GOOD BYE HOUSE (rough draft)

Wow, I have much to catch up on.  In the last week I've had plenty of funny stories to tell, but I am so dazed and confused I'm sure it will take me eons for my brain to catch up with where I'm at.

On the day before thre truck was supposed to be picked up we were so tired that there was a lot of stuff that should have gone on it, but we were so tired that we kept saying, "we can put this in the fifth wheel".  Well, guess what?  The fifth wheel wasn't big enough to stash everything that we left off the truck.  And, as we started loading it, Brian realized that we may be going over weight for the hitch we had.  So then it was, "we can put this in my little trailer and truck".  Still, there were several items that we just had to leave behind. 

Our scheduled May 24 launch day got pushed to May 25 and as it turned out we didn't actually pull out until 3:30 p.m..  We just kept finding that last little thing we had to do to finalize our California departure.  I won't go into what I call Brian's "anal-isms", but tasks like making sure the trash bags outside were neat, vacuuming one last time and that sort of thing. 

Here's the travel monster...

I cried as we boarded the 91 freeway, destination Tennessee.  Maybe more on our trip tomorrow.

ALMOST READY!

Tonight is Sunday, May 23, 2010; our last Sunday in California.  Sounds pretty dramatic, and it is.  Brian and I have lived in Southern California all of our lives and have raised our children here.  My family is still here and for the last few weeks I have been severely feeling the effects what distance is going to make.  We have said most of our good byes and it's been one of the hardest river's I have had to cross.

But, enough of doom and gloom....  tomorrow we will be loading the rest of our stuff in the fifth wheel and plan to tie up loose ends.  We have decided to park my little trailer and truck in our neighbor's RV parking (thank you Linda) and we hope that our son can take a road trip and drive it back to us.  If not, after we get moved in and somewhat settled, Brian will fly back and drive it himself.  This way we won't have to drive two trucks and pull two trailers.

IT'S A DONE DEAL NOW!

Our stuff left.  Not much more than I can say except there's no turning back now.  You would think we would be done, but nooooo.  Now we have to decide what we can load into the fifth wheel.  Many times over the last five days, we would pickup something and say, "Oh, we can put this in the fifth wheel".  Well, now the fiver is going to be pretty dang full.  The problem is that we won't know it until we bring it home from storage and start loading and that won't happen until Friday.  So, now there's three piles (1) for sure to go (2) can leave it behind if we have to (3) just nevermind and get it to charity.

(more to follow as I have time today)

MOVING DAY FOUR & FIVE

DAY 4 --
(Sunday) was about the same as day three.  My son Jim came over to help (thank you Jim).  They got the piece I was most worried about for Brian, the big treadmill... sucker's heavy.  And, I don't mean the kind of cosmos "heavy"  that those of us from the 60's and 70's grew up saying.  Good grief, where did that come from?  

Anyhoo, I think I've discovered that packing the loose ends are the hardest.  Walking around trying to find stuff that will just fit in the almost full box in order to close it up and not smush in the cross country ride is not as easy as it would seem.  Each and every one of the last boxes might have a coat or stuffed animal as the final offering.  Brian is finding that the loose ends in the garage is a conumdrum.  He's saved the odd shaped pieces for last and has to think just a little harder to puzzle them in, but he's doing it.  So very glad that we've had five days to load the stuff-mobile.

The trip to Lowe's this day was for plywood and 2x4's and what he called "one bys" so he could build crates for our embroidery machines.  I was very worried about the receiving condition of what's going to be our bread and butter after the cross country trip in a freight carrier trailer.  Brian did an excellent job on the crate building and now I am pretty worry free. As we get mobile this morning, I'll take a pic and put in the "moving" album. Ah but I need to finish off that pot of coffee first.

DAY 5:
Outside of finishing up the loading we will be waitng to hear that we actually got the offer for our house.  Our original offer backed out and we had more people come look on Friday.  Our agent told us that their agent called her with a "verbal" intent to offer. 

More to share at the end of the day...

The neighbor across the street is going to take our old refrigerator that we were going to have to call someone to haul off.  She's going to take Tracie's old bedroom set that we never, ever wanted to move again.  Those items we're giving for free, but I'm selling her my kitchen dinette for $25.00.  One nights dinner on the road taken care of.

Brian finished the crates we needed done today.  I guess they had to be done since today's the last day.

I DON'T THINK WE CAN GET ANY MORE EXHAUSTED!  We are as done as we're going to get.
Cripe! I am falling asleep at my computer as I write this.  I'm going to bed and I finish up tomorrow morning.

MOVING DAY THREE

Moving day #3 is now under out belts.  Our daughter Tracie and BFJosh came out to help today.  Seemed like a slow day, but Josh saved the day by helping with some heavy cherry wood bedroom furniture and a miniature baby grand digital piano, not to mention tons of boxes.  We still have a lot boxes in the garage and Brian has to build crates for our embroidery machines.  It's been nice to have this much time to load the truck and be able to think and puzzle in the pieces.  I'm still packing but almost done.

