Sad

In our second season here in the park we met a wonderful couple. She was fun and outrageous and he was full of wit and insight. We hit it off immediately and became fast friends. He who is not likely to remember names gave them new names. Pete and Paula. All I can say is that the first letters are right. He does this a lot.

Pete and Paula came to the hospital and sat with my husband while I went under the knife and came out with our dinner when I was came home from the hospital. Just wonderful caring people. We stayed in contact with each other after they decided to no longer have a seasonal site. Just phone calls mostly. It is so hard to get out of the park for any appreciable amount of time. I was thinking of them earlier this week. Paula had said that they might try to drive out and visit for an afternoon in the spring and it occurred to me that I had not seen them or heard from them. Pete was diagnosed with stomach cancer last year, but was doing okay last I had talked to them.

They were camping here for the very first time when the rogue hillbilly bunch was here that stole all our firewood. They were in the site next to them and were entertained greatly. They were here when the naked lady made her debut. Paula has a wicked sense of humor and can tell the story so well with her New York accent. Pete is full of dry wit. I miss having them here and coming in every afternoon for their ice cream after they nap.

I am reminiscing with a heavy heart today. I talked to my friend who's real name is Patti this afternoon. She called to let me know that Paul is in kidney failure and will remain at home with hospice in attendance. She was in fairly good spirits as she told me this awful news. Of course she has had time to digest it. Paul also had Alzheimer's and Patti has been his caregiver all these years. Not an easy task to watch someone you love fade away. I have watched her be patient and kind and also seen her at the end of her rope. I am hoping to be able to go visit him one last time next week. I don't know if he will remember me, but I want to go.

I am crying as I write this. I can only imagine how hard this must be for Patti. When we were first married, Drew and I would talk about what would happen should one of us die. We agreed to simply die together. But we had kids, so that wouldn't work out so well for them; so we agreed to wait until we were old to die together.

When he had his heart attack and I realized that he could actually die and leave me here ........ well, it was sobering to say the least. I can't imagine which way would be more devastating......... to know and have to watch and wait or to not know and be suddenly alone. I am not fond of either option. I am just sad.

Cameras ........ I Need Cameras

The internet is still iffy out here in the middle of nowhere in the great state of Missouri (or misery) I can sometimes open other blogs I like to read and even comment. Commenting requires a lot of patience, though. I am long on patience and short on time, due to constant interruptions.





After talking to three different men at Sprint and explaining the problem, he who handles the phones and the internet accounts talked to a woman this morning. Oddly enough, she was able to ascertain the necessary solution to the problem. She put in a work order for an engineer to come out to the tower and do whatever it is that engineers do. It has been determined that lightning struck the tower during the a thunderstorm and now the triangulation is off. He who has chatted to all these folks incessantly found it amazing that a woman would be the one to get to the root of the problem. Last night's call involved some long drawn out down load of software and I was scolded for having the TV too loud, so I went to bed to watch TV.





Aside from the internet problems, business is slow. Fuel prices and the current economic situation has conspired to make for a very slow season. Today the pool is busy. Good and bad. I will have to patrol the area constantly to make sure every one is folowing my rules. The young woman who just came in with cigarette dangling from her lips is my target today. I have a sign at every entrance to the building that says NO SMOKING. Nowadays most places do. So she saunters in and inhales deeply and as I am telling her that you cannot smoke in here she exhales as she very slowly makes her way to the door. She doesn't look old enough to vote, and had that youthful insolence that I detest. Not a really good idea to rile the lady behind the desk. One could be ejected as the lady behind the desk is watching the smoker with an attitude.





The swimmers started arriving before the pool opened and my confinement began almost an hour early. As if that wasn't enough to make me crabby, the restrooms were really disgusting today. Food waste in the trashcans, causing a trail of ants. The mens room was especially bad. It looked like someone had a haircut and I hope all that curly hair was from a beard. Really, it looked like Osama had a good clipping in there. The sink was covered and the lid to the trashcan had hair all over it. Things I never want to touch. Everything has been thoroughly bleached now, including the trashcan.





Another Easter lily bloomed and was quite magnificent until someone yanked it off and tossed it to the ground. Cameras. I need surveillence cameras everywhere. We have one on the night check-in area ..... or we did. I need to check and make sure it is still there. It is all set up so that we can watch the front of the building on the TV in our bedroom. Right after he who installs such gadgets set it up, he spent many sleepless hours watching the grainy image of the front parking lot and front door. I would wake and see it on the TV. He wanted to leave it on all night, but I like darkness when sleeping. He soon tired of it and went on to another project. I should take a look and see if the camera is still there.





