Tuesday mid-morning

Funny how the coughing will stop once I go to sleep.  I will eventually wake up to it starting up again, but at least I'm getting sleep through all of this nonsense.  I'm so glad I am not anywhere near departure date for Oregon.  I would have to ask them if they wanted a sick person around them to do orientation and they would probably say, let's reschedule. 

I can't reschedule.  I need to start working and soon.  Sooner than the 18th would be better. I'm still looking at the numbers.  IF everything comes in as it currently will on paper and get at least some overnighters in, I will make it.  I just had a guy call me a few minutes ago looking for a place for "a few months".  Yes, I have a spot for you.  I can hope that he will show up on Saturday.

But, I see why most parks want reservations made on their systems and money paid in advance. I'm learning. Well, I knew why they do it, I just haven't implemented it on these phone calls.  But I think after today, I am going to require anyone wanting to reserve a spot for extended stay to put some kind of deposit down.  Otherwise, they can just play you, meaning they can use you as a back-up plan if their main plan falls through. They won't tell you you are the back up plan, they will tell you that they are coming to your park. When they don't show, you sit and shrug your shoulders.  Why did they do that?

Well, simple. Because they can.  And when I say deposit, the parks mark it as non-refundable.  You put that money down, you aren't getting it back.  At least a day's worth of stay.  But many parks go further with it than that. They'll make you pay the entire stay up front, non-refundable. So if you were staying 3 weeks, you pay it up in advance and if you don't show, oh well, you just lost all of that money.

As I said, I knew why they do it, I just was trying to get anyone in there and couldn't afford to engage in such rules and hope that the people would show up.  But here we have these railroad people, for example, asking for several lots.  I said I had 1 available and 2 more coming available after the 3rd.  He didn't commit to anything. When I found out I have 2 more lots available, I called him and still didn't get a commitment.  

Well, that's on them.  If they show up with trailers and I don't have spots for them, I'm not going to feel bad at all.  Direct them to other RV parks in the area.  No apologies, either. If you want a spot, you know you have to reserve them.  I'm taking whatever's coming in. This dude says "several months" and that works for me.  I need a couple more of those soon.  I can't rent out lot 7 with the damaged pedestal, hoping to have that rectified as quickly as possible.

As of right now, the status is still "not yet shipped".  If that doesn't change by the end of the day, I'm going to be calling them. Please expedite this.  I need it now, not 2 months from now, thank you.  It's already paid for.  The shipping isn't paid for and I assume they call you with shipping info and cost. Even if it's $100 it's still cheaper than anything else, plus it's coming straight from the manufacturer.  

Another guy that had a 3 day stay booked canceled yesterday.  So, I gave him all of his money back - which is just the first day's stay - excepting the campground software fee.  I'm not eating any of the expenses and told him up front that that fee was being deducted from the refund.  Half a day later - yesterday just later on in the day - he calls back. Well, I wasn't going to come, but now I've changed my mind, I am going to visit with Immanuel Baptist Church - whatever he was doing I didn't hear, maybe a visiting preacher? - can I rebook?  Sure!  That church is a mile and a half away from my park. Staying at any other park would mean a much longer travel time.

The other lady that wanted a long term spot hasn't called back.  She called me twice last week and we had long conversations.  I'm trying to give people the idea that I'm not some sort of weirdo and that the park isn't full of them, either.  But it sure does seem a waste of time if you spend all that time on the phone and it results in nothing.  

Anyway, I've blocked out some time on the lot I'm giving to this guy that is coming on Saturday and just hope he shows up.  

This whole business is rather tricky. You have no idea how long people are staying when they say "long term". "Probably several months".  "About a month".  "Well, I know I said I was leaving next month but can I stay for 3 more?".  The only definitive stays are the overnighters/weekly and even some of them end up extending their stay. "Can I stay 5 more days?".  

Meanwhile, I get a phone call yesterday. "The power is out".  That was the tent lady, who knows nothing about electricity and how it works (I don't expect people to, but it is interesting when they don't even know about circuit breakers). Did you check the circuit breaker on the shed?  No, where is that? Lol, it's literally right there in view of her front door when she walks out and to the right.

Turns out the other people's had gone off too.  Meaning, the main breaker tripped. She was on the phone with me while they were figuring it out. "Well, the shed is on but both of our trailers are off".  The guy flipped the main breaker, I later found out because I went over there.  The shed would have had to have been off as well, you throw the main you've got everything off over there.

It's pretty simple: the main breaker isn't big enough for the amount of load on the panel and I'm going to have to upgrade the breaker to probably 200 amps.  It will have no effect on the panel or the breakers on the panel, it will just supply enough juice to cover the demand when you have a water heater, an electric dryer, a window AC unit all running at the same time in the shed plus 2 more AC units running on trailers.  I actually had wished I had bought the 200 amp version when I got done installing everything and then thought, gee, if I decide to have campers back here, it's going to draw a lot more power off of this thing.

I haven't had any phone calls since then so hopefully it will last until I feel well enough to go to Lowe's, get a bigger breaker and get over there and install it. 

It will mean shutting off the power to the west side of the park.  This is really what I was talking about before, tho, in wanting to dig a trench from lot 1 on the east side and have the 2 trailers running off of a different circuit.  Yet, the direct burial line I installed for the shed is sufficient gauge, it really shouldn't be a problem just installing a higher amp breaker.  Maybe I'll see if they have anything between 125 and 200 amp.  

