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.