Week nine @ CMR

Sunday July 10th to Saturday July 16th 2022

Sunday morning and after a damn short night, Mr. Sam is snoring beside me in bed, Miss Laurie was just finishing some peanut butter toast as she prepares to open the camp store at 9:00 this morning. Today is the pancake breakfast, and the more I think about it, I’m thinking what a stupid day to have the pancake breakfast, with most of the weekend warriors leaving today by 11:00, so why wouldn’t you have planned the pancake breakfast on say a Saturday morning, instead of on the biggest check-out day? Just one more example of the lack of a real rudder on this ship, now that is obviously just my opinion, as the official pion on the maintenance team, and having no control at all of the ships wheel.

I had to finish off last weeks blog while it was still fresh in my mind, and as I sat typing on the keyboard and often I would catch myself shaking my head about last nights events, then realizing that our departure is only 92 days away, but seeing that we have only been here 58 days, and it is starting to seem like a lifetime already.

So as we were closing in on noon, I’m thinking Mr. Sam and I need to head to the Clam, for a few hours of bird watching, and maybe I will barbecue a hotdog for lunch. Mr. Sam and I did spend most of the afternoon in the Clam, and I did have my hotdog for lunch, with a fresh sesame seed bun, and a few salt & vinegar potato chips. I’m still on the afternoon shift, so I’m preparing for my shift about the same time that Miss Laurie was returning from her shift in the camp store. So I’m off to see what this afternoon’s priority is, and it is a beauty, today I have the task of reworking the parks blue bin dumper. So you may be asking yourself what the hell is a blue bin dumper? And it would be a legitimate question, so here in British Columbia recycling has been taken to a whole new level, with deposits being charged on almost every container. It is such a big deal, that the campground pays people to sort all the items placed in the blue bins.

So let me try to explain, the park has six locations that have big blue recycling bins on wheels, and at least twice a week they are dragged back to the work yard to be emptied and sorted. The bins are large and difficult to maneuver, and rather than having to reach down into the bin to pick the bottles and cans out they wanted to be able to pick them up and dump them. So the maintenance department built a blue bin dumper, it is certainly not a pretty device but it did work, using a trailer stabilizer jack to power the device to raise the blue bin. The stabilizer jack is referred to as a scissor style jack, and they used a battery powered drill to turn the screw to operate the jack, it worked but when it came to the end of it’s travel it would jerk hard on the drill, hurting the operator using it. So it was decided to come up with a better method of powering this device.

They had found a battery operated push cylinder that I was picked to replace the original scissor jack, it needed to be mounded onto the wood structure, in a manner to allow it to get the maximum travel with the most force possible. I calculated the bin full would weigh near 90 kilograms (200 lbs.), so after some fabrication design, I had the bracket clamped together to test operation and confirm the operation, then off to weld it all together, its been a lot of years since I had sparked up an arc welder, but it all seemed to come flooding back, and it turned out pretty damn good if I say so myself. Next some additions to the wood structure to hold the battery, and a method to keep the battery charged, and of course a switch to control the up and down operation.

Monday morning and I rolled out of bed around 7am, Mr. Sam was napping or Laurie’s vacated spot, and Miss Laurie had coffee perking as I passed through the galley. Laurie was on the love seat with the sunshine streaming through the window, yes we had morning sunshine, we have not seen a lot of that. Miss Laurie is working today, some gardening time as well as time in the office today, bacon and eggs for breakfast and later Mr. Sam and I were headed to the Clam, some bird watching for Mr. Sam and some more audiobook for me, I’m now well into the third book of the Harry Potter series, it is not anywhere near my normal book choices, but it has been popping up on my reading app for some time, and I have finally accepted the suggestion, and now a week later I’m well into the third novel and have the next two downloaded already. it certainly has been good entertaining reading.

Tuesday morning and it was after eight o’clock before I slipped out from between the sheets, Mr. Sam was on the night stand looking out the bedroom window, I suspect he was watching the local bunny that spends most of his time in the mini-putt, Miss Laurie was starting the stove to perk this mornings coffee. Again sunshine was streaming through the windows a very welcome change from all the overcast days that we have endured since our arrival, I’m off shift today, while Miss Laurie is heading to the office to spend a day trying to nicely explain that the campground is booked until after the labour day weekend.

Today although I’m not on shift, I’m going to the shop to complete the wiring of the switch on the blue bin dumper, so that it can be taken back to the maintenance yard, and by now all the full blue bins are full, so just a coupe of hours and the switch is wired in and we have the dumper is back in operation, and I’m back in the Clam with Mr. Sam, enjoying another warm day on the island. The rest of my day off was a lazy, laid back kind of day, a little more Harry Potter, maybe even a little nap, a couple of adult beverages, and just a relaxing day enjoying some long awaited warmth.

Wednesday and although I should be off today, I’m working a day shift for Cortney, as she has friends visiting from Alberta, and Miss Laurie is covering numerous shifts this week as it seems most of the park staff is either sick or trying to take some holidays. Now maybe it’s just our work ethic, but when you’re hired to work for the summer, taking a week off during the busiest time, just seems wrong. So now with an illness making it’s way through some of the staff, there are some severe staff shortages, so we seem to be left picking up the pieces. It all comes back to what is the priorities of the day, and although I was expecting to be trimming in the mini-golf, Miss Cortney had completed that task yesterday (maybe she didn’t trust me), but there were a good number of departures today, and there is always week wacking to be done, so filling the day was not a difficult task.

