Monday, May 31, 2010

5/31/2010 Memorial Day

Let’s remember that this is not a day for a picnic in the park or a day at the beach, it is for remembering those who gave their lives so that you enjoy those freedoms to do so.

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag,

It is the VETERAN who serves under the Flag,

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

5/30/2010 One Egg, Two Eggs, Three Eggs, Four…

I watched something amazing today! Probably something that not very many people get to actually witness. I mean really sit and watch!

Here’s what I saw today….

I watched this turtle dig this hole.

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It’s little back legs reached down as far as they could go and just dug and dug and dug. I so wanted to go home and get my trowel and dig the hole for her but thought better of it since the hole I would have dug wouldn’t have met turtle specs.

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One of the campers and I stood there and watched patiently. She laid two eggs before we knew it.

It wasn’t long and she laid her third egg. (the white thing)

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I had called these turtles Loggerheads in another post and have since found out that they aren’t Loggerheads. These are Diamondback Terrapins. They are native to the area from as far north as Cape Cod, MA to Cape Sable in Florida. They are on the “concerned list” for Delaware but on the endangered list in Rhode Island. These are named for the diamond pattern on their shells.
Within just a few minutes she laid the fourth egg and I had gotten better at taking pictures of it.

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After she delivered each one she tamped a bit of sand around it.

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And then came number five!

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The eggs appear to be soft, not hard shelled like a chicken egg. but it is definitely a shell. I would say they are just a tad smaller than the size of an oval ping pong ball.

Number six was out before we knew it.

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More tamping of the ground took place …….

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and then along came number seven.

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By now a couple on their way to the beach stopped to watch and they watched her lay egg number eight.

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I’m thinking that this hole has to be getting to be pretty close quarters by now but evidently there was room for eggs numbered nine……

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…..and ten.

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I know a dog has a litter but I don’t know what you call a hole full of turtle eggs so I’ll just use the term a hole full of turtle eggs.

Now it came time to get this hole full of turtle eggs packed in for incubation. Those little back turtle legs worked so hard and so fast to get these eggs covered. The turtles will hatch in late summer and will by instinct make their way to the marshlands in back of the campground. 
 
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Eggs all covered with sand, tamped nice and flat, her job was done, so it was time to go back home.

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I sat with two very nice ladies today, Shirley, above and her friend Sue. They are camping just behind us. They’ll be back in July so hopefully I’ll get to see them again.

We had some excitement in the area but not the kind you like to have. We watched a medical emergency helicopter land on the highway just outside the park to pick up someone who had a “beach accident” a possible spinal cord injury. We’re hoping whoever it is that they’ll be ok.

Bob went fishing this afternoon for a short while. He said it was so incredibly crowded. He may have learned today that his fishing is best done during the week. As beautiful as it was today with sunshine and blue skies I didn’t even entertain the idea of going to the beach. I watched the hordes walking with chairs and blankets and umbrellas and rafts and sand toys and radios and coolers….no, I’ll go during the week when it isn’t a holiday weekend.

What a great day this was. I was fortunate enough to see one of nature’s wonders, I met two very nice people, the birds didn’t get the eggs and it was a beautiful day. 

I am a happy camper.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

5/29/2010 A TEN Hour Day!

Get yourself a drink and settle back, this could be a long one.

This was a long day! Today Linda and I worked together again on the cards. We’ve decided that we’ll work together since her day is Friday and mine is Saturday because we are filling in for Annie on her days off. Probably next Friday she’ll do half and I’ll do half and we’ll get done in half the time as this week. At least that’s the plan.

We only had 24 sites changing today so it didn’t take long at all to the card and paperwork part. We parted way after an hour with an agreement to meet at ten.

A good part of the campers that were supposed to leave today had and the rest were starting the job of packing up. When we met again at eleven to do a round on the golf cart we were down to 4 sites that needed to be vacated. Three of them were actively tearing down and putting things away and the fourth,,,.well, not so much. Yes, we could see where the mom of the couple with four little kids was starting to get ready to leave but she had a long ways to go to make the noon checkout time.

Linda and I hung out at the check in booth talking with Lynn and Bernie and at eleven thirty took another ride around the park. One of the last four was hitching the car to the motor home so we knew it wouldn’t be long and they’d be gone, one had left, one tent site was packing up the last of their camping equipment so we were confident they would be out by noon and then there was the couple with four little kids. From the looks of it not much progress had been made so we stopped and gently reminded the mom that checkout was at noon. She smiled and said, yes, she knew.

Back at the check in booth we were letting them know the status and this van passed us coming into the park. We recognized it as the one belonging to the couple with four little kids. No wonder, they weren’t gone yet. We talked a few minutes more and got back in the golf cart. We rode by the site to see how things were coming and they were EATING LUNCH! All the kids and the mom and dad were sitting down at the picnic table eating lunch! It’s now just a few minutes before noon and toys and blankets and boxes and camping equipment are all over the place and they are eating lunch! Linda called out and said, “Checkout is at a noon” and they smiled and waved and said they knew. Linda and I just looked at each other rolled our eyes.

