Busy, Busy, Busy!

 OK, Campers, lot's of stuff going on, not much of it will rivet you to your seats, very important, but not riveting.  

First Topic.  It's a pain in the neck!  Both figuratively as well as literally.  Still wearing my neck brace, but with a little help from the Big Guy in the Sky and a well payed guy that goes by the title of Doctor, I hope to be out of the Brace in a week from this Thursday.   

 

Please Lord, l really am getting tired of this.

Enough Self-Pity.  Mrs J and I went to our Long Term Storage in search of a few things. This trip involved getting a Step Ladder, so, DUH!, we could reach things above our head.   We'd also wanted to bring back one of the 3 Lawn Mowers (2 push and 1 riding) stored there.

Nope, not in that Storage area

Unfortunately, due to the demise of my truck (and my restriction from driving) the lawn mower wouldn't fit into Mrs J's vehicle.  We needed to fold down the handle to get it into the back of her car.  As the Fates determine,  there wasn't a hand twist knob on the handle and there was no wrench in the car. 

   

Failure to plan! Ahhh, well!  So, we made another trip, this time with a tool bag in the back seat.

 Speaking of screw ups.  We've been a member of the Wall Street Journal Wine Club for a few years or so.  We'd ordered a case of wine a couple of weeks prior to the move.  Unfortunately, it had been delayed in shipping.  And I had forgotten about it, until about 10 days ago when they said it had shipped. Their message said it was going to our old address.  

Aww, Fecal Matter!  I got on the phone and called the Club and told them about the problem.  The Lady on the other end did some clicky-clacking and said the Case had been rerouted and would be delivered sometime on the 28th through the 30th.  An adult signature was required.  So, I sat at home, (can't drive, and Mrs J had babysitting duty for our grandkids).  Day 3 arrived, no delivery, get back on the phone.  

"Sir, your wine was delivered!"  I mentioned that I hadn't signed for it as it hadn't been delivered.  There's a bit of clicky clacking and she quoted that it had been delivered...to our old address.  I might have used some obscenity at that point.  I told her that we had changed the address and informed them of that.  More clicky clacking. 

"Yes, you did, our mistake. We'll ship a new case ASAP."  I'm thinking that the buyer of our house is thinking I'm a great guy, sending her a case of pretty nice French Wine.

Ah well! 

We're making progress on the unpacking. The living room and Kitchen are fully functional.  Mrs. J's office is operational so she can do Travel Agent stuff.  Gonna take a bit of rearranging when she gets that done and has time to plan the layout.  Unfortunately, I am still on the prohibition for lifting more than 20 lbs.  (Again, I hope the Doc calls that off soon). But, we also have some family in the area that can help with some of the more heavy stuff.

My office is doing ok.  I mean, I'm typing this from my "Desk"  how hard can it be?"

 

End Sarc!

We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff.  Our bed and frame didn't survive the trip, so had to be junked.  Fortunately, College Station has a junk pick up day every second Wednesday.

The orange thing is the scoop, the driver sits at the top of the red thing and picks up the junk and dumps it into the back of the truck

 The process was very cool and I had to step outside to watch.  I went and talked to the driver when he'd finished picking up our junk and climbed down.  He had a big smile on his face.  I asked him if he enjoyed his job.  He said "Why yes, Very, Very Much".  

Good on ya' Mate! 

One of the major improvements in overseas assignments is the ability to video chat with your offspring, even if they are on a different continent.  Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed) a 5 minute, poor connection phone call to your mother on her birthday cost around $100, which was a small fortune for a First Lt in 1980.  Fortunately, Mom's Birthday only came around once in my one year overseas assignment. 

My how times have changed,  Granted $100 barely buys a fast food meal, but the quality of the conversation as well as the cost of the transmission makes up for a great deal.  We had about an hour long video chat with Little Juvat, LJW and Miss B, just prior to my writing this post.  Very nice, funny, useful, reassuring and free.  

It's Sunday as I'm writing this.  Sundays have a fairly standard and regulated schedule.  Upon awakening and dressing, we're off to Mass (Sunday happened to be a Holy Day of Obligation so a High Mass is celebrated, complete with incense).  At the completion of the mass, the altar group came down the middle aisle with the incense burning again.  Unfortunately, they stopped with the lead altar boy (and incense carrier) not 5 feet from me.  Holy Cow, my nose clogged up in about 5 seconds, my eyes started crying like a 2 year old, I'm coughing my lungs out and the choir sang all 5 verses of "We Three Kings".  Suffice it to say we'll be avoiding any Mass labled "Solemn Mass" in the future.  Up on the altar, incense is OK, but in the midst of an awful lot of "Old Farts" with a myriad of breathing difficulties (of which I'm one) is torture.  

Since they only do one "Solemn Mass" on a Holy Day, we'll pay more attention to the Church calendar and choose a differnt mass time when that occurs. 

Ahh, Well enough Bitching, Moaning and Complaining for one post,

After Mass, Mrs J and I, and MBD and family met up at  Stella's. A pretty busy restaurant,  Mrs J and I got their earlier than the others, so I ordered something very important.

 

Mahvellous coffee and a lotta truth to the statement on the side!  We'll be back!

Finally, Eldest Granddaughter found a new friend after breakfast yesterday.  She might have been upset if she knew what I had for breakfast to go with the eggs! 

Peace Out Y'all