Let the adventure begin

"We're leavin' together, But still it's farewell, And maybe we'll come back...It's the final countdown..." by Europe

I know I’ve gone radio silent since May.  As was the case last year, this job at DigiKey is a doozy.  We just don’t have a lot of time for “extras.”  The only excitement we have had is going to see the new Top Gun movie, playing putt-putt golf, and the occasional trip to Grand Forks to eat at Pizza Ranch!  We did go to the fair when it was in town.  We were shocked to find they didn’t have FOOT LONG corn dogs.  Is that a Texas thing?  We had to get normal sized ones.  (Sigh) They had 2 barns filled with animals which were fun to see.  It was like a huge petting zoo.  You don’t see that at fairs much nowadays. They also put on a nice fireworks show the first night of the fair, so that made up for the lack of fireworks on the 4th of July. 

We only have 6 days of work left for a total of 44 hours.  Not like I’m counting or anything.  Ha!  In general, it has gone better than last year.  For one thing, we aren’t newbies and the job has been more manageable due to that previous experience.  The other thing is we haven’t moved from bay to bay like last year…or maybe I should say, I haven’t moved.  Steve didn’t move quite as much as I did last summer.  Steve and I have both stayed at our bays the whole time.  We have even gotten to know several employees pretty well and I think people see us as hard workers and an asset to the area we work in.  I even went a whole month without a single repick (when you messed up an order by either an overage or shortage or poor packing) which is hard to do.  I have gone downhill since then… Steve’s bay mate started out a bit hostile, but he won her over with his work ethic.  My bay mate, as I mentioned in my last blog, is definitely cray-cray.  I have only put up with her shenanigans because I knew my job was short lived.  I could NOT work with her for long term.  She thinks I don’t know what she does, but I do.  She watches the pick labels and knows when a bad one is coming up and she either intentionally slows down so I get stuck with it or she conveniently has to go to the bathroom.  It is amazing.  She talks non-stop even when it’s obvious I’m trying to count or concentrate on a pick and she doesn’t even stop if I walk away.  There’s more but I don’t have the time to mention it all.  Today Steve and worked some overtime (on our day off) and her not being there was a blessing.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  I also got a lot done!  I hate to be unkind, but she needs God about as much as anyone I know.  I tried to be a “light” to her and Steve says that she sees that I’m “different.”  I hope so, because it has taken every bit of patience that I gained as a teacher to “turn the other cheek” when I really wanted to get her back by playing her same games.  I can’t say I have been a saint but she actually thinks we are friends, so I guess I did something right. 

DigiKey had a safety day and gave us an extra 15-minute break so we could attend. The police had 2 simulators in the parking lot.  I “made” Steve try out both of them.  One (in the photo above) replicated what it would feel like to roll your vehicle with a seatbelt on. The other had your hitting a wall going 15 miles per hour with a seatbelt.  Both were designed to show the value of wearing a seatbelt.  Glad we always buckle up! Steve also won a gift card to a local restaurant.  Score!

We took our RV into Fargo in June and, thankfully, they fixed the leaking bedroom slide.

We have had soooo much rain while we’ve been here, we really didn’t need a leak.  It didn’t even cost us all that much and they got it done that day.  We have enjoyed some beautiful days where I wanted to skip work and just sit outside all day, but as I mentioned, we have had a ton of rain. I have been hearing about the heat wave a lot of the country has been having, but we have escaped that and have only had a few really hot days.  It is a different summer than when we were here last year.  We have had more humidity and more clouds.  I’m not really sure which summer is more normal for this area.  We were so worried that the rain would bring out the huge mosquitos we have heard about but they must spray well here.  I hate to jinx it, but I have not seen a single mosquito the whole 3 months we’ve been here.  They may find us in Michigan or in the Smokies but maybe we’ll get lucky again!

We leave next Saturday for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  This type of traveling is new to us so I’m not really sure how we’ll do with our budget.  I know we have to watch our dining out but it’s hard when you are on the road.

We have another trip planned, for 2023.  We put down a deposit on a Hawaiian cruise leaving out of California for 15 days.  We had planned on booking a cruise but the places most cruises (that depart from California) stopped at didn’t excite me.  We have never been to Hawaii so we decided we would pay a bit more and be gone a bit longer in order to check out Hawaii via cruise ship.  That, I can get excited about.  We plan to finish working mid-April, leave our rig at the resort in Arizona while we take the cruise, and then go back to Arizona, pack up and head out for wherever our next summer leads us.  We saw a job in Colorado that piqued our interest, but otherwise we have no idea what we want to do.  They did say they will most likely be looking for help again at DigiKey next summer, but I think we are ready for something new. 

(Look what happens when it rains and rains and rains...)

We are back in the saddle again.  I think Steve and I both wondered if we’d be able to or not at first.  The general job came right back to us, but the computer commands and some of the handy tricks of the trade we’d learned, didn’t.  We didn’t get a refresher course either like we’d thought.  They put us on the computer for a couple of hours in order to set our scanners up and do some “paperwork” but after that we were put out on the floor to start picking.  After a week, we were feeling better about things.  We are both happy with our bays (in general).  Steve is at a cut tape bay which he is comfortable with and I am in bulk which I don’t mind. My bay mate is a bit odd. She’s another Express Pro employee who was in our training class last July.  She stayed here through the winter. She’s just different…I’ve gotten frustrated with her several times.  She brags about how her integrity and desire to do the right thing at work, but yet she tends to neglect certain jobs.  I’m not sure if she does it intentionally or if she’s just clueless, but she may drive me crazy.  Express Pro asked returnees if they’d be willing to be buddies to people coming out of training.  Steve and I agreed, so week 2 and week 3, we have been mentors to trainees.  It’s been alright but due to questions and trying to help them, we aren’t able to get the number of picks that we need to get.  They watch our numbers and expect us to do a certain amount of picks a day.  We asked to have a break, so next week, we will not have buddies.  They are supposed to be bringing in a lot of workampers in the next month, so I expect us to be mentors several more times in our 3 month stint.

It has been a rainy, windy and cool Spring.  We weren’t sure what Spring would be like here.  I think I’d take it over the high temperatures they’ve been having in Amarillo and Phoenix!  One of these days, I hope to get my lawn chair out and sit outside some.

Steve thinks he’s figured out the problem with the slide and the leak.  I couldn’t explain what he’s going to have to do if I tried.  He tried to find a mobile repairman that could do the work, but there’s only one and he didn’t feel comfortable with the job…wasn’t in his skill set, I guess.  So, that means Steve gets to do it by himself.  He has to buy some “tools” to do the job and then he’ll get to it.  Hopefully he’ll get it done before the rain stops or we won’t be able to check to see if he found the problem.  We sure would like to get this problem checked off the to-do list.  

It’s been weird working Sunday through Thursday, but we like working Sundays.  It’s super chill on Sundays.  There’s not many working and we basically just wander around looking for labels to fulfill.  Last Sunday, we pretty much ran out of work and they told us we could leave early but we didn’t.  We are here to make money!  We never found a church here last year that fits our beliefs, therefore, we’ve been doing online church with our church in Amarillo.  So,  we still have church on Sundays before we go to work at 1:30.  

