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.

Ridiculous....

Today is starting out with cold temps..I thought it was cold and windy yesterday but today the winds are supposed to be 30-40 m.p.h which will be stronger than yesterday's. This place is always windy ! I can only think of a couple of days, in the almost 4 months we've been here, where it has actually been calm. It's ridiculous !

Yesterday we were supposed to be off. At 8:32 a.m. Linda got a text from our assistant manager that she was sick and not coming in. Grrrr.....Nothing starts my day in a grumpier manner than finding out all the things I had planned to do are now out the window cause our assistant manager is out AGAIN. So Linda jumped in the shower and got over there to open at 9...one of the advantages (if you can call it that) of living right outside the office. I was right behind her and worked till 2:15 getting the lock report done and all my normal chores. At 2:15 I started in on my "to do" list at home while Linda finished out the day. I had to go inside for a few minutes in between all of the outside deeds as it was so cold and I had to thaw out. Can't imagine how it will feel outside today.

Have two interviews this morning for a replacement for our other assistant manager who went to work at Union. Hopefully one of them will be a viable candidate and we can get their training underway. We don't want to leave the new managers short handed right off the bat. Well, time to get ready for work. I can hear the wind howling outside. We'll head over to the apartment to shower and conserve the water in our fresh water tank. We have the hose unhooked as it would surely freeze with these temps and wind. Don't want to have to mess with frozen water hoses on a day like today. No sirree....

I'm A Happy Camper...

A day off with lots to do. First thing this morning we went to Lowes and bought this air compressor. We had purchased a small one a few years back but it just didn't build enough pressure to do the tires on the rig, which require 110 psi. After searching the forums for air compressors that work the best for other Rv'ers, this one seemed to have a healthy majority of takers. Some folks get a pressure pro power tank
which is a tank that is filled with CO2. It creates a high amount of pressure but we'd have to locate someone to fill it whenever we'd run low....nah, don't think so. Went with this air compressor and boy, does it work great. I checked all the tires on the rig, truck and car and got them all filled. In addition to that, Linda straightened out the interior of the truck so we'll be ready to travel on the 10th. The new air compressor fits nicely on the floor in the back seat and we also bought a nice little cart that I can bungie the air compressor to and it will wheel easily around with me. It folds up flat but has a nice big platform that the tank sits on. Works really slick.

Got the black tank dumped which will hold us till we get to Florida. We also checked all the toolboxes on the truck and tightened them up. Pulled out the awning to make sure it wasn't holding alot of water from all the rain we've gotten lately. Since we are parked alongside the building, with just enough room for cars to drive past us, we can't put out our awning. Every so often, we put it out to make sure mildew isn't forming on it and let it air out. Today was a good day to do that. Tomorrow I want to start our Honda generator and let it run for a while. In reading the forums, other owners of the same generator say that it needs frequent use to keep the fuel jets open so they don't clog up. Last time I had it running (last week) it took quite a few pulls to get it started. Usually it only takes 2-3 pulls so want to make sure I start it regularly.

Got settled in to watch the tail end of the Phillies football game and happened to look out the back window. There was a cop car...Hmmm....wonder why they are here. Went outside and asked the officer what the problem was and he said the alarm was going off in the office. We spent almost an hour dealing with that (seems to be a faulty sensor) and now maybe the day is done with tasks and problems... until tomorrow.....

Making Plans...

Today was the last day I needed to help out at the N. Bergen location. About 80% of the population at this location ONLY speaks Spanish. When the manager went out to pick up her lunch order, my patience were put to the test with the next couple of customers we had. The first woman called to find out the last day she needed to be out of her unit without owing any more money. It sounded like she had an Indian accent as her "B's" sounded like "V's" and I had to have her spell her name at least five times before I could find it in the computer. Oh My ! Then, a woman came in who spoke barely any English and tried to explain to me that she wanted a storage unit (often called a box by the locals). As is our policy everyone must see a unit before they can rent one so the next thing I had to do was find the keys so I could lock up and take her to the unit I identified on the computer. It was pouring rain outside and normally we would take the golf cart but the batteries were dead (the manager hadn't plugged it in last time they put it away) and even if it was working, we would have gotten soaked riding in it. We jumped in my car and started towards the gate, going to the three outer buildings. About this time, the manager returned from picking up lunch and I told her I was going to show a unit but to be around when we got back as the prospective tenant spoke very little English and I'd need her to go over info with her. That was a frustrating process....with the manager's help we found this woman a unit to her liking. I can't imagine working at that location without knowing Spanish. You feel at a distinct disadvantage when there is a huge language barrier such as I had today. I don't like it. Guess that's why I'm not a world traveler....makes me too uncomfortable to try and communicate in a foreign land.

Linda is working on our travel plans, charting our course to Florida. I'm waiting for the RV repair service to call me back so we'll know if they'll take care of our issues or if we'll need to have someone else do the repairs. I'm excited to go to the Tampa RV show. I was there two years ago and it was awesome. 1100 rigs, of every size and classification, on display and hundreds of vendors. We're going to make a list of the things we want to check out so we're sure to not miss anything. We're still thinking that we'll be pulling out of here on Sunday, January 10. We will drive to Virginia Beach and spend our first night there so Linda can visit with three of her kids there and then we'll hit the road in the morning...heading to Florida. We can't wait !!!

Holidays Just Around the Corner....

We're trying to finish up projects around the site before the new managers arrive so they can start with a clean slate. I had to work at the North Bergen site yesterday for a while (about 3 hours) and then returned to our site. Today I was playing catch up to try and get the place looking great for us being closed for 1.5 days. Tomorrow we work till noon and then we're closed (the office is closed tenants can still access their units) until Saturday. Saturday I have to return to North Bergen for a while and that will be my last stint there. Once we finish work tomorrow, we need to buy some groceries for a dish Linda is making at her brother's house. We'll go there for supper tomorrow night...Linda will spend the night and I'll return home to hang out with Boomer. At some point Christmas day I'll go back to get her. Linda hasn't seen her niece and her partner for quite some time as she is currently living in Greece.

We are anxious to leave and go to a warmer area for a little while. I contacted the RV Doctor in Inverness, FL today to see if they are able to work on the issues we have and if they deal with extended service contracts. Yes, they are very familiar with extended service plans and I'm awaiting a call about whether they can do all of our repairs. I'm guessing they can do at least two of the three things we need to have done. Seeing how they are a mobile RV repair service, they may not be able to adjust the bedroom slide while sitting on a RV site and not being in a garage. We'll see....we had the RV Doctor do some work for us last year and he does good work. It would be a benefit to us to be able to go directly to a park and have him come to us rather than schedule an appt at a garage somewhere.

For now we are thankful to have two days of rest. I don't know about Linda but I feel exhausted...I need some serious "down time" to rest, do nothing and watch football. Anything that would represent mindless entertainment...not having to think about repairs or cleaning. Sigh....can't wait...Here's hoping that all of our friends and family have the same relaxing experience wherever you are !

The Weather Outside Was Frightful...

