PJ

Home at Last...After a Setback or Two

I've returned from California and all of my aunts things are sitting out in the UHaul (with the car hooked to the back). We'll be taking it up to my dad's to unload it later this afternoon.

The trip back was an adventure and then some. I got on the road around 5pm PDT on Thursday. I made it all way to St. George, Utah before getting a room to stay in (it was well after midnight).

I got going around 8am CDT Friday morning. Everything was going smooth and as I was getting near Salt Lake City, I stopped to get gas (it was about 1pm CDT).

After filling up, I started up the truck and there was a huge clunking noise followed by a popping through the intake manifold. I quickly moved from the pump to the parking lot a nearby.

I quickly called the UHaul emergency number and they sent a repair truck out.  After about 46 minutes, the mechanic showed up & determined that one of the fuel injectors had unseated and that it would have to be towed to the Uhaul garage in Salt Lake City.

After about 45 minutes, the tow truck showed up and it took another 45 minutes to hook it up and get going. Once we arrived at the garage, they worked on it for quite a while, and finally got it repaired around 6pm CDT.

So with 5 hours lost, I got back on the road. I had originally wanted to make it to Cheyenne, Wyoming at the end of Friday (but with more time to sleep), so I pushed my way through until I made it to Cheyenne. It was late, so I didn't get much sleep before leaving early Saturday morning.

Saturday was a looooong day. As I was leaving Cheyenne, I had approximately 1,100 of the 2,200 miles left to travel. I did my best to keep things going with the least amount of stops as possible. And as I entered Michigan it was well after midnight. I encountered some construction, of course, but at 3:00am I pulled in the driveway. It took a while to settle down enough to get to sleep and I was able to get in 2 hours before my son woke me up because he was so excited that I was finally home.

We're In...Finally

On Monday morning my brother Joe & I got up and drove straight to the coroner. After a bit of pleading (they weren't quite finished identifying her), we finally got the approval to access my aunt's apartment.

Once we gained access we went right to work, getting rid of anything that we weren't packing up. The reason for the hurry was that Joe had to get back to the airport around 2pm to fly back home, which was going to leave it up to me to do the rest.

After several hours if sorting, I drove Joe to the airport. Then I returned to the apartment to start packing things.

Then on Tuesday I reserved a UHaul (for Wednesday), bought some boxes and went back to packing.

This morning myself and some local workers that I hired loaded up all of my aunt's possessions in a truck and hooked her car up to the back on a car dolly.

I have to return to the apartment to finish up with a few more small items and then turn in the keys tomorrow morning. Then I'll pick up her property at the coroner and then hit the highway. It's going to be about a 2,200 mile trip across the country and I'm hoping to be home by Fathers Day.

Not Having Great Success Settling Things

It's been 2 days so far and it seems we're not getting any closer to accessing my aunt's apartment. On Thursday I found that she was still not identified at the coroner. So unfortunately they had to keep her apartment sealed. They suggested dental records, but I did not know who her dentist was or where to start (if they would let me access her apartment I could have though). They did offer me the name of her friend that lived in the same building as her, so I got in touch with her and she invited me to visit.

My aunt's friend Peggy had been her friends with her for almost 30 years, but she did not know who her dentist was (none of my friends know mine either). What she could tell me was that he was located in Santa Monica and that she had been going there for years.

After hanging out there for a while (and having dinner) I headed to the airport to pick up my brother. Then this  morning we started calling all of the dentists listed in Santa Monica (just over 200) and after only around 30 calls, we finally had the office located.

They offered to make copies of her x-rays and that we could pick them up in the afternoon, so in the meantime we visited with Peggy. Late in the afternoon we got the call to go pick up the x-rays, so we battled LA traffic and got there just before 5pm.

Once we had her records, we high-tailed it over to the coroner, only to find out that we'll have to wait for Monday morning until the identification people are back at work. So in one way, we've made a huge leap in the process, but we have to sit idle for 2 days until we can get more things accomplished.

Traveling to California...Not Quite For a Vacation

It's been a while...and it seems like I only post when I'm doing some sort of traveling. My aunt recently passed away and I am traveling to Los Angeles to settle her affairs.

She lived alone (in Hollywood) and unfortunately we didn't learn of her passing until a few weeks had passed. I was contacted by the coroner last Friday and they told me that I shouldn't go down right away, since they were having trouble identifying her. So I decided to wait until today to fly down.