We are finally in Minnesota.  Not sure how happy we are about it since apparently it’s still winter here.  They had a big snow about 2 weeks before we arrived and then they have had flooding issues since then.  It has been cold and rainy with the exception of the day we got here.  

We spent almost 3 weeks in Amarillo.  We apologize that we didn’t reach out to anyone while there or make it to church but it was not a “fun” trip.  Steve found out he had a rather large kidney stone last October.  It was one that wasn’t causing any problems and so they told us he could most likely wait until we came back through Amarillo in April.  We decided to do that since we needed to get to Arizona.  SO…in April, we drove to Amarillo and started the surgery process.  A few days later, they took him in hoping to blast the kidney stone, but unfortunately weren’t able to reach it with the scope.  Steve got to have a stent left in for a week to help make it easier for them to reach the stone on the 2nd go around.  He was miserable (and of course, so was I).  A week later they went in and successfully blew up the kidney stone, put another stent in and told him to wait a week and they’d remove the stent.  He wasn’t much happier with the 2nd stent but did seem to bounce back a little better this round.  They removed the stent on a Friday, we ran to Lubbock to visit family on Saturday and left for Minnesota on Sunday.  Hopefully when we come back through in October, we can visit with people and go to church one Sunday.  I prefer those kind of trips to Amarillo over this last one!

Our first stop was to check out our land in Colorado.  It had been a year since we planted all of the seedlings and we were anxious to see how they looked.  They were expecting cold temperatures and snow so we dropped the RV and went straight to our land.  We were a bit disappointed.  We had lost around 30 trees, and the ones that were still green, hadn’t grown much.  We had hoped for more growth but maybe what we saw was normal.  I know losing a certain amount is to be expected, but I guess we were hoping we weren’t “normal.”  We also had a lot of trees broken off.  It appeared they’d had some high winds recently.  It may actually help when it comes time to build, but after having trees masticated post fire, it was hard to see the new mess of downed trees.  We also chose to bury Aspen’s ashes on our land.  He loved Colorado.  He loved the outdoors.  So, it was only logical to let him rest there.  We know he’ll be very happy there.  It’s still rough at times not having him travel with us.  We had so many routines built into our lives that revolved around him and there are times we forget he’s not here with us.  How much I miss him hits me at random times.  Guess it will for a long while.

After getting up the next morning and cleaning the snow off the RV so we could put the slides in, we headed out.  3 days later, we arrived in Thief River Falls.  When we got here they parked us in a site out in the back parking lot.  I wasn’t surprised they put us there since Express Pro is footing the bill but I was disappointed that we couldn’t pick up the WiFi signal there and nor a single TV channel.  We asked the owners if we could move to a better site even if we had to pay the difference.  They said that we could, but they weren’t sure when. Due to the weather they’d been having in April, we couldn’t hook up to water (it was frozen) nor sewer (frozen too).  We were told that Express Pro has someone who will come by once a week to fill our tank with water and dump our tanks…until winter is over.  We are hoping winter is over! They called us 2 days later and told us we could move to another site and we might not even have to pay the difference which isn’t really that big of a deal. Express Pro needs more sites and the back lot is almost full so they will have to pay a bit more for the premium sites.  If they agree to it, then we shouldn’t have to pay anything for being in a premium site.  We can pick up the WiFi signal although it isn’t the best signal strength.  We also have cable hook ups so we have TV now, including HGTV!!We are happier here…the site has more gravel on it so it’s less muddy and we even have a small paver patio with a fire pit. Once we are allowed to hook up to water and sewer, we’ll be set.

We went in Friday and did the final paperwork for Express Pro.  They told us we would get a short refresher and then jump right back into the job.  I think we are ready to get back to work especially with this yucky weather.  We are starting back on 2nd shift (1:30pm-10pm) but know that they could take that away at any time and put us on 3rd shift.  We thought DigiKey would be moved into their new building by now, but they haven’t even started migration. It will be interesting to see how our 3 months here will play out.

Aspen Crumley, AKA Aspenboy, BooBoo Head (or Boo), Sweetpea, Puppydog

Born March 5, 2005.  Went to doggy heaven April 14, 2022.  Our sweet, little Aspenboy had been struggling for a while.  We knew his days were numbered.  His “attacks” happened more frequently, and his legs were getting weaker, keeping him from being able to walk very far or for very long.  Selfishly we prayed that God would take him in the night but that didn’t happen.  We had to do the hard thing and watch him fall asleep forever.  We had been planning this so I guess it wasn’t a shock, but I figured if I didn’t think about it or put an actual date to it, then it wasn’t a reality.  I could pretend it wasn’t going to happen.  We wanted to take him to our vet in Amarillo where they cared for him 14 of his 17 years and then we planned to take his ashes to our land in Colorado. (He was named by opening a map of Colorado where we loved to vacation and picking a suitable dog name.) That all will come to fruition. 

