Good Bye Virginia

The packers and movers have left. It is Friday night and we decide to go out for one last look at the beautiful scenery from the balcony. What is the grille still doing here? I must have reminded the movers 10 times that the grille was still on the balcony and they still left without it. Of course it is Friday night and no one is in the office. I will have to make the call on the drive back to Texas. Oy! It is always something.

The truck driver had to come back on Monday and pick up the Weber.

It is FINALLY time to say good-bye to Virginia! We have all the plants packed along with the items that the moving company would not pack. We are ready to drive back to Texas in the church bus. I thought that for this installment I would also share some of the signs we saw along the way, of course with my take on them.

Good bye House!

The main reason we drove the church bus to VA was to take all the house plants back with us and they certainly took up most of the room in the van. The largest plant was a plant our middle son received in the 4th grade. It is close to 20 years old now.  We call it the hair plant because it grows like hair and sheds too. We could barely get it into the back of the van.

The Hair Plant

The rest of the house plants

There is a farm outside of Leesburg, on Route 7, that always has a bale of hay out by the road decorated like something fun, or relevant to a current season or Holiday. The first time we saw them it looked like an "Angry Bird" in a slingshot. Not long after that it looked like the green pigs from the "Angry Birds". This time it was decorated as a Lego soldier in honor of the 4th of July.

The head of this Lego solider is made of a wrapped bale of hay.

Virginia is one of two states that does not allow radar detectors. On every highway they have signs reminding you that they are illegal along with a sign that says "Speed Limit is Enforced by Aircraft". How exactly does an aircraft enforce a speed limit? Do they swoop down in front of cars to slow them down or drop something down on the cars? How can they enforce anything from the air. The sign should say "Speed Limit is detected by Aircraft" or "Speed Limit is Monitored by Aircraft", not enforced.

Virginia also has one of the nicest seat belt signs. it is not threatening like the "Click it or Ticket" signs.

Arkansas`s Welcome sign is not just a warning to buckle up, but it must be their way of warning you that their roads are so bad that you have to buckle up for safety. The sign says "The Natural State", is that because the roads are going back to their natural state of dirt and rocks?

This must be one of the Natural State roads.

One of the things that has always surprised me is the number of Adult Stores along the highways. The only time we were happy to see those signs is when we are playing the sign game in the car where you find words for each letter of the alphabet. Adult stores for X, Dairy Queen for Q, and it was a crap shoot for Z.

OK, I have to ask what do they sale at an Adult Factory Outlet? Overstocked items, clearance items, old models, unpopular items, irregulars........ it boggles the mind!

I am a big fan of the car window sticker, I love the family stickers with the dogs, or the figures in Mickey Mouse hats or in Star Wars outfits.  Personally we have the flip flops and dog paws, that`s right ADORBS!, My favorite all time family sticker was one on a mini van, driven by a middle aged man, that had a picture of a man, woman and 2 teenage boys and above the woman was a message bubble that said "position available." What I don`t understand is this truck and its owners lack of self control. How can he possible see out his back window?

This is a new look for the trucks on the road. The Trailer Tail!! It is suppose to be aerodynamic and saves the driver on fuel costs. To me it looks like a poorly designed kite. Worst of all it is hard to write on the back of the trailers, so it ruins my fun.

I am just throwing this one in because it cracks me up. The cab of the truck was bright purple and it was labeled with the trucking companies name all over. They must have run out of paint for the back, because I am sure the name is not "Durple Sage."

I just love the humor on this truck. Not your everyday "We Make Wide Turns".

I have to include one picture of Kudzu. This vine just fascinates me. It is literally eating the South.

We stayed in a Hotel in Memphis and I will just say it was not the Ikea Suites we stayed in on the way to VA. It was closer to the Bates Motel. It was dog friendly, just not people friendly. Fortunately we were so tired that we collapsed as soon as we got into the room and didn`t really see how bad it was until the morning. What a DUMP!

Bathroom door frame.

Metal trim around the bathroom light.

Room door. Makes you feel really safe, right?

This was a 2800 mile round trip and my husband is not the most relaxed driver. His number one pet peeve, and instigator of road rage, is the slow driver in the passing lane. Most states have Highway signs that say Slower drivers use the right lane, but who decides if they are slow drivers? Obviously people cannot self diagnose themselves. Texas has the best sign. right lane is for passing only. No judgments to make, it is direct and very clear.

This sign should be on every highway in all 50 states!

