Hi Folks! (I'm finally back in SC from TN!) -- Warning: LONG

I'm finally back (from what should have been a week-long trip) to get my
apartment packed up. What an ordeal! Rather than a week it's two weeks to
the day. I thought I'd never get home.

First off, purrs to any and all who need them. I know via email Flippy lost
her beloved Juliet while I was gone and she has my deepest sympathy.
There's simply no way I can read through all the posts from the last two
weeks and offer everyone purrs but be assured you have them.

Of course Persia is hiding. She came out briefly when John went to take a
nap and she heard me tapping away at the keyboard. Hmmm, that sound is
familiar! I think my mommy's back! But then she went back under the
sofa when she realized, "Oh no! It's that man who was here last year!" LOL
She'll get over it when she gets hungry, thirsty or needs to use the litter
box.

The funny thing is, I was afraid she'd hide from my neighbor who was coming
in to take care of her. (Not that it would have mattered because she could
always come out and eat and use the litterbox once Lynn left.) When I'm
here she's always hidden if Lynn knocked on the door. Not so this time.
The very first night she said Persia greeted her at the door, yakking at her
in her slightly raspy meezer-like voice and basically leading her to where
the food bowl is. LOL It was as if she knew, "Oh, this is the temporary
food lady. I'd better be nice to her!"

Anyway, I had far more stuff to go through in my apartment than I realized.
Not only did I pretty much have two of everything (such as toasters,
blenders, etc.) from my apartment and my house (I cannot believe I own a
house!), but I had to try on practically every bit of clothing I liked to
see if it still fit. I donated a lot of stuff to a church, about 8 bags of
nice clothing.

We set odds and ends and bits of furniture out by the curb and people just
came and took it. Instead of Freecycle I call it Curbcycle

I had to rent a dumpster in TN. I don't know if any of you have ever had to
do this but the smallest one we could get was 20 yards long and took up 3
parking spaces. We really could have gotten away with a 10 yard dumpster
but 20 was the smallest they had. I got to meet my neighbors (heh) when I
gave them a heads up about the dumpster. Fortunately the only apartment
adjoining mine was already vacant so it was just two neighbors. They were
both very pleasant and agreeable about the whole thing. Good. The last
thing I needed was some grief.

I'd reserved a 16 ft. Penske truck and when I went to pick it up the guy who
was originally going to help us load said, "Oh, sure, you don't need
anything bigger." He said he and his brother and a friend of theirs would
be more than happy to load the truck for us. I had my doubts about that 16
ft. truck and it turned out I was absolutely correct. I needed a much
bigger truck. I didn't have that much furniture, really, but boxes and
boxes of stuff even after culling through everything.

We wound up with a 26 foot diesel truck but it wasn't available until around
Noon. And just as we were swapping out trucks the Uncle of the guy at the
place happened to wander in. He was just in town for the week to visit some
family. He and John got to talking and it turned out he used to be some
kind of long haul trucker who knew how to pack large trucks. He was at
loose ends so I hired him on the spot. He and his nephew and another young
man came over and they got the job done and everything properly loaded in
about 2 hours. They even helped us carry the last stuff out to the curb for
the "curbcycling".

It was around 3:00 PM when we drove the truck out of Tennessee. We stopped
a ways past Tupelo, MS because we'd both been helping with the moving and
loading and hauling stuff out to the curb.

We did 7 hours of driving on Saturday. The fairly new (less than 1 year,
140,000 miles) Penske truck started f**king up right outside of Birmingham,
AL. We thought at first it was the road, because there was construction
going on and it was a pretty rough ride. (Don't let anyone tell you these
diesel trucks have "air ride" seats because even on smooth stretches we were
not sitting comfortably.)

But as the trip progressed this morning it became obvious there were major
problems with this truck. First John couldn't get it to start. When he
finally did get it to start it didn't want to go into Drive. He had to put
it into reverse and back up before Drive engaged. Once we got going it was
okay but then we'd drive a few miles then it started bucking, hitching,
hiccupping. We felt like we were riding a mechanical bull. It was an
automatic transmission but if he dropped it into a lower gear it would
smoothe out. It was the Drive setting that was gibing us problems.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes we had to drive in 4th. It's all f**k'd up.
It's a good thing we didn't stop for breakfast. Once we finally got here
and he got it backed into my driveway for unloading, it wouldn't start
again.

They're going to have to send someone with a HUGE tow truck after we get it
unloaded tomorrow evening to haul it off. We're done screwing around with
this truck. We filled the tank (didn't dare shut the truck off) about 50
miles away so it still reads FULL. But screw it, as much trouble as we had
with it I'm not about to pay to put more diesel fuel in it.

It's a shame, really. It should have been so simple once we got the correct
size truck. But nope, I spent about an hour on the phone with the Penske
people this afternoon. I'm expecting a Penske mechanic within the hour (not
to fix the truck but to see how narrow the streets are so he can figure out
on Wednesday morning how they'll be able to haul it off.) Fun stuff, NOT.

Persia just came back out from under the sofa. I gave her plenty of
scritches and she'll surely get used to John. But the Penske guy knocking
on the door will send her right back into hiding. Poor baby

Gawd it's good to be home.

Purrs again for everyone.

Jill

It should be priceless to see Persia reacting to her 'stuff' that has
been gone for a year moving in.

