POOP SCOOPIN' (uses S*** word)

I'm having real issues with shit.  And, apparently I am not the only one that has issues.  Just think about the sayings there are about the word...

-- Shit on a shingle (I think that's a jail term for some kind of food item. But, I wouldn't know).
-- Shit hits the fan
-- Holy Shit Batman (it was censored, but I'm sure Robin said it.)
-- Scared the shit out of...
-- In a world of Shit
-- Shit, I forgot!

I'm sure there are more but today was "shit on a tree" for me!  Uh, I guess I had better explain.

My dilemma since we've arrived with the dogs in Tennessee is what to do with it.  We are not supposed to put it in the trash; the dump where we take out trash clearly states on the sign that we are not to bring animal waste. 

My sister-in-law Sandy said toss it in the woods; that's what people do with it. She reasoned with me that there are all sorts of critters in the woods and they all do the natural thing right there and they don't worry about where. Ugh, coming from the public dog world in California poop is collected, bagged and thrown away.  Old habits are hard to break, but I'm trying.

So, I buy the spring loaded model of this contraption designed for ease and style.  Only takes a few minutes and a little thought to figure out how to pick it up, but it's a little more tricky to get the groove of the toss and release in the woods.  We have five acres of woods next door that's privately owned, but not developed.  We also have woods at the back of our property that is too dense to walk about in until the leaves fall. Call me selfish, but I choose the woods next to us instead of us.   

As I said the swing back and release is crucial.  My first toss failed miserably and I dropped the "treasures" just a few feet away my side of it's intended target and had to perform the re-pick move.  Finally, the turds found a resting place, but I figured that like anything, practice makes perfect.  With four dogs I had to get better so I picked up fallen apples and practiced the toss and release... obviously the success is in the release. 

Feeling proficient, as well as the pups getting back to normal after a food change I was feeling pretty confident about the motions, but not comfortable with the disposal.  Those old pick/bag/dispose habits made the toss/forgettabout attitude hard to deal with. 

Bottom line is after I successfully played poop darts with a tree, the next time I made a trip into town to the Walmart I picked up 150 poop bags.  I know I'm not supposed to take them to the dump, but I need to work on my attitude before trying the woods thing again.

PAT'S MISADVENTURE

My GPS has made me pretty direction stupid and I just follow where she says to go. As well, I've come to the conclusion that she's mad at me because I have her running on 2008 software.  She got me good the other day. 

I was just going to the Tractor Supply to pick up dog food...

I wanted to try the back way route out of our neighborhood and keyed in the Kroger store because it's in the same shopping strip.  I didn't pay attention to the street nor the miles my "gal" told me it would be and took off.  I knew I was okay the first 3 or 4 turns and then "she" told me to turn right instead of left when I was probably three quarters of the way there. 

I start on the every day basic road and then I'm going through residential areas where the roads are twisting and turning, doing the roller coaster thing.  I always wondered what "through hill and dale" meant and I'm thinking I was pretty close to that.  Anyhoo, what was supposed to be a 4 mile and 15 minutes drive has turned out to be going on 45 minutes and I was clueless to where I was at.  I did have that false sense of security a GPS gives, but was seriously wondering about my "gal".  I finally realize that I'm in Lake Tansi, which is way south of my neighborhood Kroger store, but giving in to my "gal" the benefit of the doubt and my love of adventure I kept moving on.  However, when I got to this road...

I'm thinking maybe I better think of an alternative.  So, after several more miles of similar terrain I decide I would change my direction and head for home.  That's when I realized that my GPS was set on "shortest distance" and she was taking me as the crow files, but obviously not to my Kroger.

After changing from "shortest" to "fastest" she put me on a different road...

... and then I did start to see repeat streets and two hours later after finally finding my local Tractor Supply and Kroger I pulled into the driveway. 

Thanks for "listening".