It was noon, we were done. Bernie from the booth decided he would go over and let them know they that had to go and go soon. After all, their site was rented to someone else. He took the cart and we waited till he returned. He said when he got there they were all sitting there ….still eating lunch….and they waved and smiled and said yes they knew checkout was at noon. It’s now 12:15 and they have a long ways to go. It takes all kinds….doesn’t it?

Bob had done litter thing in the morning and then went fishing.

At four I had to go in and cover the store for three hours. They have to find a new way for shift changes because the way it is now…well, it ain’t workin’. I ended up making sales by writing the items on a post it note, making change out of my bank which is still in the pouch and this went on for a half hour! It’s Memorial Day weekend, the park is packed, the store is busy and I have to wait for the day guy to prove his drawer out. Bad idea and its got to change.

I was very busy inside with store sales and Bob was kept hopping with ice sales outside. I did two thirds of the business in three hours that the store did in eight,,….yep, I was busy. It did make the time fly by.

And the day isn’t over yet. Since today was my day for the reservation cards it was up to me to write up the cards and get the paperwork ready for the next day. Thankfully, there were only 24 site changes so it didn’t take too long.

Remember when I said that Site # 242 was a NO COOK ZONE on Saturday’s? Well, there was no cooking going on tonight and not because it was a NO COOK ZONE….nope, I was too darn tired to eat and Bob was on his own!

It looks like I’m only going to have to work Saturday’s, Monday’s and Tuesday’s to get my hours in for the week. I knew that early schedule was too good to be true but I’m sure not complaining about this! My Saturday’s will be like today, Monday’s I’ll work the store and on Tuesday’s I’ll work in the store with Linda. We may to re-think working together on Friday and Saturday's. Oh well, we'll figure it out. The rest of the time will be mine. Ya gotta love it!

Friday, May 28, 2010

5/28/2010 One Hundred New Campers In Today

My morning started early today, try 7 a.m. on for size. I worked with Linda this morning on the reservation cards, taking the ones down for those who are leaving today and putting the new ones up for those who are coming in. One hundred sites will change campers today. We have to walk up and down every road to 147 campsites and 37 tent sites. It took us about and hour and half to get it all done. It’s not just a matter of exchanging or putting the reservation cards on the post, there is also accompanying paperwork to be done. We have a sheet of paper that is marked with yellow highlighter all the sites that have changes for the day. If the campers have already vacated the site we put an “x” through the highlighted number, if they are still there we circle it. When this was done we each went back to our own rigs and had breakfast, read email and passed the time till ten when it was then our job to get into the golf cart and ride up and down the streets and put “x’s” through the circled numbers to indicate that the campers had left sometime in the last hour and a half. We notified the check-in booth which sites were now empty and ready for the next campers to come in. We did this again at eleven and at this pass gave each camper that had no signs of even starting to break camp a gentle reminded that check out is noon. By noon everyone had vacated and my day was done.

In the meantime, Bob walked around the campground with the grabbers and a bucket and made an attempt at litter control. Damn, people are slobs! Now his day was done.

Of course we still had to check the restrooms for toilet paper sometime this evening but that doesn’t take long at all.

We decided a ride into Rehoboth Beach (Ree-hoe-bith) was in order because we needed to get a water pressure regulator. Right now our water pressure in the rig is the pits just adequate because he has it turned down until we can monitor and regulate it. There is good water pressure here in this park but until he can control it we stay on the safe side. No sense in asking for blown pipes.

Shopping done, we stopped to get fuel for the truck since we hadn’t gotten any since we filled when arrived in Delaware a month ago. You don’t drive much when the fishing is just a four minute walk away and the bait and tackle store is less than a mile round trip. I found an even closer grocery store just 5 miles away. In short, we aren’t using much fuel even though the price has been coming down. It has gone from $3.14 down to $2.97 in just the last two weeks.

Now here is where we ran into trouble. Not many stations around here sell diesel. I don’t know why, they just don’t. With this being a resort area with lots of motor homes and diesel trailer/5th wheel towing trucks here a lot one would think there would be more.

Now I’m sure you are all very familiar with the BP Oil Company. You would have to live under a rock not to know that name. We went into a BP station for fuel and….well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, what do you see “wrong” with this picture?

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Not seeing it yet? How about this one?