Thursday and we are up early today, as today is Mr. Sam’s surgery day, and we need to have him at the vet clinic by 8:30 and while we are only 45 minutes away, there are multiple traffic lights which bring traffic from highway speed to a full stop adding a lot of extra travel time, but this morning it was clear sailing so we landed at the clinic early, but that was far better than being late. After dropping off Mr. Sam we headed to a grocery store to pick-up this weeks supplies, before heading back to the coach to wait for a phone call.

Now we are still on the Rogers network, and of course they have always been very unreliable and actually brought Canada’s commerce to a standstill last week, and we are still experiencing glitches over and above our normal regular poor service, so for some reason we missed multiple call from the vet clinic, but we did finally realize what was happening and are now up to date on Mr. Sam’s progress. Miss Laurie has a shift in the store this afternoon so I will be in charge of rescuing Mr. Sam, and after his dental surgery I’m sure he will be in rough shape. At around 2:00 I headed back to Nanaimo and the Costco, and then I will wait for the call for Mr. Sam’s release from the clinic. The call came that I could pick up Mr. Sam between 4:30 and 5:30 so I was there at 4:30, and by the time I had settled the bill, and talked to the vet, we hit the road home by 5:00 and ended up in a traffic jam, who knew that could happen on Vancouver Island.

Landing back at the coach, with my drugged up kitty, there was a mixed bag of emotions, as he left the carrier he was staggering around like a drunken sailor, a funny but also such a sad view, so I had to capture him onto my lap to just keep him quiet and still, for a time until he was able to get past the effects of the drugs. Anyone who has met Mr. Sam will know he is a very personable and a great cuddler and loves to curl up on almost any lap, well tonight he is swinging from napping, to waking up and trying to jump down but he has no depth perception, so my task is to just keep him comfortable and safe. When Miss Laurie finishes her shift, Mr. Sam is still struggling but seem content to curl up under the coach steering wheel, and is sleeping, it’s now as Laurie is going through the package from the vet that we find that the vet clinic has failed to send all the medications that the had prescribed and that we had paid for, doesn’t leave a real good feeling of confidence.

Friday morning and Mr. Sam is still struggling with his mobility, he is not yet eating, and I’m sure he must still be hurting, but he is sleeping, Miss Laurie and I are both working today, so he will be on his own for morning, I will be back to the coach for lunch around noon and I will check on him then. My day started at the swimming pool, this process takes nearly an hour to vacuum the pool and check chemicals, and do the pump maintenance, after that I’m back to shop to await the departure list, normally the Friday list is 5 to 10 departures, but today it’s near thirty, and all but three are priority, which means the site is rented out again today. Check out is eleven o’clock, and check in is noon, so we are very limited on the time allowed to complete the task, add to that the problem that the eleven o’clock check out was not previously enforced, now we have lots of people not checking out on time. And if that’s not a big enough problem they have also been letting people check in before the allotted time, so now you have people at the office waiting for a campsite that has not been vacated yet. Now to that add the problem with many people leaving messes in the vacated sites the problem becomes more obvious, now add to that that some these sites also need to have the grass trimmed or just regular maintenance and we are trying to work through problem that the management has created over previous years.

After the sites were all cleaned I headed to the coach for lunch, and I was excited to find that Mr. Sam had cleaned most of the food offerings off of his plate, I checked with Laurie and then got some more tuna out for what was a hungry kitty. Mr. Sam then curled up on my lap for the rest of my lunch break. By now the vet had called Laurie back to say that they had found the medication and they were real sorry. Being sorry really doesn’t cut it when it nearly a two hour round trip to pick them up, add the price of fuel as well as having worked all day, I wasn’t real pleasant when I landed back to the clinic to get Sam’s medication, but I took the opportunity to pick up some dinner, there is a group of fried chicken restaurants “Lee’s Fried Chicken” it a British Columbia thing, but I remember them from visits nearly fifty years ago. It was good but probably not as good as it could have been after the forty five minute drive back to the coach.

With Mr. Sam medicated we call it a night and head to bed, they have given him a couple of pills followed by a syringe of pain killer, we want to keep him as comfortable as possible, but we don’t want him totally knocked out by the medication either.

Saturday morning and Mr. Sam is acting so much better, his appetite is back, and he is wanting to cuddle again, I’m working the afternoon shift again, while Laurie is working the day shift so we will be with Mr. Sam all day. The rain is back and when I would normally be working on the blog I’m now just sitting with Mr. Sam on my lap, I have been listening to Harry Potter and I will catch up on the blog a some point, but right now it’s all about a kitty that picked us a number of years ago. As usual Laurie and I just kind of pass each other as she is coming home as I’m leaving for my shift, the evening was nicer as the rain has stopped, firewood sales were good, and the evening was over all very quiet evening. I was kept busy in the work shop, basically just painting, there are a number of different projects on the go, but I was picked to paint them all. So white, green and red paint were all on the go tonight, and I’m not really a painter, that is a task that normally I would defer to Miss Laurie. I made it back to the coach at eleven o’clock to find Mr. Sam all spaced out on medication, sitting in the middle of the coach staring at a heating grate, definably not acting him self, I’m thinking this medication is doing more harm than good.

Live life to it’s fullest but don’t be an idiot

Blog 429

Day 1748

Week eight @ CMR

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.

One of the little crabs in the tide

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