Remember you have lots of time now for getting everything where you
want it. Bet you already feel as if you tried to build Rome in an
afternoon.

Jo

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm finally back (from what should have been a week-long trip) to
get my apartment packed up. What an ordeal! Rather than a week
it's two weeks to the day. I thought I'd never get home.

First off, purrs to any and all who need them. I know via email
Flippy lost her beloved Juliet while I was gone and she has my
deepest sympathy. There's simply no way I can read through all the
posts from the last two weeks and offer everyone purrs but be
assured you have them.

Of course Persia is hiding. She came out briefly when John went to
take a nap and she heard me tapping away at the keyboard. Hmmm,
that sound is familiar! I think my mommy's back! But then she
went back under the sofa when she realized, "Oh no! It's that man
who was here last year!" LOL She'll get over it when she gets
hungry, thirsty or needs to use the litter box.

The funny thing is, I was afraid she'd hide from my neighbor who was
coming in to take care of her. (Not that it would have mattered
because she could always come out and eat and use the litterbox once
Lynn left.) When I'm here she's always hidden if Lynn knocked on
the door. Not so this time. The very first night she said Persia
greeted her at the door, yakking at her in her slightly raspy
meezer-like voice and basically leading her to where the food bowl
is. LOL It was as if she knew, "Oh, this is the temporary food
lady. I'd better be nice to her!"

Anyway, I had far more stuff to go through in my apartment than I
realized. Not only did I pretty much have two of everything (such as
toasters, blenders, etc.) from my apartment and my house (I cannot
believe I own a house!), but I had to try on practically every bit
of clothing I liked to see if it still fit. I donated a lot of
stuff to a church, about 8 bags of nice clothing.

We set odds and ends and bits of furniture out by the curb and
people just came and took it. Instead of Freecycle I call it
Curbcycle

I had to rent a dumpster in TN. I don't know if any of you have
ever had to do this but the smallest one we could get was 20 yards
long and took up 3 parking spaces. We really could have gotten away
with a 10 yard dumpster but 20 was the smallest they had. I got to
meet my neighbors (heh) when I gave them a heads up about the
dumpster. Fortunately the only apartment adjoining mine was already
vacant so it was just two neighbors. They were both very pleasant
and agreeable about the whole thing. Good. The last thing I needed
was some grief.

I'd reserved a 16 ft. Penske truck and when I went to pick it up the
guy who was originally going to help us load said, "Oh, sure, you
don't need anything bigger." He said he and his brother and a
friend of theirs would be more than happy to load the truck for us.
I had my doubts about that 16 ft. truck and it turned out I was
absolutely correct. I needed a much bigger truck. I didn't have
that much furniture, really, but boxes and boxes of stuff even after
culling through everything.

We wound up with a 26 foot diesel truck but it wasn't available
until around Noon. And just as we were swapping out trucks the
Uncle of the guy at the place happened to wander in. He was just in
town for the week to visit some family. He and John got to talking
and it turned out he used to be some kind of long haul trucker who
knew how to pack large trucks. He was at loose ends so I hired him
on the spot. He and his nephew and another young man came over and
they got the job done and everything properly loaded in about 2
hours. They even helped us carry the last stuff out to the curb for
the "curbcycling".

It was around 3:00 PM when we drove the truck out of Tennessee. We
stopped a ways past Tupelo, MS because we'd both been helping with
the moving and loading and hauling stuff out to the curb.

We did 7 hours of driving on Saturday. The fairly new (less than 1
year, 140,000 miles) Penske truck started f**king up right outside
of Birmingham, AL. We thought at first it was the road, because
there was construction going on and it was a pretty rough ride.
(Don't let anyone tell you these diesel trucks have "air ride" seats
because even on smooth stretches we were not sitting comfortably.)

But as the trip progressed this morning it became obvious there were
major problems with this truck. First John couldn't get it to
start. When he finally did get it to start it didn't want to go
into Drive. He had to put it into reverse and back up before Drive
engaged. Once we got going it was okay but then we'd drive a few
miles then it started bucking, hitching, hiccupping. We felt like
we were riding a mechanical bull. It was an automatic transmission
but if he dropped it into a lower gear it would smoothe out. It was
the Drive setting that was gibing us problems. Sometimes it worked,
sometimes we had to drive in 4th. It's all f**k'd up. It's a good
thing we didn't stop for breakfast. Once we finally got here and he
got it backed into my driveway for unloading, it wouldn't start
again.

They're going to have to send someone with a HUGE tow truck after we
get it unloaded tomorrow evening to haul it off. We're done
screwing around with this truck. We filled the tank (didn't dare
shut the truck off) about 50 miles away so it still reads FULL. But
screw it, as much trouble as we had with it I'm not about to pay to
put more diesel fuel in it.

It's a shame, really. It should have been so simple once we got the
correct size truck. But nope, I spent about an hour on the phone
with the Penske people this afternoon. I'm expecting a Penske
mechanic within the hour (not to fix the truck but to see how narrow
the streets are so he can figure out on Wednesday morning how
they'll be able to haul it off.) Fun stuff, NOT.

Persia just came back out from under the sofa. I gave her plenty of
scritches and she'll surely get used to John. But the Penske guy
knocking on the door will send her right back into hiding. Poor
baby

Gawd it's good to be home.

