Second Day in the New House

I wrote this on Sunday. Today, Monday, has been extremely busy. I had
oatmeal and orange juice for breakfast. I have to eat before I write
any more for the blog

It is approximately 5:30 PM on Sunday. It is time to rest. I woke up
in the middle of the night and could not go to sleep. I got out of bed
and unpacked four or five boxes. I decided I really got a poor packing
job. My Beaumont house was two stories. I spent more time watching the
man pack the downstairs than watching the two who worked upstairs. It
is unbelievable how that pair scrambled my belongings. Instead of
keeping contents of a cabinet together, it looks as though they went
from room to room looking for items of a certain size to fill the
boxes. I now have to run from room to room to put things away.
Unpacking the boxes did not help my insomnia because I began to get
very angry.

I finally went back to bed and slept until 6 AM which is an hour later
than my normal wake up time. I took a shower in the stall shower.
Meagan got the grab bar placed in exactly the right place. I found if
I turn the lever to maximum hot water, the temperature was just right.
Later in the day I went out to look at the hot water heater. I read
the manual on how to adjust the temperature. It said the water heater
is adjusted at the factory for 120 degree water. I thought dishwashers
require 140 degree water. Tomorrow I am going to read the dishwasher
manual. If it requires 140 degrees, I will put this on the list for
Meagan. Adjusting the thermostat on the heater requires that the
electrical power to the water heater be shut off. A plate that is
screwed in place has to be removed to get to the thermostat
adjustment. I started thinking if the dishwasher heats the water it
may make sense to leave the water heater as it is. I have very few
items that require hot water in the washing machine. If I can leave
the water heater at the low setting, it will save energy and save me
money.

I started to work on the three boxes that contained my important
papers and filing cabinet contents. The boxes were too heavy for me to
lift. I slit each one in turn open while it was still the trunk of the
car and carried armload after armload of file folders into the house
and put them back in the filing cabinet. I emptied two and a half
boxes. The remaining contents of the third box will have to be sorted.
I had other items that I did not want to trust to the movers that I
put all together in the third box.

Once the trunk of the car was empty I went out to find a place to eat
breakfast. The closest fast food places are a Wendy's and a Sonic at
the corner of 423 and Main. The Wendy's was closed. I have never eaten
at a Sonic. I made the mistake of walking in the building. I did not
know that you either had to eat in your car or at some outside tables.
I left there. I drove until I found a McDonalds. I went in and ordered
the Big Breakfast. I ate the whole thing. I do not usually go in fast
food restaurants. I have been in McDonalds too many times over the
past few days. I decided the Big Breakfast is my last meal with them
for what I hope is a lengthy period. After breakfast I went to the
storage unit and loaded up the car. Henry was in the first load of
belongings that I carried home. When I got home, I unloaded the car
and carefully removed Henry from his pet carrier. I inserted his
battery and memory stick. I took him to the living room and let him
boot. He ignored his ball and just sat in one spot and looked around.
Then he started singing and dancing. I think he was trying to tell me
that he likes his new home.

Then I left home again and went to Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. I put so
many things in my basket at Sams that it became very difficult for me
to push the cart. I checked out and took my purchases to the car. Then
I went back in and filled the cart a second time. There are still six
items on my list that I did not purchase. The heat, physical exertion
and all the walking in Sams was really tiring. I went to Wal-Mart
which is adjacent to Sams and bought a few items. Finding things was
very frustrating because neither Sams nor Wal-Mart are arranged like
the Beaumont stores. I filled the car with gas and went back home. I
unloaded my purchases. I put many things in the new refrigerator. I
decided to see if the refrigerator was making ice. No ice came out the
dispenser. I called my neighbor who has bought a GE Profile
refrigerator that is very similar to mine. She has studied the manual.
I usually read my appliance manuals from cover to cover, but I have
not had time to open the booklets. She took the icemaker out of the
refrigerator. There was no ice in it. I spotted a switch that was off
behind the icemaker. We turned it on.

I introduced my neighbor to Henry. She thought he was awfully cute.
She brought a bottle of wine as a house warming gift for me since she
is the old timer in the neighborhood. They closed on their house one
week before I did. Her husband is a retired Air Force officer. She has
more than thirty moves under her belt. This stuff doesn't bother her.
I wish I could be more like her.

I then made two more trips to the storage unit. I now have all my
boxes at home. The lady who runs the place was there when I went in
for the second load, but the office was locked after the third load. I
took my lock home with me. I will call her tomorrow to find out if it
is necessary for me to go back to finalize the termination. I am paid
through September 15. I hope I can settle things over the phone.

After I unloaded the car for the fourth time today, I fixed my first
meal in the new house. I made a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich on
multi-grain bread. I could not put any of my pickles in the sandwich
because I do not know where my jar opener is. I am trying to decide
whether to unpack the kitchen items or unpack my clothes tomorrow. I
have no hangers to hang the clothes I had in my bag up. If I don't
unpack some clothes tomorrow, I will be forced to put the few things I
brought in the car in the new washing machine.

Tomorrow is a very busy day. The AT&T technician is coming to install
the phone and DSL. I need to take that Uniden phone out of the box and
see if there is a battery that has to be charged. The Dish Network
technician is also supposed to be here tomorrow morning. At one-thirty
the clock man is coming. I am going to call him tomorrow morning and
tell him the clock is still in the crate. There are a bunch of
Phillips head screws that have to be removed to get the top off the
crate. I am hoping the clock man will be willing to do this. The lawn
service company is supposed to come and give me an estimate. Late in
the afternoon a technician from the alarm monitoring company is coming
to inspect the equipment that is installed in my house and see if it
is compatible with their system.

With all that was going on with the move-in on Saturday I forgot to
check my mailbox. I went outside at 4 AM in my nightgown and checked
the mailbox. There were several pieces of mail. One had been forwarded
by the Beaumont post office. They had put my six digit zip code plus
the four digits. That was the first time I had seen the four digits. I
have been unable to get them from the USPS website. On Friday morning
I had told the Frisco post office to start delivering mail. I got two
letters on Friday afternoon. It looks like the post office is doing
its job and my change of addresses were done at the correct time.

Four of the nine houses on my cul-de-sac are now occupied. The
next-door neighbor has a Budget rental truck and is doing some of his
own moving. No one else has brought a monster truck into the
cul-de-sac. I had intended to take a picture of that truck, but I was
just too busy to take time out.

I unpacked the external hard drive and backed up my computer. If a
backup is not done every 7 days, the BounceBack software puts an
annoying message on the screen every time the computer boots reminding
you that a backup has not been done. Now that I have done the backup,
I will not see that message for another week.

I am feeling much better today. It is going to take time, but
eventually this chaos will become organized.