I know a lot, and I mean A LOT, of people have had to put their doggies to sleep. In the last year, I have seen a lot of my Facebook friends mourn the loss of a pet, knowing that my turn was coming.  Aspen hadn’t been his active, playful self in several years, but he was just showing his age. I missed the old Aspen, but aging is just a part of life and you roll with the punches.  He was our baby…and I mean that in many ways. Steve and I chose not to have kids, so he was our “kid.” He had been for 17 years.  He went everywhere we could take him.  He loved to travel.  Anytime he heard “Do you want to go for a ride?” or would see us packing a suitcase, he’d go crazy.  He would just climb into his kennel and go to sleep for most of the trip, never giving us a lick of trouble.  Then he lost his backyard as we moved into an RV, but didn’t seem to mind, especially if he could be outdoors, his favorite place to be.  I don’t want to remember the geriatric, Aspen.  I want to remember the joy of being his mommy for the many good years.  I remember the day I went to pick him up in Wellington, TX.  Steve had to work so I drove the hour and half to get him.  He cried the whole way home and I just turned up the radio and sang to him.  I want to think he grew to love music and me singing to him because of that first ride home. He loved to run up and down the fence line “playing guard dog.”  He loved when my parents came to visit and my dad would get down on the floor and “scare” him so that he’d run laps around the house.  Aspen was always independent and didn’t like to be held or petted too much, but don’t think for a minute that he wasn’t loving or loveable.  He was.  When things got tense at home, he’d be there to comfort me.  When I’d had a bad day at work, he was there wagging his tail so glad to see me home.  Pets are there for us when others may not be, and we are loved unconditionally by them. Steve said many times that I loved that dog more than I loved him.  No one can love like a dog. They are always happy to see you, don’t get mad (for very long), hold a grudge, or withhold affection.  He was such a good dog.  Never dug of the yard, never ate our shoes, and rarely got sick.  His only struggle was barking, typically at diesel trucks and people riding by on their bikes.  We took him to obedience training at Petsmart and they taught him a lot of useful things but not about barking.  We worked on it and he’d get in trouble when he would bark but he never quite got the problem under control until the last few years when he stopped barking altogether.   He loved to chase his toys.  He’d get on the tile floor and couldn’t stop and would slide right into the pantry door and come running back to do it again.   One time he’d gone to get his yearly shots and wasn’t reacting well to them so I decided to take him to school with me so I could keep an eye on him. It was exam week (last week of school), so I let him wander around the room while the kids were taking their exams. I think that is something people should do on a regular basis.  The atmosphere in the room was not one of anxiety over the test, instead it was calming, therapeutical.  Another memory that just popped into my head was one day he was in the backyard and I looked out and saw him fly at least 3 feet into the air.  I’m still not sure what happened, whether it was a bird that grabbed him and dropped him or he jumped that high trying to get the bird, but I just knew he was injured as I ran into the yard; but he was fine…just a bit shook up.  Then there were the 3 traumatic times that he escaped.  Two times he wandered out the door of the house.  I was panicked when we found out he was missing.  The first time we found him pretty quickly wandering in the alley, the 2nd time, someone found him and called us, but I had about lost hope on that one, and the 3rd time was in South Dakota when I just knew it wasn’t going to end well and God led me to the fence line to see him trotting down the road looking foot loose and fancy free.  I will never forget seeing him on that road nor the feeling I had when I called to him and he came running over to me.  I read an article on Facebook the other day about the death of a pet.  It said that it was not odd for people to grieve a pet for a long time and to take it hard.  That experts say, losing a pet is often one of the hardest traumas we’ll ever face. It mentioned how it was really harder in a way than losing a parent because this pet has lived in your house day after day, year after year, looking to you for care and love.  It’s like I said, Aspen was my child for 17 years. We took care of him when he was sick, when he was bad, when he needed grooming, hopefully, whenever he needed us…for 17 years!  And now he’s gone. The spot he’s had in the RV for the last 3 years is empty.  The 3 walks a day, no longer needed.  In a lot of ways, life is easier.  No more getting out in the cold or bad weather to take him out.  No more watching him struggle when he walked. No more feeling bad for him because he couldn’t hear and could barely see.  No more wondering if he was in pain.  No more planning our day around his trips to the dog park.  No more white hair to clean up or on our black clothing.  No more “accidents” in the middle of the night. No more pet expenses.  But what I wouldn’t give to have him back…not as he was the last few years…but as he was for 14 years or so.  I’d gladly pay his vet bills, get out in the rain with him, plan my day around him, deal with dog hair, to have him back.  But that’s all selfishness on my part.  He’s in a better place.  That day at the vet, he seemed to know what was about to happen.  He seemed at peace with it as he slipped off to sleep and I bawled like a little baby.  He looked like he was just asleep, and he’d pop his head up at any time like he used to do to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. But the cycle of life comes for all.  Since that day, I have avoided talking about him and have only told my immediate family. I have wanted to run to the nearest kennel and get a replacement dog, but I know that won’t happen. There’s no replacing Aspen, besides our lifestyle right now works better without a pet…maybe one day later on.  We threw away or gave away all of Aspen’s stuff.  I “made” Steve dig a toy of his out of the dumpster after regretting throwing it away.  So, all we have is his collar, a moose toy and a ton of memories.  Tomorrow we’ll go get his ashes and we’ll also get a paw print that some lady here paints and will send to us.  He will forever be missed and took a piece of my heart that can never be replaced.  Rest in peace, baby boy.

By: Steve Crumley

Yes, I know how that sounds and I know that God is everywhere. But it was outside of my comfort zone that really enriched my relationship with Him. When I am comfortable I don't pray or think about God as much. And I say shame on me for that. I am learning to do better about praising Him in the easy times too. I need to do better and that is why I am so thankful for this season of living outside my comfort zone that God has been directing. WE (Vicki and I) have prayed for God’s guidance since day one of our journey to live the RV lifestyle. And can I tell you...God has been faithful in guiding us every step of the way.  Some good, some bad and some that have left us with questions.  But we know our God and He is in control and good all of the time. And His goodness takes me to the story I want to share with you.

It was the first week of March and I'm driving a semi-truck for Knight Transportation. I was sent out to California which I don't enjoy. To much traffic and not enough lanes. I will leave it at that. After a day or so my dispatcher asked if I can help him and the company out by picking up in California and going to Loveland, Colorado. If this load is missed on the scheduled pickup the company will be fined $1500. I said ok and the weather that way looked good. On my second layover, I think I was around Grand Junction, I  was going to get up early and get in to Loveland. I checked the weather again that evening and the I-70 corridor still looked good. There was a weather system coming in but I would be ahead of it. Well...that early morning (I think around 3am MST) my radar showed snow clouds everywhere. It was raining/sleeting at the truckstop and I thought boy oh boy, this is not good! I did the only thing I knew that would get me through this. I PRAYED. I am outside of my comfort zone in a big way and I turned to my Heavenly Father. And I PRAYED. The radar indicated that I would have this storm all the way to just east of the Eisenhower tunnel. I have never driven this Interstate, it is night time and the radar says I am going to have some snow. And I'm driving a semi in the mountains...the rocky mountains! I have to be honest, I was scared to death, but I put my trust in God. What I am about to tell you could be explained away by science and physics. The temperature varied from 21 to 30 degrees during my drive. Most of the drive I had wet roads, but I never saw any snow, the roads never became slick or icy and other than some rain I had good visibility the whole way. I know God was right there with me, just outside my comfort zone.

The science and physics of the weather did not create what the radar showed to be a bad winter storm that morning and that is because the God who created them and who controls them did not allow it to happen. I believe God answered mine and Vicki's prayer. I asked her the evening before to pray for me and for the weather to be good. I do believe in miracles, and that is what I believe God did.

During some of my time at home I was watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie (my mom loved that show). It was the one where Adam, Mary's husband, got his sight back after an explosion that gives him a concussion. After the doctor has looked him over he talks to the family, Mary, Charles and Caroline, to give them an explanation as to how he received his sight back. Charles Ingalls says before the doctor gives his explanation "it's a miracle". The doctor says Adam lost his sight as a young boy due to a concussion and the concussion he received from the explosion brought his sight back. That was his medical explanation for it. But Charles Ingalls says "I still call it a miracle". You have to love Michael Landon in that TV series. So, that's how I saw it that morning. There are explanations but I believe it was a miracle. It was the God of the universe controlling His creation. Just like Jesus did in Matthew 8:23-27.

The God of all creation is in control. Every second of the day and night. He rescued me that early morning just like He did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego(Daniel 3: 19-27). I want to thank Vicki for allowing me to share this story in her blog. I have many more stories where God showed up and was always faithful. I am quite certain many of you have stories as well. I felt strongly compelled to write and share my story after it happened. I'm trusting that God is doing something wonderful with it. It is God who deserves all the credit...all the glory.

I can not say it enough…this season has FLOWN by. We are down to the last few weeks now. They have signed the lease for our site for next year, so it looks like we are “in.” The last month has been filled with softball games and activities. Our friends, that we made in Durango, spent a month here in the Phoenix area and we hiked with them (Photo 2), ate Whataburger with them twice and played pickleball. It was so nice having them here. We got free tickets to see to the Barleen’s show. For those of you familiar with Branson, Barleen’s is similar to a Branson show. We went to their variety show and it was so well done. There was some serious talent on the stage. They also serve a full meal for their guests. We lucked into some complimentary tickets and saved ourselves $84. Then we got free tickets to an Alabama tribute show at another area park. It was really well done. We have also been to John Denver and Journey tribute shows (worked those show for free attendance.). We weren’t super impressed with the quality of the shows we worked, but at least we didn’t pay money for them. This week we have a Volunteer Appreciation Party and a Bingo event to help with. After that, things will be fairly slow around here.