I think there might be some sort of law preventing me from putting cameras in the bathrooms, but I think one outside the doors would be nice. Then I could see who is taking all the bath tissue and paper towels. So ..... say I see the culprit on the screen. Do I just march over to their camper/tent and knock/call out and demand my paper product back? Or .......... do I create a bill and present it to them? Maybe, if I see it while they are taking it, I could intercept them, red-handed, so to speak. Will they run with their stolen paper and quickly leave the campground? Will I have to tackle them to the ground and wrestle for my toilet paper? I like to anticipate and think ahead.





I had a nice surprise in the mail from a follower. I would love to post pictures, but that won't be possible until the engineer tinkers with the dish atop the tower. I don't think he has to actually climb the tower and manually turn the thing this way and that way while asking "Can you hear me now?". There is a little building on the ground beside this tower of satellites and I suppose he will be inside doing his engineering. As soon as this happens I will be posting some pictures. Just a little teaser to pique your interest.





I am off to make my walk round the poolside. Last time I did this I found many violations and just gave warnings. I admit that I did ask one father "What is wrong with you?", as he was encouraging his children to dive. There are signs posted that warn against this. The pool is only 6 feet deep at the deepest point. I suppose that the minute your feet touch the water, you become illiterate

Friday At The Kampground

Fridays are always busy for campground owners. End of the week and every body wants to get away for the weekend. Dogs woke me early, at 5:30. Too early, so I went back to sleep and slept longer than I wanted to. So I was dragging with that "too much sleep hangover". I grabbed the coffee and was putting my day together in my head. I had some garden work I had wanted to get done early, then shower and go to the grocery. The ice truck arrived as I was heading out the door with a huge bag of potting soil draped on my shoulder. He who is most always absent from the store operations took over for me and I loaded my soil and a plant in my trusty wheel barrow. The golf cart remains stationary as it has been waiting for some mystery "part" for the last month. I came back to make sure that I had actually been excused from desk duty. I stopped and pulled a couple weeds along the way and upon reaching my big yellow wheel barrow found the petunias to be missing. I remember putting them in, but, I still go back and check. They are gone and by then the phone is ringing and he who took pity on me is acting like a little boy about to wet his pants. He leaves and I am stuck in the land of eternal camp desk hell.

Unlike he who I am married to, I can do more than one thing at a time ......... so I took the phone and went to address the restrooms. I only have two tenters and they are men, so I am assuming the ladies side should be pretty much the way I left it yesterday afternoon. It is not. The toilet is running and has been giving me a fit all week. I can fix it temporarily, but I have asked he who plumbs to change out the guts in the tank twice and it has not been done. Sensing my mood he is treading lightly and starts helping me clean. This is only making me more irritated. Finally he notes that I have not been out of here in "awhile". It has been weeks and I need a change of attitude, as well as scenery.

I went into "town" and spent a lovely hour in the grocery. Paula Deen has a Tex-Mex casserole recipe I wanted to try and I indulged in a coconut cream pie from Mrs. Smith. She makes a fine pie with a flaky crust and I salivated all the way home. Swimmers were arriving as I unloaded my bags of frozen veggies and I ended up just dumping the whole bag in the freezer. I will put them up correctly later. I managed to build the casserole, cook the pie and put all the other groceries away while checking in weekend campers and shaving ice for snow cones for swimmers. As it approaches 5:00 I find myself with minutes of inactivity. Dinner is all ready to pop into the oven and I am taking a short rest.

I should be booked, but find that I am not. The big holiday weekend has too many open slots, so I am happy when people without reservations arrive and want to stay two nights. I hear the door and a couple with a young girl, maybe 9 years old or so, come in. I can't tell if she is the daughter or granddaughter of the couple. All three look pretty unkempt. The man tells me that they need to stay for a few nights because his transmission has gone out. I looked out and the fifth wheel looks decent, the truck looks okay. But between the two of them they probably don't have three good teeth. Both are smiling and talking as the odor of decayed teeth hangs in the air. As a business owner I am always cognizant of appearances. I don't want to have something parked here that makes it look like a homeless camp. I can't afford to discourage guests from wanting to stay. On the other hand, I feel bad for those caught in the tsunami of economic misfortune.........