We were hoping to dodge the weather bullet but no such luck, although it could have been far worse. I had to go to N. Bergen Saturday to work at another Mini U facility there and that was a 44 mile round trip excursion. It started snowing around 4:00 p.m. there so the manager cut me loose around 4:30 so I could head home before it got too slippery. Good thing as around 5:00 p.m. it started snowing much harder and the roads were starting to get a little slick. We closed our normal time at 6:00 p.m. and hunkered down for the night. The company that we contracted with for snow plowing came by about 9:00 p.m. and made a few passes to get the feel of how the site is laid out, which was good since we already had a couple inches on the ground. He and I talked and decided to have him come back at 6:00 a.m. to do the brunt of the plowing. Linda and I went to bed hoping the weather man's prediction for record snowfalls and blizzard conditions wouldn't come to fruition. Alarm went off at 6:00 and we got up and went out to start getting the facility in shape for the day. Sunday is our usual day off but we knew the day would be spent shoveling and using the snow blower. Linda figured out how to get the snow blower started. I've never run one before. I had a 4 wheel drive ATV with a snow plow that I used at my house and that made pretty quick work of any snow storm. Thank God we had the snow blower cause I spent 6 hours today clearing the areas that the snow plow doesn't get to (near the keypads, sidewalks, etc.)and also spent time shoveling the doorways. Linda took over on the snow blower for a while, while I shoveled and she fell on her keister several times.....her butt and body sure hurt tonight ! In the back corner of the first floor, near the elevator, there are two automatic sliding doors. Well, when the elevator door opens, it trips the sensor on the door, making it open. During the storm, apparently alot of snow got in the door, not allowing the door to close so the lobby was filled with a pile of frozen snow across the width of the lobby. The elevator, on one of the times when the door opened, filled the door cavity with snow and that was having a hard time closing. I spent about thirty minutes with a hair dryer getting the ice out of the automatic door so I could get it to close and get the glacier out of the lobby....what fun we had today. We're both sore and exhausted !
Linda was supposed to go to her family Christmas gathering today. She had hoped to head out early this morning but early on it wasn't clear how good the roads would be. When she did decide that she would go I went out and started clearing the snow from around the car so she could get it out to go. I thought I'd start it so it could warm up and thaw alot of the ice and snow off of it while I ran the snowblower. Somehow I hit the lock button on the key fob and the keys were locked in the car AND the car was running. Linda called our Good Sam Road Service to see if they covered that and they did. They said it would take two hours for someone to get there, as they were really busy helping emergency vehicles. Well, an hour later "Pop A Lock" arrived and using a little inflatable air bag that he used to open the door about a 1/4 of an inch, he was able insert a long steel rod and then just put the window down. Luckily I had filled the car with gas on the way home from North Bergen so it didn't run out of gas AND the car was toasty warm and all the ice was defrosted when we finally got inside..HA...what a day it was. Linda decided it was too late to start out for Chambersburg...it would take her four hours if she had good roads the whole way and it was already around noon. We've been watching the football games and ran out to get some grocceries. Tomorrow, our other day off, we'll go out and see what sales the stores might be running and just get out for a while. Linda spent a bunch of time on the phone this afternoon with one of our tenants that had trouble with the Mini U truck today so it's best if we just leave the rig for a while so the assistant manager will have to take care of things herself instead of calling us.

Just When We Thought We Had It Figured Out....

Well...seems that the couple who came to check out our site isn't going to take the job so the job has been offered to the couple I interviewed and chose. They will start January 5th...we'll train them for five days and then we are done here. Yay !! We've also been told that we should have some time off, once we finish here, so we want to head to Florida, see our friend Jan and get some work done on our rig before we get another assignment.

Our North Bergen location is really shorthanded so I've been asked to help them out this weekend. I will be going there tomorrow to work. It's about a 30 minute drive to get there so not too bad. I've been to the site before...it's huge....over 1000 units. I haven't worked there...just visited. They also want me to go there on Sunday but it will depend on whether Linda takes the car to go home on Sunday. Ordinarily I wouldn't mind driving Bertha (our second vehicle) to another site but we have a HUGE Nor'easter comin our way and they are calling for 8-12" of snow here. Supposed to start around 9 a.m. tomorrow and snow till Sunday morning, which is when Linda wants to head out for Pennsylvania. I won't try to drive Bertha in a snowstorm, especially when they say we might get 30-50 m.p.h. winds with whiteout conditions. Nope, not gonna do it....and it will probably prevent Linda from going home too for her family Christmas gathering. Tomorrow I will drive our 4 wheel drive car (the Xterra) and I'll be fine getting to North Bergen and back. You can be assured that this storm is something we'll be keeping our eye on. Linda will be working here tomorrow by herself so hopefully it will be a quiet day for her.

Hitting The Road Soon....

Today seemed to go by quickly at work. Since we got word yesterday of the sale of three other units near us, more info has come out about who will come here. I guess it's a good thing that my three months of interviewing didn't turn up anyone sooner cause we wouldn't be a viable location to transfer one of the displaced managers from the other units. One of the displaced couples came to our site this morning and looked around. We heard this afternoon that the woman will come here with her boyfriend and her husband (or soon to be ex) will go to another one of our sites needing a manager. Hmmm...strange outcome but hey, I guess it works for someone. So, I think that means that we will be done here in short order. No one has told us yet. Perhaps as of Saturday....maybe in another week. I suppose someone might tell us by the end of the week. If not, I'll ask since we'd like to know what is next for us.

We have several things that we need to get worked on in our rig and that takes time to set up and plan for. Since it's our home, it's not like you just drop it off and pick it up when the work is done...This time we'll make sure that whoever we take it to is familiar and willing to go through our extended service contract provider for the repairs. We aren't going to get ripped off like we did before with Settle's RV dealership, who wouldn't open a claim on our repairs and we ended up eating the whole cost of the repair. Nope, not this time. One of the things that needs to be worked on is an item that Settle's never addressed when we took our rig to them.

So we're finishing up odds and ends here...waiting to here when we ship out and if there is another pressing assignment. More to come....

Change Is In The Air....

Wow, funny how fast things can change. We've been plodding along, interviewing but not having any luck finding candidates and then when I have one, we get news that several of our NJ locations are being sold to another storage company this Friday. It is unknown whether the new company will keep our management or not. The one location being sold is Union, where the assistant manager that we hired and trained got hired for a full-time position there. Now, he's not sure if he has a job or not. We haven't filled his position yet although I have an interview scheduled tomorrow with a candidate. We'll know Friday whether he might be available to come back and work for us. That would be great for us ! I feel bad for the other managers....it would be really hard to sit and wait till Friday to find out what your fate is. It could be better for them than they have it now. The new company may pay them more to keep doing what they are currently doing...or they might not have a job. Hmmm....guess we'll find out on Friday. In the meantime, one of the couples that is in limbo is coming to look over our site tomorrow. Not sure how it's decided who gets to come here....whether the couple I picked is out of the running if another management team wants this position or if our corporate office has the final say. Will be interesting to see how it all shakes out but if another site's team comes here, we might be out of here come next week. Wouldn't that be nice but a little sooner than we thought. Stay tuned....

Saturday...

Warmer today...and the sun was out. Rain moving in tonight and supposed to keep up all day on Sunday. Temps the next couple of days will be in the 40's which will be a welcomed change from the arctic chill we've been under. Work was busy today...the phone rang non-stop for Linda and I finally got a chance to get the inside cleaning caught up (in the morning) before people started moving in and out throughout the day. Again today, as has happened several times now in the past week....I went to the second floor to discover discarded items just outside the elevator. Mind you...they are piled under the "No Dumping" sign. This put me in a really foul mood first thing and I was bound and determined to figure out who it was. Not only is it a pain in the butt to haul this stuff to the dumpster but the item this person left the other day was dang heavy. I had to drag it onto the elevator and it took two of us, with a mighty heave ho, to get it into the dumpster. It was a binding machine of some sort. And again today there was another binding sort of gizmo and a table sitting there when I stepped off the elevator. I was ticked....Well, since I hadn't had time to dust mop the hallway yet, I followed the trail of little paper punch outs that must have fallen out of this machine as he dragged it to its final resting spot. Aha, I got a unit number (as there was a pile of paper thingies outside the door of a unit. I went to the office and we looked to see if that tenant had entered the facility last night. Sure enough, he had. Each time someone punches their code into our gate access system, there is a log of who comes in and who leaves. We then looked at the other two days where we had been left "presents" (as Linda calls them). Yep, there it was on our gate report. The same person had been there all three times. Linda picked up the phone and left a message on their voicemail that they had till noon (it was now 9 a.m) to remove the items or they'd be charged $50 per item removed. Someone showed up in pretty short order as I made my rounds to the 2nd floor to finish my task of dustmopping and found the items gone. I wasn't going to remove the trail of evidence until the guy showed up (in case he disputed it)but since he clearly turned in a guilty verdict, I finished up cleaning the floor. A little while later he calls Linda and says he was in to pick up the items but the only reason he left the ones the other night was because the elevator wasn't working. Linda told him, "Yes, it was and besides we have two elevators. She said how did you get up there (meaning to the second floor) and he said, "Oh yeah". Then he said he didn't want to take the one item out with him cause it was really heavy. "No shit", she thought. We about busted a gut trying to pick it up to put in the dumpster. Anyway, after a chastising from her, he promised to never throw anything else away in our facility. Linda and I chalked it up to good detective work....Cagney and Lacey strike again !!

