Animal Displays

One of the neat things about our new work location is the animal displays that we enjoy everyday. I walked around the Visitor Center yesterday and took a few shots of these displays. The first one is of a large Grey Wolf:

Another nice display is of this bear:

The real eye-catcher though, is of this elk display which is the first thing you see when you enter the building:

It is the perfect display for the Elk Refuge Visitor Center.

We are getting into the flow at our new location and we really like being close to downtown Jackson. It is so much more convenient for doing any shopping following work. Actually, it was super convenient for me to pick up my Fair entry which had to be done between 7 AM and 1 PM yesterday. Josie and I took our lunch while driving to the Fairgrounds to pick it up. We also stopped at the dental office where I made an appointment for today to address my broken bridge problem. I am struggling to eat anything that isn't liquid. I sure hope they can perform some kind of repair that will allow me to enjoy a meal once again.

Our first off-day will be spent mostly getting control of the irritating issues we have to address...

Another Issue

So, I have my hearing aid being repaired at the factory and while waiting for that to be done, I am wearing one of my old hearing aids that (basically) sucks. Add a broken bridge to the problems, and you have a good picture of how I am limping through this summer. Of course, there are no dental businesses open over the weekend, so I had to struggle with what food to eat with only the teeth I have left. What a terrible situation. I can't hear properly and I can't eat properly.

I sent an email yesterday to the dental office in Jackson and if I'm lucky, I will hear from them today about an appointment to get the bridge repaired. Life goes on.

So far, we like working at the new location. It is a much lower key operation than the Visitor Center we left. If we had our choice though, we would only work 4 days a week as we still have the scheduling issues where we have little free time. With 8 weeks to go, we can make it through the commitment. Our day ended at 7:30 last night, and we go to work at 7:45 this morning. The good news is that we get tomorrow and Wednesday off on our new schedule. Oh, and I have to pick up my cross stitch at the Fair today, between 7 AM and 1 PM. I guess I'll do that at lunch time...

First Day at New Location

Our first day at our new work location - Visitor Center at the Elk Refuge in Jackson - was a successful day. We met all the staff and learned about the differences from where we left at the Moose Visitor Center. It will be a smooth transition. There are some new responsibilities, such as selling fishing licenses, wood permits, and other permits, and raising the flag in the am, and lowering it in the evening. It should be a much less stressful environment for us.

We are still suffering from the effects of all the local wildfires, as this shot of our drive to work in the morning reveals:

Lots of haze.

Following work at 5:30 PM, we returned to The Lift again for Josie's birthday dinner. This time, we each had the salmon dinner and it was excellent. We started the meal with a couple nice birthday drinks:

Mine was the wine on left, and Josie experimented with a huckleberry and mint with vodka combination. We had the usual birthday dessert and decided to walk off some of our meal by going to the Fair down the street. We didn't stay long, and the skies were growing ugly from a storm that was approaching. We got this shot of the rainbow:

While driving home, we got a couple more shots of the mountains with the stormy weather approaching from the west:

We are off and running at our new location, and have 8 more weeks to go before ending another season in Jackson...

Grilling and Hanging Out

Our final day off before starting work at our new location was a stay home day - except for a short trip into town to look at soldering/welding solutions. We went to the ACE Hardware store where a salesman pointed me to a new product that eliminated the need for soldering or welding. It is called Bondit, and it is more like a super glue than anything else. The stained glass window didn't really need an expensive solution. Here is a shot of the window on our RV before the repair:

I took out the window and used the new product to put it together and reinstalled the window:

Good as new!

We stayed around the RV as Josie did some laundry and I took out the grill. We had a small BBQ with some corn we bought at the store and some naked beans to go along with our burgers:

It was kind of nice, and we enjoyed our last day of our weekend.

Today is memorable for a couple things. First, it will be the beginning of our working at the new location at the Visitor Center located in Jackson near the National Elk Refuge, and, secondly, it is Josie's birthday. Happy birthday to my wonderful wife...

