Tuesday July 27th 2010

Another gorgeous day in the neighborhood!!  Supposed to be a little cooler today and sunny, maybe muggy but who cares??  Enjoy life, it could be cold and snowing!!!

I was told yesterday’s blog was kind of rambling.  I can’t remember.  I will have to read it again.  I know that one day I lost some things that I had written but not sure if it was yesterday’s or not.  Here I go rambling again.

Went down to see Maggie again this morning.  The workload is actually pretty light.  We only have two refreshes over at the main park.  The golf cart had a low tire which I had Charlie take a look at and he aired it up.  Ended up in the afternoon Nick changed it. Back to the story, while Charlie was working on the cart I went ahead and did the two refreshes and shampooed the carpeting in one of the motel rooms.  Didn’t take long and the room won’t be rented until Friday or Saturday so it will have time to dry.

Over at the Lodge Nick and Sherry were doing rooms and I can’t remember how many there were but we started helping and Nick and Sherry quit about noon or 1PM.  They are going to work a split shift this week.  They will come back in on Thursday for a half day, give or take, to help with an over abundance of check ins and the 7 cabins that we are going to leave for them.  This is Nick’s idea and it sounds good to me.  They are going to knock them out like a well oiled machine and supply them with towels and linens which is a first for the cabins!  7 cabins would take Linda and I all day. They will do it like an assembly line.  Go for it Nick.

Had to put this picture in here, This is Dee and her 3 kids Gianna, Kedric and Jared.  This is Dee’s birthday!!!  Happy Birthday Dee!!  I won’t tell how old you are. You may not read this anyway but I will be nice..

We talked to  Daniel and Rachael today, I am going to take a couple pictures for them so they can email them to someone.  We are going to go out to eat tomorrow night, Golden Corral I think, or someplace.  They are really nice people.  Think the heat is getting the best of Daniel though. Can’t blame them, it is really hot out and humid.

Well, the evening went by pretty nice.  We did laundry and watched some TV…Linda got on me about talking with Nick.  I made her leave the office when she was talking to Maggie, then we stopped by Nick and Sherry’s for about an hour I think, Linda’s feet were starting to hurt so I had to take her home.  OK, time to quit, Bye Y’all….

Monday July 26th 2010

Well we made it through yesterday and woke up this morning!! Think it is going to be a good day!!

As usual I went down to check with Maggie about the workload. Nick and Sherry knocked out a load of rooms yesterday and we have two left over at the main park and we figured we would have time to do the cabins today also. It seemed unusual that when we started on a cabin they would rent it out, before we finished, that happened on 3 out of the 4 we cleaned!! I think the park may make a profit this year, but who am I to think that?? We got some really pleasant help from Nick and Sherry when we were cleaning one of the cabins.  The people came to look at it right after we started and they said they were going to rent it.  They needed linens. Not a big deal but for 8 people that means 8 of everything except sheets and blankets. Nick and Sherry had them all boxed up for us to take down, saved us a lot of time, like working with Nick and Sherry.. The day went well, actually went fast. Linda still worked in the laundry except when we did the cabins and she helped me there. Her eyes seemed to be normal today and we couldn’t get an appointment with the Dr. Actually couldn’t even get an answer. Oh well, will probably go to another urgent care or something.

Found another moth and I can’t remember the name of them but they are sure pretty…

This one showed up a little better on the wood compared to the siding on the Lodge, for some reason this reminds me of the Lily of the Valley in the Bible and how beautiful they are. Wonder why He would make an insect so beautiful???

OK, now for the food part.  I wanted pancakes for supper.  We brought our electric skillet from home and I made pancakes.  What a disaster.  I did something wrong not sure what it was but the first 4 or 5 stuck so bad we couldn’t scrape them off with a spatula!!!

They finally stopped sticking but the mess on our “fine china” didn’t look appetizing.  Wish we still had Bruno, he would have loved this. Oh, the electric skillet, I think it is Miracle Maid and Linda and I bought this before we were married.  He mother had a MM party and this is what we bought. Let me think now, we have been married for over a hundred years so that make it almost 39 years old.  Still works great but one handle is broken. Actually we have been married 38 years (I think) so it is a little over 38 years old, close to my age!!

