Saturday, March 30, 2013

'13/#8 Seriously

Today's blog is going to be on a serious topic. Certain issues have come to my attention in the past week that I feel are important enough to share with you. A dear friend of ours passed away recently and  along with all the usual issues that her husband is dealing with more have come to our attention. In this digital age there are so many privacy concerns that we don't realize the difficulties that protecting our privacy may cause.

In our extremely mobile RV community as, well as other groups, we rely on social networks and other digital communications to keep in touch. Since this tragic event we have kept in touch and offered support to our friend's surviving spouse. The problem here is the survivor's inability to keep in touch because he either doesn't know how or doesn't have access to user IDs and/or passwords for the deceased's assorted accounts. We have heard through the digital grapevine that he has received everyone's condolences. I worry that on top of his suffering caused by the loss of his spouse that he may feel bad about not being able to reply to the outpouring of sympathy. Please know that all your friends know how you feel and don't need confirmation that our condolences were received.

My point here is that our user IDs and passwords, as private as we wish them to be, need to be shared to some extent. Mary and I have total access to each others e-mail and Facebook accounts. That is what we consider the trust in our marriage. It is not trusting the content of these accounts to each other. It is trusting that the information is still private even if we have access to it. In other words, even though I can read Mary's e-mail she knows that I won't unless she wants me to and the other way around. We both know that this trust will never be abused and feel better knowing that the information is available if needed.

We all make sure that wills are made, bank accounts are entrusted to a second signer, and property is not going into probate so why wouldn't we make sure our digital footprint is in the care of someone we trust. There is too much information there to just leave it floating in cyber space. Just something to think about.

I will sign off now from our somber home here in the forest because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

Monday, March 25, 2013

'13/#7 Does A Bear Poop In The Woods?

Here we are in Alexander Springs and after almost five weeks we are getting into a rhythm. We are getting our routine down down to the point that the job is becoming not so much work as time killed. The excitement level is kept to a minimum by the peacefulness of the forest. The other jobs around the park are offering us a little extra work accompanied by extra pay with not too much effort.

Now don't get me wrong, it isn't boring here by any means. We have days where we are overrun with guests and we feel like one armed wallpaper hangers. There are other days that our managers are called to another park and we have to work short handed. Our group is awesome as everyone steps up when needed which makes it nice to work here. Today we had a problem in our park. It seems that the septic system here is having issues so we had to shut down most of the bathrooms. Now when someone asks "does a bear poop in the woods?" we say yes and the bear is the only one who can! LOL!

It is going to be fun trying to direct all the campers we have on site to the two bathrooms that are open. On the positive side we live in an RV with holding tanks and can go several days to a week without sewer hook-ups. Hopefully the problem will be fixed before that becomes an issue. There is talk about "port-a-pottys" and sewer pump trucks in our future but that won't be until tomorrow at the earliest.

Well that is all for now from our home with working shower and toilet here in Alexander Springs because.......

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

Sunday, March 17, 2013

'13/#6 It's Becoming Home

We are getting into a routine here in the "Springs". The people we work with are really great and we are making some good friends. The weather is getting warmer and we are looking forward to checking out the springs.

Like I said in the last blog we aren't near anything so we haven't been anywhere. One of our very good friends was in town visiting her parents and we got together for lunch. It was nice to see Terri and her son Jeff. The past year or so we seem to always be headed in opposite directions so it was good to see them. Terri's parents and her in-laws both live in The Villages here in Florida so they will be down here more often. It will be good to see Terri and her husband Bob a little more regularly.

Speaking of The Villages, if you have never heard of The Villages, it is a retirement community....no, no, no....it is the retirement community. With 92,000 residents in almost 6 square miles, every form of shopping, restaurants, golf courses, tennis, and more than I can mention it is a world unto itself. It could be a small state. The second most popular form of transportation after cars is golf carts. There are golf cart dealers, golf cart service centers, and of course reserved golf cart parking everywhere. I just hope the people who are driving these carts are not doing so because they cant drive real cars.

Well I will sign off for now from our home in Alexander Springs because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary