Niche

Sometimes it takes a little time, but sooner or later you find your personal niche in terms of how you decorate the space around you to basically reflect you. Some individuals stick to a specific color scheme their entire life; switching and swapping out green and orange colored rugs as time goes by to match those drapes their grandmother made in the 70s that they could never ever get rid of. Some spaces are filled with trinkets and music boxes collected from family members over the years and they are so used to the décor of miniature items that a collection of randoms soon turns into a hobby of sorts; with time their space becomes exhausted with so many mini glass, brass, and porcelain loves that it’s dangerous to go near their walls if you're having an off day.

The people we have met so far have introduced us to so many small homes with so much personality without having to really layout or say a lot. I feel that’s almost a large difference between having a large house compared to a small home on an average blue-collar wage. If you have a large house on that sort of wage, it’s harder to reflect your personality, unless you're a very dry person (sorry we can't be friends then ha-ha), throughout the entire home. And I don't know about some of you guys, but with my past work I was involved with, I was inside a lot of huge money filled houses; and you know what I found in not all, but the majority? A lot of blandness.

Makes me think they're thinking: “Oh my, I have a lot of money so my extra big house has to look like everyone else’s bland house. Let’s kick the fact that I have a right to having a personality that is my own and be like everyone else.”

Many of you that personally know me, know that I grimace at the thought of being like the majority of my generation. Some aspects I alas cannot run away from, but I’d say I do a good enough job. I mean come on, we live in an RV, ha-ha.

ALSO! To add to the ‘news’: Mike started his job on Monday! Woot woot! And not the one with the company that was teetering him around, instead he’s in a less stress area working with computer components; so he’s basically in his happy place. I'm so proud and happy for him! I'm behind you 100% hunny! Along with the new job we also found a new living space closer to his work. It took a little longer than we wanted to be approved, but after two work days of Monster and I waiting for him to be done with work in a truck stop McDonalds parking lot, we are much happier to wait for him in our little spot beside the small forest where we now call home on the third day. Stores are much closer if we need anything; so instead of riding a bike close to 15 miles every time we needed our whatnots, it’s a short 5-minute walk from here. Did I mention rent’s cheaper and they have a pool? Yes mam…

I also hate to say it, but we kind of took off in a hurry from where we were living to get moved on to our new place before anyone was home from work or wherever they were at the other park. I was able to say goodbye to one neighbor, that took one of my painted shells to remember me ha-ha, but she was it.  I personally feel really bad it was rushed, but I think I'll send a card to each person thanking him or her for all the help and friendship they gave us. And if any of you are reading this now: I sincerely thank you with all my heart, and apologize for the abrupt leave!

Now for me to find a source of income somewhere near by. I'm thinking I'll walk down to the shops around the corner and see if any of them are hiring.

And here is an early morning poem to kind of describe our home in which was the main starting point of this blog:

Throw pillows, lace, fake wallflowers and candles,

And over here in the little white box painted with shells is where I put my sandals.

Over the door is where I leave my bad thoughts and dreams,

And throughout the living space is filled with lace covered tropical schemes.

The oranges, grapefruit, and potatoes hang over the drivers seat,

And with monster running around in here, the floor never keeps neat.

There’s dog hair in the corners, there’s hair where we lay,

And there’s still hair in my food, no matter how many hours that vacuum is alive in a day.

The sun rises at about half past six, the Monster and I watch it bloom over the land,

And we say goodbye to my love as he rides away to work for the man.

The bathroom counter is too small to make a common me mess,

And so the counters stay clean, but the cupboards I cannot promise no less.

The shower is smaller, and from time to time usually cold,

And as we wake up in the morning, we down a cup of hot coffee to increase our ness of bold.

The kitchen is at times cramped, but quaint, yet again trivial,

And everything is within a small reach, except for the poor dishes unseen and yet to be done laying in burial.

Which in truth, the messes take a short time to be cleaned,

And as well as it takes less the time for a mess to be deemed.