Teton Fair Results

We made a trip to the Exhibit Hall at the Teton County Fair pretty early to discover the judging results. My entry - Indian Maiden - won the Best in Division title to maintain my streak of 4 years winning that title. I did not, however, win Best in Show this year as somebody beat me out of that title with a pillow, of all things, that was beautifully sewn. This is the shot of my entry:

We went from the Fair to The Lift restaurant to make a reservation for dinner with our friends and then went to Smith's for some groceries.

Our dinner with Ed and Eileen was scheduled at 5 PM and they came to pick us up at 4 PM. We parked at The Lift and walked two blocks to the Exhibit Hall at the Fair again as they wanted to see my entry and how it fared in the judging.

Our dinner was excellent, and we drove around the area surrounding our campground looking for some Bison. We found a herd, but it was off in the distance. Overall, it was a fun day. Oh, I also dropped off my hearing aid to be sent off to the factory and the Audiologist said that the "rush" notice that they will place on the device should ensure that I get it back in about one week. I sure hope so...

Great News

Our meeting with the Director of Operations this week has paid dividends. She was able to put together a transfer for us from the Moose Visitor Center to the Visitor Center where we have wanted to work in Jackson on the edge of the Elk Refuge. We will begin working there on Saturday, following our days off today and tomorrow. It will be a smooth transition and the work is basically identical to what we have been doing, with much less stress, which was our goal. That also means that we can cease all attempts to find another job in a different area (Malibu Beach Resort) and we can remain in our campground for the remainder of the season. We are hoping that it turns out to be a good move for us.

We are having dinner tonight with the couple that left last week for basically the same reasons - high amount of stress and working with a terrible manager. They will pick us up at 4 PM today, and we will first stop at the Fair to see the exhibits and then go to dinner at The Lift in Jackson. Hopefully, Josie and I will already know how my cross stitch fared as we plan to stop by during the day while we are in town for other chores. It should be a fun day.

The other piece of good news is that I converted to Windows 10 on my computer. I started the upgrade before going to bed to load during the night while asleep, and this morning - Wa-La! - it was installed. So far, I have had no major problems accessing any of my applications - including the blog - and all seems to be working fine. That is a huge relief.

Part of our action items today includes dropping off my problem hearing aid at the Audiologist for repair at the factory. I will attempt to arrange for a quick turnaround. That could be a challenge...

Management Meeting

Our initial interview at the Grand Teton Association was with a manager that was promoted to Director of Operations shortly after we started working here in May. All of the Visitor Center managers and supervisors report to her. We had sent her an email last week outlining concerns and problems that we were trying to work through at our location, and she scheduled a meeting with Josie and I for yesterday. The meeting went well, and she understood the situation we were facing at our location, and she - along with the Sales Manager for all of the Visitors Centers - are going to try to figure out a solution for us in order to keep us here for the remainder of the season. Worse case, they understand and agree, that if no acceptable solution can be found, that we could leave the area and still have an open door for returning next year. If an acceptable transfer can be worked out, we will stay. Otherwise, we will continue to pursue the option of going to Malibu Beach RV Resort within the next week or so. It should be interesting.

Following work yesterday, we went to the Fair Exhibit Hall and dropped off my cross stitch entry for this year. The judging will take place today. We have scheduled a dinner for Thursday with the couple that just left our work. They also could not accept working for the current manager at our Visitor Center so they gave notice and will just stay in the area to enjoy some hiking and rest before heading back to their home in Florida. Our dinner will be on Thursday, and we will stop by the Fair on the way to view the exhibits and see how my entry fared this year.

Our final day of work this week is today. It may also be one of the final days we will be working at this location. We will hear about potential changes by the end of this week, so things are really heating up. When we started this adventure, we agreed we would not stay anywhere where there was stress being felt at our work, so we are attempting to remove it at this point.

I'll end today's entry with a view of "our" mountains as they appeared yesterday after work: