Saturday, 4-26-8

Oh where to begin?  Things have been hoppin and poppin around here and most of it is positive and happy.  Work has been picking up and the new project has taken flight.  I spent last week in Ft. Lauderdale and I'll be back down there (Hollywood) in another week or two.  I'm happy to be working again.  They've paid me to sit at home and that was a nice (and timely) break but getting paid to do nothing makes me nervous.  I am relieved that work is beginning to trickle in and I can earn my keep.

So it's Saturday and for the first time in a while I have nothing I can do.  Teresa is in Gainesville with the Girl Scout troop so I don't have a vehicle to go over to the old house and finish some of the repairs.  All the boxes in the new house are where they belong but are waiting on the new furniture.  The closing on the new house went smoothly and we got most of "our" stuff out of the house by ourselves in just two days.  "My stuff" wasn't a priority and the den and shed are still full of my crap that I have to get on my own.  One car load at a time makes it a real slow process.

I was worried about closing on the new house without an offer on the old one.  I can't carry both houses for long.  But I made a careful study of whether this was possible and I took the gamble.  I also made an invocation to the gods for the superstitious side of me.  I closed my eyes, trusted that this will all work out and the next morning we went in to sign our life away.  Less than an hour after closing our realtor called us to let us know that she had just e-mailed us a contract, a real offer was made on the house.  There were complications and three weeks later it turns out they had to back out due to their loan officer.  But it gave us a chance to see what their inspector wrote up and now we can fix all the stuff ourselves rather than have a contractor do it all.  Just last night we accepted another offer.  If I can get in there and make these repairs before they have their inspector come through I will save a lot of time, money and hassle.  So tomorrow I'm back on the treadmill replacing some wood and doing some painting at the old house and a few other minor repairs.

I haven't written much here and for the most part, Teresa has been keeping up with the details of what is going on.  I had another brainstorm idea and I have jumped into this one with both feet.  I woke up this morning and ran through 2500 words, I need a break.  So I got some lunch and got back on the puter typing away at this thing.  Doesn't make much sense does it?  But writing makes the voices go away for a while.

Not everything is roses around here.  We've got a major social crisis brewing but then again, when isn't there some kind of drama happening somewhere?  It just happens to be in our laps this time.  Oh well, you've got to live your life with some idea of honor and justice and if some people don't get it, no matter how much you love them, you have to let them go when they want to leave.  When the flares go off everybody chooses up sides and makes their sly digs and comments.  I'm not choosing sides.  I'm right in the middle of it all and I'm not on either perceived "side".  I'm standing by my perception of right/wrong.  Everyone on the planet is a little bit right and a little bit wrong.  Everyone.  Oh sure, it would be so much easier to shut up and be quiet but that has happened time and time again.  The pain caused by that is immeasurable and now someone has finally raised their hand and asked "how do we stop this bullshit!?"  Of course, the question has been taken as an insult and an attack.  I'm so damn tired of walking on egg-shells because some people are over-sensitive.  No one seems to have a problem telling me when I act like a dick, why is it we have decided that we can't call certain people out on their bullshit?  I have my ideas and opinions and to be honest, I'm having to really bite my lip from saying too much recently.  I really want to sound off and address some of the comments that have been made but this isn't the time for that.  Several others have stood up and hopefully together we can come up with a healthy solution.  Silence hasn't worked, hopefully an intervention will...

As much as it is a major source of pain in our lives right now, I want to let it go, do what we feel is right and let the cards fall where they may.  I'm tired of putting up so much energy into protecting the fragile and cracked ego of the people I love.  When you are oblivious that you have established a pattern of behavior that is painful to everyone around you, sometimes you have to be hit with the news pretty hard and sure, it can hurt, but it's the only thing that will make you wake up.  I know.  Everyone I knew turned their backs on me and I was still clueless, until Teresa whacked me in the face with the news that, "Hey, you've alienated everyone you know and I'm next, CUT THE SHIT!"  Silence didn't work, it took that slap in the face to make me want to change.