My niece has a good team this season but they don’t seem to be improving much. We had high hopes for them after the first game or two, but they have lost several games they should have won. Our belief is it’s the coaches. But we have had so much fun going to their games and haven’t missed any that were drivable. We only have 2 more days of games left before we leave. Hate to miss so many games, but they do have a way to listen to the games that we will have to take advantage of.

Aspen officially turned 17 the other day. We have had days when we thought it was time and then he bounces back, and we know it's not time yet. It’s really hard being in this situation. One day at a time, I guess.

It appears the RV leg that was replaced is still slipping slightly. Steve is now wondering if it’s the other leg (somehow they are connected) causing the problem. We aren’t too worried about this since it’s such a slow slippage, but I sure hope the slide issue is fixed. I’m not feeling super confident right now.

(Pictured above: Steve playing a Virtual Reality game on Christmas Day.)

The RV repairman came by last week but informed us that they hadn’t ordered the slide part (some confusion on their part) so he could only work on the leg. So, the slide part is now on order, but we aren’t sure when it will get fixed. We are debating on whether we should take a trial run some weekend after they work on it, to see if the slide is really fixed before we hit the road in April. It was a bit difficult getting into our site back in October, so I’m not thrilled about having to do that again, but I’d like to know all is well since we won’t be back this way for another 6 months. Yesterday, we were hanging out and the electricity just went out. At first, I figured it was a park-wide thing but finally figured out it wasn’t. It was a just us thing. Steve did everything he knew to do to trouble-shoot but couldn’t get it back on; so, he did the only thing he could do, call a repairman. It turns out it wasn’t something Steve would have known about…it was an electrical transfer switch that apparently can go bad or even get “stuck.” The guy banged on it a few times and nothing. He went to see if the part was in stock- nope! He went back to bang on it again and wa-la, we were back in business. Guess it was just “stuck.” Still cost us $125!

We have discussed going to Quartzite in a couple of weeks since it’s only a couple hours from here. They have a huge RV rally in January. It was mentioned in detail in the book/movie “Nomadland.” We thought it might be fun to make a day trip and check it out. They have a lot of vendors come out and we’ve heard they have really good prices on things. But right now, we/I have the “Omni.” I started feeling a bit off on Tuesday. Went to work on Wednesday still feeling like I might be getting a cold. By Thursday, I decided I better go get tested. The only appointment I could get that day was at 9:00pm and it was a 25-minute drive but that’s the way it is. Steve got tested too just to be safe. I tested positive, he tested negative. I have only had cold-like symptoms: congestion, cough, aches and pains, headache, fatigue, etc. I started feeling better in 2 days, so I plan to go back to work Tuesday and then wear my mask for 5 days per the CDC. In the meantime, Steve has started to feel bad so although he hasn’t gone to get retested yet, he most likely got it from me. Kind hard to quarantine in an RV!

Aspen has also had a rough time. He was shaking constantly, so Google said, he’s most likely in pain. We took him to the vet and they ran x-rays and did some blood work only to find that he has some sort of degenerative disease that might be causing his back to hurt. I really didn’t think that was the reason he was in pain, but they gave us some pain medication and muscle relaxers and we took him back home. After 3 days of meds, he was starting to act like he felt better. My theory, which I can’t prove, is that when he’d been groomed the day before, the groomer forced him to stand when he was worn out and that caused him to strain his back. Considering he’s acting like his normal, old self, I don’t think it was the disease causing the pain. Besides, I haven’t been super impressed with this mobile groomer so although convenient, I’m going to see if I can find an alternative. If I had talent, I’d try it myself, but a Westie face is not something I want to tackle.

The days seem to be flying by. I’m starting to get a bit worried because we are still a little unsure as to our summer plan. I hate last minute stuff! We have had some cooler temperatures (60’s) and love doing winter here. It’s nice to feel like it’s winter without having to get out the heavy coat and gloves.

Merry Christmas to all! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a year goes by. There’s been some bumps along the way, but all in all, it’s been a good year. We are richly blessed by God.

Work is going well here at Roadhaven. We’ve been told multiple times that we have a job here for as many years as we wish to return. I really do enjoy working in the activity office (better than the front office). There’s a good variety of things to do and it’s not very stressful compared to how front office work can be. Tracey is a bit of a mess. Her language makes me cringe and it doesn’t seem very professional since she doesn’t hide it from anyone; but she is an easy person to work for and that’s huge! She’s very accommodating and not stuck on there’s only one way to do something like some people I’ve worked for. Steve has had yet another duty added to his repertoire. He is now also helping in the mail room. This new position is still in flux as they try to figure out what they need from him, but girl who works in the mailroom full time was having trouble keeping up with things and when if was out sick, things would pile up; so they decided it would be good to have someone assist her. He worked until 3:00pm yesterday and we are hoping that was a one-time thing because we both are really liking our 8:30-1:30 hours. We have helped a little with set up and tear down for events, but it’s not been much.

We took Aspen to the vet a few weeks ago to get his heartworm medicine. We decided to have them run some tests (a senior wellness check) just to see what they’d say. They said he’s completely blind in his left eye. Lately he’s been bumping into things more, so I think his other eye isn’t too great either. They really didn’t find anything else. They mentioned he might have Cushings (I thought that was a human only disease!) but he doesn’t really seem to have all of the symptoms of it. Otherwise, for 16 1/2, he’s healthy. I have wondered at his quality of life…he doesn’t seem to be in pain, but he seems so “sad” at times. How do you know when it’s time?? Depresses me to think about it.

We saw a job posting for Digikey for 2022 and so we called to get our name on the list for spring. When I called, they told me they were only looking for 3rdshift, migration workers at this time. I don’t think I can do 3rd shift and migration work is very physically demanding. We put our names on the list to return in the hopes that they will get further down the road on their migration into the new building by May and will not need us to do that. In the meantime, I am looking for a back-up plan. Since our plan is to head to the Smoky Mountains sometime next summer/fall, I have been looking at places there. Dollywood has a workamper program which some friends of ours took part in last summer and we are looking into that. I have also sent our resume to a couple of KOA’s in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. We heard from one and set up an interview time for after the holidays.

I mentioned the truck having a leak in my last post. Well, we took it to the shop and they found a multitude of issues in addition to the radiator leak. One always wonders if the shop is just trying to make money, but they sent pictures and talked to Steve about it all and Steve decided it was all legit although expensive. $4000 later, we have our truck back and hopefully, problem-free for a long time to come! Next week, they will come out and work on the RV. See what that sets us back. Merry Christmas to us! Ha, ha!

We are leaving later this afternoon (we got today off!) to head to my brother’s house for their pizza making/cookie decorating tradition. We will spend the night with them and then celebrate Christmas day at their house. We are looking forward to it!

