Month End Sales Pressure

The first day back to work this week was a typical day for an end of the month - high sales pressure. Between conference calls with upper management and phone calls to prospective residents offering nice discounts to sign up, the day went pretty fast. We did get another contract - 5 for the month - and we are now at 77% occupancy. We were at 67% when we arrived in January, but we are still at the bottom of the pack in our region. Remember the 14 move-outs that we had in November and December? That is what dropped the percentage so low and has resulted in the slow climb back to normal which should be in the 95% range. We still have a couple of move-outs scheduled for March which need to be off-set by new move-ins in order to stay even. One resident is being evicted for non payment of rent and another is going to higher care - an assisted living community.

The day was not without another ecall. A brand new resident was reaching for her phone and got her hand caught in the ecall cord and set it off accidentally. She didn't even realize what she did until we showed up at her door to ask if everything was OK. We need to make sure that all new residents understand the ecall system and realize that it is used in emergencies only and to watch out for accidental pulls on the cord.

Today we will probably see even more pressure to get contracts as it is the official end of the month. As far as I know, there are only a couple more that would be considered that close to a decision for our community. Like most other things in this bad economy, it is a good time to make a deal for an apartment. We are giving away the farm in order to get a commitment. All you need is some money (very little) and in need of a place to go.

It's an early start today and we are scheduled to get off work at 3 PM. With it being the last day of the month, it will take a miracle to get off work that early...

Rainy Day

There wasn't much planned for yesterday and since it rained most of the day, it was a good thing. We went to the Best Buy in Oceanside to have my computer CD-ROM drive checked and found that it is working properly and that the disk I had from Turbo Tax was bad. I called Intuit and they downloaded the software to my computer so that problem is fixed.

We have not had a key that has worked in our rear patio door since we moved in and that was also fixed. Our maintenance manager, Garry, took the locks off and had them re-keyed to fit our master key. Now we can arrive home from somewhere and not go through the lobby to open our front door to get in. It has been a nuisance to do it that way, but Garry has had a lot of higher priority stuff to fix at the community.

The rain lasted most of the day and it was chilly to boot. Even this area gets its share of some lousy weather at times. It is still better than many other locations where they are getting winter snows and very cold temperatures. The sun is shining this morning so at least it doesn't last long.

I have another follow up appointment with the Audiologist this morning before starting work at 11 AM. They will perform some more fine tuning on my new hearing aids but the realization is setting in that I will never be able to hear normally in certain situations. We'll just do the best we can and take it from there...

Fun Day at Different Casino

We were anxious to go to the local Casino - Valley View Casino - as we haven't been there before and, also, we were anxious to "get away" from here for awhile. It has an excellent reputation and everybody that we spoke to about it raved about the buffet. It has guaranteed "loose" slot machines so it was a no brainer for us to try. Along with everything else, it is only 20 miles from here, and rated San Diego's finest.

We arrived shortly after 1 PM and stood in the long line to get our Players Club card which carried a free ticket to the buffet - a $32.99 value for each of us. The buffet has lobster featured on the menu everyday. We thought we would play a bit on the slots and then go and have an early dinner before the crowd built at the popular eating times, and would get us home in time to watch the Academy Awards show on TV. So, we hit the slots and it wasn't long before Josie won 2 nice jackpots - one of which was the top prize on her machine - $650. The other one she won was for $250, so our day at the casino was guaranteed to be a good one.

We weren't as lucky at the buffet. It seems like Sunday is always the busiest day. We arrived at the buffet location around 3:30 PM and rather than being escorted into the dining area or being permitted to stand in the long line, we were assigned a seating time - for the 7:30 PM seating. Wow. That meant that we had 4 hours to kill and threw us off our schedule to be home for the Academy awards show. We arrived at the location again at 6:30, hoping to get in and seated a little early. It was actually 7:45 PM when we finally got in. It was worth the wait. It was one of the best buffets we have ever seen. Yes, we had lobster and several different kinds of shrimp, plus just about every other kind of food you can imagine including one of the best prime ribs we've ever had.

The slots were very friendly and we left with almost all of our winnings, despite the extra 4 hour stay, and we will definitely return again.

Today will be used to visit our fifth wheel to swap out a chair we brought to the apartment and pay a visit to the local Best Buy store to have my computer CD drive checked. I tried loading my Turbo Tax software package and it would not read the disc. Neither would it read any other disc I have so I'm holding my breath on that problem. Aside from that, we will relax and enjoy our second day off...

Problem Fixed and Mardi Gras

It was a much better day yesterday than it was on Friday. The electrician that is under contract with Holiday Retirement that is responsible for the maintenance of the emergency call system showed up around 10 AM. He spent the whole day up to around 5 PM diagnosing the problem and tracing it to the source. He ended up doing essentially what we did the night before - going door-to-door, checking each of the pull cords in each apartment, following a thorough check and tests on the panel itself. He finally located the problem - a partially pulled cord in an apartment that was hidden behind a dresser that was one we couldn't reach to check the night before. What a relief.

It was Mardi Gras day at the Community and we had entertainment in the afternoon by a local Dixieland band that was excellent:

We moved the furniture in our foyer area and rearranged it for the residents to sit and enjoy the music:

The foyer area was filled with residents and there were some that watched the show from our balcony:

That's Richard standing on the right in the picture. He is the one that loses his keys all the time and thinks he wakes up in different apartments each day.

We also took a shot of our lovebird couple, Ann and Bill:

Ann is the one who will turn 100 next month and they are the couple that have only been married for 7 years.

Also present for the celebration were these girl scouts who passed out necklaces to all the residents and also sold their cookies to anybody that wanted them:

There was also a nice spread in the recreation room that had food and beverages for everybody and it turned out to be a very happy occasion for the whole complex. It was good therapy for us also.

