More 2015 In Review

I didn't finish the whole post last time. The pictures were acting weird, so I went ahead and posted, but there's more to share!

Weird Things that Happened in 2015: 

The weather. It seems that wherever we go, suddenly there are extremes in the weather. This summer it was ridiculously hot and humid for a horrendously long time. Day after day. Hot and humid. That sure sucked away my good humor. Then this fall, we've experienced record breaking rainfall. If it rains for more than two hours, we don't work any more for the day (or at all, if it rains the first two hours). We have not worked a full five day week since the week before Thanksgiving. And before that, we hadn't worked a full five day week for about 4 weeks.

Finding Reliable RV repairmen. Our a/c died (caught fire, actually) in May. We called Mark and he came the same day, ordered parts and came back within a couple days, worked late into the night and got our a/c working. We were thrilled thinking that we'd found a reliable and competent RV repairman. In July our jacks stopped working. We called Mark. He asked how long we were going to be here and we told him several more weeks, so no rush. He certainly took us at our word because it wasn't until Chris called at the end of August and got a little pushy that he finally showed up. The jacks worked twice and then quit. We called Mark again. No response. Repeated calls, unfulfilled promises to show up. Much frustration.

So we stopped by another RV repair place to see if they could help us. There, the guy gave Chris the third degree about who had done the repairs previously and also asked "well, how long are you going to be there?" Apparently they are all procrastinators looking for the deadline and then working back from there. That guy never showed up.

We called Mark again. I tried to be nice, really I did. But finally after a couple of lies and numerous excuses, I told him not to bother. Like he was going to show up anyway. I felt bad because if we couldn't get Mark to show up, how would we get the jacks fixed?

Low and behold, that very night we were out walking Dooley and saw an RV repairman working on another RV...Jason...reliable, professional and reasonably priced. The jacks are fixed, and fixed right (not sure Mark knew what he was doing). Whew.

People who won't talk to us. We're both pretty friendly. In general, people seem to like us. Or so we think. But this year, we've had some weird encounters with people who are determined to ignore us.

I really hit it off with one of my male co-workers. He's funny and smart and Chris and I both enjoy talking to him. He's married so I thought maybe he and his wife would be a nice couple for us to get to know. Apparently not, since the wife has ignored me for months. Not just the "maybe she didn't see me" sort of thing either. Once I realized that she wouldn't acknowledge me, I made a point of waving every time she drove by. Still nothing. Really? I'm big as an effing tank...how can you not see me standing next to the road as you drive by?

Our former neighbors. A few weeks ago we moved to a new site here at Carowinds. We weren't really pals with our former neighbors, but we were cordial. They were a bit weird, but were at least willing to wave. It seems they've taken our move personally because we have seen them, called their names and said hello and they just keep walking.

My family...whatever.

The laziest co-workers ever. Ever. Nearly all of my co-workers at Carowinds campground were likable, team players and fun to work with. Except one couple. They "don't do computers" and had no qualms about the fact that they refused to use the computers, which are a significant part of doing things like making reservations, checking in guests, and answering questions. I could go on, but suffice to say, things came to a head when I called the husband "f*cking lazy". I'm not too proud of that, but I did become a bit of a legend amongst my co-workers. These two also are part of the "people who won't talk to us" category.

The mystery leak. After a night of historical rains, we woke up to find half our couch soaking wet. Surprise! The leak seemed to be coming from one of the lights above it. We put a bowl there to catch the water and headed off to work while the rain continued (see two hour rule above). The bowl filled up and we swapped it for a large stock pot. It seemed weird that there'd be a leak there because it's on the slide and there's an awning over the top, so we couldn't figure out how there could be a leak. There were a few dry days, but the next time it rained, we put out the stock pot. Nothing. We've had days and days of rain since then and no leak. Did it mend itself? We saw the water leaking from the light into the stockpot, so the rain was definitely coming through there at one point, but now it's gone.

The dearth of decent places for lunch. While we were working all around York County, SC we thought we'd try some of the local eateries for lunch. We've usually had good luck with trying new places. Not around here. The parking lots were full, so we figured they must be good. Wrong. We probably tried eight places and only one of them, a pizza place, was worth a second visit. Nothing was awful, but we sure didn't find any gems out there.

On the side. To go along with the paragraph above, one thing we've noticed in the south is that each of these restaurants we visited has a giant chalk board on the wall listing the menu items, including 15 or more side dishes. Not just your basic salad or choice of potato. We've got fried pickles, homemade pickles, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, pickled beets, deviled eggs and one that is seems to be particular to this area...pimento cheese spread. No crackers, just a scoop of this cheese stuff. Some places make sandwiches out of it. When I mentioned this to a local friend he told us that pimento cheese is a Big Deal and his grandmother makes the best. Who knew?