Tag Archives: moving

Eleven Days – No Cable!

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Ocean

When you are building a new home, sometimes you get so bogged down in the house itself, you forget other necessities. Cable is one of those necessities for me. Not only does cable afford me the opportunity to watch all my favorite shows, but it also provides me with the INTERNET! And who can survive without the internet these days? Certainly not me. Of course I have the internet on my phone, but who can see and do what you need to do on that little tiny screen? My 54 year old eyes don’t like my little bitty screen on my iPhone. I am ready for the iPhone to get bigger, but that is a whole other blog.

Another one of those necessities we needed and didn’t get until after the house was completed was gas. Yes, it’s good to have gas when you cook with gas, heat with gas and need hot water. That put us a week late in moving in because our gas company was, oh how do I put this, impossible to reach by phone and did not return calls. That would be the polite way to put it. Then there’s the cable company, who don’t want to come and lay their line until the gas company is done and the sprinkler guys are done. GEEZ! So on June 28 we officially moved in. We have gas, but we still have no cable. Cable isn’t happening until July 8! Apparently, I just need to get over it.

For the first couple of days, we were so busy moving furniture and boxes that the cable was not in the forefront of our minds. By the end of each day, I could not have watched TV if my life depended on it and I certainly could not have gotten to the computer in Keith’s office because his office was still piled high with boxes. I’m not even sure we knew where the computer was.

So what do you do all day and night when you have no cable? For one thing, I was able to unpack all my stuff and get VERY organized; until you ask me where something is. I might be able to tell you where I think I put it and I might not. Keith has really been testing me here: where is the … or where did you put the … So far, I think I’m doing pretty good in the remembering category. However, we do have a few favorite shows that I am missing. One of my favorites right now is Devious Maids on Lifetime. It is almost the end of the season and it is getting really good and I’m not getting to see it.  I’ve missed the last two episodes. My daughter called me the first Monday we were in the house to ask me what I thought about the previous night’s episode, because it was REALLY GOOD. I could hear her scream all the way from Arkansas when I told her I did not have cable yet. When she called me this past Monday, I told her I needed her to fill me in again because still no cable. We really love the “24” series which is also getting close to the end too. Keith has gone to his office the past two Monday night’s to watch it there. I’m white knuckling it.

It’s funny how you get so used to something and then when it’s gone, you really are at a loss as to what to do. I have tried to take it all in stride. I cannot ever remember a time in my life when I was without cable TV. As long as I kept busy, I did OK. It wasn’t until I thought I needed to sit down for a break or in the evening when I needed some down time I found myself yearning for TV.

After I got my office organized, I found a book I had bought that I had been wanting to read. Yes an actual hard back 600 page book! Now is the perfect opportunity to do that. Also, one of my favorite authors has finally released their latest book. It was supposed to be downloaded automatically onto my Kindle on July 1. Oops, no internet with WiFi, no downloaded book. I had to use a little strategy there. Drove out to Starbucks, sat in their parking lot, used their free WiFi and downloaded my book. Wooohooo. I now have two books to read.

In anticipation of the cable company coming this week, Keith got all the TV’s in the house set up and also set up the surround sound system in the great room. He ran to Hastings and rented us a few movies to test it all out. We are all set, now we just need cable. So it’s Tuesday morning, July 8, and we are patiently waiting for that phone call from the cable company. You know, the one that gives you a ten minute warning that they are coming to your house because you have to drop everything at work and go to the house. Keith had a very important meeting at work that morning and would not be able to take a call so I have his phone until he gets out of the meeting. Can you believe that? We are so in need of cable we have scheduled our lives around it. I even took the phone with me to the restroom at work so I wouldn’t miss a call. It has gone with me to other offices in the building and to the mail room.

Well it’s 10:30 and I’m passing Keith’s phone back to him.  Tag he’s it, waiting for the cable guy.  Tick tock….tick tock….tick tock….It is now 3 p.m., and I get a text from Keith.  “Haven’t heard from the cable guy yet”….  I NEED to watch some TV tonight so I just picked up the phone and called customer service.  Had to verify who I was by giving them the last four numbers of Keith’s social security number before they would talk to me and had to sign over my left kidney [kidding about the kidney part].  Finally got to talk to someone and she assured me we were on the schedule and they had until 5 p.m., to show up at my house.  Interestingly enough, not 15 minutes later, Keith get’s “the call” that they are on their way to to our home.  Coincidence?  I don’t know.  Squeaky wheel you know.

