Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Wednesday Before a New Beginning

I thought I'd finish 10 Items or Less and watch all of King of California tonight, after the final shave and shower in Santa Clarita. I thought that tomorrow, when the movers come, I would unplug everything then, and watch them haul out my widescreen TV while I put all the necessary connectors for my DVD player to my TV and my VCR to my TV in a food storage bag, and then find a box for my two heavy-duty DVD binders, since I wanted to hold onto those until the very last minute because I wanted to watch those movies.

It's apparent that I haven't moved in eight years. None of that was ever possible. My 10 Items or Less DVD went back into its slot in one of my DVD binders, I unplugged my TV, my DVD player, and my VCR, and the DirecTV satellite boxes were taken to the post office in prepaid boxes sent by the company, and mailed. Dad didn't want to deal with their bullshit anymore, and where would we have found the time today to watch something anyway? Speaking of that, when Dad was on the phone yesterday asking for the service to be discontinued on Thursday (they discontinued it today instead, despite Dad saying repeatedly that he wanted it done on Thursday), I've no idea why he had to give our new address in Las Vegas, but the guy on the phone mistakenly thought he wanted those feeds right then, and for the rest of the day and into the late night, we got all the local Las Vegas channels, able to watch the news, to hear all the stories about the valley being flooded yesterday from torrential rains, which look even more torrential in the desert than they would in Florida without a hurricane. I finally got to know more about the current state of my home city without having to wait until we got there, save for this morning, before I went to bed, when I found that they had discontinued the service in the living room, but left the other boxes untouched because those were on a different satellite. Nevertheless, no more Dallas Raines and no more George Pennacchio on KABC 7 in L.A. became one of the best things about this move!

Yeah. Time for TV and time for two final movies in Santa Clarita. Sure. That was going to happen. Not with sweeping the patio of dead pine needles for the final time. Speaking of which, I've been sweeping dead pine needles from the patio for eight years and guess what happened today? They trimmed that pine tree, including shearing off some of the branches from which those dead pine needles fell. However, I see that as a good sign. Time to move on.

I also had to pack up the rest of my room, including my stuffed animals (which have in its ranks two Baloos and two King Louies from The Jungle Book, each a small and large size, assorted other DVDs (such as The Magic School Bus: The Complete Series, which I forgot to pack last night), and of course cords I need, such as the one I use to connect my MP3 player to the computer. Also my Johnny Carson and Zen Page-a-Day calendars, and I've forgotten what else, because it feels like we've done 72 hours worth of work in one day. I've also been cleaning most of our furniture with some spray we have under the sink so they look presentable when we get there and the movers bring them in. Best to leave the dust in Southern California than to bring it along to Las Vegas.

And I have only two issues left to read before I've read every single issue of The Henderson Press, except for Vol. 3, No. 32, which didn't download. It said "No File" the two times I downloaded it, so someone at The Henderson Press forgot to make sure the file was available to download. No matter, though, because by late tonight (depending on how much I still have to do tonight in cleaning furniture and whatever else needs to be done), I'll have reached my goal of reading every issue before we move. I'm not making any goal for the 5,432 issues available of Henderson Home News from 1951-2009 on the Henderson Libraries website. I'm going to read those at my leisure. After all, I've got decades to spend in Southern Nevada now!

I'm not sure when Internet service is going to be disconnected tomorrow, or if the main computer is going into a box or the trunk of our PT Cruiser when we leave early Friday morning (I think Dad will put it in the trunk. It's best to have it available right away), either 6:30 or 7 in order to get there by the early afternoon to meet the movers at our mobile home park. But chances are this is my last entry from Santa Clarita. The next one you see will be from Las Vegas, and I'll try to recount the four-hour drive home and moving in as best I can because I realized today, after that box had been sealed up, that I packed away all my composition books. Gee, I really could have used one for all that's coming up.

The only change on this trip is that I think we're going to skip Primm. If Enterprise or CarMax had accepted our aging PT Cruiser and we were driving to Las Vegas in a rental, I would have wanted to stop at the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas there, on the California/Nevada border. But driving long distances in the PT Cruiser requires concerted prayer and loud chanting in the hope that it'll get us to where we need to go. Yet, Dad was at our mechanic yesterday while he checked over everything and adjusted whatever had to be adjusted and he's confident that we'll get to Las Vegas safely. I think we will. Plus, we'll briefly stop in Baker at the Grewal Travel Center rest stop, my favorite there, for the final time, and it'll probably be a little after 9 when we get there, so I'm sure it'll only be in the mid-80s by then. The high in Baker on Friday is going to be 102, but we'll be long gone by the time the temperature gets there.

And as for Las Vegas, a high of 91 and a low of 75 on Friday. Easy, welcoming weather. There's a lot to move into our new home so that's better for us. Better than the possibility that there once was of moving during the summer before that job didn't pan out for Dad. His new principal has been very understanding in it taking some time for us to get there. On Tuesday, he'll go to the school district offices to sign more papers, and then on Wednesday, he'll start at his new middle school. Not long after, it'll be time for me to pursue the job I want as a full-time middle school campus supervisor, once again tying into my love of school campuses, their pervasive peace, that is if you're not one of the students or the administration, because those front offices are busy enough as it is with so much to do on any given day.

So this is where I stop for now, anticipating lots more to write once our Internet service is installed, along with CenturyLink Prism, which will let us watch our shows on any DVR in the house, the first time we've ever had this. Plus, we're also getting Boomerang in our channel lineup, so I can record Popeye whenever it's on. Oh, and yesterday, when the DirecTV boxes were unplugged, the main one in the living room, the one that recorded everything, had Harry and Tonto and Neil Simon's I Ought to Be in Pictures on it, among other things. I have Harry and Tonto on DVD, but I liked to have it on the Tivo for a while in case I wanted to watch it again or fast-forward to my favorite parts while I was in the living room. Losing I Ought to Be in Pictures was momentarily disappointing, because it's not on DVD, and VHS copies of it are very pricey on Amazon Marketplace. But it aired on Fox Movie Channel, which we had as a free preview two months ago on DirecTV, and it's one of the channels we get through CenturyLink Prism. When it comes on again, I'm recording it and not letting go until it comes to DVD. According to the channel website, it's going to air on Wednesday, September 26, nearly two weeks after our arrival in Las Vegas. Our cable system will be well in progress by then, and I will have that movie back.

Ok, that's probably it. Here I go, finally heading home. First the movers and then the drive. And a lot more stories to tell to really fill up this blog again, a lot to see, a lot to know. And I want to see and know it all.

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