9-2-12 Sunday (Dumpster Diving)

Friday I had to work.  Jim took the day off and was invited to go out on Lake Norman with Beth’s family on a pontoon boat they rented.   He left early in the morning to arrive at Beth’s for French Toast.  I was at work. Then onto Lake Norman.  Jim brought some giant float islandy thingies that we bought on clearance a few weeks ago in anticipation of this outdoor event.  I was at work.  Beth has a large family so there were quite a lot of people there or so I was told.  I wasn’t there; I was at work.  Someone made sandwiches for them to enjoy out on the water.  I ate my typical lunch salad at work because I had to work.

I couldn’t get the day off approved, I was waitlisted for the day.  We have to request it in some system and based on “business needs” the computer approves, denies or waitlists the request.  I was waitlisted and if I remember correctly I was number 9542.76 on the list… or something like that.  I did, however, leave early so that Jim and I could hit the road to Augusta.  It was nice not to arrive there at dark-thirty. 

We were invited to Steve and George’s site for a party.  The invite didn’t come directly from them so we were a little shy about showing up.  We were told we didn’t have to bring anything which is good since we really didn’t have and host/hostess gifts on hand.  We did have an unopened chilled bottle of Moscato wine on hand though.  Off we went with wine in hand.  I drank something like 3 glasses plus some spiked punch.  I was truly feeling it.  George has a 5th wheel with a huge beautiful deck.  There were so many people at the party.  I wondered if half the resort might have been there.  We had fun socializing.  George and Steve are very nice.  My walk back to our RV was “interesting”.  My sight seemed to suffer “camera shake” as if I was hitting bumps while looking through a lens. Wowsers! Perhaps it’s been too long since I’ve gotten a major buzz on!

On Saturday, our day went like this: Pool, lunch, shopping, nap, pool again, fresh homemade guacamole, wine, pool.  That should sum it up.  More highlights:

For lunch we went to Publix for some tasty subs.  Yum.

While driving around we spotted a KMart store closing sale.  One of those 35-50% off everything-must-go sales.  It’s sad to see another KMart close but shopping in there reminded me of just how uncared for those stores are.  Some merchandise looked so old the packaging was yellowed.  The fixtures were discolored or just plain nasty.  Signs were dusty.  Department signs were old school.  We did pick up quite a bit there.  The sale included shelving fixtures too so we got some slat board stuff for the garage at a nickel a piece.

Above: A “Walmartian” we spotted at Walmart.  I wished I had gotten a frontal shot.

Jim used his Big Balls attachment on the weed eater. Unfortunately the height wasn’t set good enough so he went through a spool of string quick. Eventually we found that even with adjustments, it’s not working well enough to keep it.  A return it shall be.

On Sunday we took our time.  Usually we get on the road back to Charlotte between 11 and 12 but with Jim being off for the holiday, we didn’t have to rush.  Jim can handle unpacking and grocery shopping and such tomorrow.  We went out for lunch, over-ate, and then took a nice long refreshing nap.  Oh, in between all that we went to the pool twice.  The pool was so nice; I was tempted to stay another day and call out for Monday.  I need to conserve my time off since Mom will be here at the end of the month.

The pool was busy… lots of people.  I really wanted to stay another night and was tempted to call out for Monday.  The problem was that Monday is time and a half PLUS 8 hours holiday pay and I knew it would be an easy day.  Most people will think we’re closed.

Earlier in the week Jim had picked up a few discarded pallets at his job’s dumpster.  So it’s kinda like dumpster-diving.  Anyway, he wanted to build a mini deck for it so that we don’t have dirt and mud to walk through and track into the RV.  I certainly helped too.  He took a pallet or two and merged them together, modified it and here’s the finished product:

Next weekend will be our last visit to Augusta for at least 3 weeks while family comes to visit us.