Rat thoughts

When I moved out here from California, I packed all my stuff into a PODS container.  My intention was to have the thing shipped out whenever I'd settled down.  Well, various events kept occurring every time I thought about the container and it ended up sitting in a warehouse in California for nearly 4 years.  I finally got around to doing something about it.   I don't have enough room for all my stuff here, so I rented a storage room in town.  It's a fraction of the cost of the PODS container and I'll have easy access to my things.

The container arrived Monday and my SO and I spent most of the day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday moving stuff into the storage room or back to the house.  It's rather interesting going through all the boxes; it's kind of like a treasure hunt, except I'm finding stuff I that's already mine.

Monday evening my roommate handed me a credit card bill that he'd picked up from the mailbox and forgotten to give me...  3 weeks ago....  I was a week late on paying the bill so I got hit with a $39 late fee.  Ouch.  I paid the bill, then I did a double take.  I don't use that particular card very often and the bill was for over $600.  I looked through it and discovered a charge of $500 from Paypal.  I checked my account online and discovered another charge from Paypal for $350.  I immediately called the bank and spoke to their fraud department.  As I was on the line, they told me that another charge had just come in from Paypal for $500.  They canceled my card and will be sending me a new one.  I also called Paypal and got the run around from their phone system.  It won't let you go directly to the operator, you have to enter your account number.  They don't seem to understand that not everybody has a Paypal account.  The first operator I talked to hung up on my after I wouldn't give an account number; the second operator I just demanded to speak to the fraud department.  I also got a copy of my credit report and set up a fraud alert.

Tuesday I went to the sheriff's office and filed a police report, though it's unlikely anything will come of it.  But with a case number, I can now apply for a 7 year fraud alert on my credit report.

Thursday was spent trying to organize things.  I brought too much stuff to the house so some of it will have to go back to the storage room, at least until I can get things moved around and get some shelves put up.

Today we went grocery shopping and about a mile away from returning home, my SO's car had a blowout.  At least the weather was decent, not too hot, not too cold, and the ground was dry, and it was on a rural road that's very rarely traveled.  Still kinda sucks to change a tire on a dirt road, though.  Just a mile or so further and I could have gotten my car, returned to the storage room and gotten my professional 3-ton car jack and hoisted the car with just a few pumps instead of relying on the flimsy and slow emergency jack.  Fortunately it turned out the tire that blew out was actually the full-service spare; the tire that was supposed to be mounted was in the trunk.  They'd apparently been switched back in December when one of the tires went flat and was taken in for repair.  I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Finally got settled in and online again!  Wow, I am sooooo far behind in reading other people's journals.  Yikes!

I originally intended to take about 3 days to drive from San Diego to Omaha, doing about 500 miles a day, or a leasurely 8 hours of driving a day.

For some reason, I just couldn't fall asleep Friday night, so at about 2 am Saturday morning, I just said screw it, got in the car and headed out.  It was shortly before 3 am by the time I hit the road and stopped for gas.  The first few hours were pretty uneventful, driving up I-15 through Riverside in the dark on Saturday Morning, there wasn't much traffic.  The traffic started to really pick up after passing Barstow.  There was much idiocy, with people doing 45 MPH trying to pass thus holding up traffic for miles behind.  It finally cleared up around the state line.

You could tell the moment you crossed into Nevada, as there was a couple huge casinos just across the border.  I was starting to get hungry by this time, as was the car, but I didn't want to stop in Vegas, so I continued on to Mesquite.  The gas station had slot machines inside, but the Jack-In-The-Box didn't.

I passed through Arizona very briefly, then on into Utah.  There was some interesting scenery, with canyons and stuff on either side of the highway, but while that was impressive, it paled in comparison to what I'd see in Colorado.  Plenty of idiots on the roads there too.  I'm hauling a ton of stuff (literally), and had to keep hitting my brakes because morons kept deciding to pass right in front of me.  I found myself wondering if my car had a big sign reading "Please pull in front of me".  I passed through Beaver, UT, and noted that this was where Microsoft Streets and Trips had suggested I stop for the night.   Except that it was wasn't even noon yet, so I pressed on.  I swiched over to the I-70 and stopped in Salina, UT for gas.

