Yes, winter is supposed to be the time in this part of the world that most people do all things indoors for a few months. This winter has been literally one for the books though. Very little snow and when it did snow, after every snow storm this winter came the 'warmer' temps and then rain. So, not much snow overall, still cold though! But even then we didn't get any of the usual week of at or below zero that should normally occur.
Then right at the start of Spring, almost a week straight of Snow! And right when Laura and grand baby Tyler came out from Iowa to visit during his time off from school. The week just before they came out, almost no snow left at all. The week they're here almost 4 inches of snow twice and too cold for it to melt until a couple of weeks after they've left. So sorry for Tyler since it's mostly too cold to be able to play outside except for one day between storms. And now almost two weeks of rain have made the area like a marsh area flooding and the rivers are full.
For me though, with Laura and Tyler's visit came a cold bug from Iowa that hit me HARD!
Stacy and I get Flu shots every year and for the most part have been pretty illness free for quite a few years but this imported bug got me and I'm still not completely over it, three weeks later! It was like a mega cold with my head getting totally stopped up for days and chest congestion too. I never got to the point of flu like symptoms though, but the congestion and cough has been bad enough.
114.6 and 1773
The above numbers is the amount of total hours I spent on the trip and the odometer miles I drove last week from my start Tuesday (3/27) to finish Saturday (3/31) making an unplanned trip to Northern California and the Town of Arcata. I love the record keeping applications on my Pocket PC! (my Android Galaxy S II phone)
The reason for this trip actually goes back to July 2008 and even well before that. In 2008 was when my mother died at the hospital in Eureka, California from complications of COPD, so DON'T EVER SMOKE!!
But even farther back to 1998 and that fall my mom had decided to move to the Eureka area to be in a cooler climate and to be in the proximity of my brother. My sister and her kid also moved with my mom to Eureka at the same time. My mom had divorced my step-father and in the settlement the house needed to be sold so a move was inevitable.
She had lived over 20 years in the family home that was 3800 square foot and was going to be moving and living in an apartment in Eureka. She would not reduce, downsize or give up much of her 20 year long collection of books, magazines, miniatures and other items.
So, in two large U-Haul trips all her belongings were transported to a storage facility in Arcata, Calif. It took two 10 by 20 foot units and a 5 by 10 foot unit to park all the stuff.
To me it was very sad that after she had spent several months in Yucaipa carefully packing away her life and it's treasures, she had never looked at the bulk of her collections ever again for the last decade of her life, and after she had spent so much money a month to keep all the storage units going for all that time.
So after her death in late July, a few weeks later in August 2008, Stacy and I drove down with our trailer in tow to Eueka and Arcata to help my brother Chis and sister Cam go through all the stuff mom had kept.
Over the course of several days we all were able to get in down to one 10 by 20 unit. Much had to be thrown out because of water damage in the other unit nobody knew about since it hadn't been opened in so long. Stacy and I brought a fully loaded trailer back with us and Chris and Cam were to go through the rest, all stuff they both said would have the most meaning and memories to them, to at their leisure, sell, give away, eBay it, whatever! But ultimately get the unit empty and all the stuff gone. Since Cam was having money issues, Chris had agreed to help her and keep the unit going for a while to facilitate getting it done.
Now fast forward to February 2012 and Stacy and I were talking one day about what might have happened with all the stuff in the storage unit. So I emailed Chris and ask him what had happened with it all. Several days later I get the answer, after paying for the unit for THREE years!!!, last August 2011 he had decided to just quit paying for the storage and had let it go.
I was really upset about this turn because of the fact that much of what I would have wanted to bring back if Stacy and I hadn't gotten tired of listening to them both complain about this or that while there to where it became just get done and gone!; to find out it had all been tossed?
That news reallypissed me off! upset me! All he'd had to do was call or email me that he didn't want to pay anymore and we would have taken care of it, in the fall and not in the rain that this trip was.
So seven months later it had to have already gone the "Storage Wars" route I thought, all just......gone.
Now the morning of March 3rd and I get a call from a guy that works at the storage facility. It hasn't been auctioned off........yet, but it is set to be auctioned off later that day. Do I want anything out of the unit? Stacy and I talk it out and yes, but I can't make the over 800 mile one way trip for a couple of weeks since Laura was coming out. They agree but the unit must be empty by the end of the month.
Laura and Tyler visit, I get sick, so the time crunch was on to get it done, and I did!
As our trailer was still snow bound I agreed with Stacy to take our truck go and see what needed to be done and if necessary I could always rent a trailer to bring stuff back if needed. So off I went, still pretty sick and living on DayQuil for the drive, but I got there.
