The Mailman Won't Venture Up My Street - Post #5

The first Wednesday of every month, Fry's Food Store gives a 10% discount if you're of a certain age. So before heading up to Paulden for the last trip before the final move, I hit Fry's. I thought it would be smart to have some food in the fridge when Frank arrives on Sunday. And 10% is worth the stop. I also loaded the Explorer with all the stuff from my sister's I wouldn't need for the last few days.

Driving through Chino Valley, I got excited to see the longhorn steer in the fields. I quickly drove off the road, grabbed my camera and darted across the road. Debra stayed put in the car. As I crept close to the fence, I yelled at the steers to get them to pose for the camera, while Debra yelled at me "Stop! They might charge." They were still quite a ways out and the fence was between us so I got a good laugh out of her advice. The steers didn't look too concerned with me.

Hello from Paulden, AZI then stopped at the Paulden Post Office. The realtor told me I had to stop and introduce myself so we could get our mail. I found out the mailman will not come up my dirt road. We have to put a mailbox on a post at the end of the block with the others. Had to put the mail on hold until we can get that done. I got a kick out of the conversations and traffic in and out as I filled out the paperwork. Everyone knows everyone in this very busy, dinky, little PO. When I handed in the forms, I apologized for not knowing the 4 digit extension on the zip code. The postal worker said that was okay - she didn't either. I'm not sure if she was joking!

I called the trash service and got that set up. The container will be delivered tomorrow. They charge $20 a month and I have to put the can across the street on Wednesday. At least they come down our street - but only on one side. That's one side better than the mailman.

My first bit of decorating - kitchen matThe carpet looked better since the cleaning and now dry. He didn't get all the spots up but hope the furniture covers most of them. I'm determined to start a savings to get new carpet in two years.

We unloaded the car, vacuumed the carpet and headed for Alfonso's with promises we'd start watching our calories tomorrow.  We feasted on guacamole, chips and tacos before heading back to Sun City. One more note about Alfonso's. You know how when you order guac and chips you usually get a little cup of salty guacamole and it's never enough for all the chips. At Alfonso's you get one of those big Styrofoam containers full of chips, smothered in guac and topped with a heap of cheese. All for $3.50

So that was yesterday. Last night I went to Home Depot to get some blinds. The house has white metal mini blinds throughout. I trashed all the curtain toppers and washed the blinds in the kitchen and bedrooms. I can live with those for now. But the living room and dining room blinds were bent and...well...ugly. I thought wide wood blinds would do until I could "see" some other look. AND I figured the faux wood in oak would be the least expensive way to go. Trouble is they only carry white. You have to order oak color and they cost more to order the phony wood than to buy real oak blinds. Go figure. So I'll have real oak blinds to go with my phony oak entertainment center and cupboards. LOL

Eeeekkk! Getting close to moving - I knew Frank had the truck today and would be  heading out this afternoon. Then he called. Crash went the euphoric mood. He couldn't get everything in the truck. Plan B. He rented a trailer to pull behind the truck which meant leaving the car behind. I didn't ask how much the trailer set us back. He has a one way ticket from a canceled trip to use so he planned to fly back to MN and drive the car out here. But when we started thinking about it, a second trip would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 for two nights on the road. I decided if I had enough mileage to fly out then I'd go and drive the car, following him in the truck. Nope. So then I tried to find a flight there for under $150 leaving tonight or tomorrow. Nope. Plan C. A friend offered to drive the car out and stay until next Thursday when for some reason the one way tickets dropped from $600 to $130. So it's a breakeven plan for us, gets all the stuff here and Frank has company on the trip. Thank you, Bruce!

Oh wait, another call from Frank. He still couldn't fit in all of our stuff. What? Groan. He's leaving behind a tall, black bookcase (my bookcase) and a hutch thing that has shelves and drawers and is lighted with a fold out desk. Double groan. He reminded me I tried to sell it at one time. Yeah, but that was that house and this house has a spot for it. Oh well...it's only stuff - of which we have too much.

Now the trick is to make the trip so that he arrives in Paulden in time to find a bar with the Super Bowl game, a burger and a beer. Fingers crossed!