Anyone still following?

June 28, 2022 In case anybody still follows this blog, then I figure it's about time to let you know that I am in South Dakota. I have been here since last October. I work in a rock shop in the famous Wall Drug....in Wall, South Dakota, about 8-10 miles away from Badlands National Park.

I took that picture soon after I started working here last Fall. I have been learning more about rocks and always seem to find something interesting every week. I recently applied for an income-based apartment here in town but haven't heard back from the housing managers. We have 2 different income-based apartment buildings here and tomorrow I will walk over to check out the 2nd one. I like this little town and hope to stay here permanently. I am getting tired of moving around the country and starting over in new places. Last month I rejoined Weight Watchers online. I signed up for 6 months. It's been a learning experience because now I can scan barcodes on packages to get the points value on my favorite snacks, and I found out that I should stop eating some of my favorites. I weigh more now than I did when I started this blogger page years ago. Yesterday I was at 188#. I want to lose about 50+ pounds. If I could lose 70# then that would be perfect...but doesn't sound very realistic. Well actually losing 50# doesn't either. I have tried that for years and its never happened. ok lets see if this will post...I have been on WordPress so long that I have forgotten how blogger works.

November 2020

 

Well I am in Arizona (again), a state that doesn't change its clocks...except my laptop, tablets and fitbit were all set with Pacific Time Zone from my time of living in Death Valley. So I got a bit confused yesterday morning when the clock on the kitchen stove was different then all my electronics.

Luckily I figured it out, and finally changed all the settings on everything before I had to go into work. Speaking of work..it was boring, dead slow. My manager sent me home an hour early. I have split days off this week: Thursday and Saturday...we have a 20% chance of getting snow on Saturday.

I mostly blog on wordpress and a website called Sparkpeople now, but someone on wordpress mentioned bloggers yesterday so I decided to come check out my old blogs and see if bloggers had changed at all.

Today I made a Mexican Cornbread Casserole for my housemates dinner...hope they like it. Just the smell seems to spicy for me. There are 4 people living in this house...2 work at Starbucks and then me and one of the assistant managers work in the general store. All 3 of my housemates are young enough to be my children.

Waiting in Flagstaff

I arrived in Flagstaff on July 3rd. I figured it was a good spot to wait for the HR department of my next job to contact me. The job is in Tusayan ( the little community outside of the Grand Canyon National Park). Flagstaff is about 1.5 hours away.



Waiting for the HR department is also not easy to do. I have been in contact with my future boss. He is also a past boss, as my next job is one that I left 2 years ago. But we have to wait for HR to go through all the proper procedures.

So while I wait, I am spending time watching alot of food network on television. Actually it's almost 6am, so I should go catch a bus to get breakfast. 



Of course getting a room over the 4th of July weekend is not the easiest or the cheapest thing to do.

Summer Haircut

When the temperature is up to 124°, then it's time to chop my hair off.

No more sweaty hair sticking to my neck. Went to Pahrump Nevada with a friend yesterday and got the haircut.

It's Been Awhile

Sitting outside my dorm in Death Valley. Been working at Stovepipe Wells, since last June. So many stormy clouds tonight, I don't think there's a chance to see the moon. But the air feels nice with a slight breeze. It's March so I won't freeze.



 
Today I went riding around with my friend Cindy. She showed me where the original spot for the "WELL" for the Stovepipe Wells area was. We both don't understand why the village wasn't closer to the Well. Why would you find a water hole in this HOT dry barren desert, and then make a village 10+ miles away?

Anyways I plan on staying here for 1 more year. Next year in March, I will probably think about different locations to travel to. For now, I will continue being a desert-rat. I just hope the heat this coming Summer isn't as brutal as it was last year. 130 degrees is not something I can do every summer for the rest of my life.

Ooh, and tonight my roomie is packing up to leave. She is moving somewhere Southeast of here with her boyfriend. Which means I will have a room to myself for awhile.

2018

Hello everyone, The last few years I have been all over the country. 2015...went to work at Mt Rushmore for the Summer season, Then 2015-2016 Winter season I went to Death Valley. Summer of 2016, I went to Yellowstone but I left early. So from mid-July to September 1st, I stayed in Cedar City Utah. The picture below is from a park in Cedar City that I loved to visit. It wasn't there when I lived here in the 80's.

Then I came back to work in the Desert View area of the Grand Canyon National Park...I love this area of the park. So quiet and remote. Well some personal issues popped up (that I won't get into) and I ended up leaving AZ. Went to stay with an aunt in Georgia for about 2.5 months. Then got a car from her neighbors and moved to Brunswick, Georgia. I stayed in Georgia till Thanksgiving then took a greyhound bus back to AZ. See my car stopped working a few months after I bought it. So now I am working in the general store in Tusayan. I like the job, but hate the housing situation...so hoping to save $$$ to move again. Actually I already applied for couple jobs inside the park.

I am still here

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. I left NH, to return to AZ, in March 2014. Then I moved to Las Vegas in Nov 2014. Now I am applying to variety of seasonal jobs. I had a phone interview yesterday for a prep cook/waitress job @ Cliff Dwellers Lodge at Marble Canyon, AZ. It's near Lees Ferry...about 45 minutes South of Page, AZ. Usually I hate interviews, but this was more like the guy telling me about the company & wanting to make sure I could handle living in isolation. Oh believe me, I thrive better in isolation better then most people I know. The guy said he would call at a later date after he figures out the exact start date...sometime in late February. Now while I was at the Desert View are of the Grand Canyon, last year I had picked up some historical books on that area, and had wanted to explore it for myself. Now I might get my chance to do that.