Got a real, and I mean real, break on the weather the first week. It was upper 70’s with no noticeable humidity. Yippee! The rest, however has been sticky humid Ohio.
The house has running water in the kitchen and bathroom, but the toilet and shower did not work. Toilet was fixed as of July 24. Shower is still on the “to do” list. I shower at mom’s house, and since I get real sweaty mowing her grass, it works out.
I sent out an email with my address and new phone number. If you did not get it, email me and I will send it again. I may be changing the phone number again, not sure. Stay tuned. Best to just email me.
Depending on a room a/c unit to keep the humidity down low enough inside so I can concentrate on homework and get some sleep. The sheets still have that damp feeling to them. How I love Ohio.
Spending lots of time with mom, and that makes it all worth while. We go shopping at the Lowes and Home Depot, looking for the things I am going to use to pull Kia Rio together. We also go thrift shopping, and just generally hang out. We have started to go to the programs the Metro Parks offer. We went to an organic lawn care seminar and have lots of things coming up, like learning about Ohio butterflies and moths, making budget and ecofriendly paints, historic barns tour, gardening practices and so on. Plenty to do here in the summer months.
On my birthday weekend, we went to a Hot Air Balloon festival. It was, as I understand it, the state championship. About 30 balloons had to fly into the Middletown airport, come real close to the ground and throw a marker (ribbon type thing) at the target and then ascend to continue on to the next target. They had 3 targets to hit, and the festival was the first one of the 3. Mom loved it, as did I. We had to leave here at 6 am to get there in time to see them, but it was nice and the weather was good. We stayed for the festival, which was a small family type affair. Then we came home.
The rest of the weekend was spent shopping at thrift stores, going to the movies and eating my b-day lunch at Godfather’s pizza. I use to love their pizza back in the late 70’s and early 80’s and was, Bob like, really wanting to have it again. It wasn’t as good as I remember, but still pretty darn good. Spent my birthday with Mom, and my best friend, Mandy.
Spent last Saturday with Mom hanging out in downtown Dayton. We went to see the life-sized bronze sculptures http://www.downtowndayton.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=138
and then hung out at the Celtic festival, bought some yummy Welsh cookies, watched some Irish & Scottish dancing, enjoyed The Kreellers band http://www.myspace.com/thekreellers and then went to BW 3’s to get chicken wings.
Have done little, to nothing, at the house except clean up the yard a bit. Trying to get focused on school work. Still have those 2 incompletes dangling out there, and still have 2 classes until end of August. I did manage to get a B in that stats based class. Not sure how, and I still don’t know anything about stats… well, at least I passed.
Speaking of school, need to get back to it.
Catch you all later!
Dad - Being his typical silly self...
We miss you dad!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A long summary of the drive to Ohio
OK. It has been a while. A month. A fast month.
Brief overview of road trip picking up where I left off - bedding down the first night just outside of Bakersfield -- car gave us a check engine light then went off after we pulled over to investigate. Stopped at motel 6 - Maria went into room and I crawled in the back with the boys.
It was kind of toasty back there, even with the front windows down a little and the back ones cracked a bit. I curled up, head resting on the comforter draped over the back of the red cat carrier and my feet on the wheel well on the opposite side of the Jeep. I woke up about 3 hours later and really had to go. I was right next to the litter box and it was kinda tempting but I figured I should not invade the boys space that much. I called Maria (she was real happy about that) and she came down and helped me get out of the jeep. I had to crawl over the small single level round cat condo that was bungeed into the corner. I went in and then we both got ready and were on the road by about 6 am. It was suppose to be in the upper 90’s and low 100’s and around 116 in the Mojave and I was worried about the Jeep surviving the low mountains in the heat so we pulled out real early.
I was real worried about the car handling the heat. I was, very literally, checking the gauges ever 1.5 to 2 minutes. I realized I was checking it pretty often and when I started checking the time each time, I noticed I was a tad bit compulsive about it. Well, if anything changed, I would have been on it! We reached the last little town before the Mojave around noon. The last 2 hours before getting there, I was pretty anxious about crossing the desert in the day. I decided we would stop in that little town and stay until night and drive with the cooler temps. I kept having visions of all of us dying from heat out there if the car had an issue. I went to check us into the motel - you had to go to the gas station to check in - and the guy asked if I had a dog. I said no and we proceeded to talk about dogs with me professing that I was not that fond of them. Curious conversation.
We went across the street, turned up the a/c in the room- it was freakin hot outside - and proceeded to squirrel the cats into the room along with their supplies. I had no idea how they would do in a strange motel room and figured they would not come out from under the bed. In fact, I worried about how to retrieve them from under the bed when we needed to go. So, I put the liter box right next the foot of my bed so they could feel safe in getting to it. I also lined their food up along the wall in the 7 inches between the bed and the wall. Maria and I went across the parking lot to have some lunch, came back and went to sleep. Well, she slept and I dozed. Sleep was not coming easily but I do think I got a good stretch in of about 5 hours.
