'13/#13 I've Got To Blog More Often!

I keep wanting to blog but I am so tired I fall asleep before I can turn the computer on. And when I do get on line my brain fails me and I can't think of anything to say. Well here goes another try. I have been working full time here in Zephyrhills while Mary has been in the office part time training. I know I am supposed to be retired but there is a plan. Last year has thrown us a few curve balls and we want to take care of everything before we hit the road again. We want to spend more time with the kids and grandkids, we had a few bills pop up unexpectedly, and I have been dreaming about a new truck. We calculated that if we stay still for a few years all will be taken care of before we head out on the road which we plan to take us out to the west coast. A new truck would be real nice for that!

The company we hooked up with here in Zephyrhills is awesome. They pay decent, they care about their employees, and the location is ideal for us. Yes, I am working a little harder than I had planned but I am outside and enjoying the fresh air. I am actually getting used to the work and the Florida heat and feel pretty good at the end of the day. We are looking forward to the winter residents arriving at the end of the summer.

Like I said, we want to spend more time with family and we have. We have been over to Pinellas County almost every weekend since we arrived here in Pasco County. We love seeing everyone and being able to share birthdays with the summertime birthday celebrants. We missed those summer birthdays while we were traveling. Apparently we were missed too because having Grandmommy and Granddaddy around is making the birthdays special also.

As far as the new truck that will come once the bills are paid. At lot of people might say "why didn't you just stay at the PO instead of working after retirement". My answer to that is, we are still retired and have had some wonderful adventures we wouldn't have had if we had stayed at the PO. Also this work is not a career move, it is a job. When it has fulfilled our needs we will move on. That is the joy of workcamping. We only work when we want or need to and the rest of the time is ours. Once the bills are gone and my butt is in a new truck on my financial terms we will concentrate on traveling again. Now is the time to work and travel so that we won't have to work as much  as we get older.

We are heading to Pinellas for another birthday this weekend and then we will go to the east coast to see the uncles in the next few weeks. After that we plan to sit still for a little while. This much traveling, in our big truck, with the price of diesel has put a dent in the old wallet. $200 in the tank this week and probably again after our trip to the east coast. If I don't stop burning diesel how am I going to get that new truck! You can see where my priorities are.

Well I think this actually going to get posted before I take a nap. So this is goodbye from our home here in Zephyrhills because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'13/#12 A New Home, A New Adventure

We are no longer in Alexander Springs. As much as we liked the area and had made some awesome friends, management was making living and working there intolerable. We found a new RV park with better jobs, better pay, and what seems to be competent management. On top of that we are almost 2 hours closer to the kids and grandkids, and at least an hour closer to the uncles on the east coast. As a bonus we don't have to travel 45 minutes each way just to get a gallon of milk. It is a win, win, win all the way around. Our new home is closer to civilization so we can get satellite TV, make cell phone calls, and connect to the internet. It's nice to be away from it all sometimes, but then you start to miss it all and want it back.

Mary will be working in the office doing all that is implied by that. Phone calls, computer billing and reservations, and anything else that is involved. I will be working in maintenance. For now that is grounds keeping. I run the lawn tractor, weed whacker, and generally keep the place looking nice. I'm sure there will be more once I get familiar with the park and all the amenities.

We are pretty much settled in so we decided to do a little spring cleaning. RVers live by the "one in, one out" rule to keep the rig's weight down. I always joke that Mary follows that rule....when she buys herself one thing one of mine gets thrown out. Well it appears that Mary has not followed the rule at all. After going through the closets I got rid of one sport coat and a denim jacket. Mary filled 3, YES 3, large trash bags with stuff she hasn't worn in a while, won't ever wear again, or has never worn in the first place. That doesn't count another bag of stuff that we will be passing on to the grandkids. We now have 30 extra empty hangers to store. At least they don't take as much space as full hangers. When the rain stops I will load the truck (hopefully only one trip) and head to the dumpster or Goodwill. I can talk now but the next spring cleaning project will be the garage. That is when Mary will be able to talk bad about my pack rat habits.

Well it looks like the rain is letting up so I will sign off and go load the truck. I also have to find the nearest Goodwill drop off since we are new to the area. So this good bye for now from our new home here in Zephyrhills Florida because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'13/#11 Frustration!

