Sunday, May 2, 2010

Super Sunday!

I couldn't think of a wonderful title except Super Sunday! Hope everyone is having a great day.

We have had a good week here in Wenatchee. Monday through Friday we worked from around 4:00 to 10 or 11 at night. Monday through Thursday was kinda crazy at it was wristband days at the carnival. You know where you pay one price, $25, and get to ride all the rides you want. Thursday night was our busiest day ever for the carnival. I was doing cash pick ups every 45 minutes or so and Ron was busy going from one of three ticket boxes checking on the ticket sellers, restocking the booths, and making sure there were no problems.

Friday was a piece of cake compared to the previous four days. In fact, it was kinda slow Friday night but we still stayed open till after 10:00 p.m. Saturday was another busy day and the carnival stayed open till after 10:30 p.m. I was so tired by the time we got home that I went right to bed and slept for 9.5 hours straight.

We did have a few lost kids this past week. Happy to say that all the lost kids were reunited with their parents. I did have one bad experience with a customer while I was doing customer service. It was a kid of about 14 or 15 who had bought a Fun Card for $15 and then decided he didn't want to go on any rides or play any games. He wanted me to give him back his money. We have signs posted all over the ticket booths that there are no refunds. I stood my ground about not giving him back his money. He got pretty foul mouthed at me but when I did not react to him, he stormed down the stairs of the customer service trailer. I watched him as he walked away still grumbling that I would not give him back his money. The other issue I had to deal with was a ride employee who left his ride to come to the ticket booth where I was putting on wristbands for customers to tell me how to do my job. I told him I knew how to do my job and it was not his place to give me orders. He also got pretty mouthy with me. I told him to return to his ride and he went off grumbling and swearing at me. I told Kenny, the ride supervisor, what happened as well as Ron. Kenny said he would take care of things and Ron made sure the guy didn't come around me any more. This same guy also got into an argument with Rick this afternoon. I don't think he will be around much longer.

Thursday late morning Ron went for a walk to Memorial Park, which is about 5 blocks from where the bone yard is. They had lots of food booths and a stage where a group was singing gospel songs. Ron listened to them for over an hour. He said they were a good group. I had stayed home because I was not feeling too well, once he told me about the music I wished I had gone with him.

Today was a short day for the carnival to be open. We were only opened from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Then the guys started the tear down. We pull out early tomorrow morning for Sequim so Rick wanted them to have plenty of time to do tear down. Besides business was really slow. After the carnival closed and we got the three ticket boxes cleaned out I went to work in the office and Ron began the tear down part of the ticket boxes. He has to bring all the computer monitors in, make sure the printer boxes and scanners are velco'd down and all the garbage is out of the boxes. When he is done with the ticket boxes, then he helps with the actual tear down of the rides. I spent about two hours in the show office counting the money from the tills. I then had to count quarters. Thankfully they have a coin counter so all I have to do is push the coins through the machine so the quarters drop into the bags. I bag them into $10 batches. We go through a lot of quarters each day. When I was done with counting money and there was nothing else that Theresa wanted me to do I caught a ride back to the bone yard. I only worked 4.25 hours today.

I have been back in the bone yard since about 5:15 p.m. It is so quiet right now as most of the crew is still at the lot doing tear down. It is quite nice!

Tomorrow we move to Sequim. We hope to be on the road no later than 10:00 a.m. so that we can stop in Leavenworth for about an hour. We are going to caravan with Albert. Our route is to go west on Highway 2 through Leavenworth to Everett and then catch the Edmonds/Kingston ferry. Saves us about 65 miles of driving.

Update on my blood sugars ~ since I have cut my insulin from 30 units to 20 units at night I have not had the major drops in my blood sugars in the middle of the night. We are so thankful for that as it is quite scary when I wake up with super low blood sugars.

Some of you know that our friend Shawn, one of the ride people, lost a cousin in a horrible bus/pedestrian accident in Portland last Saturday night. Shawn went home last Monday to be with family and to attend the memorial service for his cousin. Shawn will be joining back up with us in Sequim. His father, I believe, is driving him up there on Monday night or Tuesday morning. Thank you for praying for Shawn and his family during this difficult time. He let us know that it has been good to be with his family this past week.

Our week next week looks like this ~

~ Monday we drive to Sequim
~ Tuesday, Ron starts work at 5:00 p.m. The guys will be setting the lot for the carnival rides and games to go up on Wednesday morning. This includes getting the generators in the right spots, electrical and water lines laid out and the rides & games in place.
~ Wednesday morning the guys will get all the rides & games set up and operational. I go into work to set up the ticket boxes on Wednesday afternoon.
~ Thursday the carnival opens at 4:00 p.m.
~ Friday and Saturday will be full days at the carnival and then tear down is Saturday night. On Sunday we move to Port Townsend, all of 25 miles away. I am hoping that we can do something fun on Sunday as it is Mother's Day. Maybe we will go out to dinner...something we have only done once since starting to work/travel with the carnival. I know I will be missing my kids and grand-kids.

Praises & Prayer Requests ~

~ thanking God for a good week of work and rest
~ thanking God for being with Marva, one of the game people, who had emergency surgery earlier this week due to polyps on her vocal chords. She will get the results of the biopsy on Monday or Tuesday. There is a possibility that the polyps could have been cancerous. Please keep her in your prayers as she awaits the results.
~ praying for a safe and uneventful trip to Sequim on Monday.

Thanks for reading about our life as we work and travel with the carnival. Talk to all of you again soon.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update, Ali. I'm glad your time in Wenatchee went okay once you got there. May the Lord be with you during your time in Sequim and Port Townsend. I hope you get some free time to explore Port Townsend if you haven't been there. There's a lot to see there and they have a beautiful setting right by the water.

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  2. I took your suggestion and read John your latest update. He is so fascinated by the whole carnival adventure that he went back and read the entry where you explained how you came to be doing what you're doing. He said that bit by bit he's going to read all the posts!

    John is very inspired by your story and your faith, seeing it as another great example of how when we trust in God He does not let us down!

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