The Big Move – July 26, 2013

What’s not to love about this sweet face?

This saga really began a couple of years ago when I began to think that I am not getting any younger and even though I have many friends and superb neighbors, it is nice to be around family.  The more I went up to Carson City and then Minden to see Jerri and the family, the more I liked the area and began to think about making a big change in my life.  I made it my goal to be located somewhere near Jerri by the time I was 70.

This past June, Jerri asked me to dog sit for her while she and Allan went to Erik’s wedding in Washington.  You see, Jerri has Max, a half lab and half Great Dane, that is just a year old and acts like a two year-old child.  It seems as though he’s in constant trouble…chewing books, getting into the garbage, coming into the house all muddy after taking a dip in the koi fish pond.  You get the picture.  So I said sure and zoomed up to Minden.  I had also decided to begin looking around at some houses, never intending to find something quickly.  After all, it took Jerri and Allan an entire year to find their new house.

Jerri contacted their realtor and she set up several houses to look at.  Since Jerri wasn’t leaving until the next day, she went with me to check out these places.  The first

1175 Agua Caliente Ct., Minden, NV

place was too dark with no view, the second was too far out in the tules, and so it went…until the last house we looked at.  We walked into this place and it spoke to both of us.  Nice, bright, clean, good neighborhood, a great view to the east and to the west, already landscaped with a drip and sprinkler system in place and it backed up to open space with lots of sagebrush that always smells good.  Jerri said right off the bat that I needed to buy that house.  I wasn’t quite so quick with the decision.

Western view of the Sierra Mountains

Eastern view of the Pine Nut Mountains

Jerri and Allan left the next day and I was left with the dogs to make sure Max didn’t mess up.  I fiddled around Jerri’s house, doing some weeding and thinking about the house on Agua Caliente.  Conny, the realtor, set up some more houses the next day and I requested to go back to the Agua Caliente house.  It still spoke to me when I entered it for the second time and I told Conny I wanted to buy it.  And so I did after getting a loan in Carson City.   The deal was done in four days and was to close on July 17.  Wow!  What had I done?

SOLD! says it all

I went home and began to talk to realtors about selling the Cerritos home.  Some came in very low and Gary, the eventual realtor, let me set my own price after some advice.  He listed the house on a Thursday morning and it was shown two hours later.  The first people who saw it offered full price in cash!  Another wow!  I decided to take the offer as I figured a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush and then I’d be done with it and not have to worry any more about the sale.  The buyers wanted to close in 30 days, which made the closing on July 26.  Oh, my gosh!  How was I going to get packed, have a garage sale and get all the inspections done by then?

I began to make daily and long range lists and they worked!  Mayflower was hired to move my stuff, neighbors brought over boxes and even helped pack, (boxes were also

Garage sale prep in the garage

purchased), a moving sale was held on July 13 and I got rid of a lot of stuff with cheap prices, inspections were done and stacks of stuff were moved to the living room and the garage.   This picture is of just a bit of the stuff sold at the garage sale.  Amazing what one person can collect over the years.

Jerri arrived to help me finish packing and then help me drive the car up filled with our stuff and BC.  I was so grateful that she was there as she kept me safe and sane.  The day she arrived was also a going away party given by the neighbors.  Such fun that it was!!!

Everybody brought some type of a salad to Maurine’s house (my next-door neighbor) and it turned out to be a great international offering.  I wish I could have eaten more!  There was much laughter with all the neighbors in attendance.  I had such a good time and yet, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to these folks who have been my friends and neighbors for so many years.  You can see we are a cool ‘hood.

The terrific neighbors!!!

Little Nia giving a fine intro with her harmonica and drum

At the end of the festivities, the neighbors presented me with some going away gifts as well as a cool introduction by Nia Chavez.  She played the harmonica and beat

Farewell to Cora

on the drum a few times.   Don Knabe, our neighbor LA County Supervisor, had a pseudo -official proclamation made up for me which was also very cool.

The next day was back to work for Jerri and me as we toiled endlessly trying to get everything ready for the van that was arriving in just 4 days!  Boxes were beginning to pile up!