We work with some great people but as usual there are always a few that ruin a good situation. Also not surprising the duds are the ones in charge. Here in the "springs" we are service oriented employees. We try to make the guest's experience the best it can be by making the campground and day use areas as clean and pleasant to use as possible. It appears that we have been successful based on the comment cards we are receiving. Even our supervisors are telling us we are doing a great job. So why are they changing the way we do our jobs?

Our jobs have a policy that states that it is the responsibility of the employee manage hours. Then the supervisor tells us how to manage our hours. How does one manage hours while being micro-managed? Just goes to show that the Post Office isn't the only company screwed up by management yet is still operated successfully by the employees in spite of that management. AL&L has one major difference from the Post Office. Employees will put up with a lot for enough pay and benefits whereas AL&L pays minimum wage and no benefits. That may be why this park has had 5- 6 sets of managers over the past TWO years. Heck, if you figure the hours managers put in based on their salary they are getting a lot less than minimum wage. We are happy to be lowly camp hosts at an hourly wage with a lot less headaches.

On another subject we got to see all the kids this past week. Everyone is doing great and is was fun to see them. It was a welcome break from the insanity that was Memorial Day Weekend at the springs. The park was so crowded that we had to close the gates at 10:30am all 3 days of the holiday weekend. Then there was the mess that comes with large groups of people in small areas at one time. I won't go into details for those of you who may be squeamish but the restrooms/showers need extra attention.

Well that is enough for now so I will sign off from our home here in Alexander Springs because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

'13/#10 Interesting Neighbors

We have been here in the Ocala National Forest just about 3 months. I talk about our little piece of paradise with all the natural beauty that surrounds us. But I am ashamed to say that I haven't taken any pictures to share. This morning Mary called me in what sounded like a panicked voice. I ran and instead of panic I found excitement. She pointed out the window and I ran for my camera. This is what was outside our window. And then it was gone. I am now motivated to take the camera with me and take as many pictures as I can. They may not be as spectacular as these but you will see the beauty that is Alexander Springs.

We have some interesting weather lately. It has gone from hot to chilly, sunny to overcast, rain and hail, and at least several severe weather warnings with at least one confirmed tornado in the area. Toss in the "controlled burn" by the Forest Service and you can imagine that we are kept on our toes. Not only are we concerned about us and our rig there are our coworkers and all the campers that have to be warned about the dangers. Never a dull moment at the springs!

Last week we went to Stuart to see the uncles and had a great visit. This is the first time we didn't have the rig with us. They had an inflatable bed which turned out to be very comfortable. We talk and laughed and ate and had an early birthday celebration before we had to leave. We are not that far away from them so Mary feels good about being able to see them more often. I think they are just as glad as we are about this.

Well I will end this now and make sure
my camera is all ready to take more pictures around our home her in Alexander Springs because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary

"13/#9 Still Here In The Forest

Not a whole lot to report. We are still here in the Ocala National Forest at beautiful Alexander Springs. Our work has become a routine that is letting us relax. The days consist of a few hours of medium to hard work with the rest of the day left to ourselves. Friday we finally took one of the canoes out. We didn't go far since it has been years since our last time in a canoe. A little farther each outing and in no time it will be easier for us to be out all day to do some real exploring.

Most of you know that we are staying in Florida so we can be near our family for a while. Last week we went back to Pinellas County and got to meet up with a bunch of people. We spent some time with good friends before they head back north. There was a fun dinner out with Jess and Jim. Then we went out to breakfast with our friends Alice and Larry and our youngest son Charlie. As much as we enjoyed all that we still looked forward to later that day.

Our daughter Rachel just bought herself a new home and we got to help her move in. It makes us proud to see her make a life for her and our grandkids. After the kids got home from school we helped them get their rooms set up. They are excited about us being able to visit more often and are already talking about whose room we will sleep in when we visit. I think we are even more excited about our future visits than they are.

In the next few weeks we will be visiting the uncles in Stuart. They are more excited than the grandkids about us being close enough to visit often. It will be good to see them and I know Mary will feel better knowing she can check in on them more often.

Well this is so long from our home in the forest because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

'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

'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