Then it was on into Colorado.  I crossed the Colorado River several times and noted it really didn't seem all that impressive.  The highway now started to snake THROUGH the canyons, instead of mearly passing by them.  But the best was still yet to come!  I stopped in Glenwood Springs for some more gas.  After leaving there, the speed limit on the freeway dropped to 50 MPH, and I was starting to get annoyed, as there didn't appear to be any reason for it.  Then I passed through a tunnel and it all became clear.  The freeway passed right through the bottom of a very narrow canyon, with the walls towering overhead.  I put the car on cruise control and tried to stretch my neck to get a good look.  The roadbed was elevated above the floor of the canyon, with the Colorado River raging underneath.  I saw a couple boats negociating their way downstream through the rapids.  It was absoluetely incredible.  I must go back there some time with a less loaded vehicle so I can stop and take better pictures.  I did manage to get a few with my cellphone, though I haven't downloaded them yet.  After leaving the canyons, the freeway started climbing, high up into the mountains.  I passed through Vail and climbed to just over 10,000 feet.  Then down a wee bit through Dillon, then back up again.  I managed to reach 11,180 feet just before entering the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel.  At those elevations, with a full loaded car, on a hot, humid day, my car was struggling to maintain speed.  I had the car in 2nd gear with the pedal all the way to the floor just to keep climbing.  I seemed to be having a better time of it than other drivers, though.  The thunderstorms that were threatening all afternoon finally made good, and it started coming down in buckets.  The worst came after exiting the tunnel, it was raining so hard I could barely see.  Most other drivers had slowed down, but there were a few maniacs to insisted on trying to do 80 or more despite the torrential downfall, steep terrain and winding road.

It was about this time I realized I didn't have a [Unknown site tag] street address, just a PO Box number.  I didn't know where I was supposed to go!  I called my SO's cellphone and left a message that I was early and that I needed his address.

I arrived in Denver, having driven about 16 hours.   Microsoft had suggested I stop here for my second night.  By now it was about 6 o' clock, but wasn't really feeling all that tired.  The sun was still in the sky, and I was only a few hundred miles from the Nebraska border, so again, I decided to press on.   I switched onto I-76 and stopped in Fort Morgan for dinner at Arby's.  The rest of Colorado was pretty boring, mostly flat with little or nothing to see.  By now the sun was going down and it started getting dark.   I had been driving about 10 miles over the limit most of the way, but with the increasing darkness (and the increasing highway patrol presence), I dropped back to the speed limit.   The road was mostly empty, but I was still passing people left and right.

I gave my SO a phone call and sent a text message asking for the address again.

Shortly after the Nebraska border, I-76 merged with I-80.  Here, some moron in an SUV that I'd passed some time earlier came roaring up in the left lane just as the two were about to merge.  I had to slam on the brakes and drive onto the shoulder to avoid a collision.  Shortly after that, the idiot slowed down again, and even though I was still doing the speed limit, I passed him like he was standing still.  ince leaving Denver I'd thought about stopping in North Platte for the night, but it was only a couple more hours to Lincoln, so I just stopped for some gas and caffeine and pressed on again.  Nebraska at night is a pretty boring place, but fortunately, there was a rather impressive thunderstorm in the distance.

I finally got into Lincoln about 2 am and I was pretty beat.  I started looking for a place to spend the night.  Despite there being dozens of motels all over, they were all full!  Augh!  I stopped in a rest area half-way between Lincoln and Omaha and starting calling, texting, IMing and e-mailing trying to get a response.  Nothing.  Augh!  I took a nap at the rest stop, then drove around for a bit trying to find a hotel with a vacancy.  Some time around 6 am, I stopped at an IHOP and had breakfast and 4 cups of coffee.  I drove across the border into Iowa, just to say I'd been there, then started driving around, hoping maybe I could spot some landmarks or something to tell me I'd gotten close.  I kept calling every 30 minutes or so, but by now the cellphone was going straight to voice mail, it had obviously been turned off.  I got a bit annoyed at this, and even though it was about 10 in the morning, I kept looking for a hotel room.   I finally found a place in Greenwood, NE that had one room available.  The motel clerk asked me if I was in town for the big race.  Apparently that, plus some conventions in Lincoln and the 4th of July holiday, was the reason all the hotels were full.  I headed for my room, took a quick shower then crashed hard for about 3 hours.

