Memorial Day

Today was a busy day around here. Although it was our day off, we wanted to see how they put their picnic together with the buffet lines, etc. There were about 50 extra guests today beyond the normal amount of residents. We started in at breakfast and finished up around 3:30, once everything had settled down. Lunch was awesome. Wilbur came in off of the grill a little before noon. He was put on a large serving board and then placed out on the buffet line. Chef Steve did the carving throughout the meal. In addition to the sliced pork there was pork bbq, hamburgers, potato salad, macaroni salad, baked beans, cole slaw and all the fixins for the burgers. We also had an ice cream bar that had vanilla ice cream (regular and low sugar) with a multitude of toppings. There was also a cake decorated like the American flag...loads of food !

After lunch the hand bell choir performed, some of the ladies sang and we had a guest speaker from AMVETS there. He was retired from the Navy (33 yrs of service). His talk got too political in nature for us so we left part way through and went back to our apartment. I don't think that this type of event is the appropriate time to talk about military levels in current or past administrations. It's a day of remembrance and respect for those who have or do serve in our armed forces. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Memorial weekend !

The day here started out sunny but just as lunch was about to begin it started to pour outside. Wilbur got in out of the rain just in time ! Tomorrow we go in at 11:30, work till close and are then on-call throughout the night.

Back In Winston-Salem.....

We finished up our training, on Thursday in Chesapeake with a bang...There were servers/housekeepers out so we were helping to cover for these folks. On our last day we were supposed to socialize with folks but ending up serving during lunch. Right after lunch we got the car packed and headed out about 2:30. Had a nice drive back to Winston-Salem....arrived here around 7:00. We were exhausted so didn't stay up very long before hittin' the hay.

Got up Friday morning and started work. Rick and Susan, the managers, worked till early afternoon and then took the rest of the day off. They normally have Fridays and Saturdays off and we'll have Sunday and Mondays off. We had a server not show up Saturday night so Linda served. We've settled into our apartment...got caught up on laundry today.

Tomorrow is the annual pig roast here that they have each Memorial Day. "Wilbur" is ready to hit the grill early tomorrow morning...complete with an apple in his mouth. We have about 50 extra guests coming to join in the festivities. Although it's our day off, we're going to help with it for a while so we can see how they pull the whole thing together. I'll try and get some pictures to post here tomorrow after we "pig out".

The great kitchen staff at Lighthouse Pointe...

Rudy and Helen - Co-managers/Rosemary and Paul - Managers

Our buddy Jane...nicknamed "Trouble"

Look at all those smiling faces....such sweet ladies !

Winding Down With Training

We go into work today at 11:30 so we took Boomer to the dog park this morning to get some exercise before being cooped up all day. When we first arrived there were no other dogs in the park. After about 20 minutes some others started arriving. Usually most of the dogs that have been there don't seem to like to play or run...they just meander about doing their "business". A German Shepherd, named Abby, came with another beagle type dog (and of course their owner) and she was very playful with Boomer. They ran and chased each other all over the park. It was great to see Boomer get to run full tilt and get some much needed exercise. We are now back at Lighthouse Pointe for our last full day of training. We'll work till close tonight and will learn how to close the kitchen. Yesterday we learned how to do payroll so tonight we'll probably check everyone's time once they've finished their shift and approve it on the system. Tomorrow will be a short day....open at 6:30 a.m. and only work till lunch. Then we'll pack the car and head out for Winston-Salem...right after lunch. So many of the residents have come up to us and told us how happy they've been to have us here and they hope that we'll come back to visit. One lady even said that she'd love to come down to see us but she doesn't drive. I told her that maybe she could team up with someone else and they could make it a "road trip". Everyone has been wonderful...we will really miss them !

Nascar Hall of Fame

This afternoon I watched some of the induction ceremony for the first batch of inductees into the Nascar Hall of Fame. The pre-ceremony coverage started at noon. That concluded at one....watched the start of the actual ceremony...laid down for a nap and got up at 3:15 and it was still on !

This new facility honors sixty years of stock car racing and is located in Charlotte, NC. There's 40,000 square feet of display space on three floors. Sounds like a good place to take a road trip on our day off....it's only 80 miles away from us in Winston-Salem !

Change of Plans...

The day started out sunny but then the thunderstorms moved in and it's been raining ever since. Linda's daughter and her family arrived to have breakfast with us...Teagan and Ila were a big hit with the residents. Stephanie and Jessie also joined us. We had tropical french toast for breakfast (pineapple in the french toast batter) and it was really yummy. As soon as everyone left, we were told that we needed to call our regional boss. Did so and found out that we need to return to our facility in Winston-Salem, right after lunch on Thursday. We'll finish our training there. Our managers have been without co-managers since last November and they are pretty frazzled. There are floating managers that come in to give them some days off but do not do any of the operational things that need to get done. After a short while I can see where the work would pile up and it would get to be pretty overwhelming. We are still off today but will now go in tomorrow to start cramming in some of the info we haven't gone over yet. We'll probably work open to close Tuesday and Wednesday and then we'll leave after lunch Thursday for the 5.5 hour drive back to North Carolina. I'm looking forward to getting back there....starting to learn about our property and residents and get settled into a sense of normalcy. It will be hard to say goodbye to the people here. All of the residents are really great.

Today is my son, Jay's birthday....my "baby" turned 23 today. We talked for quite a while on the phone this morning. Is always nice to chat with both of my kids....am truly blessed.

Picnic

End of a tiring week....Today was our "Picnic in the Park" event and it was a very hectic day. Linda and I had to get the patio furniture cleaned up this morning and then get the grill out and wheel it around to the front of the building. The folding legs on the underside of this Coleman grill are in bad shape...one was bent when we got it out in the morning and the other side bent on the return trip so the whole set-up is "toast" at this point. The grill itself isn't bad (although it seems to be pretty old)but it was never meant to be wheeled so dang far to an event.