Purrs again for everyone.

Jill

Glad you finally wrote in, I was getting worried after a week went by.
Will John be staying with you for good, or just a little while?

Bobble


"jmcquown" wrote in
:

I'm finally back (from what should have been a week-long trip) to get
my apartment packed up. What an ordeal! Rather than a week it's two
weeks to the day. I thought I'd never get home.

First off, purrs to any and all who need them. I know via email
Flippy lost her beloved Juliet while I was gone and she has my deepest
sympathy. There's simply no way I can read through all the posts from
the last two weeks and offer everyone purrs but be assured you have
them.

Of course Persia is hiding. She came out briefly when John went to
take a nap and she heard me tapping away at the keyboard. Hmmm, that
sound is familiar! I think my mommy's back! But then she went
back under the sofa when she realized, "Oh no! It's that man who was
here last year!" LOL She'll get over it when she gets hungry, thirsty
or needs to use the litter box.

The funny thing is, I was afraid she'd hide from my neighbor who was
coming in to take care of her. (Not that it would have mattered
because she could always come out and eat and use the litterbox once
Lynn left.) When I'm here she's always hidden if Lynn knocked on the
door. Not so this time. The very first night she said Persia greeted
her at the door, yakking at her in her slightly raspy meezer-like
voice and basically leading her to where the food bowl is. LOL It
was as if she knew, "Oh, this is the temporary food lady. I'd better
be nice to her!"

Anyway, I had far more stuff to go through in my apartment than I
realized. Not only did I pretty much have two of everything (such as
toasters, blenders, etc.) from my apartment and my house (I cannot
believe I own a house!), but I had to try on practically every bit of
clothing I liked to see if it still fit. I donated a lot of stuff to
a church, about 8 bags of nice clothing.

We set odds and ends and bits of furniture out by the curb and people
just came and took it. Instead of Freecycle I call it Curbcycle

I had to rent a dumpster in TN. I don't know if any of you have ever
had to do this but the smallest one we could get was 20 yards long and
took up 3 parking spaces. We really could have gotten away with a 10
yard dumpster but 20 was the smallest they had. I got to meet my
neighbors (heh) when I gave them a heads up about the dumpster.
Fortunately the only apartment adjoining mine was already vacant so it
was just two neighbors. They were both very pleasant and agreeable
about the whole thing. Good. The last thing I needed was some grief.

I'd reserved a 16 ft. Penske truck and when I went to pick it up the
guy who was originally going to help us load said, "Oh, sure, you
don't need anything bigger." He said he and his brother and a friend
of theirs would be more than happy to load the truck for us. I had my
doubts about that 16 ft. truck and it turned out I was absolutely
correct. I needed a much bigger truck. I didn't have that much
furniture, really, but boxes and boxes of stuff even after culling
through everything.

We wound up with a 26 foot diesel truck but it wasn't available until
around Noon. And just as we were swapping out trucks the Uncle of the
guy at the place happened to wander in. He was just in town for the
week to visit some family. He and John got to talking and it turned
out he used to be some kind of long haul trucker who knew how to pack
large trucks. He was at loose ends so I hired him on the spot. He
and his nephew and another young man came over and they got the job
done and everything properly loaded in about 2 hours. They even
helped us carry the last stuff out to the curb for the "curbcycling".

It was around 3:00 PM when we drove the truck out of Tennessee. We
stopped a ways past Tupelo, MS because we'd both been helping with the
moving and loading and hauling stuff out to the curb.

We did 7 hours of driving on Saturday. The fairly new (less than 1
year, 140,000 miles) Penske truck started f**king up right outside of
Birmingham, AL. We thought at first it was the road, because there
was construction going on and it was a pretty rough ride. (Don't let
anyone tell you these diesel trucks have "air ride" seats because even
on smooth stretches we were not sitting comfortably.)

But as the trip progressed this morning it became obvious there were
major problems with this truck. First John couldn't get it to start.
When he finally did get it to start it didn't want to go into Drive.
He had to put it into reverse and back up before Drive engaged. Once
we got going it was okay but then we'd drive a few miles then it
started bucking, hitching, hiccupping. We felt like we were riding a
mechanical bull. It was an automatic transmission but if he dropped
it into a lower gear it would smoothe out. It was the Drive setting
that was gibing us problems. Sometimes it worked, sometimes we had to
drive in 4th. It's all f**k'd up. It's a good thing we didn't stop
for breakfast. Once we finally got here and he got it backed into my
driveway for unloading, it wouldn't start again.

They're going to have to send someone with a HUGE tow truck after we
get it unloaded tomorrow evening to haul it off. We're done screwing
around with this truck. We filled the tank (didn't dare shut the
truck off) about 50 miles away so it still reads FULL. But screw it,
as much trouble as we had with it I'm not about to pay to put more
diesel fuel in it.

It's a shame, really. It should have been so simple once we got the
correct size truck. But nope, I spent about an hour on the phone with
the Penske people this afternoon. I'm expecting a Penske mechanic
within the hour (not to fix the truck but to see how narrow the
streets are so he can figure out on Wednesday morning how they'll be
able to haul it off.) Fun stuff, NOT.

Persia just came back out from under the sofa. I gave her plenty of
scritches and she'll surely get used to John. But the Penske guy
knocking on the door will send her right back into hiding. Poor baby


Gawd it's good to be home.