It seemed like the last 2 days were a week long but we made it to our off duty time beginning this morning at 7 AM. We will enjoy the free time and may even take a short trip - about 30 minutes - to the local Casino. Sounds like a deal...

Discouraging Day

As you know, we started the day yesterday with an ecall false alarm. The rest of the day didn't go a whole lot better and was probably the first time that we seriously questioned our desire to continue with this job. It turned out to be a 19 hour day when it was all over.

Aside from the normal routine of a conference call in the AM to review the day's planned sales activities and many fires that we had to put out regarding resident issues, we had another conference call in the afternoon that lasted over an hour. It was to discuss the Accounts Receivable list with the Regional Director who is trying to develop an action plan to collect past due rent from some of the residents. That isn't so bad except that the call was during our busiest part of the day and it got to the point during the last half hour that he was wasting our valuable time chasing overdue payments of $100 or $200 from a few residents.

Then there was the supper time. A half hour into the meal and just as Josie and I were finishing up our coffee and tea service, the ecall alarm went off again. We rushed downstairs (missing supper) to see where the emergency was and discovered that the apartment light wasn't lit wherever the problem was occurring. The alarm was sounding with no indication of where to go to check on the emergency. The only option for us was to go door-to-door at each apartment to see if they were OK. Most of them were in the dining room having supper, so we had to check the ones that were still occupied where people didn't come to the sit down meal. That effort revealed nothing and we were in communication with the Risk Management people from the Region. They suggested trying several different options - including checking all of the pull cords in each and every apartment - to discover where the alarm was being tripped and nothing worked.

There were other problems associated with the failed effort. First of all, we had to shut down the alarm in our apartment so that we would be able to sleep without the alarm sounding constantly. The second problem, while shutting down the system in our apartment, was what happens if there is a real emergency in the middle of the night and we cannot respond as a result of shutting down the alarm system in our apartment. We were forced to take the chance. There will be a technician coming into the community before noon today to fix the system, but in the meantime, the alarm will continue to blast in the dining room where we are not able to shut it down until the problem is fixed.

Nineteen hours after the first ecall false alarm we returned to our apartment for rest. We get to do another full day today and have ecall duty tonight for the whole night until 7 AM tomorrow. It is very discouraging and has us, aside from being dead tired, questioning our long term stamina for handling this kind of schedule. One resident told us that this situation has happened 3 times before. The building is old, the wiring is old and there needs to be a major overhaul of the system. We're hoping that this is just a big bump in the road and things will get better soon...

Ecall False Alarm

It was a typical day for us yesterday - very busy. Although we didn't have any tours or walk-ins, we had to catch up on phone calls to prospective residents and do a few reports for upper management. Charlie and Terri left for their long 2 1/2 days off at around 5 PM.

We had a fairly calm and smooth night until 3:30 this morning when the ecall alarm went off in our apartment. Josie and I rushed to get dressed, go to the office, locate the problem and rush to assist. It was a female resident in the apartment so Josie went to check. When she opened the door she found the woman on the toilet wondering why she came. Evidently, her cat was playing with the emergency cord and set off the alarm without her even knowing it. Sheesh! Of course, we couldn't get back to sleep as we had to get up at 5:15 in order to prepare for our normal work day starting at 7 AM. These are the times we hate. We are wondering why Terri and Charlie never have ecalls and we always seem to get them on our days. Luck of the draw, I guess.

We have had a problem getting our mail this week for some reason. Our schedule is set up to have mail shipped to us every Friday from our Florida address. The mail that was sent last Friday, Priority Mail, hasn't arrived yet and we are concerned that something has happened with it. Although Monday was a holiday, we still should have received it by now. We have already received mail at this location so we know the address is correct. Without any way to track it, we'll just have to wait and hope it arrives today. I can't start our taxes until we receive it since there are tax documents in that mailing that I need to complete the tax return.

It's just another day in paradise. It was 80 yesterday and expected to be in the upper 70's again today. Too bad we have to work...

Tours Most of the Day

Most of the day yesterday, beginning at about 11:30 which was a half hour after Charlie and Terri started, was taken up by tours for prospective residents. I was responsible for working with a couple that has his mother living here who is 98 years old. The interesting part of working with them is that they were considered good prospects but nobody had discovered in all of the previous activity with them that his mother was a resident here. How can that happen? That is the  reason they come here all the time - to see his mother, not because they fell in love with the community, although they do like it and someday may be residents themselves.

Charlie and Lydia (our sales lead) each had tours also and they were able to get their couples to sign contracts as move-ins. Of course, they get to work with the hot leads so they have a better chance to make that happen. I did make a call to a lady later in the day that had just received an award notice from the VA (Veterans Administration) for Aid and Assistance. She immediately became a solid candidate for moving in as almost half of her rent would be covered by that money each month.

The workload is becoming unreasonable though. With all of the activity we had yesterday, and with the successful tours resulting in contracts, we still received a scathing email from the Regional Sales Leader informing us that we didn't make enough phone calls in the You've Got Leads data base. None of these managers have any appreciation for the other responsibilities that the managers have within the Communities. They are totally sales driven and don't care about anything else. That disturbs us and is obviously the reason for the high turnover in managers. Somebody will eventually get the message. Oh, and we also had an ecall yesterday afternoon that caused us to work past our 3 PM quitting time until almost 5 PM.  A resident fell in her apartment and we think she broke her hip so the medics were called in.

We are getting ready for our marathon coverage beginning at 11 AM today. We will remain on duty and/or on call for the next 58 hours. Not our favorite time of the week...

You've Got Leads

That's the name of the software package we use to track our leads for new prospective residents. We learned how to use it during our 2 week training class in Corvallis, OR., and it is the lifeline for management to see where we are with all of the sales efforts. They complicated the whole process yesterday by requiring a new form called "touch point" to be completed after each contact with a lead. Basically, it is a script to be used to get answers to key questions about a resident during the sales call. It isn't bad enough that we already have the days filled with tons of other tasks to be completed. We do about 20 of these calls each day - in between everything else that we do.