We are definitely in TEXAS! It is HOT, HOT, HOT!

Toto, we are not in Virginia any more.

Meet Our Moving Crew

I will not show you any pictures or use their correct names, but they are an interesting group and I want to tell you about them.  There have been a total of 6 different men that have been here over the last 3 days. This is the first moving crew we have had that did not include women. They were in from Baltimore and we got the whole Colts vs Ravens debate out of the way first thing. We had to broach the subject due to the very large pictures of the front page of the the Indy Star covering the Colts` Superbowl win. We talked it out, and let it go.

This was our safe space during the packing process. Everything we need to get through 3 days of packing. We would stand here all day working on our computers and eating our junk food. Don`t judge our choices.

Don: He is in his early 50s and very tall. Don seems to be the man in charge, although he may be second to the driver. Don has a very deep voice and at times is very hard to understand. He knows his stuff. Don is in charge of the puzzle, the packing of the truck. When he is done it looks like the game Jenga. I pray no one pulls something out of the middle. Don is a big fisherman and loves to cookout. A very nice man.

Forgive the stickers, but I wanted to protect the packing company and our names. Don did a great job packing! Doesn`t it look like Jenga?

Ralph: He is 62 years old and has been working in the moving business since he was 14. He is the older brother of Don. Ralph loves to talk and talk and talk. Politics, wages, family, music, comedians, you name it, he will talk about it. He is fun to listen to and is kind of the father figure for all the guys on the crew This man can pack a box. Late in the afternoon he starts singing crooner songs to us all while he works.

Tre:  He is in his early 30s and is the guy that is in charge of the Truck and the "stickers". He will be driving the truck to the warehouse in Texas. He also has to put a sticker on every box and piece of furniture and then log them so they can be inventoried when they are delivered. He is very quiet and has a bluetooth headset on all the time. When he is on the phone he seems to be just listening. One day I could hear a woman's voice on the other end of the line and he was just saying uh huh over and over again.

See the stickers on all the boxes (not the dollar signs). Things have changed since our move 3 years ago. The stickers back then did not have a bar code on them, so all the numbers had to be written in and the items hand written. They still do some of that now because not all the companies have a scanner for the bar codes. It is a work in progress.

Leaf: He is an older man in this late 40s, short, and quiet.  He has an injury so he was a packer of boxes only and the other guys would carry the boxes out to the truck. The 2nd day there was a big debate on how he was injured. One of the brothers thought it was in a war, and the other smacked that down because of his age. Still don`t know how he was injured. He was only here for the first day.

Derek: He was a young man in maybe his late 20s and wore Crocs to work. He was very polite and very strong. He was only here for one day. Derek does not eat pork, so we had to special order his pizza. A really nice and polite kid.

This kid moved everything wearing Crocs. To me it was like wearing flip flops.

Pete: He is the cousin of Tre  and I would guess in his late 20s or early 30s, Pete is by far the quietest of the crew. He has tattoos all over his arms and is strong as an ox. He was here the last 2 days and does mostly lifting. Pete seems to be very shy and very polite. He loves to eat continuously and loves to drink very cold water.

So that is our crew. We are on day 3 and hope to be completely done by dinner. Then my husband and I get to pack the church bus for our 2 day drive back to Texas. Yippee!

The Last Road Trip to Virginia

After 16 long months, the day has finally come, We Are Moving!!! This will be our 5th major move and with the last couple of moves we had to rent a van or Uhaul, drive to the old house and pack up all the plants and liquids along with the stuff we didn`t want  or they wouldn`t let on the moving van. A shout out to Capps the van rental company in Plano, TX. There are no rental companies that rent vans for small moves in the last few states we have lived in. We rented a 15 passenger van with all the seats taken out and named it the "Church Bus." Off we went for our 2 day trip from Allen, TX to Leesburg, VA. We will travel through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia. Here are the highlights. Maybe low lights?

The very long white Church Bus.

The trip through Texas was short and sweet. It was non eventful, which is just what you want for road trip.
Cannot say the same thing for the trip through Arkansas. One of the first things we noticed, and it was very apparent in the Church Bus, was that the roads have not been paved in many, many, many years. It was the bumpiest ride for hundreds of miles.

I-30 in Arkansas looked like it had been carpet bombed.

It never fails to surprise me what people will put on top of their cars. This is your typical mattress on top of a small car driving 70 mph on the highway. At least they were not trying to hold it on with their hands. On one trip to upper Michigan we did see a deer tied to the top of the trunk of a Camaro.

