Adventures in Moving with Bob and Kathy
Part IV: The Adventure Continues
April 16, 1999
Hello again everyone,
Hope everyone got their income taxes done by the IRS's April 15th deadline. At this point, Bob and I have absolutely no idea what so ever where our income tax forms are. We think they are in a box somewhere. We requested an extension using "clueless" and as a reason for the extension. We hope that works.
In the meantime, we've had a few things happen here at the Rude Ranch. We'll start with the house that we are selling, aka the Bowie house. The buyer's financing went through! We have a definite settlement date of April 27. In preparation for moving out of this house we've been taking our furniture apart and moving it to the main floor of the house. So far hasn't too many surprises. We found a couple of "deposits" one of the cats must have left several months ago at least it was petrified enough to be easily picked up. We've also started working on a plan to move the fish that are in the fish pond in the back of the house. Contrary to popular belief (and our cat's wishes) we will not be catching and cooking the fish, we will pack them and take them with us. It's surprising how many strange looks you can get from a Kmart cashier when you buy 20 extra large plastic storage boxes and say its for the fish.
We've also started putting some thought into getting our stuff from the assorted houses (don't forget we have stuff stashed at the Bowie house, the condo where we are now living and Bob's sister's house) and into the new house. We figured we needed a really big truck. We called a couple of moving companies and they agreed, we did need a really big truck. They wanted over $2000 to move us. Bob and I are too cheap to fork out that much money. So we decided to do it the old fashioned way rent a truck, and bribe people to help with the promise of food and beer.
If you've ever looked through the phone book for rental trucks, the ads usually state how big the trucks the company has are, and approximately how many rooms the truck will hold. First off, we went for the biggest truck we could get, a 27 footer. Second, those ads lie. But that's a story for later. We also found out that if you want to rent a truck around the end of the month, you better reserve it at the beginning of the month.
While we were happy with what was happening with the Bowie house, things were not going so smoothly with the house we were buying. We were told the sellers were being uncooperative. We were told that the sellers might not have all their stuff out by the time we were to go to closing. Remember, the place we are currently in has new people moving in 3 days after we close on the house. We were told that the selling realtor was a flake and not to worry. We also found a web sight for the religious cult that was living at the house. The web site listed "our" house as the world headquarters. It also invited everyone to come by on any Sunday for a free meal. We were starting to wonder who would be stopping by.
Lastly, we've hit a small snag with the people who will be renting our condo after we move out. The nice professional couple, who had good credit and were going to get married in May of this year. Have broken up. Apparently she caught him cheating. He still wants to rent the condo, which is good for us. She wants him to be tarred and feathered, among other things.
At least the condo is still rented.
In summary, we are now 11 days away from making the two biggest financial transactions of our lives. We think the sale of the Bowie house will go smoothly, although our realtor has said that the buying realtor is falling down on the job some and she's picking up the slack. We are worried that we will have problems with the house we are buying call it bad realtor vibes. Meanwhile back at the condo, we are packing and cleaning. The animals seem to be taking this rather well, Billie Jo tries to pick fights with Casper the cat next door. So far Casper has managed to pull the screens out of our windows twice. Mama has decided to guard us from the "Under the Bed Monsters". She feels her presence is required 24 hours a day at this post and has requested a litter box be placed under the bed. Ok, so she's still so stressed by the move she won't come out from under the bed to use the litter box. Abbey and Blackie, our foster cats, take turns locking Boomer in the second bedroom. Ghost and Maggie are sharing the computer hutch, while Cali has taken it upon her self to kill the telephone cord. (We currently have a telephone with a long cord hanging on the wall in the kitchen. Cali feels this cord must die at all costs) Lastly, Tia has managed to come down with a severe case of ear mites. In addition to feeling like bad kitty parents for not catching the Tia's ear mites, ear mites are also contagious. So now every Wednesday nite is ear nite at the Rude ranch. That's right, the supreme excitment of catching every cat in the household and cleaning out their ears. Bob and I are usually not too popular on Wednesdays.
