Companies that get it

A lot of companies went to a remote worker situation during the pandemic. Now a number of companies want their workers back in the office. Even companies that are actually more profitable with remote workers want them to return. Management has some real control issues. 

Of course, the commercial real estate business is trouble, but I’m not going to shed any tears for them. They could always convert offices to much needed housing. 

A friend of mine was recently hired by a company for a remote work position. They sought her out and gave her a $20,000 raise over what she was making before. Working from home she’s now in a much better position to help with her elderly mother. That’s a huge relief. 

Then there’s the fact she’s not spending hours on the road every day. Her commutes were so bad she was destroying about one car a year. That isn’t cheap either. 

I’ve a number of friends and family working from home now. They are a lot happier than those who are locked in their cubicals. One friend actually moves his office to his garden during nice days. There’s a lot of envy from his coworkers who still go to the office. 

The nature of work is changing. Power is going back to workers. The companies who “get it” will do well. The others will go the way of the buggy whip business. 

-Sixbears

One Extreme to the Other

You never know what you'll get booking campsites on-line. We knew the place was remote, but we didn't know how remote. The park gate houses were unmanned. The road in looked so sketchy that we turned around.

My lovely wife spent 45 minutes trying to get hold of a human being who could tell us the road conditions. We were not even sure we were on the right road. It didn't help that the website said not to follow the GPS in certain areas of the park. Eventually, I decided to see if we could make it.

The road was rough in places, narrow, overgrown, and spots with deep soft sand. We made it to the campsite. It was out there. It had a large composting toilet and no showers. We've camped in worse areas. This site had a picnic table, raised tent area, graveled parking, and a fire ring. There was plenty of dry firewood lying around.

We were booked in for two nights. Unfortunately, my lovely wife woke up feeling ill. She suspects she might have gotten something bad at the restaurant we ate at the day before. Being sick out in the deep forest is not a fun thing. I made the command decision to book us into a hotel. The road out was worse than the road in. Good think I grew up driving on dirt roads. The van has good ground clearance and I needed every inch.

A little over an hour later we were booked into a decent hotel. My lovely wife took some meds and I tucked her into bed. Hopefully, she'll be feeling better in the morning.

-Sixbears

Back to the world

I've been without cell phone service since Goodland. Now we are anchored off of Long Key. (The Keys at last!)

It's been a real long day, so I'll sum up for now.

From Goodland to the Indian River we had no wind so we motored the whole way. Spent the night at anchor. In the morning, motored out of the river then raised the sails. When I tried to raise the motor, the whole throttle assemble came apart in my hands. Several parts landed in the drink and disappeared. I did a temporary fix with electrical tape, cordage, hitch pins and other odds and ends. It's not pretty but it works.

The sailing got pretty rough. We took shelter at a tight little anchorage on the Lostman River. That is one remote piece of real estate. The channel is shallow and twisty. It's also where we encounter several large sharks hanging around the boat. They were about 8 feet long, which is long enough for me.


From there we went to the Little Shark River. (More sharks there, no surprise.) Winds gave out on us the next day so we had to motor.

By then fuel and water were getting low. Instead of heading across Florida Bay to the Keys, we made a side trip to Flamingo. There's a campground, Ranger Station, and a marina of sorts, and that's about it. Very remote. I could not get Verizon cell service, but apparently AT&T is available. We were stuck there three days while waiting for the weather to improve.

One couple in a 17 foot sailboat did leave and they had a horrible time of it. I know as we just anchored next to them at Long Key. My lovely wife and I made the jump across the bay by sailing and motoring. We got to our anchorage just as the sun was going down.

That's a thumbnail sketch. More details later.

-Sixbears