Remember one of my first blogs when I was singing the praises of cell phones and aircards? I thought we were so up to date with technology. Well,I think I have mentioned that our Alltel cell phones and aircard aren't going to work at the new place we are moving to. The area is served by a local phone company, the Nucla Naturita Telephone Company a.k.a. "the mafia". They are expensive and think they are God's gift to Paradox Valley. Maybe 50 years ago they were but I see no reason they should continue to take advantage of ignorant residents, many who have never ventured more than 100 miles from home. I have been very vocal about not playing their silly game, we don't need a landline but we do need a cell phone that is halfway reliable and internet access. So this week I took a drive to Nucla to find out for myself just what they were offering in the way of cell service. Unlike my experience a couple years ago with the NM Dept of Motor Vehicles, no one threatened to have me bodily removed or arrested. See? I can learn how to act civilized...heeheee. The nice lady who answered my questions looked totally out of place, she was professionally dressed and had an expensive haircut as opposed to most residents who wear Carharts and muddy boots. She explained their cell phone plans, you can buy the phone outright and pay $45 per month for their basic 250 minute plan or get a "free" phone and pay $10 a month more for the same plan with a 2 year contract. HUH? The "free" phone sells for $150 if you buy it outright, if you opt for the "free" deal you end up paying $240 for it! All the rest of the phones displayed in a locked glass case ran anywhere from $300-$900, rather expensive for a piece of equipment that will be out of date in 6 months, don't you think? On further examination of their various plans, non of them have voice mail...that is $4.50 a month more! What is that about? I asked if the phones would work out of area....would it work in Moab? in Durango? in Phoenix? yes, yes, yes.....OK, whose towers are they roaming off of? Alltel, Verizon and Sprint! Only the very best! OK, why don't you share your towers with those companies? "Well, I guess those companies don't want to use our towers, you should ask them that question." Darn right I will! I left there with most of my preconceived notions confirmed but with the sad fact that we may have to get one of their darn cell phones. And it won't be the FREE one!
Back in LaSal I called Altell and told the nice service person my sad tale. I asked why they didn't use the "mafia's" towers, she said Altell probably found them to be inferior for service, too expensive, or not feasible....I'm guessing all 3! I told her about the new tower that the mafia had just put up in the middle of the little town we are moving to , just a block away from our new place. I thought she would never stop laughing! "What are they thinking?" she asked, "that will never work, you are too close to the tower!" oh. Well, what can we do about getting us out of our contracts? "What kind of phones and which aircard do you have?" huh? what difference does it make? I have the Hue, Al has something by Samsung that rarely works because I somehow managed to program it on Verizon, and the air card I just call Huey because I have no idea how to pronounce it's real name. Normally it would be around $200 each to get out of the contracts but after consulting with a supervisor it was agreed that my phone would be $109, Al's would be $99 and Huey would be $159. So much for free and special price phones! Just like with the "mafia" you are actually paying for them. OK, but don't disconnect me yet, I need to do our income taxes first!
Thoroughly disheartened, I inserted the Turbo Tax program in the laptop, answered all the questions, and efiled all the returns with the help of Huey. Guess I will place an online order today for Hughes net pro. I'm really going to miss Huey!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Playing Catch Up Here
OK where was I? Oh yeah, I was getting ready for a moving sale.
These are plants that may have a chance of surviving after being frozen solid. The sign says "Free to a Good Home".
Al made it to Bloomfield just before the first eager shoppers showed up. It was a hectic 3 days but we got rid of lots of stuff and put $2,000 in our bank account. My son and his wife got lots of good stuff. Al's granddaughter got our sofa and loveseat in exchange for a futon she had, I wanted a futon for the sun porch and figured I could find another couch at a later date.
Al left for Colorado early Sunday to try to outrun the next snowstorm. Poor guy, he has had to fight storms every time he goes back and forth.
So I am back to packing and making arrangements with Salvation Army to come get the remnants of the moving sale when our Bloomfield realtor calls.........the buyers want to close early, we would have to be out next Saturday. GULP.........OK, we can do that! I called Al and persuaded him he really needed to come back to Bloomfield and HELP ME!!! He got back Wednesday and we tore into what was left with a vengeance.