I've got a couple more hours left of my free Saturday, I don't want to waste it thinking about all of that crap anymore.  I've got to install Becca's wireless card in her computer and I've got a few sets to complete in PackRat.  I'm trying to get caught up with BSG so I can watch the remainder of season 4 as it happens.  I'd hate to have to wait on the DVDs to come out and find out there was some spectacular ending that everyone talks about.  Gods how I hate it when I get hooked into a television show.  I really don't have time for it and I have a thousand things I could be doing with my time.  But I figure if I'm wasting my time playing a stupid on-line game, I can spend a little time watching a show as well.

I have wasted a little bit of time today though.  When I bought the wireless card for Becca's computer I saw a double disk set of classic commercials for $7.  I couldn't pass that up.  I watched about 45 minutes of it this morning.  Unfortunately it only covers the 1950's through the 1970's  I was hoping for some of the ones I'd remember in the 80's.  But it was interesting to watch the old cigarette commercials.  Some of the shit they say in those things, NOW I finally understand the tobacco lawsuits!

Well, back to the grind.  I'm going to sit right here and write a little more in the story.  When the ideas flow I don't like to waste time.  I never know when the idea flow will run dry.

Sunday, 4-6-8

Just got in the door from DC.  What a trip.  I'm trying to get a post out tonight because I'll probably be down-scope for the rest of the week.  We (hopefully) move tomorrow and that means that aside from intermittent e-mail checks from my work laptop, our computers will be down and I don't know how long before BellSouth will have the DSL up at the new house.

I'll start with the latest on the house.  We had a few hiccups in the process and about fifty phone calls while we were on the road.  The closing almost had to be put off again but we are still on schedule for Monday.  With everything that has happened, I am afraid to believe it until they hand me the keys.  The closing is in Mandarin, we have to drop off the rental at the airport, then get a U-Haul and load up the old house.  We're going to be ALL over the city tomorrow.  I figure we'll make a couple of trips and get what we can, set up the essentials and drop the rest in the garage.  Then I'll do my best to get the rest of the stuff on Tuesday.

On Friday we got up and went to the bank to make a deposit and to see if we could get Becca's Visa card replaced.  I was really frustrated at the time and I imagined writing it all up in great detail but I am totally blown out right now so let's just leave it at, the woman behind the information desk at the bank is there for a reason; she's too stupid to be a bank teller.  We finally got out of there at 11:30.  Only four hours later than I expected to be on the road.

At one of the gas stations there was a D.A.R.E. booth set up and when the girls went inside and I started the gas pump the guy runs over to me and asks, "Hey there, I'm with the DARE program and we try to eliminate drug abuse.  Do you mind if I tell you a little about our program while you fill up your tank?"  The bastard had me cornered.  I was a captive audience and had to listen to his spiel.  I tell him I'll listen but that I am actually "pro drug abuse".  He does a double-take and asks me what I mean.  I tell him that I think that if someone is gong to be a druggie, they should go balls out and really push the limit.  The more drugs they do, the more likely they will OD and decrease the surplus population, therefore strengthening our species.  (Yeah I know I ripped off Dickens but hey I was speaking on the fly, no time to think...)  He just looked at me, blinked and then moved on to his next victim.  I just smiled and filled up the tank in blissful silence.

We dropped off Becca's new Visa card and she was bouncy and happy.  Not the same kid who has been crying on the phone every evening.  I think she was happy knowing that we were only a few miles away.  Teresa and I got to our hotel around 10pm.  The valet took our bags so fast that I almost felt like we were being robbed.  We checked in and the porter brought our bags to the room and showed us how everything worked.  High tech shit like a television and a light switch.  With the valet I didn't have my money ready so it took me a while to get his tip to him.  I played the "country mouse" card and acted like this was my first time in the big city.  I tipped the ported and wondered who was next to have his hands in my wallet just to show me how to turn on the bathroom sink...  But, it was a nice hotel and it was worth every penny.  We had a room on the top floor and Teresa was surprised that you had to use your room card to access the top floor.  It really IS her first time in the big city.  The room was beautiful but smaller than I expected.  It was about the size of a normal hotel room but as a top floor suite I thought it would be palatial.  The reality is that this is an old building that has been renovated into a hotel and they want to fit as many people in there as they can.  But the room size was nothing to complain about, especially when we looked out the window.  The city street is always something beautiful to me and I loved the sounds of the city when we opened our window.  We had an excellent view of a park and the building across the way.  Just beyond that was the White House and in the background was the Washington Monument.  Every time I rolled over in bed I looked up and saw the monument and thought, "How freaking cool is this!?"

