People Are Strange

I harvested all my cherries today ...... all 7 of them. No pies this year.

My new smaller table in the downsized living quarters.

Love seat and chair. A make-do ottoman until I can make one with a hinged lid for storage and a nicely cushioned top for he who claimed the chair. The love seat is for me and the four legged creatures that long to be close to me.

That's it. Wall-E scampered about during the photo shoot.

I picked fresh flowers to adorn the table where Mom's could eat on Sunday. Just day lilies in bloom right now, so I stuck in a little greenery, weeds, and onions in bloom. Not very fragrant, unless you like the smell of onions.

Harvey presented me with this bouquet, all held together with electrical tape. Wonder whose garden he stole them from?

Coffee brewing and ready for drinkers.

Kamper Julie made the most delicious fish dinner for me. The least I could do was bake a cake!

It rained on Saturday, but the rainbow promised a wonderful Mother's Day. I woke as the sun was on the rise. My body protested, but I pushed myself to the kitchen to get the caramel sauce going. I had it all laid out the night before, but there is just so much you can do in advance.

The sauce cooked to perfection and the dough rose on schedule. I was tempted to catch a little nap during the rising time, but knew in my heart that I would not wake up after only 45 minutes. So, I did laundry and policed the restrooms and cut flowers. Finally the Mothers came in for the promised treats.

I woke he who made me into a Mother at 10 am and demanded my gift. All I asked for was a nap. I had a nice nap on the love seat while he watched the store. I woke refreshed, and somewhat disoriented. I had one dog clutched to my chest and another behind my knees. I was in that state of sleep that allows you to be aware of the goings on around you. I could hear the phone and the voices in the store.

During this gift of a nap, he who took charge of the registration desk checked in a couple requesting a tent site. No tent, just a car. I noted their presence yesterday morning as I was about the business of doing my chores. They had some sort of big rug draped across the car windows. Later I saw them sitting at the picnic table watching me mow.

It was late in the afternoon and I was inside trying not to scratch at my poison ivy rash when the woman came in the store. I had assumed they had left. Check-out is noon and it was now 4 o'clock.
She had a zip lock bag full of pennies, nickles and dimes. "This is $6.71 and I will give it to you for $4 worth of quarters. My husband is sick of all this change and I need to wash our clothes." I told her I would be happy to change her coins in quarters for her, all of it ( me being unaware that my quarters were worthy of being bid upon). "No, he doesn't want any of this change back, he is sick of it."

I started counting the change, I am not sick of change, but wanted to see for myself just how much change her husband was sick of. She meandered through the store. She complimented me on my sewing skills and I thanked her, but still insisted she take the balance of the change her husband was so sick of. She opted to rent three DVDs.

When I inquired about the length of their stay, she told me she had talked to "that man who checked us in" and they were going to pay for more days. Then she told me they wanted to live here. Before I could stop myself I said "In your car?" I did manage to stop myself from saying, "not here in my park".

She said she had fallen in love with my park and wanted to stay here indefinitely. The hair at the nape of my neck was rising, warning me about these kampers living in a car. She went on to tell me that they would get a tent, because the husband worked in Ohio and she would need shelter while he was working .........

She finally took the quarters and the DVDs, but refused the remaining 21 cents, asking if I had a penny jar she could put it in. The husband was adamant about that change, I suppose. I didn't bother to ask when she planned to pay for this night's stay. She did ask about monthly rates and I told her it was $400. She found this amount to be reasonable, being the amount she had paid for an apartment. I did not point out that it was not a good deal, since it did not include shelter and that they were on a site with no utilities.

When my own husband returned from towing and changing tires, I told him about the encounter and he said he would go check on the car dwellers after we ate our dinner. We got caught up in an episode of "Harry's Law" (did you know they are cancelling this show?) and, as usual, the door chimed as we watched. I put Harry on pause and my hero went out to talk to the infamous change hating husband. I could hear him, but couldn't make out all the words.

I did hear him say they were "checking out". The reason he gave was that I had been so mean to his wife and she was so upset that they could not stay here. Other than insisting that she take all of her money, I have no idea what he was referring to. We think that they didn't have enough money to pay and wanted to stay as long as they could. I still don't know why she insisted on renting those DVDs, since they were on a primitive site without power. And ........... why was he not at work in Ohio? They left with their now clean clothes, without paying for the extended stay. He tried to burn rubber as he left via the entrance drive.

I think we dodged a bullet of crazy.