Bitter Cold....

We listened to the wind howl all night and awoke to no running water this morning. Temps were in the 30's but with 20-40 m.p.h. winds; it was mighty chilly. And of course at 1:00 a.m. we ran out of propane in the one tank and had to go out in the cold to change over to the other tank....Brrrrr.....So we went up to the vacant manager's apartment and showered this morning. Not a bad Plan B. Once I got our hose thawed out (took it in the office where it's nice and toasty), I filled up our fresh water tank so we can get through this cold snap. Supposed to warm up around Sunday....

Today we got a visit from the local law enforcement teams (sheriff, hazmat, etc.) to take their canine bomb sniffers through our facilities. One of the guys had stopped several weeks ago and said that he'd like to come by and have his dogs walk through to aid in their training. We said sure....so today was the day. We have 972 units but it didn't seem to take them long at all to walk the place. I think the whole team stood in the office talking and "preparing" longer than it took the dogs to "work". You'll be happy to know (as are we) that there are no bomb supplies in our unit. Whew, that is a load off our mind. We were hoping that the dogs had been dually trained in drug sniffing too but no cigar....only bombs.

Tis the season that we are thinking of our friends who are out in Coffeyville, Kansas at Amazon.com.....working their tales off for all the holiday shoppers out there. I'm sure they are all exhausted and I know they are counting the days till they will be done. From the e-mails we've been getting from them it sounds like alot of people have been shopping on-line....lots of orders coming in and going out of their facility. Hang tough all you Santa helpers in Coffeyville....not too much longer !

Tomorrow is our long day at work...Ugh !! Don't care for Saturdays as the day seems to drag since we go in an hour earlier (start at 7:45) and get out around 6:15. Makes for a long weary day..I'm off to bed so I'll be bright and ready for whatever the day has in store for us. TTFN

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 !!

Ho Ho Ho....

Things are pretty much the same as it's been at work. We've been working everyday although yesterday and today we worked half days to try and keep our hours down. We got word of our next auction...Jan. 28 so just when things might slow down a little, they can't because we're in the next auction cycle. Linda got the certified letters out yesterday (after working on them Sunday)...next come the newspaper ads. By calling everyone on the lien list (45 of them, I believe)we got 4 of them to come in and pay before we needed to send them certified letters. That is a big help. I am really hoping we can be out of here before it's lock drilling time...UGH !!!

We're still trashing out units that didn't sell from the last two auctions. It never seems to stop but we've been making progress at it lately. I couldn't bring myself to throw the nicer items in the trash to fill up valuable landfill space so as I've pulled out big items I've been posting them on freecycle.org What a great resource this has been and Linda and I feel like Santa Claus doing it. People we've given items to have been so grateful and the items have been helping good people get items they need. But more than anything they aren't going to the landfill. I still have a couple of units to trash out;then once they're empty I can have the dumpster people bring a big roll off to take away the rest. It would be alot easier to deal with if there was a thrift shop or an agency in this area that would take items such as this but there isn't. We called a ton of places and no one takes items like this. Too bad cause we've given away entertainment centers, a leather sectional, a beautiful glass topped table and many other items that have found good homes in the area. I even found someone to take some salvage lumber that had been sitting in one of our units and would have taken up alot of space in a roll-off dumpster. Now it will become part of someone's home remodeling project. That makes sense for our environment and saves us money in landfill fees. We all win when we help each other.

TGIF....

Glad it's Friday although it really doesn't make much difference since we are down an assistant and Linda and I will be working pretty much 7 days a week until we find a new one. Several other units are in the same predicament. Not sure why it's so hard to find good employees in this part of New Jersey. Many young people are put off by the amount of paperwork that is needed with doing leases, etc. I'm hoping we can find another assistant like the one we just hired. He is awesome although he's now working at another unit. I've begun looking again for a new management team. I feel like we're getting close to finding someone. We're running the background on one couple but I'm going to keep interviewing in case it doesn't come back with good results.

It was a busy week. Seemed like this was the week for people losing their keys. I've had to drill out a lock almost every day this week. The one today was due to the death of a young man. According to his mother and sister he was murdered in Newark about two weeks ago. When she brought in the power of attorney, death certificate and other paper work to prove who she was, I noticed that her son's day of birth was the same as mine. Was kind of a weird feeling. Linda and I were surprised how calm the mother and sister are since this tragedy happened so recently. Even when I took them up to his unit and drilled out the lock, you would have thought it was Christmas day. When they opened the door there were all sorts of clothing items right there in the front. If that had been me, I would have lost it at the sight of my son's clothing. They seemed more interested in the flat screen TV and other stuff. Everyone processes things differently so perhaps they are still in shock and haven't come to grips with it yet.

Calling for a chance of some wet snow tomorrow. I went and bought a new broadcast spreader for the ice melt. Hoping I don't have to use it....Yuck ! I suppose I need to fire up the snowblower one of these days so I know how it works. I hope we get out of dodge before we get any significant amount.

Tomorrow is our early day...in at 8 a.m. Hope everyone has a great weekend !

Wild and Crazy Day......

Today the guy from our company who's second in command came in. We've been working hard the last two days to get everything spiffed up and "VP worthy". Was a lot of hoopla for a 15 minute visit. He left...I fixed our lunch and we were both breathing a sigh of relief when in walked another VP from our company. Unannouced, I might add...He stayed for about an hour and a half and we learned alot of great things from him that we didn't know before. This day long barrage of "review" was mentally draining. As if that wasn't enough....right before the last VP walked in Linda got a call from our newest assistant manager. He called to tell us he was quitting to take a job at our other location.

The manager at our Union location called two days ago and told us that both of her assistants quit via a text message and asked if either of our assistants would like to pick up some extra hours. We offered her Piotr (pronounced Peter)cause we knew he wanted some more hours and he has transportation to get there. He worked yesterday for her and she loved him ! So today the company offered him full-time at that location and we are now back to working seven days a week until we find and train another assistant manager.

So it was a challenging day. Now it's pouring rain outside and we're supposed to have 40-50 m.p.h winds tonight and possible thunderstorms around midnight. Holy Shazzam ! A suitable ending to a wild and crazy day.

Blues Brothers....

This is a picture postcard that we found at my mom's this weekend of my dad in Berlin in 1968. This is that trip I talked about in another post, where he went to Europe as part of a People to People tour dealing with agriculture. I asked my mom more about how dad heard of this trip and got to go. She said that some information came in the mail about it and dad was really interested in it but knew that with it happening in the middle of summer, it would conflict with getting the crops in and getting the haying done. She told him that if he wanted to go to do it....that she could get the field work done with all of us kids helping her. I asked her why she didn't go and why it was that dad loved to travel but that she never did much of it. She said she knew that they both couldn't go and she was willing to make the sacrifice so he could go. That really struck me as such a selfless thing to do for him. I know that this trip meant alot to him....he loved the experience.

And what a cool picture ! My dad is the one on the far right in the dark shades. He was 45 years old when he took this trip to Europe. He looks like he is having a ball. In the picture with him is Gershom Bunnell, of Meshoppen, PA on the left and Garner Mitchell, of Coudersport, PA in the middle.

Food, Facials and Tom Foolery.....

The Sweely Clan Sitting Down to Thanksgiving Dinner...

I had a wonderful time at my mom's over the Thanksgiving holiday. My daughter stayed up until Sunday and then I drove her back to Philly. We had a wonderful dinner, prepared by my mom....with contributions by all of us. On Friday Becky and I needed to drive to her dad's house to pick up her suitcase which she left in the trunk of his car. We did a little shopping, got the oil changed in my car and went back to hang out with mom. On the way back to mom's house, we went by the site of the gas well that Linda and I saw the last time we were home. Here it is now...all capped off and producing gas. Two more have popped up within a short distance from my mom since that time.

Becky had made up a "To Do" list while at grandmas house and one of the tasks was to make cookies. Sounded like a fun thing to do so mom pulled out her mother's sugar cookie recipe and they made oodles of cookies. Becky decorated all of them except for one.....I had the honor of doing one in a sun/moon motif. I was going to take it home to Linda but my brother ate it before I could get it boxed up to take home.

