Only Connect

Ahhhh, connectivity. . . .

For once, I have an excellent reason for the 3-1/2 weeks since my last blog: I've been adrift, alone, unconnected to the world. And now, finally (well, yesterday), I got re-connected. YAY!!!

To explain: since I left Austin, I've spent 2 nights in hotels, which were the only times my computer has been able to get on the internet. And since I arrived here in Aiken, my cell phone has been unable to find more than 1 bar (and usually not even that) of signal--and to find that one bar has required that, whenever my phone rings or I want to place a call, I've had to leave my house and talk out in the driveway. In 93-degree heat AND 100% humidity! NOT an ideal situation.


[Speaking of my driveway in Aiken reminds me that, for most of last week, an empty ABF trailer sat in it (since ABF didn't come to pick it up until Thursday). That's getting a little ahead of my story, but I wanted to include a picture of the trailer as it was parked for loading at the apartment building in Pasco. Here it is, and please note that my apartment was on the far side of the building at the left. The movers figured they walked an extra 10 miles to cart everything all the way around the building and get it into the trailer!]

Back to my explanation. To check my email, I've traveled each evening to the hotel near here where I spent the last night before my furniture got moved into my house and asked if I could use their business center for that purpose. They've graciously allowed me to do that. But as of yesterday, I've solved both problems: Atlantic Broadband installed cable/internet/phone service, so I am now--after three weeks--reconnected to the outer world. It has really been an experience, living as we did back in the 1960s and 1970s, with only snail mail to keep me in touch. If I hadn't had some time in the car with NPR, I wouldn't know that we lost Ed MacMahon, Farah Fawcett, and that Michael guy--what's his name? Michael Jordan? Michael Jones? Whatever.

But that's all behind me--as is the whole move--and I want to set down here some of the more exciting points of my trip for those of you who might be interested. It'll take me 2-3 postings to get it all in, I expect, but bear with me. Or go read something else--I'll never know and there will NOT be a quiz.

Let's see: I left Pasco on Sunday, June 7, after JR, my wonderful mover (that's him on the left), and his cohort, Brian, had packed all my stuff. JR and I cleaned up the apartment and then I took him to Outback (his favorite place) for a well-earned prime rib dinner. We spent the night at the Best Western next to the Pasco Airport. On Sunday morning, we took the moving equipment and extra boxes back to U-Haul, took one last look around the apartment, and then I put JR on a plane back to Las Vegas, and I headed east and south towards Austin.

Backing up a bit, here's JR with his handiwork. He packs stuff as if he were doing a jigsaw puzzle. He is truly amazing! Here, the trailer is almost packed--the twelve linear feet at the back end of the trailer, that is. When they were done, JR put up a barrier, and then ABF filled the rest of the trailer with other loads that went other places.


Also want to show you the rains that didn't come until we were all through with the job. It was really a perfect day for a move!








That first day I traveled 635 miles, stopping long after dark in North Salt Lake City, Utah. The things that stand out on that leg of the trip are 1) my lunch at Nell's-n-Out in La Grande, OR, where I had the best french fries I've ever had in my life, along with some pretty doggone good fish and a memorable milkshake; 2) the fact that, when I reached the Best Western where I spent the night, Steve at the front desk let me leave my car (which contained all of the things I treasure the most) right in front of the hotel where the light was strong and he could watch it for me; and 3) the GORGEOUS scenery in Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. The unfortunate thing is that I couldn't/didn't stop to take lots of pictures. But trust me, I was constantly doing an "Ahhhh" or "WOW!" or "Ooooo"--and wishing that my bamboo plant could talk back to me and let me know that I really was seeing all this beauty.

I'm including a picture here of some gorgeous Oregon scenery, but I remember particularly the storms in Idaho. There'd be lightning off in one direction or another, and then a spattering of rain on the windshield--with huge spectacular cloud formations in every direction around me. And I'd say, "Thanks for all of this--it is truly unbelievable. But I don't want any rain on the roads I'm traveling, please, since I'm leery of planing in the water/oil slick that initial rainfall creates." [My hesitancy comes from nearly getting killed when my car planed in Tennessee in 1984.] And sure enough, the spattering of rain would pretty much stop. I make no claims (other than my usual one of focusing on what I want in my world), but I have to say that for three of the four days of my trip to Austin, I was constantly surrounded by clouds and storms but almost never even had to put on my windshield wipers.