Jaz showed himself and generally made himself at home. Snuggie wasn’t so comfortable, but did come out and explore and Tashi was the most reluctant but I did see him out a bit. Well, I could have put the liter box in the bathroom and they would have been fine. I, however, didn’t. When I woke up and started to get ready to pull out, there was, not one, but two piles of liter on the carpet on both side of the litter box. Jaz likes to dig. Fortunately, I had kept out a small hand broom and dust pan and my dust buster. I retrieved them from the cargo carrier on the top of the car and cleaned it up. Future stops would have the liter box in the bathroom.
The boys barely made a sound while we were in the car. Really. They did not throw up like I expected either. Jaz was the most comfortable and he would lay on the top of the red cat carrier or on top of the carpeted round condo and look out the window. Sometimes he would lay on the “ground” between the 2 and as close to the pet barrier as he could get. Snuggie inserted himself in the red carrier, which is pretty much where he stayed. Tashi wound himself up inside that little carpeted cat condo and stayed put. I worried about him having a heat stroke. That little thing was hot inside. I even took to moving him into the motel rooms by just picking up the cat condo and carrying it inside, keeping the opening to my stomach as I walked between the car and room. They did really well. Should I have been as fortunate.
We headed out for the Mojave around midnight, I think. It was 1:13 a.m. when I crossed the CA state line leaving home. Not that I was paying attention or anything. Visceral responses are kinda hard to miss though. The temperature varied through the desert from upper 70’s to low 90’s and sometimes it changed pretty quickly. Yes, I was neurotically checking the Jeep’s built in thermometer every couple of minutes. We made the desert without incident.
We had some more weird things happen with the car, like it would briefly hesitate and then pick right back up when Maria was driving and using the a/c. We went without the a/c as much as was reasonable to prevent too much strain on the old girl.
Frankly, much of the rest is a blur. We mostly slept in the evening and drove in the wee hours. By the time we were getting close to Albuquerque, the car was clearly having a problem that needed to be dealt with. We decided to go to those auto parts stores and have them check the alternator and battery. We stopped in downtown A, and visited 3 places. As I recall, one said the alternator and battery were fine, one said the alternator was bad and one said the idler pulley was bad. I might be wrong. I didn’t sleep much on this trip.
Well, we decided to drop the cats off at a motel and take the car into a shop. It was Friday afternoon. We dropped the cats in another motel 6 and I noticed they had a one pet limit. Oops. Our room was right across from the laundry and a few doors from the office and across from the housekeeping supply room. The window went floor to ceiling and for some reason, Jaz and Snuggie insisted on sitting in the window between the curtain and glass for all the world (and management) to see. I was sooooooo happy about that. What happened to cowering under the beds????????????????
Well, Maria and I were starved and committed to eating crap road trip food so we cruised up to the Taco Hell and got in line. I was worried about the car overheating so I had Maria turn the engine off while we waited to get our “food.” We collected our order and headed off toward the repair shop the autoparts store told us about. Maria was driving. She was recalling her mom’s alternator going out on her some years back and how she could not control the car. I was looking for the correct road to turn on when I looked down and noticed the needle on the speedometer going totally whacky. Up to 50 and then down to 3 and up to 35 and we were going a steady 20 mph right about then. Just as I said something to Maria she did the “oh shit all the gauges are gone” and thank my daddy, off to the right about 100 yards up the road was a Firestone or a Big O Tire, cannot recall, anyway, it was a beacon of hope.
Maria careened over 2 lanes to the right. Fortunately there were no cars to delay us. We pulled in at just about 4:58 pm and turned the engine off. When the mechanic came out to check it out (they close at 5 on Fridays…) it would not start. Nice. Well, it was the alternator and they said they would stay and fix it. Just under $500, but hey, the guy was working overtime and I really wasn’t keen on being stuck there until sometime mid-day Saturday while the car was worked on.
We headed out sometime after having slept some (not nearly enough though, poor Maria). My hope was to make it to Tulsa (but really to get to Springfield, MO.) by Saturday night. Adding oil every half a tank, and having car trouble really slows you down on time… we had stopped a few times to just let the car rest and to see if we could see the cause for the check engine light that was sporadic. That is a pretty freaking vague warning light…
Well, as I have done in other road trips, I was committed to only relieving bodily functions as I crossed the Texas panhandle (no offense Kelley- luv ya!), and that is what we did. We blew through there with just stops to take care of nature. We did spot a Kia Rio, kinda rust colored and I thought that was amusing. It was my first sighting of a real one.
We pressed on and was shooting for Springfield to spend the night. Well, we had a hard time finding a room in Springfield (very near Branson) on a Saturday night. Well, one that wasn’t 10 feet from a main (and noisy) drag, one that didn’t reek of smoke, or one that was close enough to the car to get the cats to and fro and one that did not have a room above it. I barely slept in A, the folks upstairs were real noisy. Maria, by the way, could apparently sleep through an air raid. Either that, or my lack of sleeping had just worn her down. Well, this is the point at which sheer stupidity and punchiness just took the help. Maria was driving. We were outside a motel that was not an option and I noticed water under the car when I came back out from the office. It was about 11 pm and I determined it was a/c water.
