Everything costs MORE here. Groceries are more, utilities are more, most definitely any type of service you need is going to cost twice as much as it did in California. Only gas prices are about the same as California.
I ordered a trash service. You get one narrow garbage can. I thought I would spend the extra $10 a month to recycle. They only pick up recyclables every other week. I read up about what I can recycle and notice I have 3 different colored bins they have left me. The first week I put my recyclables out with my trash can. We live on a loooong private gravel drive, so I take everything to the main road in the back of the Rhino. They take the trash, not the recyclables. Okay, I figure I have the wrong week. I put the bins out the next week. They take the trash and leave the recyclables again. I call, leave them a message and write several emails to them. No return call or emails. I try it again the 3rd week. I email them and tell them just to pick up the bins. Same thing, still next to the empty trash can. I finally get ahold of a real person on the phone to see what they are charging me for the month. They aren't even charging me for the recycling even though they have left me three different colored bins. I give up. I told Wayne…."The bins are ours."
I have now learned that a heat pump can cool as in ALSO. My husband never mentioned that we had cool air I could turn on. He didn't even mention it on one of our hottest days when the house was in the mid 80's. I even told him I was buying a fan from Home Depot. Ugh. Men. Good thing he isn't here right now! Anyway, with the help of my FB friends, I figured it out. Yea!
Next, the sewer is a different sort of system here. At 10:30 PM, drying off after a relaxing bath, I hear this loud chirping. It takes me awhile to get a robe on, find a lantern, while the dogs all freak out (well, not Jet, because he can't hear it). I find the sewer box under one of the house eaves and press a reset button. Now it has gone off several times and I'm trying to read all I can about this type of sewer. Lordy…I wish I was forty.
I'm still waiting for the drywall contractor to come and fix the walls. I'm trying to pick colors to paint the back two bedrooms. The carpet is all ripped up and I'm walking on tacked floorboards. Oh joy. Not.
As soon as Wayne left the U joints needed replacing in the Avalanche. It was squealing. It freaked me out. I drove all the way to Elma where Jeanne's husband replaced them for me. Huge relief. I'm kind of swearing under my breath at Wayne who left me a truck he knew was about to need a lot of repair and he took my brand new VW back to California with him. Ugh. Men!
This morning I get up to take the dogs over to work sheep. I get out onto Happy Valley Rd. and know something is way wrong. I pull the truck over and the back rear tire is flat to the rim. I can't catch a signal, so I have to walk quite a ways up the private drive to get a few bars. I call triple A and they say it will be about an hour. When "Scott" shows up, he sees the tire on the rim and says, "How about I just pump it up and you go to a tire place?" Geez….Over 30 years I have been a Triple A member. I ask him politely if he would just change it for me. I give him the special jack to release the tire. He obviously doesn't know what he is doing. I bring him the Chevy book with directions. He says, "Real men don't need directions."
Oh dear God. I know where this is going. After an hour, he says, something is wrong. I will pump up the tire and follow you over to Les Schwab's (another tire place). We get there. He leaves. I wait an hour with 3 Border Collies who aren't liking all of the garage racket, trash trucks coming and going, etc. Finally, they get to me. They take the tire off, throw it in the back of the truck and put the spare on. They tell me someone put the spare on upside down. That's why the Triple A guy couldn't get it off. It made absolutely no sense to me. I didn't have them fix the spare because I think I have insurance with American Tire which is Discount tire in this state.
I make an appt with Discount Tire and sure enough I have insurance and can get a free tire. Bad news is the flat is toast, and the spare is older than my truck. I end up getting one free tire and buying another and it comes out to over $200.00 At least I have a good spare on. But, when I go to leave, the guy at Discount says that the Triple A guy didn't put the jack iron together properly and there is an 18 inch piece of it stuck up with the spare. Say what? He says he could lower the spare, take the tire off and put a new one on, but he can't take that 18 inch piece of jack iron out because it is stuck and he doesn't have the tools. He tells me the Triple A guy screwed up and didn't put the pieces of the jack together correctly. Well, Hell's bells. I don't know who is telling the truth. So I leave the tire place with an 18 inch rod somewhere under the truck.
I go to fill up on gas at Safeway and I can't get the pump to work. Oh shit, oh dear. Please just shoot me. My dogs are home really pissed because now their dinner is 3 hours late. The lady inside came out and it turned on like magic making me feel like a complete idiot. I did buy some windshield wiper fluid since I have none. I hope I can find the right place to put tomorrow. LOL
Meanwhile, I can't talk to my husband. He discontinued the land line in SoCal. We (he) gets no cell reception. The only thing he can do is text. He texts painfully slow and not very often because he never looks at his phone. I'm thinking it is out of convenience for him, so he doesn't have to answer my questions. Ugh. Men!
I come home stopping by the mailbox and this is what I see. I try to pull that priority box out of the mailbox. Impossible. I have some marshmallow tines in the truck. I stick them in there and can't budge the box. I get out my truck knife. I want to stab myself with it about this time. I cut the front of the box off, pull out my two little plants I ordered from Amazon, scrunch the rest of the box and pull it out. Really?
So it ain't all Camelot. Hahahaha Glad I can still laugh about it. Now I'm poor and looking for a job. The new drywall, painting, and carpet are going to cost me an arm and a leg. I'm on my own. Okay then.
To be continued…….
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