We had a nice laid back evening. It is cool in the camper, probably because it is cloudy outside.  Comfortable night though.  I don’t get much out of the weather anymore, it is usually the same, hot and muggy!  I’m not complaining though, much rather have the hot muggy than the cold windy weather.

Time to get some sleep so via condios Y’all…..

Sunday July 25th 2010

Today is Sunday, seems like Monday for some reason, maybe because we were off Friday and Saturday.

I think it is supposed to be a little cooler and less humid today, it sure is nice this morning.  

Went down and talked to Maggie this morning and checked the workload. Going to be a long day.  I think there are 27 checkouts but with Nick and Sherry it will go well.

Got Linda a new eye patch.  She has been seeing double and this may help.  She doesn’t see double all the time but we are trying to see if this may help a little….

I’m lost now, I hit the back space and lost a picture and about 2 or 3 paragraphs!!  Not good!

Linda and I went to the main park to clean the motel and we, by the end of the day, finished the motel and helped with two rooms at the Lodge.  I’m not sure how many Nick and Sherry did, I don’t think I can count that high. Linda stayed in the laundry which helped immensely due to all the laundry and folding that had to be done.

On our way over to the main park after lunch we saw something in the trees so we investigated.. Turkey Buzzards…

I made a close up of this one but I can’t get it to download here…Maybe with more practice I can learn how to do it.

Went to church at Friendly Baptist again tonight and guess who I saw???

James and Janice.  They went there this morning (they are in the back) and Bob and his wife.  I don’t know her name.  Bob was one of the founders of the Baldnobbers.  He is the song leader at the church and he sings a lot of songs from the old song book that I have never heard before. Good to learn new old songs! (is that an oxymoron?) Linda wasn’t with me, so we didn’t get to go out for pizza with them at the Pizza Hut, bummer…

Well, that’s about all folks, wish I could have gotten a close up of the turkey buzzard, but I can’t figure out how to get it from my album..I will keep trying…Bye Y’all….

The above picture is the Pastor and the lady is the banjo player!  She is 92 and can play a mean banjo…

If I keep messing around I won’t be able to read this….

Saturday July 24th 2010

This month is going fast!!  Seems like just yesterday was the 23rd!!!

I will have to say that the time at home went fast but was really nice. Nice to sleep in our own bed, the central air is quiet, we can walk around without bumping into counters etc.  Just nice to be home. I was up early of course and walked around out side checking “things”. I see that one of my azalea plants made it the other nine are toast, that’s the color anyway, burnt, dried up etc.  The farmers fields look good though but they irrigate them…

 

I’m still amazed at how straight they make the rows.  I think they use the GPS, at least that is what I’ve heard.  They haven’t irrigated this yet but they put out plastic pipe and cut small holes in it every other row and flood it for a day or two.  This is pretty sandy soil so it soaks up the water pretty fast. 

About 8AM I figured I could go into town to the bank, post office, gas station and the $100 store.  Post office didn’t open until 9AM the bank didn’t open until 9AM so I went and got the oil changed in the car.  Worked out great.  They finished about 9AM and I had to take a couple pictures of this….

Car wash comes with the oil change. It is also a lot cheaper than getting it done at the dealership and they don’t wash it.

Professionals!!  They did a good job but they couldn’t figure out why I kept taking pictures, they kind of thought I might be putting out a contract on them.  I told them I put it on my blog and they figured that was cool.  I told them I would put their picture on a milk carton.  They were quite happy to do their job and even as early as it was it was HOT!!