We have tons of paperwork for the two transactions, selling and buying, but where is the Title preview for the house we are buying? The objection date was yesterday. Turns out the title company mailed it, which means it is probably sitting in the post office in Utah. A frantic call to our Colorado realtor gets the papers emailed to us. What is this? The title company says the property we are buying is recorded in 2 sections and they aren't contiguous? What is that all about? More calls to our CO realtor, and time out for county record searches online. Which only makes the situation worse.....it looks like our property doesn't end at the road like the owner told us but continues across the road up to the front door of a church/community center! And the "not contiguous" turns out to be a 6' lane between the 2 sections and right through the middle of the house! OK, tell our realtor to tell the seller's realtor that we want a full survey and WE AREN'T PAYING FOR IT!
Now it is Thursday, and we are running very low on propane. A call to the company that bought out the propane company we leased the tank from gets me nothing but"we can't deliver less than 100 gallons, that will be $283.00, would you like to pay the driver or put that on your credit card?" Hey! Are you listening to me? We aren't going to put that much propane in the tank for the new owners, we only need enough to get us by for a couple days! "I'm sorry, we can't deliver less than 100 gallons,..........." I finally called our Bloomfield realtor, explained the situation and offered the new owners early possession if they will take care of the propane problem. Which of course generates more paperwork.
The Salvation Army truck shows up to pick up the rest of the stuff from the moving sale. They were supposed to be here Tuesday but it snowed, they don't pick up in the snow. They open the back of the truck and OMG! There is the absolute perfect couch and matching recliner rocker in Southwest design just as I had envisioned for the new place! Much to Al's disgust, I talk them into unloading it and give them $120.00 for the set. I think Al was more upset at himself, he was trying to rewire our tow hitch because he left the wire harness in the RV and we needed it to tow the Beer Runner behind the Totally Awesome Toyota.
Early last summer we had been riding our ATVs down Largo Canyon when we came across 6 whipchecks that had fallen off an oilrig truck. These are wire cables about 4' long with clevis ends.The ones we found appeared to be brand new and still had tags from the manufacturer on them. I later called the local company which made them and determined they sell for about $75. We had put them out at our moving sale, several people offered to take them off our hands but no one wanted to pay for them. So I call the company again to see if they want to buy them back, of course they can't do that but the gal gives me the name of a drilling company that uses that size. I give them a call and the guy gets all bent out of shape, accuses us of stealing them, wants our address, rants and raves, I hang up on him. Sheesh! I was just trying to do them a favor and sell the darn things at way less than they would have to pay for new ones!
By now I have recharged my cellphone several times and there is no doubt that we will go over our plan minutes for the month with all the calls to the realtors. It is cold in the garage and workshop where we are finishing the last of the packing and we keep going in the house to thaw out fingers and feet. Phone rings again...now what? "Hello, this is the assistant District Attorney, I understand you are in possession of stolen property." OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! NO! We did NOT steal the damn things! Come and get them, our address is..."We'll be in touch ma'am"
Great, now we are criminals....
Friday is more of the same. I have reserved the biggest Uhaul truck online and they are supposed to call us back with instructions on where to pick it up. Finally I call them and find out the place we are to pick up the truck doesn't open until 10:00 on Saturday morning....that will not work, we have to get out of here. So we transfer the location to a place that opens at 9:00. A call to them and after begging, they allow us to pick up the truck on Friday afternoon. YES!
Saturday,moving day. It is snowing. Al is anxious to get started loading. My son Bryon is on his way from Pagosa in a snowstorm, Al's granddaughter and her SO are dropping the greatgrandson off at SO's parents.
They all show up and get to work.All the boxes have been loaded and we are working on this.
At this point I am getting seriously worried, notice the truck is almost full and we still have a big upright freezer and a garage full of stuff to go on yet. The guy going up the ramp is my son, Bryon, the other guy I got from Job Service. I had called them earlier in the week and offered $25 and lunch to whoever showed up to help load....he was the only one and he was very good help.
OK, it is 1:00 in the afternoon. The truck is loaded and amazingly everything fit. Our flatbed trailer is loaded and hooked to the back of the truck, the Beer Runner is attached to the Totally Awesome Toyota with a towbar and it is snowing again. But we are OUTTA HERE!
As usual, Al and I are not communicating. Not that we want it that way...we have tried several different things when we have to drive separate vehicles. CB radio, my handheld isn't strong enough. same for our two way radios. Today Al's cell phone is going straight to voicemail...darn thing never has worked right.