There is another software package that I have been assigned to control, and that is called Kronos. It is the payroll software that we use and I have to review and change, if required, each time card entry by each hourly employee. That is everybody except management, who are exempt, and everyday there are employees that either miss a punch completely or don't take the required time between split shifts or breaks. It is a very time consuming task.

Josie's workload also became heavier yesterday with the assignment to handle the coordination of all special events at the Community. That is a huge and time consuming responsibility since we have events almost every weekend. There are more and more duties being added to already crowded days of responsibilities. There is no time to become bored.

We start early this morning - 7 AM - and work till 3 PM. Then, we are off until 11 AM tomorrow when we begin the marathon run of on duty and/or on call hours for 58 straight hours. Nobody said it would be easy...

Using Up Our Free Time

It was a bit overcast and a little cool yesterday so our planned trip to the beach was put on hold for a better day. We did take a trip to the fifth wheel so that Josie could pick up some cookie-making items such as cookie sheets, cooling rack, cupcake sheet plus a small frying pan to use in the apartment. She was going to make cookies and/or cupcakes while I did more shredding. It was time to eliminate all the files from Redmond Floral yesterday and everything was shredded to eliminate all evidence of those 5 years of our working lives. That was a wonderful time but ended on a sour note with the problems that the new owners created for us regarding the website. Also eliminated were files from the homes and properties we owned over the years between 2000 and 2008. We are getting down to a manageable number of boxes to shred. It was interesting to relive those experiences for a short time yesterday.

This morning I have an appointment with the Audiologist to re-program my new hearing aids. So far, they are not operating much better than my old ones and that needs to change or I'm sending them back. That should fill up the morning until we start work again at 11 AM. We aren't looking forward to going into the office to hear about the new pressure that the Regional Director has placed on Terri and Charlie, and to some extent, on us.

Vista, CA, is a small community that is kind of like a "pocket" of older buildings and mobile home parks, among the higher-end communities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and San Marcos. We feel that the nature of Vista, along with the older (acquired) building we have, has made it more difficult to attract the kind of retirees we are looking for to fill the community to capacity. As a result, we have built a community of mostly older people with lower incomes and having more physically challenging needs. That is just our observation, but upper management doesn't care. For example, the community that is near Santa Barbara is, and has been, a 100% occupied community for a long time. That community draws from a base of retirees that have more financial stability and the building is fairly new and one of Holiday Retirement's own design. It's interesting to see which communities have the higher occupancy rates by looking at their locations. Right now it doesn't matter to us as we are gaining the same kind of experience we would gain at any of the locations and it is building a knowledge that we can use anywhere within the network of communities. We'll stay the course, no matter what, and as long as we can...

Shredding and Costco

It is a very time consuming task to shred documents. I only finished 3 boxes of files yesterday out of about 10 that we brought with us. There are 2 problems. The first is that I need to look at the docunments first before shredding them to make sure there is nothing that we need to save. The second problem, and probably the worst, is that the shredder stops about once every half hour to cool down. This is about a 5-10 minute delay each time. All of these files are those that we had in storage for the 3 plus years we have been traveling and are out of date. They include all of our receipts that we saved for taxes and also my real estate files that have accumulated for over 7 years. Just about everything we get today is paperless statements so we shouldn't have this problem in the future.

The only break in the day between my shredding and Josie's cleaning was a short trip to Costco to get a couple of new pillows. We don't want to take things out of the fifth wheel that we may be using for weekend trips and the ones we've been using at the apartment are old and lifeless. After another quick stop at the Albertson's store across the street for a few things and it was back home to do a little more shredding and watch some TV.

Day 2 of our weekend is today and there will be some more shredding and maybe a trip to the beach. We still haven't been there to take in any of the local beach areas so it's about time we did that.

Josie had a brief conversation with Terri and Charlie while returning the portable phone and beeper to them yesterday and they are a bit down. Our Regional Director is placing a lot of pressure on them - and everybody - to get more move-ins and the pressure is getting to them. We still think that the sales function should be totally separate from operations so that management can concentrate on running the Community and making the residents happy. They will probably find out the hard way.

Happy Presidents' Day everybody...

On the Lighter Side

I thought it would be a nice change to relate some of the funny and cute experiences we've had with some of the residents. It isn't always all business and go-go-go.

Starting with Richard, who is perhaps the individual that provides us the most entertainment, if you want to call it that. He has only been a resident here for about 4 months and he has already moved once from his original studio apartment into another studio apartment from the first to the second floor. He kept complaining about the broken (cracked) window in his apartment - which he broke while trying to open - and his heater and A/C unit which didn't operate properly - he broke that also - and his toilet which was constantly backing up and overflowing onto the floor - he was always flushing huge amounts of TP and even food down the hopper. Yesterday, he came into the office and said he lost his keys - for about the 5th time. He said he went to sleep in his old apartment and woke up in his new apartment on the second floor and couldn't find his keys. Hmm. We are out of duplicate keys to give him so fortunately, somebody found his keys on the ground upstairs. He is always coming into our office complaining about something.

Then there is Yolanda. She is going to celebrate her 95th birthday next week and is a peppy little lady that almost runs with her walker. She comes in regularly asking for more TP. One day, Josie went with her to her apartment to see if she really needed TP and she kept asking "where are we going now?". She loves to dance and socialize and comes down almost every night before we close to ask where everybody is? She says that nobody comes down at night to sit in the lobby area and talk.

Then there is Eileen, who came in one day to tell us that her scarves were missing and she thinks the "spirits" stole them. Yesterday, she came to our table at supper to inform us that another resident "stole" her towels from the laundry room after she washed them and she knows who it is. Josie went to the "accused" resident and asked her to please check her laundry basket for some strange towels.

