Up And Running, but Not Official Yet

I can now publish my posts to my blog.  Yea!!!!

Yesterday I had to go down the mountain to attend a driving class in order to be able to drive any County vehicle and on the way down I was able to pull over in a couple of spots to take the above pictures with my cell phone camera.  If you look closely at the first one, you can see the top of the cloud bank settled over San Jose.  The dark line in the middle is the Santa Cruz Mountain Line.  Grant County Park is above the clouds, bright and sunny when I left and the lower I got, the cloudier it got.  The 2nd picture is about 2/3 of the way down.  On the valley floor it was just cloudy and burned off in a couple of hours.

Not knowing where I was going and still unfamiliar with all the freeways and streets, I left early.  I had directions and got to my destination, Vasona County Park Annex building, where the class and test would be, 1 and 1/2 hours early.  Now that I knew where I was I left and found a Starbuck’s for coffee, then headed back to wait in the parking lot.  It was a good time to check on my 50 plus emails and read a book.  While there I met Anika, another Ranger then went in for the class.  It was on VCR and was still a good refresher.  There were four others in the class.   We just followed the video took the test and left.  I guess all that’s left is processing the paperwork.  That’s when it will be official.

As long as I was bottom of the hill/mountain, I decided to check on another County Park.  I had a voicemail from Ranger Glines at Sanborn County Park requesting a call about a Camp Host position there for the summer,so I thought that I would checkout the park and inquire about the winter.  He wasn’t there yet, so I drove through the park and visited with the current Hosts.  They will be leaving in May, heading to a job in Ketchikan AK.  When I finally met Ranger Glines, he already knew that I was at Grant, but discussed next summer, since the current Hosts will be back next October.

Before I headed back up the hill, I filled up the gas tank and made a phone call while I still had cell signal.  On the way home, I wished I could get some pictures of the magnificent views of the valley, but there is nowhere to pull over.

                               

I was able to pull over to take this.  This is a 15 mph hairpin curve, some are tighter at 10 mph.  Nan’s Miata would handle it well, however I don’t want to wear out the brakes on my 15 year old Subaru.

Back at the Park I met Ranger Theresa Reyna (she’s the Host liaison) and let her know that I had taken the test.  She also brought over firewood and gave me the keys that I need.  All that’s left is processing.

I usually go to bed around 9 or 10 and get up some where near 7.  Today, Wednesday was the day scheduled for hooking up my phone.  I am required to have a landline that the park will reimburse for basic service.. Anything else, I will have to pay, so I chose to not get long distance, but did get internet service.  AT&T  scheduled the installation before 8 pm, however the tech, Eddie was here before noon and finished within an hour.  He made sure that I plugged everything in correctly and left me to complete the installation on the computer.  It took about 15 minutes and here I am.  Just published the waiting post and ready to do another.  

Meet a couple of my regular visitors.

Of course Angel has to check them out.  She lets me know that they are there with a low growl but doesn’t bark.

Before I forget, in answer to Sandie’s question, no, I’m the only Camp Host at Grant, however, there is a Ranger that lives in the park and other Rangers and maintenance guys during the day.   I schedule my hours  between 9 am and 9 pm Friday through Tuesday with Wednesday and Thursday off.  I expect that I will begin this Friday.  I suppose that I will figure out some kind of routine as to when I do whatever I have to do. 

That’s it for today.  Take care.

Thanks for visiting

Susan and Angel