It is still snowing lightly and the farther north we go, the more snow on the road we are seeing. I am not comfortable going 60, the Beer Runner wants to "wag" the back of the Totally Awesome Toyota. As we near Dove Creek the snow on the road is getting worse and we pass a horrendous two semi accident. The cab had been entirely torn off one of them. We stop in Dove Creek for fuel and to talk about our options. I am all for heading northwest through Monticello and on to LaSal and the comfort of our RV for the night. Al wants to turn northeast and push on for Naturita where we are supposed to unload the Uhaul in a storage unit. I lost, turns out to be a good thing because Hwy 191 from Monticello to Moab was being closed about that time. So we head towards Slick Rock, the snow gets worse, the road is snowpacked, at times it is whiteout. And this is what lies ahead:
See that squiggely yellow line going from bottom left to upper right? That is Slick Rock Hill. It drops 2,000' into the Dolores River canyon. In good weather it is scary and spectacular. Today.......I grip the steering wheel harder, engage the 4WD, put it in low, and head down. I can no longer see Al ahead of me which is probably a good thing. Then, amazingly, the snow stops, the road is only WET! Whoopeee!! Piece of cake. Disappointment Valley is clear all the way across but then we climb up a little bit to Big Gyp valley and once again it is snowing and the road is snowpacked. Where are the snowplows? Up ahead Al blinks his tail lights....great. There are deer everywhere. Hey! I didn't make it this far just to hit a darn deer!
It seems like the road goes on forever, especially with me creeping along at 40mph. Then we cross over into Montrose County and the plows have been out so now we don't have snowpack but ICE! It is getting dark, I am exhausted, and I'm spinning out on a hill. Somewhere along the way I took it out of 4WD and have forgotten to put it back in. Ooops. Got it back under control and eventually we made it to Naturita.
After 5 1/2 hours of whiteknuckle driving I don't have much trouble convincing Al that we are going to get a motel room and some dinner. There is only 1 motel in town so while I get us checked in Al goes in search of dog food for the kids. I ask for a non-smoking ground floor room, it takes the gal an age to get us a room and process the credit card. She finally gets it done and we lug some stuff to the room. Whew! If this is a non-smoking room I hate to see what the smoking rooms smell like! But we are too tired to go back to the desk, dinner and a beer are more important. Back at the room we have fallen exhaustedly asleep when the phone rings. It is 10:00 at night, what the heck! The owner of the motel is on the phone...would we please move the Uhaul, it is blocking an access. GRRR!!!
Next morning we determine that there is no way we can safely get the Uhaul up the short drive to the storage shed, it has been snowing here too and not a single thing in town has been plowed.
We take a drive over to Nucla where we are to turn in the truck and lo and behold, there is a storage place there. We finally track down the owner (it is Sunday) and make arrangements to leave the truck until the next day. We leave the Uhaul, unhook the Beer Runner and hook the trailer up to the Totally Awesome Toyota and head for LaSal. More snowpacked road across Paradox Valley. We dropped the trailer at a friend's house near where we are moving (remember, the place with 6' of land separating the 2 sections). Everything was OK when we finally made it home to the RV. But it was snowing again.
Monday morning, we have another 8" of snow but set off for Bedrock where Al works at 5:30 am. Hmmmm, snowplows haven't been out yet but there is one set of tracks on the road and it is very beautiful and peaceful. There are two very steep curvy places to go down but I am not worried, the snow banks on the sides of the road are really high. When we get to where Al works we find out the road we just came over is CLOSED! Imagine that! The sun is starting to come out and we head on to Nucla and the Uhaul truck with all our household stuff still inside. Kenny, the owner, has found us a storage space, someone had moved out on the sly, so a couple phone calls (now Al's phone works but mine doesn't) to Al's friends and we have help unloading.
Things are progressing on the place we are trying to buy, the surveyor will be out to do his thing today. The owner is confidant that all will go well and is going to be out and on his way to Kentucky next Thursday. We are supposed to close next Friday, we closed on the Bloomfield place Tuesday.
Things are looking better!
These are plants that may have a chance of surviving after being frozen solid. The sign says "Free to a Good Home".Al made it to Bloomfield just before the first eager shoppers showed up. It was a hectic 3 days but we got rid of lots of stuff and put $2,000 in our bank account. My son and his wife got lots of good stuff. Al's granddaughter got our sofa and loveseat in exchange for a futon she had, I wanted a futon for the sun porch and figured I could find another couch at a later date.
Al left for Colorado early Sunday to try to outrun the next snowstorm. Poor guy, he has had to fight storms every time he goes back and forth.
