The next few days will be spent picking up our “stuff” that
has been in storage ever since we left Pasadena in March, 2003, headed for Zion
National Park and our first jobs in our semi-retirement. We picked up the U-Haul cargo trailer at the
Williams Super Storage at 8:00 Friday morning, then met our broker, Danielle, at
the house for the ceremonial removal of the ”for sale” sign.
The sign doesn't usually come down until the escrow closes, but we leaned on Danielle and she relented. Her dog, Jackson, joined us for the ceremony. The picture was taken by Danielle's sister Jeanette, who is visiting Danielle for a while.
We then left Williams at about 9:30, headed for the La Quinta Inn in Hesperia---where we had stayed a few weeks ago on our way back from France. We had no problems getting there, but it’s clear that, once you get past Kingman, Arizona, the I-40 corridor is borrrrrrring. Becky walked four blocks to the Panda Express (her Fitbit hadn’t “celebrated” yet that day) and picked up our dinner.
The sign doesn't usually come down until the escrow closes, but we leaned on Danielle and she relented. Her dog, Jackson, joined us for the ceremony. The picture was taken by Danielle's sister Jeanette, who is visiting Danielle for a while.
We then left Williams at about 9:30, headed for the La Quinta Inn in Hesperia---where we had stayed a few weeks ago on our way back from France. We had no problems getting there, but it’s clear that, once you get past Kingman, Arizona, the I-40 corridor is borrrrrrring. Becky walked four blocks to the Panda Express (her Fitbit hadn’t “celebrated” yet that day) and picked up our dinner.
As usual, it was delicious. We left Hesperia early Saturday morning after another free breakfast (they’re very popular these days) and headed for our friend Barbara Coad’s house in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles to pick up some stuff that had been stored in a room adjacent to Barbara's garage for nearly twelve years. Included were two green leather lounge chairs with ottomans, a faux fichus tree, a stool, a desk and chair, and an end table and lamp we bought in Denver for an exorbitant amount thanks to our decorator, Patra Attig, who promised we would never regret it. She was right. It is a lovely set, and it brings back nice memories. But for some grime on the lounge chairs, the stuff was in good condition.
From Barbara’s, we drove down to Murrieta, where we stayed at the Comfort Inn. Nice place. The reason for this diversion was to attend a dinner/concert outdoors at the Thornton Winery in Temecula, with Honoria Vivell, Richard Petrie, Kathy Sage, and Kathy''s husband, Peter Shapiro. The event had been on all of our calendars since April. (Honoria and Richard are now engaged. Their wedding is set for next July 5, the day after Independence Day. Is there any significance to that?)
Because of the horrendous weekend traffic on I-15 getting to Murrieta, which we expected, we had no time once we arrived at the hotel to do anything but change clothes and head for Thornton. The dinner was very nice and our waiter, Christopher, was the same waiter we had the last time we ate at Thornton. He did a terrific job. The concert was billed as simply “jazz” so I had no idea we would be entertained by a group comprised of four saxophones headed by Dave Koz (of whom I had never heard, but I am apparently the only one in this hemisphere who can say that) with two guitars, a drummer, and a keyboard to round out the ensemble. The group was very entertaining. Interesting to me, they spent a lot of time reviving popular numbers of groups from the ‘60s and ‘70s, which the crowd loved, but when they played their own music I thought their sound was sensational.
Sunday morning, we headed for Las Vegas early, after a quick (free) breakfast in the hotel. After loading the stuff at Barbara’s, we were concerned that we might not be able to fit in the trailer all of the stuff in our Las Vegas storage unit. We actually made it with a little room to spare, so we went on the search for a few items of furniture we knew we needed.
We spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson, which was nicer than I expected. Our dinner that night was a collection of snacks that Becky picked up. Yum.
Monday morning, we finished our furniture search and headed
for home. After covering 1,090 miles during the weekend, we got to Williams in time to
empty the trailer into the garage, which was a bit premature
since the escrow was not set to close until the following morning, and to drop
off the trailer before the end of that rental day.
Duane (the manager) at the U-Haul place actually stayed open a half-hour later for us. Nice guy. People are like that here in Williams. I had tried to rent a hand truck with the trailer on Friday, but they were out of them so Duane, let me borrow his. When I returned the trailer, I had forgotten the hand truck, which was in the back of our truck. Duane said, “No problem,” I could bring it in the next morning. I returned it the next morning, along with a bag of doughnuts. Duane is now my best friend.
Tuesday morning, the escrow closed and we moved our rig out of the RV park (after being there more than 3 ½ months), parked it at the side of the house, and started the backbreaking process of moving all of our stuff in from both the garage and the trailer. What fun! Some of the stuff we had not even unpacked from the 1999 move from Denver to Pasadena. It was nice to see our little treasures again.
Duane (the manager) at the U-Haul place actually stayed open a half-hour later for us. Nice guy. People are like that here in Williams. I had tried to rent a hand truck with the trailer on Friday, but they were out of them so Duane, let me borrow his. When I returned the trailer, I had forgotten the hand truck, which was in the back of our truck. Duane said, “No problem,” I could bring it in the next morning. I returned it the next morning, along with a bag of doughnuts. Duane is now my best friend.
Tuesday morning, the escrow closed and we moved our rig out of the RV park (after being there more than 3 ½ months), parked it at the side of the house, and started the backbreaking process of moving all of our stuff in from both the garage and the trailer. What fun! Some of the stuff we had not even unpacked from the 1999 move from Denver to Pasadena. It was nice to see our little treasures again.