Thanksgiving evening Becky and I went up to my younger brother's house to watch him make maple cotton candy. He needed to make a bunch of it to take to a craft show this past weekend so he had the cotton candy machine fired up and was in full production.

Here my niece Angela is stirring the sugar blend while a
heat lamp keeps it warm....

My brother, Jim pours some of the sugar mixture into the machine...

And...voila..here's the finished product..ready to bag up.

It's good stuff...I'm not a fan of cotton candy but this isn't as sweet as the other stuff and has a light, maple taste. He was going to make up around 60 bags of it, which he said would take him about an hour to make.

Saturday night Becky and I had facials....she had bought some packets of "mud" and an avocado/olive oil blend and we were all set for some pampering. It was fun and our faces came out really soft and smooth. I brought the remainder of the packets home and gave Linda a facial tonight and also painted her toes.

It was a wonderful weekend, with lots of laughs and good food. I drove Becky back to Philly Sunday afternoon. On the way we stopped at the Rt 15 flea market and we loaded up on veggies, fresh pressed cider and some cute things bought from the outdoor vendors. The car was filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies when I dropped Becky off at her place. Arrived home about 9:30 Sunday night....

Today Linda and I took some items to the Ali Forney Center in Manhattan. This is a wonderful facility that serves as a shelter to homeless gay and lesbian youth. These young people have been kicked out of their families' homes because of their sexual orientation and have no place to go. We didn't think the trip was going to be as difficult or stressful as it turned out to be. We had to go through the Holland Tunnel and then drove straight up through Manhattan...through tons of traffic. We got to the center on 35th street and found a place to park right across the street. We grabbed the bags of items we had taken, put our four way flashers on and headed into the building. We only stayed about 10 minutes...just enough time to get some info from the receptionist and leave our items with her. We get back to the car and find a $115 ticket on our windshield....oh great !! It would have been cheaper to have stayed home and sent them a $100 check than to brave the traffic, spend $8 to go through the Holland Tunnel and then get this stupid ticket. We'll just keep telling ourselves that it was all for a good cause.....grin and bear it !!

Tomorrow, it's back to work....

Happy Thanksgiving !

Wanted to post something as it's been a while since I've put anything on here. We have been working hard, getting ready for a Vice President's visit to our unit next week. Yesterday and today I put several coats of wax on the office and restroom floor. Our store/office is really quite large so it took almost a gallon of wax to do it all and I had to divide the space into thirds before getting it all done. Since I was doing the largest part of the room today, I locked the door that goes from the office into the hallway leading to the storage unit and placed a sign on it that said they needed to use the side door to get into the office. Well, our cranky postman arrived and came to that door and do you think he read the sign....heck no. He tried the door, then yanked hard enough that I thought he was going to pull it off its hinges. All huffy, he finally came around and in the front door. This is the same postman that couldn't bother to deliver our mail to us when the rear gate was broken. He said he wouldn't drive on Rt 1 to access us although our address is 1004 Rt 1. He's a real piece of work....one of our wonderful federal workers at the postal service.

Anyway, got the floors done shortly after lunch today. Boy, do they look awesome ! Nice and shiny like a new penny. Then it was time to start working on month end reports. I am off now till next Tuesday. I'm heading out early in the morning to go to my mom's for Thanksgiving and will stay there till Sunday. My daughter and son are coming up too from Philly. My son will have to go back home tomorrow afternoon but my daughter will stay up and I'll give her a ride home on Sunday. It will be fun to see each of them. I haven't seen my son in quite a few months. My daughter has already given my mom a list of things she "wants to learn"...how to make candy, canning, etc. Sounds like we have a busy few days ahead of us.

On this Thanksgiving day, what are you thankful for ? I am thankful for the love, guidance and wisdom of my mother. For the great relationship I have with my kids. For Linda's love, friendship and support. For a circle of friends that we've gathered in our days of full-timing in this wonderful RV'ing lifestyle. Here's hoping that all of our friends and family have a blessed Thanksgiving and safe travels ahead of them ! We love you all and think of you often....

Time For Work...

Am up and getting around to go to work. It's nice that I only have to walk out of the rig and into the office....makes for a short commute to work. Been a really long couple of weeks though. Between Linda and I we've been working everyday since our assistant quit. Linda is getting a break this weekend. Mine comes later this week. Can't come soon enough. We got word on Friday that the second highest in command, for Dahn Corporation, is coming here on December 2. So I'll have been back to work one day and he'll arrive, with the lenders for our property, the next day. Will have to scramble to get last minute tidying done. We are in good shape though. The property looks great. I put up Christmas lights yesterday so the office has lights across the front and down the side of it...should look nice from Rt 1 that runs by us. Today will be a short day at work....glad for that. Today is last NASCAR race of the season and want to watch that at 2:30 although it's pretty certain that Jimmie Johnson will take the championship AGAIN. ...He's won it several years in a row now. Time for someone else to get a turn. Well, off to shower and get in there.

Week is Winding Down...

Glad tomorrow is Friday although it doesn't really make much of a difference as I'll be working straight through now till Thanksgiving day. I'm tired....we've been working pretty much seven days a week since one of our assistants quit so it will be nice now that we've hired a new one and he's trained, we can actually have our two days off again. Linda left last night after work to start making her way down to her daughter's place in Virginia Beach. She arrived there this afternoon, safe and sound and she'll stay until Sunday. She'll get to spend time with three of her kids and her one grandson while she is there.

Kind of a slow day at work today as far as customers goes but there is always lots to do. We did have a little bit of excitement....I went home to get some lunch and had just started cooking something when our assistant manager called me and said there was a state policeman in the office. I went over and it turns out they had arrested one of our tenants last night and needed to conduct a search of his storage unit. Luckily they had keys to it so I didn't have to drill the lock out but it didn't turn up any illegal items in it so didn't have a dramatic outcome. Just was interesting to see what happens under circumstances like this. There were a total of four officers that came to conduct the search. They said that it might be a long time before the tenant comes back to make anymore payments on his unit and to keep that in mind as time goes by....

Weather is turning rainy tonight but temps are staying in the mid 50's which is awesome for this time of year. I need to go out and buy some white Christmas lights to hang up outside the office. Might do that tomorrow if it's not busy. Will also need to get a ladder as we don't have anything here other than a step stool. Maybe that will put me in the mood to get out some of our Christmas decorations. We are usually on the go around Christmas time so we don't mess with many decorations around the rig. Last year we did put up a mini Christmas tree which was really cute. I'll have to look for it and get it out. Put a little bit of Christmas spirit in our home.

Nothing Special....

Training is winding down for our new asst. mgr and he's doing an awesome job ! Tomorrow is his last day of training so he will run the office while Linda and I do other things...close enough if he has a problem but otherwise he needs to figure things out on his own. He has sort of been doing that for the last day or so as he opens by himself, with very little help from Linda and he has closing down pat...and everything in between. Today I worked with him on the "outside" stuff...location of timers, knowledge on the facility, how to clean, etc.

The background check is underway on the new management couple....we can start our count down to the time when we'll be leaving here. Yeeha !!

The Gift That Keeps on Giving....

The business woman, through KIVA, that I sponsored a loan to has repaid it so now I can lend it out again.Here is some info on the next woman that I'm loaning money to:

Marivic Bulay-bulay is from the village of San Carlos, Tukuran Zamboanga Del Sur. She is 33 years old. Marivic is married and has 3 school-aged children. Marivic has been selling vegetables and spices in the local community for more than 5 years, and earns approximately 8,000 Philippine pesos (about $171 US) a month for these activities.

In 2008, Marivic joined GDMPC to gain access to financial services to help improve her living situation and ability to do business. Marivic has successfully repaid a previous loan of 10,000 pesos from GDMPC. This previous loan was used to purchase additional products to sell. Marivic is requesting a new loan of 12,000 pesos which will be used to expand the business. This loan will be the fourth loan taken out by Marivic from GDMPC. She plans to use the additional revenue generated from the business to improve the general living conditions of her family and pay the tuition of her children.

About GDMPC:

GDMPC is one of the most progressive cooperatives in Mindanao, Philippines.

It's neat to support these people in making their dreams come true and run successful businesses. I've been fortunate to have had my own businesses so it's nice to be able to help others to do the same. In these foreign countries a little bit of money can go a very long way in helping them to expand their business. Wonder if I could sign up my son for the KIVA program so he could learn how to repay his school loans ?

