medical condition for which she could be treated. Since being on the road, she has felt great physically and hasn't had any of these headaches. Her cholesterol count had also been very high (252 in February 2007) and was being watched by her doctor. She didn't want to go on any medication and we added some vitamins, herbs and supplements to her daily regiment to try and help lower it. Recent blood work shows it has come down to 205....almost a 50 point drop !!! And she didn't even have to eat oatmeal to get that... While still higher than we'd like, her doctor was amazed at the reduction and told her "whatever she was doing....to keep doing it". Must be the fresh air, reduction in stress, laughter at my antics, occasional whoopin' in a game of Skip-Bo and loving our new life ! We're happy to oblige and keep "doin' it"....suits us just fine.

Hitch Itch setting in...

We've been getting restless lately to hit the road. Our going to see the local sites probably escalated that since we had figured once we'd finish working this fall that we'd take in the local sites before moving on. Now we've done that so we're ready to move on to new adventures. It seems that the magical time period for "staying put" is two months.....we start getting beyond that and we start getting antsy to get going. It's been two and a half months here so "hitch itch" is setting in.
We had thought that we'd stay here till end of October but we're thinking that end of September will be long enough. Hollo-scream is at Busch Gardens from mid September till end of October and it's not something that either one of us feels we want to stay around for. In my area staffing is getting really tight and some days there aren't enough people to run my unit and it makes it very stressful to try and keep up with business when you don't have anybody to work. Then when there are young people scheduled they stand around and text on their cell phone or "disappear" for periods of time. Drives me crazy !
No definite places to go to come fall....we had made plans to go to the Oyster Fest in Urbanna, VA with my sister, mom, daughter and brother in law. Not sure with the rising cost of fuel if my sister is still coming down for that. The Oyster Fest takes place in early November and attracts thousands of people....crazy event ! Everything oysters !!
We're looking at locations for this fall and winter....south, for sure once the snow flys. Home for Thanksgiving and Christmas but then south for the early part of 2009. We'll keep you all posted.

A walk through history....

Today we went to the Jamestown settlement and to Yorktown. Here are a couple pics...Click on the link at the right to see all of the ones I've uploaded.

Put on your walkin' shoes...

The other day Linda and I checked out the nature trail that starts right near where site. It loops around through the woods and comes out on the far side of the dog run on the opposite side of the property. Took us about 20 minutes to walk it and was a quiet, peaceful walk.....lots of birds and a beautiful tree canopy.

Stonehenge

I think Schroeder, our border collie, is the reincarnated creator of Stonehenge. When I take him out in the morning to go potty, he walks while going…creating this semi circular pattern. I’ve never known a dog to do this. Boomer on the other hand looks like he’s a needle on a compass….. zigzagging wildly….looking for that magical spot or some magnetic force field from the center of the earth that should decide where he needs to do his business. I know….I know…you’re thinking it must be a slow news day if Linda is resorting to talking about her dog’s bowel movements. But anyone who knows me knows the quirky way my mind works and how I “wonder” about lots of things. This is just one of the things that has tickled my curiosity lately. In Schroeder’s situation, it’s a good thing that this isn’t the behavior that us humans would exhibit for such an act. If it did, we’d have to redesign our bathroom and the toilet would wind up in the middle of the floor so there’d be plenty of room to rotate all the way around it. Wouldn’t be a practical matter.
We love our furry friends. RV’ers are no different than folks with sticks and bricks houses. We take our pets on the road with us and they look forward to traveling just as much as we do (maybe more). They can sense when we are packing up to hit the road for our next destination and they are waiting at the door…ready to go. The other weekend, here in the campground, I kept hearing a bird but not the typical sound of the songbirds we have around here. As I was walking up to the pool, I spotted several bird cages sitting outside a small camper. Apparently the owners had several birds that they travel (or vacation) with and they came along for the ride. I couldn’t have tolerated their screeching, especially since I could hear them up where our rig was located…..about 50 yards away. Would have driven me nuts but to each their own.
I took the boys out on hiking trail today for a walk. Knowing it would be under the shady canopy of the woods, I thought it would be cooler than taking them to the dog run plus I thought they’d handle better being out of sight of other dogs. Yesterday and today the temps are in the low 90’s and it’s very humid. I hope this isn’t an indication of what the typical summer weather will be. I know, from checking the temp at the pool this morning, that the hot day yesterday raised the pool temperature another 2 degrees….to a balmy 76 degrees. With today’s hot weather, it will probably be up another couple degrees tomorrow morning when I check it.

Memorial Day

Both Linda and I had a very busy Memorial Day holiday. I worked at BG all weekend (8-10 hour shifts), filled in here at campground each morning cleaning the bathrooms and also cleaned the pool every morning. Linda worked at BG every day and had long days too. Not a very eventful holiday for us although we did get to have supper together Monday evening while I was working. Yesterday (Tuesday), Stephanie and Jessie came by and we went out to celebrate Steph's birthday over dinner. We had a good time and luckily Linda got done work in time to come home and see Steph.
The campground was packed all weekend....I saw lots of campfires when I would come home each night from work and people still sitting out and enjoying themselves. most people left on Monday for the drive home (wherever that might be). Lord help the people who had to drive on Rt 64 as it was a madhouse each afternoon when I had to go to work. I saw another accident that must have just happened as there were no emergency personnel on the scene yet but other cars had stopped to help. The car had gone through the end area of the guardrail and hit a tree. It looked like a pretty bad accident but I hope everyone was OK.
Last night it rained through the night and is dreary outside today. I cleaned the pool, weeded the flower beds and may have to mow this afternoon. Will see how dry it gets after lunch. Back to work tomorrow at BG....