Purrs again for everyone.

Jill

"Bobble" wrote in message
...
Glad you finally wrote in, I was getting worried after a week went by.
Will John be staying with you for good, or just a little while?

Bobble

He'll be here for about a week, making sure I get settled in. A couple of
guys are coming over tomorrow evening to unload the truck (even with getting
rid of a ton of things stuff I still have a lot of STUFF!!).

I didn't realize until we were driving that truck down the Interstate how
much my vision has changed for the worse. I serve as the navigator, reading
the Road Atlas and planning the route. I discovered I couldn't read the
signs for our exits until we were just about on top of them. First priority
after unloading the truck tomorrow: Go Get New Eyeglasses. I have some
extra frames they can put the new lenses in.

My apt. lease isn't up technically until August 1st. I'm going back in July
to do the final cleaning of the apartment. I have about a month to regroup.
He's planning to make that long drive from NW Arkansas and meet me in TN. I
can tell you this: *I* am not cleaning that apartment. I hadn't realized
how bad my depression had gotten until it came time to tackle that place.
It was filthy. I can't believe Persia and I lived like that. Now that it's
empty it's still making me cringe. I'm hiring Merry Maids or some such
company to come in and do a deep cleaning. I just can't deal with it. But
we'll be there to supervise. I might just get part of my security deposit
back even after 12 (12! that surprised me, but I found my first lease while
going through my paperwork) years.

It's almost over. Whew! But the Penske truck people are giving me a hard
time. They sent out a couple of guys to check out the problems I reported.
They were here for almost two hours with gauges and tools, checking things
out and fiddling with stuff. Of course it started right up for them (what
else is new?) LOL They agreed there is a problem somewhere, possibly with
the cruise control (which we didn't use but a prior truck renter may have).

The mechanics were saying they'd reported back to "central" and I'll
probably have to *pay* to have someone else to drive the truck back to the
drop-off place. Heh. Like that's going to happen. We filled the tank and
it was still full when they futzed around with it. But once my belongings
are unloaded we're not setting foot in that truck again. The last 400 miles
of the trip were so uncomfortable and uncertain I feel as if they owe *me*
money. I'm certainly not going to pay extra to deal with their mechanical
problems. You might just see me on 'Judge Judy' if they press the issue.
wink

The good news is Persia came out of hiding! She got lots of scritches and
tomorrow she'll have her puffy pyramid bed back and her crackle sack and her
short cat tree with the barrel. I don't have to describe how many toys I
found on the floor when the guys moved the sofa-bed out of my living room.
Oh dear This is one spoiled rotten but adorable cat.

Jill
Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in
:

I'm finally back (from what should have been a week-long trip) to get
my apartment packed up. What an ordeal! Rather than a week it's two
weeks to the day. I thought I'd never get home.

First off, purrs to any and all who need them. I know via email
Flippy lost her beloved Juliet while I was gone and she has my deepest
sympathy. There's simply no way I can read through all the posts from
the last two weeks and offer everyone purrs but be assured you have
them.

Of course Persia is hiding. She came out briefly when John went to
take a nap and she heard me tapping away at the keyboard. Hmmm, that
sound is familiar! I think my mommy's back! But then she went
back under the sofa when she realized, "Oh no! It's that man who was
here last year!" LOL She'll get over it when she gets hungry, thirsty
or needs to use the litter box.

The funny thing is, I was afraid she'd hide from my neighbor who was
coming in to take care of her. (Not that it would have mattered
because she could always come out and eat and use the litterbox once
Lynn left.) When I'm here she's always hidden if Lynn knocked on the
door. Not so this time. The very first night she said Persia greeted
her at the door, yakking at her in her slightly raspy meezer-like
voice and basically leading her to where the food bowl is. LOL It
was as if she knew, "Oh, this is the temporary food lady. I'd better
be nice to her!"

Anyway, I had far more stuff to go through in my apartment than I
realized. Not only did I pretty much have two of everything (such as
toasters, blenders, etc.) from my apartment and my house (I cannot
believe I own a house!), but I had to try on practically every bit of
clothing I liked to see if it still fit. I donated a lot of stuff to
a church, about 8 bags of nice clothing.

We set odds and ends and bits of furniture out by the curb and people
just came and took it. Instead of Freecycle I call it Curbcycle

I had to rent a dumpster in TN. I don't know if any of you have ever
had to do this but the smallest one we could get was 20 yards long and
took up 3 parking spaces. We really could have gotten away with a 10
yard dumpster but 20 was the smallest they had. I got to meet my
neighbors (heh) when I gave them a heads up about the dumpster.
Fortunately the only apartment adjoining mine was already vacant so it
was just two neighbors. They were both very pleasant and agreeable
about the whole thing. Good. The last thing I needed was some grief.

I'd reserved a 16 ft. Penske truck and when I went to pick it up the
guy who was originally going to help us load said, "Oh, sure, you
don't need anything bigger." He said he and his brother and a friend
of theirs would be more than happy to load the truck for us. I had my
doubts about that 16 ft. truck and it turned out I was absolutely
correct. I needed a much bigger truck. I didn't have that much
furniture, really, but boxes and boxes of stuff even after culling
through everything.

