Jan. 4: A New Year

My new job that started last Monday, is with the Stripes organization. They are a convenient store associated with several service stations - mostly Valero. There's a little more to the company but that's the basics. I learned to work the computers, taking service calls and dispatching those calls to techs. A whole new process for me. The reason I was learning this (and folks from Berry Tractor will appreciate this) the current dispatchers were going to continue training all week on a new system. So I had to learn the obsolete system and by tomorrow it will no longer be used. But, by tomorrow I will be working in the accounting department of the same company. They have a month long job there so I'll be occupied for quite a while. This company has free fountain drinks, fresh ground coffee and a full kitchen with tables and a ping pong table. There's also an exercise room and a "romper" room for children of the workers to stay. They seem to be a real employee oriented company.

Our New Year was celebrated at the club house with about 40 or 45 people - just finger foods this time. The Texans down here like to celebrate the new year with guns. One of our friends was going to go outside to look at the fireworks display when a semi-automatic machine gun BAR or some such weapon went off and he made an immediate about turn, slammed the door shut and sat back down at the card table. We all decided we were better off inside than return to our campers. Larry stayed to play more cards but I headed for home. I walked all the way back (less than a block) with a plate on my head to protect me from falling bullets. The celebration went on late into the next morning. In fact, they were still celebrating last night but at least they're down to fireworks now. Guess they ran out of bullets or shells or whatever they were shooting.

This is the group watching the TV as the ball in New York City drops down.






Of course, the men had to all go swimming on New Year's day. Us girls just sat around and watched. One of our men, Laurence, newly arrived from Canada, wasn't quite up to getting in just yet. They've all been swimming every day since then too. Temps have been the the upper 60's, middle 70's this week. The water temperature is still too cold for me.(appx 75 deg)




Last night was another pot luck dinner so we were full again. Larry stayed and played cards afterwards but I came back to the camper to watch the Indianapolis Colts get beat.

Today, Larry and I went bike riding over on the sea wall sidewalk again. There was a sea fog in the area and it was much cooler than here in the RV park. This picture is of the Corpus Christi downtown skyline in the fog. We rode about 5 miles. After we were thru riding, we sat along the sea wall and drank our Pepsi and Gatorade and watched the pelicans diving into the bay for fish. Either it was real entertaining - or it just doesn't take much to thrill us anymore.


Our good friends, Henry and Anna, will be here tomorrow so we'll have lots of visiting to catch up on and more site seeing. They'll be here a week and then head to San Antonio for another week and then back home. This is their first step to becoming RVr's by next year.