The carpets of outside lay in black, blue, white, brown and Welcome,

And we have to hide them all when the rain comes, which is thankfully seldom.

The back room now holds the title of the den of the man,

And here the video games are played whenever they can.

Over the head of the gamer are cupboards of linen and books,

And when it gets too late for bang, click, and yip, the gamer gets some trifling looks.

The bed where we lay when night has come, is surrounded with colorful curtains,

And the height even is too short for our Monster, but we still love it for certain.

This ‘pad’ where we stay is petite for sure, but it’s easy to make it say us, we, he and she,

And now that I have found this way to express, there’s really no other place I'd want to be.

The Workamping Scam

So in our vast search for another place to live to find work elsewhere, we have started looking into the world of workamping because everyone across the internet talked it up so much, and in just a short hop and skip into our journey we have found it's a world full of scammers. It's more of a dire need I-need-a-place-to-live-other-than-the-Walmart-parking-lot situation type of thing for us.

Workamping (yes, I spelled it right) involves single persons, usually couples, who are employed by RV parks for office work, housekeeping, and other odd jobs in return for a campsite to park their RV in which usually includes full hook ups (FHU), wifi (most, but not all), laundry coins, propane, and sometimes a discount at their store if they have one on site.

One issue on top of the several others that we ran into while starting our RV living journey in FL was that we are not a 55+ retired couple of snowbirds. It's not stated as a requirement in any posts online searching for workamping couples, but every job I reply to seems either to have a quick "nicely" written decline for our help our help, or they stop writing me back and all after they ask our age.
Discrimination of age much? I'd like to think we fit in quite nicely with the older generation for one, whether they all like us younglings or not. We're not rowdy, or crazy party seekers, and we even bring a great dish to the potluck and don't pig out on everyone else's stuff. But, the next following 'issue' kind of provides why they only seek old couples with nothing else to do and a chunk of change already in their bank.

The next issue was that every work post I seem to cross was either asking for a single workamper (couples can always live there regardless with the one working) to work 80 hours a month, or a couple to work an average of 15-20 hours per week per person. Now to do some math and include everything I mentioned being included in the Workamping description above:

• Highest cost of a FHU FL RV lot per month I found browsing the Workamping help wanted's: $500 (and there was only one at this price, the rest ranged from $250 - $400, but let's see what happens when the highest price is involved in the math)
• Average cost of 16 trips to a laundromat per month: $28
• Average cost of standard 20gal propane RV fill up: $25 (**noted that is an every other month expense but I'll add it to the monthly expense to make the scammers look a wee bit better)
• Average cost of high speed 15mbps which includes wifi router and home phone, not sharing: $62 (This is just what we're paying now for ours, more than likely the RV sites only offer wifi off their router shared among many other residents, but I'll include it regardless)

All the above = $615 a month

The minimum wage for FL is $8.05 

I'll do the math for a couple that's working;

So 2 people @ 15 hours per week = 120 hours of work for a 30 day period

@ Minimum wage = $966

$615/120 = $5.12 per hour 

So with all this said and done for a couple to start workamping at the average RV park, they will be completely underpaid with no time for another job unless they go work 3rd shift at some fast food restaurant around the corner in order to pay for the rest of the bills like insurance, cell phone, travel gas and your normal etc., like food and such. 

So my conclusion:

Unless you're a retired snowbird with a hardy large pocket of change looking more for something to do rather than stare at a wall and don't care that you're missing out on a couple hundred dollars a month, than workamping for a place to live is the thing for you. I guess also like I stated in my first paragraph, if you don't feel like living in a Walmart parking lot for a time and at the moment that's your only option, this is also for you, unless you're under 55, then they may not take you in... But that's just my experience. 

So this is just my opinion, but I think Mike and I can do a lot better. I doubt we'll ever be back in the Walmart phase, here's knocking on wood, so here's to a great future not having RV parks pay us scrap to work for an overpriced patch of dirt to park our RV on. 

Here's also to hoping I'll find my on the road work niche and will be able to share it with you guys. 

TTFN! <3