Little Bit Crazy......

I don't think we'll ever try and train three people at the same time again. It is too crazy. I worked with the new assistant manager today while Linda started with the new managers. I think she'll be good ONCE she catches on to things and stops overthinking everything..just go with it, will ya. Don't ask why it couldn't be done a different way and blah blah....just do it the way we show you to do it and when you get really good, if you want to re-invent the mouse trap, be our guest. LOL...Oh brother....

The new managers did great. They have common sense.... a trait that is necessary for this work. When all else fails and you aren't quite sure what you should do, if you have a smidgen of common sense, you probably can figure out the next step. They both have it. Hallelujah !! Tomorrow is the assistant's last day of training....make it or break it day. Linda told her she has to "run the site" by herself...Linda will be there but will take a hands off approach and only intervene if she has to. We'll see how long before that happens.

Tomorrow will be one of the warmest days this week....projected to be 36. Wow ! By the weekend, temps will fall into the 20's again. Luckily I got our fresh water tank filled yesterday on the second attempt. Seems the copper water line, coming from inside the building didn't want to thaw out until in the afternoon, after soaking in some of the sun's rays. And that's even with the water lines wrapped in foam insulation. I think the wind has just been too brutal around here lately and the line froze where it passes through the cinder black wall. Luckily I was able to get the tank filled up so we'll have enough for the remainder of the week and our trip south.

Saturday will be the last day of training for the new managers and their "make it or break it" day. We'll get the rig put together to pull out (slides put in, etc.)while they work the site. That way we'll be right outside the door where they can call us if they need to or just holler out the door. They will be fine. They are so excited to get this job and are really looking forward to moving here. During this week of training they are driving from home (Cherry Hill, NJ) which takes them 1 hr- 45 min each way. Makes for a very long day !! They will be happy to see Sunday arrive when they can move into the apartment and call it "home" and we'll be happy to be outa here.

New Managers Starting...

Linda has been training a new assistant manager since Saturday. She's a little slower at digesting things than she came across in her interview. During five days of training, with all there is to learn, it's not feasible to totally digest every single detail of something. A person has to take the info in and process it in its totality, otherwise it will drive you crazy. There is so much to learn and only five days with us, as her trainers, to take most of it in. I think she'll be alright in end. Tomorrow I will work with her on the outside stuff while starts the first day of training with the new managers. Tuesday and Wednesday will be a little awkward due to the overlap in trying to train three people at once. Luckily, Jason has been in this business before so I think he will be a quick study and will probably be ready to work on his own in a couple of days so it will give us more time to "solidify" some points with the assistant manager. We want them all to be on solid footing by the time we leave here Sunday. Busy days ahead....

3 Yr. Anniversary For Our Home...

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

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

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

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

Who Needs a Clock ?

In our usual boring, tired fashion Linda and I were in bed around 10:30 last night. Could only get her to play two games of Skippo and then she was whipped and ready for sleep. With us having New Years day off from work, we had the luxury of not needing to set the alarm clock either. But we didn't need a clock to tell us when midnight arrived. Apparently Rahway celebrates the New Year's arrival with fireworks. Boomer was trying to climb into bed on my side and me with my earplugs in was totally oblivious to what was going on. I pulled them out of my ears, trying to comprehend why all the covers were going towards the floor on my side of the bed. Linda said..."Fireworks" and I knew that Boomer was petrified. I got him calmed down and willing to lay next to the bed as opposed to IN IT and then the cell phones started in.

We had taken our phones to bed in case the snow plow contractor called to ask if we wanted him to come plow. They were calling for another batch of snow last night and when we went to bed it was only icy and rainy...no snow. But just in case he called, we took the phones to bed with us. The texts from friends and family began, with well wishes for the New Year. So, I got up and turned on TV at 12:30 to see the garbage left by the revelers in Time Square (looked like our property the other day after the 40 m.p.h. wind storm). Lots of hoopla building towards the big ball drop and then as soon as the clock struck midnight, everyone starts heading home. Seems a little anticlimactic to me.

This morning has already been very interesting. I got up about 7:30 and could hear the Penske truck running outside. One of our tenants, that has two units here, rents a space for their truck and they put it right in front of our car. I asked Linda about it running and she said it had been running since 6:30. I thought that odd. I looked outside, thought it looked icy and decided I better put ice melt down. I went out and loaded up the spreader and noticed that there was a guy sleeping in the running truck. That worried me....I was worried that one of the Penske employees was sleeping off a wild night of partying and had gotten carbon monoxide poisoning. I tapped on the window and finally the guy opened one eye and looked at me (his head still leaning against the door of the truck). I said "Are you OK ?"... "HUH?" I repeated myself. He said yes and proceeded to go back to sleep. I resumed spreading ice melt around the property. After I went inside, I told Linda of my exchange with this guy and we thought we better call the tenant to see if he's aware one of his employees has had his truck running since 6:30 this morning. Linda went to the office and called him. She described the guy and the tenant said no one by that description worked for him and for us to call the cops. We did....they responded within two minutes and took him away. Seems he has several outstanding warrants and now will have a nice warm place where he can take a nap.

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.