I'm grateful for that, and also for the fact that I stopped when I did on that first night (here's where my car spent the night--right at the front door!), because, if I'd gone on, I'd have missed the most spectacular scenery of my whole trip, which was the mountains surrounding Salt Lake City and the passes I went through heading east out of Salt Lake City and into Wyoming. The traffic and construction in Salt Lake City on Monday morning was a challenge, especially because my jaw was constantly dropping as I tried to take in the scenery, but suffice it to say that I made it--and will forever have those gorgeous mountains in my head.

It's funny: I've always thought of myself as an ocean person, since my favorite spot on earth is Bustins Island, Casco Bay, Maine. But now that I've pretty much left the mountains behind, after 2-1/2 years surrounded by them, I'm finding that I miss them--perhaps even more than I do the ocean when I have to leave it. Wonder what that's all about. . . .

Well, the only other thing to say about this leg of the trip is that, when I figured things up that night in my North Salt Lake City hotel room, I found that my trusty 1999 Toyota Camry had done all those miles at the phenomenal rate of 33.5 miles per gallon. Pretty good, right? But you ain't seen nothin' yet, folks!

I'm going to stop at this point, put in a few pictures, and save the next leg for my next posting. Hope that'll be tomorrow--but no promises.

Moving Right Along

It's only been a few days since my last post. I'm very proud of myself for not waiting a year between posts! The most important development since my last posting is that I have decided on where I will live in Aiken. This was a difficult thing to do because I got so little information from the real estate agents that I contacted for help. The first one took a week to get back to me (although once she DID finally get back to me, she was very helpful). The second one was brusque, promised me pictures of the property she was offering, and never delivered on them. I then talked to my daughter-in-law, Sandy, who is an agent with ReMax in Portland, ME, and said she'd try to find someone in a ReMax office in Aiken to help me. That didn't work out (no ReMax agencies there).

The fourth time was a charm. I've been working with Rachel Harper, who with her son Lester owns Harper Realty in Aiken. She had two house to offer, one that was 50+ years old but well-maintained, close to downtown, and not too far from the job-site. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, hardwood floors (which is a turn-on for lots of people, but not for me), a carport, and came with a washer and dryer. It's in a nice older part of town (one that I can remember driving through often between my hotel/work and whatever we did for entertainment downtown, back when I was working in Aiken. It was reasonably priced at $875/month, and if that was all there was, I'd have been quite happy with it.

However, Rachel told me about another house, only 2-3 years old, in a development south of Aiken (towards the job-site) that is so new, it isn't yet labeled on Google maps (although you can see the first few houses being built on the terrain view). It does show up on MapQuest, however, if you're interested in seeing it. It's at 909 Watsonia, Aiken, SC, 28903 (and that's my new address, right there, folks!), and it is a full house, with a great room, a back porch and a front porch, a 2-car garage, and a yard. It's $200 more than the other one, but since I could be there for as long as three years, I've decided I might as well be comfortable. I'll probably hire a lawn service to maintain the yard (since I don't have a lawnmower and don't want to invest in one), and I may even lay in some potted plants for outside, if there aren't many plantings already there (Rachel says it hasn't grown up much, since it is so new).


I'm including a scan of the floor plan Rachel sent me yesterday. I thought about the three places that I've been told about last night and this morning, and then did a Cybil Shepherd (told myself "I'm worth it"), called Rachel, and cemented the deal for the Watsonia property, the most expensive. As Karen pointed out today, though, Rachel says I'll save 15 minutes each way on my commute, which adds up to 2 hours a week. Right there is a substantial savings of time, which really helps make the extra $200 in rent not a problem at all!

I'll send the paperwork in to Harper Realty this week, call the various utilities (Rachel has supplied me with all of that information--the electric company is SCE&G, which is who I indirectly worked for on my 3-month job earlier this year--it sure is a small world!), and get that set up, and pass on my new address to those who need to know (like my old utilities and the Post Office, etc.). All that's left now is to actually get there!

That means continuing to pack boxes here. I've still got some more books to pack, but as of this afternoon, I have officially given away all the books I've been able to part with (and for this former English teacher, that has been an amazing pile of them!), as well as 37 issues of Cooking Light, 13 issues of Light & Tasty, AND 16 issues of Etude Magazine, which was a large monthly publication containing lots of music for piano students. Almost all of these 16 magazines were published before I was born! I was reluctant to let Etude go, but I tried twice to sell them on eBay, and neither time brought more than 2-3 nibbles. I donated all of this today (and half my videotapes last week) to the library system, which is having a major sale this coming weekend (coincidence? I think NOT!). So I figure someone who will really use this music will buy it for cheap and enjoy it. That is a MUCH better fate than languishing for more years in my cupboards.