Moving Day Two

I wasn't sure I could get this pooped.  Pics are under the link in Day 1 if you're interested in seeing progress on the stuff-mobile.  It's like a bigger than life jig saw puzzle. This utility cabinet contains glass tops for a dresser and two night stands, two glass hutch sliding doors, glass tops for two end tables, 2 end tables (minus the legs, they are in a box somewhere) and boxes on the side for stability.

Not to mention that the offer we had on the house fell through and we are showing it again. Showed it once yesterday and once today.  We have to stop what we're doing, put the dogs in the dog runs and promise them treats if they don't bark and tidy up a house in transition.  Argh!

Our kids will be coming tomorrow to help and they will be surprised that we got so much loaded already. 

DAY ONE: TRUCK ARRIVES

The ABF U-Pack trailer arrived this morning, day one of the real deal.  The long anticipated day has arrived.  Took a run to Lowe's to pick up some more boxes and a 4x4 to put under the wheels, ran over to Harbor Freight to pick up some tie downs, moving blankets and tarps to line the floor and walls of the trailer.

Opened up the back of the trailer and just stood there and looked.  How in the world are we going to fit all our stuff, our worldly possessions into 19 of the 29 feet of space on this stuff-mobile.  We're old and we have A LOT of stuff.  Of  course after three loads to the dump and a lot of that stuff was yard sale material, but bheeeehhh, no yard sales for me.   No time and certainly no energy.  We are also going to pawn off what we can to our kids and we aren't taking any appliances. 

So, after several minutes of staring into that empty trailer and the same amount of time cogitating on the loading diagram in our heads Brian began to load some "shop" stuff into the stuff-mobile.  We learned a lot from moving Brian's Mom last summer and and disassembled every table and anything that has a screw or bolt in it.  So far we have used 5 feet of space and it's amazing what Brian has in it.

Today's daily photos.  (right click on the link and choosse "open in new window") Just a few pics on our progress.  We shall see what tomorrow will bring.  But for right now I'm exausted.

THE JURY DUTY SAGA

Okay, I'm bad. But I haven't always been bad.  Granted I always made a face when I got that ugly green and white summons telling me that I needed to spend a day down at the County Court House.  I never asked to postpone it, always went and arrived early.  I almost got chosen once, but asked to get excused and my request was  granted.

In my defense, our heads have been wrapped around moving since February, so when I got my Jury summons scheduled for March 2010, I thought the timing truly sucked.  My intensions were honorable, but somehow (for the first time in my life) I forgot all about jury duty day until about a week after the "J" day.

After about five minues of thought, I told my self "the heck with it", by the time they send me another notice I will probably be moved and it will be a non-issue.  Oh no... I get the "FAILURE TO APPEAR" notice that wasn't as nice as the first request.  Something along the lines of, "be there or be square", uh well, maybe not so nice.  On the kitchen counter it went while I took some time to deliberate what I was going to do.  Once again, you guessed it, I forgot about it until it was late again.

In the meantime, Brian got his anual jury summons. His intensions were to get an extension and then for sure we would be moved by the end of his extension period.  You know what they say about great minds thinking the same.  He also forget his until the day after he was supposed to call. 

We talked about it and over talked about it.  I decided to tell them that I had been in the process of moving and the notices had been lost in the shuffle.  I sent them an email with my new address and hoped for the best.  Today I got an email back letting me know that my name had been removed from this year's list and that I need to remember to put in a change of address at the DMV. 

Brian sent his info via snail mail and he is still in limbo.  I hope this doesn't come back and bite us in the butt.

AWESOME DAY AT THE DMV (4/29/10)

We were in a dilemia.  The California registration was due for the fifth wheel.  They were actually due on 4/30 to the tune of $200.   We asked AAA if they would give us an extension and nada no way.  We asked if they gave refunds for vehicles that moved out of state and, yes, they have a form, but refunds are rare. He said we could get a one way permit, but the registration cannot be expired. So, we struggled with what we were going to do for a few days.

I woke up on Wednesday morrning (4/29) and decided that I did not want to pay $200 to the State of California.  I know, I've lived in California all my life and I should owe it something, right?   NOT!   NO!   Ha ha ha ha ha!

So armed with a good attitude, I got up, got ready, gathered my paperwork and prepared myself with just the littlest of white fibs.  Drove over to the Norco office and found a parking place right up front, got out of my truck and (boing) remembered that I had to come back in the house to get my keys and left my purse and paperwork at home.  Oh great, good attitude was waining.  Okay, suck it up and go home.

Try again, drove to Norco... got a great parking place...  line for the info window was only 8 people long; got my number... five minutes was called to window 1.  I told them that my fees were due and I was moving "tomorrow".  "No problem," she tells me, gave her $18.00 and instructed to go to window 19.  Window 19 took my paperwork and gave me a one trip permit that is not dated.  I was in and out of the DMV (without an appointment) in 15 minutes!

Now, when we get to Tennessee I can pay my $37 and saved myself a chunk of change.