Before we went to bed Teresa and I went down to the bar and had a couple of drinks.  Her drinks were too strong for her and I think someone pulled a switch on me because I got some shitty house scotch instead.  Teresa ordered a cheese platter and I was taken by surprise at how much she enjoyed the strange new foods.  Stinky cheese is not something I figured she'd ever eat.  She liked all of them except the one that looked and smelled like bleu cheese.  A total surprise.

So we went upstairs and fell asleep to the sounds of horns, busses and people on the streets below.

We were up early the next morning as Jerry and Liz called at 6:30am to let us know they were ten minutes away.  No sleep for the weary.  We had a nice day checking out everything we could.  At 7am you pretty much have the place to yourself.  We got to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorials without any hassle at all.  The cherry blossoms are in bloom and the place looks amazing.  We checked out the WWII, Vietnam and Korea Memorials.  Jerry had never been inside DC, just around DC so it was really interesting to see him taking in the war memorials, especially the Vietnam wall.  He tried to play it down but you could tell it touched him.

By then it was 10:30 or so and the people were coming in and really pushing and shoving.  We decided to take a drive, get Jerry and Liz checked into their hotel and get some lunch.  After lunch we drove back in to the city and Liz insisted on seeing the Holocaust museum.  As we passed by there was a picket line outside the entrance and I couldn't wait to see what the fuss was about.  By the time we parked and walked up there were two people left and they were harmless.  They were just pointing out that Israel is killing Palestinians.  Bummer, I really wanted to get involved in the fray on one side or the other but I had no dog in this fight.  I had zero interest in actually going inside because I thought I knew what to expect.  We went in and I was right.  I was hoping for a museum.  All I got was a building full of propaganda.  I felt there should have been more facts and less emotion.  The truth is enough to instill the proper feelings in someone but the manipulation I experienced made me angry and took the meaning out of the entire exhibit.  They dedicated and entire exhibit to prove that the book, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" (a common book among ethnic pride groups) is a fraud.  Their proof; because a British court said it was a fraud back in 1935.  I own a copy of this book and I have read it.  It is full of shit.  But not because some court said so, because I took it in my hands, read the ideas and concluded for myself.  They want this book to be banned and to disappear. Not a reasonable goal with the invention of the internet (thanks a LOT Al Gore...) If they could succeed in making the book vanish, did they actually win anything or did they just suppress an opposing point of view? If they could make it vanish, how will you read it for yourself and make your own conclusions? Let's start with banning books that we don't like and then we'll move on to making all of the holy texts only available to the clergy so the common people can't read and decide for themselves. Instead, if they had explored and exposed the ideas in the book, the exhibit would have made some sense.  But I felt this exhibit was a waste anyway.  Their conclusions were correct but how they got there was all wrong.  When you teach a child that 2+2=4 and he counts out five sticks but mimics the answer of four, is he still correct?

I wanted to see artifacts.  Hard evidence and cold facts that should have moved me to tears.  Instead I got poorly reconstructed displays full of anachronisms.  They simulated a child's diary (not Anne Frank) and what he would have written throughout the years.  In an entry dated 1939, he makes a reference to "World War One".  Nope.  It would still be known as "The Great War" for a couple more years.  Another thing that ticked me off was a glass display case (as if it were authentic) that showed his jacket and the yellow star he was forced to wear.  It said "Jew" instead of "Jude".  Why would it be in English?  To make us feel instead of making us think.  I found the entire building to be an insult to the true horrors that happened.  A shallow misrepresentation that is there only to sway opinion and not to document history.  Had they displayed actual items like someone's real jacket with their real yellow star, or a real piece of the concentration camp fence or even a pair of reading glasses taken from a prisoner...  anything authentic under glass cases like you would find in say, a MUSEUM, I would have walked out of there in a solemn mood.  Instead I felt like I couldn't wait to get out of there and I feel ripped off.  I just spent $20 to park and an hour of my time to basically watch a History Channel documentary.

