Thursday, April 29, 2010

Goodbye

Nancy was waiting for the shuttle bus for her ride to Flagstaff on her way out of the park...After 2 years & 8 months here, Nancy is moving to Ohio. This was also Louis's last day of work here also. Louis is going to spend the Summer season working at Denali Park in Alaska.

The other day, Brenda made a comment that maybe Nancy had the right idea. See it seemed that Nancy's plan to leave the canyon was sudden...probably just cuz Brenda & I don't spend lots of time with her. But at first Nancy was going to wait until after Mother's Day to leave...obviously she changed her mind.
Guess there was no need to wait, once she made up her mind to go, besides the longer it takes to go...the more chance there is to change your mind.

Now Louis is going for a real adventure....a whole Summer in Alaska
Wow, I want to go to Alaska so much. But I couldn't go this year because I'm heading to NH for my son's graduation in June. If I had applied & gotten a job in Alaska this year then I would not be able to see him graduate.
But I will have no obligations after that for the next 4 years, so who knows maybe I will get up there next year. I have checked out quite a few different parks up there. I even found a website that hires for some airports...at least 1 airport in all 50 sates. In Alaska the job is in Anchorage.
www.hmshost.com
so Alaska could become a year-round job too. Now I'm sure someone would remind me that Alaska is cold & to far away. Well it's snowing, rainy, hailing & its been cold and windy all day here too.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Never listen to your watch

I babysat 4 kids last night and the title I used was words from 1 of them.

The youngest boy (3 yrs old) started crying when he woke from a nap because he missed his daddy. The parents had said they would be back at 8pm, so I told the boy that he had another 45 minutes to wait. One of his older brothers calmly told me "Never listen to your watch".

In alot of ways it is terrific advice that more people need to live by. It would drive me crazy to always have a set time to do everything, but some people do live that way. There is always some unexpected event messing up a person's schedule....a boss, bad weather, a phone call, traffic jams, car that won't start, misplaced your keys/shoes, or family member getting sick.

But don't listen to your watch....just go with the flow & accept whatever life deals you. People who have lived here at the canyon for quite awhile say they like the slower pace of life here. The kids I babysat for last night have lived their whole lives here at the Grand Canyon...which is probably how the young kid figured out such smart advice.
Later today there is a going away party for Nancy. She has decided to leave the canyon and move to OHIO. Party will start before I leave work so I'll catch a cab to go straight from work.

and now I have to deal with getting ready for work again. I need to catch a bus in 25 minutes.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day~2010

The first "Earth Day" was 40 years ago. It's a day that everyone can celebrate no matter what country you live in and it doesn't matter what religion you believe in.


I want the "Green Up your Cleanup" book.


This is my manager,Adam. We were all sure that he would ace the trash game. Adam & his wife goes on litter patrol every Monday on their free time. They don't do it for extra pay, they don't do it for any special recognition. They do it because they believe in recycling and like to walk around a clean park. Usually a special "green team" will do litter pick-up on Earth Day but it was cancelled because of cold weather. I tried to get on the green team a couple years ago...but still have not been able to.


This was 1 display at the general store..the peach & mango flavor drinkbox was really good.
This is just a shot of the area I walked through to get to the park headquarters today. It was still snowing outside, which is why the Earth Day activities were moved inside.



I was totally surprised a few weeks ago when a co-worker told me that they didn't "believe" in Earth Day. Totally blew my mind...how can anyone live on planet Earth and not believe in what today is supposed to stand for?
His explanation~~~according to the bible, the planet is going to distore itself anyways, so why bother.
I was at a lose for words...but so glad that my kids grew up with different values about the earth, recycling & the whole environment in general.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Snagged snow pics





Ok, I was using the computer at Park Headquarters while waiting for Brenda ( to get back from her DR appt in Flagstaff)...and found these pics on the computer I was using. I'll assume by the file names that the pics were taken last December.







There is more snow in the forcast for Wednesday & Thursday....I think we are just going to skip Spring this year.
Tonight Brenda & I are going to a program at the Shrine. 1 of the editors from AZ Highways magazine will be the speaker.


Sunday, April 18, 2010

Tusayan,AZ


Brenda and I went out to Carvels for ice cream yesterday afternoon. We both got a classic sundae~~different flavors though.
I had turtle ice cream, with carmel sryup & toasted coconut sprinkled on top....YUM!!
Slightly breezy, but nice & sunny outside...and noticed that tulips are starting to bloom near the outside tables where we ate (will have to go back in a week or two for flower pics).
Now there is an ice cream fountain behind Bright Angel and they even make sundaes...but for whatever reason, Brenda likes driving to Tusayan. But now that I have a pic of the prices in Tusayan I will have to compare them to the prices at the ice cream fountain.
The free shuttle going to Tusayan starts back up on May 15th. YEE-HAW! I'll be able to hop on the bus right after work then to go down to check on the new musuem being built near McDonald's, maybe get more flower pics or even finally take a helipcopter tour.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Unbelievable~more darn snow


I took this out the car window as Brenda was driving to Flagstaff on March 27th.


This is my parking lot TODAY!Hard to believe it's mid-April. There should be a law that NO snow is allowed after Easter.



