Work, wiring, weather, Mr T - Yr 1, Day 184

Myrtle Beach, SC

Today is Christmas Eve, so Merry Christmas to my readers who celebrate the holiday.  May we all experience joy and peace.

This week has been a great disappointment in terms of visiting the rest of the places we wanted to go: Brookgreen Gardens again during the day, Magiquest and Ripley's Aquarium.  We also wanted to have dinner at a nice seafood place overlooking the beach.  We won't have a chance because this is the last weekend we'll be here.  Tomorrow is Christmas so everything is closed; Friday is early Shabbat so no time to really go anywhere as I need time to prepare and I also have work to do.  Sunday we need to do much of the packing up and Monday we hit the road for Savannah.  Reason: work!  Unfortunately, I really did have a pretty intense deadline to meet for a new client who is very difficult to work for.  He's very nice, but he is very unresponsive and when he does answer, he is extremely vague.  The project I've been given involves a complicated, custom software program which I've pretty much had to learn on my own.  Forgive me for patting myself on the back, but I believe I have the skills and experience to do this.  It's just very frustrating having to!  On the other hand -- good money!  Maybe I can pay the bills for another month, especially since Mitch has had exactly 3 jobs in the month we've been here.  Fortunately, my other steady client has been quiet this week.

Mitch has been extremely busy this week doing electrical work.  He's been replacing the halogen bulbs with LEDs and for some reason, the other day, turning on a switch blew a fuse.  There is a short somewhere in the system.  It's been a major troubleshooting ordeal and he's been taking every fixture and switch apart to try to locate the problem (he's gone through 30 fuses already.  Thankfully they're only pennies apiece).  I should have taken photos for posterity of all the wires hanging out, but alas, there is only one which I remembered to take when he was just about done.  As of today, he thinks he found the problem, but he was too tired after working on it for 8 hours to test it out.  He'll finish up tomorrow.

The last few days have also been rainy, with the epitome of a major storm happening today.  It was such a drenching rain that there are lakes next to the lakes.  We have a huge puddle next to the RV in which the ducks were swimming, instead.  Mitch took a video of it (bad pic of me in there - I was in my "work at home" clothes and focusing).

We did get new next door neighbors.  Interestingly, the man (his name is "T") came over to us, knocked on the door to introduce himself.  I loved it!!  I wish I could do that, but I'm sure there are folks who don't appreciate being disturbed.  His wife was visiting her mother who lives in the area, so it was only him.  He explained how he grew up in the area, how this campground used to be a pirate themed amusement park where he worked as a pirate who got killed every day in a sword fight (that was in the 1960s).  They've been full timing for 3 years and have been to almost every state.  He mentioned there was another couple a few sites down who also just started full timing a few months ago, and he suggested we go meet them.  Hopefully tomorrow the rain will let up and we'll be able to get outside without a rowboat!