Flying Solo......

7:43 am - Wednesday - June 6th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 48º F, 96% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the northeast.....heavy cloud cover, no rain (finally) and a forecast high for today of 57º F.   It just stopped raining about 30 minutes ago after raining continuously for 44 hours.  Fortunately it was a gentle rain....never really poured.

We were not out of bed until after 8 am Tuesday......just because we could.  It rained all night Monday night, and was still raining Tuesday morning.....never hard....never loud......just a gentle, rhythmic pitter patter on the roof.  We love falling asleep to the sound of rain on our riveted aircraft aluminum roof!

We lazed around most of the morning thinking it would stop raining late morning, but it never stopped.  We wanted to drive into Bangor (pronounced Ban-GOR by the locals) to see a movie......seemed like the thing to do on a wet and cold June day.  We were hoping it would stop raining for the 52 mile drive, but it never did so we were off driving in the rain to Bangor a little after 11 am.  The movie we wished to see had a start time of 1:45 pm, but we were concerned about the rain causing traffic to be worse than normal....it wasn't, and we arrived at the movie theater (Hollywood Cinemas) a little after 12 pm....okay....an hour and 45 minutes until the movie begins.....what to do?

I had mentioned to TLE that I was not happy with the performance of our windshield wipers, and would like to replace them.....well, there was an O'Reilly Auto Parts store right across the street so we pulled in there and I went in to get some new wipers.  They had two brands of wipers......Bosch and the 'other' brand I had purchased a couple of years before and never ever really liked.  The Bosch are twice as expensive at $16 and change per wiper (over $33 with tax for two), but I decided to splurge for a change and went for the Bosch Pure Vision ones.....

.....I don't know about you, but I never look forward to changing my wipers as the installation of same is never intuitive.  It always takes me about 15 minutes to figure out how to get the old ones off, and the new ones on, which by the way, have a totally different way to be attached than the old ones.  So, here I was in the O'Reilly parking lot in a gentle rain, with poor lighting trying to install the new wipers.  Of course, they give you 5 different attachment clips (4 in a plastic bag, and one already attached to the new wiper), none of which look remotely like the one on your old wipers.  On the box it says "Quick and Easy Installation"....that is the first clue that it will be anything but "QUICK" or EASY".  It is always the same.....I struggle for about 15 minutes to install the first wiper, and then suddenly I see how it works, and wonder why on earth it took me so long.  The second one goes on in a flash and you are back in the car out of the rain muttering to yourself.  If you ever begin to feel really good about your intellect, and really sure you've got your stuff together just buy some new windshield wipers and try to install them in less than 15 minutes.....you will be quickly humbled, and wonder how you ever made it to the age of 68.5 years.

 Too many choices.....

Installed!

So, now it was around 12:30 and we still had over an hour until movie time.....well, right next door to O'Reilly was a Tim Horton's so we went inside to get a cup of coffee, and for me a couple of sour cream glazed donuts.....yum!  By the time we finished with our coffee it was moving on to 1:20 pm so we drove back across the street to buy our tickets to the movie.....

.....which was (drum roll) .....'Solo: A Star Wars Story'!!  We lucked out in that it was $3 Tuesday, so it only cost us $6.  I've seen every Star Wars movie, so in spite of the negative reviews I had been reading I wanted to see it anyway, and we are both glad we did, because we loved it.  I didn't realize until the credits at the end of the movie that Ron Howard had directed it.  I have liked all of his movies.  So, don't let the reviewers deter you from seeing Solo.....this movie fills in a lot of blanks regarding Han Solo, and I thought the story was well told.  I didn't pick up on any political, or social preaching that the 'reviewers' complained about.  To us it was just a an afternoon spent visiting with old friends and coming away with a smile on our faces.  The movie is exactly 2 hours and 16 minutes, and we were walking back to our car a few minutes after 4 pm.

The drive home in the ever present rain went a little faster than the drive into Bangor, and we were home at almost exactly 5 pm.....by the by.....the new wipers worked wonderfully!  We didn't do a whole lot on our day off from work, but it was just perfect for a rainy day.  Wednesday promises to be dryer, and I am sure there will be some new ground explored.....stay tuned!

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Rain man......

8:49 am - Tuesday - June 5th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 45º F, 92% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the northeast.......raining with heavy cloud cover....forecast high for today is 49º F.

