Vacation from moving

8 June – Well it has been awhile hasn’t it? I decided to take a week off from “moving” and go visit family in CA. It was a fun trip – interesting at times too.  Driving down was amazing because I thought the traffic from the holiday weekend would be all over – I was soooooo wrong. Everyone must have wanted one more night to share their checkbooks with Vegas because it was bumper to bumper all the way to Escondido. Made good time, but oh that traffic. And people say we have traffic! HA!
That first day we just chatted and ate lunch and rested. It was my first long drive since being sick and it did take a bit out of me – but you just cannot keep a good woman down! Next day we went up to the casino – yes I know I live in a state filled with casinos – but I seldom go unless I am visiting Dee in CA. Dee is my aunt, but we are so close in age she is more like a big sister and we always have such a good time together. Then Thursday came – we were driving to Palm Springs to visit my cousin and see my new little baby third cousin – Dee’s first great grandbaby. Dee decided to take the mountain road – the same road we were taking when she – driving with no glasses – said “You know I can’t see a thing without my glasses, right?” Since the drop-off on my side of the car was far, far below – I just held my breath. Yes, we went over that same mountain – and again she was not wearing glasses. Well non prescription sunglasses do not count as glasses do they? I held my breath for a long time on that trip let me tell you. Then while we were at Lauri’s – we were going to lunch and Dee told Lauri to drive because she had been having dizzy spells. And this is the woman who was driving us home – back over that mountain with its hairpin dizzying turns and major drop offs – sigh!
On Friday my son came to visit from La Mesa – mostly to see Dee since I was going down to La Mesa to see him and his brother the next day. We fixed ribs and Dee has a great secret recipe – she gets them pre-cooked from Vons (Safeway) – she said they have to be Ralph’s brand because anything else is not so good. Those were very good ribs.
Sat I drove down to La Mesa to see both younger sons. Kev has just gotten a new Camero and I had not seen it yet. It is beautiful and he takes such good care of it. He may still have it when they next anniversary Camero comes out! We went out to Torrey Pines and hiked awhile and I got a gazillion pictures of the ocean and beach. Then we drove along 101 for awhile past the dog beach – yes a beach where dogs are welcome. How cool is that – my dogs would have been in seventh heaven. Not in Kev’s car though – we would have had to take mine. I am sure the dogs would not be welcome in that new car – LOL.
Kev took me up to Mt Soledad Memorial – a wonderful memorial to veterans and those killed in action. It is a wall of pictures and tributes and it is beautiful. It is topped with a huge cross – which the ACLU and various others have been trying to get taken down for years. However since it technically is not on government owned land – so far they have lost – as they should. No one would mind if another religion chose to have their own memorial for their veterans. Kevin says it is not really about the cross at all, but simply a way for the cell phone companies to get access to a higher point for their towers. He might be very right – there were towers all over the neighboring hills. The view from up there was awesome and again I took a lot of pictures. But most of my pictures were of the Monument itself. Beautiful.
Then I came home! Came home to find out that all the water valves in my house had been jerry-rigged by – I guess – the previous owners (anyway someone who is not very knowledgeable about maintenance) and instead of using plumber’s putty – whoever did it used epoxy. I have a plumber coming Friday to give me an estimate of the damages to my checkbook – I am trying to change out leaking faucets and that is how we found it. My older son’s friend and my son were trying to install the new faucets for me. Also – to cap it all off – the shutoff valve on the hot water heater cannot be shutoff – which makes it pretty useless. Who ever heard of a shutoff valve not shutting off? So anyway – that should make for an interesting estimate.
Driving home – wow I have never seen so many CHP – there were cars pulled over all along the way getting tickets. Some of them had passed me like I was standing still – and I was pushing the speed limit by about five MPH. In one place there were three pulled over in about a space of two miles – bam, bam, bam.
This week so far has been running errands, catching up on doctor appointments – with good news and longer times between appointments FINALLY – and working on the house. Have my office partially done now – had to move some things around from when the furniture was first put in there – and moved a rocking chair into my bedroom where it belonged anyway – now all I have to do is unpack the rest of my desk stuff and hang up my “military wall” – my sons and I in uniform pictures along with some commemorative flags that are framed. Then the office will be done. And the rest of the house is getting there. After the plumbing is fixed – if I have any money left – I want to change out the interior door knobs for door levers – and I need to do something with window coverings – but I might have to wait a bit until my savings acct gets healthier again. I have time to wait.

9 June – Today was a day to finally catch up on some long overdue letter writing. Tomorrow I tackle the den/office and get it settled. Did get the furniture moved around yesterday – granddaughter was over and helped. This evening a carpenter friend is going to take care of some of those carpentry issues in the house – then once the BIG plumbing issue is done – I can think of whatever else I want to do. I did buy one hanging plant for the back patio and may get another – the colors of the flowers brighten things up so nicely. And with the water reservoir I can keep them from drying out too much. After the plumber comes tomorrow I have to do some shopping and deliver a Mary Kay order – well I will do that in the morning. Life does go on. Got the letter writing done, but ran out of stamps so I think a stop at the post office will be in order tomorrow. Til later – moving is so much fun. I can hardly wait til it is over and I can really make this house my own.