We wound up with a 26 foot diesel truck but it wasn't available until
around Noon. And just as we were swapping out trucks the Uncle of the
guy at the place happened to wander in. He was just in town for the
week to visit some family. He and John got to talking and it turned
out he used to be some kind of long haul trucker who knew how to pack
large trucks. He was at loose ends so I hired him on the spot. He
and his nephew and another young man came over and they got the job
done and everything properly loaded in about 2 hours. They even
helped us carry the last stuff out to the curb for the "curbcycling".

It was around 3:00 PM when we drove the truck out of Tennessee. We
stopped a ways past Tupelo, MS because we'd both been helping with the
moving and loading and hauling stuff out to the curb.

We did 7 hours of driving on Saturday. The fairly new (less than 1
year, 140,000 miles) Penske truck started f**king up right outside of
Birmingham, AL. We thought at first it was the road, because there
was construction going on and it was a pretty rough ride. (Don't let
anyone tell you these diesel trucks have "air ride" seats because even
on smooth stretches we were not sitting comfortably.)

But as the trip progressed this morning it became obvious there were
major problems with this truck. First John couldn't get it to start.
When he finally did get it to start it didn't want to go into Drive.
He had to put it into reverse and back up before Drive engaged. Once
we got going it was okay but then we'd drive a few miles then it
started bucking, hitching, hiccupping. We felt like we were riding a
mechanical bull. It was an automatic transmission but if he dropped
it into a lower gear it would smoothe out. It was the Drive setting
that was gibing us problems. Sometimes it worked, sometimes we had to
drive in 4th. It's all f**k'd up. It's a good thing we didn't stop
for breakfast. Once we finally got here and he got it backed into my
driveway for unloading, it wouldn't start again.

They're going to have to send someone with a HUGE tow truck after we
get it unloaded tomorrow evening to haul it off. We're done screwing
around with this truck. We filled the tank (didn't dare shut the
truck off) about 50 miles away so it still reads FULL. But screw it,
as much trouble as we had with it I'm not about to pay to put more
diesel fuel in it.

It's a shame, really. It should have been so simple once we got the
correct size truck. But nope, I spent about an hour on the phone with
the Penske people this afternoon. I'm expecting a Penske mechanic
within the hour (not to fix the truck but to see how narrow the
streets are so he can figure out on Wednesday morning how they'll be
able to haul it off.) Fun stuff, NOT.

Persia just came back out from under the sofa. I gave her plenty of
scritches and she'll surely get used to John. But the Penske guy
knocking on the door will send her right back into hiding. Poor baby


Gawd it's good to be home.

Purrs again for everyone.

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...

My apt. lease isn't up technically until August 1st. I'm going back in
July to do the final cleaning of the apartment. I have about a month to
regroup. He's planning to make that long drive from NW Arkansas and meet
me in TN. I can tell you this: *I* am not cleaning that apartment. I
hadn't realized how bad my depression had gotten until it came time to
tackle that place. It was filthy. I can't believe Persia and I lived like
that. Now that it's empty it's still making me cringe. I'm hiring Merry
Maids or some such company to come in and do a deep cleaning. I just
can't deal with it. But we'll be there to supervise. I might just get
part of my security deposit back even after 12 (12! that surprised me, but
I found my first lease while going through my paperwork) years.

If your apartment is completely empty, do you even need to return to TN to
supervise the cleanup? You could save yourself the cost of a return trip if
you make arrangements to have it cleaned and for the landlord to give them
access to the apartment. It's even possible that you could work out a deal
with management to give up your security deposit in exchange for them doing
the cleaning.

It's almost over. Whew! But the Penske truck people are giving me a hard
time. They sent out a couple of guys to check out the problems I
reported. They were here for almost two hours with gauges and tools,
checking things out and fiddling with stuff. Of course it started right
up for them (what else is new?) LOL They agreed there is a problem
somewhere, possibly with the cruise control (which we didn't use but a
prior truck renter may have).

The mechanics were saying they'd reported back to "central" and I'll
probably have to *pay* to have someone else to drive the truck back to the
drop-off place. Heh. Like that's going to happen. We filled the tank
and it was still full when they futzed around with it. But once my
belongings are unloaded we're not setting foot in that truck again. The
last 400 miles of the trip were so uncomfortable and uncertain I feel as
if they owe *me* money. I'm certainly not going to pay extra to deal with
their mechanical problems. You might just see me on 'Judge Judy' if they
press the issue. wink

It might be worthwhile for you to make a telephone call to your attorney.
Truck repairs can be *very* costly, and Penske could have a claim if they
say that you caused further damage by failing to call them when you first
noticed problems. Yes, it would have been a ton of work to shift all of
your possessions from one truck to another, but that could still be their
legal recourse.

--
MaryL

Jill

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm finally back (from what should have been a week-long trip) to get my
apartment packed up. What an ordeal! Rather than a week it's two weeks
to the day. I thought I'd never get home.

First off, purrs to any and all who need them. I know via email Flippy
lost her beloved Juliet while I was gone and she has my deepest sympathy.
There's simply no way I can read through all the posts from the last two
weeks and offer everyone purrs but be assured you have them.

Of course Persia is hiding. She came out briefly when John went to take a
nap and she heard me tapping away at the keyboard. Hmmm, that sound is
familiar! I think my mommy's back! But then she went back under the
sofa when she realized, "Oh no! It's that man who was here last year!"
LOL She'll get over it when she gets hungry, thirsty or needs to use the
litter box.

