photo credit: Old Shoe Woman

Forgive me for not writing sooner. Things were crazy, exciting, and exhausting ever since New Mexico, and blogging fell completely off the radar.

So…looking back…

• We spent a night in Flagstaff, AZ, and met up with Evo Terra and his better half, Sheila, for some fabulous pizza. I want to say the name of the place was Fratelli’s. Good beer, good pizza, good company.
• On Saturday 8/23, we crossed the Mojave desert. It was everything that Evo led me to expect…dull, brown, and hot. At one point, there was the following exchange in the cab of the truck between myself and my daughter:
  

  Me: I spy something brown

  Her: The mountains.

  Me: Yep. Okay…I spy something brown.

  Her: The grass.

  Me: Yep. I spy something brown….

  You get the point. Amazingly, I had cellphone coverage almost all the way across the desert. This will come into play later…so wait for it.

• On Sunday 8/24, we unloaded the truck. Holeee Sheee-it. It was 105°F. Hottest day on record for the area. It took us eight hours, and would have taken longer except that my co-worker Suzy and her sister showed up to give us a hand. ¹ We collapsed at the end of the day, boxes piled everywhere, beds barely made.

The next three days (Mon-Wed) were a whirlwind.

• Bunkbeds were purchased and assembled for the kids.
• Picked up a refrigerator that arrived missing pieces, like the middle shelf and the little switch that turns on the interior light when the door is opened.
• Fought with AT&T about getting the phone hooked up. It was turned on on 8/22. but no one came out to check the line. We spent the weekend without a phoneline, and for some mysterious reason, we have NO cellphone coverage in the house. It’s like living in a Faraday Cage . When we explained to T-Moblie, they suggested we upgrade all our phones to Palm or Blackberry devices for $300 a piece. Not bloody likely. However, I did get to say, “So, you’re telling me that I can get stellar cellphone coverage in the middle of the Mojave Desert, but not in one of the largest metropolitan centers on the planet. Is that right?” Squirm, little call center people, squirm.
• Spent hours setting up my DSL connection. Tried to sign up on the AT&T DSL, had the process fail because of a server error and spend the next four hours trying to correct the problem. However, during the process I did get to a Level 2 Tech, which made me feel like I’d accomplished something.²
• Dish network failed to show up on Sunday when they were supposed to. They returned Monday and puttered around the house until telling us that because the way the building sits, we cannot get their service. Thanks for nothing, Dish. Back to cable for me, thanks.
• Bought a car which, amazingly, was pretty hassle free. it’s a little 2005 Nissan Senta, and it gets stellar gas mileage and gets me to work and home again. It also fits into our allegedly two car³ garage. Major bummer is the cost of auto insurance. When I say major, I mean MAJOR.
• Enrolled the kids at school. Buying school supplies, however, was like feeding time at the piranha pit. I have to admit, kind and courteous do not seem to sit anywhere in the Los Angeles Denizen’s vocabulary. People are, well, just frickin’ rude.

photo credit: offbeat14u

On Thursday, I went back to work, which was weird for other reasons. After working from home for a almost two years, I found that I was pretty nervous about heading in to the office. It felt like the first day on the job, even though I’d been working with everyone for a long time now. Different pressures, I suppose. However, my commute is STUNNING. I drive through a beautiful canyon down to the Pacific Coast Highway and in to Santa Monica. It’s around 40 minutes, and I just adore it.

So now it’s Labor Day weekend, and we’re organizing and getting things ready for the kids to start school this week. Wednesday is the big day. We’re off to Topanga Mall to buy school clothes, new shoes, and other things. Wish us luck. This might be my last transmission.

1. Thanks, Suzy![back]
2. I’d leveled up, after all.[back]
3. Two cars, rounding up, as Kris put it.[back]