Life on the road

A Friendly Visit

Yesterday I had some visitors at the Christmas tree lot. Harlan and Arnette, a couple from California who are workamping in Mesa, stopped by to say Hi! Arnette introduced herself and said she reads my blog. She really introduced herself as “Anonymous”, as she has commented a couple of times anonymously. It was great to meet them.

This is their first time workamping. Arnette just retired in May, but Harlan has been retired for 12 years. Lucky dog! They described their job as being “food service”, but what they do is serve punch and coffee and oversee whoever is serving the food at meal functions at the campground where they are staying. It sounded like a pretty good gig.

Oh, I just LOVE being recognized. It is so much fun.

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A Palpable Mass

Karen · 7 Comments

I have been having some trouble with my arm for about two months, ever since we were in Flagstaff. When we were there, I walked into the door between the living area and the bathroom in our trailer, and hit my left arm. I didn’t have a bruise or anything, but my arm has been hurting ever since then.

It doesn’t hurt when I lift it up over my head, or when I move it back and forth, or side to side, but when I try to pick something up, it hurts. Like when I try to pick up a can of soda or open the door to the truck, I have no “grip” and my arm hurts.

Then, this week, I happened to notice that it looked swollen, right below the bend in my elbow. I had FabGrandpa look at it, and said it looked swollen to him, too. And, there was a knot in there. Not a bruise, but a huge “bump” in there. My friend Lynda looked at it too, and said, “yeah, it’s swollen up, Kid” (she always calls me kid, I love that about her!)

So, today, we went to the urgent care clinic in Anthem that is down the road from the Christmas tree lot. They took a look and said “yep, it’s swollen”. They gave me a prescription for Naproxen, and orders to get an ultrasound done at the hospital in Phoenix. I have to call on Monday and make an appointment. The diagnosis right now is:

Palpable mass in left forearm. It does looks swollen in this picture:
The doctor I saw said it was probably just a cyst or a benign tumor. After I get the ultrasound done, they will call me with the results and refer me to an orthopedic surgeon. (Ick!) So, there ya go—the suspense is palpable!

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Project 365 Day 55 Sunrise In Phoenix

Karen · 7 Comments

I am almost never up before the sun comes up, but FabGrandpa wanted to get the oil changed in the truck today. He wanted to be first in line so we had to be there before 7:00 a.m.!! While he was getting the truck stuff done, I bought groceries. We had everything done and back home before 8:30. Can you say NAP?

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Budget Report Week 4, Cash Monday

Karen · 7 Comments

We had a really good week this week. We spent a lot of money on groceries, because I cooked the Thanksgiving dinner for us and our friends, Charlie and Lynda. We had roasted chicken, squash casserole, sweet potato souffle, steamed green beans, and cranberry jello salad. It was all good.

We ate out at Cracker Barrel twice for breakfast, at the Chinese restaurant once for lunch, and at a Mexican place for lunch once. We also worked at the Christmas tree lot every day starting on Thanksgiving day.

At the end of the week, we had $59.99 left from our $300. The best week so far. FabGrandpa also had about $8.00 in tips from loading trees on people’s cars, and I sold one apron for $25. Not a bad week at all.

With last week’s ending total, we are now under budget by $85.94. Yay!

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Project 365 Day 53 Bottoms Up

Karen · 9 Comments

Ha Ha Ha! Lynda will understand this one…

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Working At The Christmas Tree Lot

Karen · 11 Comments

We met Charlie and Lynda a couple of years ago, when we all worked together in Virginia. While we worked at that place, their motor home was parked next to ours. We spent a lot of time off the clock traveling around sightseeing together. It was there in Virginia that we all decided to work at a tree lot together sometime in the future. Well, that day has come.