HOTEL BETTY

Hotel Betty Big Horn is home and resting comfortably.  Since we aren't moving any of the furniture into the house until the carpet is installed, this is where we're sleeping at night.  Much better than a pallet on the floor for sure.  Speaking of carpet...  it wasn't supposed to arrive until June 18 and then an install date was to be determined.  Hooray! They called last night and the carpet has arrived and we will know today when it's actually going to be at our door step.

The big dogs are going through somewhat of a shock since I've been crating them about 11:00 p.m. or so, and they are sleeping in the "dog room".  I think I'll continue this practice once we officially move into the house.  Of course, Daddy's P Effn Princess Lucy gets to sleep with us in the big bed. 

This morning (as every morning), I wake early and feel guilty that the big girls are crated so I get up, walk to the house and take them out for pee, breakfast and poop.  I have learned that off leash is not a great idea and I'm especially glad that I had Lucy leashed today.  I opened the door to the camper and I saw a family of squirrels (about 5) under Brian's truck.  I thought it would be cute to see Lucy's reaction.  She spotted them and her Flexi turned into a yo yo.  This little Chiwennie wanted them BAD and in a split second the leash extended to it's end and rebounded much to the little dogs dismay.  We contined on, and little Lucy was very proud of herself that "she" chased one of the varmits up a tree.  The bad news is that she was so preoccupied that it took me forever to get her to focus on the potty time.

THE GRAND INTERNET EXPERIENCE

I'm finally back on Internet... finally!  What a comedy of errors this has been.  Admittedly, I waited until we arrived in Tennessee to schedule Directv and when I signed up I inquired about Internet bundling.  Boy, oh boy what a mistake this has been.


Once I got the TV taken care of, they forwarded me to "All-Connect", I think in India. They told me that Frontier would be my provider and that installation would be June 8 and that Frontier would be calling me in 48 hours.  I never got the call so when I called back Directv the guy told me that the order was pending and they were looking for a signal.  WTF!  A Frontier office is on the road to downtown, so I stopped by to see if they had anything listed in their computers.  They assured me that I was wrong because they don't partner with Directv, they partner with Dish and they would not be my internet provider if DTV initiated the deal.  End of conversation!


So, I called back Directv and he assured me that his computer screen is telling him that Frontier would be my provider, but the installation was scheduled on June 14 and it's all in their hands.  I said, "Okay, give me a reference number and phone number to call for this Frontier that says no way will they be my provider".  He gave it to me and asked if they could be of any further help.  I told him that he wasn't any help at all, so no.


I proceeded to called Frontier at the number I was given and the gal on the other end kept insisting that if I made my arrangements with DTV that they would NOT be my provider.  End of story again, but not so much.  I said, "Listen, humor me.  Just key in this reference number just to see if anything comes up".   She gave me this moanful waste of time sigh, but agreed.  Then she started asking me my name, etc and said that, yes, they had an installation scheduled for June 14.  I win! 


That evening I get a recorded call that my internet connection tech would be at my place between 8:00 and 10:00 on June 8.  At this point I am doubtful of everything and wasn't expecting a tech to show, but amazing enough he showed up the next morning.  I wonder what will happen on the scheduled June 14 date?  I'm still curious to find out how I will be billed.  How can Directv bundle my internet with a provider that claims they don't work with them? 


All of my old email addresses are still working, but my new email is wilkings1952@frontier.com.  And that's another thing; they can't get my name correct.  At first it showed up as Tah Wilkson and I call them to correct that and they did correct the last name, but then the tech set my email up he set it up as Wilkings not Wilkins and they never corrected the first name... so I guess I'm still not finished with this saga.

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.

TENTATIVE TRAVEL ROUTE

I had a long talk with Google Maps last night and we figured out a tentative travel plan.  The actual departure date is still iffy but any time between 5/17 and 5/24.  Since we're pulling two trailers we have to take into consideration cost of two campsites as opposed to the cost of 1 room.  Motel 6's ususally allow dogs and don't charge an extra fee or ask too many questions we'll stick to them.

Day 1:  Riverside, CA to Bellemont, AZ -- 422 miles = approx. 7 hours.  The Motel 6 has truck parking and allows dogs, so I pick staying in a room.