The child in this instance is very bright and inquisitive. She seems to be well-fed and is clothed in clean clothes. They are staying, they seem to have money to get to where they are going (Ohio). They don't have an address, since they are moving. I hope that they have a job waiting for them that has dental coverage. But, who am I to judge? I don't have health insurance, much less dental coverage.

The pie with its' enticing aroma beckons to me as it sits cooling on the counter. So I have a piece. I did, after all buy it for me. One of the joys of being of a certain age, I suppose, is eating what I want when I want it from time to time. He who eats a Hershey bar every night will not begrudge me a piece of pie ............ By the way, "he who" is my husband and his name is Drew. The regular kampers have taken to calling him "he who", too.

Pools Rule or Pool Rules

POOL RULES





1. Children Under the age of 14 MUST be accompanied by a responsible adult. A responsible adult would be someone over the age of 21 who has a drivers licence and is sober (most of the time).





2. No eating, drinking or smoking in the area around the pool (within the fence). We have provided a pavilion for that purpose. We have also provided trashcans in which to place your refuse (trash, stuff you don't want). We have provided a receptacle for your ashes and butts. Please refrain from grinding them out on the decking or simply flicking them onto the surrounding grassy area. If you violate this rule you will be asked to leave and no refund will be forth coming ........ this means I will keep the three dollars you gave me. I will no doubt question your lineage, too.





3. Do not send your small children to the office to beg for food. If you cannot afford to feed your children, you should not be spending money to swim ......... or on the cigarettes. If you insist on sending the tots up to beg, be prepared for some public humiliation ..... or what would be humiliating for most law abiding, sane folks.





4. Accompany your small children to the bathroom. If your child has an accident and, for whatever reasons, smears feces on the seat and the floor, be a sport and clean it up ...... or at the very least, alert someone in the office to take care of the mess so that others won't encounter it. This is assuming that your children don't do this at home ........





5. The laundry room is not a baby changing station, nor is it a dressing room. Please do not put dirty diapers in the waste basket that is intended for dryer lint. This is disgusting and you should be ashamed!





6. No glass containers of any kind are to be around the pool. I am sorry that you prefer beer in a glass bottle over beer in a can. I will explain the reasoning behind this rule once again. Glass is breakable. People tend to be barefoot in the pool area and can sustain a cut if they step on it. Should the broken glass make its way into the pool, the pool would have to be drained to remove all of it. Common sense should prevail here, but I have found that quality to be sorely lacking in those who are drinking the beer and the wine coolers. Rule #2 should cover this issue, but there are still those folks who think they are exempt from any restraints on their lives. A violation here will also result in being expelled from the pool without a refund and being banned from further pool excursions.





7. The pool is open daily from 11 am until 7 pm, weather permitting. The pool is closed during thunderstorms. No, you may not sign a "release" stating that you will not sue me should you be struck by lightning. The pool is not open during storms, even with said release.





8. When 7 pm approaches and you are getting ready to leave, please take everything you brought with you. Do not leave clothing and towels draped on the fence around the pool. It will not be there when you return in the next few days.





9. Do not drop coins in the pool. We sell dive sticks and pool toys in the store. The coins will get caught in the pool cleaning equipment and cause it to malfunction. Purchasing new equipment will cause the cost per person to increase.



Like sand through the pool filters, such are the days of my life ..............

Painfully Slow Internet

Patience is a virtue ..... or so I have heard. This weekend is teaching me to be extremely patient. We had a small tornado pass through early Saturday morning. I slept through the entire incident. It was one of those freaky selective eddies of wind that will make you appreciate the power of Mother Nature. Since then, the internet connection has been sporadic and s l o w. Painfully slow.

I can't download pictures to show you. Well, maybe I could, if I made many attempts and patiently logged back on every time I lose connection while attempting to do so. But I will try to describe things adequately. We have a kamper, who stores his canoe on his site. Never has the wind ever bothered this canoe. But, this wind that visited early Saturday morning picked this canoe up, flipped it over and took it across the road, through a dog pen and into the side of a fellow camper's fifth wheel. The canoe missed a huge tree and surprisingly, missed the window of the unit it hit. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could been, but it did puncture the outer layer of the unit. I sent a cryptic e-mail to the owner of the canoe. You know, the good news/bad news message. Told him that the good news was that his RV sustained no damage, but that his canoe was in his neighbors living room. I did exaggerate a bit, but this particular kamper lends himself to a certain amount of word play.

