Best update yet - Day 2045 (Year 6, Day 217)

Zephyrhills, FL

With praises to G-d, who has answered our prayers (in His time, not ours), after 1 year and 1 month, Mitch has finally landed a job!  It's not exactly his first career choice (systems analyst or network engineer), and it will be physically demanding, but it's with a good company.  In a nutshell, his first assignment (for at least a year) is installing all kinds of computer equipment, cables, tv screens, antennas at the Buccaneer Stadium in Tampa, in preparation for next year's Superbowl!  The year after that, the Superbowl will be in Orlando, so the next assignment will most likely be building that stadium.  The hourly pay is decent, but the main drawback is it will be 10-12 hour days, and 6-7 days a week (he's hoping he can negotiate to have Saturdays off for Shabbat).

Right now, it's only a verbal offer.  A formal one will be made after they process the paperwork and do the background check.  Hopefully no skeletons in the closet!  (just kidding--he's had several done already, in order to work at the airport, at an Air Force base and in the school system).

Another drawback is that it looks like travel will be pretty stagnant for a while, although we still plan to live in the RV (unless we can find a 1BR apartment for $500/month or less which is what we'd be paying at the campground.  Not very likely in the Tampa area).  We do want to move to another place that's much closer to the shul (7 miles instead of 20) and there are 2 places to choose from that are resorts (complete with pool, exercise room, and all kinds of activites).  They're probably all full right now with the snowbirds, but we can wait a month or 2 when they start to leave.

So... onto yet another subchapter in this new chapter!  Hopefully the work will start next week.

Updates - Day 2038 (Year 6, Day 210)

Zephyrhills, FL

Regarding the truck:  finally got it back 2 days ago (Wednesday) after 2.5 weeks.  It needed a new IPR valve.  Not going to go into the technicalities as I have no clue, but it cost $2K to get it fixed.  Has something to do with the high pressure fuel pump which needs to be replaced at some point (about $6K).  Too frustrated to continue this conversation right now.

On the Mitch job front:  the company he's been doing gigs here and there for said (in writing): you are greatly in our 2020 planning.  He's working today for them and probably Monday.  We shall see how this goes, as they've been very unreliable so far; gigs have been few and far between.

In the meantime, he had a very promising in-person interview yesterday (which is generally the 2nd step after a successful telephone interview).  It went very well and the interviewer said he was being recommended to the hiring manager.  We hope to have an answer in a few days.  That would be a great opportunity, although it could be 12 hour days, 6-7 days a week.

Lastly, newest challenge:  we have mice!  Two days ago I saw all the signs (like a gnawed bag of flour and droppings in every drawer, cabinet and oven, and on almost all the counters).  Other than spending Sunday going around and under the rig to find all the possible points of entry and closing them up, need to buy some traps for inside.  At least I know I'm not going crazy when I thought I heard noises in the middle of the night.

Never a dull moment!!!

Truck update, a guest - Day 2026 (Year 6, Day 198)

Zephyrhills, FL

We do not have the truck back; now were told maybe Tues or Wed.  There is definitely a problem with the fuel pressure pump, as no pressure is getting to the engine (fuel line?), but as of Thursday, they were not able to determine exactly where the leak was.  At least we're home in the campground and not at "Camp Ford," and our neighbors have been very generous in giving us rides to the supermarket and elsewhere around town, including to return the rental car (we decided to keep it an extra day, on our own dime, so we'd have a way to get to/from shul).  On Monday, Mitch has another gig but will be out on the road with his boss, who will pick him up.  If our prayers can be answered, hopefully they will discuss an arrangement whereby they'll put him on full time, or at least guarantee more hours rather than a job here and a job there.

As for our "guest" -- Mitch was getting ready to go outside last night and when he opened the door, he let out a loud scream.  He did that a few weeks ago when he saw a giant beetle-like bug in the rig, so I thought it was another bug.  He yelled at me to come quick and look.  I went over but couldn't see anything.  Our little visitor was sitting inside the railing to our awning and I am too short to see it.  So he took a photo:



I just hope he finds another home before we need to close the awning again!

Complaining, yet thankful - Day 2023 (Year 6, Day 195)

Zephyrhills, FL

Ok, need to start off by being EXTREMELY THANKFUL for all our blessings.  Things can (G-d forbid!) always be worse.

That being said, the truck is at the mechanic and the symptom to be fixed is (yet again, for the 3rd time), a bad fuel pump.  This time, they diagnosed the CAUSE of the problem which has to do with something wrong with the gas tank which, allegedly, is not sending fuel properly to the engine, which is why the pump keeps failing.  So, at this point, they are replacing the pump and when they get the parts in for the tank, they will replace that, and hopefully we will never have this problem again!

Meanwhile, Mitch was called for a gig and the company agreed to pay for the cost of a rental car so he could get there.  SWEET!!!!