So I am back to packing and making arrangements with Salvation Army to come get the remnants of the moving sale when our Bloomfield realtor calls.........the buyers want to close early, we would have to be out next Saturday. GULP.........OK, we can do that! I called Al and persuaded him he really needed to come back to Bloomfield and HELP ME!!! He got back Wednesday and we tore into what was left with a vengeance.
We have tons of paperwork for the two transactions, selling and buying, but where is the Title preview for the house we are buying? The objection date was yesterday. Turns out the title company mailed it, which means it is probably sitting in the post office in Utah. A frantic call to our Colorado realtor gets the papers emailed to us. What is this? The title company says the property we are buying is recorded in 2 sections and they aren't contiguous? What is that all about? More calls to our CO realtor, and time out for county record searches online. Which only makes the situation worse.....it looks like our property doesn't end at the road like the owner told us but continues across the road up to the front door of a church/community center! And the "not contiguous" turns out to be a 6' lane between the 2 sections and right through the middle of the house! OK, tell our realtor to tell the seller's realtor that we want a full survey and WE AREN'T PAYING FOR IT!
Now it is Thursday, and we are running very low on propane. A call to the company that bought out the propane company we leased the tank from gets me nothing but"we can't deliver less than 100 gallons, that will be $283.00, would you like to pay the driver or put that on your credit card?" Hey! Are you listening to me? We aren't going to put that much propane in the tank for the new owners, we only need enough to get us by for a couple days! "I'm sorry, we can't deliver less than 100 gallons,..........." I finally called our Bloomfield realtor, explained the situation and offered the new owners early possession if they will take care of the propane problem. Which of course generates more paperwork.
The Salvation Army truck shows up to pick up the rest of the stuff from the moving sale. They were supposed to be here Tuesday but it snowed, they don't pick up in the snow. They open the back of the truck and OMG! There is the absolute perfect couch and matching recliner rocker in Southwest design just as I had envisioned for the new place! Much to Al's disgust, I talk them into unloading it and give them $120.00 for the set. I think Al was more upset at himself, he was trying to rewire our tow hitch because he left the wire harness in the RV and we needed it to tow the Beer Runner behind the Totally Awesome Toyota.
Early last summer we had been riding our ATVs down Largo Canyon when we came across 6 whipchecks that had fallen off an oilrig truck. These are wire cables about 4' long with clevis ends.The ones we found appeared to be brand new and still had tags from the manufacturer on them. I later called the local company which made them and determined they sell for about $75. We had put them out at our moving sale, several people offered to take them off our hands but no one wanted to pay for them. So I call the company again to see if they want to buy them back, of course they can't do that but the gal gives me the name of a drilling company that uses that size. I give them a call and the guy gets all bent out of shape, accuses us of stealing them, wants our address, rants and raves, I hang up on him. Sheesh! I was just trying to do them a favor and sell the darn things at way less than they would have to pay for new ones!
By now I have recharged my cellphone several times and there is no doubt that we will go over our plan minutes for the month with all the calls to the realtors. It is cold in the garage and workshop where we are finishing the last of the packing and we keep going in the house to thaw out fingers and feet. Phone rings again...now what? "Hello, this is the assistant District Attorney, I understand you are in possession of stolen property." OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! NO! We did NOT steal the damn things! Come and get them, our address is..."We'll be in touch ma'am"
Great, now we are criminals....
Friday is more of the same. I have reserved the biggest Uhaul truck online and they are supposed to call us back with instructions on where to pick it up. Finally I call them and find out the place we are to pick up the truck doesn't open until 10:00 on Saturday morning....that will not work, we have to get out of here. So we transfer the location to a place that opens at 9:00. A call to them and after begging, they allow us to pick up the truck on Friday afternoon. YES!
Saturday,moving day. It is snowing. Al is anxious to get started loading. My son Bryon is on his way from Pagosa in a snowstorm, Al's granddaughter and her SO are dropping the greatgrandson off at SO's parents.
They all show up and get to work.All the boxes have been loaded and we are working on this.At this point I am getting seriously worried, notice the truck is almost full and we still have a big upright freezer and a garage full of stuff to go on yet. The guy going up the ramp is my son, Bryon, the other guy I got from Job Service. I had called them earlier in the week and offered $25 and lunch to whoever showed up to help load....he was the only one and he was very good help.OK, it is 1:00 in the afternoon. The truck is loaded and amazingly everything fit. Our flatbed trailer is loaded and hooked to the back of the truck, the Beer Runner is attached to the Totally Awesome Toyota with a towbar and it is snowing again. But we are OUTTA HERE!