I'm staying with my friend Jon's sister (Jen) and her family. They have a camper in their yard that I can stay in and a vehicle that I can drive while I'm down there. My brother Joe will be flying in tomorrow to help get things handled. She had an apartment and a car, so we're going to have to figure out what to do with those also.

I will try to update the progress here, but you can probably keep up easier on Facebook or Twitter.

Road Trip 09

Road Trip 09 is underway! We departed around 9:30 this morning and plan to drive about 8 or 9 hours and then find a place to stay. Mar took the first shift in the driver's seat and I'm navigating. Actually the GPS and the map are navigating...I'm playing with my iPhone. More updates soon...

Hard Hat Area

Jimmy's For Lunch...

Making Beer...

I had some things going on earlier today, so I took the afternoon off from work. My friend Jon was available also, so after I was done we met up at my house to make some beer. It's our third attempt and we think that this batch will be an improvement on the last (we say that every time). This is a red ale, same as the previous (our first batch was a wheat), and we've changed things slightly, so hopefully it will be easier to compare.

Water Softener, Finally....

After 391 days of EXTREMELY hard water, we finally have a water softener!

Pizza 2night

Trav & I made pizza for guys night!

Wii Have Wii

Why are they still running out of stock on these things??

Testing the Wheel Attachment

Doing a Fresh Install on Mar's laptop

It's like watching paint dry

Downtown GR at The Great Skate Winterfest

We're skating at Rosa Parks Circle.

 

Travis Playing Wii Fit

New Phone

Just picked up the iPhone yesterday, thought I'd give the Typepad application a spin.

At a Griffins Game...

Our 1st game of the season. Griffs up 3-1 at the end of the 2nd.

Goodbye P.O. Box

After twelve & half years, I've made my last trip to the P.O. BOX.

New Coat Rack...

Someday I'll build some lockers here in the laundry room...but for now, I made up a 10 dollar coat rack. With a quick trip to Menards at lunch, and an hour of tinkering this evening.

Frosty Mug!

Having a frosty mug of A&W root beer

The Big Race...Almost Took the Championship!

Alie (Travis' Hampster) won the first heat by a landslide. Won again in the semi-finals, but lost the championship race (which he was in first for the majority of the time). The only prize went to the champ. Alie did a great job considering he's only a dwarf hampster...maybe he'll win in the next PETCO races.

The Last Brick...

It's been a long drawn out task, with several distractions and plenty of bumps in the road, but the last brick went on the housethis morning. Now I jus have to fill in the mortar joints and it'll be complete!

T-Splash

Travis at the bottom of the waterslide

Back On The Driveway Again...

After 14 days of curing (and 17 days without use of a driveway)...I'm finally parked on the new driveway!

Walking Around at Lunchtime

Friday...Movie Knight

I think they spelled NIGHT wrong.

Tearing Up the Driveway

The driveway was poured when it was too cold (last November) and it caused it to have some issues. So now they're tearing it up and replacing it.

Coordinates...

Trav & I are out Geocaching and while doing a multi-stage cache, we found one of the stage's coordinates on this here washer...very clever!

Independence Day Cookout

Happy Birthday America!

Baby Colin...

We got to see baby Colin before he, his mommy & his daddy head up to Alaska tomorrow.

The Lights Went Out...

On Wednesday afternoon we lost power around 3pm, I hadn't actually had a chance to get the plug for the generator hooked up at the new house yet. So I headed out in the storm to get some missing pieces to complete the installation. After getting what we needed, Trav and I stopped by and grabbed some pizza to take home and eat by the light of a lantern.

I was able to get the generator going at about 7pm, we ran it until about 11pm and then shut it down for the night. I fired it up again in the morning and ran it on and off (depending on whether or not power was needed) until about 2pm when power was restored. So in the end it was only about 23 hours without power in our neighborhood, which was great because the estimated restoration time was supposed to be 10am on Saturday.

Riding Lawnmower Engine Cracked...

Yesterday while I was mowing at the old house, the engine on the mower kinda blew up. I was able to  finish the yard by using the push mower. And then I went back over this evening with some tools and pulled the engine. I loaded it up in the Jeep and I'm ready to get a repair estimate tomorrow. Above is a picture of me pointing out the crack!

Check it out...I think that there is room for a V8 now, what do you think?