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It is STANDARD, it is USUAL for the DIESEL pump to have the GREEN handle……

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……just as it is STANDARD, USUAL for the gasoline pump handle to be BLACK. All across America and Canada as far as I know this is the way it is. NOT SO in BP land. Bob had said to me, “WOW, it’s down to $2.73 a gallon.” Then he realized he was at the GAS pump. Luckily, he had pumped just over a gallon of gas into our diesel truck. We don’t expect any problems, in fact, if anything it may clean the injectors. I don’t know that for sure but it certainly did sound good when I typed it.

I went into the gas station store ready to give somebody a piece of my mind but the fellow behind the desk said before I even got two words out, “It’s not us, it’s BP, they changed the handles.” It seems as though a lot of people are putting the wrong fuel in their vehicles, gas into diesel and diesel into gas because for forever and day you could depend on the colors to denote what you were pumping. Thanks BP, something tells me you aren’t going to be in business long, not after your corner cutting that is playing havoc with our eco system now and the amount of costly repairs you are causing at your gas stations for the American driver. Nope, I don’t think your are going to be around much longer. I wanted to write BP a letter about this practice but I found a forum that is addressing this issue of green and black handles already on line. It seems that BP is taking a stance that the consumer should pay attention to what its doing. Granted, the consumer should be aware of their actions but dammit when diesel pump handles have ALWAYS been green well,,,,you just don’t pay attention anymore. I know, I know, our bad.

Well, Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I can’t wait to see what the weekend brings.

5/27/2010 Here A Turtle, There a Turtle

We are being over run by TURTLES! The loggerheads are coming into the sandy areas of the campground to lay their eggs.

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Bob was out weed-whacking the playground area when he noticed them and came back to the house telling me to grab the camera that the turtles were laying their eggs.

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Turtles were running around everywhere….

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I was almost sorry Bob came to get me because I didn’t like what was happening after the turtles went on their merry way after covering their eggs. See this bird?

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This bird thought he was going to eat those eggs. Uh-uh, not on my watch! I kept scaring him away and he kept coming back. I must have spent 15 – 20 minutes out there standing guard over these buried turtles to be. Bob had been watching me and came over and said, “Snookie, its nature, its what happens, you gotta go home.” Reluctantly, very reluctantly, I left and when I walked away I didn’t have the heart to look back. Did that big black bird fly in when I was just fifteen feet away and feast? I don’t know and I’m better off not knowing.

Later on in the day this little 5th wheel set up camp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one this small. It was a couple with a large German Sheppard and good sized chocolate Lab. Had to be really crowded in there.

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Our neighbors who are just “fishin’ fools” were out cleaning their catch.

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These guys brought a chest freezer with them and have gone out and bought another one while here because they are catching so many stripers or you may know them as rock fish.

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A thirteen pounder.

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Bob and I have both put in an hour each today. Bob weed-whacked a bit that didn’t get done earlier and I went around with Annie, a fellow camp host to do the reservation cards this morning. We pull the cards for those leaving today and put up the new cards for the new people coming in. This is a job that I will do on Saturday mornings.

That was our work day. Tough life ain’t it?

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

5/26/2010 Meeting Day

Today we had a meeting to attend with all the camp hosts and the Volunteer Coordinator, Emily. She answered any questions we had, handed out a schedule for the camp store and gave us our “uniforms”. We each were given 2 gray T-shirts, 2 gray sweatshirts and two tan polo shirts. Each shirt is embroidered with Delaware State Parks Volunteer Host and there is what looks like a holly tree leaf (our state tree) with a ladybug on it. (our state bug)

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Bob’s didn’t fit him, well, they did but there was no wiggle room in them and who knows how they would fit after washing/drying so we’ll exchange them for the next size.

Our meeting took a little over an hour with information given out, the paperwork we all had to fill out and a few other time consuming tasks. In addition we checked the bathrooms to make sure they had paper and we were done for the day.

Bob fished in the afternoon and early evening and I walked over to see how he was doing. I ran into Ed again and we talked for a bit and the word came down the line that the big ones were hitting under the bridge and I knew that’s where Bob was or close to that area anyway. I bid Ed farewell and went in search of Bob.

There were quite a few fisherman out considering this is mid week and the park isn’t anywhere near full right now.

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I found Bob but he wasn’t having any luck and I didn’t see any big ones being pulled in although Bob said he had seen a few.

The gnats were out in force and they were hungry so I didn’t last long out there.

Definitely a laid back day, wouldn’t you say?

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

5/25/2010 Just Another Day at Seashore Park

It is so foggy here today that the local area schools are starting two hours late in hopes that the fog lifts or so that at the very least kids are standing at bus stops where they can be seen. At least that is what the radio says. Here in our park the air is crystal clear, no fog at all. It did seem that the schools that were getting the late start were further inland. I’m glad, I’m tired of the fog already. It just makes everything feel damp and clammy. YUCK!

I met with Linda at the store this morning because I learned a few things on the computer yesterday that I wanted to share with her. I ended up staying two hours,,,,just because.