There is a couple that sits close to us at meal time that is a joy to watch. She is going to celebrate her 100th birthday in March and her husband is much younger than her and they have only been married for 7 years. They sit at the table and hold each others hand all the time and he takes care of her like she is his only focus in life. He cleans her silverware, gets her extra napkins and is always up and down from the table getting something for her. She is a spry and very active lady for being 100 years old and, although she uses a walker, still gets around well and is sharp in all conversations. We are planning a huge birthday party for her next month and her husband has given us pictures of her from childhood through adulthood that we will show to the Community on her birthday.

These are just a few of the things we witness that make the job more fun. There are many more instances like these that fill the days while we are working the long hours.

We have the next 2 days off so we hope to get some things done that we've been putting off for some time...

Busy With Tours

We had 3 tours scheduled for yesterday and they took  a good portion of the day. I had one with a couple that came in around 11:30 and we met in the model until dinner at 12:15. I did the normal coffee service during the meal and was up and down from our table while doing that but the couple understood. They used to work here in 2007 and not only knew the procedure, but they knew several of the residents and a couple of the employees. They only worked here for 4 months so we are wondering what happened. They appear to want to become residents here, but some observations from our other sales people think they might be just using us to get VA benefits approved and then go to a different community that doesn't have as many amenities included as ours. It could be very true. They are much younger than the current residents.

There was another couple that walked in - an elderly lady with her granddaughter. It didn't take long to qualify them - or disqualify them. The lady had a monthly income of only $800 per month and could not afford even our lowest priced apartment. They were looking for low income housing.

Josie was busy doing office stuff like A/R, deposits and also putting out fires as they flared up. It was an all around busy and long day. Our managers, Terri and Charlie, came in for a few hours to finish up some stuff they had been working on before taking their 2 days off. We would not voluntarily come in on our off days, so we looked at each other when that happened.

There were no ecalls again last night - thank you. We have one more long day today and on-call tonight and then we get our 2 days off. I had to call the Audiologist office yesterday to schedule a quick appointment to have some tuning done on my new hearing aids. They are not performing as well as I would like in certain environments so I will go in on Tuesday AM before starting work to have them re-programmed.

We are determined to get rid of the files we brought with us to shred, so we are committed to shredding those on our days off to eliminate them once and for all. That will be a relief and will free up some space in our apartment. That's about it for now as we get ready for our last work day of the week...

Pushing Hard for Sales

The pressure is mounting to get sales, especially on Terri and Charlie, our managers. They received a not so nice email from the Regional Director expressing his disappointment in their performance. This is the couple that is the favorite of this RD. Josie and I felt it was not appropriate as they were training us for one week and the second week they were on vacation to visit Charlie's ill mother on OK. The company doesn't care about excuses.

We did have a couple walk in yesterday with their 92 year old mother and they ended up liking what they saw so much that they signed a contract and the mother will move in before the end of February. That's actually the best way to get move-ins. When they walk through the door they are looking for a place so you already have a (almost) qualified resident. There aren't any other retirement communities in this area that offer what we do, so we have an advantage if we can get them in to look and to talk with us.

We worked until around 8:30 last night and by the time we got settled at home it was time for bed. These next 2 days are long ones and will be another test of our ability to run things on our own. It's the first time we work on the co-manager's schedule so it will be slightly different from the schedule we have worked up to now. The co-manager schedule contains more on-duty time so we need to build up our stamina to be able to handle it. Essentially, we work 24 hours each of the next 2 days. It seems like a lot of work - and it is - but we do have some down time during the day with the meals and sleep time taken out after normal work hours. We were fortunate last night that there were no ecalls and we slept through the night. Hopefully, the next 2 nights will go the same way...

Weather Jinx

Ever since I bragged about the nice weather a few days ago it has rained every day. Yesterday it rained off and on all day and was very cool and blustery. It is overcast this morning again so enough said about the wonderful weather here - for now, anyway.

It was a typical Wednesday at work with the big, weekly conference call taking place from 11 AM until after noon. Once again, the pressure to get sales was put on everybody and the Regional Director threatened to write up any Community sales people that don't meet their sales projections for the month. I don't care what anybody says, you cannot motivate people to work hard if they are threatened. Negative motivation has an opposite effect. I don't think they realize that the economy has impacted the sales at all of the Communities as the children of our prospective residents are using their elderly parents more and more for financial help to get through this economic downturn. They are having their parents live with them to help out financially.

The afternoon for us was a short one as we were scheduled to end work at 3 PM but didn't leave until almost 4 PM. We do have the morning off today until 11 AM and then we hit the long stretch of 2 1/2 days without relief. Counting the hours between quitting time at 8 PM and the start of the next day, we have the next 51 hours of on-duty accountability. That means that even though we aren't in the office, we have the phone and have to respond to any ecalls during the off hours. We're hoping for a quiet and smooth run during that time...

Audiologist and Back to Work

My appointment at the Audiologist lasted about an hour. The new hearing aids were fitted and tuned in the office, but to fine tune them requires some use in the real world and, probably, several follow up visits. They performed well yesterday, but there are some adjustments that I noticed need to be made. I still have a problem in crowded situations like the dining room, but they performed much better than the old pair. I could at least follow the conversation at our table during meal time. My first follow up appointment is February 28, and I believe I can wait till then to go in again. I probably will discover some other fine tuning that needs to be done by then.

The first day back to work was again targeted at new sales. There is such an emphasis on adding new residents that you wonder if upper management even knows that there are must-do tasks everyday that require your full attention. At times it seems like we are asked to perform like car salesmen and hang in the face of people to pressure them into deciding to come here. We, personally, don't like that kind of pressure to be placed on people. I was upset yesterday when I discovered that 2 people that I had been working with were contacted by 3 other, different sales people - within a 48 hour period! People are going to get turned off with that kind of pressure. It reminds me of car salesmen when they get your telephone number. They pester you to death until you either buy or you tell them to leave you alone. It's tough to build trust and relationships with individuals when so many others are interfering in your sales effort. Oh, well.