Day 2:  Bellemont, AZ to Santa Rosa, NM -- 450 miles = approx 7.5 hours.  The Motel 6 has truck parking and allows dogs, so I pick staying in a room.

Day 3:  Santa Rosa, NM to Okemah, OK -- 504 miles = approx 8.5 hours.  Okemah Lake seems nice and camping rates seem reasonable.  Okemah, OK - Woody Guthrie's Home Town.

Day 4:  Okekmah, OK to Millington, TN -- 418 miles = approx 7 hours.  There's the Meeman-Shelby State Park that also looks nice and reasonably priced.  Meeman-Shelby State Park.

Day 5:  Millington, TN to Crossville, TN -- 336 miles = approx 6.5 to 7 hours to "home".

TO MISS OR NOT TO MISS... (Updated daily depending on mood)

THINGS I WILL MISS…

• I will fiercely miss my children and family.
• I hate leaving the friends I’ve made over the years
• I do like my street and my old house
• I will miss the ocean

• I will miss good Mexican food
• I will miss my Bunco Babes

• Being local to dog sports and activities (hanging with my friend Chris)
• Not doing the things I wanted to do before we left and didn’t
• Affordable health insurance
• Almost 365 days a year of sunshine
• Most people tell me I will miss palm trees.  I think I will miss looking at a snow capped mountains framed by palm trees.  Yes, I will.

THINGS I WILL NOT MISS…

• Riverside as a whole 
• SoCal freeways and traffic 
• My job unless I have to get another one, then I will miss the one I left behind. 
• The SoCal smog 
• Out of control graffiti 
• California fees and taxes 
• Getting up at 5:00 a.m. for work.

 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO…

•  The adventure of traveling across county (as long as it all runs like clockwork) 
• My kids & friends coming to visit (this is me pouring on guilt)
• Visiting my family on the east side of the country.
• Meeting new people 
• New country side to explore 
• Moving into our retirement home 
• The four seasons and no smog 
• Maybe seeing the Atlantic Ocean 
• A moonbow in Kentucky 
• The world’s longest yard sale 

Ah, the joys of packing...

I'm deciding that the very worst part of our exciting new adventure is the packing. So far, just a box every other day or so. Cleaning out the closets and trying to decide what to keep, what to toss and what to give away.

Right now I'm looking at a box of games; probably 15 years old, but all in good shape except for the dust on the boxes. They were unpacked from the Moreno Valley move and put on the shelf in the office closet and now back out. I was going to throw them out, then I thought I would take them to work to see if any of my co-worker's kids might light them, then maybe they just need to be tossed. Maybe keep just a few of the smaller boxes. This so sucks.  I think this will exemplify my packing experience... if you've seen one box you've seen them all.  Ugh.  (Update:  I've gave away three.)

I'm also looking at my trophy shelf.  It's a very small shelf but many Hannah  & Brian earned in toss/fetch discdog before she shut down.  I have one frisbee that Abby earned and one with Sky.  I've struggled for days trying to decide if I want to pack them and I just answered my question.  Yes, I have very fond memories of the California comps and all the people involved.  Yes, I will pack them.

Thank God, we don't keep a lot of clutter in the house.  Now the garage, that is another story all together.

Where to start???

Our next home....

The end result is to get from point A (Riverside, CA) to point B (Crossville, TN) with the least amount of drama. That's what this blog is about. Just a quick synopsis...

Our "B" destination wasn't supposed to be a reality until we retired. The plan was to wait until Brian and I turned 62 and we were going to pack it up and move to the retirement home we purchased in 2007.

Unfortunately, (maybe not) Brian worked for Fleetwood and this Fortune 500 company went belly up in March 2009 and Brian kept his job until February 2010. Long story, short, in one short month we should be moving into that retirement home and starting a new life and a new business.

Pat's last day of work is this Friday, April 23, 2010. I think this whole adventure will sink in and then we won't know won't hit us. I hope you follow our travels and I hope Brian and I don't kill each other before this is all over!