Hillbilly Mover? I added the cool sunglasses to cover the plate number.

Into Tennessee we saw this building that looked like it should be in Las Vegas, and when got in front of the building, we saw it was the headquarters for the Bass Pro Shops and Ducks Unlimited. Is it just me or wouldn`t you expect the building to be outdoorsy looking instead of a Vegas hotel?

Did we take a wrong turn? Are we in Vegas?

WHAT???? No casino?

The whole time we are on the highway in Tennessee there were these overhead signs that said, "Look Before You Lock". We had no idea what that meant. Thank you smart phone, after looking it up I found it is to remind you to take you child out of the car, before you lock the door. I guess there have been a few cases of people forgetting that their child was in the car, and they locked them in the car in the blazing heat. I did not realize the problem was so bad they needed a state wide campaign to remind people that they have children. They also have the, "Click It or Ticket It" campaign to make sure you wear your seat belts, Yet, what they need is a "Take a Seat so You Don`t Fly Onto the Street" campaign. In Tennessee you can ride in the bed of a pick up, on the highway, if you are over the age of 12. Am I the only one confused?

This sign needed some explanation .  Look where, before you lock what?

These teenagers were flying along in the back of a pick up,
 but the driver and passenger had to have a seat belt on. 

We passed a highway construction crew building an interchange and it looked nothing like the High 5 in Dallas. Come on Tennessee, you can do better than that. Let the Big T state show you how it`s done.

The little T state and their little interchange.

The big T state knows how to build an interstate.

Time to stop for the night in the Home 2 Suites by Hilton. Or, as I like to call them, the Ikea Suites. All the furniture looks like it came right off the Ikea showroom floor. There are desks and cabinets along the back wall, a hospital like curtain between the living area and beds, and the smallest closet I have ever seen. Not to mention the smallest toilet that is low flow and seems to be running all the time. Then there is the picture over the couch that for some reason is not centered, and it drove me crazy every time I looked at it. But the beds were comfy and the hotel is dog friendly.

This is half of the back wall in the Ikea suite.

The hospital curtain in our Ikea suite.

Was the designer drunk when they hung this picture?

Day two! Texas is a big state and has its own kind of beauty, but there is noting more beautiful than the mountains and scenery in Tennessee and Virginia.

Beautiful!

Even more beautiful!

Kudtzu, or The Vine That Ate the South is both beautiful and destructive. This plant was introduced to the US in 1876 from Asia and it has been eating away at the South`s landscape ever since. It can devastate and destroy the surrounding plant life and it covers everything. It was used to cover a trellis over a patio or used as ground cover, and then it got way out of control. It is so very expensive and time consuming to try to stop the spread of this aggressive vine.

Kudzo is taking over the South!

As we were driving along our last hour or so we were following a Semi that was so shiny that we could see our selves in the back of it. So there we are the white Church Bus behind the shiny Semi . Don`t ask how close we had to get so I could get the picture. Maybe they need a sign for the highway for that. Maybe, "Stay Back Before You Flash" or  a sign on the truck that says "if you can see your reflection you are too close."

The Church Bus`s reflection in the shiny semi.

We pulled into the drive in Virginia and went straight to work on getting ready for the movers.
It is going to be a very long, but also long awaited week!

Top 10 Things I Dislike About Apartment Living

Now that we only have a little over a month left in our small one bedroom apartment, I thought I would share my top ten list of what I dislike about living in an apartment.

Number 10:  The fitness room. The treadmills work occasionally and it is the only fitness room I have every seen where the treadmills face a wall of windows and the TV`s are on the side walls. It is impossible to watch TV while working out on any of the treadmills.

This is our mail center and our tiny little

mail boxes.

Number 9: Community mailboxes. Getting my mail involves, leaving the apartment, locking the door, walking to the mail center, unlocking the tiny box, getting the crammed mail out, then walking to the office to pick packages that have not been put in one of the small package mail boxes, putting the security code into the gate, and then walking back to the apartment to our barking dog that has been standing by the door waiting for my return.

This is the open security gate.

Number 8: The security gate that is not all that secure. The gate works maybe 75% of time and people just follow cars in after the residents open the gate with their fobs. If you wait long enough outside the gate you can draft in behind a resident. NASCAR style!

Number 7: The small, small, small kitchen. You can stand in one place, turn and use the stove, oven, microwave, sink, dishwasher and get into the refrigerator. There is no counter space and even less cabinet space. The only positive thing about this kitchen is that it only takes about 3 minutes to clean.