So I am happy to report that when I got home from work, we had cable.  I cooked dinner while the tv was on, cleaned the kitchen while the TV was on and plopped down at around 8 to watch some of my favorite shows.  Got good and comfortable on the couch and tuned in to some great repeats of the Big Bang Theory.  That Leonard and Sheldon can always make me smile.  Next think I know Keith is waking me at 10 and asking me if I’m coming to bed.  Hmmmm. I had forgotten how well I can sleep in front of the TV too.

A New Chapter is Before Me

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20140627-153505-56105845.jpgThere are times in one’s life that deserve a little reflection. I am on the cusp of closing a chapter in my life and starting a new one, which is so exciting and yet I get emotional if I think about it too long. In order to close this chapter, I have to let go of some things.

Keith and I started out our married life together living next door to my mom and dad. In fact, it was Keith’s idea to purchase the house next door to my parents before he ever proposed marriage to me. When it came available, he said, “I should buy that house.” My response, “Would you want to live right next door to your in-laws?” As an only child, he knew that their care as they grew older would fall to me and to him as well. He knew living right next door to them would offer them a sense of security. If I didn’t already know he was the perfect man for me that certainly cinched it.

In 2008 Keith and I got married and my mom’s Parkinson’s was so bad that she almost couldn’t make it to our wedding, but she was a trooper and she got there. Mom passed away in 2009 and we took on the challenge of caring for my dad, who passed away this past August. Since that time I have been going through all their stuff and trying to settle their estate. They didn’t have much, but my mother had thrown nothing away. And I mean nothing. She had become quite the pack rat over the past 10-15 years. Once I got beyond magazines that were 10 years old and paper clippings from those magazines, then it was time to take on the hard stuff. Stuff that when you looked at it, it came with a corresponding memory. Those things brought up very raw emotions. I’d cry, and then I’d go home too emotionally drained to continue that day. Next day I’d go back start in again. Do I keep this, do I keep that. Guilt about throwing anything away was eating me alive. These were their things after all. How could it even occur to me to not keep everything? But where would I keep everything and better yet, I don’t want everything.

I hired a guy to come in and take care of their things and do an estate sale, only to be told weeks later that they really didn’t have enough that would be worth his time. He could have told me that at the beginning. Now here I am again tasked with the mountain of stuff. I just sat down and cried. I didn’t think I could do it. Then a friend recommended someone else that would come in and take care of “everything”. Well weeks later and an estate sale later, it still wasn’t taken care of and here I was again… It was time to put on my big girl panties and just do it.

With the closing of their estate, they left me a little money, which has allowed us to move forward with building our dream home and start the official new chapter in our life as a married couple. My mom would be so excited for us and I know they are smiling at us, but it comes with very mixed emotions for me. For the last six months, we have been living in their home. Our home sold in record time and we moved next door into their house, which is full of memories for me. At first it was comforting. I could feel them in every room and I had memories of so many events there. I could remember conversations and laughter and tears. Now as I prepare to close this chapter and move out, it again is bringing up very raw emotions. I feel like I am leaving them all over again. When we move out and I sell the house to someone else, that chapter is officially closed. I have always thought of myself as a strong woman, but this past year I have truly felt like nothing but a crybaby.

We have been moving a few things over to the new house a little bit at a time. So last weekend I became reacquainted with some of my “things” that have been in a box for the last six months. As I opened the boxes and carefully removed items wrapped in bubble wrap, there were some of the items I had chosen to keep that reminded me of my parents. OMG! An immediate smile came over me, followed by tears and then a determination to find the perfect spot for these items in our new home. So in a sense, I am taking them with me on this new journey.

So in the next few days, I am going to pick myself up and get started full force on this new chapter with a man that deserves my full attention. Yes, with the man that has been there for me every day for the past ten years. The man that has wiped my tears and hugged me tight through painful and joyous times. The man that holds my hand every day as we walk through this life together. Yes, a new chapter. OUR chapter. It’s time.