Sunday, September 25, 2011

My Last 72 hours Or The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Kim Often go Awry

As I said before I am a I love Lucy kind of person. Things rarely go as planned ,so much so that I usually do not set exact times unless I have to, here's an example of why..

Get ready for story time, sighs...
This goes back a wee longer then 72 hours, so you fully understand my dilemma and disappointment I need to tell you a little of my life, which I normally don't do. First of all my health has been on the rocks for 6 years and it is HARD for me to get around and do anything. So the normal every day stuff takes most people just minutes. The same tasks take me hours to do.This story starts when my kids moved out, because I let them take their bedroom furniture with them. This left 2 rooms in my home empty. Since I did not expect them to ever move back home I made one into a guest room and the other into my Art studio. Yaaay ...I think, yay?

It was yay until our first family gathering with both kids home, one bed 2 kids ,oh bother. I bought and inflatable bed which the cats used to sharpen their claws so it lasted a total of five seconds....My son ended up sleeping in my recliner. When only one is home they get the guest room but when they are both home that is the thing.
I don't want either of my children to ever not think that this is not a welcoming place for them to come and stay. 

My kids: My son Brandon was a Marine and went to Iraq twice, he is currently a student at UNL however he had issues pertaining to his life in the USMC particularly in Iraq. He is suffering so much. I knew he had internal struggles and I knew he was not coping with things the way I would like, I had no idea the extent to which I was right on both counts, which with his permission will be a story for another day. My point being, he needs a safe spot he can come to when he wants to and he need not have to sleep on my broken down recliner when he gets here. 

My daughter just got married, when they come home I have to find a place for two to sleep so well you know how it is with newlyweds we married folk have all been there at one time or other. I'll be frank..they need a room... So I decided to get it together and find some full sized beds. I wish I had the money to go out and buy brand new beds, I hate the thought of sleeping on pre slept beds, but we do it when we go to hotels don't we... so I have been on the search for good used beds.... this is harder then it may seem. There is a new and used furniture store in town  But this guy Ron.... UGH, I have had dealings with him and not one of them good.... he sold me a NEW sofa once only when I got it home and flipped the cushions they were clearly worn and pilly... a buyer beware business for sure. Another time I had a yard sale and had this
 gun cabinet out for 75.00. A man in worn clothing came and gave me a sad, sad story and told me how he was down on his luck, and he looked it. Would I sell it to him for 35.00... I said 50.00 but the sad sack face and the sorry clothing made me feel guilty so I said okay... who shows up to get it? RON.. he took it to his shop and sold it for 150.00... saying I dislike this lying sack of humanity is putting it lightly. My comfort is knowing that God is paying attention to every evil , cheating conniving thing this wicked man is doing. Because I am not alone, he cheats everyone he can and with glee. I don't buy from Ron, I don't want to give him a single penny more of my money. I won't sell to him either and he knows it, and now I won't haggle with certain people.Back to the bed situation... there is another place 7 miles south of town, however their beds are kept up in a loft and I can not get there to look at them, the climb is too steep and the decent scary if I don't have anyone helping me so I can't go there. The only option for me is the paper, word of mouth and Craigs list. I looked in the paper...nothing. I looked on Craigs list, nothing local... then I remembered this site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plattecountybuyselltrade/ So I went there and posted a note saying I was looking for a full sized bed , two people responded. One I made an appointment to go see on Saturday and the other said he had a newer set and posted a number, which I called,he had 2 available so I set a time to meet his girlfriend the next day. I get there and he only has one mismatched set. 150.00..no way, I need a bed so I offer 100.00 and I get it. He is a used furniture dealer in a nearby town so I ask the G.F. if he has portable washers, he does...it's at the store and she gives me a business card.  I am driving my son's pick up which is a story in itself and when I go to start it, it makes the most horrific sound I have ever heard but it starts so I am good to go. I decide to stop at a yard sale and again it makes that sound, but it started so I tempt fate and go to Walgreens. BIG MISTAKE! It won't start it won't budge it is stucker then stuck with that mismatched bed in the back... I need to carry my camera because it is a situation only a picture can retell correctly. All you would be saying ahhhhhhh if you saw it. My problem now is Rick gets off work at midnight, it is now 5P.M. I am going to be sitting there until 1:30 at least because he will drive right by me and not look.... he will get home and notice the truck missing and he will be perplexed but be won't go looking... I can only hope he will answer the phone. I start to cry and take a sip of my pop when.... I hear Hi, ma'am? Can I help you? I look up and the most handsome man I have seen in a long time is peering at me through the drivers side window. This guy is Harlequin romance handsome, God if I were only 20 years younger and unmarried... wow...is what I am thinking. I stammer, yeah, it's dead. He hooks up jumper cables and I try to start it, the ugly noise is still there and it won't start.I am thinking, I need to carry my camera , no one on my blog is going to believe this. Handsome man says it's the starter and I don't know how to fix that...but I can lend you my cell. I have no one to call, kids are 2 hours away, Mr is at work. I thank him and say I will have to wait for the Mr. to get off work, so handsome man says I will give you a ride home....my dilemma now is, get into a truck with a handsome stranger or wait til the middle of the night.... okay, I know I am not supposed to, he could be a serial killer, but at least I will die at the hands of the most handsome man I have ever seen in person. I get the ride. He takes me home and I find out his name is Case... a Harlequin name, go figure. I thank Case and this handsome Knight rides off into the night, I know I will never see him again, Harlequin ending also...

