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| August, 2007 |
July 30 to August 5
Monday, July 30. Our last day of work - YEAH!! Last night, we went to Ben and Jill's for dinner and what a wonderful treat that was! Ben fixed a beef brisket and we had coleslaw and a wonderful peach and blueberry cobbler for dessert.
After dinner we watched Michael Moore's latest movie, Sicko, about the health care problems the United States is facing. What a depressing topic that is, and we see it everywhere we turn. It's so unfortunate that politics in this country has to get in the way of accomplishing anything to benefit our citizens. Its also unfortunate that people have to struggle and worry about the basic necessities like healthcare and education. It kind of makes be embarrassed for our country. It also makes me sad to think of how stressed and sad many people are because of having to worry about that.
Needless to say, the late night got the best of us today. At dinner, we were both exhausted and will probably go to bed early tonight. I'm ready now and it is only 7:20.
Thursday, July 31. We've been so busy the last 3 days, this is the first chance I've had to sit down and write. Tuesday, I had appointments with the eye doctor and picked out some new frames that are, unfortunately, on back order for 3 weeks. Oh well, I'm in no rush. In the afternoon, I went to Sublime for a haircut by my favorite stylist, Jill. My hair is finally grown out from being cut around the ears - this is the 1st time in many, many years.
Wednesday was spent doing chores around the house; cleaning, laundry, and some outside maintenance to help keep the rust from eating away this RV.
Today was a fun day. We met up with Roland and Mary, drove to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Station at Colma, took the high speed rail train to the Powell Street Station in San Francisco. From there we walked along Market Street, stopped at a few shops, and browsed some of the street vendor's wares. From there, we took one of the historic street cars down Market Street and the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. We were packed in like sardines and it was standing room only.
At Fisherman's Wharf, we went to Dante's Seafood Restaurant and had some lunch, then strolled along the wharf and stopped at some of the shops. We repeated the trip back to Pacifica.
Ben and Ruby joined us this evening and we had some chicken tacos for dinner and a pleasant visit.
Saturday, August 4. Back to work again, with only 6 more shifts to go after this one. The boss will be on vacation for the next week, so we're on our own and working split shifts to cover the days. Its getting a lot harder, as people are complaining about the sites they are put in, the size of the sites, the closeness of their neighbors, the cost, the trash, the dirty facilities, or the mistakes made by us or the call center. Its really hard to deal with at times and very unfortunate that a small percentage of people make it so difficult. The majority are good people who appreciate having a place to stay that is so convenient for getting to the city. The park is old and run down, though. We describe it as a parking lot with a view.
Last night, someone vandalized the mens bathroom in the Club House - they broke the shower caps off, cut a gas line to the water heater, tore out the mechanics of the toilets, and jammed the locks on the bathroom and pool doors. That is kind of scary and I haven't felt unsafe here until now. The Pacifica police came by to investigate. The management seems to think that it is done by the people that we replaced who are still in the park. Its hard telling but it seems like someone is trying to make it difficult for the management.
Sunday, August 5. Today was a good day at work. No complainers, only appreciative folks. We went above and beyond when a family from the Netherlands could not print their ticket confirmation for a visit to Alcatraz. While I was on break, Mike sent them to our motorhome to print out their confirmation (we're not allowed to do those things in the office). I was able to have a very nice conversation with the father and his son while we waited for their stuff to print.
Tonight, we watched a very good movie, the Lackawanna Blues, a very good story of a woman who built a community and circumvented segregation in her own determined way. She also raised a foster son from the time he was a young child. She was an incredible woman who had a rooming house and took in many wayward people who all became linked as family through the years. We both thought it was an excellent movie that showed the heartbreaks and joys of life. Highly recommended to all of our readers.
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August 6 - 12
Monday, August 6. It was another day from he*! at work, I wonder if its a full moon - we haven't seen it for some time because of the fog.
This evening was very nice, though. Jill's brother Casey is in town for a few days, so we all went to Sushi Bistro for dinner tonight. It was very enjoyable and the food was delicious. We sampled several different types of sushi and had a couple of cooked items. It was nice to see Casey again, he is recovering from his brain surgery and radiation treatment.
Tuesday, August 7. Our last workday of the shift turned out to be trouble free and we only had kind, nice, appreciative folks to check in. The job really is enjoyable when you don't have to deal with complainers. People we work with say that the trend is getting worse as far as people being courteous and pleasant.
Another real plus to today is that we saw the sunshine for the first of many days. It sure does make it easier to cope.
Friday, August 10. Our time off from work this week has been spent mostly just hanging out and taking care of chores around the house. We completed the cleaning and rust protection on all of the storage bins and the exhaust pipes.