I got up and drove to the nearest place to get some food, a truck stop on the other side of the freeway.  Then, feeling bored, I decided to investigate the huge ADULT 24 HOUR sign off the highway.  I never did find the adult place (I learned later it had disappeared some time ago), but instead ended up in an antique shop.  It was then I finally got a text message from my SO.  Apparently the ring tone he'd uploaded to his phone wasn't working (stupid Verizon), and he'd forgotten to plug it in and the battery had died.  He was getting all of my messages in a sudden flood.  He gave me directions to his place.  It had taken me about 24 hours worth of driving to get to Omaha, and another 12 hours after I got there to find my destination.  I slept until well after noon on Monday.

Finished packing the PODS container last night.  It's about as full as I could make it, packed almost solid front to back, side to side, floor to ceiling.  It's scheduled for pickup tomorrow.

My final day at work is Friday, and my bosses are scrambling to find a replacement for me.   Looking at the resumes they've gathered so far, they're in some serious trouble.  None of the candidates so far can do even half the stuff I do.   Oh well, they had their chance to keep me and they threw it away.  I'm not going to go out of my way to help them.

Some time this week I need to drive my grandfather's genealogy research materials over to the Carlsbad library.  They have a genealogy department and I'm sure they'd appreciate the donations.  No point in keeping the stuff.  I doubt I could ever really add anything to his research; he's already written pretty much the definitive work on our family tree.

I am planning on leaving Saturday morning.  I have to vacate the house so the mold removal guys can come in and take care of the toxic mold infestation.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do in the future.  I can't really do anything until the house is sold and I get my share of the inheritance.   Hopefully the mold remediation won't be too expensive.

I'm thinking of maybe buying an apartment instead of a house, that way I can not only have an investment property but something that pays dividends.

I handed in my resignation letter this morning.  June 30th will be my last day here.  Since I started working here, the company officers have shown no interest in spending money on IT.  My workload has been tripled, but I haven't gotten a raise, and there are people here using computers that are 5+ years old.  OSHA and the BSA would have a field day with this company....

I spent the morning packing up my things.  This office looks strange without my furry art and stuff on the walls.

I sure hope I'm going to have room for all these boxes and my furniture in one of those PODS containers.   I'd hate to have to pay for two of them.

Bought a few more boxes today, and managed to get another 12 packed, for a total of 39 so far.  Today was packing up the few comics that weren't already in boxes, paperwork, the bottom two drawers in my desk, my SO's plushies and various knick knacks.

I still have dishes, cookware, the electronics, computers, sheets and blankets and various things left to pack up.

It's the "various things" that are killing me.

The company I work for is going to screw me over.  They won't even consider a raise for me until October.

I can't ask my family to wait 6 months to find out whether or not the house is going to have to go up for sale, so it looks like I'm out of here.   Barring a miracle like winning the Lottery or everyone in my family stroking out at the same time, I can't afford to live in California, especially not with the insulting amount I'm being paid.

I'm not sure where I'm going to go.  I may join my SO in Nebraska, but I REALLY don't want to live anywhere where there is snow, tornados, hurricanes or Texans.  I've seen some fairly cheap housing in New Mexico, maybe I'll try there.  Or Nevada or Arizona.

I wish I could stay in California.  I'll have to look around the San Juaquin Valley and see if there's any reasonable housing there, but it's pretty unlikely.

Fuckers can spend $4000 for one round of golf, but pay a reasonable wage to their employees?   Hah!