Weather -- need to wear 2 heavy layers plus heat and fireplace on in the morning, but absolutely GORGEOUS (high 70s/low 80s; sunny) in the afternoon.  Can't complain; just wish I had more time in the day to enjoy the great outdoors.

Updates and Poor Mitch! Day 2018 (Year 6, Day 192)

Zephyrhills, FL

I can't believe it's been a year and 2 days that we've been at this campground.  I feel like we can no longer call ourselves travelers.

Chanukkah has come and gone.  We didn't participate in the huge "street fair"/candle lighting that our shul sponsored.  We lit candles at home all 8 nights.  Being on a keto diet, I made cauliflower latkes (although on the last day, Mitch and I made real potato ones for him).

New Year's Eve was just another night of the week.  I guess we've become old foggies.  We just didn't feel that changing the number on the calendar demanded any kind of special celebration.  Not even our annual game of Scrabble, accompanied by alcohol and snacks.  We pretty much just spent the night watching our regular tv shows.  Oddly enough, we did stay up until midnight and watched the ball drop (the last few years, we barely made it until 10:00!)

Other than that, it's been same old, same old.  Mitch continues to get a lot of interest and has hot leads, but none of them seem to pan out.  As much as he hates to do it, he's now looking for something (at least temporarily) in retail; i.e. cashier at the supermarket.  Minimum wage is better than no wage, especially after what follows.  He is connected with a company that does phone installs/repairs but they've only been giving him some stuff here and there; nothing steady (yet-- they claim they want to put him on full time but are just too busy to get around to it).

Which brings me to the "poor Mitch" section.  He was called for a quick job yesterday (Sunday).  He needed to pick up parts in New Port Richey, and then do a repair at Busch Gardens in Tampa (1 hr away to NPR, another hour to Tampa, then an hour back home).  Halfway between NPR and Tampa, the truck broke down (yet again).  This happened at around 2:00 pm.  He called for a mobile mechanic, who finally showed up at 4:00.  Worked on the truck until 6:30, only to determine he couldn't fix it on the side of the road as it was probably either the fuel pump or the pressure pump.  That cost $600.  We called our local mechanic who told us to have it towed to his shop.  Tow truck finally showed up to get Mitch at 10:30 pm!!!  By the time they towed him and then he had to take an Uber back home, it was almost 1:00 am by the time he walked in the door.  So that was almost 12 hours sitting in a broken down truck.  Mind you, after the sun went down, it was in the 40's and since the engine didn't start, it was very cold as well.  Anyway, it's probably going to cost at least another grand to make the repairs (and who knows how long it will take?)

Meanwhile, all of my clients must have been catching up with themselves over the weekend, as I woke up to 55 emails to action!  I'm not complaining about being very busy; that's a good thing.  I'm just really exhausted right now.  So on that note.... hope I have more to write about.

Our daughter and her hubby are coming down to visit mid-February (just for the weekend).  I know I'll write again then; hopefully sooner if there's anything eventful.

Fun day - Day 1991 (Year 6, Day 165)

Zephyrhills, FL

We had another get-together with our RV-Dreams friends (we had a   get together on Feb. 10th of this year: https://mitcheryl-rv-journey.blogspot.com/2019/02/delayed-post-day-1697-year-5-day-228.html).  For a background, we first became acquainted with Linda and Howard Payne, the founders of RV-Dreams, in 2011 when we first had the idea that we wanted to become RV full-timers.  It's something they had done and they shared (and continue to share) their knowledge and experience through their website, blog, forum and rallies.  They have a following of several thousand folks. We attended our first rally in 2011 where we rented a cabin at the campground.  After we bought our new home (June 2014), we attended 2 more rallies with them.  We have met many friends through their forum and rallies and continue to stay in touch with them.

Anyway, one member (Kelly) decided to reach out to any "RV-Dreamer" who was in the Central Florida area for another get together.  It's snowbird season, so quite a number of folks are here, although many had to travel over an hour to get to the park in Lakeland where it was held this time (1/2 hr; 25 miles for us).

The weather was perfect (78* and sunny) and the park was very lovely.  Had a really nice time.

      

Breathing update - Day 1989 (Year 6, Day 163)

Zephyrhills, FL

Nothing exciting going on in life; just an update regarding my recent breathing problems. 

The pulmonologist ran an allergy screening.  Turns out I'm highly allergic to elm.  I didn't even know we had elm trees here; I thought they were all live oaks.  Guess I'll need to check that out.

But at least we now know that this was asthmatic allergies and hopefully just seasonal.  At least the antihistimine and corticosteriod is helping to keep it under control (the only problem is that I've developed thrush in my mouth, due to the fact that no one -- not the doctor or pharmacist -- told me I'm supposed to rinse after inhaling; so now I'm on an antifungal as well).