On my arrival in town on the Wednesday afternoon my first stop was the storage facility, the clerk at the storage unlocked the unit for me and I'm in shock!
It looked like no one had even opened it since we'd left it in 2008! Everything I remember was STILL there. Why hadn't they gotten most or even some of the stuff gone?
I text them both and later talk to Cam, she couldn't get it done, can't take anything else, has no room, etc., etc. Chris is upset with me for getting so angry with him over this and will no longer respond to my attempts to contact him.
So I go check into the motel I'll be at for the next few days and get really depressed how to deal with this magnitude of stuff in such a limited time frame.
It could have, should have, been taken care of long before. Even if all they had done was contact an estate liquidation firm that would have been something, just to take care of it.
I get the numbers of the area thrift stores thinking that I'll probably need to get a trailer just to take stuff to various places.
The next morning at 9 am I start with the first business listed in the local phone book, the American Cancer Society, and on a call back a few minutes later they agree to take everything from the unit I don't want!!!! It gets set up for the next day, Friday, and very happy, I spend that day, Thursday, all day long until it's too dark to see, at the unit going through what I can and getting what I will be taking separated.
Right on time the next morning and 3 people from the thrift store arrive with a truck and an enclosed car trailer and I help them get everything into their truck and trailer. With some furniture, a table and over 40 very heavy boxes of books and magazines their truck and trailer get well overloaded. Only about an inch of space on the trailer between the fenders and the wheels, almost flattened the suspension. And it doesn't all fit even then so I bring the last 12 boxes in my truck to their store and help unload theirs and get unloaded too.
Even though we're all a bit sore from all the heavy lifting it is all done and I'm told by Victor that this was the largest single donation since he's been in charge there.
It seemed so logical to me too, growing up we were pretty poor and we did much of our 'shopping' at various thrift stores for all kinds of items when we were kids. Several of the pieces of furniture had people wanting to buy them before the staff had been able to do anything but put it out after unloading. Good for them!
I go back to the unit and load up my truck, I mainly wanted the record collection that I'd helped my mom put together over the years so out of 12 boxes of records I take 8 of them, and yes I'd sorted out what I wanted, and many personal stuff from my mom I could find. Letters, hand written notes, etc. Photos I came across, that kind of stuff plus my moms 1908 treadle sewing machine and some sewing kits for Stacy.
Even with the almost constant rain all the way home most of the boxes and things I brought home didn't get wet or very wet except for one box of records, and we've been drying those out downstairs.
And now it's April 5th!
Till next time, tad
Then right at the start of Spring, almost a week straight of Snow! And right when Laura and grand baby Tyler came out from Iowa to visit during his time off from school. The week just before they came out, almost no snow left at all. The week they're here almost 4 inches of snow twice and too cold for it to melt until a couple of weeks after they've left. So sorry for Tyler since it's mostly too cold to be able to play outside except for one day between storms. And now almost two weeks of rain have made the area like a marsh area flooding and the rivers are full.
For me though, with Laura and Tyler's visit came a cold bug from Iowa that hit me HARD!
Stacy and I get Flu shots every year and for the most part have been pretty illness free for quite a few years but this imported bug got me and I'm still not completely over it, three weeks later! It was like a mega cold with my head getting totally stopped up for days and chest congestion too. I never got to the point of flu like symptoms though, but the congestion and cough has been bad enough.
114.6 and 1773
The above numbers is the amount of total hours I spent on the trip and the odometer miles I drove last week from my start Tuesday (3/27) to finish Saturday (3/31) making an unplanned trip to Northern California and the Town of Arcata. I love the record keeping applications on my Pocket PC! (my Android Galaxy S II phone)
The reason for this trip actually goes back to July 2008 and even well before that. In 2008 was when my mother died at the hospital in Eureka, California from complications of COPD, so DON'T EVER SMOKE!!
But even farther back to 1998 and that fall my mom had decided to move to the Eureka area to be in a cooler climate and to be in the proximity of my brother. My sister and her kid also moved with my mom to Eureka at the same time. My mom had divorced my step-father and in the settlement the house needed to be sold so a move was inevitable.
She had lived over 20 years in the family home that was 3800 square foot and was going to be moving and living in an apartment in Eureka. She would not reduce, downsize or give up much of her 20 year long collection of books, magazines, miniatures and other items.
So, in two large U-Haul trips all her belongings were transported to a storage facility in Arcata, Calif. It took two 10 by 20 foot units and a 5 by 10 foot unit to park all the stuff.