Sunset at Roadhaven

Our work schedule has changed more times in the last 2 weeks than I've changed socks. (Not really!) But it has been a work in progress. We think we may have the final winner as of yesterday and it will take effect on Monday. We will no longer be working in Hospitality. I'm not sure they ever really wanted us there. The lady in charge always felt like since we weren't residents, then we couldn't make the impact with prospective owners that people who live here could. In ways, she is right. She has also had several people volunteer that she didn't have spots for because of our need for hours so our leaving Hospitality will help. So...what will we be doing? We are back to what we know the most: Office and Maintenance. We will work Monday-Friday from 8:30-1:30. I will be in the activities office helping the activity director since she doesn't have an assistant this year. She is the main reason for the schedule change. She was really needing more help and they said they had plenty to keep Steve busy in maintenance, so there you have it! I liked having a weekday off but getting off at 1:30 will help if we need to schedule an appointment or something.

They finally widened the driveway of our site. It’s still tight but I can now park the truck by myself.

We have already talked to the general manager about returning next winter. He is good with it. We know it's early and we may change our minds but as I've mentioned before, deals like we have here are few and far between. I still want to try and find a way to winter in Mexico but for now, this will work!

It's hard to believe next week is Thanksgiving. Nice weather, like we've been having here, makes it difficult to remember what season we are in. We plan to spend Thanksgiving at my brother's house in Surprise.

We haven't gotten really into any activity or club here. Every time we run into someone who is a big club supporter, they want to recruit us. What they don't seem to grasp is that we are not like everyone else here whose main job every day is to get out of bed. I am not bashing retirees; if anything, I am jealous. But I don't want to pay $25-40 and not be able to enjoy the club benefits due to our work schedule. We did play a little pickleball on our day off. There are open court times for members and non-members. Two guys were playing on the court next to us and asked if we wanted to play so we played a couple of games against them (and won!)

2 weeks later-

I started a blog and then never got it together to send out, so I guess I’ll just add to it now. We are now fully into our newest schedule. It is working out well. Steve has kept busy outside painting, shoveling rocks and trimming greenery. I am enjoying working in the activity office. Some of the “rules” are different but it is much like the job I had last winter at Mesa Regal, so it’s not hard. I just have to learn how the director wants things done. Most of the time, the day flies by. I usually don’t get off at 1:30 because she wants me to close out the register and make the bank deposit and I usually can’t start that until close to 1:30, but it’s just more money in our bank account!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Brian’s. It was a small affair but the food and company were good. We played some cornhole after lunch and watched a lot of football. We will spend Christmas with them as well! We put up our tree and lights so we are ready!

Steve is still trying to get some help with the RV costs. It has been stressful for him trying to deal with Keystone and Lippert (the hydraulics manufacturer). No one wants to help...either it's been too long or we are the 2nd owner. We got a little help from Lippert but most of the cost will come from our pockets. We just hope that it fixes the problem. And then now, we have a truck leak that appears to be the radiator. So it's going to the shop Thursday to have that problem diagnosed. Not sure what is up, but we have had more car/RV troubles in the last 3 years than we ever had in a 3 year stretch back in Amarillo. Just trying to remember that God has got this!

Things have gone backwards here. We are back to wearing masks at work. The General Manager got Covid and then the communications manager did along with her husband who works in maintenance. Then another office worker got it…and so Monday, they shut down the front office completely so everyone could quarantine for a week and hopefully stop the spread. There are some residents who have it as well but I’m not sure how many. Thankfully, we have been spared in the activity office so we are still working and hopefully we will stay that way (no work=no pay). Sometimes I think the activity director would like things to close down so it would be easier on her, but I keep telling her to bite her tongue. So far, they haven’t cancelled anything (except the Christmas staff party) and they are only suggesting that the residents wear masks in buildings. We have to wear ours when at work around residents. I’m hoping we’ll get a hold on this thing and get back to where we were last week. I was enjoying feeling “normal.”

I think I took a longer time off from blogging than I’d planned to. I haven’t always had the use of my computer which was part of the issue. I was also just being lazy! Ha! But we got our WiFi set up the other day and now I have no excuses!

The break was good for us after working so much in Minnesota. We really enjoyed our family time in Missouri. We got in some great visiting with everyone, and I needed that. Then we went to Holiday Island, AR and spent a few days camping. The weather started out a bit soggy but got better. The day we went to the War Eagle Mill craft fair was a beautiful day and we had such a great time. Didn’t even spend too much money! For those of you who have been to Canton, I was expecting something more like that, but it didn’t have the swap meet type “junk.” It was purely arts and crafts which is what I really like to look at anyway. From Arkansas we headed to Amarillo. We got to spend some time with friends and family in Lubbock while going to some doctor appointments. Also, we got to go to church and loved every minute of being back in “our” pew and seeing friends we hadn’t seen in almost 3 years. We have had some issues with the RV and health that have brought me down in the last few weeks, but God is and always will be in control. He has allowed things to fall into place when I was worried about how it was all going to come together. We still have some worries and questions about how to deal with some things but once again, I know God is here through it all.

We arrived at our new job almost 2 weeks ago. We had planned to arrive earlier and take the RV into the shop to have the hydraulics looked at but due to additional doctor appointments, we had to change things up. Instead, the RV repairman came to the park and assessed the problem. We were hoping it was under warranty but it doesn’t seem to be so it may end of costing us over $1000 which doesn’t make us very happy.

(These are pictures from a day trip to Ft. Hays State Park.)

This will probably be my last blog for a bit. We have only 2 weeks left here and then we’ll be traveling. We are so excited to see the countdown begin. The city park where we are at is thinning out. After this weekend, there will probably only be 4 of the 10 spots filled in our section of the park. DigiKey even feels quieter. With so many workampers leaving, things are busier though and the offer of overtime is starting to come back. This last week we arrived on Monday to our “super bay” to find 2 other girls there. Both said they were assigned to it. One only works Sunday-Tuesday so we hadn’t seen her and the other one had been on vacation and said she was promised that bay when she returned. So we figured it was only a matter of time before we got the call to move elsewhere. It came around our “lunchtime” and our supervisor told us there’d been a mix-up and that we were supposed to go to KG to work. That was the bay that we had been at for a day and a half that I didn’t like. So, grudgingly, we moved back there. The first day was a disaster. There was stuff all over the place and it’s not a big area anyway. A guy told me what they call that bay but it’s something I can’t repeat! Thankfully on Tuesday when we returned, the product had been put away and things were fairly organized and so we did some more organizing to make it more user friendly for us and the day went fine. The rest of the week, we remained busy and were able to keep the bay how we like it- clutter-free. It’s only a 2 row (4 shelf) bay but with that comes a small work space and a feeling of claustrophobia at times. Steve and I survived the week and assume we will be there for the next 2 weeks but I would not place a bet on it! I have learned that at DigiKey.

