So it's been a while. Unlike some of my cohorts, who are simply too lazy to post, I've been terribly busy, without power, without phones, without internet access, etc. So that makes me better than them, I guess.
We're in the new house! We were about four days late in moving in, as some finishing touches needed to be made over the final weekend. The sod in the front yard is still not in, and there are a couple of niggling details, but all in all we're in good shape...
...or we are *now*. The move itself was a bit of an experience.
We got the moving truck (the 26-footer) loaded up okay. Two guys from church helped, and things went very smoothly. We went out and had a nice lunch at the Palmdale El Dorado ($4.95 AYCE lunch buffet!). The drive up to Tehachapi was pretty uneventful.
As soon as we hit the Tehachapi Pass, it started to rain. Just sprinkling, so no big deal. We got up to the house and I showed the guys around (which rooms were which and so on). All at once, it started to sleet like crazy. After only five minutes or so of painful, driving sleet and numerous welts, it began to snow. Well, "snow" as a verb is a little tame: visibility was zero, snow was going sideways. It was nearly impossible to keep the moving truck's (un)loading ramp from icing up, and more than one dolly-full of boxes went sliding down the ramp with mover hanging on for dear life behind it.
We were able to get everything moved into the garage without major incident. By then it had *really* begun to come down, and Nase still wasn't home with the two kids (and the cat). I tried to call, but it turned out Pac^H^H^HSBC hadn't turned on my phone lines like I had ordered. And Edison hadn't turned on my electricity like I had ordered. Hrm.
Nase eventually arrived just fine, only after driving into a few drifts to avoid crashing. (snow + steep hills = bad) So there we were, Nase and me, the two movers, the two kids, and the cat. Without power. Oh, and they closed the gate into our community because of the snow, so no one could enter or leave without either 4x4 or chains. (Our movers came up in a rear-wheel-drive Toyota truck.)
So there we all were. No electricity. No heat. Don't know any neighbors. No landlines. Poor cell coverage (depending on the side of the house you stand on). No warm clothes. No bedding (at least, not for *six* people).
I went next door to ask the people for some firewood. After politely declining their repeated offer to have us sleep at their house, they mentioned that they didn't have firewood, but would be happy to run electricity from their garage to our house. They also suggested a couple of different houses that we could try if we needed firewood. (They *also* brought over two Tombstone pizzas with paper plates (aka, "kindling") and napkins (aka, "good kindling").) I went across the street and found a couple that helped us out with a wheelbarrow full of firewood. (Good thing too, as it took Edison an additional two days to get our electricity on... :-/ )
To summarize, we moved in on a Wednesday, got power on a Friday, got our first phone line on Monday, got the second line on Monday, lost the second line on Tuesday. Aside from the fact that I was offline and missing work for about five days, it was a really interesting experience. I'm sure we won't forget huddling around the small fire, covered in moving blankets, trying to stay warm. :-)
In any case, things are mostly finished now. I'm still on 56k dialup (high-speed microwave is about two weeks out), but other than that things are great. I enjoyed my time as a retiree, and look forward to the next time I can do that. :-)
To celebrate getting back online and caught up (mostly), I picked up a 6-pack of the Anderson Valley Brewing Company's Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout (located in my favorite little hole-in-the-wall liquor store here in Tehachapi). It is absolutely incredible. AVBC shows a lot of promise with its other brews, and I shall do all diligence in bringing the full story to you, my loyal readers.
Posted by pcg at February 25, 2003 9:37 PM