How many hours do you think one should have to spend on the phone to get utilities set up? I guess it was a good thing that I didn’t have much better to do for hours in the car this morning.
We started out in Redding this morning, Liz came home earlier than expected which was an awesome surprise. We straitened up the rooms, blankets, and pillows we had used, packed our backpacks and lined them up by the front door. Liz had made a milk cake for us that we broke into for breakfast. After feeding Toby Liz read some French Garfield comic books to the kids before switching to Dr. Seuss.
It was hard to say goodbye but a few hours of visiting was better than none and we were glad to have had the chance. Liz needed some sleep and we needed to get on the road. We were looking at 12 hours of driving to get to my grandparents house and we didn’t want to inconvenience them by getting in late. It took me all of 10 minutes I get electric set up at our apartment and confirm our move in date and time with the apartment complex, with those things done I turned my attention to the gas thinking it would be just as easy. 16 phone calls and three hours later, it had to be set up in my name and one stop at a rest stop to contact Northwest Natural Gas to fax a statement saying that we pay our gas bill on time so that we don’t have to pay the $280 deposit that is refunded after paying on time for a whole year…..(not planning on staying around an extra 9 months to get it back). Northwest Natural Gas has way better costumer service and said they would fax it over right away. Southwest Gas would have refunded the money most likely when we moved out, but fronting another deposit on top of the housing specific ones was an unwelcome surprise. The other exciting outcome of all this effort to get gas turned on is that they have to come out and turn it on even though it is in a bigger complex and they won’t do that until 12/4 so we could have some cold showers and microwave meals for a couple of days.
After all that we returned a FaceTime call to my favorite mother-in-law. She hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye. She has a way of getting me out of a bad mood and it totally worked today… Good thing because Chad, I’m sure, gets tired of my short fuse. Definitely something I need to work on.
There was a lot of beautiful scenery passing us today. It was hard to drive through Sacramento with out stopping we could see Old Sac. From the freeway and I felt how close we were to William and Gerrit (1st cousins) and their families. As infrequently as we get to see them it hurt to drive past without seeing their faces. I can’t wait to get my schedule so I will know when we can go back and spend some time.
As we are now counting down the miles to Great Grandma and Grandpa Lawhead’s. house. I can’t help but smile in anticipation. A lot needs to fall into place in the next few days am I really ready to dive back into the first weeks craziness? I feel more calm and confident going into this assignment than the last and way more than the first. Not obnoxious confident, just the calm, one day at a time, determination kind of confident.
Owens Endeavors 