We went on a hunt that took us miles further down the highway. We stopped at a motel and I went in to ask about a room. The guy looked at me and asked me if I had pets. Huh? No one ever asked me that before. Being very tired and not totally sharp, I said yes I had cats. “How many?” Um, “3.” “No way.” Great…….
Back in the car and on to the next place. I go inside and this man asked me if I have pets. WTF? I mean, seriously. No one asks me that normally. I even had Maria parking way down from the office so they could not see the pet barrier, and it was dark out. I gulped and noticed the sign that said pets must be declared. Relieved, I said “yes, cats.” “How many.” Quick math. Ok, as quick as I could under the compromised conditions. I decided I had 2. Jaz and Tashi look enough alike that most people cannot tell them apart unless they are around for a little while. “no.” Huh??? I was desperate. I leaned on his counter, very worn out and pleaded for a room. I started to get whiny, really. I said we have been driving since the wee hours this morning. I have to drive all the way to Ohio. I am moving. We need a place to sleep. Mr. Compassionate says “no, try the motel 6 across the street.” I dejectedly return to the car.
We go to the motel 6. The office is dark and there is no sign of human life or a way to rouse it. We drive on. Maria presses on down a side road that is industrial, highly industrial. I suggest getting back on the highway that parallels this industrial little road. Apparently she meant to, but missed the tiny sign pointing the way. We make it back on the highway and head to another motel. Once again, I go in and get rejected. I want to cry. I am exhausted and have taken to calling Maria “Kelley.” Well, I plead with Kelley to go into the next motel office as I just cannot lie about the cats. Just cannot do it. Kelley, more commonly know as Maria, comes out of the next room dangling keys. I had fallen asleep while she was in there. I was elated. Good work Maria Kelley!
Once we got into the room and got the cats inside, I had the experience of looking in the mirror. I was wearing a green long sleeve fleece shirt. The think was fuzzy with cat hair. I started to laugh like a maniac. No wonder everyone was grilling me about pets. I looked like a cat with all that hair on me. I could not figure out why they kept asking me about pets. I guess it was the pet hair all over me…
I just realized I left out our getting stuck in traffic on the north side of Oklahoma City earlier that day. It was not pretty. Poor Maria. It was hot, hot, hot and we came to a crawl. I thought it would ease back up in just a minute or two, you know how urban highways do sometimes. Well, after about 3 minutes I noticed liquid vapors coming from the car engine. SHIT. Off with the a/c immediately and pull on the shoulder. Lift the hood. Water level is fine, so what is the problem. F. F. F. Get back in the car, get back in the stopped traffic with both front windows down and the heat building up in the car.
Jaz is, in my estimation, panting himself into his last moments of life. Tashi and Snuggie are still lodged in their carriers. I am a frantic mess. Maria is telling me that cats are desert animals. Yea, I think, but not my pantywaist longhaired babies. I was getting overheated so I could only imagine what they were doing. Maria had bought a small pet fan back in A and we had it blowing on them, but it wasn’t a real strong fan. I got out of the car (we weren’t going anywhere) and asked the trucker behind us what the story was. Accident clean up. Back up of about a mile. I get back in the car, relieved. It took forever and I think I lost 3 lbs to worry, but we did ok. Maria thinks I am a wimp. Well, I have too much invested in driving the tumblefurs to Ohio to let them get heat stroke. I actually had her test them for hydration. Yup. Human kids are so much easier. This different species thing is hard to gauge.
Anyway. We spend a real night, a full one, much to Maria’s delight at this motel somewhere between Springfield, MO and St. Louis. We get up, refreshed and ready to roll. There is antifreeze under the front of the car. NICE. Well, we take it to an autoparts store (it is Sunday) and the guys notices one of the hoses is not tight. Yeah! But, he is worried about the screeching noise. He says he’d get that idler pulley replaced. Not sure how much farther we can go on it and if it stops, everything stops. Ain’t that nice?
Well, we find a Firestone about 30 minutes to the East of us, not at all out of the way and we go back to the motel, load up the cats and head for the Firestone. After missing the exit a few times, we get it and then we struggle to find the Firestone. The road ends at the gate to a military base. We pull up to the guard house to ask them for directions. Turns out the darn thing is on the base. Now, here is the fun part. They wave our asses on through and tell us to go to the next little building and they will give us a map and tell us how to find it. They did. Nobody looked at a damn thing in the car, well, except for the cats in the back. Now, we just drove onto a military base with not even so much as them looking at a damn thing. Talk about your “Homeland Security.”
We got the idler pulley replaced and the guy said it did need to be replaced (it was only about $80) but, he said the real problem is either the water pump or the power steering. Nice nice nice. He did say that we should have no problem getting to Ohio just as we were and that it could be months before the water pump or the power steering went out. Whew. We were in and out in about 2 hours and the boys just sat in their carriers in the waiting room with us without making a peep. We had put them in the carriers in the motel room and they did meow the whole 30 mile drive to the repair shop.
