A Fall Day in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

The Next Great Adventure

It has been a while since the last posting here and I’m sure that many casual readers have given up on Nancy and my adventures. Truthfully, we were pausing for the past three months between the old set of experiences and the next. That next set starts on Nov. 13th as Nancy has agreed to accept full time employment with the Federal Government in Washington, D.C.

The job is working in the office of special services of the Peace Corps. This is an official job and not a volunteer position. She will be earning real money – more than I earn as an area sales manager at the Belk department store in Harrisonburg. She will also have access to the benefits of a federal employee.

During our stint in Romania, we discussed the need for employment once we were to return home. It was clear that one of us needed a job for the insurance benefits, as well as the income, although, insurance was a higher priority than income. What was unclear was who that full time wage earner was to be.

Unfortunately, it is my nature to feel uncomfortable and at a loss without the security of a job and a place to go and a goal to accomplish. Less than two weeks back from our Peace Corps volunteering, I went in to see if my old job was available. As the retail trade has an extremely high turn over, I felt pretty confident that I could find a place, as I had left under good circumstances. Instead of my old, low pressure sales position I was offered first line management. The situation is much longer hours and more responsibility that negate the small increase in wage. I am no longer on commission base pay scale, which is nice, but I haven’t decided yet whether I am better off being a manager or being an ‘associate’.

Nancy took her time about finding employment. She decided she did not wish to go back to her old haunts at the College of Business at James Madison University, and waited for a posting to her liking in the Peace Corps office in Washington. Her patience has been rewarded and she’s off to try something new. I’m not sure exactly what her duties will be, but over the next few weeks, she’ll have a chance to settle in to her new position. The big test is that she’ll work and live in the Washington area. I will remain here in Elkton. First one of us to get fed up can give our two-week notice, but we’ll have to co-ordinate to be sure that we both don’t do that on the same day.

We are approaching mid November and the fall colors are past their peak, although it was a splendid drive along the Blue Ridge this morning as we had reason to drive to Lynchburg to Dulles Airport and back today. The air had that haze that comes along with the fall. It makes the atmosphere seem as if the landscapes are from a painting from the 19th century masters with a glaze and sheen to it. The picture attached here is an old one, for my camera has given up the ghost, as my mother would have said. A new camera is on my Christmas list. But I hope you can get the feel of a fall day in Western Virginia.