I can’t believe we waited so long to do it, but we finally bought a small humidifier for the RV. We really should have gotten one when we were in S. Texas. I remember looking for a used one but never found one that would work for us. It’s amazing how much water can fill the reserve in a short amount of time and it’s not especially humid right now. It has been raining more lately which is why we finally got one on Amazon. I think it’s one of those “must haves” for RVers. You think you won’t need one, but you will. I’m doubting we’ll need it much in Arizona but even there you can have those days…

One week later: We survived another week, but we didn’t survive the Asian Beetle. Last year we got an infestation of the stink bug and it just about drove me to drink! I would wake up and find one of those nasty bugs staring at me from the ceiling and it’d scare me to death. I had read plenty about people having the same type of situations with this ladybug like insect. For those of you who are not familiar (and be glad) with the Asian Beetle, it looks like a ladybug only it’s orange instead of red. It loves to find warmth to escape the cooler temperatures. Like the stink bug, if you kill one, it’ll leave a liquid/smell behind that draws its “family members” to it and after a while you can have a real issue with them. I have heard of people having hundreds of them and finding them everywhere…in the slides, in the rolled up awnings, in the A/C, etc. So I’m not exaggerating when I say, you don’t want them even if they look cute. I started seeing them about a week ago and told Steve. I tried to express the seriousness of this situation to Steve and I don’t think he quite got it. After we started seeing them more and more, inside and out, I think he finally got the picture. One day, they were swarming. I was out walking Aspen and when I got back to the RV, I was afraid to go to the door because they were everywhere. I grabbed the broom and started to brush them off the door so we could dash inside but as soon as I’d brush them off, they’d come right back. They were even attacking me. I finally gave up and just picked up Aspen and we ran inside. Some came in with me…on me…but we lived. I jokingly told Steve we might have to call our supervisor and tell her we couldn’t make it to work that day because we were being held hostage by beetles and couldn’t leave our RV. It was really awful. The next day, I told Steve, I couldn’t take another infestation and so he called the Express Pro (our employers) office and asked if we could move to another RV park in town. They said “yes” and so yesterday, we got up early and packed up as quickly as we could and moved to the other park before we had to report to work. They said they had some of the beetles there too but we really haven’t seen too many. Now I’m not saying we don’t still have a problem with them. I’m sure we brought plenty with us even though Steve did everything possible to leave them in St. Hilaire. There was just no way of getting rid of them completely with how they like to hide in places. Today we bought some spray that is supposed to kill them and Steve just got through spraying inside and out. Hopefully that will take care of the situation and we will stop seeing them soon. In the meantime, we just use our hand vac to sweep them up. We only have 1 more week here and I don’t want to bring the problem with us! The park we moved to is nice. We actually have WIFI (thus the ability to write this blog without wanting to scream) and cable and a nice big site. We are maybe 2 miles from Digikey, another plus. This is where we wanted to be in the first place, but it was full when we arrived. Now that winter is approaching, spots have opened up. We’ll enjoy it for a week!

We had our 3-month evaluation on Friday. They showed us our pick averages and repick numbers. Lisa was very happy with our numbers and so were we for newbies that keep getting moved around to different bays.

Aspen was supposed to have a grooming appointment today. We drove to Grand Forks and dropped him off. I got a phone call about 30 minutes later from the groomer saying he’d had an attack and fallen over and she was afraid that grooming him would stress him out too much and she wasn’t willing to take that chance. I tried to tell her that he has those from time to time but she was too traumatized and said she’d trim up his face and clip his nails but asked me to come get him. He has been having these “attacks” more. It’s hard to decide whether we should take him to the vet and hope there’s something they can do for him or just let him be. It’s so hard when you are a full timer and don’t have a vet who knows your pet.

Lastly, we have decided to change our winter plan. I saw an ad on Workamper News of a job that sounded interesting. I wasn’t really looking for anything because I was looking forward to returning to Mesa Regal, but we decided it wouldn’t hurt to send our resume and see what happened. I figured the position had already been filled anyway. The next day, we got a response from the GM saying he’d like to talk to us so we called him and talked about the position and he offered it to us. We bounced it around for a day looking at the pros and cons but, in the end, we decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Let me reiterate, we never see jobs like this offered in the winter, which is why we felt like we should put in our resume. We are working at a resort in Apache Junction which is still the Phoenix area. Two of the cons are it’ll be a longer drive to get to most of Madison’s softball games and we really prefer Mesa to AJ. It’s called Roadhaven Golf & Tennis Resort. It has around 1062 sites and they are owned by the residents. It has about all of the activities you would expect of a large Arizona resort: pickleball, 3 pools, crafts rooms, fitness room and exercise classes, etc. Our job will be to manage the hospitality office. We had to ask what that entailed but basically we will be dealing with people who are interested in the resort and either want a tour or have questions. We are responsible for finding volunteers to cover the office hours when we aren’t working it and we also will give prospective owners information they need in order to investigate properties for sale. We also will help the activities director setting up and tearing down for some of the major events. We will each work 25 hours/week and we are going to try to make sure we have volunteers for the days Madison has games so we don’t miss any. We will see how it works…we have until February to try to get it worked out anyway. I’m sure we’ll have some issues since we are “management” but we are going to give it a shot. This is the amazing part: they pay for ALL hours worked AND the site and all utilities are free. Unheard of for winter workamping jobs. We earn PTO as well. We have hopefully learned not to accept any job solely based on the money and we had to check ourselves, but the pros seemed to outweigh the cons on this one so we gave Cal-Am/Mesa Regal the bad news. We still start November 1.

3 weeks to go! The weather has become more fall like and some of the trees have begun to change already. I heard that was supposed to happen earlier than normal this year due to the dry summer. I love this time of year! Makes me want to play hooky from work when it’s so nice out. Steve is ready to go. I went through that a week ago and am over it now. I’m sure when we get down to the last week, I will get antsy to move on again. This week was quite a mess. We started our newly assigned bay on Monday. Monday was a good day. We were busy but not overwhelmed and we liked the bay. It was in a good location, the workspace was ample and we liked the product there for the most part. Day 2 it was crazy. We arrived to find 4 rows of totes 7 high with putaways (product that needed to be shelved). Some of it had been there from when we’d left the night before. (Makes you wonder what the night shift did!). Then the labels just kept flowing. We had a really busy day but still enjoyed it once we got some of the totes put away where we felt less claustrophobic and disorganized. On Wednesday, we arrived to find a girl at “our” bay. She was the one who had been working the bay before us but had been moved by DigiKey to work elsewhere. It was rather awkward. We knew she didn’t want us there and we didn’t need her there. At break, we went to our supervisors and told them that 3 people weren’t needed there and we’d be ok if we needed to be moved. Lisa said, “I was just getting ready to come find you.” Not a surprise! She explained that the girl was a very unhappy person. Apparently at the bay she’d been moved to, she had been rude to everyone and just made everyone miserable. So, guess what DigiKey did? Tell her to suck it up and learn this new bay or else? Nope! They allowed her to go back to her old bay; telling people that all you have to do at DigiKey is throw a fit and act ugly and you can get what you want. Lisa was not too happy with DigiKey, but what can you do? Some people are very territorial. Hard to believe in our short time here, I had to deal with 2 people who caused me to have to change bays. Lisa asked Steve and I to go to another bay to work for the rest of the day and on Thursday; then we would go to another bay on Friday where we will supposedly work for the rest of our time here. (I’ll have to see it to believe it!). I did not like the bay we were moved to, but I knew it was just for a day and half. I spent most of my time using the weigh machine to count out product. It was only 2 rows (4 shelving rows) of product and the workspace was tiny. I was so glad when Friday arrived so we could move to JZ. I knew of this bay. I had been told it was a lot of fun and so easy. The couple who had been working it were temps like us and they were leaving so they needed someone to fill their spots. It’s considered a “super bay.” It is a fast paced bay because almost everything is pre-packed. That means that if you get an order for 50 of something, you go to the bin and there are baggies with 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 etc. already filled and ready to go. You just grab the amount you need, put the label on it and toss it onto the conveyer belt. Occasionally, you have to prepare your own order but very rarely. I think I fulfilled 151 orders on Friday. My average has been around 85 at other bays. It was great! Steve wasn’t so sure about it because it was different from anything we’ve done so far, but I think this is the perfect way to finish up my stint at DigiKey!