Today we drove the 90-mile distance to Sacramento, where we visited the Towe Auto Museum after reading an article in RV Travel about an exhibit of historic RVs there. It was well worth the drive, as the museum layout took you on a walk through automobile history in this country. The collection was beautiful and the displays were nicely arranged. We really enjoyed the RV exhibit that included a couple of motorhomes and several trailers dating from the 1930s.
After touring the museum, we went to Sacramento's Old Town where we had some lunch at a Mexican Restaurant and walked the wooden streets of the historic riverfront area.
The traffic heading back west wasn't too bad - we kind of expected worse because it was rush hour when we left. Fortunately, the traffic heading east was much worse. In fact, it seemed to be at a crawl for most of the 90 mile drive. It was pretty slow going across the bay bridge - the recent news about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis didn't make for a comfortable feeling. I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with that on a regular basis.
Sunday, August 12. Back to work day. On Sundays we usually have a mass exodus, and today was no different - there were 50 guests leaving the park and 30 coming in.
This evening, Ben came over to watch the 1st two episodes of the 1st season of "Weeds" that Mike recently got for us. Since he didn't burn it onto discs, we started watching from my computer and it wasn't loud enough. Mike then hooked up some speakers and it still wasn't loud enough. He then tried to use the motorhome speakers and that crackled and made lots of noise. We finally ended up watching it on his Mac laptop and it worked. What a fiasco.
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August 13-19
Monday, August 13. I got a bit of a scare when I went in to work this morning. The manager informed me that his vacation starts tomorrow and the assistant manager is not back from her vacation yet, so we may have to run the show until she gets back. Fortunately for us, she made it back this afternoon, so we are off the hook in that sense. The day wasn't bad.
We were both very tired tonight, so went to bed pretty early.
Wednesday, August 15. We survived another work shift and now have only 5 to go. We're really looking forward to heading for a different part of the country and learning about a new area. We've come to be quite comfortable here, but its time to move on.
Friday, August 17. The last 2 days have been so enjoyable. Yesterday, we walked to the nearby shopping center to set up an appointment to have the front tire on the motorhome checked (it was damaged while crossing the Golden Gate Bridge a few weeks ago), purchase stamps, and pick up some steaks for dinner.
Later on, we walked to the eye doctor's office to check on the frames that I ordered. I had recently found the exact frame online for $68 and they were going to charge me $200. I wanted to see why the big difference and make sure they are the ones I wanted. The price difference was a result of an error on their part - and I would be able to get them for a much more reasonable price, although a little more than what I could get them online.
In the evening, Ben brought Ruby over, as we will be keeping her for the weekend while they go up north to celebrate Jill's birthday. We had some steaks that were delicious - and a nice visit too.
Today started out sunny, a rather unusual occurrence for Pacifica. We got busy first thing and disconnected the motorhome and took it to have the tire checked - all is well and no damage done by the mishap on the bridge. Mike found that he could get it in for an oil change, so that was the next stop. While he did that, Ruby and I went to the beach to play. I found 3 pieces of beach glass and a very worn shark's tooth.
After getting the motorhome setup again, we just proceeded to enjoy the day; reading, being outside, visiting folks in the park, and washing the car. It was a beautiful day.
Big news! Mike's brother Dan called this afternoon to let us know that their daughter (our niece) Rachel delivered her baby in the van on the way to the hospital this morning. Later this evening, we heard that mom, dad, and baby Brian are all doing well and hopefully, are able to rest this evening. What a day!
Sunday, August 19. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAT! I will never forget the bumpy ride to the hospital and the day we waited for his arrival. What a great guy he's turned out to be too.
Yesterday was another beautiful day, waking to sunshine and comfortably warm most of the day. I went to a few garage sales with Mary this morning - didn't find much other a a nice ball for Ruby to play with.
In the afternoon, we played at the beach and took some videos of Ruby. She could play for hours and hours and never tire of it. It was a fun day - lots of people hanging out and visiting in the park. Ben and Jill picked Ruby up later in the afternoon and stayed to visit for a while. We dragged out the grill and cooked up a yummy pork tenderloin for dinner.
I should mention something about Fred, the red beta fish. He's becoming more and more friendly all of the time. Whenever we sit at the table he faces us and becomes real active and playful. Mike has him taking food from his fingertips, at times giving him a morsel of meat that we might have for dinner. Its not like having a dog or cat, but he does provide entertainment and another living thing in the household.
Monday, August 20. Happy Birthday, Mom & Jill! It's back to work day for us - a busy one, but not bad. After work, Dorothy and Jack stopped by for a c*!ktail and we chatted for a while.