This was the only major damage we had here, I learned later that two semi-trailers were flipped over on the interstate close by. I suppose this same wind messed with the tower with the Sprint satellite receiver and resulted in my internet agonies. So, even though I have pictures, It would take hours to download them ........... I tried.

The baby birds were just too new to survive and they were both dead by Sunday. I won't miss breaking apart worms and squishing them up to feed them to the little open beaks. I was going to call the feisty one Amelia. In just two days, it was amazing that their pink skin was already covered in the gray fuzz that would turn into feathers. I imagine some mother bird out there lamenting at how fast they grow up and leave the nest. One mother bird is out there telling about the wicked human who tossed her nest and babies.

It is hot and humid here at the kampground and I am manning the desk that separates people from the pool. I expect to be busy all day, then mow as soon as the sun subsides. In the meantime I will see how long it takes to actually post this .........

Who Does This?

See the baby robins? Wonder why they are being hand fed? Because Good Samaritan, animal and bird loving Barb discovered them in the dumpster. Someone went to the trouble of putting the whole nest inside a WalMart bag along with three newly hatched babies and one unhatched egg before tossing the lot into the dumpster. Who could be this cold hearted?? Barb and Nan had come up to toss their trash and heard them chirping. I grabbed the garden rake and Barb fished them out. I say fished because it had rained buckets and they were in a few inches of water at the bottom of the almost empty dumpster. One had already drowned and the remaining two were putting up quite a racket.

This was late yesterday. We had a doozie of a storm blow through last night ........ I slept through it. But this morning I found the box with the baby birds had fallen from the top of the Pepsi machine. We put them up there because it was warmer outside than in. On top of the machine they would be high enough to avoid being a tasty delicacy for the cat and hot air rises. And ...... there was always a chance a motherly bird would adopt them. They survived the fall and have been fed and warmed in the palm of my hand (that has been washed and sanitized since). They are snuggled together in the nest in the box ......... in the office.

It is only noon and the day has already been filled with many strange things. Not so many of my regulars are here, so I didn't do the dough thing and served muffins instead. Cherished that extra two hours of sleep. So, while the coffee was being consumed and the talk was on, a lady and a child came in to purchase firewood. We don't pre-bundle the wood here at our kampground and I have been told that our bundles are generous. We deliver the wood to your site. This is a service we provide to those staying here, in our kampground. This lady was staying at the state park down the road. We are happy to sell wood and other necessities to those camping there. I took her money and called he who delivers wood and asked that he bring a bundle of wood to the office. Just like I always do. I sat down with my coffee and my friends and watched as the lady and her child got into her car and drove away before the wood arrived. We all looked at each other, kind of surprised. I suppose I could have run after her, but I haven't run much since I did the splits on Thursday. Not because I am that sore, I just don't want to do them again. I am actually a little surprised that I am not in a whole lot of pain from my amazing feat.

She returned several hours later, wondering why we had not delivered her wood. She was a little put out with me. I tried explaining that we only deliver within our kampground, but she was thoroughly miffed. I suppose she won't be staying here in the future. That's okay. She drove out the entrance drive and I would no doubt have to explain all the signs to her. It is for the best.

He who delivers firewood had news when he brought the wood up. The wind picked up the canoe that was stored on site 1A, flipped it right side up and drove it through the fence on site 2 and into the side of the 5th wheel on that site. I am waiting for Marshell to call me. I sent him a cryptic e-mail this morning about good news/bad news. Told him that we had powerful winds last night and the good news was that his motor home was fine, and the bad news was that his canoe was in Yvonne's living room. He will either call or just suddenly appear. In the mean time, I can take a measure of pleasure from messing with his head.

I noticed that the sun was a big blazing ball of orange as it was dipping low in the sky last night .... was that an omen?

Boys Love Toys

This is my sweet son, Jeff. He was helping his dad clean out fire rings and empty trash. These are some of the things that folks who come out for a weekend of camping never think about. I had never thought much about it until we bought the kampground.

The tractor makes life a little easier for he who loves all things that have a motor and roll on wheels. I usually just take a bag at a time out and sling it into the dumpster. I can always leave the bags at the end of the sidewalk and he who loves me will pick them up with is tractor for me, though.

Boys never really grow up, the toys just get bigger.