Edy`s private piece of poop real estate

Number 6:  I miss letting my dog out the back door so she can do her business. I took for granted the simplicity of just opening the door and letting her out. At the apartment I having to put her on the leash, walk her to the very small grassy area by our patio, of course she has to bark at everyone driving or walking by, and then I have to bag the fruits of her labor in the brightly colored poop bags that we put in the illegal patio poop bag pot.

Number 5: Sleeping with the air conditioner unit right outside the bedroom window. This is Texas and the air conditioner is on all the time.

One of the our rows of garages.

Number 4: The walk to the garage to get my car. There is not a garage near our apartment, so we had to rent 4 garages that are spread all over the complex.  They are not easy to get into because of the parking spaces in front of them. I am never excited to come home late and have to make the trek from the garage to the apartment by myself. Thankfully we have the "security gate" at our complex.

All of these cars are pointed right at the
windows of the ground floor apartments.

Number 3: Headlights into the bedroom. Our apartment is on the bottom floor and in the front of the building right near the parking spaces. So all night long people are pulling into the parking spaces and shining their headlights right into our bedroom. It is like sleeping on the highway to dreamland.

The dreaded patio poop pot!

Number 2: The walk to the trash dumpster. I am so tired of dragging my trash across the apartment complex to throw it away. We make a lot of trash, not to mention the dog poop bags. I have actually driven the trash to the dumpster in the back of my SUV. Hate It!

Number 1: The barking dogs upstairs. Who needs an alarm clock when you have the running, jumping, barking dogs above you. They start at 6 am and can go on for hours. Good Morning Cujo!

The above video was taken while I was in bed one morning listening to the dogs upstairs. I am sorry if the video does not work, I am even sorrier that I had to hear it in real time.

We have lived in this one bedroom "temporary" housing apartment for almost 15 months and as much as I disliked the wait we had to sell and to buy a home, I am still very grateful for a clean safe place to lay my head at night.

   

The Creepy Bug Guy

Owning a house in Virginia, in the hilly woods, you just know there are varmints and bugs. Not to mention the deer and bears. Everyone has a contract with a pest control company to come and spray 4 times a year, and put mouse traps outside. Everyone!

Enter, Creepy Bug Guy. The tech that came to the house 4 times a year, I will call him Bill, was a very odd man and very arrogant. I was always the one home when he came and I always just put up with him. He was always one step away from patting me on the head and saying now, now Miss just let the men handle this.

Bill and my Husband (played by Vincent Price)

I will set the scene for our last encounter. We scheduled the Creepy Bug Guy at a time when my husband was going to be in VA.  The appointment  was scheduled in advance, but it turned out that we were to have a showing at the house at the same time. I called to have the appointment changed with the Bug Guy and the Office Guy could not reach him.  As it turned out the whole time Office Guy was trying to contact the wrong person. So, you guessed it, the Bug Guy showed up at the house during the showing. Just what you want a potential buyer to see a pest control truck show up while they are looking at your house. Oy!

Now, you can make the argument that it was not Bill`s fault that he showed up. True, and if it stopped there Bill would have stayed as our Creepy Bug Guy. But NOOOOOO! Arrogant Bill walks into our home, confronts my already angry husband and says that he was doing us a favor by even showing up. His exact words. Funny, I thought we scheduled the appointment and was paying hundreds of dollars for the service. Favor? I think not. It went down hill from there, and he was kicked out of the house. Permanently!

Ugly Termite

The manager of the company was called, and he apologized profusely about the office mix up and for Bill`s attitude and behavior. Then he said when you are ready for the termite inspection for the sale of your house, we will do it for free.  Oh, and Bill will not be back in your house again, ever.

Fast forward many months. The house finally sold and we needed a termite inspection. I call the Creepy Bug Company and guess who answers the phone................Bill. So, I ask Bill for the manager and he says he is the manager, not true, I hope anyway. So, I said I have an agreement with a manager to get a free termite inspection. He transfers me to, I will call him, Bob the inspector, and evidently a good friend of Bills. I mentioned that the manager promised us a free termite inspection because of the behavior of an employee, and he said of you mean Bill. At that point I should have hung up and moved on. But NOOOO, I wanted the inspection ASAP and so he said he would come out in an hour. Our agent was meeting him there to let him in the house. This is how my agent tells the story.