 Rick gets home at 1A.M. and I tell him the story, we go to take a look and Rick hooks the pick up to my Toyota Camry and I tow it home.. I need to carry a camera seriously....
Now I have to back up a bit, I love to go camping, my pre cancer days we went tent camping a lot. But now I can't get up and down and I am in pain. I want to get a  pop up camper or an R.V. My problem is I don't have several thousands of dollars to buy one. I am always on the look out when a little extra comes in. We had some extra money and I was looking for something "okay" that we could afford. I say okay because what we can afford is not going to be nice, only okay and I know it. I am hoping that with some spit and polish okay will be OKAY. I had set appointments with several people in Lincoln and I had set appointments in Schyler and Octavia to get beds and a portable wash machine . Here is the schedule for Saturday:
Up early and take the truck full of broken down televisions to the recycling event because the trash man won't take them. This starts at 9 A.M., we do that then we head to Schyler get the washer call the people with the bed  as prearranged and then head to Lincoln to see the various R.V's and campers A full day but productive....

But now the truck is broken down and we can't do anything until Rick fixes it, Friday he is up early and spends his entire day fixing the truck... now we don't have the money for the RV again.... so it goes with my dreams. But we can still do the t.v./ bed thing and we head off to start the day in fine shape, only we can't find this place  I look in the internet call the number, they are not answering so I google the address and head out again. It takes us to a gated community way west of town. There is no access and the homes are so nice there is no way that there is a recycling business in there. I am a willow I can bend, we drive around looking for the place. I see yard sales so I have the Mr. stop.... no one knows where this place is but I find a few things and at the next sale there is a Samsonite luggage set for 5.00 I buy it with out hesitation they know where the place is YAAAAAAAY... And I have my camera  
 
This company does this recycling event for electronics once a year. You can take any electronics there and they will dispose of it for a fee. Our T.V's cost 25.00 to get rid of  them.
The owner gladly showed me around and said they already accumulated 3 semi truck loads full and expected a 4th one to be filled before the day was over. Wow.. He said that it is this way each year he does this and it is a service people appreciate. I told him that there were lots of people out looking for this place and how we had a hard time finding it, took us hours and no one was answering the phone. A few minutes later my call was answered! Great ! I mean awesome really, this is a connected owner who is concerned not only about the community but listens to the people he deals with. My guess is that next year there will  be no confusion in the advertising and they will have 5 semi's full of stuff to haul off. This guy is making money....

