June 8th Through June 14th 2008

June 8th: Temp OMG- 99 hi/72 low: This is what is supposed to happen, we shall see if it really gets to 99 degrees. I plan to be in the pool until I have to go to work (well, not really, but I will go for a swim.) So I did. Sasha went up to Walmart and got these Noodles - plastic things that you can use to float in the pool.

While I was working, Sasha got the motorcycle to work so he could use it this week. Just in time too for the gas prices are now up to $4 a gallon.

June 9th: Temp 98 hi/70 low: It is still really hot. And being only June - what is August going to be like? All I can say is I love working in a place where the utilities are paid for! And the pool is not bad either! I had to work today, not so bad as Monday's go. We are doing some re-arranging in the store and cleaning it up. Makes it a better working conditions when everything is neat and tidy.

June 10th: Temp 98 hi/70 low: The day of the major storm! I actually saw the temp go from 98 degrees F to 73 degrees in the space of a half hour. Of course, the thunderstorm/major gusting winds/possible small tornado might do that. These pictures were taken the next day, as I did not have my camera on the day of the storm. 

I had started working at 2 pm and everything looked clear and fine. However, we had looked at the weather forecast and had decided to bring in the awning before Sasha left for the day and to bring in the ATV from the road. No sense in it getting totally rained on. But at 2 pm, the sun was shining and it really did not look like anything would happen.

But it did - the storm came in real fast. Jeremy and I were the only people on for the time being, as our manager went home for the day (after all, the storms that came around last week did not do anything.) But by 3 pm, the storm started coming in...

Really Really fast. We first heard thunder, and we got the people out of the pool. They were like - "Well, we do not see lightening - so what is the big deal?" I figure, if it is thundering, well, there is lightening somewhere, so it is best to get OUT! Then came some wind, and Jeremy and I started getting things in from the porch outside - did not want them to roll or blow away.  Then came the rain - so much rain that you could not really see out. I heard Jeremy say that he saw a tree go down....I was kind of freaked by that. The lights flickered and then Sasha called.

I saw that it was him, picked up the phone and said "Hi Honey, I think we are dealing with a tornado..." and then the line went DEAD! Sasha was frantic - called back several times - could not get us at the store, so he called my cell phone. I think the land line phone that I was on, fried when the transformer crashed down. Don't know for sure, but the phone was dead. Our other phones were working fine but the one I was on with Sasha was toast. I told Sasha I would call him back, we do not know what the damages are yet as we are still in the storm, but that I and Jeremy were fine, and the store was still standing.

After I got off the phone with Sasha, we started getting more phone calls. Some where from the people at the campground, saying that they did not have power, and some people calling in to make reservations for tonight. Those that called for reservations, I took their info and stated that I would call them back. Once the storm was truly over (less than a half an hour and the sun was back out and shining), Jeremy went out to access the damage and see which sites still had power.

In the end, we only had two sections open for daily people, some of the dailies did not have electricity but did have generators so they could use those. We had some monthly people without power, and were able to hook up some to external power sources.

The biggest thing of all is that NO ONE was hurt, NO RIG was damaged, and that only a few trees went down. Every single tree that went down did so on sites that were not occupied. 

June 11th: 84 hi/62 low: the day after the storm:

This picture was in the D Section. There were several tree limbs down. This area rarely gets used because there is just water and electric. I'm just glad we had no rigs on any of the areas that got hit. No major damage, just some trees down as you will see in the next couple of pictures, the internet is out (although it might come up sometime today), electricity was down for the evening (which again, was OK as it was not too humid out).

This picture is in the A Section. Most of A was taken out from the storm, meaning that there was no power on these sites. Where the tree has come down completely, (I think that is A4 or A5) yesterday, there was a family of four, they had left the morning of the storm. As the storm came in around 3 pm, they had left the area. I am just so thankful that they had left, because that is exactly where the trailer would have been.

This is where the major amount of damage took place. There was a transformer back there that was down. This area is also the A Section and again, no one was on these sites. We are still in the process of cleaning up, as we have people coming in this weekend. Hopefully all will be cleaned up and working by that time.

The power is back on, it seems that Alleghany Power Company came in around Midnight to fix the power. But the internet is still not working as of 2 pm (I'll have to get an update when I go in today.)

I was supposed to be off today, but I am going in at 3 pm, to help out. I will have further updates this evening or tomorrow once I know more.

I now am an affiliate of Net10 - NO Evil - phones and service. This is one really good company: NET10...Pay As You Go Made Simple. I talked about it in my seminar as well. Hopefully they will have other sized ads so that I can put it up on the right side rather than in the text of the website. I guess I could also put an ad below. 

I guess this is how people have the ads in their websites. I always wondered how they did it! Learn something new every day!

June 12: Thursday: hi 88/low 59: Still hot, and lots of cleanup going on at the campground. But I had several things to do today, like figuring out a garden. I decided to do the Square Foot Gardening, and so made some plans and worked on the garden, getting weeds out and clearing out the area a bit. I took four hours of cleaning it up. I do not plan on using the soil, rather making boxes and putting soil in there. I will have pictures up when I can.

Sasha and I are going to spend Thursday night over at his sister's house, to celebrate Sasha's Dad for Father's Day. We can't all get together on Sunday, so this will be better. It turned out to be a great day for a cook-out, and we had a great time with everyone.

June 13: Friday: 90 hi/61 low: Would have thought that the storm would have brought in cooler weather, but I guess not. Drove back to work - took the long way back, got some non-perishable groceries at Aldi's, went to the post office and got our mail, and went to Checkers and had a meal, just in time to get to work.  

June 14: Saturday: 91 hi/66 low: The day of getting the wood, soil and putting it all together! After work, Sasha and I went to Lowes and Meadow Farms to get wood and soil for the Square Foot Gardening (SFG). The hardest part was finding the Vermiculite - one of the parts to the "Mel's Mix" soil for SFG. I had to go with what was available - medium grade as opposed to coarse grade. But that was better than nothing, so I got it.

Just as we were getting out of Lowes, it started to storm/rain. So we went to Five Guys for a quick dinner and then went home to put the boxes together. We got all of the boxes together and brought them over to the garden. We would do the soil the next day.

Check out the next week, June 15th through June 21st