One month......4.5 to go.....

06:11 am - Saturday - June 9th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 54º F, 68% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the west....clear, blue skies....forecast high for today is 72º F.  If you don't like the weather in Maine, just wait a day.

Friday was a typical June Friday here at SDC.....only one checkout, and about 20 arrivals....not much to do.  We've put in the hard work over the last 4 weeks (yes we have been at SDC for four weeks now), and now it is just a matter of maintaining what we have done.  We are expecting the arrival of some more of our seasonal workers over the weekend.....Tammy, Karen and Deb, and that should bring us to full staffing for the summer season.  

Deb is the night manager five nights a week, and I will be relieving her on her off days.  Up until now I have been the night manager 7 days a week, which does not mean much as the night manger phone has not rung one time while in my possession.  Once the 4th of July arrives and we are closer to full capacity then it will begin to ring....I have no doubt.  Right now I get $30/night to be night manager, which is on top of the hourly pay I receive during the day.  Again, once the 4th arrives that will jump to $50/night to be on call.  Tammy will be joining the outside crew (Steve, Tony, Alex and I), and Karen will be joining the office staff.  As we edge towards the 4th the office phone has begun to ring a lot more, and the extra help will be needed for sure.

Tony and I went through our normal routine (site checks, wood, trash) and then turned to trimming the grass around the pool area.  It began to rain just as we were finishing....we were not expecting any rain Friday.  At any rate, we had finished so we put away the blower and string trimmer and sought shelter.  Fortunately it was just a minor squall moving through the area and we were back to work in 30 minutes.  We made a run to the transfer station with the trash we had collected, and by the time we returned from that venture it was just about time for lunch.

After lunch we proceeded directly to the daily restroom cleaning routine which takes us from 12 pm to 2 pm, and the day was almost over.  We had some extra time so Tony and I installed two new vanity shields......one on each side of the urinals in the men's side (obviously) before cleaning it.  Tony was off at 2 pm since he had come on duty at 7 am to open the pool for the day, so I had another hour to fill before I punched the clock once again.  I went and retrieved the Stihl blower to clean off the concrete pads prior to the arrival of our weekend guests and finished just before 3 pm.....another day in the books at SDC.  I retrieved TLE from the office and we headed for the barn.

The evening weather was so nice we decided to grill some carne asada for taco salad and eat outside by the fire.....the second time since we arrived that the weather has been conducive to dining alfresco.   By the time I lit the fire the sun was finally making an appearance and it turned out to be a lovely evening outside including no bugs.

I haven't written much about the bugs here because, with very few exceptions, there have not been that many to complain about.  There was one day about 10 days ago that I received my first black fly bites, which have finally healed.  I've gotten a few mosquito bites, but generally they have not been an issue either.  I've only had to apply bug spray once, or twice each week, and it has been quite effective when I needed it.  This is what we were told to expect by our employer, and it is nice that it has actually worked out that way.  As we edge closer to the 4th of July and we get into the dryer season here on MDI the bugs should be less and less.

Well, it's off to another work day here at SDC......life is good!  Thanks for stopping by!