Week ten @ CMR

Sunday July 17th to Saturday July 23rd 2022

Sunday morning and we awoke to rainy July morning, and while much of the continent is under extreme heat, we here on Vancouver Island are hoping to reach a high of 20C (68F) today. Mr. Sam has gotten his appetite back, but we are only able to let him have soft food for a few more days, obviously this is not a real hardship for Mr. Sam as the soft food was always his main treat. We decided that no more pain killer shots for Sam, as he seems to making a great recovery from his surgery on Thursday, Miss Laurie is working in the store today, and because of the rain and being a big departure day, she most likely will not be busy, and there is another problem with the POS (point of sale) equipment which has been creating issues for people using credit or debit card and in todays society no one has cash. Of course we have an ATM but it comes with a $5 sur charge on every transaction plus your regular bank charges.

So Mister Sam and I are just hanging out in the coach today, he is wanting to get out to the Clam, but its too rainy today. Although I did fire up the barbeque and cook up a number of items four pork chops, two pounds of breakfast sausage, and of course a hot dog for lunch. Because of working on opposite shifts it is easier to just reheat items for dinner, and when your heating the grill anyway it just makes sense to cook a number of items at the same time. Miss Laurie started some pasta sauce in the slow cooker before she started her shift, as it is cool and damp today it will make for a great dinner tonight.

With these afternoon shifts of mine we have been having dinner at seven o’clock, that time seems to be working out good at this point, I just take a half hour break in between projects, which breaks up my seven hour shift nicely. I still have not perfected the whole napping thing as well as either Mister Sam or Miss Laurie, but I should get three days off this week, so I have a number of things that I need to accomplish on my time off. This afternoons shift was another quiet one, with me spending most of the shift working on projects in the shop in between my lock up procedure and security checks, and I’m back in the coach a few minuets after 11:00, and listen to an audiobook till midnight, at this point I should be safe to hit the hay.

Monday morning and our life is almost back to normal in the coach, Mister Sam is falling back into his routine, although he is still struggling with the feeding arrangements, as he is still on soft food, so his regular food needs to be soaked before being dispensed, this time allotment for soaking is not sitting well with Sam, he has always been able to snack on his hard food when ever he wanted (grazing we called it) so now he is only able to eat as we allow. Miss Laurie is in the office today, again another long day with no break, it seem the only people that get lunch breaks are a select few, I’m sure that there are labour laws against this type of treatment but this is just a short term summer job so not really worth siring things up.

The sky is still overcast but at least its not raining today, and with Mister Sam is wanting to be outside big time, and although I will have to mop some rain water off the Clam floor, I think he will get his wish today, so I will load up the bird feeders and get the floor mopped up and move my blog typing to the Clam. The reality is I’m still working on last weeks blog, and I’m finding for the first time in my life I’m starting to loose track of what day it is, so me putting the day on the different paragraphs in these blogs is more for my convenience than anything else. I have one more afternoon shift today before my three days off, I have been making great progress on the Harry Potter series as I’m on book five now, and while I’m not looking for physical tasks today, I have not heard back from the body shop yet, so today I’m going to call the insurance adjuster to light a fire under some ones butt.

I did sneak down to the river today because as I was finishing last weeks blog, it was lacking a decent photo as the feature picture, and as much as I may seem to be complaining way too much, I have to emphasize this is a beautiful park and is in a beautiful area, and nothing the management does will ever change that, and to just sit by the river for a few minuets today seemed to make the whole stay a little better. And as I get back to the coach and I’m opening the Clam, I notice Mister Sam pacing on the coach’s dash. Still not real warm but I’m in shorts with a thermal shirt as we move into the Clam. The internet is crap today, all RV park internet is crap, so its just comes down to different levels of crap and todays level is some of the worst crap, so I have lost a few paragraphs of the blog because I was not able to save it to the cloud, but after recreating them I have to start doing a manual save after each addition, as it seems to be during the autosave that the issue shows up.

By noon Mister Sam who has been getting real tuna for his lunch is now pacing looking to get back into the coach for his lunch, but as soon as the tuna has been devoured it’s back to the Clam. My insurance adjuster is not in the office today, so I leave a message and send a follow up email, as we look to to the winter we may have a big adventure coming together for this November, so I need to get the toad fixed up before we head south.

The afternoon seemed to fly by, with Mister Sam chasing the birds from window to window watching all the birds at the feeders, and while he gets so excited then just a couple minuets later he is curled up on Laurie’s chair with his eyes closed. This is my last shift for the week and I’m really not looking forward to it, the park is quiet so there are no security issues, and all the maintenance tasks seem to involve painting right now, not one of my favorite tasks, but I will fill an evening best I can doing whatever I have to.

Tuesday and it’s my day off, Miss Laurie has another full day in the office, and I’m in the coach battling with the internet, to get some more information on the new tow-bar we are going to use to tow the toad this fall, the original was damaged in the accident so needs to be replaced anyway and I want to move to what is called a non-binding style. and that term just refers to how it attaches the toad to the coach. The original bar appears to be around nine hundred dollars, and the upgraded one is around one thousand, so no big deal to get the added benefit of the non-binding style.

As I have just suddenly realize that it’s almost noon and I’m still working on the blog, but worse yet I’m still in my PJs, Mister Sam has just wondered by and had a big stretch after his extended morning nap. But now he is wanting to get outside to the Clam and I need to get up and get moving as well. So I just throw on a pair of shorts and that thermal shirt and Sam and I move outside, I’m trying to clean-up the toad, from our time back at LHR it is still covered with droppings from the trees and then add to that the oil bath it received from the blown hydraulic hose on the coach in Washington State it is in serious need of a major clean up, so today will be a washing it and then I will start on the the tree sap and I learnt today that neither mineral spirits nor turpentine work for the tree sap removal.

As Miss Laurie gets done her shift we settle into the Clam for a quiet warm rest before dinner, its taco Tuesday and after catching up on the news we catch up on some YouTube videos, one of our regular watches (Nomadic Fanatic) is doing a blog everyday for the month of July, so we have been getting a real view into his life as opposed to the normal highly edited one, and The Wynn’s have just moved off of their sail boat after six years, so lots of things to get caught up on. And then almost amazingly it is ten o’clock and time for bed.

Wednesday morning and I’m up at 4:45, but had been awake for some time tossing and turning so I just decided to get up. I have been working on a number of blogs over the last month or so. and decided to take the time to finish one and add to a few others. Mister Sam has spent some time on my lap as I continue to peck away on the keyboard, which has been a welcome return to a past normal that I enjoyed most of the winter and has changed because of the afternoon shift hours.

Thursday and we have a trip to Nanaimo scheduled this afternoon, I have an appointment to get my eyes tested this afternoon, similar to back in Ontario, getting an appointment for any medical issue has become a major challenge, but a cancellation at the Costco has made one available, so with any kind of luck I will have some new glasses in early August, I had tried to get some glasses in the States but no one would fill my prescription as it was over two years old, and getting an eye test in the States was not easy either. And we are planning on catching a viewing of “Top Gun Maverick” while in Nanaimo, a movie that we have been waiting to hit the theaters for years now.

The morning was spent kicked back relaxing and as we prepare to head out to Nanaimo, I have heard back from our insurance adjuster, the body shop has not sent her any information yet, somehow I’m not surprised it seems to be an island thing, but she is going to call them and try to get things rolling. And as I’m working on this blog it is very obvious that I do need new glasses as I’m starting to struggle to get the type face big enough on the screen to see the punctuation. We decide to have lunch and head out as Miss Laurie wants to do a little shopping before my appointment.

Walmart, then Costco and I settle in for my eye examination, while Miss Laurie scouts out some deals. I’m not sure whether they will put drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils so I grabbed my clip-on sunglasses, luckily they don’t have to and all went well, I had my most recent pair of glasses with me as well as the second last prescription that I have been wearing for the last number of months. And while my eyes checked out good, with no old fart issues like cataracts or the like, but my prescription has changed, which at least makes me feel better about paying the $160 for the examination. Miss Laurie has been picking out glasses that she likes, so I try on a couple of pair and pick some steel frame glasses that come with a clip-on, I always purchase transition lenses but they don’t work worth a damn when driving, so $499 later I’m 10 to 14 days from being able to see again.