The key to driving with cats is to not keep the carriers shut, give them the option of getting out and they will be quiet.
With a new idler pulley and a souvenir map of the military base, we pulled out headed for Dayton, or bust. It was about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon. The only weather we hit in the whole trip was 10 minutes worth of a down pour in St. Louis. The rest was just hot. Lucky, very lucky.
We stopped at an Arby’s for dinner and, tada, they serve Diet Dr. Pepper. I was happy. It wasn’t taking much at this point.
Well, we rolled into Cincinnati about midnight and Maria was greeted by her dogs, a few cats and her wonderful Christi. I headed for the last stretch, about 45 minutes north, to Dayton.
I was fine, that is until about ¾ of a mile from mom and dad’s house. Then it hit me and it hit me real hard. My whole body shook so hard it hurt, it was painful, excruciatingly painful. More so than I had prepared for. My first visit to the house after dad had passed. It was brutal. Mom had convinced herself that I would unload the cats and stay with her despite my being crystal clear about my intentions to install them and me, in Kia Rio and let them start getting adjusted immediately. I also did not want to deal with the issues of my 3 cats plus mom’s 2 and the drama that would bring. The boys did not deserve that after the last week they had been through.
I couldn’t even go inside the house. I was too tired an not ready to walk through that door knowing he wasn’t there and never would be. Mom packed up some things and came to Kia Rio with me and the boys. We got to bed around 3 am. Exhausted but relieved. The trip was over.
Brief overview of road trip picking up where I left off - bedding down the first night just outside of Bakersfield -- car gave us a check engine light then went off after we pulled over to investigate. Stopped at motel 6 - Maria went into room and I crawled in the back with the boys.
It was kind of toasty back there, even with the front windows down a little and the back ones cracked a bit. I curled up, head resting on the comforter draped over the back of the red cat carrier and my feet on the wheel well on the opposite side of the Jeep. I woke up about 3 hours later and really had to go. I was right next to the litter box and it was kinda tempting but I figured I should not invade the boys space that much. I called Maria (she was real happy about that) and she came down and helped me get out of the jeep. I had to crawl over the small single level round cat condo that was bungeed into the corner. I went in and then we both got ready and were on the road by about 6 am. It was suppose to be in the upper 90’s and low 100’s and around 116 in the Mojave and I was worried about the Jeep surviving the low mountains in the heat so we pulled out real early.
I was real worried about the car handling the heat. I was, very literally, checking the gauges ever 1.5 to 2 minutes. I realized I was checking it pretty often and when I started checking the time each time, I noticed I was a tad bit compulsive about it. Well, if anything changed, I would have been on it! We reached the last little town before the Mojave around noon. The last 2 hours before getting there, I was pretty anxious about crossing the desert in the day. I decided we would stop in that little town and stay until night and drive with the cooler temps. I kept having visions of all of us dying from heat out there if the car had an issue. I went to check us into the motel - you had to go to the gas station to check in - and the guy asked if I had a dog. I said no and we proceeded to talk about dogs with me professing that I was not that fond of them. Curious conversation.
We went across the street, turned up the a/c in the room- it was freakin hot outside - and proceeded to squirrel the cats into the room along with their supplies. I had no idea how they would do in a strange motel room and figured they would not come out from under the bed. In fact, I worried about how to retrieve them from under the bed when we needed to go. So, I put the liter box right next the foot of my bed so they could feel safe in getting to it. I also lined their food up along the wall in the 7 inches between the bed and the wall. Maria and I went across the parking lot to have some lunch, came back and went to sleep. Well, she slept and I dozed. Sleep was not coming easily but I do think I got a good stretch in of about 5 hours.
Jaz showed himself and generally made himself at home. Snuggie wasn’t so comfortable, but did come out and explore and Tashi was the most reluctant but I did see him out a bit. Well, I could have put the liter box in the bathroom and they would have been fine. I, however, didn’t. When I woke up and started to get ready to pull out, there was, not one, but two piles of liter on the carpet on both side of the litter box. Jaz likes to dig. Fortunately, I had kept out a small hand broom and dust pan and my dust buster. I retrieved them from the cargo carrier on the top of the car and cleaned it up. Future stops would have the liter box in the bathroom.
The boys barely made a sound while we were in the car. Really. They did not throw up like I expected either. Jaz was the most comfortable and he would lay on the top of the red cat carrier or on top of the carpeted round condo and look out the window. Sometimes he would lay on the “ground” between the 2 and as close to the pet barrier as he could get. Snuggie inserted himself in the red carrier, which is pretty much where he stayed. Tashi wound himself up inside that little carpeted cat condo and stayed put. I worried about him having a heat stroke. That little thing was hot inside. I even took to moving him into the motel rooms by just picking up the cat condo and carrying it inside, keeping the opening to my stomach as I walked between the car and room. They did really well. Should I have been as fortunate.