As he pulls up to the house  Bill the "Inspector", and I use that title loosely, was already in the flower beds. He walks up to our agent with a small plastic container, and says he found termites in the flower beds around the house. He did not show our agent any place where there were termites, just the container. Our agent just dropped and shook his head. Then they went inside and our agent went with him as he "inspected", shocking, no termites found. As he was leaving he told our agent we will need to spend $1700 for remediation to get rid of the termites. So much for a free inspection.

The official form that is not sent to the state, ever!

Our agent called me and told me what he said Bob found, and  then our agent made an appointment with another company for a second opinion scheduled the next day. I called Bob the "Inspector" and asked what he found, and he said he would send me the report and that we needed remediation. I told him we were getting a second opinion and he became very hostile. He said if they don`t find anything they are not looking hard enough because there are termites in your yard. He also told me he was filing his report with the state to tell them we have termites outside. I said file your report and thanks for coming out. Bye, Bye!

The house was inspected the next day, and there were no signs of termites anywhere. They also told me that there was no place in the state to file a termite report. My conclusion at this point was that Bill and Bob got their little "bug heads" together and decided to stick it to us. He brought the bugs with him, showed up early so he was in the beds when our agent showed up, and then thought we would pay the $1700 for remediation. He couldn't`t lie about the inside having termites because our agent was with him. Then when I called him and told him we were getting a second opinion he though he would scare me by telling me he was going to tell the state we had termites. What a poor sad little bug man.

What is the moral of this story? Could be: "Nothing is for free!", or "When something looks too good to be true, it usually is."  More likely it is "Never trust the friend of an arrogant Creepy Bug Guy to do your termite inspection."

I have the to say the whole incident is still BUGGING me!

Independence Day has a new meaning for me now!

We put our house in Virginia on the market in April of 2014. After many showings and price changes the comments were always the same. Love the house, hate the lot! For us empty nesters the drastic down hill slope in the back yard was never an issue. We don`t have young kids, our grandchildren lived too far away for it to be an issue, and we loved the view. The problem was that people with young kids kept looking at the house and hating the slope of the lot.

There were several people that were interested but never gave us an offer, just disappointment. Here are just a few:

First, We had the Doctor and his wife that loved the house, but couldn't keep their kids in the same school. They wouldn't even follow through with the school system to see if they would allow it.

Next, The Question Guy, who was a cash buyer that came back 3 times and stayed for over an hour each time asking many, many questions. He came over the Thanksgiving weekend and interrupted our time with family asking the dumbest questions, and then never made an offer. We must have heard 10 times that our house was at the top of his list. He is still in temp housing and probably asking someone else questions.

Then there was the FSBO (for sale by owner) couple that loved the house and even came back to measure the rooms. Their house went up for sale a month later by owner, and then a few months later it was listed with a agent. It is still for sale.

There was the  retired Air Force woman that came back a few times. She could not get past the backyard and even had someone give them an estimate on how much it would cost to fill in the back yard. I think they were talking a $100k. Too much! There heads are in the clouds. Pun definitely intended!

The new backyard!

In May of 2015 we invested several thousand dollars and had a retaining wall built in the back and had the yard filled in. Was not even close to a $100k. It turned out great and gave a great space for a back yard.  We were ready for families to come and see the great change in the yard.

Then in June while we were on vacation there was the Contingency couple. They loved the house and wanted to make an offer contingent on selling their house. They left for their vacation for 10 days and were going to make an offer on the 28th of June, the day after they returned. Their agent called the next day telling us that they had way too much work to do on their house before it can be put on the market, and that they were going to wait to make the offer. Their agent did not think it was fair to take our house off the market for that long. Thanks Miss Deal Killer.

While on Vacation the last thing we wanted to do was think about selling our house.

We dropped the price another 25k on July 1st.  On July 3rd we were flying back to VA to spend the Independence Day Holiday at the house, and do some major purging of stuff. When we landed our agent had sent us a text telling us that we had a showing at 4 pm. We landed at 1 pm and needed to get to the house, and out again for the showing. The people showed up and stayed for 2 hours.  I am not sure what you can do in someone else`s house for 2 hours. They did have some questions after the showing, and then on the 5th the wife came back for a second showing and stayed another hour. What could she possible be looking at? They loved the house and there was talk of an offer. After waiting until the 7th we gave them a one time offer of; another big price cut, no contingencies and they had 24 hours to respond. We got a offer and the start of our independence from that house. July 8th is our new Independence Day!

Happy 8th of July!