We walked on down the National Mall and made a quick dash into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  We walked around the "primitive life" exhibit and a glance at a couple of others before we made our escape.  Too many school children...  We also hit a couple of art galleries and made it to the Air and Space museum just in time to realize it was closing in six minutes.  All of this walking was getting to some of us so we made it back to the car and drove over to the Arlington cemetery.  We made it to the Kennedy graves and were well on our way to the Tomb of the Unknowns when they decided to call it a day and limp back to the car.  I think we saw quite a bit in the single day we had for sight-seeing.  You could spend a week in each of the Smithsonian buildings and I'm sure you could spend a month looking around and not see everything you want to.

I got to thinking, Washington DC is a dead city.  Monuments to long dead people that most of us today don't know or much less care about.  There's no skyline to speak of and in an effort to preserve the ancient trees along the National Mall, we are treated to rot and decay.  We walked along the reflecting pool and up into the Lincoln Memorial.  I was filled with awe and wonder as I looked up into the giant face of a man who accomplished so much.  I was thinking about the doubt and inspiration Jimmy Stewart showed in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and the kids around me looked bored or played with their iPods.  Is DC dead or is the idea of America dead?  Is the idea of America really what we see in the history books?  Is it really what we see on TV?  Is it still alive or is it an empty battle cry for a long dead ideal, buried under beurocrasy, manipulation and complacency?  Do we even know our own history? 

The only place we never got was the only place I really wanted to hit (other than the Exorcist stairs over in Georgetown).  We never got to the Jefferson Memorial.  We have some nice pictures of it from across the tidal basin but I wanted to walk inside and I specifically wanted to see the inscriptions.  One in particular inscription has bothered me for years and I wanted to see it for myself.  They have a quote that says, "Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free".  People point to this and say he was talking about the slaves.  And they would be right, he was talking about the slaves.  But read this quote in context and you'll see a much different story.  He (and many others of the day) believed that the slaves should be free and then immediately repatriated to their homelands.  That's right, deportation.  So next February when it is time for another Black History Month, make sure you get the full story before you give your 15 second snippets on TV.  Do a little reading on Abraham Lincoln (specifically the Lincoln-Douglas debates) and decide if he really should be the image of equality between the races.  If you already know the truth, then good for you, you are at least semi-literate and moderately educated.

Unfortunately most of us take what we are told in school and on TV as the be-all-end-all of facts.  Question what you are taught and investigate for yourselves.  Do not be indoctrinated, do not let them brainwash you.  Do not let our history be washed from the books just because it's not pretty or because it's not what we want to hear.  If you accept the facts unopposed then you are getting half the story.  If they tell you 2+2=4, check it out, count out your own sticks!  You can't investigate every fact but after questioning enough of them you'll figure out which ones sound solid enough and which ones smell like five day old fish.  Everything is not as perfect as they would have you believe.  We are dirty, we are mean and we are bitter but we are human.  We are far from perfect but hiding our past will only allow us to continue along our rapidly decaying path.  Expunge those skeletons from those closets and hang them out for all to see.  Learn from our history before it is painted over and re-written in a nice, soft, pleasing beige.  I don't mean to impugn the ideals of either of these two legendary men, just point out that we accept the quips and snippets because we are too lazy to investigate for ourselves and in doing so, we allow the whitewashers to erode a little more of who we are.  If you tell the same lies over and over again, eventually you will mistake them for truth.