I probably should have mentioned in my blog titled “The Job,” that that is the job as I know it. As soon as they open the new facility, the job will change significantly. No more handheld scanners. No more working at bays with others (Mike will be happy!) and trying to fight for workspace. People will mostly have their own supplies, their own workspace and won’t move much since the product will come to them on the belt. I still wonder how it will all work and if I’d like the job as well as I do now. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to find out next spring, but DigiKey may decide that this “experiment” isn’t worth repeating and won’t look for seasonal workers anymore.

We haven’t been able to work the overtime we’d wanted so far. We have 1/2 a cruise paid for. (I guess one of us can go. HA!) We are still hoping that might change since a lot more of the Express Pro people are leaving this next week, but time will tell. My worn-out body is glad, but our vacation account is sad.

We finalized our departure plans today. We moved up our departure date a week so we could go to Missouri to visit family. I haven’t seen some of my family in over a year and a half. I have a great niece I’ve never even met. We plan to drive to Missouri and stay for a few days. Then since I mentioned to Steve that I’d like to camp a bit instead of just run from job to job, we started to look for somewhere we could chill for a few nights. Problem was, it appears everyone else is doing the same thing in mid-October. I mean, who can blame them? Fall weather and colors at their best! We had hoped for a state park in Arkansas or Oklahoma but struck out. We ended up finding a privately owned park in Northwest Arkansas. It’s close to a beautiful state park with hiking trails which will work for us. We also found out that there’s a huge arts and crafts fair about an hour away while we are there. They have live music every day and food trucks. It sounds like my kind of place, so we are really excited about our camping trip. Then we’ll head to Amarillo as planned for our appointments.

On a different topic, I love to read and got a Kindle probably 3-4 years ago. I never read paperback books anymore. Kindles are just so much easier to travel with and when I finish a book, I can just start another one without a trip to the library or bookstore. Many of you may be familiar also with Book Bub which emails you daily with discounted or free books that you can get for your Kindle and I rarely spend money on books anymore. Plenty of free ones to entertain me. Well, Steve decided he’d like to read “Nomadland” after I finished so I had to lend him my Kindle to read it. I had brought a few paperbacks with me from when we sold our house that I hadn’t ever read. I dug one out and decided to read it while Steve used my Kindle. So, I put on my reader’s and turn on the reading light (see why Kindles are so great?!?) to see my paperback. Not too long into my nightly reading, I caught myself trying to tap the page to get it to turn for me! How sad is that? (For you who don’t use an e-reader, after reading a page, you just tap on the screen to move on to the next page.). Shows how much I use my Kindle. Also, may say something else, but we’ll not go into that because I refuse to give up my beloved Kindle. I have to admit I did that at least 3 more times while reading the book (not all on the same night at least!).

Hmm, blog #111 on 9/11. Hard to believe it’s been 20 years since that awful day. I’m sure most of remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard of the news. Seems like just yesterday…

I’m sure some of you have wondered why we are working 40-hour jobs at $20/hour when we left 40+ hour jobs that paid much more and came with benefits. Have we digressed? Are we back where we started? Do we have regrets? The answer to all of these questions is “NO.” We are choosing to do this. We know it’s only for a season and then we move on. We know that if we needed to or really wanted to, we could walk away today. Our jobs hold little to no stress. When we leave at the end of the day, we leave it all behind (which is big for me; I rarely left school without bringing more work home.) We may have good days and bad days and there are days when we just don’t feel like going to work but when we get there, we are fine, and the day/night goes by quickly. So, after 2 ½ years, neither of us want to go back to our old lives nor do we have regrets. I just got finished reading “Nomadland.” Some of you may have seen the movie. (I suggest you read the book. Although I haven’t seen the movie yet, I don’t see how they could capture the true message of the book in a movie.) The book paints a rather bleak picture of life as a “nomad.” When the book was being written, around 2016, the world was going through a housing crisis where houses weren’t worth what people had paid for them. People were seeing their pensions go up in smoke. Jobs (good or bad) were hard to find. A lot of the people mentioned in the book became “houseless” because they couldn’t afford a home. They had to decide what they needed most and what they could do without. They decided they could do without a house. Yes, they needed shelter from the elements but there was a cheaper way to have a roof over your head…RV’s, vans, cars, etc. They found jobs like Amazon Camperforce (a workcamper program similar to what we are doing at DigiKey) and the beet harvest to make money and have a travelling lifestyle. So, for them, this lifestyle was one of necessity. For us, it was a choice. We had a house we could afford due to the good jobs we held. We weren’t forced out of our jobs. We wanted something different. We wanted something with less stress that allowed us to travel. We have found that in this lifestyle and although we do have to work some to make money, our needs are fewer, our expenses a lot less. I do have moments when I wish we were able to do more travelling around and going to new places more frequently. Steve and I are looking into job opportunities that might allow us to do that. There are other opportunities besides working at campgrounds. So, we have a month left here, then 6 months in Mesa, AZ and then who knows?!?

We did have a chance to get out last weekend (Labor Day weekend) and do a little sightseeing as you may have seen on Facebook. Itasca State Park, a beautiful park, is about 1 ½ hours from us and it is where the Mississippi headwaters are located. They have a nice welcome center with information on the Mississippi River and it’s only a short walk to view and walk across the headwaters. It was a beautiful day to be out in nature. We even took Aspen along for the ride since the temperatures were so nice. We ate at the Douglas Lodge built in 1905. They have a nice restaurant there and we enjoyed the state fish, the walleye. Then we decided to drive to Bemidji where Paul Bunyan, supposedly born there, and his blue ox, Babe, are located in a park on the shore of Lake Bemidji. They have a little visitor center with some of Paul’s stuff, like his school pencil and his belt that are fun to see. It made me want to read some tall tales about Paul Bunyan from our school days. I honestly don’t remember much about him. After some pizza for dinner at Giovanni’s, we headed back home. Great day!

We have just finished our 6th week at Digikey.  The job is getting easier although we learn something new every day.  I am assigned to Bay WS with a guy named Mike who doesn’t want/need a bay mate.  This week he worked a schedule where he left at 3:30 so when I came in at 1:30, he’d tell me, there’s not much to do, why don’t you go see if someone else needs your help.  Wow!  He’s not being mean; he’s just is a very antisocial person who likes things a certain way and my being there disturbs his order.  I obliged him and would wander off for 2 hours and pick labels for other bays who didn’t mind my being there.  Next week will be the true challenge though because we both work the same hours.  I refuse to just leave for 8 hours, especially when I like our bay, just to make him happy.  Usually what happens when you get low on labels is that they send you to another bay to help someone who has a lot of work to do.  Mike hates being sent to other bays which is why he doesn’t like my being there...there’s a higher chance of him getting displaced.  Steve is working in WG with 2 other people.  He stays pretty busy there and they have organized the picks so that they aren’t constantly running into each other in the aisles.  We were told that we will eventually be switching over to “bag and tag.”  I am delaying it as long as possible.  With the move to the new building, they are having the Express Pro employees go through bins and count what’s in them, update the numbers, make labels for those that need updating and just prepare for the move.  It isn’t hard but looks monotonous and you have to get in the way of other employees to do the job and not all employees are thrilled to share their space.  We will probably be moved to that position in a few weeks and stay there until we leave in October, but you never know, things could change. 