Thought that I would take a couple of pictures of our “home”.  It isn’t much but every time I think about selling it I can’t think of any place that I would rather be especially since our place is paid for.  There are so many things I can tinker with here that I will never run out of things to do…

Not much to look at but “we have a mansion just over the hilltop”!!! Guess to go on “some day yonder we shall never more wander”.  Some people really wonder why we do what we do and it is hard to put into words, but the challenge of something new is exciting.  Meeting all the wonderful people is also a perk that is without price.  Seeing people again during travels is also a great perk.  If we stayed at home, no relatives and only a few good friends, gets tiresome.  One day we won’t be able to do this anymore and then we will stay home.  As long as I can work and enjoy working I think we will keep on doing this.  Moving along…. I finally got Linda up about 10AM and her double vision (after she got her eyes open) seemed to be gone Praise the Lord!!!  We finished getting packed up and turning off everything and got on the road about 11AM.  Had a pretty good trip back, it was already in the 90s when we left and the highest temp I saw was 95.  I think here in Branson it was almost 95, the camper was still kind of cool.

We checked with Ginny at the office to see what tomorrow was going  to be like.  It is going to be like WORK!!!  I think I counted 27 checkouts!! That would take Linda and I four days to finish.  I’m glad we work with Nick and Sherry, I feel kind of bad though that they have to carry us.  They work so much faster than we do but we can’t go any faster. Think I’m getting old.

We thought about moving the camper to a shaded area but the spot we picked has a truck parked in it and we aren’t in any hurry to move. We will wait until later in the week.  Going to take it easy tonight, had soup and sandwiches for supper and a Klondike Bar!!  The freezer doesn’t keep them frozen very good but they sure taste good!!  Have to get some sleep so I will be on top of the job tomorrow…Night Y’all…

Friday July 23rd 2010

Got up kind of early this morning. We are going to drive back to Sikeston and do a few things.  Went to visit Maggie to check the workload, even though we aren’t working, I like to see what is going on. Nick and Sherry aren’t getting a good deal, hope they ask for help!  They are a lot faster than Linda and me but there is one heck of  a lot of work.  If I had the phone or email I would call just to see how things went.

Hopefully things went better for them than for us.  Almost as soon as we left, Linda had a dizzy spell and we stopped in Springfield for gas and now she has double vision.  We got home about 3PM and I had a few things to do and Linda figured she needed to see a Dr.  We went into town and got to the Urgent Care Clinic about 450PM and they were open until 6PM. I pretty much new what they were going to say and that was she needed to see a Dr.  OK $35 for that assessment.  We will wait until we get to
Branson and try someone from Skaggs. We hear that is an excellent hospital.  Guess I don’t have much faith in the Drs around Sikeston.

Well, to finish up a few things here, I did a little trimming, me an Mighty Mac!!

This is a tree in our backyard.  The suckers really grow fast.

Mighty Mac did a pretty good job on those little suckers!!

This tree even grows mushrooms!

This is our pecan tree.  It will have a few pecans this year.  The small one still hasn’t produced anything yet.

Not much going on tonight, we didn’t get to town in time to get the mail etc. Will have things to do tomorrow for sure.  We still need to get back to Branson then we will have to find a Dr there to see Linda. Lots of things to do and a short time to do it…Got to go, Bye Y’all…

Thursday July 22nd 2010

Today is our Friday!!!  Have two days off starting tomorrow which is Friday and Saturday.. We plan on going back to Sikeston (home) to get our mail and do a few things that need to be done and look at things that should be done but won’t get done.  Sounds exciting huh???  This will probably be our last time home until we finish work the last of August.  Time is going pretty fast.

Have another picture of Karen working her magic with the flowers… 

This picture doesn’t really do justice to the flowers, they are really beautiful and a great cover for the dumpster that I kept out of the picture.

Work!!!  When we got our sheet it looked like a pretty easy day. Something we could get done before quitting time anyway. We cleaned one room at the Lodge (pictured above) then went over to the main park to do a turn around.  Things were going pretty good until I notice the air conditioner running in another room, that is a no no!  I called the office and they said “yes, it is occupied” so that means we have to do a refresh, and I told them it wasn’t on our work sheet. Well, come to find our there was a lot of things left off our worksheet, bummer!  We had some interruptions during our morning so we were a little later than usual. Then with the other things we decided to work through lunch and quit early. Linda got to quit early and I went and cleaned the last cabin at 3:50PM and finished about 4:45PM.  We got most of the laundry done at the main park and Johnny finished the laundry at the Lodge.  I think Nick and Sherry will have a rough day tomorrow, sounds like a lot to do.