I was back to an 8 am start time on Monday.  As I drove my golf cart down the hill to the office I couldn't help but think about the impending rain due around noon time, and that the forecast showed it raining from noon on Monday until mid morning Tuesday....that's a lot of rain.  This is the kind of weather that makes you hope there is something  to do inside in the afternoon, right?

I hooked up with Tony (he's off Saturday and Sunday) to do site checks, replenish the wood in the 'wood box', and then clean the two sites which were being vacated .  We had all that done by 9:30 am.  Just about that time we saw Alex (the guy with the broken left arm) driving up in his car.  Apparently he had gotten a letter from his orthopedist releasing him to work as long as he doesn't use his left arm.  We gave him a warm greeting and then headed off to mow some grass out near the entrance as well as do some edging with the gas powered Stihl string trimmer.  We finished with that task by 10:15 am and headed back to the office to find out what else we should do before lunch.  Tony joined forces with Alex to show him how to do site check.....we are now doing three per day, and that is something Alex can do with one hand.  

While they were making the rounds of the campground I went back and got the string trimmer to trim some grass in one of the tent sites that had been missed a couple of days prior, as well as some grass around the office area.   This brought us up to 11 am and time for lunch.

TLE has been beginning her work day at noon the past few days and closing the office at 8 pm, so she was still home when I arrived for lunch.  She had cooked me some minestrone soup for lunch....what a perfect lunch meal on a very cold, and soon to be wet day!  Around 11:30 am the rain began to fall, so when I went back to work at noon I put on my new SDC rain parka which Rain has so kindly purchased for me prior to our arrival here in Southwest Harbor.......

....it is completely waterproof and has a hood.  June is a very rainy month and we are finding that out first hand with this first storm of the month.  What you cannot see in this photo is that I am wearing shorts......at least I'll only have wet pants down to my knees.....lol!

Of course, our first job in the afternoon (12 pm to 2 pm) is to clean the restrooms which keeps us indoors, and out of the rain for two hours.  My last job for the day was to go and put to my pool water testing skills learned the day before into practice.  Alex came with me, because yes this is also a job that can be done with one arm.  Alex and I spent the next hour testing and retesting the water and finally had two tests in a row where we got the same results each time.  We have to first determine the chlorine levels in both the kiddie pool and the big pool, and then the PH level in each pool.  These tests determine whether any adjustments need to be made to either.  I think I'm getting the hang of the testing and recording of the results, and the practice was important.  Fortunately we do have an enclosed shed where we can do the testing out of the rain.

By 3 pm I was done for the day, and there would be no need for me to return to close the pool, as we never opened it due to the cold, and eventually wet conditions, so I would be able spend the rest of my day out of the rain.

I took a long, long hot shower which warmed my extremities, and then put on my pajamas and sat down to watch a couple of movies on TV.....'Olympus Has Fallen' (2013, stars Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, 6.5 out of 10 stars), and then 'Oblivion' (also released in 2013, starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, 7.0 out of 10 stars).  Then it was on to 'American Pickers' starring Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz....I love this show and what a better way to spend the end of a rainy afternoon that watching Mike and Frank on their never ending quest for 'rusty gold'.

TLE arrived home by 8:10 pm.....just as I was getting in the VW to drive down to the office to pick her up....I had forgotten she took an umbrella with her to work.  She enjoyed a brief walk home in the rain....it takes about 3 minutes to walk from the office to the Newell.

We were in bed a little after 11 pm drifting off to dreamland to the sound of rain pelting our aluminum roof.......sweet!

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Pool boy.....

6:12 am - Monday - June 4th - Southwest Harbor, ME - 46º F, 85% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the southeast.....mostly clear, blue skies this morning with forecast high of 50º F and a 70% chance of rain by noon time.

Good morning SDC!

Sunday morning was sooo cold!  It was clear and breezy, but the forecast high was supposed to be 59º F, but I do not believe it ever got that 'warm'.  I began the day wearing a jacket, and never took it off the entire day.  I was on the job at the pool waiting for Todd just before 7 am to learn how to manage the pool.  I really don't like  being up that early, and had I known I would not clock out for the day until almost 3:30 pm I would have liked it even less, but I get ahead of myself.

After completing the very thorough pool tutorial I picked up my golf cart to do site checks, and then fetch 6 bundles of wood to top off the wood box.  Then it was off to begin cleaning sites.  Unlike last Monday which was the end of the first big weekend of the season where we cleaned 59 sites, this Sunday only had us cleaning less than 20 sites.  Of course, first thing in the morning on 'vacuum day' there are only a few sites which have been vacated, which limits the number of sites which can be cleaned initially, but we stayed busy until 11 am and lunch.