We were on-call all night last night and fortunately we had no ecalls. Our phone rang twice during the night but nobody was on the other end. It was probably a resident trying to get in touch with the kitchen to order some food to have delivered to their apartment. It's another day of 7 AM till 3 PM today. It's a challenge to get off work on time with Terri and Charlie - who come on at 11 AM and work through the rest of the day. They are sticklers for detail and almost always have some report or task that they need you to complete before you leave. With all the phone calls we are required to make to new prospects, it makes for a very busy schedule. So far though, we are still positive about the overall experience and feel like we can fulfill our objectives here...

It Does Rain in Southern CA

Just when I brag about the beautiful weather, we get a couple days of overcast and wet weather. It rained pretty hard at times yesterday and we didn't see much sun at all for the first time since we arrived here. There was more rain overnight and the forecast is for scattered showers today. That's not all bad except that the temperatures are much cooler than before. We were in the 50's yesterday and it will not get much warmer today. I finally did the rest of the work in the apartment - hanging the new (curved) shower curtain rod, putting in the paper towel holder and cleaning up around the desk area.

My appointment (4 PM) at the Audiologist was rescheduled to this morning. Evidently, she had some changes in her schedule so I have to go this morning before going to work at 11 AM. There should be plenty of time to get fitted and to fine tune the new hearing aids. I am hoping that they help in some of the situations I was struggling to hear clearly in the past. It's a major investment, but after over five years with the old set, I was due for a new pair.

It's back to work today and we are looking at some long hours over the next 5 days. Actually, there aren't any long hours until Friday and Saturday when Charlie and Terri have their days off. Those are the 2 days a week we have to solo from 8 AM until 8 PM, plus handle the on call duties overnight. We'll see how we like the new schedule after this week.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY !!

Real Time Planning

Our plans to do some tasks around our apartment changed quickly yesterday. After watching a little TV and having coffee in the morning, we put together a trip to several stores that would have us ending up in San Diego.

For some time now, we both have been struggling with "demons" in our computers which slow things down, cause untimely crashes and have hidden adware and spyware that we needed removed. Best Buy has a program that fine tunes your computer and removes all that ugly stuff along with fixing damaged registries which I'm sure we have. Anyway, the nearest Best Buy was in Oceanside, so we planned a visit there to get some information.

Josie wanted to look at some clothes at a Dress Barn, the nearest of which was located in north San Diego, about 20 miles from Oceanside. The final stop in the plan would be the nearest Sams Club to sign up for a service plan for our new TV before the 30 day window closed from the time we purchased it - in Arizona just before our move. That was also in San Diego, so off we went.

We did all the planned stops and had a late lunch at a Souplantation that was located just across the street from the Dress Barn. It has been probably 5 or more years since we ate at one of those and it was a great reminder of what we had missed. We didn't return home until almost 6 PM, so the day was shot. Days off are to be used for relaxing and fun stuff, right? We haven't worked here long enough to justify wasting our days off with more work.

Today will be slightly different. I have an appointment to be fitted with my new hearing aids at 4 PM in Carlsbad and we plan to stop at the Outlet Mall which is near the Audiologist office. The rest of the day will most likely be used to do a few of the tasks we didn't get done yesterday. It will be our final day off before a stretch of 5 long days on duty. The days with free time just go by too fast...

Partial Work Day

There were 2 special events that we were assigned to work yesterday. The first was a seminar on VA benefits and we had 31 attendees which was excellent. Our jobs were to help with taking individuals and/or couples on Community tours following the presentation. There was another event - Dessert Extravaganza - where the chef had prepared a long table of desserts for people to enjoy that were invited to attend an open house at the Community. Of course, these events were running concurrently and people were everywhere. It was very difficult to locate the people we were assigned to take on tours and the whole 4 hours we spent working the events were mass confusion.

We survived the 4 hour stint and had the rest of the day off. The DirecTV tech came and connected us up to the dish that was already installed outside from a previous management team and we now have our full compliment of stations, DVR capability and high definition on most of our stations. The whole exercise cost us $25 for the call and $6 per month for the new receiver we have. Not bad at all. We've already watched a good movie (Secretariat) this morning.

Our schedule has us off for the next 2 days and we will enjoy that time to catch up on some chores around the apartment. I need to install the (curved) shower curtain rod, the paper towel holder under the sink and a couple of other small items to take care of inside. I may even get a chance to do some shredding that we brought with us. Ugh!

There was a short rain shower this morning but for the most part, we have had perfect weather. It's in the mid 70's just about every day with clear, blue skies. We could get used to this part of the country...

Local Stuff and Homework

It was a relaxing morning yesterday and we just sat around, had some coffee and a bowl of cereal and watched the Today show. It was around 11:30 when we decided to drive down the street to the Walmart and pick up a few items for the apartment. Josie needed a small rug for the doorway and also wanted a picture frame - the multiple frame type - to hang on the wall with family photos.

We then stopped at the Goodwill store that is close to our Community to see if they might have a small table we could place on our patio outside to use with our chairs that we brought over from the fifth wheel. There was nothing there that we could use, so we'll wait on that. Even though there is a high percentage of junk in those stores, occasionally you can find something that is in good shape and real cheap.

Following our errands, we did some of the homework assignments that we need to complete within the first 30 days at the Community. There are assignments that need to be done within the first 7 days (all done), first 30 days and the first 90 days. There is no complete break from work until after all those assignments are done. They are all online and not too difficult so we don't mind doing them.

I called DirecTV to schedule them to come out and connect our service at the apartment. It turns out that they will come out, install a new dish outside and let us use another receiver for $6 a month while we are here. That way, we don't have to take the box out of the fifth wheel to use here. It will allow us to continue to use DirecTV while on weekend trips in the fifth wheel without the hassle of switching the box out each time. They come today, between noon and 4 PM.

Our only obligation today is to help out with the events that are scheduled between 10 AM and 2 PM. We should be done with work by that time and be able to enjoy the rest of today, tomorrow and Monday before heading back to work. There was an ecall at 3 AM this morning and we were glad we didn't have to handle that one on our day off. Although we haven't seen them yet, we understand that Terri and Charlie are back from their trip to OK. They begin work again tomorrow, so it will be just the 4 of us for the next several weeks as Rob and Jamie leave tomorrow night. We feel confident that we will be able to handle the tasks ahead...

Closing Out the Week

It may just be that we are getting into the flow at work but it was another calm day at Arcadia Place yesterday. We did our usual food service duties - pouring coffee and serving tea - at breakfast and dinner (lunchtime) and a few other tasks.

We had a waffle bar breakfast that was very successful in the morning. Here are several shots that we took of that event:

The other couple - Rob and Jamie - came on at 10:30 AM and we worked together until we left at about 3:15 PM.



Rob and Jamie are the floaters that are working here and they are leaving Sunday night to head to another assignment in Redlands, CA. We talked a lot at dinner about their floater duties and we don't think that would suit us at all. First of all, they are paid hourly instead of salaried. That may sound good on the surface, but they have some fairly long stretches where they have no work at all. Also, there is no stability in any one area to establish any kind of home. Randy, our Regional Director, had hinted to us that we may be utilized as floaters in a different way. First of all, we would be salaried and use Vista as our home base, and we would only be sent to fill in for somebody's vacation for a short time, then return to Vista. We'll wait and see what happens with that scenario.

It was nice to get home early. We changed and went to Costco to pick up some items and then came home to watch a movie we bought at Costco - Moneyball. I enjoyed the movie but it wasn't Josie's cup of tea. She's more into romance and/or adventure movies.

Today is an off day which will be used to finish up some details of the apartment. We will work the events tomorrow which will run from about 10 AM until around 2 PM and then be off again on Sunday and Monday. Terri and Charlie will return on Sunday, so we will be at our normal workforce and schedules beginning Tuesday for us. We're looking forward to enjoying this break...

Training Breather

It was back to operations training yesterday from 10 AM until 3 PM with just some time out for lunch. It was actually beneficial for us as we learned some things that will be very important for us to know on a regular basis. The main thing was preparation of contracts which we hope to get plenty of practice with in the near future.

The rest of the day from 3 PM until quitting time at 8 PM was a breeze - finally. There were no emergencies, no fires to put out and basically it was a pleasant afternoon and evening. There are always some uneasy moments though, such as discovering one of our residents watching TV in the model apartment as we were closing up for the night. He was a bit unhappy when we came in to lock up and made him leave. From now on, we will keep the model locked until we need to use it to show a prospective resident.

It was easier getting up early this morning knowing that we can sleep in for the next 5 days. Having tomorrow off, working only a few hours in the middle of the day Saturday, having Sunday and Monday off and not having to go to work until 11 AM on Tuesday makes for a nice run of easy days. It is our turn for an easy stretch, I guess.

We are looking to be on cruise control again today as we only work until 3 PM. There are some finishing touches to be made to our apartment on our days off and I will bring over the DirecTV box from the trailer to try and set up here. The cable system broadcasts all the major networks in regular digital TV and not High Definition, so we will try to change that. The cable company that is used here is Orion, so they must be behind the curve in presenting new technology to the customers here in Vista.

That's about it from here, so have a great day...

More Training

We had a very smooth morning yesterday as we were solo again until 11 AM. The leak was discovered that caused the ecall the night before and it was located and repaired by noon. The water had to be shut off in the Community, but only for about a half hour.

Our 2 days of additional training in Operations got a late start as the instructor, who was scheduled to arrive at 10 AM, didn't arrive until noon. Our work schedule had us getting off at 3PM, but since we got a late start on the training, we didn't get home until 4:30. It didn't seem quite fair that our off time should be taken up with training, but that's the way it goes. The same will happen today. We are scheduled to start at 11 AM, but the instructor asked us to come in early at 10 AM.

Training aside, we received our new work schedule from Terri by phone and email from OK. We will work today and tomorrow, have Friday off (our normal day off), work a special event for a few hours on Saturday, and have Sunday and Monday off. They will be our new days off beginning next week. In other words, we will have the co-managers schedule where we have been on the managers schedule up to now. Rob and Jamie, the "floater" couple that has been here, will leave for their new assignment in 2 weeks. It makes little difference to us.

It's nice to have a little extra time on the days we are not scheduled for the full day. We are caught up on sleep and ready to go again...

Better Solo Day

Our second solo day yesterday wasn't nearly as hectic or long as Sunday. There were some fires to put out, but overall, it was a calm day. The biggest problem that we've discovered with these solo days is that almost all of the support has the same 2 days off. With the exception of the maintenance manager, every other support function had a second consecutive day off. That included: the other co-manager couple, Community Sales Lead person, her assistant, all of the housekeepers, and the Activities Director. It makes it that much more difficult when so many others have the day off.

We found out that an individual is coming to our Community today to train us in the Operations of the Community. For the next 2 days, we will be spending most of our hours with him. It's a shame we didn't have this training before we were tossed to the wolves the last 2 days.

There was a lot of discussion among the residents about the fish tank situation. It seems that the fish that died have been here for 7 years and had become a fixture and friends to them all. There was a lot of finger pointing and blame being tossed around among the residents as to how they died, so it has become a touchy situation for us. Terri and Charlie are going to have to decide on how to handle that one.

