Monday, November 14, 2011

Workamping As A Check Station Operator

My comment area was once again, attacked by spammers who extolled the virtues of "natural exy boobs". Yes, those were their exact words.   I deleted their comment. Then a few hours later,  they posted again that I needed "bazoombas grand".  Even more hysterical was the suggestion I "boobify for fondle" and in another comment "look my breast". The spammers are relentless!  Apparently they have little command of the English language. Why do they think attacking my site will bring them more business?  It's a big mystery to me!


This morning, the weather is perfect and gorgeous too. I am finally outdoors under my gazebo, living life the way I imagined it. Well, sort of. I'm in a ton of pain from the mystery ailment to my neck and shoulder, but I so happy, I just don't care. 


The pain humbles me that life ain't perfect, but I just try to focus on all the positive aspects of simply waking up alive to such a beatific day to enjoy the great outdoors with agreeable weather, a cup of coffee and a sweet little doggy by my side. 


When I first set up the gazebo here, it looked so  lovely, but the direct sunshine is so intense some mornings, that I can't see to do my work on the laptop outside. Then we had a cold snap, so I stayed inside to do my work by the heater. Now we have summer weather again. In November. How lovely!


Florida is flatland.  There is very little shade where I am camped, though there are skinny pine trees.  I tried hanging up a lightweight white blanket that came with the RV when I bought it to diffuse the bright sun enough for me to type. As the sun moves, I can reposition it or take it down. The clothes pins weren't strong enough to hold it in place.Often I would hear "pop-pop-pop" as the wind blew the light blanket, sending the clothespin flying in all directions while the blanket either took flight itself on a magic carpet ride or collapsed in a heap, sometimes landing on a startled Harley who was innocently playing on the patio mat beneath it.


Recently at Big Lots, while shopping for work gloves, (they were on sale from $1.50) and a bed pillow (they were already sold out of the one I wanted) I spied these 4 heavy duty clamps that were priced well below what I had seen elsewhere, so I took a chance on them. Today they are holding up the temporary side shade quite beautifully. The wind is whipping the blanket around somewhat, but  the clamps are doing their duty. 



On another RV blog, someone had mentioned having some heavy duty clamps around came in handy for all sorts of purposes. I am sorry I can't give the blogger credit, as it was ages ago when I read this. Indeed, they are handy. These are small, but powerful. 


I survived the 15 hour shift yesterday at the Hunter's Check Station. It actually turned out to be almost 16 hours, but hey, who's counting...


WOW.  I feel so accomplished. But thank goodness I now have a week to recuperate, ha ha ha, tee hee hee. 


I slept all night, woke up in a ton of pain, but sitting under my "gazebo" cheered me substantially. The weather was gorgeous and other workampers came for coffee.  


Then this afternoon, I collapsed in a heap on my bed, just totally exhausted, falling fast asleep. I guess that long shift had caught up with me. When I woke up, someone was at my door. I was totally deflated to find out I was being assigned another shift.  Oh rats. Oh darn. Oh shoot. The second shift will  only be 8 hours, but still, things just keep changing around here.  I just go with the flow, to keep peace.


Harley dog worked with me yesterday.  We had a fun hard  day at work. Twenty minutes before opening time, the first hunters arrived to line up the road, waiting for me and 5 o'clock to arrive. I could see them  from my motorhome while I fumbled around making coffee.  At 10 to 5, Harley dog and I walked to our post, reporting for duty with a hot cup of coffee.


It was a strenuous commute of 20 seconds and 100 feet. As I groped around with my flashlight and  the combination lock to open up the station, hunters began emerging from their vehicles, to see if they could help, while I searched for a pole to reach the light switch that an 8 foot tall electrician installed close to  the high ceiling. Finally a towering man flipped the switch. Later I located a pole I can find in the dark next time I open up. 


I greeted everyone with a big smile and a cheery good morning  to hide my nervousness. My last shift, I was trained in one day, this shift, I am running the place on my own. People were unfailingly polite. Amazing!


In what seemed only a matter of minutes, I let 84 camouflaged hunters, their assorted guns, ammo, jeeps, trucks, pickups, ATV's, amphibious 6-wheelers, coolers, trailers, plus 3 sleepy kids, and 2 huntresses inside the compound. Another 47 hunters would arrive as the day wore on. 


It was still very dark, as the waning moon had set earlier. I retreated inside the shack, after tying  the old wooden double doors wide open, so I could listen for traffic on the dirt road while busying myself with rubber stamping and pencil pushing.  My coffee was now somewhere between tepid and almost lukewarm. 





I learned to crank the right handed wench with my lefty. The hunter, seeing me do this asked "Are you left handed?"


Smiling I answered  "No. I just thought my left arm muscles needed improvement."  He laughed about this, then saw me write some more in the book.  This time using my right hand. Even though I have whined excessively on this blog about my painful neck/shoulder/back/right arm, I decided not to let the hunters know of this personal malady. I just wanted to find a way to do my job, without complaint, all happy like. 


In exchange for working the Hunters Station, I get lot rent and utilities. This of course is a huge help on my current  budget.  The biggest perk being that I was able to move to central Florida for the winter months. Yippee!  As a welcome bonus, the other workampers are incredibly nice.  We're all a bit eccentric, me probably being the worst of the bunch, but for four strangers thrown together for living and working in a remote location, it's thus far working out most agreeably. 


I am still dead tired tonight, but life is beautiful!  



3 comments:

  1. Do these crazy comments actually make it to your page? I get comments that are flawless in language and content. One today was an actual person advertising his blog hatin' on American women. Bitter much? But, there was nothing about it to reveal that it was unwelcome, except its unrelated content, and Blogger grabbed it.

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  2. Whew! That is some mighty long hours, but it sounds like everyone was pleasant to deal with.

    United in Fondlezoombafied,
    Ish

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  3. Those are some long hours! I'm surprised they don't have you split the shift with someone else. Maybe it's so you can have more days off...in theory, until they come knocking at your door! ;) Susan (aka Suz)

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Life is goof!