We headed out for the Mojave around midnight, I think. It was 1:13 a.m. when I crossed the CA state line leaving home. Not that I was paying attention or anything. Visceral responses are kinda hard to miss though. The temperature varied through the desert from upper 70’s to low 90’s and sometimes it changed pretty quickly. Yes, I was neurotically checking the Jeep’s built in thermometer every couple of minutes. We made the desert without incident.
We had some more weird things happen with the car, like it would briefly hesitate and then pick right back up when Maria was driving and using the a/c. We went without the a/c as much as was reasonable to prevent too much strain on the old girl.
Frankly, much of the rest is a blur. We mostly slept in the evening and drove in the wee hours. By the time we were getting close to Albuquerque, the car was clearly having a problem that needed to be dealt with. We decided to go to those auto parts stores and have them check the alternator and battery. We stopped in downtown A, and visited 3 places. As I recall, one said the alternator and battery were fine, one said the alternator was bad and one said the idler pulley was bad. I might be wrong. I didn’t sleep much on this trip.
Well, we decided to drop the cats off at a motel and take the car into a shop. It was Friday afternoon. We dropped the cats in another motel 6 and I noticed they had a one pet limit. Oops. Our room was right across from the laundry and a few doors from the office and across from the housekeeping supply room. The window went floor to ceiling and for some reason, Jaz and Snuggie insisted on sitting in the window between the curtain and glass for all the world (and management) to see. I was sooooooo happy about that. What happened to cowering under the beds????????????????
Well, Maria and I were starved and committed to eating crap road trip food so we cruised up to the Taco Hell and got in line. I was worried about the car overheating so I had Maria turn the engine off while we waited to get our “food.” We collected our order and headed off toward the repair shop the autoparts store told us about. Maria was driving. She was recalling her mom’s alternator going out on her some years back and how she could not control the car. I was looking for the correct road to turn on when I looked down and noticed the needle on the speedometer going totally whacky. Up to 50 and then down to 3 and up to 35 and we were going a steady 20 mph right about then. Just as I said something to Maria she did the “oh shit all the gauges are gone” and thank my daddy, off to the right about 100 yards up the road was a Firestone or a Big O Tire, cannot recall, anyway, it was a beacon of hope.
Maria careened over 2 lanes to the right. Fortunately there were no cars to delay us. We pulled in at just about 4:58 pm and turned the engine off. When the mechanic came out to check it out (they close at 5 on Fridays…) it would not start. Nice. Well, it was the alternator and they said they would stay and fix it. Just under $500, but hey, the guy was working overtime and I really wasn’t keen on being stuck there until sometime mid-day Saturday while the car was worked on.
We headed out sometime after having slept some (not nearly enough though, poor Maria). My hope was to make it to Tulsa (but really to get to Springfield, MO.) by Saturday night. Adding oil every half a tank, and having car trouble really slows you down on time… we had stopped a few times to just let the car rest and to see if we could see the cause for the check engine light that was sporadic. That is a pretty freaking vague warning light…
Well, as I have done in other road trips, I was committed to only relieving bodily functions as I crossed the Texas panhandle (no offense Kelley- luv ya!), and that is what we did. We blew through there with just stops to take care of nature. We did spot a Kia Rio, kinda rust colored and I thought that was amusing. It was my first sighting of a real one.
We pressed on and was shooting for Springfield to spend the night. Well, we had a hard time finding a room in Springfield (very near Branson) on a Saturday night. Well, one that wasn’t 10 feet from a main (and noisy) drag, one that didn’t reek of smoke, or one that was close enough to the car to get the cats to and fro and one that did not have a room above it. I barely slept in A, the folks upstairs were real noisy. Maria, by the way, could apparently sleep through an air raid. Either that, or my lack of sleeping had just worn her down. Well, this is the point at which sheer stupidity and punchiness just took the help. Maria was driving. We were outside a motel that was not an option and I noticed water under the car when I came back out from the office. It was about 11 pm and I determined it was a/c water.
We went on a hunt that took us miles further down the highway. We stopped at a motel and I went in to ask about a room. The guy looked at me and asked me if I had pets. Huh? No one ever asked me that before. Being very tired and not totally sharp, I said yes I had cats. “How many?” Um, “3.” “No way.” Great…….
Back in the car and on to the next place. I go inside and this man asked me if I have pets. WTF? I mean, seriously. No one asks me that normally. I even had Maria parking way down from the office so they could not see the pet barrier, and it was dark out. I gulped and noticed the sign that said pets must be declared. Relieved, I said “yes, cats.” “How many.” Quick math. Ok, as quick as I could under the compromised conditions. I decided I had 2. Jaz and Tashi look enough alike that most people cannot tell them apart unless they are around for a little while. “no.” Huh??? I was desperate. I leaned on his counter, very worn out and pleaded for a room. I started to get whiny, really. I said we have been driving since the wee hours this morning. I have to drive all the way to Ohio. I am moving. We need a place to sleep. Mr. Compassionate says “no, try the motel 6 across the street.” I dejectedly return to the car.