Oh man, I hate it when I get like this.  Sorry, I'll stop thinking now and go back to sleep...  But really, we all had a good time walking around and having fun.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to have dinner before going up to the room.  We knew if we hit that bed we'd never move.  Normally I'd want to go out and try something new but we were so worn out that we just stayed in.  I'm glad we decided to "wimp out" and eat in the hotel restaurant because the food was great.  Teresa had the NY Strip and I had the Filet.  Mine was just a dollar more but tasted SO much better than Teresa's steak.  Her steak was great but my filet was incredible.  And when you're paying $30 for an entre, what's a dollar more?  I keep trying to tell her that when we go to a steakhouse or get the grill at our favorite Japanese place.  If they don't charge much of a difference between the steak and the filet, go with the filet.  It is so much better...  I had a few glasses of wine with my dinner and we went upstairs to the room to relax.  Around midnight I got up to close the window because the sounds of the city were nice and all but at midnight on a Saturday night, you aren't sleeping much with all the traffic and sirens.

This morning we woke up early again and picked up Becca.  We drove over to Jerry and Liz's hotel and had breakfast and then drove home.  It always seems to take just a little longer going south than it does going north.  I don't know why.  You would figure that driving south would be like going downhill so it should take LESS time...  We made it home safely and in decent time.  The gas mileage improved as soon as I realized that the gear shift had two settings at the 4-D spot.  It had P, R, N, 4-D, 3, 2-L.  I pulled it into 4-D and the dashboard said "4" but it drove around quite nicely.  I shifted it into 2-L and it didn't shift so I guess 4-D was drive.  Strange little car (Toyota Rav4) but I guess it's like an all wheel drive or something and "4" is the regular drive mode?  Well just about halfway through Virginia I bumped the gear shift and it moved slightly to the right.  Now the dashboard said "D" instead of "4".  Well how was I supposed to know!?  So I drove about 650 miles on I-95 in 4-wheel-drive.  The gas mileage improved dramatically after I figured out how the gear shift worked.  I almost had to drive the entire trip without tunes because they "aux" jack is hidden inside the center console tray.  The only thing worse than not finding that would have been finding it after we left (without the cord...)  So the trip was fun and the drive was uneventful.  What more could you ask?

Teresa took some amazing pictures and I'll post a couple of them next time around.  For now I'd better get some sleep.  I have a house to buy in a few hours.  If anything changes I'll probably have time to post but otherwise, assume we close tomorrow, I didn't have a heart-attack/stroke while trying to move the entire contents of the house and that I finally made it out to festival.  See you peeps in a week or three...

Thursday, 4-3-8

So there's a knock at the door and I open it to find a man holding a mouse and they want to tell me about this plan of theirs.  They say it is well laid out...  Yeah, things have turned to shit again this week.

I left you last with a giant (ugly) superblog that summarized the entire month of March.  Sorry about that.  I'll try not to do that again.  In keeping with that idea, here is the first installment for April, I can not promise what may or may not follow.  You will know why soon enough...

If we had stuck to the plan, I would be writing this from the new house.  I'm not.  I'll pick up from last Saturday and attempt to stay in some semblance of chronological order.

Teresa, Becca and I went to the Sprint Store to get Becca's phone replaced.  It stopped working and they said it would be a quick replacement.  But of course, nothing is that simple, they are out of that model phone.  They can fix it Tuesday.  Oh for shame, a mere 48 hours too late for Becca to have her phone on her trip.  So I give her my phone and instruct her to answer all incoming calls, "Hi, my daddy's not here but for just $9.95 a minute you can talk to me..."  Becca looks confused and Teresa doesn't think I'm funny.

I don't have my phone all week and I'm taking bets on when she loses either my cell phone or the new camera we bought her for the trip.  We went to BestBuy and found a good camera for $95.  Becca wanted the pretty red one for $135.  They were both the same (6MP) and I pulled out one of those great parenting quotes you swear you'll never use on your kids...  "Becca, I'm paying $95 for a camera.  If you want that pretty red one you pay the $40 difference out of your own money."  I suddenly felt more like my Mom and Becca suddenly lost interest in the pretty red camera.

