Things happen for a reason…

That’s my mantra, I tell myself probably 20 times a day.  I say it right after I thank God for letting me wake up and I say it right before bed.  I guess I say it to help myself believe it.

I wouldn’t have changed going home to visit family for anything, but it had me spinning when I got back trying to tie up all the loose ends (and believe me, there were far too many).  As it turns out this disaster has forced me to slow down, take things in stride, pick up the pieces and move on.

I’m more confident about leaving than I was before, I’m more prepared and have given things more thought than I’d been able to prior.

My bike is prepped (a couple of small things remain), my gear is almost dialed in (at least until I begin to ride) and my mind is mostly right…mostly.

Living in the house, since they pulled out all the dryers and fans, has been a study in quiet.  I’ve taken to keeping it that way with the occasional outbursts of music while working on the bikes.  I hear the lives of others going on around me and realize that I never really paid attention to them before.  It has caused me to smile and look inward a bit.

So I’ll leave you with a couple pics of the house as it stands now.

Disaster, Delay & Deviation…

“The best laid plans of mice and men…” Steinbeck wrote it based off the Scottish writing of Robert Burns in the 1700’s (apparently this thought concept has been around a bit…obviously well proven).

Those of you who have been following along know that I was planning on leaving Tuesday morning on the way to L.A. to meet Dominic and begin the ride, but as fate would have it, things took a turn.  Today was the Peccole Community Assoc. garage sale.  This happens twice a year and has a huge turnout.  This was going to be the last opportunity to get rid of whatever remained prior to going to donations.  I left Rosa’s around 5:30am with the intention of having everything laid out for whoever showed up early, but as I walked up the driveway, I was greeted with a small stream flowing to the road and heard the thunderous roar of a mini Niagara.  It took me a moment to realize my water heater had blown up.  After I got the water main shut off I surveyed the damage hoping like hell it was contained to the garage.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to the house and had water spill over the threshold!

Then entire bottom floor had anywhere from a half inch to almost two inches of standing water…fairly warm water to boot.  I have to give the water heater credit…it was doing its damnedest to keep up.

The first guy on the repair crew showed up about an hour after I called the insurance carrier and shortly thereafter an entire crew armed with water extractors, blowers and dehumidifiers….enter bad memories of the Monte Carlo fire.

So as we took stuff to the garage, to remaining higher ground, the crew was surprised to see the amount of people who began showing up wanting to but things we were hauling out.  People will buy anything.

So at this point I know my departure will be delayed but I don’t know how long or how this will affect things.  I do know its not a good sign when the crew removed the slate baseboard and the kickpanels of the cabinets in order to dry the soaked studs behind them.

Happy Easter

So today is my last day up here in the Pacific Northwest and I’ll be spending Easter with family.

Just a quick update since I last made an entry.  I left Colton to go to Spokane and spend some time with Wes & Mikala and family.  I stayed with them and thoroughly enjoyed kicking around Spokane.

A few months prior I bought a bicycle off of shopgoodwill.com.  The intention was to have a bike to work on after I went to school at UBI (unfortunately time ran out and I wasn’t able to attend).  So with much enthusiasm, and damn little talent, I tore into this Scott MTB…which btw is far too small for me to even think about riding.  A short time later I managed to completely un-true the wheels and had no clue to fix ’em.  Ah well….

I took off on Monday to Mom’s and went over Sherman Pass.  Glad the road was clear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked Tom to bring my old Schwinn up from Colton so I’d have a bike to ride while at Tonasket.  It was a good move and I made a couple rides of 12 miles each.  It gave me a chance to realize that my knees hurt because I’m outta shape and don’t have near the saddle time I should.  Again, ah well…

We left for Spokane on Friday morning for a family reunion/Mom’s birthday thoughout the weekend.  Mom had reserved a 3br condo out in Spokane valley for us all to meet at.

On the way I stopped by Electric City (just outside Grand Coulee) to see my Grandparents house.  I can’t begin to tell you the amount of good memories that came from this little corner of the world.  Suffice to say there were many and I cherish them all.

I made a quick stop at the cemetery where Dad and my Grandparents are buried and said my goodbyes to them.  On the entire drive I had sunny top-down driving, albiet with clouds in the sky.  Unfortunately that all changed when I got into Spokane.  It began to spit snow, then big corn snow (like hail, but not frozen) and then really heavy wet snow!  The Beemer was not amused when I attempted to change lanes…hell I was glad I didn’t go skidding across the lanes!

Anyway we’ve had a great weekend and I got to see so much of my family all together at once.  So I hope all of you reading have as wonderful of an Easter as I’ve had.