That should be our only and biggest problem. There are serious maintenance issues with this building. The toilet problems were fixed yesterday, but we had an ecall at 2:40 AM this morning. It was our next door neighbor who had water dripping from a huge bulge in his foyer ceiling. Josie and I helped as best we could by puncturing the ceiling to let the water drain into a trash bucket, and Josie called the maintenance manager at home to get other suggestions. He will be in early today to diagnose the problem. We checked the apartment (empty) that was directly above his, and there was no water that was flooding the floor above his apartment. It seems like it is coming from the pipe that runs into his apartment that we spotted behind the ceiling tile outside his front door, so that will be fixed today.

This morning should be very busy with a conference call on sales, meal service and a meeting with the Regional Sales Leader who is coming in to slap the hands of the Lead Sales people here who left us alone to handle a contract signing. It turned out that the potential resident wasn't fully qualified as they are going to investigate an assisted living option before deciding to move here. Then, our Operations training should begin.

Since our 2 longest days are over, we feel like it is downhill for the rest of the week. I hope we're right...

First Solo Day

Our first full day without any other managers on duty was eventful. The morning started with several emergencies - an ecall that was a false alarm, an overflowing toilet in an apartment and a leak from the ceiling in another apartment. These all happened within an hour of each other and resulted in our missing part of the breakfast hour.

The ecall was from a lady that had set off the alarm accidentally. The pull cord located in the bathroom is very close to the towels that hang from the towel rack and she accidentally caught it in the towel. The toilet problem was from an individual - Richard - who is constantly complaining about some problem. He recently moved from one apartment to another and the problems just follow him. This time the toilet tray in the tank was not level so the water kept running into the tank, never shutting off. Evidently, it ran all night and his apartment was flooded. The result of all this water created the third problem - the apartment below his was dripping water from the sprinkler head in the ceiling which is directly under Richard's apartment.

Between handling these emergencies and other required duties, the day was very, very busy and we were happy to see the day come to an end. Another problem during the day was that someone overfed the fish in the fish aquarium we have in the lobby, creating what looked like a snowstorm in the water. We called the aquarium maintenence company and they said it should be alright and would correct itself with the new filter they put in the week before. The water became more and more cloudy and the next thing we knew people were reporting that the fish were floating upside down in the tank - dead. Sheesh! The aqaurium tech finally came anyway - too late.

This was the first Super Bowl game that I've missed in I don't know how many years. The luck of the schedule didn't allow for any time to see the game except for the last 2 minutes, which were probably the most exciting anyway. It was definitely a different kind of day than any we've had so far. There were some discouraging moments, but overall, we think those experiences will better prepare us for the days ahead. We hope so. Almost all of the the people are very nice and friendly, and are just looking to be happy.

Business wise, I had a walk-in and a tour that I gave to an individual looking for an Independent Retirement Community for his dad who is 78 years old. It looks like a great prospect and may be my first acquired move-in. His time frame is very short, and he liked what he saw and heard, so we have a great chance for success with them.

Day number 2 as solo managers is today and it has to be a better day than yesterday. We already had a call from a resident this morning - at 4 AM - asking for the kitchen to send a breakfast tray to her apartment. Overall, we did a great job yesterday and are satisfied that we couldn't have handled anything any better than we did. The stories are mounting...

Chores and Family Visit

We were able to get only one of our scheduled apartment chores done yesterday. The new shower head was put on in the bathroom (nice), but I didn't have my drill to install the new shower curtain rod and the new door locks had a problem with the screws, so we couldn't use them to replace the existing locks.

There was a list of things we still needed to pick up from the fifth wheel, so we went over to the RV storage area and picked those up on the way back to the Outlet Mall to exchange some clothes that Josie bought. That still represents, to me at least, a shopping experience that is rare these days:

We stopped at Wetzel's Pretzels in the mall to have a soft pretzel snack which we haven't had in some time - umm, good!.

It was back to the apartment and we did a little bit more of our homework assignments and then called Costco to order a couple pizzas to pick up and take to visit Debby and her family who are staying at George and Cheryl's timeshare condos on the beach in Oceanside. It was like Christmas shopping at the Costco that is located in Vista. Parking was difficult and the crowd was immense. It has to be one of the busiest in the Costco chain of stores. But, our pizzas were nearly ready and we were out of there and at Debby's by about 5:15 PM.

We had a wonderful visit with them and we took these shots of the sunset:

and of Debby and Taylor while standing on the veranda that overlooks the ocean:

David was off somewhere watching TV and we had to catch him later, watching TV in the bedroom:

It amazes us to see the changes in the kids as they grow up. It was great seeing them and we look forward to their visit to our apartment sometime down the road.

We returned to the apartment at around 8 PM and were ready for bed shortly after 9 PM.

Today will begin the first real test for us as we will be on duty alone, all day today and tomorrow. We hope it goes smoothly. There is so much to remember that we are bound to forget something, but hope that we do enough of the necessary tasks to get through the week without any disasters. We are confident that we have enough knowledge at this point to successfully handle the job...

Relaxing on First Day Off

It was nice to relax and not worry about taking in more input on work related activities. It was a week of overload, for sure. There are so many activities and functions to perform that it will take a while to get them all memorized to the point they become automatic.

Our morning was spent just relaxing and having a light breakfast in our apartment. We went over to the fifth wheel to get a few things and to return some items we don't need. From there, we went to the Carlsbad Premium Outlets to find some work clothes. What a neat place to go. It is one of the nicest outlet malls we've seen anywhere:

All of our favorite stores were represented there and it was very enjoyable just walking around and looking at the different planters, trees and architecture. We found some good buys on clothes and stopped at Ruby's Diner for a great burger.

I had my appointment at the Audiologist at 2:45 in the afternoon and that went about as expected. I definitely, and desperately, need the new technology that is offered in today's hearing aids. They are super expensive, but I can't take a chance on getting less than I need to function as close to normal as I possibly can. The process of testing, evaluating and taking molds of my ears was completed and I have ordered new devices to be delivered in about 10 days. I wish I could get them sooner, but that is as fast as they can go.