The funny thing is, I was afraid she'd hide from my neighbor who was
coming in to take care of her. (Not that it would have mattered because
she could always come out and eat and use the litterbox once Lynn left.)
When I'm here she's always hidden if Lynn knocked on the door. Not so
this time. The very first night she said Persia greeted her at the door,
yakking at her in her slightly raspy meezer-like voice and basically
leading her to where the food bowl is. LOL It was as if she knew, "Oh,
this is the temporary food lady. I'd better be nice to her!"

Anyway, I had far more stuff to go through in my apartment than I
realized. Not only did I pretty much have two of everything (such as
toasters, blenders, etc.) from my apartment and my house (I cannot believe
I own a house!), but I had to try on practically every bit of clothing I
liked to see if it still fit. I donated a lot of stuff to a church, about
8 bags of nice clothing.

We set odds and ends and bits of furniture out by the curb and people just
came and took it. Instead of Freecycle I call it Curbcycle

I had to rent a dumpster in TN. I don't know if any of you have ever had
to do this but the smallest one we could get was 20 yards long and took up
3 parking spaces. We really could have gotten away with a 10 yard
dumpster but 20 was the smallest they had. I got to meet my neighbors
(heh) when I gave them a heads up about the dumpster. Fortunately the
only apartment adjoining mine was already vacant so it was just two
neighbors. They were both very pleasant and agreeable about the whole
thing. Good. The last thing I needed was some grief.

I'd reserved a 16 ft. Penske truck and when I went to pick it up the guy
who was originally going to help us load said, "Oh, sure, you don't need
anything bigger." He said he and his brother and a friend of theirs would
be more than happy to load the truck for us. I had my doubts about that
16 ft. truck and it turned out I was absolutely correct. I needed a much
bigger truck. I didn't have that much furniture, really, but boxes and
boxes of stuff even after culling through everything.

We wound up with a 26 foot diesel truck but it wasn't available until
around Noon. And just as we were swapping out trucks the Uncle of the guy
at the place happened to wander in. He was just in town for the week to
visit some family. He and John got to talking and it turned out he used
to be some kind of long haul trucker who knew how to pack large trucks.
He was at loose ends so I hired him on the spot. He and his nephew and
another young man came over and they got the job done and everything
properly loaded in about 2 hours. They even helped us carry the last
stuff out to the curb for the "curbcycling".

It was around 3:00 PM when we drove the truck out of Tennessee. We
stopped a ways past Tupelo, MS because we'd both been helping with the
moving and loading and hauling stuff out to the curb.

We did 7 hours of driving on Saturday. The fairly new (less than 1 year,
140,000 miles) Penske truck started f**king up right outside of
Birmingham, AL. We thought at first it was the road, because there was
construction going on and it was a pretty rough ride. (Don't let anyone
tell you these diesel trucks have "air ride" seats because even on smooth
stretches we were not sitting comfortably.)

But as the trip progressed this morning it became obvious there were major
problems with this truck. First John couldn't get it to start. When he
finally did get it to start it didn't want to go into Drive. He had to
put it into reverse and back up before Drive engaged. Once we got going
it was okay but then we'd drive a few miles then it started bucking,
hitching, hiccupping. We felt like we were riding a mechanical bull. It
was an automatic transmission but if he dropped it into a lower gear it
would smoothe out. It was the Drive setting that was gibing us problems.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes we had to drive in 4th. It's all f**k'd
up. It's a good thing we didn't stop for breakfast. Once we finally got
here and he got it backed into my driveway for unloading, it wouldn't
start again.

They're going to have to send someone with a HUGE tow truck after we get
it unloaded tomorrow evening to haul it off. We're done screwing around
with this truck. We filled the tank (didn't dare shut the truck off)
about 50 miles away so it still reads FULL. But screw it, as much trouble
as we had with it I'm not about to pay to put more diesel fuel in it.

It's a shame, really. It should have been so simple once we got the
correct size truck. But nope, I spent about an hour on the phone with the
Penske people this afternoon. I'm expecting a Penske mechanic within the
hour (not to fix the truck but to see how narrow the streets are so he can
figure out on Wednesday morning how they'll be able to haul it off.) Fun
stuff, NOT.

Persia just came back out from under the sofa. I gave her plenty of
scritches and she'll surely get used to John. But the Penske guy knocking
on the door will send her right back into hiding. Poor baby

Gawd it's good to be home.

Purrs again for everyone.

Jill

Welcome back, girl. Glad to see you're OK. Poor Persia, but you are there
to give her lots of comforting skritches.


--
Theresa and Dante

Stinky Forever: http://pets.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

wrote in message
...
On Jun 2, 6:44 am, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:
"jmcquown" wrote in message

...

My apt. lease isn't up technically until August 1st. I'm going back in
July to do the final cleaning of the apartment. I have about a month to
regroup. He's planning to make that long drive from NW Arkansas and meet
me in TN. I can tell you this: *I* am not cleaning that apartment. I
hadn't realized how bad my depression had gotten until it came time to
tackle that place. It was filthy. I can't believe Persia and I lived
like
that. Now that it's empty it's still making me cringe. I'm hiring Merry
Maids or some such company to come in and do a deep cleaning. I just
can't deal with it. But we'll be there to supervise. I might just get
part of my security deposit back even after 12 (12! that surprised me,
but
I found my first lease while going through my paperwork) years.