I was working the other day and I felt my readers fall off.  I didn’t worry about it because I knew where they’d fallen and I just finished what I was putting away.  When I turned to look for them, they were nowhere to be found.  I looked and looked.  I didn’t figure I’d let them fall on the conveyer belt but I wasn’t positive.  I looked in bins and under the belt...and finally gave up so I could go back to work. I had to borrow a pair from Steve because it’s too hard to see the numbers without them.  On my last break, I decided to get my cell phone out and use my flashlight to look again.  I almost gave up and then a caught a flash of light.  Sitting on the bottom shelf at the back of a bin all by themselves, folded up neatly, were my glasses.  I was soo glad to find them.  Quite a fluke that they were land there the way they did!

We got home the other night and I told Steve that the RV smelled like poop.  We found that Aspen had gone poop while we were at work.  No biggie, he went in Steve’s bathroom like a good little boy!  So we did the nightly routine and fed him and took him out.  While we were out, he just didn’t seem himself. He would just stop and stand there and then get wobbly or sit down.  I was starting to get worried about him and since it was so dark, we couldn’t really see what was going on with him.  Finally, I picked him up and took him inside.  When we got inside we realized he was literally falling asleep standing up.  That’s what he was doing outside.  We figure he was so upset about needing to go poop and no one was there to take him out, that he was pacing the floor for hours and wore himself out.  He was much better the next day after a good night’s sleep. You can definitely see changes in him.  His hind legs are weaker than before.  We’ve had to put down towels on the floor so he can get traction when he walks.  Most of the time he’s fine but if he’s really tired, he can’t stand on the vinyl flooring. All four of his feet want to slide out from him.  One night when we came home, before we put the towels down, he was on the floor kind of spread out.  He didn’t look uncomfortable and he was asleep but I figured he got stuck there and couldn’t get up and so that’s where he stayed.  That’s the reason we started putting towels on the floor when we leave at night.  Not loving the look but it’s not for us!

We have finally decided to get the vaccine.  Neither of us are happy about it and we still don’t trust it.  We have heard that the Delta variant is fast spreading and I had someone from my high school class die recently from Covid.  Also most cruise lines require people to be vaccinated and it would limit us on what line we choose to use if we weren’t.  So begrudgingly, we got our first shot yesterday.  Next one in 3 weeks.  

The smoke from the Canadian fires remains to be a problem around here.  Many mornings, you wake up to hazy conditions and the smell of smoke.  The weather has been a mixture of conditions.  Still little rain but it’s not always miserably hot.  Next month should definitely start bringing in cooler temperatures.  

(Me, using a scooter to do putaways.)

We graduated! Last Friday was our final day with our trainers.  Monday, we progressed to working with mentors.  Steve and I reported to our assigned bay and mentor only to find out that our mentor was going to be in and out all week and couldn’t give us the attention we were supposed to have so after 20 minutes or so, we were moved to another bay.  A guy had “agreed” to mentor us there. When we arrived, I’m thinking they twisted his arm to “agree.”  He was anything but welcoming.  We were supposed to be working in regular bulk and this area was MSL (Moisture Sensitive) meaning everything we pick has to be put into special packaging and sealed with heat.  I kind of liked working in this area during training so I was okay with the move but not really thrilled about having to work with this guy.  After about an hour, he became a little more friendly and helpful, but I was afraid it was going to be a long week!  A little while later, our supervisor came over and told us we were moving again.  Seriously! They had found 2 mentors who weren’t currently working with anyone, but Steve and I wouldn’t be working in the same bay as we were told we would be.  Turned out that he was only a little way down from me.  So, 3 moves later, we were finally set for the week.  I was in a bulk static sensitive area which means we had to be careful with the product and keep it on the blue mats, which prevent static build up, and put all picks in special static bags.  The bay I worked in was very organized and I enjoyed it. People were friendly and helpful. Both Steve and I had good mentors. Steve was in a regular bulk bay and learned a lot especially about packing his picks.  We also got lent out to the new building to do putaways.  That means we took product and put it in bins on shelving units like you see in the photo.  The full day we each put away over 100 items.  We were exhausted after that day. They have little foot propelled scooters with a box attached to them that you can use to get from one place to another and I used one on our full day.  It helped and made it more fun, but it was still very physical work.  We didn’t mind helping out where they needed help, but we weren’t getting the practice picking and working with our mentors like we were hoping for.  So, the next day, Steve told our supervisor that we would really like to spend more time picking since we were new.  She said she understood and hopefully we won’t be asked to do that until we finish our mentorship weeks.  It was nice being in the new building.  It’s quiet and there are very few workers there at this time.  They are hoping to be opening it up in November, but that date has already been pushed back due to some issues with the belts. We were given a tour of the new building on Monday and it is something else.  They said you could put 22 football fields in the building (2,205,325 square feet).  They have 26 miles of conveyor belts.  There will be robots that will do some jobs.  The mechanics of the building are high tech.  It should make things easier on the employees but there will be a learning curve to get used to the changes.   

We will start week 2 of 3 with mentors on Monday.  Steve is moving to another regular bulk bay and I’m going to the bay he was at this past week.  We won’t be working in the same area this week.  Last week we coordinated our breaks and “lunch” so we could go together. We will try to do that again this week, but it may be more difficult with us being in separate areas.  Steve said this week was a little frustrating to him, but he got faster and better at picking just as I did.  I enjoyed my week and feel like I did pretty well for my first week.  Every day we get an email summing up our last days work.  It tells us how many “picks” we did, if any were “repicks” (which means, for the most part, that we messed up), how we measured up compared to other pickers’ numbers and what our utilization percentage is (how well our work hours were spent).  Our numbers are not stellar right now, but we did have 100% accuracy and 0 repicks this last week so we are proud of that.  We did okay with the 2nd shift schedule.  I felt bad for Aspen though.  We left at 1pm and when we got home around 10:20pm, we’d feed him and then take him for a short walk before putting him to bed.  I guess I’m glad he’s not a puppy because I’d feel really bad about him being shut up so much.  Being 16, he probably doesn’t mind the extra rest he’s getting.   

DigiKey is doing away with weekly overtime for now, but we figure they will keep doing the Saturday overtime which is double time.  We have decided to try to work every other Saturday if we can and make some extra money for a vacation.  I know…our life is a vacation, but cruise prices are good right now and we can drive from Phoenix to California pretty easily so we figure we can make it work in April after we finish our jobs in Mesa.  We just need to figure out what to do with Aspen and our RV! 

So- to sum it up, we are doing well here in Minnesota/DigiKey.  It’s hot, but not too hot.  It’s humid, but not too humid.  It’s work, but not too much work.