Our friends Don and Elaine LaMarr stopped by to see our new home on their way
home from a stay in the Manager’s Suite at the El Tovar Hotel at the Grand
Canyon. The escrow
had barely closed and we already had our first visitors. How exciting is that?
We were due to have DirecTV install a system in the house, starting at noon, but somehow the order did not include our address. We finally ironed it out and Brian arrived at 3:30. He zipped through the installation and we were operational by 6:00PM. Thank you, Brian.
On Wednesday, we went to Flagstaff to pick up the dogs from the Cinder Hills Kennels and to buy a bunch of stuff we needed now that we were actually in the home---including a wall-mount for the bedroom TV we had bought a week earlier. I was convinced we needed a mount with a swivel arm so we could watch the bedroom TV from the adjacent sitting room. The one we bought ended up not compatible with our TV, contrary to the salesman's assertion that it was universal, and, after some heated telephone conversations and much frustration, I decided we could live without the swivel arm.
Late in the afternoon, we tried to move Becky’s desk from the garage into the house. Impossible. It was too heavy and cumbersome. I went back the U-Haul place and asked Duane if I could borrow the hand truck again---for just 20 minutes. Duane said, “Of course,” of course. I actually returned it 20 minutes later.
We were due to have DirecTV install a system in the house, starting at noon, but somehow the order did not include our address. We finally ironed it out and Brian arrived at 3:30. He zipped through the installation and we were operational by 6:00PM. Thank you, Brian.
On Wednesday, we went to Flagstaff to pick up the dogs from the Cinder Hills Kennels and to buy a bunch of stuff we needed now that we were actually in the home---including a wall-mount for the bedroom TV we had bought a week earlier. I was convinced we needed a mount with a swivel arm so we could watch the bedroom TV from the adjacent sitting room. The one we bought ended up not compatible with our TV, contrary to the salesman's assertion that it was universal, and, after some heated telephone conversations and much frustration, I decided we could live without the swivel arm.
Late in the afternoon, we tried to move Becky’s desk from the garage into the house. Impossible. It was too heavy and cumbersome. I went back the U-Haul place and asked Duane if I could borrow the hand truck again---for just 20 minutes. Duane said, “Of course,” of course. I actually returned it 20 minutes later.
We returned to Flagstaff on Thursday for another buying
spree. After I got a haircut (Lou's last one for the season; he's headed to Phoenix for the winter) I installed the new non-swivel
arm we just bought and, although it’s not centered on the small wall opposite
the bed, thanks to inadequate foresight in locating the studs in the wall when
the house was built 15 years ago, we will survive. If it becomes a real problem, I
have already figured out how to solve it.
Thursday afternoon, Becky introduced Ramsey and Kelsey to the doggy door from the laundry room out to the back yard. I’m not sure either one of them had ever encountered one before. Ramsey took to it immediately and went out several times. I don‘t think he ever came back in through it, though. Kelsey just went out and looked for a sunny place to relax. She’s so cute.
Thursday night we celebrated with popcorn and wine for dinner. Marvelous. Friday was a marathon day of projects around the house. I even re-engineered the wall-mount for our bedroom TV, so it is now centered on the wall. I'm in hog heaven. Even though Becky has temporarily forbidden the purchase of more tools, I can still do wonders with what I have. Dinner was hummus and crab salad. And wine. Yes!
The following week was more of the same work marathon. I ran from project to project while Becky went through the process of emptying boxes and figuring out where to put things. We finally attacked the cleaning of the green chairs. They turned out much better than we had expected.
On Monday and Wednesday, we made trips to Flagstaff for project parts and supplies. We ate all our meals at home.
Thursday night, Becky boarded the Amtrak train, bound for Los Angeles---to celebrate the 60th birthday of her friend Paula Browne. Becky will be staying at the downtown Jonathan Club but the celebration lunch will take place on Saturday at the Jonathan Beach Club. I will continue to work on getting the house in the shape that will satisfy my various obsessions. And I will take care of Ramsey and Kelsey, naturally.
Thursday afternoon, Becky introduced Ramsey and Kelsey to the doggy door from the laundry room out to the back yard. I’m not sure either one of them had ever encountered one before. Ramsey took to it immediately and went out several times. I don‘t think he ever came back in through it, though. Kelsey just went out and looked for a sunny place to relax. She’s so cute.
Thursday night we celebrated with popcorn and wine for dinner. Marvelous. Friday was a marathon day of projects around the house. I even re-engineered the wall-mount for our bedroom TV, so it is now centered on the wall. I'm in hog heaven. Even though Becky has temporarily forbidden the purchase of more tools, I can still do wonders with what I have. Dinner was hummus and crab salad. And wine. Yes!
The following week was more of the same work marathon. I ran from project to project while Becky went through the process of emptying boxes and figuring out where to put things. We finally attacked the cleaning of the green chairs. They turned out much better than we had expected.
On Monday and Wednesday, we made trips to Flagstaff for project parts and supplies. We ate all our meals at home.
Thursday night, Becky boarded the Amtrak train, bound for Los Angeles---to celebrate the 60th birthday of her friend Paula Browne. Becky will be staying at the downtown Jonathan Club but the celebration lunch will take place on Saturday at the Jonathan Beach Club. I will continue to work on getting the house in the shape that will satisfy my various obsessions. And I will take care of Ramsey and Kelsey, naturally.
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