 

Tonight was our “mandatory” pot luck, Linda fixed her fajitas and I fixed the fried potatoes and onions. Linda’s fajitas were gone and I had a few fried potatoes left so we will take them with us tomorrow when we go home. I did take a few pictures of the MPL (mandatory pot luck)

The little girl in the above picture sat across from Linda and I and she was quite a little girl.  I know she is Susan’s grand daughter but I don’t know what her name is.  We actually did quite a bit of talking.  She definitely wasn’t bashful.  She said I teased like her grandpa Bubba, not his real name but he likes Bubba!!!

Nothing special about this picture, Don on he left is one of the cooks, very nice, and his wife Carol, who isn’t in the picture worked with us a couple of days on house keeping.  They are very good workers.

This is MY plate!!  Where to start???  The thing on top is a steak, the thing in the front of the plate is fried spam, to the left is chicken lasagna, the thing under the steak is a kabob, you can’t see the salad but I do have a lettuce salad under all that plus tomatoes and fruit.  I couldn’t go back for seconds.  There sure are some good cooks here.  Some people don’t like fried spam but I thought it was delicious! Guess there aren’t many things I don’t like.

Well after eating all that it was time to go home and relax, it was late and we were tired before we went over to the MPL.  We didn’t stay up very long.  Want to be rested for tomorrow so I will say adios Y’all…..

Wednesday July 21st 2010

Today is supposed to be a little cooler, not much but a little. So much for the weather forecast.

The front desk person, Ginny Mac, not her name, is at the front desk until 10AM so I went down to check the workload.  Not bad for today. Johnny Mac is working also and I like Johnny Mac, he is willing to do anything and keeps working until it is done.  Linda and I take care of the cleaning and he does the running and the odd jobs.  We had a couple checkouts and a couple refreshes and some arrivals.  We finished pretty early so I got the carpet shampooer out and shampooed room #111 at the Lodge.  For some reason the room smells like burnt rubber.  Smells like a vacuum cleaner belt that is slipping.  The smell persisted even after the shampoo but the carpet looked nicer.  I put the dehumidifier in the room to help dry the carpet a little and maybe it will help take some of the odor out also.

We finished the laundry at both parks and by that time it was almost 5PM, quitting time!

Today I get to try out the camp stove, going to fry sausage and eggs.  After a little help from Nick I got it lit and it seems to work fine.  Then, I was going to fry some chicken for Linda’s fajitas, that is when the trouble began. I couldn’t get the stove to light again.  I couldn’t get any gas to the burner. After about a half hour trying everything I could think of I finally took the chicken inside, boxed up the stove and parts and took it back to Wal Mart.  Got my money back and decided our stove in the camper will work fine for today and tomorrow.

Guess what?  It’s Wednesday!  I was so into that little stove I forgot it was Wednesday, church night! If you want to know the truth, this is Thursday morning and I just remembered it!  A little slow??  Maybe that is why the stove didn’t work?? Guess I will never know for sure.

Tomorrow night is the pot luck “mandatory”.  Hopefully we will get our stuff done in time to go eat.  Linda is making the fajitas and I will fry some taters and onions.  Going to be hot in here.  By the time we get back it should be cool again.

Hopefully Friday we will be able to go back to Sikeston (home) for a day and get our mail and mow the lawn etc.  I really don’t have a good picture to put on here but I think I will put one of our awning.  I put it down before we went back to work at noon.

This is a close up picture of the dark stripe on our awning and if you look close you can see bubbles.  Not supposed to be bubbles on the fabric. I may have to see about that.  By the time we left the bubbles were almost gone.  Wonder what is making the fabric bubble, maybe the heat?  It was rolled up at the time, I had just unrolled it and I thought it was drops of water. This only happened on the dark blue stripe.  Enough rambling, Linda worked quite awhile tonight getting the chicken and stuff ready, and I watched TV!  Going to get some sleep tonight so, so long Y’all…