Sunday July 3rd thru Saturday July 9th 2022
Sunday morning of the long weekend and it’s raining, not a light rain, no this is more of a drenching down pour, that will end up lasting most of the day, and by ten o’clock there is a steady stream of rigs leaving the park. Miss Laurie is in the store from 8:30 to 3:30, seven hours with no breaks, and no help to cover a lunch break. And with the rain and the departures of the people pulling out she will not be busy, but I’m pretty sure she will be bored. After catching up on the local news Mr. Sam and I headed back to bed for a dreary Sunday morning nap, I’m still working on trying to prefect this whole nap thing.
Mr. Sam looking at the slimy mess left from a slug that had obviously tried to escape the downpour, it had climbed up the screen on the Clam between the wall and the screen.
Black slugs, also known as red or chocolate slugs, are native to Europe and have been introduced to many countries through human activity. This slug has been well established in British Columbia since the 1940s and is common throughout Southern BC.
This slug is omnivorous, feeding on living and dead plants, rotting organic matter, and even other slugs. Its broad diet makes it a common pest in gardens, parks, and crops. Black slugs are considered a threat to sensitive Garry oak ecosystems in Southern Vancouver Island, and are known to graze on several plants at risk including deltoid balsamroot and yellow montane violet.
According to the parks latest newsletter, there was to be a food truck at the park this holiday weekend, well it had not showed up, well that was until noon on the Sunday of a holiday Friday long weekend. Now I suspect that next they will complain about poor sales, but I suspect they had better offers for the holiday, which would shout to me “I’m only here because I don’t have a better offer right now”. But that seems to be a bit of a Vancouver Island attitude, everyone here seems to have more than some attitude, or at least that has been my findings so far, maybe it is just because we are outsiders.
My work shift today was reasonably uneventful, so I spent more time this evening working on shop projects, to night was building a new ramp to the campground store, the old one had deteriorated to the stage that someone fell through the ramp itself. So that along with my regular close up and security, and rebuilding one picnic table kept me occupied till my eleven o’clock finish.
Monday and I slept in today, it was near eight o’clock before I made it to the galley for a coffee, catching up the television news to see what the rest of the world is up to. And then realizing that there is a lot of stupid shyt happening in the world, and while it bothers me tremendously, I’m trying very hard to avoid falling into a full on rant. Miss Laurie is working in the office today, and I’m playing catch up on my blogs, while Mr. Sam and I spend some time in the Clam, and while I did not have an adult beverage there could have been a small nap in the anti-gravity chair.
I did spend some time getting ready to take the toad into the body shop later this week, getting everything gathered up, that will be part of the accident claim, most of the tow-bar has been damaged and will need to be replaced, time will tell if they have an understanding of a vehicle that is being towed behind a coach. Today is my last afternoon shift for this week, so it is like my Friday, and as I prepare to head to the work shop I wonder what will be the issue of importance today, as the head of the ownership is in the park today, in fact he is staying overnight in the rental RV so everyone seems to be concerned for what ever reason.
I find that the priority is still picnic tables so after I install the new ramp to the store, I head back to the shop to work on putting together some new picnic tables, and other that the pool and clubhouse closing as well as my regular security checks I spend the evening assembling three more picnic table to replace some of the ones that need to be rebuilt. But by ten o’clock I’m out of space to put tables so I just take a slow security round of the whole park to ensure there will be no issues later, before clocking out for this week.
Tuesday morning and because it is my day off I seem to be awake way too early, but Mr. Sam and I spend some quality time as I recline in my chair, Miss Laurie has an earlier day today so she will be up shortly, and if I tried to get back to sleep, I would miss our morning time, with the whole being on opposite shift from each other and I do miss our evenings together, a lot more that I miss any of the television shows.
Today I gathered up all the damaged part from my collision in Arizona, as I’m going to a auto body repair shop in Duncan to see if they can repair the toad, as I discovered, I need to book an appointment, so the next appointment was Thursday morning. It is a large shop, but looks clean and neat, too often you just become a claim number in the big shops as opposed to an actual customer, but we will see how it works out. The rest of the day was spent just enjoying a day of with Mr. Sam in the Clam watching the birds till Miss Laurie made it home, Then some dinner and some catching up on YouTube videos.
Wednesday morning and again I was up and awake way too early, but instead of trying to get back to sleep, I just decided to stay up and listen to the end of my most recent audiobook another Michael Connelly book this one is part of the “Lincoln Lawyer” series that is streaming on Netflix. So I popped in my ear buds and kicked back in my recliner to listen to the last few chapters. I have a couple of new books downloaded already, that I’m looking forward to, they are a long way from my normal who dunit? Kind of novel, but more on that as the week rolls on. Mr. Sam who is feeling much better curled up on my lap for an hour nap, while allowing me to continue to pet him as I listened.