We go to the motel 6. The office is dark and there is no sign of human life or a way to rouse it. We drive on. Maria presses on down a side road that is industrial, highly industrial. I suggest getting back on the highway that parallels this industrial little road. Apparently she meant to, but missed the tiny sign pointing the way. We make it back on the highway and head to another motel. Once again, I go in and get rejected. I want to cry. I am exhausted and have taken to calling Maria “Kelley.” Well, I plead with Kelley to go into the next motel office as I just cannot lie about the cats. Just cannot do it. Kelley, more commonly know as Maria, comes out of the next room dangling keys. I had fallen asleep while she was in there. I was elated. Good work Maria Kelley!
Once we got into the room and got the cats inside, I had the experience of looking in the mirror. I was wearing a green long sleeve fleece shirt. The think was fuzzy with cat hair. I started to laugh like a maniac. No wonder everyone was grilling me about pets. I looked like a cat with all that hair on me. I could not figure out why they kept asking me about pets. I guess it was the pet hair all over me…
I just realized I left out our getting stuck in traffic on the north side of Oklahoma City earlier that day. It was not pretty. Poor Maria. It was hot, hot, hot and we came to a crawl. I thought it would ease back up in just a minute or two, you know how urban highways do sometimes. Well, after about 3 minutes I noticed liquid vapors coming from the car engine. SHIT. Off with the a/c immediately and pull on the shoulder. Lift the hood. Water level is fine, so what is the problem. F. F. F. Get back in the car, get back in the stopped traffic with both front windows down and the heat building up in the car.
Jaz is, in my estimation, panting himself into his last moments of life. Tashi and Snuggie are still lodged in their carriers. I am a frantic mess. Maria is telling me that cats are desert animals. Yea, I think, but not my pantywaist longhaired babies. I was getting overheated so I could only imagine what they were doing. Maria had bought a small pet fan back in A and we had it blowing on them, but it wasn’t a real strong fan. I got out of the car (we weren’t going anywhere) and asked the trucker behind us what the story was. Accident clean up. Back up of about a mile. I get back in the car, relieved. It took forever and I think I lost 3 lbs to worry, but we did ok. Maria thinks I am a wimp. Well, I have too much invested in driving the tumblefurs to Ohio to let them get heat stroke. I actually had her test them for hydration. Yup. Human kids are so much easier. This different species thing is hard to gauge.
Anyway. We spend a real night, a full one, much to Maria’s delight at this motel somewhere between Springfield, MO and St. Louis. We get up, refreshed and ready to roll. There is antifreeze under the front of the car. NICE. Well, we take it to an autoparts store (it is Sunday) and the guys notices one of the hoses is not tight. Yeah! But, he is worried about the screeching noise. He says he’d get that idler pulley replaced. Not sure how much farther we can go on it and if it stops, everything stops. Ain’t that nice?
Well, we find a Firestone about 30 minutes to the East of us, not at all out of the way and we go back to the motel, load up the cats and head for the Firestone. After missing the exit a few times, we get it and then we struggle to find the Firestone. The road ends at the gate to a military base. We pull up to the guard house to ask them for directions. Turns out the darn thing is on the base. Now, here is the fun part. They wave our asses on through and tell us to go to the next little building and they will give us a map and tell us how to find it. They did. Nobody looked at a damn thing in the car, well, except for the cats in the back. Now, we just drove onto a military base with not even so much as them looking at a damn thing. Talk about your “Homeland Security.”
We got the idler pulley replaced and the guy said it did need to be replaced (it was only about $80) but, he said the real problem is either the water pump or the power steering. Nice nice nice. He did say that we should have no problem getting to Ohio just as we were and that it could be months before the water pump or the power steering went out. Whew. We were in and out in about 2 hours and the boys just sat in their carriers in the waiting room with us without making a peep. We had put them in the carriers in the motel room and they did meow the whole 30 mile drive to the repair shop.
The key to driving with cats is to not keep the carriers shut, give them the option of getting out and they will be quiet.
With a new idler pulley and a souvenir map of the military base, we pulled out headed for Dayton, or bust. It was about 1:30 on Sunday afternoon. The only weather we hit in the whole trip was 10 minutes worth of a down pour in St. Louis. The rest was just hot. Lucky, very lucky.
We stopped at an Arby’s for dinner and, tada, they serve Diet Dr. Pepper. I was happy. It wasn’t taking much at this point.
Well, we rolled into Cincinnati about midnight and Maria was greeted by her dogs, a few cats and her wonderful Christi. I headed for the last stretch, about 45 minutes north, to Dayton.
I was fine, that is until about ¾ of a mile from mom and dad’s house. Then it hit me and it hit me real hard. My whole body shook so hard it hurt, it was painful, excruciatingly painful. More so than I had prepared for. My first visit to the house after dad had passed. It was brutal. Mom had convinced herself that I would unload the cats and stay with her despite my being crystal clear about my intentions to install them and me, in Kia Rio and let them start getting adjusted immediately. I also did not want to deal with the issues of my 3 cats plus mom’s 2 and the drama that would bring. The boys did not deserve that after the last week they had been through.
