Are we there yet?
No, we are still here, trying to get things into boxes. The incentive program is the money we save packing ourselves. Everything goes in a box next Tuesday, but I pay for the guys who do the packing. It is difficult to decide what to keep and what to throw away or donate or recycle. Since we are paying by the pound to move, it makes one ponder whether an item is worth its weight in shipping. It has been hot and dry here, which makes me feel like taking naps, not packing, so I try to do as much as I can in the morning and rest in the afternoon.
As I told two of my loyal readers when we were at Mom's, I did not want to go through any of my old schoolwork, because I had my kid's work to sort when I came home. Several large boxes of paper and several large bags of shredded stuff went to the recycle center this week. Every day I try to get a few more boxes packed. Tomorrow, my daughter is off with her friends to Spirit West Coast. I already told her that the only thing left unpacked in her room when she returns will be her bed. I figure she might want to sleep in it once or twice before it goes on the truck.
Everything seems to be falling into place, both here and in the new place. Yesterday I took my son for his last visit to his orthodontist, but not the last visit of his treatment. The doctor has a personal friend who is an orthodontist in our new town. It is good to have details like that covered before we go. We keep plugging away at all the other things we need to work out.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Hold onto the wheel and drive?
On the latest whirlwind tour of the westernmost of the 48 contiguous states, I snapped a few quick shots. Like my brother, I find that just what I want in the picture is not always what I get. For example, this guy kept getting in front of me all day.
Framed here with the lake is someone who wants to pass and the reason why in my mirror.
Some of Oregon is flat. At this point, I had lost the guy in the blue wagon. He took a wrong turn, and I had to call him on the cell phone and give him directions for a while.
This part thinks it is half way to somewhere from somewhere. It is actually north of the midpoint on our trip, but it claims to be the midpoint between the north pole and the equator, two places I have missed in my travels thus far. I found the blue wagon again, though.
The sky was finally blue up ahead, but behind us the clouds were still out in full force.
We drove up and down a big ditch with a river in the middle. I read a message from my brother that suggested that there are scabs on the land. It looks fine to me, as I lead the charge into our new home state.
Someone needs to turn the sprinklers back on at our new house. We heard the power went out and it took a while to notice that the grass was turning brown from thirst because the sprinklers did not reset. Oops.
In keeping with family tradition, we took pictures and dipped our toes in the big river after making a wrong turn on the way home. It was a nice stop.
Shooting at trains out the car window is another one of those lovely traditions.
Framed here with the lake is someone who wants to pass and the reason why in my mirror.Some of Oregon is flat. At this point, I had lost the guy in the blue wagon. He took a wrong turn, and I had to call him on the cell phone and give him directions for a while.This part thinks it is half way to somewhere from somewhere. It is actually north of the midpoint on our trip, but it claims to be the midpoint between the north pole and the equator, two places I have missed in my travels thus far. I found the blue wagon again, though.The sky was finally blue up ahead, but behind us the clouds were still out in full force.We drove up and down a big ditch with a river in the middle. I read a message from my brother that suggested that there are scabs on the land. It looks fine to me, as I lead the charge into our new home state.
Someone needs to turn the sprinklers back on at our new house. We heard the power went out and it took a while to notice that the grass was turning brown from thirst because the sprinklers did not reset. Oops.In keeping with family tradition, we took pictures and dipped our toes in the big river after making a wrong turn on the way home. It was a nice stop.
Shooting at trains out the car window is another one of those lovely traditions.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
One month into summer vacation
Would someone remind me why we call it vacation? What am I getting away from? I seem to be on the move more than ever, and everything keeps following me.
We are past the midpoint in the escrow on our house. We have selected a new house and are settling the details of who fixes what before close of escrow. Our realtor even fixed some of the plumbing himself. I have been north almost to the Canadian border and south to the Bay Area. What I need to do is spend time in my little corner of the world packing and plotting the final move. Instead I sit at my computer and debate which motel works best for the next trek north when we relocate a car and some stuff to our new hometown. I keep thinking about what a small fraction of Mom's collection we went through last week, even though we went through lots of stuff.
Then I turned off the computer for three days to make a speed run north to drop off a car and a storage unit full of stuff (where did it all come from? I can't believe the contents of two cars and a trailer were so big) and return home to catch my breath and pack. Just last month, I was lamenting how much I had to do over the summer, and now I have even more. So far, I am still breathing and all the pieces are falling into place.
It rained all the way north through Oregon, which caused great chagrin due to the threat to the contents of the open trailer. When we arrived at our final destination, a storage unit about a mile from our new home, it was sprinkling sufficiently to determine that the things going into the unit would not be completely dry. I think they were dry enough, and they will only be there for a couple of weeks and then we can take them to our new home.
On the road, we even caught a couple of stages of the Tour de France. My son really enjoyed seeing it, but alas without cable TV here, we are limited to my brother's commentary and the few images versus chooses to share over the internet. All in all, it is turning into an interesting race. I guess one should not write off riders just because they have stitches in their knees. A little determination goes a long way.
