Another Early Day

For the second day in a row, Josie was home early from work. They are all caught up on orders and they have enough prep work to be ready for the busy week ahead. Yesterday, she was home by 2:30.

We have talked about the possibility of staying over into mid May so that she could help through Mother's Day, but it still looks like we will be leaving as planned on April 1. There isn't enough incentive for her to stay the month of April to make just enough to cover our rent for the space and the extra electric charges. It isn't a final decision yet, but that's the way it stands right now. We have just about decided that we will return here next winter. What hasn't been decided is where we will stay if we do return. We put a deposit on a very nice space at Lake Pleasant while we were visiting there earlier this month which is the option we are leaning toward. We can also stay here again, probably on this space for more money since the owner hinted that the rent we are paying barely covers his expenses. The commute for Josie to work in Sun City would be a bit longer but the traffic would be less. Also, we would most likely work the Spring Training games again - assuming we do those games this year and get asked to come back. All of those plans need to be worked out but there is plenty of time for that.

Our plans right now still call for the extended trip to Alaska following our stay here next winter. We hope we can pull that off as it is the one destination remaining that is a must-do before we stop traveling. That, plus stopping in New England in the Fall following that trip. We are already gathering information on where to go and what to see for that once in a lifetime trip.

Today is the day I will start scheduling doctor appointments for a physical and for eye exams. There is also some work that I've been putting off on the truck that needs to be scheduled so that is also on the list. It looks like January will be the month to do all those things - plus begin gathering info for - yes, taxes! UGH.

More Unexpected VTO

When the morning meeting started at 6 AM yesterday at work, it was obvious that there wasn't a lot of work to do for the stow-ers. Of course, that's us, and the indications proved to be true. I was assigned to stow cases again and there were no cases to stow when I reached my area and the people responsible for bringing in the cases said there would not be any until the afternoon. Josie was assigned in what we call "trans" where the stowing is from large plastic containers and there were only a few of those available when she arrived at her station. So, to make a long story short, we volunteered to leave at lunch time.

We were sorry we made that decision as some work showed up just as we were preparing to leave. The morning went very slow until about 45 minutes before our departure, but it was too late by then since new schedules had to be devised for the afternoon to allow for all the people that would be gone. We have decided that we will no longer volunteer for VTO (Voluntary Time Off) as we feel we have given up enough time without pay and other people need to step up and share the time off. The problem with us is that we feel guilty being paid to stand around when there is not enough work. It will get very busy, real soon, as we approach Thanksgiving and the Christmas rush begins. When that happens, no VTO will be offered to anybody.

The extra time did help with my cold treatments. It is on the downside now and will hopefully be gone in a few days. In the meantime, I have to deal with the effects - stuffy nose, cough and some aches and pains. We picked up more medication after work yesterday so I'm ready to go today.

There are a couple dinner invitations we received from friends yesterday so it looks like we will be having dinner at Betty's in Columbia on Monday night, and at Fiesta Mexico on Friday of this week. The couple we are meeting on Monday night are the ones we worked with in Gray's Point and they will be leaving before the end of November. Theresa - or "T" as we call her - is the one with health issues and they have found a spectacular opportunity which I will describe in a later post. Essentially, they will be giving up travel for awhile to co-manage an assistive care facility in Florida. Great package for them. The work here has just been too physical for her so the new opportunity will be perfect.

Only 2 more days to go for this short work week. We will definitely be working the full days today and tomorrow, and hopefully, the rest of the way...

Short Work Day

Yesterday was one of our short work days - 7:45 to noon. Since the sun was out - yes, that was sun - we took a short trip to Newport to go to WalMart. This time we stopped at a couple locations on the way to see the different shorelines on this part of the Oregon coast. We were only a few miles south of Lincoln City when we stopped at a viewpoint in Depoe Bay. This is a picture looking north and you can see Lincoln City in the distance:

This particular location shows a rugged portion of the shoreline. The next picture, taken from the same stop , is looking south from Depoe Bay:

The trip to Newport is only about 22 miles and the shoreline changes from rugged, rocky areas to nice, sandy beach areas all the way down. Once you arrive at Newport, there are 2 lighthouses that are within the city limits. The first one is in a State Park and requires a fee to enter so we passed on that one. The second one was further south in the city and was accessible from a beach access road:

Both of these lighthouses are part of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse history that you can see in the link provided. Part of the history describes the Yaquina Bay Bridge which is below:

This was a good introduction for us to a typical town on the Oregon Coastal Highway. We will be featuring many of these towns in the future - we hope - including more history of Newport when we have more time to spend.

Our schedule also called for us to return to the the office at 6 PM last night to place phone calls to a database list of people that have stayed at Premier RV Resorts and try to get them to buy a "Value Card". This is a discounted card for either 10 or 30 days worth of stays at any of the 5 Resorts. The plan was to spend 2 hours making these calls but we stopped at 7:15 because we were getting a cool reception from most people. We concluded that it was mostly the time we were calling. People don't want to be sold anything while they are sitting down to dinner or just finishing dinner - we know that it is a no-no to us. Anyway, we felt that the program needed to be "tweaked" some more before we could comfortably participate.

We work another short day today. So far, it is dry, but the streak is alive at 14 consecutive days of measurable rain. Will it end today?...