Ruminations - Less than a month to go

    Well it is less than a month before I get to head out for Yellowstone Adventure 2021.  To say I cannot wait is an understatement.  The mountains are calling and I need my fill or rarefied air.  I have been keeping in touch with Jack at the store and he has indicated that things are very very busy.  They had a $101,000 sale day, which is hard to imagine for one store in one day.  They have fired a few workers that were causing more issues than they were helping and I think that made conditions for living in the dorm much better.  I also hear they are still very short of people to work and have even closed the lower general store EDR.  Those employees have to come up to our store to eat and that makes for more work for Kathy and James.  I still don't know where they will put me when I get there.  I have requested grocery stocking but I am getting the feeling that they may just put me where they are in need.  So we shall see where I end up.  

   Things here at home are going as well as expected dealing with aging in-laws.  Prayers have been answered some days and others days things get stressed, but that is life when dealing with aging love ones.  I have two doctor's appointments before I leave for the road.  One is the results from my EGD and the other is my dermatologist scanning my body again.  I got a new bucket hat to where while hiking.  One that covers my neck better.  I also will have to get more diligent with the sunscreen.

   Before I leave I will be volunteering for out VBS too.  I am looking forward to VBS as it is a great time to get together as a group and spread Jesus with the young ones.  Speaking of young ones, tonight I get to speak in from of Highway 111 group.  I have not worked on a sermon, as I did not feel led to do so.  I will just be talking to them about their life choices and why it is so important to establish good roots now.  The world is changing and not for the better.  We all have to maintain our faith and our roots, as Satan is continually testing us.

Ruminations - I can't take the heat

   The heat and the humidity has come full force to Indiana.  Now I wish I got an early contract at Yellowstone.  The older I get the more I have no patience for heat and humidity.  I don't know what the future holds but Cathy and I have been talking more about moving out west to dryer and less pollen filled climates. 

   Cathy has observed that I cannot sit still anymore. She is correct.  I don't know why I can't just sit in the house and do nothing sometimes, as I need the rest every once in awhile. I thought about it several times and I figure it has more to do with the thought that sitting and doing nothing just gets me closer to dying.  I don't know how many years God has left for me to walk this earth, but I feel I need to be on the move doing something.  Be it working in Yellowstone or tax season for my brother or community work or church work, I need to be active.  Maybe death can't hit a moving target.  :)

   The whole family is still watching over Don and Norma.  We are getting them to doctor appointments and getting them groceries when needed, and generally making sure they are OK.  God has blessed them with the ability to be at home in their 90's.  I know the family wants to make sure they are happy and contented and will try their best to ensure they can stay and home.   The key is just to make sure they are safe at home.  I know we are all thinking about the time when they may have to move out of their home.  I know we are all dreading that time too.  They are so precious to all of us and great examples of God's servants.  Taking them to appointments allows me to hear so many stories of their life and there are so many great laughs from those stories too.  Precious times for sure.  Makes me miss my parents a lot and wishing that I had time to pick their brains more about by gone times.

   Only 42 days until I leave for Yellowstone and I can't wait to get to dryer climates and mountain air.  I sure wish Cathy would come with me, as I think she would love the job and the people.

Ruminations - Some Yellowstone worries and other things

    With what is happening around here with places begging for people to work and people not wanting to work, I was wondering how Delaware North and Yellowstone were faring at getting workers.  For the past several months the government wisdom of paying people more money to stay home via unemployment than they made working, is taking a real toll on the local businesses.  I see many businesses reducing their hours operating and reducing their services because they don't have people who want to work.  Also I have seen the quality of those working getting rather low.  Many friends on Facebook have been complaining about the businesses service, particularly the restaurant businesses.  I also have seen many local service companies stop answering calls because they done have any help.  Plumbers, roofers, lawn maintenance, heating and cooling, etc.  It is a shame.

   Well back to Yellowstone.  I heard from one of my friends working there this week that he quit the store I will be going to.  It seems he finally got fed up with Delaware North and the employees they hired.  Because they can't bring in foreign workers they are having to rely on U.S. workers.  It seems that he was fed up with these workers not wanting to actually work and their overall alcohol issues.  I was afraid that the quality of workers being hired would not be very good because Delaware North was just trying to fill slots and not really caring who they hired or the problems they have.  I have seen this in the past, they never wanted to fire anyone because they could not fill in the slot fast enough.  The results of that type of decision is that the ones actually working were getting tired of doing extra work to cover for the bad employees.  My friend also indicated that the dorm life was getting out of control.  I wondered why the dorm supervisor was not taking care of the issues and I found out that the dorm supervisor took a better job and never showed up at Yellowstone.  If no one is putting the hammer down on bad behavior in the dorm, then that does not indicate a very good work stay for myself.  All these issues make having to work hard at an understaffed store not a very pleasant experience and I can see why good workers will leave.  Because they can get better paying jobs than what Delaware North is paying.  Other places around the park are paying a lot better money just to get employees and that better money is getting better quality employees too.  I have asked a few friends who are working there what has been happening and I hope to hear from that soon.  In the mean time I am looking forward to getting out of this Indiana heat and humidity and into the fresh mountain air.

   One of the volunteering jobs I do for the community is to gather excess clothing items and take the excess to the local Goodwill.  Today I got the sixth degree from Goodwill about my regular clothing drop off.  It seems the local Goodwill had an infestation of bugs and they were trying to blame the groups I deliver clothes from.  I had a very nice discussion with them on how they could tell that the bugs came from any bags I delivered.  They could not as the place gets massive amounts of clothes dropped off daily.  They went back and forth blaming the groups I bring clothes from and finally I said, "Ok if you don't want any clothes from the places I visit then say so and I will just put them in the dumpster." The did not reply to this and I think they were just looking for a scapegoat for their bug problem.  All the while I was standing next to their bins, which were full and overflowing and they had many clothing bags sitting on the wet ground around the bins.  I looked at these and shook my head on their accusations.  They told me to drop off my load and that is what I did and left.  Good will takes in so much clothing and junk that they are just asking for bugs, cat hair, dog hair and rodent droppings.  You see most of the people who take the clothes from our group cant afford to wash anything and cant afford trash collecting. So they use Goodwill to get rid of their soiled old clothes.  It is a bad cycle but there seems to be no good solution.  In the meantime Goodwill will either have to make changes to how they receive clothes or just stop taking clothing all together.  I also know that Goodwill is very understaffed because they cant get good workers either.