My Shadow is happy that I am home. She and my daughter spent the last three days at a friend's house. The girls had fun with each other, but my dog terrorized and wore out the dog of the house. I hope she recovers. We have taken a couple of nice walks, and she took a ride to the dump this morning. In a couple of weeks, she will go for the longest car ride of her life. I hope we are all up for it.
We are past the midpoint in the escrow on our house. We have selected a new house and are settling the details of who fixes what before close of escrow. Our realtor even fixed some of the plumbing himself. I have been north almost to the Canadian border and south to the Bay Area. What I need to do is spend time in my little corner of the world packing and plotting the final move. Instead I sit at my computer and debate which motel works best for the next trek north when we relocate a car and some stuff to our new hometown. I keep thinking about what a small fraction of Mom's collection we went through last week, even though we went through lots of stuff.
Then I turned off the computer for three days to make a speed run north to drop off a car and a storage unit full of stuff (where did it all come from? I can't believe the contents of two cars and a trailer were so big) and return home to catch my breath and pack. Just last month, I was lamenting how much I had to do over the summer, and now I have even more. So far, I am still breathing and all the pieces are falling into place.
It rained all the way north through Oregon, which caused great chagrin due to the threat to the contents of the open trailer. When we arrived at our final destination, a storage unit about a mile from our new home, it was sprinkling sufficiently to determine that the things going into the unit would not be completely dry. I think they were dry enough, and they will only be there for a couple of weeks and then we can take them to our new home.
On the road, we even caught a couple of stages of the Tour de France. My son really enjoyed seeing it, but alas without cable TV here, we are limited to my brother's commentary and the few images versus chooses to share over the internet. All in all, it is turning into an interesting race. I guess one should not write off riders just because they have stitches in their knees. A little determination goes a long way.
My Shadow is happy that I am home. She and my daughter spent the last three days at a friend's house. The girls had fun with each other, but my dog terrorized and wore out the dog of the house. I hope she recovers. We have taken a couple of nice walks, and she took a ride to the dump this morning. In a couple of weeks, she will go for the longest car ride of her life. I hope we are all up for it.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Girls just wanna have fun
Going through Mom's things, every now and then we find something to try on.
Perhaps it looks better without the pants.
Perhaps it looks better without the pants.
New car for Papa's birthday
When we went out to dinner for brother #3's birthday, we found this in the parking lot, but the key fob we had would not open it. Brothers #2 and #3 were disappointed.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Flying cousins
To each his or her own style. It is nice visiting a city that has a pool with a diving board.
More road construction
Driving to Mom's I saw these signs. They seem to be moving on the construction project, but unclear on the meaning of the signs.
I thought the shoulder was the part of the road to the right of the white line. There seems to be quite a bit of it there now. It is much wider than it was a couple of months ago, but I still want a passing lane.
I thought the shoulder was the part of the road to the right of the white line. There seems to be quite a bit of it there now. It is much wider than it was a couple of months ago, but I still want a passing lane.Here they seem to think that little ditch is a trench. I am not driving this time. I am closely supervising my teenage driver. I can do that with a camera in my hand while she pulls the trailer, can't I?
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Fire again
We saw the smoke from this about 50 miles from home. I could tell, even that far away that it was close to home.
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/766/
http://www.inciweb.org/incident/766/
If a man’s home is his castle
We are on the move. We have traveled to Washington to select a new home, since we sold our old one. We looked high and low for the right place. We liked this about one and that about another, and some we rejected before we walked through the front door. Views have a price, but we decided the homes built on a hill come with too steep a price in a place where it snows, or a place where a car length from the garage door is a retaining wall that holds up the driveway and forces a turn immediately upon backing out. Otherwise that was a nice house. We finally found one that we all like. Over the years, I have lived in Los Arboles, Bridgeporte, Fairway Park and various other scenic locales. This move takes us back in time to Camelot.
In other news, I am trapped in the land of motel WiFi that does not allow me to send messages via email (and the purpose of it was?) even though I can still receive messages. For my two loyal readers, I should be arriving at Mom’s sometime tomorrow evening. We have 7 hours to drive to get home and another 6 to Mom’s, so I am opting for a night at home in bed and church in the morning before I leave. Somewhere in there, I might get some laundry done and hitch up a trailer too.
In other news, I am trapped in the land of motel WiFi that does not allow me to send messages via email (and the purpose of it was?) even though I can still receive messages. For my two loyal readers, I should be arriving at Mom’s sometime tomorrow evening. We have 7 hours to drive to get home and another 6 to Mom’s, so I am opting for a night at home in bed and church in the morning before I leave. Somewhere in there, I might get some laundry done and hitch up a trailer too.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
North of California?
A few days ago, we drove north over the California state line to another state. I am not certain which one we entered. More news from Washington later.
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