Had lunch today, or I should say, brunch, with some great folks from my Inmate Trust Fund days. Man, the stories they can tell. Love them to death but I am sooooo glad to be out of that whole mess. Looking forward to getting out of here in a few days.

Packers are coming on Wednesday, then the movers are scheduled for Thursday. Moving everything that isn't going with me into storage for the duration. Found a pretty reasonable place that even gave me a military discount for being retired Army Reserve. I thought that was nice of them.

Been looking at everything I can find on the internet about my new employer, Xanterra, Inc. This is the company that runs much of the concessions inside many of our National Parks. In Yellowstone they mainly run the lodging and activities, while another company, Delaware North, runs the general stores and such. I'm sure I'll learn more as I go.

There seem to be two different schools of thought on working as a seasonal employee, either it is absolutely the best thing ever, or it's the worst thing ever. I've not really found much in between. My thoughts on this are that the people in the middle didn't have any strong feelings either way, or at least not strong enough to cause them to go blog on the internet about their experience. There are forums and blogs by current and past employees and they run the gamut. They complain about the company, the hours, the pay, the food, the accommodations, and just about anything else you can imagine. Other, on the other hand, can't say enough good about the entire experience and only throw in little side notes about how the food could be better, or the dorms could be more roomy, etc.

Many, it seems, have never been in the Army. Nuff said.

You're in frickin' Yellowstone National Park for crying out loud!! Shut up!!!

Anyway, while I do hope that I find no reason to eat my words on this, it looks like it is going to be fantastic. If everything goes as planned, I'll have the Jeep, and the motorcycle, and my trailer full of junk with me, so I should be in good shape. I have to go buy some clothes though, as my particular area wears "business casual" attire, with blue jeans being acceptable on the weekends. Hey, I needed to update my wardrobe anyway, from between either a uniform, or jeans and a t-shirt, so this is a good thing.

All in all, it looks like life is taking an upturn.