I suspect odd-ball sizes will cost a lot more.  Hmm, will have to do some more research.  Most electricians believe the buss will handle the extra load even if it "says" 125 amps, but have to check the manufacturer's ratings which should be stamped somewhere on the panel.  

Well, anyway, the NJ people texted and said they "have some money for you". I don't want "some" money, I want an entire month's worth of rent paid up in cash, in my hand, today.  The dude moved back in with her as evidenced by the car showing back up and the tent lady confirming that yes, he's back. That's odd, to me anyway, but whatever.  Money is what I'm after.  They're using my electricity and facilities, they get money, they can pay for it.  I'll take my sick @$$ over there to look at the panel and see if I can find a rating on it and to collect money.  

Then I'll come back home and sit or lay down. I don't get over stuff like this without a lot of doing nothing is involved. This feels like bronchitis again.  I don't have antibiotics - they like to prescribe those tho they seem to have no affect and I don't have a steroid shot or the pills.  Those do tend to help, but only for a short period of time.  

__________

The pedestal is being shipped today. I couldn't just wait around wondering when they are going to ship it.  The man said it would "probably" be there by Friday.  Here's the dilemma.  I have 2 short stays coming in this week, a guy saying he's coming in for a few months and this lady just called that I was discussing earlier in this thread, she said she's coming Thursday.  

That means, to cover all of this, I need lot 7 up and running by Saturday.  I'm in no condition to be digging out a pedestal right now, but I'd do it if the new one was sitting here.  I'm going to just sit on this and think about it for a while. The electrician who helped build the park said he could probably help me with one.  I just decided to go the manufacturer route because it's almost half the price of anyone else.  It's only Tuesday and I can have that destroyed pedestal dug out of there in less than an hour.  Take the components out of it, install them in the new one and then we have the part about shutting the power off to everyone while I spent probably an hour, maybe 2, installing this new one.  

I mean, I can't remove the old one without removing the wiring first. I can dig it up and prop it up, I did that with the shed project, have it ready to do the work, but in the end, that power has to be shut off to remove the wiring, get the damaged pedestal out of the way and put the new one in there.  If all went well, I could actually have the wiring changed out in no more than 30 minutes.  I don't have to have the pedestal buried back into the ground to get that done, I didn't do that for the shed project. So, power downtime will be minimal.  

The temperatures have dropped around 10 degrees for the daytime highs.  That'll be going on through Saturday. After that, the temps go back up but not as high as they have been for quite a while. This is good news. Less load on AC units to supply enough cooling to the rigs.  

I've got 2 more lots coming available next month, hence I want to get these 2 long termers in there regardless of how much effort I will have to exert in the condition I am in. It will just set me back on how long it will take to recover.  Life is rough, it always has been, nothing new to see here.  I want lot 7 ready to go as fast as it is possible to get that pedestal in and if that means I need to buy one at an inflated rate from the electrical contractor, then so beit. I'll have an extra one laying around for if/when this happens again.  

But I'm not going to ask him today.  I can't do anything today beyond just getting that money and checking that panel and mayyybe, going to Lowe's for a circuit breaker, if I find that the panel can handle a higher amp load. It's the bus bar that determines whether it can handle a higher load.  It is highly likely the same gauge bar as the 200 amp model, just showing rated at 125 amps.  If it isn't the same and the 125 bus bar is actually thinner, installing a higher amp main breaker could end up melting the bus bar and causing a fire.

We don't want that.  If that is the case, plan B is the only thing left to do.  That's rent a trencher, dig the 178 foot long trench, install the wiring I already have and putting in a separate panel for the trailers.  Then we have the 2 trailers off of the shed and the issue resolved.  The ditch witch machine isn't cheap to rent and another panel is around $110.  It comes with circuit breakers at least.  Install the new panel next to the existing one so I don't have to buy more wiring, move the wires from one to the other and call it good.  

At least I have a plan B and I already spent the money on that wiring long ago.  It's heavy gauge, direct burial, aluminum wiring that will easily handle 2 trailers.  It's a lot of work, tho.  Just energy I don't currently have.  The ground is hard from no rain and I would have to consider watering the intended trenching area to make it easier for the machine to dig out the trench.  

Right now, however, the more immediate problem is the pedestal.  This is a problem I shouldn't even be facing, frankly and a problem caused by people who refuse to admit to it.  The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. They were the only ones coming in that day AND using THAT particular space.  It's on the reservation grid on the software.  The rest of the lots were either already filled or empty.  No one else came in that day.  These people did it.  And they are causing me a lot of headache over there stupidity.  That's the frank and blunt way to put it, you don't try to make impossible turns. You throw up your hands, say to yourself this can't be done, I need to find a place to turn around.

If you don't know what to do. CALL THE OWNER/MANAGEMENT OF THE PARK. I'm definitely going to install bollards - in the future. I don't have the time or the money for that right now.  But, they will be cemented into the ground and they will be steel pipe filled with concrete.  They will sit right next to the pedestals and the water and sewer outlets - they're all close together.  

Anyway, I'm feeling a little better now that i forced myself out of bed and am going to take advantage of that and get over there and collect money.

G'day