After coming home and relaxing some more, we did a few of our required homework assignments that need to be completed during our first 7 days on the job. Mine are now finished and Josie only has 2 to go to finish up on hers.

It was off to bed and we were in a deep sleep when, suddenly at 2:20 AM, the ecall alarm sounded. Josie was up in a flash and we both ended up going to assist the other couple with the emergency. The woman that had the emergency just fell in her apartment and couldn't get up by herself. She was asked if she could get up by herself and she answered "honey, I'm 98 years old and can't do much of anything". She had no injuries, but we are not permitted to lift the residents, so 911 was called and Paramedics came to help. It was back to the apartment and back to bed again.

Our second day off today will be filled with apartment activities: replacing the shower head, shower curtain rod and the locks on our patio door. We plan to go and visit our niece, Debby, and her family at around 4PM at Oceanside, and we will bring a couple pizzas along to enjoy some dinner with them. It should be another fine day in Vista, CA...

Wrapping Up The First Week

Everything went smoothly for most of the morning until it came time for Terri and Charlie to leave for their trip. There was a conference call scheduled for 11 AM with the sales gurus from the region which started on time. It was a typical conference call, similar to those that I sat in on for more than 35 years in sales. There are 13 Communities in the region, and we had to sit and listen to reports from each of the other 12 during the call. I will never understand why management takes up so much productive time of so many people to waste with information that does not affect them. There should be one-on-one calls with each Community to discuss their sales. That would make a 1 1/2 hour conference call a 10 minute conference call and everybody could be doing what they are paid to do. Oh, well.

At noon time, with the conference call still in session, we had several activities occurring simultaneously: a couple walked in asking for information and a tour, Terri and Charlie had to do last minute things to leave, Josie and I had to do pour service for the meal and there was a resident that wanted to pay his monthly rent. It was mass confusion. We left Jamie (half of the other couple) to end the conference call, Rob (the other half) took the walk-ins on tour, Josie and I left to do the meal service and Terri and Charlie left without goodbyes. Somehow, the check from the resident was accepted and he was given a receipt.

There has only been one serious concern since we started and that is the effectiveness of my hearing aids in certain situations. I cannot hear conversations clearly in a crowded room, such as meal time, nor in meetings where there are several individuals speaking at once. The conference calls are also a problem since the speaker phones do not send out a clear message. The telephones are also difficult for me to use and that is one very important part of the job. I have an appointment scheduled with an Audiologist today to see what can be done to resolve those problems.

Other than that, our first full week is in the books. It has been a good experience so far and we are happy that we get a chance now to finish up some details on the apartment. We plan to go back to the fifth wheel today to pick up some miscellaneous items and to take back some that we decided we don't need. We also need to drop off some clothes at the cleaners for next week and we may go to purchase more dress clothes somewhere. It has been so long since we had to dress in business clothes that we got rid of most of that stuff over the last several years.

The weather has been perfect and we heard that the groundhog saw his shadow yesterday. We'll take the 6 more weeks of winter here...

More and More New Stuff to Learn

The amount of new information and new tasks keeps flowing to us at a phenominal rate. It's a wonder that there is time for potty breaks during the work day with all of the work that needs to get done each day. Our managers are leaving today to go to OK to visit Charlie's mother who has cancer, and they are trying to bring us up to speed as quickly as possible. The schedule has them leaving around noon today which will leave just the other couple and us to finish the day. Josie and I are off work at 3 PM today and will not return to work until Sunday at 7 AM.

When Sunday rolls around, it will be just the 2 of us for the first 2 days next week. It is a lot of responsibility to be the only managers on duty for 2 days, especially after having only been here for 1 week. Terri and Charlie have done everything they can to prepare us for next week, so this morning will be a wrap up of last minute items to remember.

Working with the other couple has been an experience in itself. They are definitely short timers here as they don't seem to want to get involved in much of what we are doing. They will be moving on to another assignment in a couple weeks so it doesn't matter, I guess. They seem nice enough but are not going out of their way to be sociable. They don't even wear their name badges which we don't understand. We just mind our own business and do what we are asked to do.

We're looking forward to the time off so that we can settle in some more at the apartment. When we work such long hours during the day, we haven't felt much like working around the apartment. We still need to get some things from the fifth wheel, so our days off will be pretty much filled with these final set up duties.

It's off to work for our final day this week...

Shorter Day

Even though we still worked a little bit past our designated end time of 3 PM - we worked until about 3:45 - it was a far cry from the previous 2 days. Charlie, on the other hand, was still meeting with prospective residents when we left. He was under a different pressure to close more business before the end of the month. Our Community has to climb out of the basement in terms of occupancy (70%) and there already is a sign that the trend has been reversed. Even though Terri and Charlie have only been here for about a month, the occupancy has risen over 3%. The goal is always to achieve over 90%, so we have a way to go yet.

The day was almost entirely taken up with sales activity for me, and Josie again was learning more office procedures and accounting functions. It is a different kind of sales from the kind I used to do, but the elements of the sale are the same. It should be a fun and interesting experience.

We will always perform our pour duties at meal time and we did that yesterday for only the 2 meals we were scheduled to work. The other couple (Jamie and Rob) came on duty at 11 AM and they were to work until closing at 8 PM. We didn't get much of a chance to talk to them as they were busy doing their thing, whatever that is. Honestly, we don't know what their responsibilities are except to assist Terri and Charlie until our arrival. There is some kind of issue with them that Terri and Charlie haven't shared with us, and that is OK. Now that we are here, it is a little awkward working around them. The problem for us is that Terri and Charlie are leaving Thursday afternoon to visit their home in Oklahoma to see his mother who has cancer. They will be gone all next week and we will be the managers, along with the other couple. Our understanding is that they have another assignment somewhere and will be leaving us shortly after Terri and Charlie return from their trip. We'll see how that turns out.

Our start time today is 11 AM so it was nice to sleep in a bit and catch up on rest...