Monday, June 29, 2009

RIP

Checked the website Dead or Alive and found I'd missed a few people:

J.G. Ballard
mostly thought of as an SF writer but was not easily categorized

Marilyn Chambers (and you know who she is)

Billy Mays (just this morning) -- I won't exactly "miss" him but he was ubiquitous.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

11.30 am to 5 pm, starting Mon. 6/29.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Schedule Change Again

Starting Monday I'll be working 12-5.30. I know I know, but business is really good and they're trying to shift us all around to cover more. I'm the most flexible.

The parts for my valve stems didn't come in. Sigh.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Obits

Well, the last 24 hours were a good time to die, I gues.

Ed McMahon
Farah Fawcett
Michael Jackson

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Nice

Why haven't I posted much? Everything's so nice here.

The weather's nice.
The people are nice.
The town is nice.
The campground is nice.
The TV reception is nice.
The wifi signal strength is nice.
My health is nice.
My schedule is nice.

Feh! Nice is nice but a little turbulence would be nice (from time to time).

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Schedule change

Now working from 2pm to 7:30pm Mon-Fri, so work phone calls around that.

Let's see: 2pm would be 5pm eastern, and 7.30 would be 10.30. So those are the time I'm unavailable, and allow some for walking back and forth.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Photos stuff

I've been pretty good lately about uploading my pictures at a large size, which the blog then compresses. So -- if you click on a picture, it should come up full-screen so you can really see it.

Also, all the pictures on the blog are automatically saved into my Picasaweb album, where they are titled, and mapped, too. So, if you just want to look at pictures, go to:

picasaweb.google.com/lindig17/movablebooklady

Friday, June 12, 2009

Deadheading

I'm by no means any kind of gardener, but today I was given the job of "fixing" a huge rhododendron bush right by the front door to the store. There were lots of dead flowers on the ground and a lot more hanging around on the bush. So I snipped and shook and plucked. At some points, it was hard to see me as I was pushed into the middle of the bush, trying to reach the dead stuff in the center. Then I got to crawl around on the ground to pick up all the dead stuff.

It looks really nice, if I do say so myself. The hope is to get new blooms. We'll see.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Work Schedule

My new work times are 5-10 pm Mon thru Fri, off on Sat-Sun. So I won't be available by phone after 8pm EDT. And I usually wander over to the store about 10 minutes early.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

General Update

The body is having a hard time coping with the humidity. Both knees are slightly swollen, and I usually wake up with aching joints. Aspirin helps, though. Right now, I'm only working about 20 hrs a week, but will go up to 26+ on the 21st. So, coping is in order.

I'm loving my new "pantry" in the bathroom, and the hanging clothes in the closet. Now all I have to do is rehang the closet (was pantry) door.

And I've uploaded a new piccture of me to the blog. Deborah took from her balcony in SF, looking down on me and Orlando. Huh, I said, that's not too bad, so I zoomed in and it's now my official image.

Have gotten into Goodreads and am putting all my read/to-read stuff on there, so I won't be posting books read on the blog. I tried to upload the list of everything I've read so far in 09 and Goodreads accepted half and declined half. Took some titles by an author and wouldn't take other titles by the same author. Makes no sense.

I took a walk around the redwood forest part of the campground, so here's a few pics for you.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Getting Started

Have worked three short days so far and my Kampsite computer skills are coming back. Joan said she wouldn't have me answer the phone for a month because I wouldn't know the answers to any questions about the sites, but I was told to answer it just yesterday.

It's true that almost every site here is different, especially the ones back in the redwood forest. We've got about 13 acres of redwoods with tent sites and cabins and rv sites tucked away in odd places. I'm going to be sent out on the golf cart to look at and try to remember the sites. They do come up on the computer with notes.

I'm now off for three days and went to town this morning to get something to be my pantry. I decided to restore the pantry to its function as a closet. It has an RV-style bar for hanging clothes (metal with V-shaped cutouts). Having the hanging clothes in the shower stall meant having sleeves in your face when using the toilet. Irritating.

I found a 4-bin utility shelving unit that just fits the shower stall. So I put it together and now all my foodstuffs are put away in drawers and the clothes are hung in the closet. Now all I have to do is turn the closet door back around to hinge on the left (remember when I turned it around to hinge on the right? That worked when it was a pantry) so when dressing, all clothes are easily accessible. That's an easy fix.

Using the bottom bin is a bit of a pain as it can't slide out, but if you take out the bin above it, you can reach in and get stuff out. So the bottom bin gets stuff not needed very often and the bin above it gets really lightweight stuff (like bread or chips) so it's easy to move out.

Logical, eh? I'm pretty pleased with how it all came out.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Obits of Note

Bea Arthur.
Was she great or what?! I've liked her for years, and was even called "Maude" by a long-term boyfriend. I felt greatly complimented.

Koko Taylor
A great blues singer. I saw her live in Asheville sometime in the 1990s at the Cherry St. nightclub I can't remember the name of. She was a tiny woman with a big voice.

Also, old "Kung Fu" himself, David Carradine, was found dead in his hotel room closet in Bangkok. In the closet. Tied up for sex games of one kind or another. Probably another case of autoeroticism gone wrong. So tacky.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Trees of Mystery

My assignment today was to drive to the Trees of Mystery Park, about 20 miles south of town, and take the Skytrain gondola up to Ted's Ridge and back, and walk the trail back to the parking lot. I'll be doing several touristy things so I can have personal experience to relate to our guests when they have questions about what to do.

On the way, I detoured to the Crescent City Beach Overlook, which is also on the Coastal Trail. This is looking north and you can just make out the town on the curve; there's also a harbor.
There was an interesting rock formation, which I understand develops from something called the San Francisco melange (can't quite remember what the sign said).

At the entrance to the Trees of Mystery Park stand statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, hewn from redwood. Babe alone weighs 30,000 lbs.Took the shuttle up to the gondola start and was wafted up the small mountain, about a 7 minute ride, getting colder as we rose. Walked up to the observation deck but fog obscured the entire view. Did get a shot of these flowers (rhododendrons? azaleas? other?).
I had noticed the bright green tips on these fir branches. It looks like new growth but it could just be something indigenous to this tree. Looks nice, though.
And that's when my camera batteries died, so no pictures from my walk of 1/2 mile down the trail. One loop has some fairly amazing chainsaw sculptures: lots of Bunyan and Babe; animals; people; local mythology; and more. All much larger than life, of course. The gift shop is nice but what's even better is the American Indian museum in back. Three large rooms holding the collection of one woman. Very little eastern U.S. (no Cherokee at all), fairly good on the Plains Indians, and extensive on the Northwest and Alaskan Indians. I understand the Smithsonian would love to get its hands on the collection.

Did a little grocery shopping and headed "home." Got hooked back up and finally had lunch at 4pm. A nice day.