Since Bob is all done with the weed trimming and grass cutting for awhile he worked this afternoon for a few hours as the Ice Man. He did it for two hours and then I went and took over because I just knew there was no way he could just sit and not have anything to do. That is just NOT Bob. He was very glad to see me and it didn’t take him long to get out the door once I showed up.

Since we will be spending time in the store this year here are some pictures so that you can get an idea of where we are.

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We still have to get in milk and bread and eggs yet. We are supposed to sell “healthy” things so chicken hot dogs are in the fridge and only water and diet beverages. Each consumable item is labeled “go”, “slow” or “whoa” as far as healthy content is concerned. Yes, we sell ice cream and that is labeled “whoa”. Candy is also a “whoa”, the diet drinks are a “slow” because not as good as water they are ok in moderation. I’m betting the WHOA stuff gets sold a whole lot more. I think we are selling 1% milk, in my opinion that and skim are nothing more than white water.

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I have to say, I can appreciate that they stock shampoo, deodorant and soap for those that packed too quickly and forgot these things. BUT, there is making a profit and then there is MAKING A PROFIT! That Suave shampoo that I buy in the grocery store for $1.19 or at Walmart for 99 cents….a whopping $3.25 here. I guess convenience cost. It wouldn’t cost me, I’d wash my hair with Palmolive dish soap first before I paid that kind of money for a 99 cent shampoo. But that’s just me….Queen of Cheap.

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Surprisingly, the shirts are well priced. go figure.

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More expensive convenience things and heaven help the parent that has to buy sand toys. A second mortgage would almost be in order.

I’m told that people are on vacation and don’t even look at prices, that they won’t think twice about spending $4.99 for a jar of Ragu. I have my doubts, we’ll see. I hope I’m wrong, otherwise on my days in the store I won’t do anything all day other than watch people walk in and walk out. That would make for a long day.

You are going to hear this name a lot this summer so I want to introduce you to my new friend Linda. She and husband Tony will be here working as camp hosts until the end of July.

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Bob went fishing after dinner and since it was such a nice evening with a gentle breeze I grabbed the camera and went in search of a spectacular sunset.

First I found what looks like its going to be a full moon.

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I was really there too early for sunset pictures but I struck up a conversation with Ed. He was a fisherman, all by himself and we talked for about a half hour to forty minutes about a variety of subjects. I hope I run into him again, he’s a nice man. I won’t have to worry about him forgetting my name should we run into each other again, his sister’s nickname is Snookie.

While I didn’t get what I would call spectacular sunset shots, they were nice.

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I took of notice this going on behind me…..red sky at night. Sailor’s delight. Snookie’s delight too!

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GOOD NIGHT SUN.

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WARNING: Fair warning is given now that I am just nuts about sunsets over water. By the end of summer you will probably begging someone to gouge your eyes out if you have to look at another sunset picture. Just lettin’ ya know….just sayin’….you’ve been warned.

Monday, May 24, 2010

5/24/2010 An Incredibly Long Day!

My workday started early today. I went to the Parks and Recreation Office with co-workers Linda and Lynn to get our money for the day. Lynn, a seasonal employee for the department works in the check-in booth and Linda, a camp host wanted to see where to go to should she ever have to pick up the money. On Mondays and Tuesdays Linda and I will run the camp store to give the seasonal employee who usually works the store his two days off for the week. I’ll do it on Monday and she’ll do it the other.

Upon returning Linda and I went to the store to open for the day. Computer and printers up and running, coffee made, we were open for business. Since Linda was really off today she went on her way and another worker, Tom, came over to work as Ice Man. This park sells ALOT of ice and when we get busy and as ice is sold the Ice Man on duty will get the frozen stuff from the freezers for the customers.

It was slow today. Very slow. There are few in the campground right now and none of them needed to go shopping. Granted, our little camp store doesn’t sell all that much right now but we have a lot coming in yet this week before the big Memorial Day Weekend, our official start to summer. All in all, we did sell some ice, some coffee, some candy and 3 T-shirts.

To pass the time Tom and I played TV Trivia, talked about books and music and in between solved all the worlds problems. I like working with him and once the summer starts I doubt we’ll have time for such leisurely talks and trivia games.

Bob’s day started a little later and he finished up the weed-wacking, that is now done and the park looks very nice with all the grass cut and weeds trimmed. He also tried to help a camper unlock her car door because the keys were inside but they don’t make cars like they used to and wire coat hangers don’t work anymore. He even tried a slim jim and that didn’t work either. A probably expensive locksmith had to be called.

It has been so foggy here today.

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You can only see about 100 feet in front of you.

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You can’t even see the bridge beyond the playground.

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Thick as pea soup!

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The Philadelphia Flyer’s are going for the STANLEY CUP! YAY!!!!!

FLYERS