That done, we are ready for the next leg of our day only we are hours behind and I am 50... any woman that has been pregnant or aging knows... when you gotta go you gotta go now and I had to go, so we ran home and I rannnnnnnnnnnn upstairs, in time to hear my cell phone go off twice. oh dear... I will call them back.
We sweep out the truck, load up the cooler, tent and other misc things for the kids and head out, I return the call..no answer. No biggie... we go buy the washer GE WSLP1500JWW 2.7 Cu ft Compact Portable Washer560.00 retail I get it for 90.00 it needs a good cleaning but hey 90.00 right... now the kids can wash their clothes no need for quarters. I call the next appointment, and see it was the same number as the missed calls. No answer... oh boy, they are miffed that we were not there earlier. Nebraskan's have attitude. Here is the thing about these people, they had no home phone number and I was given specific instructions to call a cell phone only when I got to Schyler. I had tried to call them the day before with no luck. They only sent a note saying they knew the time I wanted to get there but they had wanted it to be later in the day and I was actually there at the time they had originally wanted. When you deal with these things, you can't be set in stone anyway. At any rate we see a roach coach and decide to get lunch a couple tacos later we give them a call again, no answer. We are going to pass Octavia on the way to Lincoln so I call again when we get to the turn. no answer but they leave a message. Forget it we are not going to sell to you., man oh man. We head out to Lincoln...now I have to find another bed for my daughter, her husband is returning in 3 weeks she needs a bed. I still want to get my R.V. There is one for 1900.00  39 miles from where my kids are. Maybe I can still get there. I feel  bad about this because her granddaughter has meningitis and they need the money to go towards her care. I want the R.V. badly but with the added cost of fixing the truck I am unsure if we have the money anymore, our roof got hit by hail and we have a 2500.00 deductible to meet also. I don't know if we can do it all anymore. We had just enough before the truck breaking down....God knows the desires of my heart and how important it is for me to get this R.V. it is more then a luxury. I have been trapped in a small room for 6 years. I need to get out and do something I love again. I NEED to go camping. If you have never been trapped then you may not agree. But I need to be able to do something I love again. 
We had called Janelle last night and with heavy heart we told her there was no way we could do this, we had only about 500.00 spendable cash available, she said that if we could come up with another 600.00 she would sell us the R.V. for 1100.00. I looked to my husband and put it in his hands. He was crying because he wants to give me the world but when there is no money there is no money. He promised her that he would look into our money and if we could we would. But we know now there is no way even if we had the money time constraints were going to stop us from doing what we wanted. I called my son and asked him to look in Craigs list for a bed and to go to a local second hand shop I knew carried beds from time to time. He did neither so when we got to town it was 4 p.m. the first stop was the store, they just sold their last bed.... darn. I stopped at a couple more yard sales. One had a shark vacuum my daughter needed this so I got it and Rick got a coat. When we got to the apartment, I hit craigs list while the guys carted up coolers full of food, the washer, suit cases and all the other mom stuff I had brought in this very large care package. My first hit there was a Sealy Posturepedic mattress set  which we set off to see. I told the Mr. if it is half way decent it is ours. 
I get there and it is in fine shape, mismatched but close enough to be okay. I buy it and we take it home. In unloading it, they tear it... darn... so I spent the next few hours sewing it all back together. Then we get supper, wash up the washing machine and get things back in order in the apartment. It is now 2 A.M. and we need to go home. No R.V.'s for Kim  we go out and the lights won't work on the truck..sighs. Rick has to go find an all night place and buy what ever it was he had to get to make the lights work. He says it must have a short but he got us home.

The drive home was horrific, we had a hard time staying awake but arrived at 5 A.M. only to discover that my husband's and daughter's cats got locked into the room with the newish mattress set I got on Thursday. Someone had pooped and pee'd on it.... how in the world do you clean that up.... I got out the bissell and used vinegar on it last night, cat pee is the worst and if I can not get the smell to lift it will have to be tossed. It would be more fun to open a window and toss 100.00 out in the wind.

Oh and when I signed into my Facebook account, Jessica and Timmy Schmid of Octovia left me a message about my calls yesterday....first we have the right to change our mind and if you would have called by the time you said 11-12 at the latest or answered your phone when we called you would have known. let it go or this will be harassment and that i will not deal with find another bed and move on

My comment to her was BLAH.....
I suppose I would have rather not given them my money after all...And so it goes...