Good News....

The couple that I had deemed my #1 pick to be the management team here had their second interview today and Peggy also thought they were great and a perfect pick for here. First thing Monday I will fax their paperwork to the corporate office and the background check can begin. Hooray !!!! I think this couple will do a wonderful job here and both of them have a great background of experiences to aid them in their work here. We are looking forward to getting them started with their training. This will occur after our new assistant manager has completed his training and he should totally be up to speed by then and a great help to them. He started work today and did an amazing job ! Linda would show him once how to do something and he'd remember how to do it when it came time to do it a second time. Pretty impressive...When I asked him how he was liking it so far he said that he loved it and it's just the type of job he's been looking for. Sounds like we have a winner on our hands.

Rainy and very windy today....supposed to warm up to low 60's tomorrow. Linda works tomorrow to continue her training with "Peter". I will go in to do the lock report and get them off to a good start and then I will be off the rest of the day. Hoping for a nice day..

Auction...

Had our auction on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.Just a little before 10 a.m. that morning we got a call from the North Brunswick site that they needed help with their auction because their assistant manager didn't come in. I asked them how far away from us they were (cause we had no idea) and she said about 28 minutes. I asked her what time her auction was and she said 10:30....holy cow !Told them I'd jump in the car and be right there. I got there with 5 minutes to spare but the VP was still going through the files to see who should be sold and whose unit would be held out of the auction. North Brunswick's units are primarily drive up units which means they are outside. Well, Thursday morning it was cold, windy and rainy...not a great day to hold an outside auction. They had 30 some units and it took us about an hour to get through them. Once I finished up there, I headed back to our unit since our auction would be starting in about an hour. Grabbed a quick bite to eat and finished eating in time for the first bidders to start arriving and checking in. They have to give us a $100 deposit to participate, then they get a bidder's book. If they don't buy anything then they get their $100 back. If they do buy any units, we keep the deposit until they have cleaned out all of the units. That way we ensure that they don't leave any junk behind. The one exception is if the bidders have a resale permit, making them tax exempt, then they don't have to give us a deposit.

We wound up having 16 units go up for auction. Our company is really great at giving people ample time and opportunities to pay their bills before resorting to auctioning off their units. We started with 56 units on our list....some paid...and some were held to give them more time. Units went for anywhere from $1 to $400. I was talking to one of the bidders yesterday, while he was loading up items he had purchased. I asked him what he does with the items he buys. He said he sells at flea markets, e-bay, craig's list and auction houses. He said that you used to be able to make good money doing this but it has gotten harder. The stuff you think you'll get good money for doesn't and the items you think are junk sometimes bring in good money. Hard to predict, he said....I think so many more people are doing this nowadays too that maybe the market has been diluted by so much competition. He said he once paid $12,000 for a 10 x 10 unit...wow ! He took an incoming phone call before I could ask him what he bid on (or what he thought might have been in the unit) and whether it paid off for him or not. Didn't get the chance to ask him but it sure had my curiosity piqued.Most of the units have now been cleared out by the bidders. One guy has a washing machine to get yet and he'll do that Sunday. Tomorrow I will try to "trash out" several of the units that didn't receive any bids. There is a 10 x 10 unit that is packed with stuff, and (2) 5 x 10's that I will try to fill our dumpster with. There are 2 huge drive up units that are 10 x 20 or 25's that we'll need to wait for the 20 yard roll off. One unit has office furniture in it and the other has alot of twigs and bags of god knows what. I hope we are gone before that one needs to be trashed out. Might need a Hazmat suit for that one....

Tomorrow our new assistant starts his training. Hope that goes well and that he sticks with it. He will train for 5 days with us before going on his own. Tomorrow the couple that I have as my #1 pick to be the management team here goes for their second interview at another Mini U. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this other manager concurs with my selection so we can get started with their background checks and move them closer to getting hired.

In weather news, the remnants of storm Ida...now a nor'easter is moving up the coast and we are having very windy, rainy weather tonight. Supposed to have more of the same tomorrow. I feel bad for the Pop Warner football players out on the field behind our rig...they are getting blasted with wind and rain for their practice tonight. Not a night fit for man nor beast out there....

Hellish Gates...

Well our gates have been giving us fits lately. We have two front gates and one at the rear of the property and seems we've had nothing but problems since we arrived here in September. We're friends with the tech who comes to work on them....having met Steven when we were in training at the Whippany property. Anyway, Steven came yesterday at 1:30 to work on them and worked till 6:30 but at the end of the day two of them were still on the fritz. When Steven opened up the side panel, out popped momma and poppa mouse from this nest. A big ole fluffy nest was sitting on top of the battery that provides power to the system. As he stepped back and was pondering what he had before him, the mice ran back and jumped back in the nest, popping their heads out to look at him. I was only able to get a picture of the nest, minus its residents but Steven got one with them sitting there looking at him. How cute they were but they were not helping matters and had to be evicted from their home. Steven finally figured out that the circuit boards must be defective so he's ordered new ones and we are having to manually close them at the end of the day. Hopefully this next fix will do the trick to keep them in good shape for the new managers.

Tomorrow one of the Vice President's arrives to conduct our auction. We started out with 56 on our list, going to auction...we are down to around 23, which is excellent. Linda has worked really hard with these late tenants to get them to pay so their items don't get sold off. It is alot of work getting ready for these auctions. We will be really glad when it is over !

Checkpoint Charlie

Linda had to work today to help our assistant so I used the day to get some things done around the rig. I rented a carpet cleaner first thing this morning and cleaned the carpets in the rig, then took it in the office and cleaned the office carpet and inside each of the elevators. Made a great difference in all of them ! Today was the perfect day to get it done, before cold weather sets in, with today's temps in the low 70's.

After taking the carpet cleaner back to Home Depot, I went up on the roof of the rig and washed it with the wash/wax mix. It was getting pretty gritty up there from all the road grit here on route 1. While climbing up to the roof, I noticed that one of the black plastic pieces that screws each side of the rung to the side of the ladder is split. I'll need to research and find a new one before I take a spill going up or coming down the ladder.

I heard on the news today that today is the 20th anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, separating East and West Berlin. I remember watching the citizens tearing the wall down on national TV, all those years ago. It was a very important event for the people of East and West Berlin. The Soviet Union prompted the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stem the flow of Eastern Bloc emigration westward through what had become a "loophole" in the Soviet border system, preventing escape over the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. This event was of personal importance to me because my father had seen this wall in 1968 when he went to Europe as part of a People to People exchange. He represented a group of farmers from the US and he had a wonderful time as he toured Europe, meeting farmers over there. This trip stayed with my father his whole life and he made lifelong friends with the people he traveled with. Upon his return, I remember him talking about "Checkpoint Charlie" and how their group had crossed the wall at this soviet checkpoint and I think he got a picture of the guard that boarded their bus at the checkpoint. This checkpoint was very symbolic to these people and to East Germans, it was the path to freedom. I was only eight when my father went over there but there are a few things, from that trip, that stand out in my mind that he spoke of and this is one of them.

It's interesting but as I was researching some info for this post, I came across the People to People International web site. As soon as the web site came up on my screen I recognized the logo as the same one that was a pin my dad wore on his suit coats. He had a People to People pin that he wore alot. Here is what the group is all about, according to their web site:

The purpose of People to People International (PTPI) is to enhance international understanding and friendship through educational, cultural and humanitarian activities involving the exchange of ideas and experiences directly among peoples of different countries and diverse cultures. It will cooperate with any and all other organizations which are of similar nature and purpose. People to People International is dedicated to enhancing cross-cultural communication within each community, and across communities and nations. Tolerance and mutual understanding are central themes. While not a partisan or political institution, PTPI supports the basic values and goals of its founder, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The President’s People to People Program was founded on September 11, 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as part of the U.S. Information Agency. After President Eisenhower left the office of President in 1961, he arranged to have the program privatized as a nongovernmental organization and arranged for People to People to become a not-for-profit Missouri corporation now known as People to People International. President Eisenhower was Chairman of the Board of Trustees and recognized as the founder of the not-for-profit organization. It is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in the state of Missouri and qualifies for exemption from income tax under the Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3). PTPI is funded through program fees, membership dues and donations.