Top Gun Maverick did not disappoint, and I was surprised to see the theater pretty much full after having been released so long ago, but the theaters of today with the power recliners, and the great sound, made it a very enjoyable experience. We picked a 6:20 showing so that it would still be reasonably light for the trip home, and it was. Tim Horton’s has been advertising a peanut butter cheesecake filled donut, not a choice I would pick, but Miss Laurie thought it sounded pretty good so we stopped in Ladysmith to pick up a couple, but apparently to no ones surprise the advertisement was very misleading as Miss Laurie was very disappointed, imagine that someone being disappointed with Tim Horton’s, how unCanadian. But not hard for me to believe, right from their burnt tasting coffee to the mass produced factory donuts, that are re-baked, I’m afraid they have been faltering for years but people still go there, as at one time they were a Canadian company but know its owned by who know.

Friday and we both are back to the grind today, Miss Laurie is working in the gardens for the day and I have the dayshift today that will be made up of opening the clubhouse and pool, followed by the cleaning of campsites, to compete my morning. As I expect to have the expectation there will be a priority project to fill my afternoon, but we will see how that works out after lunch.

So it’s after lunch now and my project this afternoon is to replace a power post on site #37, the original post was a four by six wood post that I think was just being held together by the thickness of the years of green paint. The new post will be two lengths landscaping ties screwed together, making a wide enough post to hold the large electrical panel with a hydro (electric) meter mounded on top on one side and the water supply on the other. the thinking was that the pressure treated ties will stand up to the wet conditions better than painted wood. While not a nice task, it is one that I have become quite adept at since my arrival at the park, and after I finished this task I was left to keep my self busy for the last hour of my shift.

And I did so preparing for my next afternoon task, which would be switching batteries from a golf cart to the Gem car that is in the work shop and has not operated for some time. But with the recent purchase of some battery operated golf carts, now we have enough batteries to test the theory that the Gem just needs new batteries.

Saturday and today is Miss Laurie’s Birthday! And she gets to work in the gardens today, most likely not her first choice as how to spend her birthday, but a better choice than a shift in either the store or the office. I on the other hand now switch to the afternoon shift today, so there will be no taking Laurie out for a birthday dinner today. I’m working on the blog before using the weed wacker to trim the grass and weeds our site, and Mister Sam and I moved to the Clam, I loaded up the feeders to keep Mister Sam occupied, and then grabbed a sweatshirt as we settled into the Clam, July 23rd and I’m sitting outside wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, the clouds are breaking up but it is not nearly as warm as the weather people were suggesting.

Miss Laurie stopped for lunch at noon and as we look ahead to next week it appears that summer may finally show up after all, in fact there is talk of heat warnings into next week. There has already be a fire ban on any fire other than a campfire and the size of the campfire can be no larger than half a meter (20 inches) high and half a meter in size, so now I need a tape measure to check the size of campfires? Miss Laurie ventured back to the gardens and I was preparing for the start of my shift, and I’m heading out as Laurie returns.

Today’s shift will consist of working on the electric GEM car, which is a battery operated vehicle that uses 6 batteries to operate. This is a regular weekend so I’m not expecting any major issues, but there had been a campsite in the group camping area that the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) had to be escorted out of the park, that kind of action normally spreads through the park like wildfire, but apparently not everyone had heard. I had a group near the pool that felt it necessary to climb over the fence for a dip after the pool had closed, now possibly there could have been cocktails involved, but they had jumped out of the pool right in front of their site, so when I stopped at their site I suggested a quick shower could be a good area, since I had just added twenty cups of chemical into the pool and could cause some irritation on tender skin areas … then there was a party group that I needed to visit four times, and eventually had to be evicted a day before the end of their reservation.

So much for a quiet Saturday evening, I did not get a lot accomplished beyond answering complaint calls, and I’m thinking next weekend the long weekend could be a lot of fun! Oh yea the last piece of a annoyance today was that the crappy internet providers system had a total melt down failure, so another summer weekend with a nightmare for the staff created by the internet provider.

Just a week late! And no photos!

Blog 431

Day 1754

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