This trip to the beach has been different than any I’ve made so far. Usually this week is moderately busy…wedged between Spring Break and Bike Week, you almost always have lines to get into restaurants and bars. Places may be closed on Sunday, but almost always things open back up on Monday. This time, there are a lot of places only open from Wednesday through Saturday. And the reason is…they can’t find workers.

That may be because of unemployment insurance. If they can get paid the same…or MORE than what they were making working forty hours a week, there are a boatload of folks opting to ride the benefit wave till it runs out. In the meantime, they’re doing I don’t know what…traveling? Taking a class online? Learning to knit? I will say, I saw more kite surfers than I’ve ever seen before, so there’s that.

The paucity of reliable employees has caused some real frustration with business owners down here. I saw a few signs that said “this location is closed because we can’t get good help. Come see us at our other store. AND, if you want a fun job, call ###-###-####.” For those who ARE open, they’re doing the best they can to provide good service…sometimes to an unappreciative, if not totally clueless crowd.

I stumbled upon this sign in Tullio’s Bakery Tuesday morning. I can only imagine what kind of abuse their employees were faced with to warrant such a warning, but I have to say…when I was in there, the little gal was darling and very patient as I made my choices. BTW…Tullio’s is much better than Duck Donuts. They had real flavor as opposed to the greasy sugar bombs Duck Donuts throws out. (Sorry, DD…assembly line cake donuts from a mix is not a donut…it is fried cake. I don’t usually diss a product, but they left a lot to be desired.)

I left yesterday in the middle of the morning to go to my favorite knitting shop. I was sad to hear Jeanne, the owner, wasn’t there due to a family issue. I really missed visiting with her. But, I picked up a few things. They always have some custom died yarns and I love them so much. As I was heading south to Knitting Addiction, I noticed the thermometer on the truck was already 74! I called Mr. FixIt and told him to be ready…as soon as I finished my little shopping foray, I wanted to pick him up and go have some fun! It was too nice of a day to miss out on play time!

We drove all the way down to the tip of the island to Hatteras Village. I stopped at my other favorite yarn shop in the back on The Blue Pelican Gallery. I bought a kit for Little so I can teach her to knit, and a shawl kit for me. We wandered around the shops and stopped to see some sights. Then, we got a seafood dinner to go and had a picnic as we watched the sunbeams shining down through little breaks in the clouds. It was really a glorious day. It got all the way up to 78 and I was one happy little camper!

Today is supposed to be much cooler and rainy, so we are hanging around the condo and I’ll start a new knitting project. Tomorrow is our last day and it’s supposed to be warm and sunny so we’ll spend as much time on the beach as we can. The week at the beach always goes WAY too fast and we will soon be heading back to West Virginia. I’ll get out to the farm for a few days alone just as soon as I can. And Mr. FixIt will finish the work on the master bath, with the help of his best friend, Harry.

At least we didn’t get the snow they had in Colorado…OR in West Virginia! There’s something to be said for getting away to the beach at this time of year!

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“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Romans 8:25 ESV