Feb 3, 2010

Falling behind

This last couple weeks are very unusual. I am working around the clock to please a customer and pretty much putting everything else aside. This is not the best approach but I get a lot of pressure. uffff

This Project is a little tough

Since I wrote my last post on Sunday, I did not have a minute to do anything but sit and program (Almost). I am not workaholic, and I really need some time off. Right now I will settle on 8 hours of work a day, but I start at 7:00am or earlier, and don’t get up from the chair until 2:00am.
The laundry is piling up, bills and errands are waiting, the unread blog list is growing, and my blog is suffering. Can you believe I did not use my camera in the last 3 days? (The photos with Jerry are from Patti’s iPhone). So why do I work so much? Well – it is a new customer, and a new project, and I have to show some good progress. The technology I am using is new, and support is not readily available, so I am struggling and trying and trying. There are good results, but I pay with red eyes, lack of sleeping hours and a growing list of tasks I will have to catch up once this project is done (or at least goes to test mode). That hopefully will happen at the end of this week.

So beside working what happened?

Monday, February 2, 2010 –  We drove today from Deming to here, Benson, AZ. A short stop at Flying J (We became fans of this brand) and before long we were in the city limits.
First– we stopped at the I-10 campground. A bigger campground just by the highway. Being hurt by slow Internet, we wanted to make sure they have good Internet. They told me that it is not so reliable and I will probably get ‘kicked-off’ from time to time. So that was the end of this place. Turning around.
Our fellow bloggers Jerry and Suzy are at the SKPs campground, so we stopped there next, but they were completely booked. They said we could boondock if we wanted, but we are not there yet. We don’t have a generator or solar panels, and we are simply not prepared for that (although we want to, but that will come in time).
From there – we did not have Plan C, so we opened our laptop and searched. We found a Passport America campground close by – Pato Blanco Lakes RV Resort - and tried our luck there. It is a bigger campground that call themselves Resort because they have a couple of small puddle in their yard. This pleasure cost us $24 a night after 50% PA discount. I am sure that for some people this place is great, but all we need at the moment is a quite place, good Internet and decent price. The campground is FULL of RVs one parked by the other, and if you want some privacy you have to shut all the curtains, windows and doors. we thought to stay at a state park (our preference) but they did not have Internet…
One of these days I will write about campgrounds and how we think about them, but what we learned is that there is no ‘one size fits all’. What one defines as spectacular, might be a total disaster for another. I think campgrounds should be categorized and sorted base on main preferences, but this is for another time.

We meet Jerry and Suzy

Tuesday, February 3, 2010 – We contacted Jerry and Suzy today, to coordinate our plans and see when we can get together. We love meeting new people, and in particular those RVers who write blogs that we follow. After sometime you just feel that you know them. You are part of their pains, struggles, frustrations, happiness, adventures – almost as if you were there. So it was just natural for us to meet this great couple that we know for some tome but never met.
iPhone 004 We agreed to meet for for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant – Magaly’s. We found Jerry and Suzy to be lovely, friendly and down to earth, exactly as we thought. It was a strange feeling of meeting for the first time someone you already know. In no time the conversation was flowing, and we passed a great time. Talked about so many different things that it is hard to remember! From frog collection, to recipes, to health issues…
iPhone 005 After dinner Jerry and Suzy invites us to their home at the SKP campground for dessert, we thought it was a great idea as we were having great time together. We sat together few hours, drank coffee, ate a cake, and solved the problem of the world. We took care of native American benefits, National health insurance, and with mutual effort solved the world crisis, and plotted the plan for global peace.
We even got couple nice gifts – fresh Rosemarie, and a bottle of hot Tabasco (I love spicy foods).
Tuesday, February 3. 2010 – Yesterday was all I did beyond work… Came back last night to the RV, sat down and worked until 2:00am. My sister woke me up today at 6:00am. She lives in Israel and thought I am on Eastern time. My sister is also responsible to the Hebrew comments you see from time to time on this blog. Hey, Yafit (That’s her name) – Everybody want to enjoy your comments – You need to be considerate :)

Our blog is growing :)

Speaking of which – I think that this blog is growing pretty nice. Here is some statistics:
  • 352 Absolute Unique visitors
  • 797 visits (Daily average – 30)
  • 2,300 Page hits
  • Average time on the blog is 4:30 minutes
I think it is pretty impressive, and it is all thanks to you. So – thank you so much for reading and commenting and letting me share my life with you.
Now guess what? I need to go back to work :) break is over…
So if I am not active on your blog lately – I did not disappear, I will catch up. I really like reading your blog too, It is so interesting, and I feel as your remote friend. But for this week I need to concentrate on getting the job done!
So till next time – Ciao!

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you about the Ghetto RV parks. I don't want to pay $24 to hear someone break wind in the next rig over... I can hear that in the flying J restroom for free.The only thing worse is pot lucks and Rallys.

    I understand that for now you have to do it but the sooner you can get out of those parks the better off you will be.

    You two take care and maybe we will cross paths again someday.

    later
    Rojo

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  2. Well, I'll second Rojo's comments a hundred & fifty two per cent. Like I said before, if we had to stay in RV Parks we simply would not be traveling. Our solar installation cost us a little over $3000.00 & it didn't take long getting that cost justified by staying out of RV Parks. But, far more important than the money saved is the piece of mind we now have to RV on our terms & not somebody elses!!

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  3. We look forward to more boondocking as well. I did it for 5 months in AZ the winter of 2008 and loved it. Now converting Stu...LOL! Neither of us like the big resorts, we don't use the amenities. We prefer the small Ma & Pa parks but they are getting harder to find...many are filled with workers.

    Motty, don't worry about getting behind...your faithful readers will stay with you. Last summer in FL taking care of Stu's mom, I hardly posted. We lost some readers but know most came back when we got a little more regular. If blogging becomes a "chore", it's not worth it.

    Same for reading...I have been slowly unsubscribing to those that no longer interest me. Tough but you do what you've gotta do!

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  4. Motty, thanks for the kind words. They certainly apply to you guys as well. The recipes you and Patti "cook up" will be fun to read and try. We're glad to have met you, and we look forward to all your adventures -- and our next meeting!

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