We cooked the hamburgers and hotdogs on our grill for the folks who decided to sit out on the patio (extra tables and chairs were set up outside so we wound up with seating for about 35 out there). The chef also prepared barbequed chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, chips and ice cream and watermelon for dessert. We were all ready to go at 12:30 and had our folks fed in about 10 minutes time. After checking to see if anyone wanted seconds, we took our burgers and dogs inside to the serving line there so everyone could enjoy true "picnic fare", instead of burgers and dogs off the flat top grill from the kitchen. We had many compliments from folks who had our grilled items that they were very moist and really yummy !

After lunch, there was a male singer that performed for an hour. He was pretty good...the residents really enjoyed him and some of them kicked up their heels and had some fun dancing to his tunes.

At 8:00 this morning our yard sale started so that involved a lot of set-up yesterday and tear down today after the picnic. All of the proceeds went to the Muscular Dystrophy Assoc.There were also a number of really great prizes that folks could buy raffle tickets for and that money also went to MDA. After Linda and I helped gather up all the leftover yard sale items, we had to get the room ready for a birthday party and dance that is going on tonight from 6 - 9. Needless to say, we are exhausted tonight. Our day ended around 5 p.m. but it felt like we'd been run over by a herd of elephants....as we were walking to our room I'm sure we looked like some of our residents going down the hall.

Sunday and Monday off.....no plans at this point. Stay tuned...

Another Tiring Day...

The last two days were spent in the kitchen, prepping and doing dishes. Hard work! I've found muscles I haven't used in a while. Today was equally hard...we worked with the housekeepers cleaning the residents rooms. Reminded me of my college days when I had to do a stint, in Best Western's housekeeping dept., for my hospitality degree. Similar structured system of cleaning that lets us get a studio apt cleaned in 20 min, a one bedroom apt.in 30 minutes and a two bedroom apt.in 40 minutes. These skills can be utilized in everyday life, cleaning on our own. The four ladies that are the housekeepers are also the breakfast and lunch servers in the dining room. They have a non-stop day of work...five days a week ! Tomorrow Linda and I will help them again. There are a couple of rooms that are vacant and need to be "deep cleaned" to get them ready for new residents. I started one of the rooms today, scrubbing the kitchenette area. Tomorrow Linda and I will work together to clean several residents rooms and then deep clean one vacant room. The draperies are really neat that they use in the rooms. They are washed, on the gentle cycle, for 10 minutes and then they are hung while they are damp. They dry and look wonderful again....voila'. The draperies get done once a year as well as shampooing the carpets in each of the resident's rooms. Everything is maintained so immaculately here....

Our big spring event is this Saturday. Linda and I will be working on the grill, cooking burgers and hotdogs. There will be games like horseshoes, etc. and the indoor yard sale where proceeds will benefit MDA. There will be tours of the facility going on and lots of fun things to do. Anyone that tours a Holiday facility anytime before June 30 can sign up to win "Rent for Life"....

When we finish this week, we'll be half way done with our training...yippee !!

Yowie, do our feet/bodies hurt !

Well our new work week started today at 11:00 and we were assigned to the prep cook. We prepped some vegetables, diced some ham and did a few odds and ends. Once we had those tasks finished up (right after lunch) then we were told to clean....walls, ventilation grates, the wall behind the cooking line, etc. So we spent about 5 hours doing some heavy duty cleaning today....not sure what that was supposed to teach us. I know that the regional chef is coming this week to do his inspection so I guess the chef here figured he had a couple extra hands to get ready for the inspection. We also had the health inspector in today. We had an excellent inspection.

Tomorrow we start at 6:00 a.m. and we work with the dishwasher. The day should go by pretty quickly. Thursday we work with the housekeepers. Hopefully our umph won't git up and go before we can make it to Thursday. Gotta go....I need to put my feet over my head to try and get them to stop throbbing..

Rainy Day...

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"...Isn't that the way that song goes ? Not sure what happens when the rainy day FALLS on a Monday. Just some nourishment for the May flowers that we have here. Is really pouring though.... We left this morning to go to Linda's doctor appt in Williamsburg and on the way home we saw two accidents, just off Rt. 64. Looked like cars that had hydroplaned and found themselves in places other than the highway...one went down over the bank and the other went into the guardrail. Oops !

After we left Linda's appt, we drove up to American Heritage campground to see our friend Mike. Some of you may recall that this is the campground where we stayed the summer we worked at Busch Gardens and we workamped at this campground in exchange for our site. Had a good time chatting with Mike. He works in the security dept at Busch Gardens. He and his wife, Cindy, have a gorgeous motorhome. Linda had packed a picnic lunch and since it was raining we decided to have our picnic indoors and invite Mike. We sat at their table and enjoyed leftovers from Teagan's birthday party. It was just as yummy the second time around. Speaking of the birthday party, here are some pics from it.

Days Off...

Yesterday was our last day for this week. We are now off until Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. Today we hit some of the consignment and thrift shops and found some nice work clothes. When we went on the road we got rid of all of my business suits, etc. so today we found a couple of nice suits that will work in our new job. From there, we stopped by Firehouse Subs to pick up lunch and take it over to Linda's daughters' house. Tomorrow is Teagan's birthday party so we helped get things ready for that while hanging out and playing with the kids and Laurie. Linda is looking forward to the party since this is the first party, for Teagan, that she's been able to make it to.

The day was very warm today...thermometers on the various banks we drove by recorded 91 degrees. It was a perfect day to sit on the porch swing, at Laurie and Matt's house, and enjoy the warmth of the day. Supposed to be almost as warm tomorrow for the birthday party....hoping for clear and sunny skies !