Month: August 2017

Friday, August 18, 2017

Let us start by apologizing for a lack of pictures today. We were both so busy working that we sort of forgot to take pictures for the blog. We had a lot yesterday so – guess you can go back and look at those and we will try to get more tomorrow. A lot of what we did today was not so photogenic anyway.

So what did we do? We started the day with all four of us – Ken and Joyce, and the both of us – working in the McCall House. We were working on installing the tongue and grove ceiling in the living room. Anne and Joyce did a lot of cleaning the area to make for a safer work site. We also rescued some lumber from the scraps at the pavilion. They were going to take it to the dump anyway and the pressure treated makes good pads for the levelers. About 9:00 Anne and Joyce began reprogramming locks all over campus. They have the push button locks on the doors and they had most set to the same code for summer camping season and we changed them back to individual codes. Anne and Joyce finished that project shortly before lunch. The guys continued to work on the ceiling but had a disappointing set back. The HVAC guys came and insulated the condensate pipe and said all was well and the guys continued putting up the ceiling waiting for the A/C to cool the house. Well, it did cool the house but soon they were getting water in the face again. There was another leak. They were sort of bummed out when they came back to the rigs for lunch. After lunch we all had a meeting with Jackie, the CEO of Hinton. She explained various possible scenarios for the upcoming weekend and gave us our scheduled tasks. When not working on scheduled tasks we will be walking the grounds checking for trash and assisting guests with any needs. After that meeting was over, the guys when back to the tongue and groove installation. You know there really isn’t much difference in the ceiling installation and all the laminate installs we did in Lumberton. The main difference seems to be working on your knees or over head. Not sure which is preferred. The girls spent the rest of the afternoon setting up Moore hall for an event Sunday. They moved and set up 15 tables and 90 chairs. When that was done they returned to McCall in time to help with the cleanup. The guys covered as much of the ceiling as possible pending the HVAC folks returning to repair the drain again. They did not come this afternoon. There is a little hope they will come in the morning and the guys could finish pretty quickly and the house would be ready for the weekend. We aren’t very hopeful that will happen.

 

That’s it for the day. Guests have started arriving and we met several at dinner tonight. Many more are coming in tomorrow and Sunday. It should be fun.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

We started our day walking around Hinton’s campus to see the changes since we were last here. We walked down to the lake shore to see the new pavilion. For those that have been following since last fall, you may remember that when we were here at Hinton the new pavilion was destroyed while still under construction, by a severe thunderstorm. It was really a shame because it was close to completion and looked so good. It is now again getting close to completion and is again looking really nice. It doesn’t look to us that it will be competed by Monday but it should be enjoyed in the future. Max also got to see the interior of the Lake House our NOMADS team worked on last fall. It looks really nice since the cabinets and flooring have been installed. The staff are very pleased with the completed project and the Lake House is of course rented this weekend for the eclipse viewing. Hinton also has a new dock at the lake, new fire pit area by the lake and a lot of new signage. We noticed the nice new directional signage as we were arriving yesterday and saw today that it was installed all over campus.

Speaking of signage. There are all kinds of interesting signs in this area currently. There are signs in yards. There are signs in pastures that are hoping to be campgrounds for the eclipse weekend. We were told that some businesses are planning to sell parking places in their parking lots for 100’s of dollars because the police are not going to allow people to stop along the road sides. Nobody really knows what to expect. This community has been advised to stock up on food because trucks won’t be able to deliver once the roads are blocked with all the traffic. We went to the grocery store today not knowing of this advice and where shocked at the crowds. It was crazy. We overheard one local talking to another saying “Well we’ve got to get our groceries bought before all those tourists get here and buy everything.” There are also those that are concerned about the stations running out of gas because the trucks won’t be able to get here. We decided we really didn’t need much and plan to just stay at Hinton until next Tuesday.

Not sure if we ever mentioned why we are at Hinton this time. Back last spring when we were here Jackie, the CEO, talked to us about the eclipse and their plans. As we talked back and forth and made some suggestions, she asked that we come back and work the eclipse weekend. Hinton is in the path of the total solar eclipse and based on the media reports there should be many thousands of extra people in this area. Hinton has events and activities planned for their guests and needed some extra volunteers to supplement the full time staff. The original plan was for us to work with hospitality, but our “always flexible” NOMADS duties have changed many times over the past few months and changed again today from yesterday’s plans. Last week the living room ceiling in the McCall House (another building NOMADS remodeled, but not this ceiling) collapsed. The air conditioner condensate drain leaked causing it to fall. Today tongue and groove was being installed to replace the ceiling. Unfortunately, the person doing the work became ill today and won’t be back to complete the work. McCall is rented out starting Saturday for the eclipse. So at 8:00 in the morning, Ken, Max and Bill, a local NOMAD, will join Perry, the facilities manager, to complete the job. Anne and Joyce were more than willing to help as well but the living room really isn’t that large so they will be working on other tasks.

