Ups and downs today

Yesterday, before George, with a little bit of help from me, fixed the check valve on my hot water heater, I spent a good share of the day driving the perimeter of the refuge to refill the pamphlet boxes.  The pictures in tonight’s post are all from that drive.

Being Saturday, today was my day to man the Pea Island VC.  In order to open at 9:00, I have to leave the rig before 8:00 to get all the way out there.  It’s usually a pretty smooth ride at that time in the morning.

This morning was no exception.  It was a smooth drive until I arrived in the parking lot.  That’s when I noticed that something just wasn’t right.  It seems that overnight someone came and cut off the rope on the flagpole.  Only half the rope was there, and the half that was dangled fifteen feet in the air.  There was no way to possibly fly the flag today.  I just don’t understand what possesses some people to do something like this. 

After reporting the vandalism to the law enforcement officer (LEO), the rest of the day was pretty busy with 125 visitors and over $400 in sales. 

Then the last hour and a half or so a man just wandered around the VC and interrupted my responses to visitor’s questions with detailed further information about whatever the topic was.  Who knows if he knew what he was talking about.  He kind of gave me the creeps.  As closing time neared, he just plunked himself down in a chair and didn’t leave.  Eventually, a woman arrived and they both just sat there.  Very odd.  At 4:00, I locked the door from the inside so no new visitors could enter.  That finally seemed to get through to them, and much to my relief they left. 

A number of other refuges where I’ve volunteered have an emergency button to push that connects directly with the local police and lets them know whoever is working in the VC needs help.  The two VCs here don’t have such an alarm, and it has crossed my mind that maybe one is needed.  Working weekends in these isolated locations could leave the volunteers rather vulnerable.  There are no staff members around, and we do handle quite a sum of money.  In this day and age, I would certainly find it reassuring.

While I was working today, I had arranged that Cody, one of the interns, would be washing and waxing my rig for me.  I sure would have liked to be here when he did it, but I work Friday through Monday, and he works Monday through Friday.  I came home to a sparkling clean rig!  I had left instructions to first scrub the rig from top to bottom with an extendable brush using soapy Dawn water from a bucket, and then rinsing it with the hose.  After that, he was to use ‘The Solution’ on the entire rig and buff it with towels to a gleaming shine.  I know that they say that you don’t need to wash the rig before using The Solution, but it had been many months since it had a good cleaning on the outside, so I wanted the soap wash first.  Before I pay him, I think I’m going to have him return and finish a few areas I think he neglected to notice.  He did a pretty good job, but I can be rather picky when I’m paying for something. 

So after some ups and downs, the day ended on a rather positive note.  Just the way I like it.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy