Change in Schedule

We're working a new schedule now. The floating managers, that are here helping us, wanting us to go on the manager's schedule so we gave them Wednesday off to do the turnaround for the new schedule. Our days off will now be Fridays and Saturdays. We finish work around 3:30 on Thursday and have to be back at work to open Sunday morning.

This weekend Linda went up to her grand-daughter's "dedication ceremony (like a baptism). She left Thursday right after she got off work. I stayed here and worked on shampooing carpets in our vacant apartments to try and get ahead on all the projects that need to be done around here. I accomplished quite a bit over the last two days so I feel good about what I can check of the daunting list we have. Linda got back about 7:30 tonight. Took her around 5 hours to drive to Virginia Beach from here.

On Thursday one of the maintenance guys, that works at another property like ours, came to help us with getting our vacant apartments refurbished. He left this morning but in those 2.5 days he got several apartments totally painted and most of the things done so they are ready to rent. He was a maniac ! Worked like a whirlwind...if we could only get everyone to work at that pace, we'd have all the vacants done in no time at all. Whew ! He expects to come back at the end of this week to help us again. Good thing..as we learned Thursday that our maintenance guy is going to have surgery on his ankle on the 30th and who knows how long he'll be out.

His bombshell comes on the heels of hearing from our activity director that she needs to go on medical leave, due to her pregnancy and won't return till after the baby is born (due date is in December). Oh great ! So...two key positions and they'll both be out on medical leaves. On top of getting rooms turned around, with all kinds of carpet replacement, painting, and odds and ends to be done...we have lots of personnel issues (like these) to take care of. Not sure I've ever worked in a place that is such a train wreck ! Linda is doing a great job coordinating all of the carpet installs, ordering of lighting, etc.

I think we will like this new schedule. We only have three overnight on-calls to handle..the rest fall on the co-mgrs schedule. Plus our long days are our first two days...get 'em out of the way right off the bat..then a couple partial days. Should be a piece of cake. Will let you know how it goes...

Little Bit of This and That...

The campground was
packed this weekend. Not an empty site in the park. We were talking to the folks next to us as they were tearing down camp to go. They are from the Netherlands and just bought their rig a few days ago. They are going to try out camping for a few months, then store the rig in Florida and catch a flight back home. They are traveling till around October before flying out of Florida for home. Nice folks !

Right after they pulled out the guy in the next site over was getting ready to leave. He had a very big, (I'm guessing a 39 or 40' unit)triple axle toy hauler. I was giving Bertha a bath and wasn't trying to be too nosy but he got my attention when he started beating on his rig. I look up and it appears that the bedroom slide hadn't gone in all the way. He was wailing on it with the backside of a hatchet. His rig didn't look very old but if I were to hazard a guess, I'm thinking that probably the warranty would be null and void if he's been beating on the slideout with a hatchet. Just a guess...After he tried the hatchet, then the cordless drill came out and he was trying to do something with the little corner pieces on the bottom right side of the slideout. Must be that didn't do the trick cause he went back to using the trusty ole hatchet. The whole family stood there watching him too. I peeked up from waxing (had finished with the washing part by now but heck with this kind of entertainment, it was worth staying outside to do some waxing)and they were all gathered around him. He got it to his level of satisfaction and then they were ready to leave. I'm glad I wasn't riding home with him cause he hooks on with a 2500 series of some brand of truck to this monster of a toy hauler. Gets it hooked and revs it a little to get the momentum to leave the site. With each burst of power, you can see the front end of the truck pull up a bit. Oh boy....he's got way too much rig for that baby truck he's driving.

Weather on Sunday was absolutely perfect. Temps in the upper 70's, great breeze and the night actually cooled off enough that we could open the windows while we slept. It was great. Today it got hotter ( in the 80's) but not unbearable. I talked to my mom on the phone today and up in PA where she lives, she woke to 30 degrees. Oh my...

We went out to eat twice and went to the Mexican restaurant that our good buddy Tom recommended. Dang, not only does he know his maintenance stuff but that boy knows how to pick great restaurants too. Had a great meal both times !

In the same plaza as the Mexican restaurant, is a Tractor Supply store. I wanted to go in there to look around...just for the heck of it. Oops ! They had their metal tool boxes on sale....(you know where this is headed don't ya ?)Ta daa..... After much deliberation and measuring, Bertha got a new place for her tools. The big stuff like the generator and air compressor. They needed a home other than in the back seat with Boomer. Now we actually would have room for passengers in our back seat, should the need ever arise. It's really cool and everything fits and it looks so much more organized than before. I love it ! And like I said it was on sale....

Work is so much better this week than last week or last month. The floating managers arrived Saturday night and we sat down and chatted with them. And get this, they have the same work ethic and us ! They follow company standards, expect people to show up for work and be held accountable when they don't, and want the same things that we do. Wow, is it ever refreshing. Turns out that they worked at our location for a year, in the same position that we are in. They encountered many of the same things we did with the managers and ended up leaving because of it. They know the building and are there to back us up. They would like us to work the managers schedule which would mean Fridays and Saturdays off so we'll have to figure out how to make that work (might mean we go back to work tomorrow and then we'll be off again Thursday night...oh boy !). We're optimistic that we might be able to turn some things around at our community but we'll wait and see how it goes.

It's a new week...Hope everyone had a great Labor Day. We sure did !The campground emptied out today so only a handfull of rigs remain..it's quiet here. Linda's sitting on the swing while I write this. Sound of traffic on the distant highway. Boomer's watching people walking by and there's the smell of campfires in the air. Ahhhhh.....aint it grand !