After Ken and Joyce (NOMADS) arrived and got settled in, we of course were talking about the eclipse. Ken is an astronomer and will be giving a couple of talks for the guests this weekend. Ken had a new toy to show us. He has a new hydrogen-alpha filter solar telescope. He set it up and let us look at the sun. It was too cool. We saw some solar spots and Max and Ken saw a solar flare. We had never used a solar telescope before.

So, seems things may get interesting this weekend so we will keep you posted. At least right now we have a forecast for a sunny day Monday so we hope to get to see the total eclipse.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

What a day! We knew our original departure time of 6:00 am was unrealistic given the delays we had yesterday. We had hoped to leave by about 8:00. While we were loading out Max stopped to refill the hummingbird feeder.  He apparently was taking too long because one of the birds perched right outside the kitchen window to try to make him hurry. After finishing the load out we did leave the house at 8:15, but before we got to Aunt Helen’s the septic tank people called and needed us to come to Helen’s. We did not get away from Helen’s until about 9:15, then stopped for fuel at Busy Bee and the gym in Oneonta to hook up the truck. That made our departure time from Oneonta 10:10. We had a 30-35 minute delay between Chattanooga and Cleveland on I-75. Never did see reason for delay. Never saw accident, police, construction. Nothing. Just everyone sitting there, not moving on the interstate. This was after we saw all the signs in Chattanooga “August 21 Solar Eclipse. Plan Ahead” and “Expect Heavy Traffic.” Maybe all of us on I-75 today were just practicing for Monday. When we crossed into North Carolina there was another sign warning of possible traffic problems on Monday. Max is glad he is no longer working in emergency management.

We arrived at Hinton Center about 4:00 and went to the office to let them know we had arrived. It was great to see everyone again and there were hugs all around. We will meet with them tomorrow afternoon after Joyce and Ken arrive to get the work plan for this weekend. Then we left Hinton headed to Standing Indian Campground. It is a National Forest Service campground between Hayesville and Franklin, NC. It’s a beautiful place and Anne’s cousin Nancy has been there for a week and will be there until after the eclipse. We went there to visit with Nancy and were pleased when her son Andrew arrived unexpectedly.

Nancy prepared a wonderful dinner for us all and then made a scrumptious black forest cherry cobbler in her cast iron dutch oven over the fire. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating and then returned home to Hinton to write this blog and get some sleep. It was a great day. Thank you Lord for safe travels.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Up this morning working on getting FRED loaded. Walked over to check on Helen and Juno and again the septic tank people were not on scene. So called and waited some more. We were disappointed that they were a no show yesterday. They did finally arrive today but only stayed a short time because they couldn’t find the septic tank. They left saying they would be back with a camera and a locator to find the tank and then pump it out. Still waiting for them to return. Maybe tomorrow.

Alabama had an election today for our senator, to replace Jeff Sessions, so we had to go vote. We think this may have been the first election since we retired that we were actually home to vote. We have been voting absentee every time and in the runoff we will again have to vote absentee. Oh well – it’s not too much trouble and we believe it’s important to vote.

Last night Anne’s brother called and told us that Anne’s mom lost her cell phone. It was later turned in at the desk of the assisted living but the battery was missing. It was never found. Originally we were told that the battery and cover were missing. The battery we thought we could probably replace but not the cover. That left us scrambling to determine our best course of action. Anne’s mom is on our cell plan so we ultimately decided to take one of our old flip phones and have mom’s number transferred to it. Momma Ruby has always had a basic phone and that is all she wants so this should work at least for a few weeks. We then had to make an unplanned trip back to Tuscaloosa. By the time we determined that our old phone was indeed still working as we thought and went to Verizon to have the number transferred we were in nasty afternoon traffic in Birmingham and of course that was also the time for our afternoon rain storm. We made it safely to Tuscaloosa, taught Anne’s mom how to use the phone, went to Home Depot and purchased a small microwave for her room, visited a while and then headed back home (with two Chick-Fil-A peach skakes). Another long day. We aren’t ready to leave yet but hopefully – with no additional unexpected crises to handle, we will be in North Carolina before bedtime tomorrow night.