JR (my fabulous mover) comes Friday night. Now I not only have an address for him to give his driver, but I have a floor plan. I can now show JR where I want the piano (the interior wall of Bedroom 2), where I want the small wicker table and 2 chairs (the breakfast nook), which wall to put my desk on (the outer front corner of Bedroom 3), where to put all my mother's boxes of photographs, etc. (the outside wall of the garage), and so on. Am I boring you? I apologize, but I have to say this is SO exciting to me that I'm having a hard time remembering that it is NOT world-altering and earth-shaking to anyone else.

I guess that's it for tonight. I probably won't get back to my blog until I'm on the road. To give you a thumbnail of the trip, I expect to get from here to Salt Lake City on Sunday, on to Denver on Monday, a night with my sister-in-law Kay and her husband Rick in Ardmore, OK, on Tuesday, with arrival in Austin sometime mid-afternoon on Wednesday. I'm spending Wednesday night with Lisa (though I hope to see Karen and the boys for at least a while Wednesday afternoon. Today was their last (half)day of school, and Karen, as is her tradition, took the afternoon off and picked them up and brought them home to start celebrating. Unbelievably, Jon-Michael is now officially a fifth-grader, and Jason will be starting 1st grade in the fall. I can't resist (and this blog is light on pictures anyway), so here are some pictures of the boys at the crawfish boil they enjoy each year up in Fort Worth.


Here's Jon-Michael quietly playing his gameboy, while the world goes on around him.









And here's Jason, up to no good with one of the guests of honor at the crawfish boil. . . .

And here's what happens when you mix those ingredients!



But just to reassure you that there's not always such excitement with these two, here they are exhibiting some of their very best behavior.

Onward. . . .

Go East, "Young" Woman

I'm embarrassed to realize that it's been over a year since I last blogged. Much has happened, much is in the throes of happening, and much has yet to happen, and I've been telling people about it all for the last month or so. It suddenly occurred to me today that I should be blogging it. Then whoever wants to hear what's going on with me can do so at his/her leisure. And from now on, I only have to tell the story once! So here goes.

I came to Washington state almost 13 months ago (5/5/08 was my first day on the job that brought me here--which I talked about in my last blog). I was blown away back then by how beautiful this place is and by my gorgeous apartment, and over the year that's passed, those feelings have only increased. I have LOVED my time here! And in the last six months, I've met three women my age and with similar interests, and we've become fast friends. Here I am with Judy, one of the three. So all of that will be hard to leave. But leave it I must--and am about to do--as you will see.

My original job ended sooner than any of us wanted--12/5/08 was my last day, and I immediately got on a plane for Austin: if I'm not working, I might as well be traveling! I spent 10 days in Austin, and while I was there, my "manager" in New Hampshire arranged for me to have a phone interview for a new job. I did the interview, which I thought went quite well (the fellow, whose name was Peter, was going to be in Yarmouth, ME, visiting his mother for Christmas, at the same time as I'd be in Westbrook, ME, visiting my son, so it even looked like we might meet). I did, in fact, go on to Maine on 12/20, and stayed there until 1/4/09, seeing friends and family and thoroughly enjoying Christmas--but I did not meet my potential new boss, due to inclement weather (in Maine in December? Who'da thunk it!).

I actually didn't hear about the job until I'd been back home for a couple of weeks--I was beginning to be nervous! Can I interrupt here to add a picture of the wind turbines that I can see from my apartment, but that (in this picture) are up close and personal? More about these wind turbines in a future blog. Anyway, Peter did finally call and I was hired to spend 3 months writing training documents for his company. The training documents were for a pollution-removal process at two coal-fired power plants in South Carolina, and Peter felt it would be a good idea to have a site visit to familiarize us (he had hired two editors), so I flew to SC at the end of January and spent a week touring the two plants. THAT was an experience: picture me in hard hat and steel-toed shoes, as I put it, "boldly going where no 67-year-old fat lady has ever gone before." I climbed to the top of a 7-story limestone milling structure and then came back down, and pretty much followed everyone else around this fascinating place for 3 days in one plant, and two in the other. Then I went back home to write with my fellow editor. This arrangement could NOT have happened 10--or even 5--years ago: I worked for a company in NH whose client (in MA) needed documentation for 2 plants in SC, and that documentation waw provided by two editors, one in WA and the other in TN. 