To me it was very sad that after she had spent several months in Yucaipa carefully packing away her life and it's treasures, she had never looked at the bulk of her collections ever again for the last decade of her life, and after she had spent so much money a month to keep all the storage units going for all that time.
So after her death in late July, a few weeks later in August 2008, Stacy and I drove down with our trailer in tow to Eueka and Arcata to help my brother Chis and sister Cam go through all the stuff mom had kept.
Over the course of several days we all were able to get in down to one 10 by 20 unit. Much had to be thrown out because of water damage in the other unit nobody knew about since it hadn't been opened in so long. Stacy and I brought a fully loaded trailer back with us and Chris and Cam were to go through the rest, all stuff they both said would have the most meaning and memories to them, to at their leisure, sell, give away, eBay it, whatever! But ultimately get the unit empty and all the stuff gone. Since Cam was having money issues, Chris had agreed to help her and keep the unit going for a while to facilitate getting it done.
Now fast forward to February 2012 and Stacy and I were talking one day about what might have happened with all the stuff in the storage unit. So I emailed Chris and ask him what had happened with it all. Several days later I get the answer, after paying for the unit for THREE years!!!, last August 2011 he had decided to just quit paying for the storage and had let it go.
I was really upset about this turn because of the fact that much of what I would have wanted to bring back if Stacy and I hadn't gotten tired of listening to them both complain about this or that while there to where it became just get done and gone!; to find out it had all been tossed?
That news really
So seven months later it had to have already gone the "Storage Wars" route I thought, all just......gone.
Now the morning of March 3rd and I get a call from a guy that works at the storage facility. It hasn't been auctioned off........yet, but it is set to be auctioned off later that day. Do I want anything out of the unit? Stacy and I talk it out and yes, but I can't make the over 800 mile one way trip for a couple of weeks since Laura was coming out. They agree but the unit must be empty by the end of the month.
Laura and Tyler visit, I get sick, so the time crunch was on to get it done, and I did!
As our trailer was still snow bound I agreed with Stacy to take our truck go and see what needed to be done and if necessary I could always rent a trailer to bring stuff back if needed. So off I went, still pretty sick and living on DayQuil for the drive, but I got there.
On my arrival in town on the Wednesday afternoon my first stop was the storage facility, the clerk at the storage unlocked the unit for me and I'm in shock!
It looked like no one had even opened it since we'd left it in 2008! Everything I remember was STILL there. Why hadn't they gotten most or even some of the stuff gone?
I text them both and later talk to Cam, she couldn't get it done, can't take anything else, has no room, etc., etc. Chris is upset with me for getting so angry with him over this and will no longer respond to my attempts to contact him.
So I go check into the motel I'll be at for the next few days and get really depressed how to deal with this magnitude of stuff in such a limited time frame.
It could have, should have, been taken care of long before. Even if all they had done was contact an estate liquidation firm that would have been something, just to take care of it.
I get the numbers of the area thrift stores thinking that I'll probably need to get a trailer just to take stuff to various places.
The next morning at 9 am I start with the first business listed in the local phone book, the American Cancer Society, and on a call back a few minutes later they agree to take everything from the unit I don't want!!!! It gets set up for the next day, Friday, and very happy, I spend that day, Thursday, all day long until it's too dark to see, at the unit going through what I can and getting what I will be taking separated.
Right on time the next morning and 3 people from the thrift store arrive with a truck and an enclosed car trailer and I help them get everything into their truck and trailer. With some furniture, a table and over 40 very heavy boxes of books and magazines their truck and trailer get well overloaded. Only about an inch of space on the trailer between the fenders and the wheels, almost flattened the suspension. And it doesn't all fit even then so I bring the last 12 boxes in my truck to their store and help unload theirs and get unloaded too.
Even though we're all a bit sore from all the heavy lifting it is all done and I'm told by Victor that this was the largest single donation since he's been in charge there.
It seemed so logical to me too, growing up we were pretty poor and we did much of our 'shopping' at various thrift stores for all kinds of items when we were kids. Several of the pieces of furniture had people wanting to buy them before the staff had been able to do anything but put it out after unloading. Good for them!
I go back to the unit and load up my truck, I mainly wanted the record collection that I'd helped my mom put together over the years so out of 12 boxes of records I take 8 of them, and yes I'd sorted out what I wanted, and many personal stuff from my mom I could find. Letters, hand written notes, etc. Photos I came across, that kind of stuff plus my moms 1908 treadle sewing machine and some sewing kits for Stacy.
Even with the almost constant rain all the way home most of the boxes and things I brought home didn't get wet or very wet except for one box of records, and we've been drying those out downstairs.
And now it's April 5th!
Till next time, tad
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