I couldn’t even go inside the house. I was too tired an not ready to walk through that door knowing he wasn’t there and never would be. Mom packed up some things and came to Kia Rio with me and the boys. We got to bed around 3 am. Exhausted but relieved. The trip was over.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The car, the packing and moving truck day...
This was a long couple of days, you may want to grab your favorite beverage and a snack – as the post is also long!
I cannot figure out how to get line breaks in here, even though they show up in my post page... sorry!
My man Issac spent about 7 hour at the house on Sunday working on the car. Ran into trouble with the a/c and could not get it to work… I was a bit panicked, but he was confident the answer could be found in one of his books at home. He came back on Monday about 11 am and was there until 9 pm. He got everything done, including the a/c and he was able to fix the passenger seat with a spring it took me 5 hours to find – it came from a brake drum kit. It works! Whatever. Sorry Sarah, come to
T Minus 8 and Counting
Well, midnight on Tuesday night and the movers are due here in 8 hours. I had made arrangements to have a packing service come to the house between 2 and 3 today to shrink wrap the furniture and take it to the garage to stage it for loading the truck. Called them at 3:15 and was told that they’d be there about 4 – had to go switch trucks in
Maria has been a pure Angel and deserves something like, oh, I don’t know, a new car maybe? She has really been a great asset to have here. I sent her off to bed at 10 because I had to try to get Snuggie inside, after all the chaos all day and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get him in before 3 or 4 am. He was a doll and came in about 10:45. I now have to take down the blinds and continue to pack the computer and several other boxes…. I have about 7 hours of work to do before 8 am… let the fun begin.
M- Day or Toss the Cookies
Well, I sent myself to bed at 2 and was up at 6. Went to pick up the guys at 7 and when I got back, the Broadway truck was parked in front of the house. I had that o-shit feeling ‘cause I was not ready at all. The guys did a great job of getting things down to the truck – that is, out of the garage and house, and down the driveway to the truck. The driver could not come down the drive, so everything had to be hauled to the street… At least he made it down my street, the wires looked pretty low to me, and I was a bit worried that he would not be able to make it to the house at all and we’d have to drag the stuff down my street. One of the day laborer guys was grabbing everything in sight and throwing it in boxes as fast as he could. That was great, except some of the stuff was meant to be used to clean the place after the truck was gone, and some was meant to go with us in the Jeep for the cats or for use during the week until the truck arrived. I had to keep an eye on him because he had no English, I had no Spanish and Maria’s Spanish was very rusty and she was not always aware of what went where or why.
The boys were, I said were, shut in the bathroom when this all started about 7:30 am. The bathroom has a pocket door. We got the bedroom/office mostly cleared out and I shut the pocket door between the bedroom/office and the bathroom and then the one in the living room, just in case the cats got out of the bathroom. Well, ha ha ha ha. I was outside and walked by the bedroom windows and all 3 cats were walking around the bedroom… Snuggie had broken them out, the little shit! I made a dash for it before he broke through the living room door and would have been able to bolt out the front door. I put them in the bedroom closet, with a folding door. I still shut the pocket door between the bedroom and living room.
Not 10 minutes later, one of the guys starts yelling to me, grinning from ear to ear and pointing into the bedroom. Gatos! He laughed. Yea buddy, real fucking funny – I am trying to make sure you hombre’s don’t grab my roommate or landlords belongings out of the garage and throw them on the truck, and I am trying to keep track of what Dalton, the driver wants to have brought down and in what order, and now the Snuggster has made another escape. I was not laughing, but was a wee bit proud of the little shit. He is a cat’s cat through and through.
I found a screwdriver and managed to lock them in the bathroom from the outside. I then, knowing Snug as I do, locked the living room pocket door in the same way. About that time I got a call from the BE office telling me my bank card was not approved. Nice. She was pretty sure it was just because the charge was so big (that is comforting) and I was to call the bank and ask the bank to raise the daily limit to allow for the moving cost to be run through.
Sedi showed up with a most generous gift of a very large blue Persian rug we used to have in the living room. A gift for the new house. It was hard to accept it, as it is such a nice rug and, all things considered, I didn’t feel I should have it. She was adamant, and we loaded it on the truck. Not long after this, running helter skelter, checking on the escapees and trying to keep only the right stuff headed for the truck, the driver,
My chest started to constrict and my brain went whirling. I protested, “your office staff said 10 foot was appropriate for a one bedroom…” He was confident I had WAY more stuff than your average one bedroom… he’s been doing this for 5 years, so, how do I argue with that????????????? His wife, Kitty, was on the scene and concurred, except she thought all that stuff was shoved into “a bedroom.” Hmmmmmmmmm, she went back up to the truck cab to sleep. Apparently I have too much shit for my own good! I inquired as to what one does in this situation.