Thursday, August 23. Happy Birthday, Mike! Hard to believe that its his 60th, but quite a milestone and it helps that we are in good health and doing just what we want to do with our lives. It is the last day of our work week and that's something to celebrate too.
Tonight, Dorothy and Gary took all of the workcampers to a local Italian restaurant for dinner - to celebrate Becky and Carl's leaving (they move on to Florida on the 28th), Rowland and Mary leave on September 10, and Mike and I leave on September 25. We all had wine and a great dinner, sang Happy Birthday to Mike, and had nice conversation and lots of laughs. After dinner, the server came out with a nice piece of Tiramisu for Mike.
When we got back home, we noticed a very large 45' motorhome and at least a 25' trailer, parked very poorly in the space directly across from us. He was so badly parked that his trailer was angled across the car parking space of the site next to him, Dorothy's space (check out the photo to see his poor park job). She was very upset and drove her car over the curb in order to park it.
The next morning when he registered, he was very rude, pounding his hand on the counter, and throwing his weight around, threatening a call to the governor. Since our park doesn't have a site big enough for him, they sent him on to another park. They may have found a way to keep him in our park if he had been nice about it. Where do these people come from? We sure do see a lot of it, especially coming from those that think they should get special treatment because they have a big, expensive RV.
Friday, August 24. It felt so good to sleep in this morning. After a leisurely start to the day, I did the laundry and then we ran a few errands. Last week, Mike met a man who was checking in, that spent the winters in Sayulita, Mexico for the past 9 years. We invited him over to share some of his very interesting stories about the experience. Had a nice visit and enjoyed his stories.
Later in the afternoon, we were invited to have *bleep*tails with Tom and Candace, a couple that we met at the park and shared a table with at Alice's Restaurant a few weeks ago. It was a really nice time with their family and a friend; we had great conversation and lots of laughs.
Sunday, August 26. Today was a wonderful day, spent hanging out with Ben and Ruby, then later in the day, we joined up with Jill. We started by driving south to Alice's Restaurant where we sat on the porch and had a great breakfast.
From there, we drove to the Thornewood Open Space Preserve where we walked through the woods to the small Shilling Lake. Unfortunately, the lake was covered with algae so it wasn't real pretty. We sat and relaxed and enjoyed the quiet of the woods and the nice feeling of being away from the city.
On the way back, we drove through Pescadero and along Stage Rd. to the place where Mike and I had discovered some strange metal skeleton sculptures along the roadside, knowing that Ben would be interested in seeing them. The views along the country roads are beautiful.
This evening, we joined up with Jill at their apartment. We walked to Pacific Cafe for dinner to celebrate Mike and Jill's birthdays. Once again the dinner was delicious but we were slightly disappointed that they were out of the Parmesan Crusted Halibut that we all just love.
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August 27 - 31
Wednesday, August 29. We spent part of Monday going through stuff our storage compartments and cleaning out stuff that isn't worn or used. The result was 4 grocery bags and 1 box of stuff that we donated to Goodwill. It always feels good to lighten the load a bit.
We've been talking about getting a dog and looking at rescues again. Its difficult to decide on a breed - we both really like Ruby and all of the Corgi's that we have met. We know that we don't want a large dog or a little yapper. Mike has always wanted to have a bull dog and he spotted a young bull terrier on one of the local rescue websites. I'm not real fond of the breed because of their assumed relationship to pit bulls and other terriers. I agreed to meet the little guy, but we haven't heard back for the person for 3 days.
A discussion with Ben and Jill on Sunday led to Jill's e-mail inquiry to the person that they got Ruby from. They have a 3 year old Corgi available but are asking $700 for her - and that is just too much money. I've also sent an application to the local Corgi rescue group. So the hunt will continue until, hopefully, just the right dog comes along.
The way we see it, the positives of having a dog are the companionship, the security, the playfulness, and the fact that they encourage us to stay active. They also make it real easy to meet people and start up conversations with strangers. On the negative side - shedding, cleaning up after them, being forced to go outdoors in all kinds of weather, vet bills, sharing our small space, and having to make arrangements when we want to be away for longer than a few hours.
Friday, August 31. It's hard to believe that the end of August is here already. Today is the last day of our work week and it has been pretty quiet. That will not continue today, as we are expecting 45 arrivals for Labor Day weekend.
The weather has been gorgeous, as we have woken to beautiful sunrises this week, the days have been warm, and the sunsets have been spectacular. I should have had the camera with me last night, as the sun was going down there was a vibrant streak of yellow on the water, the water itself was a beautiful aqua color, and the horizon was many shades of pink, yellow, and orange. I'm sure there will be others and I will try to capture them digitally.
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Created on 08/05/2007 10:09 PM by bridge
Updated on 09/03/2007 09:43 PM by bridge
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