As usual, Al and I are not communicating. Not that we want it that way...we have tried several different things when we have to drive separate vehicles. CB radio, my handheld isn't strong enough. same for our two way radios. Today Al's cell phone is going straight to voicemail...darn thing never has worked right.
It is still snowing lightly and the farther north we go, the more snow on the road we are seeing. I am not comfortable going 60, the Beer Runner wants to "wag" the back of the Totally Awesome Toyota. As we near Dove Creek the snow on the road is getting worse and we pass a horrendous two semi accident. The cab had been entirely torn off one of them. We stop in Dove Creek for fuel and to talk about our options. I am all for heading northwest through Monticello and on to LaSal and the comfort of our RV for the night. Al wants to turn northeast and push on for Naturita where we are supposed to unload the Uhaul in a storage unit. I lost, turns out to be a good thing because Hwy 191 from Monticello to Moab was being closed about that time. So we head towards Slick Rock, the snow gets worse, the road is snowpacked, at times it is whiteout. And this is what lies ahead:
See that squiggely yellow line going from bottom left to upper right? That is Slick Rock Hill. It drops 2,000' into the Dolores River canyon. In good weather it is scary and spectacular. Today.......I grip the steering wheel harder, engage the 4WD, put it in low, and head down. I can no longer see Al ahead of me which is probably a good thing. Then, amazingly, the snow stops, the road is only WET! Whoopeee!! Piece of cake. Disappointment Valley is clear all the way across but then we climb up a little bit to Big Gyp valley and once again it is snowing and the road is snowpacked. Where are the snowplows? Up ahead Al blinks his tail lights....great. There are deer everywhere. Hey! I didn't make it this far just to hit a darn deer!
It seems like the road goes on forever, especially with me creeping along at 40mph. Then we cross over into Montrose County and the plows have been out so now we don't have snowpack but ICE! It is getting dark, I am exhausted, and I'm spinning out on a hill. Somewhere along the way I took it out of 4WD and have forgotten to put it back in. Ooops. Got it back under control and eventually we made it to Naturita.
After 5 1/2 hours of whiteknuckle driving I don't have much trouble convincing Al that we are going to get a motel room and some dinner. There is only 1 motel in town so while I get us checked in Al goes in search of dog food for the kids. I ask for a non-smoking ground floor room, it takes the gal an age to get us a room and process the credit card. She finally gets it done and we lug some stuff to the room. Whew! If this is a non-smoking room I hate to see what the smoking rooms smell like! But we are too tired to go back to the desk, dinner and a beer are more important. Back at the room we have fallen exhaustedly asleep when the phone rings. It is 10:00 at night, what the heck! The owner of the motel is on the phone...would we please move the Uhaul, it is blocking an access. GRRR!!!
Next morning we determine that there is no way we can safely get the Uhaul up the short drive to the storage shed, it has been snowing here too and not a single thing in town has been plowed.
We take a drive over to Nucla where we are to turn in the truck and lo and behold, there is a storage place there. We finally track down the owner (it is Sunday) and make arrangements to leave the truck until the next day. We leave the Uhaul, unhook the Beer Runner and hook the trailer up to the Totally Awesome Toyota and head for LaSal. More snowpacked road across Paradox Valley. We dropped the trailer at a friend's house near where we are moving (remember, the place with 6' of land separating the 2 sections). Everything was OK when we finally made it home to the RV. But it was snowing again.
Monday morning, we have another 8" of snow but set off for Bedrock where Al works at 5:30 am. Hmmmm, snowplows haven't been out yet but there is one set of tracks on the road and it is very beautiful and peaceful. There are two very steep curvy places to go down but I am not worried, the snow banks on the sides of the road are really high. When we get to where Al works we find out the road we just came over is CLOSED! Imagine that! The sun is starting to come out and we head on to Nucla and the Uhaul truck with all our household stuff still inside. Kenny, the owner, has found us a storage space, someone had moved out on the sly, so a couple phone calls (now Al's phone works but mine doesn't) to Al's friends and we have help unloading.
Things are progressing on the place we are trying to buy, the surveyor will be out to do his thing today. The owner is confidant that all will go well and is going to be out and on his way to Kentucky next Thursday. We are supposed to close next Friday, we closed on the Bloomfield place Tuesday.
Things are looking better!
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