I was back at 12 pm ready to clean the restrooms, and after a busy weekend it took us pretty much the entire two hours to do so.  Then it was time to finish cleaning the rest of the camping sites, as well as the BBQ's and fire pits in all the cabin sites.  We finished cleaning the rest of the sites by 3:15 pm and I was tuckered!  That was an eight and a half hour work day....my longest so far.

On the 'good news' front we learned that Alex (broke his arm a couple of weeks ago) will be able to return to work this week on a 'limited duty' basis, which will take a little pressure off the rest of us, particularly on Sundays where it is just Todd and I to do everything.

I was home by 3:30 pm relaxing, taking a nap, and then a very long shower.  By 7 pm I had recouped a lot.  After donning pants, a jacket, watch cap and gloves I headed down to close the pool, do another round of site checks (we do three rounds per day now that the summer season is under way), and then keep TLE company until she closed the office at 8 pm.

We were both home settling in for the evening by 8:15 pm......one more work day and we are off work once again.....yay!

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Deere, deere, deere......

5:13 am - Sunday - June 3rd - Southwest Harbor, ME - 48º F, 70% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the north by northeast.....clear blue skies with a forecast high of 59º F....brrrr!

Saturday began quite humidly, but within an hour of reporting for work the wind freshened and the humidity was blown away.....love the wind!  I anticipated Saturday being another day like Friday....work wise.  I expected Steven and I to go back to moving and edging, but Todd had other ideas for which I am grateful.  I needed an easy day.  Why?  Well, I was still recovering from our Cadillac Mountain hike on Wednesday.  We took care of our morning duties by doing site checks, then checking the wood box, which required no new wood as none had been sold.  Then we drove around the campground in the GMC pickup to gather all the trash.  As we were getting ready to drive over to the transfer station we noticed Todd was attempting to change the blown rear tire on the John Deere zero turn mower and offered to help.  Usually Todd would say 'no, I've got it', but he didn't.....instead he said 'I'm not sure....', which means 'Yes, I need help'.  We parked the truck and went inside the 'garage' to see how we could help.  These are like 10" tubeless tires and are very difficult to remove from the steel rim, and even more difficult to put back on the rim.  We ended up spending about 30 minutes wrestling with that new tire.  When we finally got it on the rim we were using all 6 of our hands, and 4 steel tire levers....I think there was some liquid soap involved at one point.  At any rate the new tire was installed, which meant we could get back to mowing the rather large grass areas, which if the grass got much taller would require the use of a hay baler, and not a lawn mower at some point.......

That was a booger!

......Steve and I headed over to the transfer station and were back a little after 10 am to pick up another load of old wood, two old BBQ's, and a bunch of old steel grill tops which had no further use.  We also retrieved the 5 five gallon gas cans to refill on our way home from the transfer station.  We were back at SDC by 10:50 am and since it was almost lunch time went ahead and punched the clock and headed for same.....a nice, easy morning of work!

After lunch it was back to our normal routine.....clean the men's and women's restrooms.  That took us to 2 pm at which time Steven headed for home as he had come in at 7 am to help Todd get the pool ready for the day.

For me it was a thorough tutorial on the operation of the our John Deere F687 zero steer riding lawnmower.  I have never operated one of these babies, but I have seen them in operation by others for years.  These things are not initially intuitive, but after about 20 minutes I had the hang of it and was off to mow the remaining grass (about 1 acre) out on the large grassy area which Todd had saved for me to do.  He had already mowed around all the obstacles around the perimeter of the grassy area so I would not have to worry (him either) about running into anything......

Finished....she looks good!

....in all it took me about and hour and a half to finish mowing that last acre of grass, but by the time I finished (4 pm) I felt much more comfortable operating the F687.....and I was T.I.R.E.D!

I was home by 4:20 pm relaxing in my recliner and watching the latest PGA Tour event, and dozing off periodically.  Finally, about 6 pm I got up to take a shower as I needed to return at 7 pm to help TLE close the office, patrol the campground and close down the pool.  We were home by 8:15 pm, and I was in bed by 9:30 pm as I have to be at work at 7 am on Sunday to learn how to test the pool water and get the pool ready for the day....another step in my learning curve.

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