We need to go back to Nanaimo today to drop off Mr. Sam’s urine sample to the vet clinic for his surgery next week, so we had planned to visit a recommended beach at Parksville, just a miles further up the road, and we all know Miss Laurie likes a good beach, but we seem to have moved back into monsoon season here on Vancouver Island, so we decided to visit a smaller beach just north of Ladysmith on our way back.
But first we were going into Ladysmith to a recommended bakery the “Old Town Bakery” but we were late getting there and the baked good seemed very picked over, we settled on a butter tart for myself and a Nanaimo bar for Miss Laurie.
We had heard their cinnamon buns were excellent, but there were none left when we got there, we did take the pastries to the beach to enjoy while taking in the beauty of the area, but as you can see my butter tart was all crust, and quite honestly it was not even a very good crust. This will definitely not be a re-do any time soon on the butter tart, but below are some of the photos from todays beach.
Thursday morning and everyone in the coach is up early, a coffee and a bacon & tomato sandwich before I head out the door, I’m headed to a auto body shop in Duncan this morning, to get the ball rolling on the accident repair from our collision in Arizona back in March. The shop is part of a chain of shops and I have always preferred the smaller mom & pop shops, but this shop was mentioned by a couple of people here at the park. Because this repair involves the towing system I’m reserving judgment until I actually speak to someone there, as I just have an appointment to speak with them at this point.
I was back from my appointment before ten o’clock, my feelings are very mixed, I guess being from out of Province seems to be causing an issue, but that can be just because it is a different process than normal, as this Province has it’s own insurance coverage, which means that everyone gets basic insurance with their vehicle license plate renewal every year, then they can increase coverage by purchasing additional insurance, while in our home Province licensing and insurance coverage are totally separate. So now I’m just waiting for them to get back to me. and I will take it from there, the shop did tell me that they are booking into August which is not an issue as we are here till the first of October.
As I pulled back into the campground I was greeted by this doe just wandering across the entrance lawn, we have not seen very much wildlife in British Columbia yet, at least not to the extent that I had expected we would. But one of Miss Laurie’s tasks is spraying the planters with deer repellent so we have to assume there are lots around.
Friday and it’s back to work for me as I’m on the dayshift today, so I start by unlocking and opening the clubhouse before heading to the pool, and by nine o’clock the pool is vacuumed and ready for guests, I head back to the work shop as Bruce heads to the office for todays list of priorities. Now when I last worked “picnic tables” were the priority, but that is always a moving target here, and to no ones surprise todays priorities are a warped 2X4, some broken tiles in the showers, and the replacement of all the recycling bins, plus other Bruce projects. While I was waiting I laid out more picnic table boards and had one side painted when the new list arrived with Bruce.
The warped 2X4 was being used to support an internet antenna it was just an unpainted eight foot long 2X4 screwed to a fence that surrounds the propane tank, so it was just time and weather warped as the new painted 2X4 will be by this time next year. Then off to the showers, where I found the tiles that had been attached to a now rotted piece of wood, a quick fix would be fill in the rotted wood with a sand mix of sack-rete and reinstall the tile, Bruce was ok with the idea so I went ahead and mixed up some mortar mix and reinstalled the tile, then painted a ten foot long 2X4 and installed the internet antenna and screwed it back to fence. Not any real solutions, just temporary patches to be dealt with further down the road, which will become someone else’s problem.
Of course we had to deal with the departure list, today we have 28 departures, and 24 are marked as priority, which basically means the site is booked for today, and with check out at 11:00 and check in at 12:00 there is not a lot of time, then add in half a dozen members that don’t think the regular rules park rules apply to them, but with the last guests pulling out at noon, it was well after check-in time when we finished. So after my lunch break I finished off the majority of todays list, then disassembled a newly repaired picnic table, that got destroyed by someone on the tractor, no names will be mentioned, and no it was not me.
Miss Laurie is working in the store from 4:30 to close at 10:00 so we just passed each other as I returned and Laurie left the coach, our work shifts are all over the map, and we seem to work a lot of opposite shifts, some may enjoy that but I for one do not, there seems to be no consideration from the management as to helping couples have time together, but maybe that works better for some couples.
It appears that we may have turned the corner on the weather, as next week only has one day that is calling for rain.
The temperature is still not anymore that just warm, although it does appear that we will see some sunshine, in between the normally overcast days. Heck we are almost up to the temperature of Arizona in the winter.