She has recently learned a small insight to the value of money.  When she wants to have new music loaded on her iPod she asks daddy to find her a couple of songs.  Her "couple of songs" has mutated into a list.  And in recent months that list is written on both sides of the paper.  I download the music for her, scan it, correct the MP3 tags and load it onto her machine.  Last month she got half way done with her list when I noticed a pattern.  Instead of the normal, ARTIST - TITLE, it has become, ARTIST - "Anything you can find by them".  I drew the line.  I know there is no legal difference to downloading fifty songs by fifty different artists and downloading entire albums but I just decided that is where I would draw the line.  I guess it's like killing the hooker but refusing to bury the body in the desert because "that would be wrong."  That just makes me a lousy pirate.  I'm not committed to full-on piracy.  My conscience is subdued but it is not dead.  I can talk myself into downloading individual songs rather than buying a CD full of crappy songs to get the one good one.  (iTunes solved that little problem)  I can talk myself into sampling an artist before you buy the CD.  (iTunes also fixed that little problem)  But if you like the artist enough to want, "Anything you can find by them" then it is time to shell out your money and buy their CDs.  Becca isn't happy with my sudden morality but she's going to have to learn that while we shouldn't be raped by the music companies, we should pay for the music we like.  Oh well, it's been a week full of tough lessons for that kid...

We are going to festival next week but I no longer have a work truck.  That means that I have nothing to pull the camp-gear trailer with.  Thom and I got together Saturday to put a hitch on Teresa's Isuzu.  Thom's used Class-2 hitch should do because that Isuzu shouldn't be pulling anything that would require a Class-3 anyway.  We spent a couple of hours trying to talk ourselves into cutting/welding/torching something (A-Team style) that could fit under the truck.  It is a very odd situation under there and in the name of safety and time/financial constraints; we opted to see if the local shops had an official hitch.  They don't.  So I decided I'd just throw most of our gear in the truck and we'd camp light this time.

Sunday morning Thom and I went out to the flea market to make a special purchase for Thom's new truck.  While we were there, one of the locals came up to us and started in on us.  I don't remember the conversation word for word but I tried to mess with the guy and Thom tried to back me up but the guy never took any of the bait.  Here's a brief synopsis of what went on...

Drunk Redneck: Hey, you guys like movies?

Thom: Sometimes.

Chris: No, I don't watch movies.

DR: I like all kinds of movies, especially scary movies.

C: Scary movies make me cry.  Especially at night, I cry myself to sleep and pee the bed.

T: Yeah, he can't watch scary movies.

DR: Well I've got movies for sale, just about every title.

C: I don't even have a TV in my house, the devil comes in through my TV and makes me do things.  Bad things.

DR: I went to school for this stuff, they gave me a special code for downloading movies.

C: You mean on that Interweb thing?  I've heard of that.  They show movies on that now?

DR: Yeah, I got my own company, "Wolfhouse Studios", we can get you anything.

T: Cool, so what's the name of your company?  (Inflected as a direct question, not as an "I forgot" or "I didn't hear" question...)

DR: (Without skipping a beat) Wolfhouse Studios.  I'm down on Beach Blvd.

T: Oh, I never go over to that side of town.

DR: (After forcing a grimy, folded list into Thom's hands) I've got movies that haven't even been released yet.  I can get you anything you want.  Just keep it on the down-low.

Is walking up to Thom and I and admitting you are stealing and selling movies a good example of "keeping it on the down low"?

After the redneck leaves Thom comes up with the great line: You have any cop movies?  My buddies down at the precinct would LOVE some cop movies!

While we were down there we came up with the idea of "Flea Market Weddings".  Just like a trucker chapel or a Vegas chapel but we'd totally do it up right.  Set up a booth, have the couple bring in their license, and let the show begin!  PA system, wedding march played on a Casio keyboard, flowered archway with a rebel flag, bouquets of ragweed and a bubba truck with 55 gallon drums tied behind it with the tailgate that says, "Jist marryed y'all!"  Like a photographer's studio we'd have several backdrops you can choose from: Fishing pond, Civil War battlefield, Trailer Park, Monster Truck rally, Rebel flag, NASCAR winner circle...  You know the truly sad thing is that as many of these people that just go down to the courthouse, I'll bet I really could make money at this if I wanted to...

