I didn't get to the computer last night because my husband was on it looking at all the pictures of the tornado damage. The Turtle Flambeau Flowage had a lot of damage and our local librarian posted 103 pictures of it. The island we usually take customers to is called Swimmer's Island, because of all the sand around it. Apparently that island wasn't damaged too much but the surrounding islands were severely damaged. So John was on-line for awhile looking at them and trying to decipher where each island was, but it was too difficult. There are so many islands and its hard to tell from a picture what is what.
We have been having bear trouble again. John has been leaving the heavy, steel, cover on the dumpster all day now. Customers have to leave their garbage on top of the dumpster and John makes several trips up there a day to put the garbage in. That way hopefully the bear won't get into the whole dumpster. The bear was in the dumpster the other evening and we had to clean up a lot of mess again. Hopefully this system will work.
Yesterday was a slow and relaxing day. We didn't go anywhere but our customers split up and went other places. One group went up to Duluth for the big tall ships. Some old ships that have been restored were there in the bay in Duluth. Supposedly 100,000 spectators were there and it was almost 90 degrees. They said the ships and the raising of the bridge, etc. was beautiful but they didn't stay long.
Another group went to the sand dunes in Saxon Harbor. The shore there is eroding severely and the sand is very soft. The homes on the large hill must be worried that eventually their hill will disappear, so maybe in the future this park will be closed. For now though the kids love to climb the 100 feet tall or so cliffs of sand and swim in Lake Superior. The group was there for most of the day and well into the afternoon.
I swept and vacuumed the lodge, which is a daily job, made meals, cleaned up garbage laying around on the ground, called around for deals on computers, did some computer work, sat in the sun and visited with customers and friends.
Our computer keeps freezing up so we are going to be looking for another. We had it repaired this spring and the computer expert replaced our hard drive for us so we lost all our documents. The "mother board" still has issues so now it is doing the same thing again it was doing last year. We knew this would happen but because computers are so expensive, we tried to make this one work until the end of summer when we would have more income. There are a lot of refurbished computers for cheap out there, but we don't know if buying one will just leave us in the same boat again in a year. We want something that will last us 5 years. It seems that these days the lifespan of a computer is only 3 years. We can't afford to spend $1000 every 3 years on computers and software and anti-virus protection, etc. When you add up extras, that's about what we would be spending every 3 years, and that upsets us. We tried a Mac mini, but that's got the mother board problem. So we've been limping along hoping for something wonderful. Then, John gets a call from his friend, Brian. Brian says that he can get us a lap top computer for free. Yeah! Sometimes procrastinating pays off. Hopefully we will get that computer soon and then I can finish a lot of work I have been putting off. There's nothing worse than trying to fill out a bunch of forms and on the last one the computer freezes and you lose everything.
Through the years, computer problems have hounded us terribly. I wonder if other small business owners have the same problems as we do. These problems are through no fault of our own. A virus wiped out our last desk top and now this one has a mother board issue. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Last evening we planned a sunset cruise on our pontoon boat. We all got on around 8:00 p.m., boated out up-wind and turned off the motor. The sunset was fabulous and it was fun. There were five kids along with us 5 adults. One kid swam around the boat, one fished and the others just talked with us. Our two dogs just enjoyed the company and took up space. We listened to loons, watched an eagle soar above and had a few cocktails. It was relaxing and fun.
As we floated on the lake, we could see the resort's campfire smoke start to make its way along the shoreline in the trees. We could look back at the resort and see the bright orange flames of the campfire and hear laughter in the distance. Sometimes a different view of your life puts things in a different perspective. When we got back, we sat around the fire visiting for awhile. I went up and opened up the lodge again because I had locked it up for our cruise. While I was up there I checked for messages, got our stash of s'mores supplies, re-filled my drink and headed back to the fire. The mosquitoes eventually bothered me enough that I headed up to a friend's cabin for awhile.
Then I saw that there were a lot of teenagers in the lodge. So I went in to supervise. They were playing foosball, computer games, cribbage and poker with chips. No one was doing anything wrong and I was very happy about that. I got out my book and sat at the main table. Eventually it was 11:00 p.m., quiet time for the resort. As I do every night, I poked my head out a window and told all the teenagers outside who were playing flashlight tag that it was 11:00 and time to be quiet. Then again, as I do every night, I kick the kids out of the lodge. After 11:00 p.m., it is adult time. My niece and nephew got ready for bed and hit the sack. My friend and I sat and looked at pictures and talked until a little after 11:30 p.m. and then we crashed for the night too.
It was a beautiful sunny, fun day and I was sorry to see it end.
No comments:
Post a Comment