Looking toward the apts behind my dorm
Its been cold & windy all day & according to internet, it will continue to snow till sometime tomorrow.

Morning Smoothie & Morning routine

Last week I found a new mini recipe book in our general store for "Smoothies and Summer Drinks" so after thumbing through the book this morning and wishing I had lots more fruit at home I noticed a "Raspberry-Lemon Smoothie". Now it called for 1 cup of frozen raspberries but I have frozen blackberries instead.....luckily they worked alright too.

Here's the simple recipe in the book:
1 cup of frozen raspberries (I used froz. blackberries)
8oz lemon-flavored yogurt
1/2 cup milk (I use soymilk)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put it all in a blender & enjoy

Think the next time Brenda & I go shopping in Flagstaff...I'll have to look through this book again to make my shopping list. There's even a recipe for "Iced Almond Chai Tea Latte"....hmmmm, wonder if Brenda would want to try that 1.

Well today I work 8-3...not sure why Mondays have such a strange schedule. Oh well it gives me time to waste before heading out to the bus. I start working today with our newest manager~Sheryl.
~EDIT~ going to work is such a bad idea. why? Because I still get up early but I get busy doing other things besides getting ready for work. It's almost 7am now and I am dreading having to change into my uniform. Now if I had to catch the bus at 5am...its a lot easier to get ready.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

profile pages

Don't you just hate signing up onto a new website and having to fill out the profile pages...I know I do sometimes...and I don't mean just the really dumb personal ad sites either, this also goes for any social networking site or any other of the billion sites online.

How much can you say about yourself over & over again after giving your age & location...or how much should you really share about yourself to the online world?
Well today I downloaded google chrome and also made a google profile, which asked the "usual" stuff about interests & about me stuff. Now I just need to figure those parts of google out.

If you're really bored then you could also do a google search for "Sunshine Conkey" and find me on quite a few different sites. Course some are a couple years old. But then again how many people actually use those old profiles to find a lost classmate or relative, or how would someone go about using some old profile page to hack into your computer.
This week I had a bunch of viruses on my laptop and could not even play solitaire or listen to itunes or watch a movie on widows media player because supposedly they were all invicted with some worm called "Lsas.Blaster.Keyloger"
(in fact I still have 300 errors on it now) but last tight was able to get rid of that worm and once again watch movies....tonight I'm watching Karate Kid.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

B-U-S-Y

Well I slept pretty good last night. Still have a cough & runny nose but not quite as bad so I went into work today. I had to catch the 5am bus. Glad I get an extra 1/2 hr at home before going in tomorrow.

Today we had 2 trains so the park is full of guests~and all are full of silly questions.
1 thing that will always amaze me is a guest that sees a stack of 12 ounce cups next
to a stack of 20 ounce cups and they still have to ask which cup is for a small drink...DUH!
Or why do guests go straight to the cashier and think they will pay for food before they even get a tray and pick up their food?????

Usually it takes me awhile to get used to new managers, but I can say I actually like working for all of my managers at the moment. Sometimes their individual quirks can crack me up. Today the morning managers were both in a goofy mood, which was quite funny to watch.
(QUIRKS)
Adam~make sure front windows are clean & uniform straight
Amy~ leave the salt & pepper shakers to her (and Irene)
Paul/Riley~fix the chairs & check drink stations
Bob~the floor (and he wants it done while he's still young...LOL)
Barb~I haven't figured out the kitchen manager's pet peeve yet.

Today we also got the new Pinyon Press. There are 2 classes listed in it that I want to take later this month. Their was also a notice that an editor from "Arizona Highways" magazine would be here on the 19th for the evening program at the Shrine.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

sick

This darn cough & runny nose & headache is driving me nuts!

Yesterday I picked up some medicine at the store on my way home.
I decided to call out of work today..stayed home to sleep quite a bit today.
I am also making sure to drink more water today instead of coffee.

Brenda was going back to the clinic yesterday, and she hasn't emailed me
since...so I have no idea how she is doing now. For all I know the clinic might
have sent her to Flagstaff.

ok, well seeing as I still have trouble with internet connection, I'm going to
read a few books on the subjects: "Buddhism" and "Ayurveda". They were 2
subjects I've always been interested in and just decided to spend more time on
it lately.

Friday, April 2, 2010

April Showers

Well mother nature decided to play an April Fools joke on us all yesterday. It had gotten down to 17 degrees during the night and when I went outside to catch the bus for work, I noticed that a few cars in the parking lot had snow on them....the wind was freezing while waiting for the bus and the bus driver said it was about 25 degrees when he picked us up.

The night auditor says we might get snow again on Monday...which is just plain crazy, but we should be used to crazy weather here at the canyon.

Well last night the internet decided not to work in my room again, so unless I bring my laptop to the cafe I won't be on much for awhile. I have this weekend off so I might bring it with me when I go have breakfast before going to Brenda's tomorrow.

I'm typing this from Park Headquarters and time for me to head home and organize all my pictures. The ones on my laptop & the ones stuffed in boxes.

I hope whoever is reading this has a wonderful Easter weekend. Not sure yet if I will actually go take pics of the canyon kids during the Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow morning.