Sunday after our foray into trailer-park heaven, Teresa dropped me off at the airport to pick up our rental car to get to DC and back.  We figure we've got about $1K of repairs to our truck before we're comfortable taking on stress trip.  I look at it like the $100 rental was $900 I didn't have to spend right now.  I have been known to smile and flirt with some people.  Sometimes it gets me a smile and other times it gets me on to military bases...  This time it got me a free upgrade!  When I got out to the car and started it up, I saw it was at a quarter tank of gas.  When I told the guy at the window he gave me another free upgrade.  Nice!  It's a Chevy Equinox.  I liked it but for all the luxury stuff (leather interior, sunroof, fancy readouts, seat warmers etc.) it just didn't have room for more than one cup and there was nowhere to put the iPod.  Minor inconveniences but it was a nice car.  Especially since I paid for compact and I'm pulling out in a mini-SUV.  When I get home Teresa reminds me that one of the reasons we went with the rental was that a small car would get better gas mileage than our Isuzu.  Oops...

But it worked out nicely.  We left just before midnight Sunday and arrived in DC a few hours early for the registration.  We made sure we knew where Becca's hotel was and then went for a drive to do a little car-tourism.  When you take the 14^th St. exit off of I-395, you approach the Pentagon on almost the same route as the 9-11 plane.  You are driving past light poles that were knocked down by the wings and even now, seven years later there is still construction equipment in the yard.  It was a little spooky.

We drove into the city up 14^th St. and at "K" Street we passed by the hotel that Teresa and I will be staying at the next weekend.  It looked very nice.  A little TOO nice for a slob like me...  We drove around and I had a lot of fun pointing out all the monuments and statues.  Teresa and Becca said I had lost my mind but history gets me excited and the last time I was in DC I was Becca's age.  I hope she pays attention more than I did at that age.

We went to get her checked in and when time came for us to leave Becca (and Teresa) fell apart.  I think they would have held up a lot better had neither of them seen the other little girl start crying.  We put Becca's luggage against a wall, she went in to her orientation meeting and we went in to the parent's question and answer meeting.  When we came out Teresa wanted to peek into one of the rooms just to make sure Becca had stopped crying.  We couldn't find her anywhere and her shoes, shirt and badge lanyard were on the floor in front of her luggage!  One of the ladies told us that the kids have a choice in orientation activities and one of them was a swim in the pool.  So of course, that's where she was but Teresa didn't need a scare like that to start her out for the week.

We got back in the car and drove back home, arriving just after 2am Tuesday morning.  It was a 26 hour start to finish trip and everything went fine.

Becca has called us every night and she ends up crying a little but some of that is pure exhaustion.  They have been running ALL over DC, Williamsburg and Gettysburg.  She is going to make it through the week but she's a little homesick.  To make things worse, I forgot to teach her an important lesson.  I've been in hotels so much that it just becomes second nature but she was never told: never trust hotel maids.  One of them made off with her wallet.  It had $40 in cash and $120 on a Visa gift card.  She left it on the nightstand by her bed, just like she would do at home.  I guess there's a changing story amongst the maids about whether one of the maids found a wallet but maybe it was just a makeup case or maybe...  Becca will have to learn this lesson the hard way.  Sorry, Daddy should have told you.

Tuesday morning we got up early and went to the new house for our final walkthrough.  I had given the builder a new list of stuff we found since our initial walkthrough.  I have been very good and I have let a lot of "little" things slide.  On this walkthrough everything looked fixed and we couldn't see anything wrong.  The builder said we'll still be noticing things well after we move in and when we do, just write up a list and he'll take care of it.  We signed off on the house and we are ready to close and move in!

Being April 1^st and since our builder is such a great guy, I decided to mess with him a little.  I was going to tell him that I was disappointed that all of the screws on the outlet and light switch covers weren't lined up straight.  That would have been funny except that when I look over at the light switch covers, THEY ARE LINED UP!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  Just about every cover plate in the house has the screws lined up.  I'm going to like it here!

Tuesday night we get the call that our closing (scheduled for 9am Wednesday) has to be rescheduled because of the loan paperwork.  We schedule it for 9am Friday morning.  I don't want it scheduled for Friday because we were supposed to be leaving for DC early Friday but I guess we'll just have to delay out plans...  Thursday night we get the call that our closing (scheduled for 9am Friday) has to be rescheduled because of the loan paperwork.  The closing is now scheduled for 10am Monday.

I went back up to the airport tonight to pick up another rental for the weekend trip to DC.  The lady asked if I wanted to upgrade.  She said, "Compact is such a small car, you won't be comfortable".  She would upgrade me for $60.  I told her no, we would rather have to money to play with once we get up there and we'll be just fine in the compact.  This was the same lady that I flirted with last Sunday and I asked her about her car and the trouble she was having on Sunday night.  She smiled back and said she'd done me a favor but wouldn't tell me what it was.  I get out to the rental car, another mini-SUV.  A Toyota RAV4 this time.  Teresa's gonna kill me!

We've had excruciatingly painful downtime this week.  With the closing being put off over and over, we can't really take down the TVs, beds and pack up the last bits of loose stuff because A: we need it until we move and B: We still need to keep this place "show ready" for the realtor.  We have three interested parties right now.  One of them is actually in offer form but the guy had a screw up in his loan paperwork (must have the same guy WE have).  Another one is getting ready to submit an offer and the third one just saw the house last night but said the client was real excited and wants to put in an offer.  So we should see some movement on the old house real soon.  If not, I'm going to lose my mind!!!

I still haven't written up those movie reviews yet but I have forced Teresa to sit through the movies she ordered on Netflix so the next batch could come in.  This means I saw a couple of movies I normally wouldn't have watched.  One was decent, the other was crap but it looked like it would be crap so it actually held its own, if you like crap...  I'll get to writing them up after I finish the others in the queue and that will all happen when I have TIME!!!

As I write this (3am Friday morning) this is the plan:

In three and a half hours we will wake up, get ready for our trip and then go to the bank.  Deposit a check and get Becca's gift card reissued.  Then we'll drive up to DC.

Friday night or Saturday morning we'll go to Becca's hotel and try to get some souvenir money slipped to her through the program leaders.

Saturday morning Jerry is meeting us in DC (Liz doesn't know) and we'll spend the day doing "the tourist thing".

Sunday morning we'll pick up Becca, the five of us will have breakfast and then split up to drive home.  We should arrive home before midnight (10pm?) on Sunday night.

Monday morning Becca will go to school.  Teresa I will go to the bank and get a cashier's check for the +/-$12K down-payment on the house.  We'll close on the house at 10am.  When we leave the closing I will pick up the U-Haul truck and drop it off at the old house.  Teresa will load the little boxes while I drive out to festival and drop off my gear.  Depending on the weather and when I ACTUALLY get out there, I'll try to set up the tent.  I'll survey the kitchen and coordinate with Zephyr on our plan of attack.  It's a DAMN good thing that the kitchen is (not so) secretly run by a much more competent woman rather than a frantic control freak guy.  She'll handle the kitchen set-up while I return home and handle the Teresa break-down...  Drive home and help load the larger items.

Monday night/Tuesday will be spent moving in to the new house or more importantly, getting our stuff out of the old house. 

Tuesday night Teresa has a class.

Wednesday I'll go out to festival and cook.  Teresa and Becca have an important Girl Scout meeting.

Thursday night Teresa has a leadership meeting.

Friday when Becca gets out of school, Teresa and Becca will come out to festival.

Sunday: break down camp, return home and hopefully begin life in the new house!

Sunday/Monday: See if the work schedule has me at home another week or if I am back on the road.

I love being busy but COME ON!  This is too much.  Everything is falling on top of each other.  Teresa and I have to fight to stay on top of it or we'll be buried under it all.  When the smoke clears, I'd rather be doing something than waiting on life to happen to me.  The guys at work asked about why I am always running around and doing things.  They thought it was crazy and a little bit sick that my weekend schedule fills up two to three months in advance.  I told them that with my family history and my body weight, I'll be lucky to make it to fifty.  I bitch and moan about the schedule mashing up but really, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  What am I going to do, sit in the sun? Relax and wait to grow old and die?  Fuck that noise yo!  I'm living baby, I'm busy but I'm alive!