Among the early leaders working with President Eisenhower were J. C. Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards, Inc., Walt Disney, Bob Hope and approximately 100 other remarkable individuals from industry, academia, and the arts. The late Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip, generously contributed three pieces of artwork for PTPI Worldwide Conferences. The organization has reaped benefits from the talents of countless individuals who have supported the ideals set forth by President Eisenhower. Today, President Eisenhower's granddaughter, Mary, serves as President and Chief Executive Officer.

I wonder how my dad got involved with this group. Neat that they still exist. Looks like a neat web site to explore further.

Let us all count our blessings for our freedom. For the Germans, this is a day of celebration ! A day when they got to experience their freedom again after having it ripped away from them for 28 years. Tear down that wall !!

Sunday

We had a gorgeous day today ! Temps hit 70 degrees, sunny, very little wind. Was a really enjoyable fall day. We went grocery shopping and got supplies for the week. Takes alot of food when we prepare three meals a day here....We'll start out with the pantry full today but come next weekend, it will look like old Mother Hubbard's cupboard. Also got our propane tank filled while we were over that way at the grocery store. It's $33 for a 30# tank....ordinarily I'd hate paying that much for propane but since we get reimbursed by the company..it doesn't sting so bad. Washed up the Xterra before the sun went down so it's been a good day. The NASCAR race is winding down on TV....

We can tell that it's getting close to the holidays cause when we went to Sam's Club, they are now carrying the white stilton cheese with cranberries that we love so much. We first tried this when we went to our friend's Carolyn and Elliot's for dinner and they had this as an appetizer with crackers...it's delicious but you can only find it at holiday time. We've been watching for it and today was the special day when it showed up in the display case.

Well, the drilling of the locks took a total of three days. The assistant and I worked on them two different days and after having two of them be real son-of-a guns and not being able to get them out, I decided to call in the "big guns" to finish up...got our friend Roger to come over from the Hanover site to tackle the last six (and 2 partial ones). He made it look easy but at last we are done. Also had an interview Saturday morning that went well...I think we will have a couple picked very soon. Have another interview on Wednesday and I think at the completion of that, we will be ready to make our final pick. I have a couple in mind...need to see how they make out in their second interview with Peggy. I'm ready to move on...

Half Way....

After umpteen drill bits and lots of tenacity, we are about half way done with the lock drilling. I went to Home Depot and bought more drill bits so we can finish up today. It is hard work, taking sheer strength to push the drill bit through the cylinder locks...unlike using a cutting wheel to cut padlocks which only takes contact with the area you're cutting and minimal pressure. I was really hoping that I had some type of horizontal drill press that could be wheeled up to each door..line the drill up with the center of the lock and then bore into it....I guess enough money and technology could make anything happen but not to be this go round. More later when our mission has been completed...

Prep Time

Well tomorrow we start prepping for next week's auction. We have 25 locks to drill out tomorrow. One of us drills while the other video tapes the drilling, then we photograph the contents with a Polaroid camera (yes, they still have those things around), then tag and lock the unit.That way it's all ready for auction day. We started out with 56 units on the list so not bad to wind up with only 25 that might go. Folks have right up till the time of the auction to pay their balance and get it off the auction list. That is a very real possibility for several more units. If someone pays the balance on any of the units we've already drilled out, then they will need to purchase a new lock to put on their unit. I will work with the assistant manager tomorrow doing the locks so we can share the workload. That way it won't kill my wrists so bad as it would if I had to do it all by myself. Whew !!

Watching the World Series game and holding my breath that the Phillies might pull off tonight's game (not looking good at this point). Another hour will tell but I won't be up to see.

Turning colder here....supposed to be in the high 40's on Friday but then rebounding for the weekend. Rain overnight and tomorrow.

Keep telling myself that I need to get moving and start Christmas shopping but can't get motivated to get started with it. Guess it might help to start making lists of who I might need to buy for and what I might want to buy. Ugggg...

Day Off ?

Well one of our assistants quit on Sunday so now I have three people to hire for this location and Linda and I will have to work and cover the days we would usually be off. We worked some on Sunday but it helps that it is a short day (only open 9-3). Linda went over to do the lock report, which is taking the printout that prints out the previous evening and going to the units listed to either unlock the overlock or lock the overlock. A unit gets overlocked once it goes beyond the 5th day of the grace period. Since we use cylinder locks, this is a lock that fits into an outer ring on the lock and turns the pins inside the cylinder lock so that a tenant's key won't fit into the lock. Cylinder locks are very strong and are a pain to drill out if a tenant forgets their key or if we have to take the lock off for an auction. We have about 28 to drill out the end of this week to get ready for next Thursday's auction. Not looking forward to doing that....Had to drill out two today. The first one came when I thought I'd sneak in an afternoon nap (since I was off today). Linda has this psychic ability that lets her know anytime I'm laying down to take a nap....I think it's called Nap-dar...Something starts beeping in her brain and she knows she needs to call me on the phone cause my eyes are closing and I'm lounging somewhere. She called me on my cell phone, not once but twice to tell me a guy needed to have his lock drilled out cause he couldn't get into his unit. Gave up on the nap and decided that someone other than me needs to learn how to drill them out since it's on all of our job descriptions....(Last I checked mu job description didn't state "You are deemed the sole lock driller for this location".)Our assistant was willing to learn so she got a good workout doing two of them today. She did a great job !

Finished the training in time to come back to the rig to watch Oprah's show on handbags, shoes and bras. Boy, that sure made my afternoon. Good thing her fashion police hadn't run into me on the streets...I would have hit the trifecta on all three counts ! LOL...

Working Hard or Hardly Working ?

Our friend, Tom sent us this picture of the attentive legislators in Connecticut. House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, pictured standing, far right, speaks while colleagues Rep. Barbara Lambert, Democrat-Milford and Rep. Jack F. Hennessy, Democrat-Bridgeport, play solitaire Monday night as the House convened to vote on a new budget. (AP)

The guy sitting in the row in front of these two... he's on Facebook, and the guy behind Hennessy is checking out the baseball scores. Give me a break folks ! Our elected officials are working fewer days (136 days I believe this year), accomplishing less, getting paid more than ever and yet the few days they are working, ( I use that term loosely) they can't even pay attention to the work before them ?!?! I think Jim DeMint has the right idea in this post from his blog....


Why We Need Term Limits in Congress
Posted by Senator Jim DeMint 10/27/2009 - 11:31:47 AM

The people of South Carolina have given me the privilege of representing them in Congress for more than 10 years now, and over that period I’ve learned a great deal about how things work in Washington. One of the more unfortunate things I’ve come to realize is that Congress has the power to corrupt even those with the most honorable intentions. Too often, I‘ve seen good, honest citizen legislators come to Washington only to realize that in Congress, you either conform to the system or find yourself on the outside looking in. As a result, the American people are left with more “career politicians” who go along to get along in Congress, and end up beholden to special interests, lobbyists, and big government policies.

Though there is no simple solution to this trend, there is a clear place to start: term limits. With term limits, we can put an end to the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach to legislating, and begin enacting responsible legislation that is in the best interest of our nation. As a result, I will soon be introducing a constitutional amendment limiting current and future members of Congress to serving three terms (six years) in the House and two terms (12 years) in the Senate.

Let’s face it, Washington has become far more powerful than any one person or party. If we want to change the policies, we must first change the process. By imposing term limits, we can ensure frequent turnover which allows for new ideas and fresh perspectives in Congress. Additionally, term limits will keep politicians in-tune with their constituents and less focused on pleasing those who promise to help get them re-elected.

While term limits are certainly a step in the right direction, they are not enough. I sincerely hope my amendment will be ratified, and then be followed by other structural reforms that make our public institutions more transparent and accountable. The American people deserve congressmen who fight to give them a voice rather than fight for their personal power and success. If the people want new policies and real reform, it’s not enough to change the congressmen -- we must change Congress itself.