If your apartment is completely empty, do you even need to return to TN to
supervise the cleanup? You could save yourself the cost of a return trip
if
you make arrangements to have it cleaned and for the landlord to give them
access to the apartment. It's even possible that you could work out a deal
with management to give up your security deposit in exchange for them
doing
the cleaning.



It's almost over. Whew! But the Penske truck people are giving me a hard
time. They sent out a couple of guys to check out the problems I
reported. They were here for almost two hours with gauges and tools,
checking things out and fiddling with stuff. Of course it started right
up for them (what else is new?) LOL They agreed there is a problem
somewhere, possibly with the cruise control (which we didn't use but a
prior truck renter may have).

The mechanics were saying they'd reported back to "central" and I'll
probably have to *pay* to have someone else to drive the truck back to
the
drop-off place. Heh. Like that's going to happen. We filled the tank
and it was still full when they futzed around with it. But once my
belongings are unloaded we're not setting foot in that truck again. The
last 400 miles of the trip were so uncomfortable and uncertain I feel as
if they owe *me* money. I'm certainly not going to pay extra to deal
with
their mechanical problems. You might just see me on 'Judge Judy' if they
press the issue. wink

It might be worthwhile for you to make a telephone call to your attorney.
Truck repairs can be *very* costly, and Penske could have a claim if they
say that you caused further damage by failing to call them when you first
noticed problems. Yes, it would have been a ton of work to shift all of
your possessions from one truck to another, but that could still be their
legal recourse.

--
MaryL



Jill

One of my offspring is an ASE-certified mechanic. He drove back to CA
after
helping move here by driving my truck with a huge trailer behind it,
in an SUV
I rented for his return trip. He returned the SUV in CA (it was Hertz)
and pointed'
out that the drive train was leaking oil all the way from MileHigh
back to there.
They had no argument and refunded *me* (the payer for the rental) half
of what
it cost.
From what you report about your trip in the Penske truck, it sounds to
me, the
non-mechanic but not your typical female auto-idiot, like either drive
train trouble
or a really bad tranny. Don't take any crap form Penske's minions.
Talk to a
*real* mechanic after he inspects the truck, or b**** to some BigWig
at Penske.
Try to get a refund ffor some of what you paid. Nothing ventued,
nothing gained.
You don't have to be a victim.


I don't plan to be a "victim". When they called me this afternoon I told
them they could pick the truck up tomorrow and I made it absolutely clear
I'm not paying them a dime extra for them to come get it. I'm not paying
them a dime for a truck with a bad tranny or drive train. That's their
problem, not mine. And I *did* call them when we were on the road but I
wasn't about to try to transfer all of my belongings from one truck to
another in the parking lot of a hotel. Screw that. They're in the business
of renting trucks and those trucks should be reliable and in good working
order. That's what they do. Not my problem.

It's so good to finally be home! Persia is behind me purring

Anyone visited the chat room while I was gone?

Jill

On Jun 2, 6:59*pm, "jmcquown" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Jun 2, 6:44 am, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:



"jmcquown" wrote in message

...

My apt. lease isn't up technically until August 1st. I'm going back in
July to do the final cleaning of the apartment. I have about a month to
regroup. He's planning to make that long drive from NW Arkansas and meet
me in TN. I can tell you this: *I* am not cleaning that apartment. I
hadn't realized how bad my depression had gotten until it came time to
tackle that place. It was filthy. I can't believe Persia and I lived
like
that. Now that it's empty it's still making me cringe. I'm hiring Merry
Maids or some such company to come in and do a deep cleaning. I just
can't deal with it. But we'll be there to supervise. I might just get
part of my security deposit back even after 12 (12! that surprised me,
but
I found my first lease while going through my paperwork) years.

If your apartment is completely empty, do you even need to return to TN to
supervise the cleanup? You could save yourself the cost of a return trip
if
you make arrangements to have it cleaned and for the landlord to give them
access to the apartment. It's even possible that you could work out a deal
with management to give up your security deposit in exchange for them
doing
the cleaning.

It's almost over. Whew! But the Penske truck people are giving me a hard
time. They sent out a couple of guys to check out the problems I
reported. They were here for almost two hours with gauges and tools,
checking things out and fiddling with stuff. Of course it started right
up for them (what else is new?) LOL They agreed there is a problem
somewhere, possibly with the cruise control (which we didn't use but a
prior truck renter may have).

The mechanics were saying they'd reported back to "central" and I'll
probably have to *pay* to have someone else to drive the truck back to
the
drop-off place. Heh. Like that's going to happen. We filled the tank
and it was still full when they futzed around with it. But once my
belongings are unloaded we're not setting foot in that truck again. The
last 400 miles of the trip were so uncomfortable and uncertain I feel as
if they owe *me* money. I'm certainly not going to pay extra to deal
with
their mechanical problems. You might just see me on 'Judge Judy' if they
press the issue. wink

It might be worthwhile for you to make a telephone call to your attorney.
Truck repairs can be *very* costly, and Penske could have a claim if they
say that you caused further damage by failing to call them when you first
noticed problems. Yes, it would have been a ton of work to shift all of
your possessions from one truck to another, but that could still be their
legal recourse.

