SNOW!!

OK, I may get tired of it, eventually, but I still get excited when we have some sort of out of the ordinary weather occurrence.  Cameron calls me the "Storm Goddess" due to the pure joy I got from a ride we were on, a few years ago, in which we were on a highway near the Grand Canyon that was right between 2 fantastic thunderstorms.  We got hailed on and pretty wet by the time we got to lodgings for the night, but I was ecstatic!

Well, this morning we awoke to snow on the ground.  Only around an inch, but it stuck to all the trees and bushes, blanketing our complex with pristine whiteness.

This is our dog's first snow and I wasn't sure how she would handle walking in it (she's a large chihuahua.)  I had to carry her down the stairs, but after that, she cruised through the fresh powder with no problems, wagging her tail the entire time.  She probably sensed my excitement, so joined in.  We appeared to be the first one's out in it, in our immediate vicinity, so there were no other dog prints around. (These are her's.)

This excitement aside, we are supposedly going to be able to move back to our actual apartment today.  We looked in on it yesterday and several things still needed attention, such as re-installation of the water heater, lighting fixtures, and, of course, cleaning up the mess from the drywall and painting.  I'm estimating this afternoon, but we'll see.  It all depends on how many people they put to the task.

Yesterday, we bundled up and took a short ride to a town called Pecos.  It's along the old Santa Fe Trail and we were curious.  There isn't much of a town to really look at.  The population is 6000+, but it looked like the inhabitants were scattered about the area and there isn't really a "downtown" that we noticed.  But, the countryside was pretty and the sky gorgeous, as usual.

We continued past Pecos to the Pecos National Historical Park, where we saw ruins from a mission built in the 1700's.  There are numerous other ruins dating back much farther, but we weren't dressed for the hike. We will save that for another time, now that we know it's there.

The sun is trying to peek out from the cloud cover and has melted much of the snow on the trees.  The ground is still covered, but, that too will probably be gone by noon.  It's nice that it happened on a day that neither one of us had to go to work, so we can just take it in and have a relaxing morning. Click Here, for a slide of our ride.

Insanity at 7000 Feet, and it's Snowing!

The saga of our apartment situation continues to unfold in a labyrinth of deceit and frustrations.

Monday was the day we had arranged for the maintenance guys to move us to the apartment which was originally to be our temporary lodging, but we decided to go ahead and move into it permanently since it will be at least another week before the original apartment will be finished.  Management was happy since it would save them some paperwork and the workers wouldn't have to deal with going into the apartment to retrieve items.  It is a little smaller, but the rent is much cheaper.  Well, after packing up all of our stuff, the guys come in and tell us that the manager says they can only move the big things, such as the desks and bed.  Now, the management had told us that we could take the apartment and they would move us.  Apparently, they meant only the larger items.  There is no way we can move all the rest of the stuff into an upstairs apartment ourselves.  That's why we originally chose a downstairs place.

Off to have words with the manager, who is not exactly the poster child for good customer relations.  She insists that we are on our own to move anything but the big items.  Well, we tell her our physical limitations and our understanding that our belongings would all be moved.  When we asked for the phone number to her supervisor, she refuses to give it to us.  We have the number, but it was packed up with all the rest of our stuff.

Cameron pulls up the corporate website and manages to track down the person we need to speak with.  She says she will call us back after she speaks with the apartment manager.  Well, she comes back with the offer to let us just move back into our original place after they are done, and maintenance will move back the few items they had moved here for us.

I just want to settle into my home.  We had only been in the apartment for 5 weeks before all this happened and here we are, back in this state of limbo.  Now, what settling I had accomplished, is undone and so everything will need to be unpacked, again!  This whole thing has been a nightmare.

One uplifting thing, IT'S SNOWING!!!  It's too wet to stick, but it is so pretty coming down.  The pictures are from the balcony of our temporary abode.  Here's a little video of it all coming down just click on the picture:

It's Raining! Inside?!

Tuesday morning we awoke to massive amounts of water in the kitchen, dining area, and livingroom.  It was raining from dozens of spots in the ceiling and the latex paint bulged from the weight of the water that was pressing against it and trickling out.  There was literally about a 1/2 inch of water in the kitchen.  Thankfully, only those areas were affected.  Cameron's keyboards and audio equipment were untouched and so was our bedroom.  I guess we're lucky we hadn't been able to afford any livingroom furniture, otherwise that would have been soaked.  We still had some boxes around, but the contents seem to have fared pretty well.

Within 15 minutes, maintenance was knocking on our door.  A neighbor had notice water pouring from the balcony above our unit and reported it.  No one lives up there, but apparently, the previous occupants had covered the the overflow drain for the water heater.  The water heater had burst, and the water had saturated the upstairs and was moving through the floor, our ceiling, as gravity intended.

The situation was quickly sized up and before long, sections of drywall were being cut from our ceiling.  Extractors were used to remove the water on the floor, and then the carpet was removed.  I've attached a link to a slide show of pictures of our torn up place.  They have since removed more drywall and pulled our water heater.

So began a struggle with the apartment management as to what we were to do while all this was being fixed.  At first, they were totally uncooperative as far as paying for our hotel or providing any suggestions as to how we were supposed to vacate the place as instructed.

Slowly, their attitude changed as Cameron moved further up the management ladder.  It's taken 2 days of arguing and frustration, but they are finally going to pay for the hotel stay until tomorrow, and then will put us up in another apartment for the remainder of the time.  The workers are anticipating that it will be at least until Tuesday or Wednesday before we can move back in.  I would just have them move us entirely to the other apartment, except that it is smaller and would be a little crowded for Cameron and I to share the 2nd bedroom office, especially with all the keyboards and recording equipment.

So, it has been a frustrating last couple of days.  On the flip side, I started my part-time job on Monday.  Thankfully, they have been incredibly understanding about my situation and given me flexibility in regards to my hours.  I am working at a mall kiosk, The Piercing Pagoda, which is sort of a pain, but the pay is OK and will provide us with the financial cushion we have been lacking.  I do like talking with new people and the products are pretty.  I will be learning how to pierce ears on Friday, which should be interesting.  I'll probably have more holes in my own, in time, who knows?

The "kids" of our household have not been very happy about all of this upset of their surroundings.  It has been very stressful, and will continue to be so, until they are back in their normal home.  JarJar, especially, has a hard time with it.  He's kind of the strong silent type, who ponders his own reflection in the mirror and sulks terribly when he feels things aren't the way they should be.

Us humans are doing our best to hang in there while all this is going on.  We had only been in the apartment for about 5 weeks and then all this hits us.  This is, of course, after spending 2 weeks in hotels looking for an apartment and then for all the checking they do to be processed, etc.  Ah, this, too, will be another thing we will laugh at in the coming years (right...) I guess, so as this little adventure continues we will keep you posted.