Anyway, that job ended on 4/8, a few weeks early, and that left me adding to the fast-growing unemployment statistics here in Washington state. But I have to say I was never fearful that there wasn't something fabulous out there for me! And sure enough, my "manager" in NH asked me almost right away if I wanted to go to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC (where Kent, my former partner, and I had already spent two 2-3 month periods helping on proposals back in 2003 and 2005) for a salary that knocked me over! I am still not taking it in. In the middle of this recession, I'm going to be making more than twice as much as I've ever made in my LIFE! Absolutely incredible!

Well, needless to say, I said "YES!!!" It took a while for the offer to actually come, but it has come, I've signed my contract, and all I have to do now is get there. And leave here--I'm picking this point to show you part of the view from my apartment, the cable bridge in Pasco that just fascinates me. Anyway, that part of the adventure, too, is proceeding absolutely without a hitch. I took a "can't hurt to try" attitude a few weeks ago and called my wonderful mover from Las Vegas, hoping I could persuade him at least to come up here and pack my stuff onto whatever vehicle I could get to take it to SC, and he said, without hesitation, "For you, I'll do the whole move." That was almost as mind-bending as the job itself.

As I write this it is Sunday night. JR, my wonderful mover, will arrive on Friday night, pack my things onto an ABF trailer on Saturday, and fly back to Vegas on Sunday. After I take him to the airport, I'll head out for points south and east: 2,148 miles from my door to Karen's in Austin. I hope to make that trip in 4 days (3 nights), and I also hope to blog along the way to let y'all know how I'm doing. After a week in Austin crammed with lots of interesting events, I'll head directly east approximately 1,100 miles to South Carolina (or perhaps Georgia, since it's looking like there are more opportunities for house in Augusta than in Aiken). My mover will fly in from Vegas to meet me and my stuff, which should arrive on 6/19, we'll unload on 6/20, JR will fly back to Vegas on 6/21, and I'll start work on 6/22.

That's the bare bones of the next three weeks. I'll try to keep you up to date on stuff as it happens (what do they say? "Pictures at 11"? although I'm not going to put many pictures into this blog). Meanwhile, I've had a lot of time to sort through stuff and cull out what I haven't used for years (decades, in some cases). I've cut my books down by nearly half; I've given away more than half of my video tapes, I've gotten rid of almost all of my CDs (after digitizing them to my hard drive), I've got several pieces of furniture that I'm going to give away or sell, and this last week is going to be spent disposing of, one way or another, at least half of my clothes. This is going to be the easiest and pleasantest move ever! There's no "bad Elizabeth" to deal with (see earlier blogs on the move from Vegas to here), JR is the best when it comes to packing, and I'm going to have everything but my dishes and pictures packed and waiting for him.

One of the best aids in this move was a visit by my lovely daughter, really the only person to visit me here for the entire year. Her company, TIP Strategies, just established a new client in Ellensburg, WA, about 113 miles up the beautiful Yakima River valley from here, and she went with a team from TIP to meet the new clients on 5/6. They had their meetings, did some touring of the area, and then, on the next day, Thursday, 5/7, they "released" Karen to me and we drove back down here to Pasco and the Tri-Cities, where we spent the BEST 3 days, unhassled by kids, husbands, agendas, or whatever. We did some sight-seeing, visiting places I'd always intended to see but hadn't yet--and would never have seen if she hadn't come. Here we are at the site of the wind turbines, which I can see from my apartment. We also tackled my books. Karen is THE BEST at helping me go through things and recognize that I don't need to be carting this, that, or the other across the country AGAIN! As I say, nearly half my books are gone (and I now have over $500 in store credit at Hastings and a local bookstore. I can use that credit online, and I have vowed (to myself and to Karen) that I will give up two books every time I order one!

I've sprinkled a few pictures throughout this blog, hoping to give you some idea of how beautiful things are here. But they really don't do it justice. Still they're an attempt. I'm hoping, too, to give you some more information on the upcoming job, some other events that I'm excited about, and where I hope to be living in SC/GA. And, as I say, I'll blog my way from here to Austin, and then from Austin to the east coast, as the days go along. For now, though, this is Patsy signing off on one of her last days in this west coast Wonderland.