Saturday and today I’m back on the afternoon shift again, Miss Laurie is also working this afternoon as well, so it’s a bit of a slower morning, as we enjoy a cup of fresh brewed coffee. We are catching up on the news and discussing our previous day as well as the happenings in the park this weekend, it’s always entertaining to discuss the ever changing priority of the parks management. This weekend there is a pancake breakfast on Sunday morning, so a lot of energy is being spent in that direction, at eight dollars a swerving, it is certainly not any kind of a bargain, then add you need to bring your own plates and utensils, the idea of going out for a meal is not having to clean up afterwards.
Miss Laurie made a cheese omelet, and I settled into catching up on the blog, when Mr. Sam woke from his morning nap, and we all moved to the Clam as it is starting to warm up a little. Laurie’s shift starts at 3:30 while I start my shift at 4:00, we enjoy a little lunch, and physic ourselves up for our Saturday night shifts.
So as I head to the workshop to see what todays priority is, I notice the food truck has pulled out, with the park nearly full on a weekend, and again the advertised food truck has left. Oh well on to see what my evenings entertainment will be, and it doesn’t take long to find out that today’s priority is cleaning a couple of old electrical fans, and then cleaning up a couple of old cabinets that they are planning on selling. At 5:00 I head to the wood lot to get the fire wood truck, a couple rounds of the park, then topping up the woodshed, a reload the truck and I’m headed back to the workshop by 6:00, to pick-up where I had left off, at 7:00 I head to the coach to warm up some dinner, the sun has actually broke through the clouds and is making for a nice evening.
After dinner, back to the shop till 8:45 when I head off to close the pool, should be an easy job, but tonight I have a lot of problem getting the kids out of the pool area, and a few minutes after 9:00 there is a huge bang, I’m busy mixing chemicals at the pool, so I can’t just rush off to check but it sounded more like fireworks than a gun to me so I continue. Then the call comes from the manager to ask if I heard the noise, I said yes and it sounded to be toward the 70’s section, at this point I still had kids in the pool enclosure, but no one else answered her call for help, so I had to roust the kids out, lock the pool enclosure and head to the other end of the park. Speaking to a couple of guests, it lead me to believe it was fireworks detonated down by the river, as I headed down the hill, I came across a family coming up and they told me it was a couple that lite the fireworks. I headed down the hill but as dark was closing in, I wandered the river bank but never found any one. I climb back up the hill and head to the clubhouse to close it over a half hour late, the back to the pool to finish off with my chemicals in the dark, it’s now after 10:00 o’clock.
A guest stops me to tell me that some one has vomited in the sink in the men’s washroom, just another joy of renting to weekend warriors, I had a noise call in the group camping at the other end of the park, so I left the washroom issue to the staff member on the washroom maintenance team. As I check the noise complaint, it is a group that is talking very loud and had a number of children crying and screaming, I asked them to put a lid on it, and reduce the noise. Now it’s 10:30 and I needed to take Miss Laurie to the manager’s trailer to drop off the store till, as I’m picking up Laurie at the park store, the washroom maintenance staff member stops to tell me that some one has vomited in the men’s washroom and she doesn’t know what to do and her shift is now over. Like seriously your passing this off to me, Laurie was livid, but this is the problem when no one is held accountable to actually do their job, so after I returned Laurie to the coach I went to clean the vomit out of the sink, was it my job? I don’t know but it needed to be done by someone, and I had no one to pass it off to.
At 11:00 I hear a commotion in the group camping area and walk over to find three young boys on top of a fifth wheel screaming, as I walked over to the site a guardian walked around the front of the trailer, I asked if he was aware there were boys on the roof of the trailer he said yes, I then asked if they were with him? He said yes, I then asked if he could get them down and quiet them down, which he did … you just can’t make this stuff up, it amazes me as I watch children today, and the total lack of parenting of any description, my parents would have kicked my ass, but in the next breath, I was never that much of an idiot.
I got back to the coach at 11:30, but I didn’t go to bed, I just knew with being so close to a full moon that some of the idiots would be out in full force, and at 12:30 I was called out again, some spot in the group area, so as I walked into their site I congratulated them one having two complaint calls so far tonight, and explained the options were real quite simple, either shut it down now or on my third visit it would come with a lifetime ban from the park, and I really didn’t care one way or the other. I was assured that they would shut it down, so I walked the whole park again and as I passes their site, they were still up but at the fire, but seemed to have finally put that lid on it, so back in the coach just before 2:00, and this time I’m heading for bed.
Happy 4th of July to our American Family
Blog 428
Day 1741
The Buchanan's Rolling Down The Road 