Category: What Now?

Today may have been perfect if not for this.

The Big Move: Day 2

~ JodiLea ~ 4 Comments

Saturday, July 21st – The Big Day

After the moving truck left, we locked up and drove our heavy laden vehicles to the mountains. My car was weighed down with books, files, a large ice-chest, loaded suitcases, and my precious computer, Hercules, and all his peripherals. My poor little Honda does not like going uphill with just me inside, so me + another ton went uphill about as fast as a pot-smoking snail.

Hubby, up ahead driving his Big Ass Truck with lots of horsepower, has no clue how frustrated and irritated I am becoming. Add the 99° F temperature to this equation, along with severe nicotine cravings courtesy of  The Bitch, and I am approaching lift-off.

We beat the moving truck up the mountain. I wanted to relax and simply enjoy being here, before the movers arrived, but all Hell broke loose instead.

We heard a helicopter approaching, then two of them circled over the forest area. I thought that they were either hunting down fugitives or part of an Air Show. One of my new neighbors clued me in. The helicopter’s were “spotters”, searching for small fires splitting off from the main fire.  Fire???  Next on the scene would be the small planes called “dumpers” or “bombers”. These would make repeated runs over the fire, dumping fire-retardant or water, depending on the circumstances.  Neighbor Lady was very knowledgeable, but I had lost touch with what she was saying because my brain was too busy with There is a FIRE and it’s burning in the forest next to my new house!!

If you think I’m being over dramatic, this article is from the County’s website :

Fire Update….Vegetation Fire on Forest Service Land Behind Arnold
Posted by: John_Hamilton on 07/21/2012 04:51 PM

Sheep Ranch CA…Crews are responding to a vegetation fire on Mountain Ranch Road and Armstrong Road. This is a full wildfire response including all aircraft from Columbia. More to follow…..Update as of 5:35pm…This fire is actually closer to Arnold than Mountain Ranch on USFS property. The good…fire is still small and doesn’t seem to be spreading much. The bad is that this fire is in heavy fuels. Update as of 5:51pm…Initially the responding engines were accessing off of Sheep Ranch Road. Now they are rerouting engines around White Pines Lake and take Manuel Mill behind Arnold. Update as of 6:13pm…ground units have been on scene for a few minutes. One of the tankers has been released and Helicopter 404 is refueling now and Tanker 82 will probably be released as soon as 404 returns to the fire. Unless something drastically changes they should be able to get this knocked down as soon as the additional ground units arrive. Update as of Sunday Morning…We checked in with the TCU Command Center and the fire was held to less than an acre. In the photos below, the one on the right was taken at 6:55pm last night and you could already tell the plume was significantly reduced…

Forest Fire

Fire Out

Thank you, Mother Nature, for that warm welcome.

Got Valium?

~ JodiLea

Forget the milk.

I spent the past week trying to get through 954 emails that had piled up in my mail box at work, during the 2 weeks I was out. I scheduled a meeting with our department’s top management to formally give them my retirement date (July 19th). Only 13 more working days to go – and I can’t stop smiling!

At home there isn’t nearly as much smiling. So much to go through and weed out – still!  Haven’t I been doing this for months?  Not much sorting got accomplished last week – too busy interviewing moving company’s and trying to make up my mind how much packing we could reasonably do on our own to save money.

I put our old office furniture and the rolling cabinet for the microwave up for grabs on Craig’s List. So far not many queries. I probably did it wrong (this was my maiden voyage). I may have to find a charity that will pick up furniture.

To make the week more interesting, I got a call from my doctor’s office about test results that came back “positive” – which, unfortunately, is negative news. Now I must have a more  invasive test that will put me out of commission for 1.5 days to overrule or confirm the earlier test.  Like I have time for this …

Surprisingly, I am not freaking out. In fact, life has been so f#$%@!g crazy around here that I’m actually looking forward to it.  I will be heavily medicated for the test,  and that sounds soooo wonderful to me now….

Medications

photo credit: Robert S. Donovan via photo pin cc

Disclosing The Neighbors

~ JodiLea ~ 1 Comment

Neighborhood Chickens

Question on the Property Owner’s Disclosure Form:  Is there anything about this neighborhood the buyer(s) should be made aware of?

Are you kidding me???

How do we be honest without frightening them away? You live in the same place for 24-years and you get used to things. Like the guy down the street who revs his motorcycle several times a day. Or the retired guy that mows his lawn 4 times a week. Worst of all, the house behind us and one over belonged to an elderly couple when we moved in.  When the couple moved out, The LOUD Family moved in.

LOUD is a gross understatement of the decibel level achieved by the mother in this family. Within two days the entire block knew the names of her husband, kids & pets. Sometimes we weren’t exactly sure who she was screaming at. These anonymous blastings were the LOUDEST of all. The woman could out-swear any sailor, and do it while screaming at the top of her lungs.

Did I mention this was mid-summer, and everyone had their windows open?

The night one of her kids decided to light a candle in their room is etched into my brain forever. The poor kid was called every name in the book (and then some), lectured or screamed at (sometimes both) for 2 hours. Straight. When mom had her say, she left the room. When mom thought of something else her “idiot child” needed to be told, she returned to the kid’s bedroom and screamed some more.

I could not listen to any more of this verbal abuse, and I got up out of bed and debated with myself the pros & cons of  “getting  involved”.  If she screamed one more time I was calling the police station. What I really wanted to do was start screaming back at her. It was 11:00pm and a school-night to boot. I need all the beauty sleep I can get, and she was disturbing my peace.

It turned out that I was not the only neighbor ready to call the police. In fact, a petition was circulated and signed by the residents requesting someone have a nice long talk with the LOUD Lady and tell her to SHUT UP. I’m sure the patrolmen who delivered the petition and explained common courtesy to her were diplomatic. Everyone held their breath a couple of days, then sighed relief.

That was 5 years ago. Summer has returned and windows are opened. The frequency of the LOUD Lady’s outbursts has declined, but she has started to become LOUDer again. To add to the cacophony, the LOUD Family started raising chickens this year. I never heard hens lay before this. It sounds very painful. Also LOUD.  And we have to disclose these facts, in writing, to potential buyer’s.  Damn it!

Maybe a nice Deaf Family will fall in love with our house, throw money at us, and insist we move out ASAP .

It could happen, right?

😉
photo credit: Compassion in World Farming via photo pin cc