The Rest of The Story (a.k.a Captain Morgan Ain't No Friend of Mine)

Well...guess who our first customer of the day was this morning. Yep, the 6'.... 300 plus pound brute who attempted to climb over the gate, be obnoxious, yell expletives at Linda, etc. Looking over near the fence, this morning, we had found an empty bottle of Captain Morgan so it didn't take too much deductive reasoning to figure out who that belonged too. Being now sober it didn't occur to him that he had spoken to either of us last night so he rehashed what he had told Linda last night, through the gate. Only this time there were more details to his story. Turns out his brother, who is with him out in the car, just got out of jail yesterday and his clothes were put in his brother's storage unit when he went to jail. Why he thought any of this information would endear us to want to help him is anybody's guess. His unit had just gotten overlocked this morning so if he had come into the office yesterday by 6 p.m. and paid his bill, alot of this would have been avoided. But, as is pretty prevalent in society today...."The lack of planning on his part should result in a crisis on my part"...NOT !! After telling him AGAIN that once he pays his bill, the overlock comes off....he will have access....he left to figure things out. He did come back later and pay so junior did get some clean clothes. It's these warm, fuzzy times when Linda and I can help our fellow man that give us the greatest pleasure.....

As if the morning didn't start out weird, it's actually got off to a firecracker start at 11:00 p.m. last night. Before I went to bed (after seeing that the Phillies clearly were going to clean the Yankees clock, I checked our e-mail one last time. We had gotten an e-mail from corporate that our tenant, who had rented the truck, was stranded. The truck apparently wouldn't start and he couldn't finish his move into his unit. We would need to make alternate arrangements in the morning for another truck, get our truck towed, etc.

So, we came in and had e-mails with three possibilities for borrowing trucks from area Mini U's. I started calling them and discovered that North Bergen was our best bet. Called the tenant to find out where the truck was. Linda called a tow service to get them to go get it. I leave around 10 to go get the other truck as another person was coming this morning to get our truck (and seeing how our truck was indisposed, that wasn't gonna happen). I get to N. Bergen...Linda calls...the tow truck jumped our truck and got it going so our tenant could finish the move but just couldn't shut the truck off for fear it wouldn't start again. I leave our car at N. Bergen and head back to our store with the Mini U truck. Oh, did I mention that Linda had an on-line webinar from 11-12 that she needed to participate in. Not a problem...slow morning...

That was pretty much the way our day went today....I had an interview late in the day that lasted till we closed at 6. The tenant finished with our truck so it could finally be shut off and parked out front until I check it over tomorrow. The tenant, using N. Bergen's truck, finished up at 7:00 so Linda and I took it back to North Bergen as it is scheduled to go out first thing in the morning. Now, safely back home, we are nestled in to watch another rousing World Series game while Boomer naps on the floor. Peace and quiet.....ahhhhh......

P.S.

Forgot to tell you about the cool card I got from my mom. Usually she sends very basic cards...sometimes she surprises me with ones that are more insightful. This year's was like that. It says:

Daughter

You are the author of your own life. It's up to you to dream it, imagine it,
sketch it, shape it, build it, go after it, and make it happen.
And then color it in with bright, shining shades of joy and deep, lasting
shades of meaning that are yours and yours alone. No one else can know the dreams
you dream or the strengths you have within you that will help you make your dreams
come true. No one else needs to.....Because they're yours....And so is today.

Is that cool or what ??? A cool card from a cool mom !!!

Birthday...

A rainy day in Rahway...It poured most of the day. We went out for my birthday, right after work. Went to Shannon Rose, the Irish Pub that we like to go to. Of all nights, the food wasn't very good tonight but it was nice to go out with Linda for a while. We're home now watching the start of the World Series. Go Phillies !!

Just had a crazed guy outside banging on the gate outside our rig. Linda opened the window and asked him what he was doing. He said he needed to get into his unit but his code wasn't working. She asked him if he's late on his payment and he said "Yes" and she told him he isn't going to get in anyway as he's locked out. This is at 8:56 p.m. and they can only get access till 9:00 p.m. EVEN if they are current on their payments. Apparently he called right before we closed and asked Linda what time you can access your unit till and she told him 9 but he forgot to tell her the rest of the story on being late. She told him to come back when the office opened at 9:00 a.m. and then he commenced with name calling, banging on the gate and acting like he was going to climb over it. At that point she called 911. Just as she got the Rahway police on the phone, apparently the people riding with this crazed guy talked some sense into him and they left. We'll see whether he comes in tomorrow or not and what frame of mind he's in when he does come in. Oh boy !

So back to my birthday....Let's look at what other cool things happened on this day in history:

1492 Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba
1790 New York gives up claims to Vermont for $30,000
1793 Eli Whitney applies for a patent on the cotton gin
1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated by Pres Grover Cleveland, it is celebrated by the 1st confetti (ticker tape) parade in NYC
1936 FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1965 Gateway Arch (630' (190m) high) completed in St Louis, Missouri
1977 TV's Rhoda gets married
1981 Edward M McIntrye elected 1st black mayor of Augusta Georgia

So that's all for tonight...Phillies are in the lead...rain has stopped...crazy man is gone and life is good ! :)

Dreary Day...

I didn't think it was supposed to start raining until later today but it started last night and didn't stop for most of the day. Temps aren't bad though....was in the mid 50's, almost 60 degrees. I'll take that as opposed to the snow they are calling for out west. Ten day forecast is saying close to 60 degrees too with some rainy days ahead.

Calm day at work which was a good things as Linda had alot of "fixing" to do of mistakes or outright failure to do things while we were off. We are getting pretty exasperated with our two assistants. It usually takes our first day back to fix what they've screwed up while we were off. Today was no different. Linda worked on making these corrections while I started making contact with a new batch of candidates for the site manager position. There are several couples that have previous self storage experience so I'm hoping there might be some potential in this group so that we can get someone hired for here. It will be 2 months that we've been here, on Nov. 8th and we're ready to move on. We'll see how it goes. The unemployment situation, in this country, doesn't really equate to hard and fast numbers until you start to talk to people or see people's resumes where they've been in what would appear to be "stable" positions only to be laid off. That is the case with some tenants we've talked to and I'm seeing it in the resumes I'm reviewing. Sad situation indeed ! There are a ton of talented people out there that are out of work. It gives me pause to wonder how long it will be before our country has totally rebounded from this recession to get everyone back to work. A long road ahead....

Move Over....

We drove back from Chambersburg today. Don't think I mentioned previously, that the time we went up to the Lehigh Valley zoo, we got a ticket for not being in the right hand lane. Linda had been in the center lane but for some reason moved over to the left lane and that's when the cop "got her". Not sure what they are teaching these policemen these days but this officer asked us where we were coming from, where we're going, what we were gonna do there and what we do for work. Not sure what any of this has to do with the price of eggs but he was pretty intimidating. He asked her what her driving record was like and we both said it was excellent. In the five and a half years I've known her, she's never gotten a ticket of any kind. We thought that might weigh in her favor when he went back to his car and did whatever cops do during this time...could have been reading the sports page for all I know. But alas...no...apparently it didn't mean anything that she's a good driver, cause he presented her with a ticket. When Linda tried to ask the officer a simple question he said he "wasn't gonna hold court along the side of the road...she could have her day in court" and walked away from the truck. All of this ran through my head as we drove through this same area today and saw all the cop cars pulling people over. Well, Linda will have her "day in court" soon...she will contest the ticket and the fact that he was only following her for 1/2 a mile when he deemed that she was breaking the law. We'll see how that pans out.

Seems there is a problem with many law enforcement officers today in that the sense of power they have has gone to their heads. One of our tenants started talking to Linda about traffic tickets and she told him about our encounter with this officer. This gentleman is African American and told her how he had gotten pulled over once in the early morning hours on his way home from work. He was pulled from his car by police officers and thrown to the ground and the officer put his foot on his neck. They trashed his car and when they found nothing they told him he could go. He had not committed any crime and was never given a ticket but he got pretty roughed up. He asked for a warning from the officers so he'd at least have the officers names and badge numbers but they wouldn't give him one. The partner of the officer who got physical with him told him he was sorry for the way his partner was acting...apparently he was new on the force and "trying to make a name for himself". They might want to do a little more training on the proper way to handle suspects so they don't find themselves being sued so much. I don't have alot of respect for people who have taken an oath to "serve and protect" when they violate that trust with unwarranted violence towards innocent people.

It's Scary Out There !