Charlie and Lynda are managing the lot and we are working for them. Today was our first day on the job. When FabGrandpa and I arrived at the lot, the first delivery of trees had just been taken off the truck and were stacked up like this:

We had to put each one on a stand. You take a green plastic bowl that has a hole in the bottom of it, with a gasket in the hole. Then, you take one of these metal things and push it through the hole. The sharp metal part goes into the trunk of the tree. You take a large hammer and pound it into the tree trunk, then stand it up. While all that pounding is going on, someone takes a measuring stick and measures the tree, and someone writes the height, kind, and price of the tree on a tag and ties the tag to the top of the tree. Then you stand it up.

After the trees are standing up, you take a tree mover and move it where it is supposed to go. We lined them up in rows with all of one kind the same row. I have not bought a live tree since my youngest daughter was about 6 years old (she is now 33), so I have not even been on a tree lot in oh, about 27 years. So, I had never even seen on e of those nifty devices. It enables one old grandma to be able to move a 12 foot tree by herself!! Pretty cool! (That’s Charlie in the picture below. That red thingy with wheels, that is the tree moving device)

When you get the trees all lined up in rows, you fill the green bowl with water, then you have to cut the twine that binds them to remove it, and then fluff out the branches. They pretty much fall into place by themselves, but it is fun to see each one unfold and start to look like a beautiful Christmas tree right before your eyes. (That’s Lynda and FabGrandpa working in the picture below. And YES, I did do some work other than take pictures, thank you very much!)

We had a couple of customers while we were setting things up. You help the customer pick out a tree. When they have decided on THE tree, you put the tree on the mover, and take it over to an area where we have a chain saw, and cut off an inch or tow off the bottom of the trunk so the tree will be able to suck up water better. That makes it stay fresh longer. Then, we do the transaction at the register while someone helps the customer load up their tree. We also offer delivery service for an additional fee.

We have six kinds of trees: Noble Fir, Douglas Fir, Nordman Fir, Grand Fir, Fraser Fir, and Scotch Pines. They range from table toppers that are about 3 feet tall to over 12 feet tall. The huge Noble Firs cost $240!! (Here is FabGrandpa standing beside a big Noble Fir)

Here are me and Lynda by the same tree. The trees are really beautiful and smell so good!

Look at that cloudy sky. We had rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight. After dark, Lynda and I went out in the parking lot to see how the lot looks from the out there. Pretty good, huh?

The lot will be open seven days a week from 9:00 a.m until 9:00 p.m. We’ll be working most days, but Charlie and Lynda are living in their motorhome on the lot, so they will not be able to leave until the lot closes on Christmas Eve. We really had fun working today, but don’t want the responsibility of managing the whole thing. I was secretly worried that I wouldn’t be able to do the work, but even though the trees were huge, it wasn’t more than I could do. Having that tree mover thingy was a big help. So, we go back and do it all again tomorrow.

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Lynda Is So Smart

Karen · 8 Comments

My friend, Lynda, is such a smart girl! She knows how to do everything (well, almost everything). I called her this morning and whined about my sewing machine, and she told me EXACTLY what to do. I was able to finish two aprons today. Yay! I am so impressed, and forever in her debt.

So, I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner for her and her husband, Charlie. Well, for me and FabGrandpa, too, you know. We’re having chicken (no dressing or gravy as they all said they didn’t want any), green beans, squash casserole, sweet potato souffle, and cranberry jello salad. That’s it, all of it, but it will be enough.

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Budget Report, Week 3 Cash Monday

Karen · 4 Comments

This week we did a little better. We went out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel twice, went to lunch at a Chinese place once, bought a boatload of groceries (but it was SUCH a good SALE!). We filled the truck with fuel, and drove about 250 miles over to the Superstition Mountains on an all day sightseeing trip, where we paid for a guided tour of a gold mine, snacks and lunch at a ghost town (more on that later).

This morning we did the count, and have $28.52 left of our $300. So, this makes us at the end of week three, under budget by $25.95. So far, so good. And we’re not sitting here bored to tears, either.

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