Friday, August 4, 2017

A Placeholder for a New Place

I don't want to lose all this to inactivity, though I don't think I've been away for that long. So consider this a placeholder for when I likely get back to writing more regularly on here.

What's prevented me from doing so was our urgent quest to move out of Las Vegas, which began to happen when my father got a computer/business education teaching position at a high school near where we're going to live, in Ventura. Then finding an apartment was full of desperation, near-tears, and utter frustration because housing in Ventura is limited. The city does not want to expand willy-nilly, and so Oxnard, next door, is expanding rapidly in response. But Ventura is where we want to be, because Dad wants to retire near the beach, and he has a scant few years before he does. What better time to start? Plus, to us, there's more to do in Ventura than there is in Oxnard, although we'll be going to Oxnard because they have an elegant-looking shopping center that features The Container Store and Whole Foods, and I've heard a lot about that Whole Foods from my parents, when they went out there last February for one of Dad's job interviews (the second one, which was over the phone, is the one that scored him the job).

So I sit here on this Friday night, at 11:52 p.m., 8 minutes until the unfortunate series finale of @Midnight, which I had planned to watch come hell or high water, since the DVRs have to go back to Cox early enough tomorrow. I wasn't going to miss this.

We move out on Sunday, since that's what our movers had available and can't budge it. We'll stay at a hotel in Ventura until Wednesday, when our new apartment becomes available. We'll have our two dogs with us, which is fine, but likely without their cages, since we put them in their trunk in their various pieces and found there would only be a tiny bit of space for the clothes we'll wear for the three days we'll be waiting to get the apartment, and that still wouldn't be enough. If we took only that tiny space, then there would be absolutely no room for toiletries.

But the dogs are good sports. Our eldest, Tigger, when he was much younger, granted, traveled with us five days cross-country from South Florida to Southern California in 2003. Kitty, slightly younger than Tigger (12 years old to his 14), was with us when we moved from Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, to Las Vegas in 2012. They know the routine, not to mention the five times we moved in four years from Las Vegas to Henderson, and then through two different apartment complexes in Henderson, although they're both on the same street in Henderson.

It only gets busier tomorrow because we have to be sure everything is done to the letter before the movers come to pack and load everything in the truck on Sunday. Afterward, I might well sleep for a week, and then get started looking for a job in Ventura. After everything we've been through to get to this point, I know for sure that finding a job in Ventura will be vastly easier.

But for now, @Midnight and then a little sleep, and hopefully a shower sometime tomorrow so I don't feel crummy when we leave Las Vegas for good (leaving Las Vegas for good can only make me feel elated, though I plan to write a few novels set in Las Vegas, based on my time here. There's a lot to write about, with all I experienced in the city). And then it all ramps up and doesn't stop until we get to La Quinta Inn late Sunday night. And then we wait. But for the water pressure in the shower at La Quinta Inn, I'll be happy to do it.

More to come later, as a returning California resident.