Special Visit

Linda had a surprise visit this weekend from her daughter, Stephanie and her partner, Jessica. I was on the third floor giving a tour when I heard her shriek from the first floor...guessing that Steph and Jess had arrived. We've had a good time hanging out and seeing some of Winston Salem. Yesterday we went to Mt. Airy; checked on the rig, went to the thrift store and bought some blouses, got our favorite milk shake, checked out the downtown stores and old jail and ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Temps have been in the 50's this weekend so has made it really enjoyable to be out and about.

Today we went to the museum downtown to see some artists work that they were featuring. This is an Encaustic painting. The artist uses beeswax and powdered pigment, which is then applied to wood (most times although other surfaces can be used). A heat gun is used to smooth and keep the beeswax fluid enough to work with while the artist uses tools to make the desired shapes and designs. The paintings were all so gorgeous...I just fell in love with this style of painting. The surface is really smooth so it must take a lot of work to get the wax the way the artist wants it. It was a day for artsy things as the next place we went to was the Tattoo Archive.
Open since 1980, the front part of the store is a museum of sorts that covers the last 100 years of tattoo. It was very interesting to see and read about the older artists and see the images that many of the them created throughout their careers. There was also some of the old style equipment that has been used over the years. It doesn't appear that it has changed all that much.
This picture caught my eye as the tattoo work is amazing ! There were circus posters that depicted the fascination of the tattooed people as sideshow attractions and a special exhibit on the scarring traditions in other countries where something like a flint is used to make a cut and then its left open for several months to make a raised welt. All of the welts on the body are arranged in a specific design, which by looking at a young girl, you could tell many things about her. A cultural tradition that I'm glad I'm not a part of. It looked pretty painful to endure years of cutting to make the intricate patterns. I thought that it was pretty amazing that the owner of this Tattoo establishment thinks enough of the art form to dedicate a whole museum to archiving the history of tattoo. 

Boomer also got to take a field trip today...he went to the dog park before we came back home. I've never seen so many dogs as there was today. He ran and ran with the other pooches there. There was everything from puppies to Great Danes today. He had a good time and now as I write this post, everyone but Jessica and I are sacked out on the floor.....snoozing. Zzzzzzzzz....

Here's hoping that all of you have a restful and fun filled weekend !

Trip to the Beach

On Friday we decided to drive to the coast to hang out at the beach for the afternoon. We drove to Wrightsville Beach, which took us about 3.5 hours. The temps were around 40 degrees so not too bad. The sun felt warm and little to no breeze so it was pretty comfortable.

While walking with Boomer on the beach, we met a young man who had his dog out for a walk. Clarence and Boomer hit it off right away and we took Boomer off his leash so they could play and chase each other around. It was so cute to watch them tearing after each other at the water's edge and then come running back towards us. Clarence would look back over his shoulder as if to say, "Are you coming ?" Clarence's daddy told us he came to Wrightsville to attend college. We learned later over lunch that there are two colleges in town. The young lady, who was our waitress for lunch, is attending one of these colleges to become a CNA.

Speaking of lunch, we had a good one at Dave's Deli. Had a hot veggie sub with home-made potato chips dusted with seasoning and some ranch dressing to dunk them in. Everything was really yummy.

After we ate we drove over to one of the properties in Wilmington, NC that is like ours. They have the same color scheme and furniture that we do but the lay out of the building is quite a bit different. Their building is 22 years old....ours is 9 years old. Hmmmm....That carpet pattern and furniture fabric must have some good staying power to hang around that long. After a quick look around their building we started back home. Got back about 9:30...Not much happened today. Watching the Steelers tonight....go Ben !

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.

Sightseeing

Linda and I had heard that the Bodies Revealed exhibit was in nearby Greensboro, NC and since the museum was closed last weekend, we went this weekend. I wasn't sure how well I'd like it, although I'm always fascinated by muscle definition and the discipline it takes to get it. The exhibit was really neat !

There were quite a few whole human bodies, each in a
different pose with the muscles and cartilage exposed. Some had cutaway areas to show the heart and internal organs. There were also exhibits of diseased organs, which didn't look like I thought they would. Instead of a cancerous spot being black or really obvious, in several instances it looked very similar to the organ color or was a white spot. The exhibit was part of the Museum of Natural Science and there were other things to see and do, like the animal exhibit.

Isn't this Alpaca just the cutest thing you've ever seen ? I feel like I want to put lipstick on those pursed lips.


All while we were walking through the outside display area, there was a large turkey following us. We'd be walking to the next display area and we'd hear the scraping of the turkey's feet as it was scampering along behind us. Having lived on a dairy farm with geese in the pasture, I kept an eye on my heels to make sure the turkey wasn't going to nip me in the heels or calves as I walked.

The tigers enjoyed watching the turkey, as we approached. I think maybe they thought it was feeding time or something.

This guy was having a bad hair day !

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our time at the museum and then went to the North Carolina RV show that was nearby. There were a few large Class A's in the parking lot and many more inside the two buildings. We saw a Endura super C that had a really nice layout that felt surprisingly spacious. There was a huge skylight over the drivers cab/bunk area that would be perfect for watching the aurora borealis lights in Alaska or a crystal clear night with lots of stars. It was fun to get out and see some rigs although none of them felt as homey as ours does. We miss being on the road but are making the best of our temporary detour. We went to get some things out of our rig today and she looked so lonely sitting on the site...closed up and cold.
The weather here over the next couple of days might be nasty. We're watching to see if there is snow in the forecast for Monday or Tuesday, as we know that means no employees will show up for work. Ugh !!

We've been training a couple for the last two weeks, who will ultimately go to another property in North Carolina. They've been fun to work with. The residents had a "fruitcake toss" the other day that they helped with and the residents had so much fun. They had to toss fruitcake bricks off the 3rd and 2nd floors, trying to get them into tubs on the ground floor. I couldn't believe so many people participated in the event !
Once all the throwing was completed from the upper levels, they came to the ground floor to try and get the fruitcake into squares on the floor with number values. It was a lot of fun, although I told our enrichment coordinator that I would not donate my mom's fruitcake for the contest. I love her fruitcake (actually called English Christmas cake) and hoard any that she gives me. She makes it with real candied fruit, wraps the finished product in cheesecloth soaked in brandy and I love it !

The fruit cake they used for the contest turned into mush after taking multiple falls from the third story...good thing for saran wrap to hold it all together.

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....