He said he could call another driver in the area (seems they had 8 trucks in Northern CA all picking up people moving out of state) and see if another driver could pick up 3 feet of stuff from the load that was to be last on Dalton’s truck. He said I had way more than the extra 3 feet he had to give to me. Again, I inquired what one does in such a situation. About this time, Todd from the BE office called. At this point, I AM HAVING A BLAST.
Maria and Sedi were concentrating on putting up the tinting film I got to help keep the heat down in the back of the Jeep, and were wisely giving me a decently wide berth. Self preservation I expect. Dalton responds to my inquiry with “rent a truck and drive it” as if, I with 3 cats and a vehicle, was in a position to go get a rental truck and now have Maria and I both drive straight through. Pull the car? No sillies the cats had to have a climate controlled place to hang. Well at this point I was at that holy fucking cow point. I began to pace in the truck, I had 3 guys on the clock just hanging out while Dalton looked at me – he was also on the clock – wondering what I was doing with all this crapped. He then said, and
Back to pacing in the truck… I walk down the ramp and ask Sedi to put blue tape on the remaining, yes, remaining furniture on the ground to identify it as priority for trying to fit into the remaining space on the truck. I can hear you wondering what was on the ground… well, a large leather recliner, 4 bookcases, a tv stand, a microwave stand, my office sized fridge, the microwave, a couple of smaller shelves, my massage table, the lawn chairs and few assorted odds and end – that constitutes the “furniture. ” The other stuff, the no room at the inn stuff, comprised the rowing machine, the bicycle, the puppet theater, 2 utility shelves for storage, the kayak, a couple of cat trees, and a few other things that escape my attention at the moment, but the pile was big. The knot in my stomach was bigger, as I pointed to things that were to be moved over into the “not moving to
I would have thrown up, had I bothered to feed myself, or Maria, that morning, but since I had not done so, there was nothing to offer up. Apparently I was pale. I felt pale. It was a bad stretch of time. While waiting to hear about the approval for the extra 3 feet of space on the truck,
Well, we got approval for the extra 3 feet and
Meanwhile, Sedi and Maria went for much needed food and some items to help “cat trick” the Jeep. They worked on the Jeep most of the day while I tied up loose ends, and paced, and tried not to toss my cookies. I have had toooooooooo much stress over the last year plus, and my tolerance is now nearly non-existent. The clock was ticking by as he rearranged and pushed and pulled and calculated. I checked periodically on the boys, who remained secure in the bathroom. Thank goodness for small favors.
It was 2 pm when
Well, I slammed the fellows back to the Home Depot and came back to commence to the final cleaning. Maria and Sedi were still working on the Jeep. By 8 pm, yes 8 pm, we had the inside “cat ready” and had the rooftop carrier on and loaded – (Christi – ask me about the strapping for the cargo carrier--Maria would prefer to not have to remember it – something about burning a hole in her brain…), and we had the hitch mounted cargo carrier secured, loaded and cinched down. Only thing left was to load the boys, turn in the keys and return Sarah’s car to her. Long ass day, but I did NOT throw up!
Maria did an amazing job of Snuggie proofing the back of the Jeep. We are “almost” sure he cannot breach it. It is the Snugmiester though. We rolled out, with me in the lead in Sarah’s car, Maria driving the Jeep and the boys, and Sedi following to check for any issues with the cargo carrier or the roof rack. Aside from leaving a bag of extra cinch straps on the roof, we were road worthy. We had the extra Boston Market cornbread that Anne gave us for the road, a bag of beef jerky and a big bag of cashews that Sedi got at the Persian market and three 12 packs of sodas riding in a cat carrier on the hitch mounted cargo rack. We rolled down to
We were headed to
The boys, you ask…
Hardly a peep out of them. Eerie really. Jaz sat on the single tier condo looking out the window, very dog like, Tashi installed himself inside the condo and Snuggie claimed the pet carrier for his hideaway. Quiet. I began to place bets with myself about how long it would be before the howling started and how long before Snuggie was in the front of the Jeep. Maybe they feel too sick to be pissed off.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Arrived in Ohio
1 am EST on Monday morning...
there is a story, okay, many stories, from the road.
Will post them, one at a time, starting around the 9th or 10th, when I get internet at home...
Kia Rio closed last Friday, while I was on the road. Running water in the kitchen and bathroom sinks and no where else. Illegal electric until the city inspector makes it to the house.
Mom is very and I mean, very, happy I am here. So am I. February I will be bitching, but for now, I am happy to be here!
Love you all and will be more in touch once I have a connection at home...
I'll also post some pictures of the house next weekend.
Clara
there is a story, okay, many stories, from the road.
Will post them, one at a time, starting around the 9th or 10th, when I get internet at home...
Kia Rio closed last Friday, while I was on the road. Running water in the kitchen and bathroom sinks and no where else. Illegal electric until the city inspector makes it to the house.
Mom is very and I mean, very, happy I am here. So am I. February I will be bitching, but for now, I am happy to be here!
Love you all and will be more in touch once I have a connection at home...
I'll also post some pictures of the house next weekend.
Clara
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