We have Sunday and Monday off so we decided to go to Chambersburg to visit Linda's family and pick up our car that we've had there for a few months. Linda's sister, Carol, invited us to go to the Marine Corp to the family Halloween party. She dressed up.....uh spooky stuff ! Do you see the family resemblance ? I think someone forgot to get out of the gene pool..All the kids got a big kick out of her....especially the boys. Linda's niece's kids were dressed up and entered the costume contest. Jayden won for his age bracket...he was dressed as an archery hunter, complete with play bow and arrows. His prize was Playdoh....my favorite ! We opened up the purple one and he was having fun with that on the table top. I bet the Marine Corp will be sooo glad they gave that out as a prize when they go to clean that up !

We're going to stay till mid-day tomorrow and then head back with both vehicles. I don't know if we'll know how to act, driving a "normal" size car around the neighborhood. Will be pretty nice !

Couples Jobs

As you may recall I have been doing the interviewing for our company for two sites that need management teams here in New Jersey. We found one couple for the Maple Shade location and they will start their training soon. I am still interviewing for our site but the flow of applicants has slowed down so we're exploring some new sites where we can advertise our opening. One site, that our HR director found is for WorkingCouples. It's a great site for couples who are looking for jobs where they can work together. The jobs range from hotel/motel management, self storage jobs such as ours, workamping jobs, property caretakers, etc. Couples can post their resumes, search by state or occupation and there is also a forum where they can discuss a variety of issues. What a neat site this is !

Another site I had recommended to our HR director was the Caretaker Gazette. This is similar to the other site but it seems to be for more upscale jobs. I used to subscribe to this a few years back but traveling to an island to housesit seemed to slip out of the realm of possibility when we bought our RV. This site and magazine has some unique offerings and many of them are in exotic locations. I think jobs such as these would be neat if I were young and just starting out without any family responsibilities or geographic limitations. How better to see the world than to hopscotch across the globe housesitting or working for short periods of time.

Meanwhile, in the land of Rahway....work continues to be busy. I tried to get some outdoor maintenance done today before the rain moves in. Once the wind picked up, I moved inside and started to spackle the dings and dents in the office walls. Tomorrow I'm going to go to Home Depot and pick up some paint so I can touch up these areas. Bit by bit we are getting things accomplished around here. Although it feels good to be making headway and getting the property in good shape for the new managers, we are getting antsy to go to a new location. Hopefully our new outreach will turn up some good candidates for interviews.

Crayola

On Sunday Linda's brother and sister in law came down, as we were finishing up work, and we went out to dinner at Shannon Rose....an Irish pub in nearby Woodbridge. We told them as we entered that we were interested in watching the Eagles football game and after checking their TV chart, we were seated right under a big flat screen so we could watch the game while we ate. We had a great time and as usual the food was awesome. It was fun to chat and hang out with Roy and Kathie for a while.

Today we went to Easton, Pa to the Crayola factory. It was a fun time ! The picture at the top of this post is of the world's largest crayon. The World’s Largest Crayon is located at The Crayola Store. It took 123,000 blue crayons to make this 1500–pound one–of–a–kind crayon, which is 15 feet long and 16 inches in circumference. A sign posted near the crayon states that this crayon could draw a continuous line for 10 miles....Wow !! The crayons to make it were donated by children from all over the country in an effort to beat the previous record for the world's largest crayon.

On the 3rd and 4th floor of the building, where the Crayola factory is located, is the National Canal Museum. The last time I was here this part was pretty boring. I recall pictures on the walls but boy has it changed. Now, when you enter you are given your own barge that you have to navigate through a series of locks to get to the end of your journey. What a great interactive way to learn ! The whole canal museum was really neat...you get to learn about locks, pulleys, building systems, etc. I enjoyed this part of the day as much as the Crayola factory. The canal museum and the Crayola factory are both part of the entry fee. After we finished with the museum we went to the Crayola store which is always fun. There are always neat things to see. This is the 50th anniversary of the 64 pack of crayons with the built in sharpener so they have a commemorative tin. Remember what a big deal it was when the boxes came out with their own sharpener...cool, huh ? I learned two neat things about the labels on crayons. First, that up until 1943 the crayons were rolled by hand by people in their own homes. There was a picture of a woman, sitting rolling crayons at her kitchen table....a bucket of glue on one hand and a bin of crayons at the other hand. These "employees" weren't known by their names but they were known by the color they rolled..."The Red Farm", etc. Second thing I learned is that the "glue" used to put the label on the crayons is edible....it's cornstarch and water. So if you find your grandkids licking the labels on the crayon...not too worry.

One of my favorite items, on display at the Crayola factory, is Mister Rogers' sweater that he wore when he made the 1 billionth crayon. That crayon, as part of a Crayola promotion, was won by a Colorado grandmother but she sold it back to Crayola for a $100,000 savings bond. The crayon is on display there too.

What a great place to take the youngsters and the "young at heart". Take yourself back to a simpler time in your life when all you had to worry about was what color to use in your coloring book. We certainly enjoyed our "day of play"....

Detour

Well, Linda and I were supposed to have today and tomorrow off from work but when the phone rang at 8:55 this morning we knew it wasn't going to be good. One of the assistants called off so Linda is at work since the other assistant is fairly new and doesn't know how to do the office work very well. I'm working around the rig, silconing the gaskets, etc., made a trip to Sam's Club and just might squeeze in a nap this afternoon. :) Good thing we didn't make plans for today.....our schedules have been altered anyway due to the one assistant taking classes on the weekend so is even a little more annoying when she calls off so Linda gets one less day off this week. Oh well....that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Weather is cool and crisp today but bright sunshine and I sure like 53 degrees as opposed to 39 and rainy. Marked improvement over the last couple days. This morning on Good Morning America we watched Ingrid Michaelson perform a song from her new album. Listen to some of her stuff...I love it cause it's quirky, fresh and upbeat. Good stuff !!

Boomer and I are off to Home Depot to see if we can find something to put over the water hose to give it some protection. It is taking a real beating with these huge trucks driving over it. It has already sliced up the outer casing in several spots and I've had to put gorilla tape on it to protect it PLUS we unhook the hose every morning and reconnect when we come home at night. Would be nice to not have to do that...will see how expensive a hose "bridge" is and if a place like Home Depot or Lowes has them. If anybody has any ideas on where to get them or how to rig up a home-made one, I'm up for suggestions. We have a heavy duty commercial water hose but with trucks like large wrecker roll-offs and large Penske trucks driving over it, it's like driving over a spaghetti strand....turns to mush in a hurry !

A Year Ago....

In a nostalgic mood, I thought it would be fun to see what Linda and I had been up to this time last year. I went back through my posts from October 2008 (they are under "older posts" in bottom right corner of the blog). We were staying in the campground in Coffeyville, working at Amazon. The Christmas season was gearing up but not at a fever pitch until after Thanksgiving. The weather was awesome which is more than I can say for this year's weather. It was in the 60's most days....we would have our door open during the day and sometimes our neighbor, Lindig would stop over and say Hi...we miss having her next door. We met so many great people at Amazon and many of the friends we made there are back there this year working. We heard from our friend Carolyn that our supervisors were asking about us and wondering if we were coming back this year. Sorry to say we're not returning but all of the folks at Amazon are in our thoughts. I actually went to Walmart in search of the insoles that I discovered in Coffeyville that helped with my aching feet as we tried to get acclimated to the 16 miles we walked everyday on our shift picking orders. Couldn't find them in the Walmart here.....might have to put in a special order with our friends out in Kansas to buy me some and ship them to me...Amazon style. Don't think it's something that Amazon stocks but maybe I should check....you never know what you'll find down the aisles at the world's greatest on-line store. I loved going in each week, as we got closer to Christmas and discovering what new items were on the shelves. Boxed sets of DVD's, cool cookbooks, nifty games, special edition movies, etc. One book that I picked several of last year....Where the Wild Things Are..has now been made into a movie and looks really cute. I think of Amazon when I see the movie trailer on TV. Another big deal last year....Harry Potter's last book was set to be released and there were top secret shifts to pack the leather bound copies to get them ready for shipping. Hmmm....in a sense it seems like a long time ago and in another it seems like yesterday. It's certainly a time that Linda and I cherish....the time that great bonds of friendship were formed that will last us a lifetime.