Saturday, June 2, 2018

Creating Karma


It has been an adventure, these past days. Memorial Day found no empty sites here. You can always count on at least one problem group on any given holiday. People seem to forget that they are not the only people celebrating an event. This year found me with several hot spots to deal with. Nothing too bad, mostly noise and speeding and pool issues.

The weekend began on Wednesday with the first arrivals. Other than having to assure men drivers that I knew what I was doing and "No, do not pull in backwards, your hook-ups will not be on the correct side" and reminding people that the signage and speed limit must be obeyed; my part went smoothly.

The pool filled with swimmers in that cold, cold water and I was up to my elbows in snow cones. HeWho was out and about trying to maintain stuff. He came in long enough to tell me that, although the pool was full of water, the pump motors on both pumps had died. He grabbed some money from the register and headed out for parts. He came and went all day and tinkered with whatever men tinker with when they are fixing motors.

He got one working and ordered a new pump. He tinkered and fixed all day Saturday as I shuffled late arrivals for the weekend and overnighters who were traveling without reservations. I was closing up when one of my favorite campers, a sweet girl I have watched grow into a lovely young lady came up with her hands full of food for us. Always a silver lining in a cloud, you know.

We ate and fell into bed exhausted. Sunday dawned way too early and I began the day in the bathrooms, stocking and cleaning. Pool pumps still not working properly and day swimmers coming in like ants out of a disturbed ant hill. HeWho was beyond frustration dealing with the mechanics of our life and me so busy a bathroom break was a luxury, when we had a family emergency and one of us had to go. 

It is a given that HeWho does not do well behind the desk. He absolutely hates it and would rather route sewer. There are lulls when it seems there is nothing to do and then there are times when two people would be great. Then there is the phone to handle. I have the business line forwarded to my cell, which pretty much guarantees that you will hear my voice if you call …. and some days it rings non-stop. Which one of us to go would need to give our full attention to the situation and for that reason, I stayed here and he left.

He left right after he got one pump going and drove through the night. I do not drive in the dark so this was another reason he was the perfect candidate to go. When you own your own business, it is true that you are the boss. It is also true that there is no one who can jump in and take over at a moments notice. Holiday weekends are the basis of our income and can either make or break our annual profits. It was just as hard to stay here as it was to leave HeWho to handle things. Maybe harder. One of my children needed us.

I have been on my own for nearly a week now. Thank God for my campers who jumped in to save me when I needed help. Now that the week is behind me, I can calmly relay all the calamities that befell me in the absence of HeWho fixes stuff.

So, what does that have to do with the picture? For awhile now, I have been doing little acts of kindness and saying that I am creating my own karma. I know that some may take offense to the term "karma", but call it what you will; whatever you put out there will come back to you in one form or another if you live long enough. While most of the time I simply ignore what people do, like lying about how many people they have with them, or stealing all the paper supplies out of the bathrooms. They are creating their own karma, as well. Sometimes, though …….

Yesterday morning I got a call requesting a site for the night. The woman was very abrupt on the phone as she relayed questions from her husband to me. They arrived just after noon and I found them both to be unfriendly  downright rude. I registered them and gave them a map to their site and went on about my day. My day started off with a major problem, the water main burst. I had water back on and had swept all the water out of the store and my living quarters, but I am sure I looked pretty bedraggled, not having had the opportunity to shower and put on clean clothes. I wanted to look down my nose at her the way she was looking at me and say, "Don't judge me, lady!"

At 6:30, they drove their camper up to the office, going the wrong way on the one-way road and the woman came barging in to inform me that she wanted a refund because our camp  ground was "disgusting" and they could not stay here. Not only could she not read road signs, it seems that it took her 6 hours to become disgusted. I gave her the refund, creating my own karma. In retrospect I wish I had responded in kind and charged her for the 6 hours she spent taking a nap so that they could continue their trip. I wonder just how many campgrounds have refunded them.



2 comments:

Joanne Noragon said...

And I hope your family problem resolves quickly and well enough!

Val said...

Now I am worried about your family, but relieved that you bounced back from that water main burst and rid yourself those 6-hour freeloaders.