Stacking up in the living room

My dear friend, Dick Schmidt from Sacramento, flew down late Wednesday night to photographically document “Heebie Jeebie” day …the day before the van arrived and the actual day of the move.   Little did he know

Hoff sisters in action

that Jerri and I would put him to work in packing a couple TVs and sound equipment.  There is no rest when the Hoff sisters are in charge.  (That was the “handle” Dick assigned to us when he saw us in action)

Here are a few shots from that day.

Dick, the media man

All through this process, poor BC couldn’t figure out what was going on.  She would go off in a hidey-hole and sleep all day.  The trouble was that her favorite places were being packed and she had to find new ones.  Eventually, she chose Jerri’s bed because that seemed safe and people weren’t going in there to pack.  I tried to give her special attention but she didn’t want much to do with me as I was causing her consternation and stress.

Where can I go to hide?

Jerri’s bed seems best right now

Maybe I’ll eat and maybe I won’t.

It seemed symbolic to note #100 box

In packing, I had found a 1904 newspaper with my grandfather’s name written in pencil with the date.  I had assumed it was in Chinese as he was in China during the

Checking out the Japanese newspaper with June and Bo

Boxer Rebellion.  I asked June, my Chinese neighbor, to take a look at it and see if he was mentioned at all.  It turns out the paper was Japanese.  I think that since Grandpa was hurt near the Great Wall of China, he was sent to a hospital in Japan to get fixed up.  That’s the only reason I can think that he would have been in Japan.  Anyway, June did translate it (she knows something like 5 languages) and Grandpa was not mentioned.  Rather it was a regular newspaper with stock quotes, stories, and ads advertising canned milk. June and her husband, Bo, were quite animated when they were telling us about the paper and I found it fascinating that they both could read it and tell us what was going on.

After Bo and June left, I indulged in the last little bottle of Bailey’s.  For some reason, it was a little orphan in the garage ‘fridge and it needed to be consumed or tossed out as it would not have been good for it to make the trip in the van.   Dick documented its exquisite taste for me.  It was truly delicious after a hard day of packing and saying goodbye to neighbors again.

The delectable taste of Bailey’s!

The Mayflower team and me

The van arrived about 8:30 AM and the guys began to work almost immediately after some preparation with getting little green tags on every single item.

Dick did a great job of capturing every significant event that happened that day.  I really do appreciate his attention to detail and his sense of humor.

We were concerned about BC seeing everything leaving the house, so we made sure the master bedroom was empty so the movers would not have to enter the room.

This is a crappy place to hide!

That was to be her home for the duration.  She did one better, however.  She hid out behind the toilet and would not come out until I put her little harness on for her ride in the crate that was to be her transport device.

Her harness was not an easy thing to put on her.  She wanted nothing to do with it.  I had given her a Xanax (prescribed by the vet), but it didn’t really kick in until hours later. We didn’t try to put her into the crate until just before we left.  Poor thing was really traumatized.

It was an amazing thing to watch the movers load the truck.  My stuff was first onto the van and every single piece of it was packed solidly into the very front of the truck.  I guess it would be called the fifth wheel area.   This is the first item loaded and the next picture is of the items and how tightly they are packed.  My total household was packed to about a foot or two just this side of that step down area you can see in the foreground or about even with the ladder.  Then, two other households were loaded behind my stuff onto the truck.

The first item to be loaded.

Securing the load with just a bit more to be put on the truck

WOW! It echos!

The house was empty shortly before two and we were on the road at 2 PM trying to beat the outgoing Friday traffic through LA, Palmdale and Lancaster.

A couple of final farewells to friends and neighbors and off we went.

BC was last out of the house. She’s not too please to be in her crate.

A fond farewell to Duane

The three amigos, Cora, Dick and Jerri

Nos vemos, Cerritos! We’ll be seeing you!

As I said before, it was bittersweet to leave 41 years of memories and friends and neighbors who have meant the world to me.  But, at 1:58 PM, it was off to a new adventure and new chapter in my life.