--
MaryL

Jill

One of my offspring is an ASE-certified mechanic. He drove back to CA
after
helping move here by driving my truck with a huge trailer behind it,
in an SUV
I rented for his return trip. He returned the SUV in CA (it was Hertz)
and pointed'
out that the drive train was leaking oil all the way from MileHigh
back to there.
They had no argument and refunded *me* (the payer for the rental) half
of what
it cost.
From what you report about your trip in the Penske truck, it sounds to
me, the
non-mechanic but not your typical female auto-idiot, like either drive
train trouble
or a really bad tranny. Don't take any crap form Penske's minions.
Talk to a
*real* mechanic after he inspects the truck, or b**** to some BigWig
at Penske.
Try to get a refund ffor some of what you paid. Nothing ventued,
nothing gained.
You don't have to be a victim.

I don't plan to be a "victim". *When they called me this afternoon I told
them they could pick the truck up tomorrow and I made it absolutely clear
I'm not paying them a dime extra for them to come get it. *I'm not paying
them a dime for a truck with a bad tranny or drive train. *That's their
problem, not mine. *And I *did* call them when we were on the road but I
wasn't about to try to transfer all of my belongings from one truck to
another in the parking lot of a hotel. *Screw that. *They're in the business
of renting trucks and those trucks should be reliable and in good working
order. *That's what they do. *Not my problem.

It's so good to finally be home! *Persia is behind me purring

Anyone visited the chat room while I was gone?

Jill

What about your bird, did I miss something?

wrote in message
...
On Jun 2, 6:59 pm, "jmcquown" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Jun 2, 6:44 am, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:



"jmcquown" wrote in message

...

My apt. lease isn't up technically until August 1st. I'm going back
in
July to do the final cleaning of the apartment. I have about a month
to
regroup. He's planning to make that long drive from NW Arkansas and
meet
me in TN. I can tell you this: *I* am not cleaning that apartment. I
hadn't realized how bad my depression had gotten until it came time
to
tackle that place. It was filthy. I can't believe Persia and I lived
like
that. Now that it's empty it's still making me cringe. I'm hiring
Merry
Maids or some such company to come in and do a deep cleaning. I just
can't deal with it. But we'll be there to supervise. I might just
get
part of my security deposit back even after 12 (12! that surprised
me,
but
I found my first lease while going through my paperwork) years.

If your apartment is completely empty, do you even need to return to
TN to
supervise the cleanup? You could save yourself the cost of a return
trip
if
you make arrangements to have it cleaned and for the landlord to give
them
access to the apartment. It's even possible that you could work out a
deal
with management to give up your security deposit in exchange for them
doing
the cleaning.

It's almost over. Whew! But the Penske truck people are giving me a
hard
time. They sent out a couple of guys to check out the problems I
reported. They were here for almost two hours with gauges and tools,
checking things out and fiddling with stuff. Of course it started
right
up for them (what else is new?) LOL They agreed there is a problem
somewhere, possibly with the cruise control (which we didn't use but
a
prior truck renter may have).

The mechanics were saying they'd reported back to "central" and I'll
probably have to *pay* to have someone else to drive the truck back
to
the
drop-off place. Heh. Like that's going to happen. We filled the tank
and it was still full when they futzed around with it. But once my
belongings are unloaded we're not setting foot in that truck again.
The
last 400 miles of the trip were so uncomfortable and uncertain I
feel as
if they owe *me* money. I'm certainly not going to pay extra to deal
with
their mechanical problems. You might just see me on 'Judge Judy' if
they
press the issue. wink

It might be worthwhile for you to make a telephone call to your
attorney.
Truck repairs can be *very* costly, and Penske could have a claim if
they
say that you caused further damage by failing to call them when you
first
noticed problems. Yes, it would have been a ton of work to shift all
of
your possessions from one truck to another, but that could still be
their
legal recourse.

--
MaryL

Jill

One of my offspring is an ASE-certified mechanic. He drove back to CA
after
helping move here by driving my truck with a huge trailer behind it,
in an SUV
I rented for his return trip. He returned the SUV in CA (it was Hertz)
and pointed'
out that the drive train was leaking oil all the way from MileHigh
back to there.
They had no argument and refunded *me* (the payer for the rental) half
of what
it cost.
From what you report about your trip in the Penske truck, it sounds to
me, the
non-mechanic but not your typical female auto-idiot, like either drive
train trouble
or a really bad tranny. Don't take any crap form Penske's minions.
Talk to a
*real* mechanic after he inspects the truck, or b**** to some BigWig
at Penske.
Try to get a refund ffor some of what you paid. Nothing ventued,
nothing gained.
You don't have to be a victim.

I don't plan to be a "victim". When they called me this afternoon I told
them they could pick the truck up tomorrow and I made it absolutely
clear
I'm not paying them a dime extra for them to come get it. I'm not paying
them a dime for a truck with a bad tranny or drive train. That's their
problem, not mine. And I *did* call them when we were on the road but I
wasn't about to try to transfer all of my belongings from one truck to
another in the parking lot of a hotel. Screw that. They're in the
business
of renting trucks and those trucks should be reliable and in good
working
order. That's what they do. Not my problem.

It's so good to finally be home! Persia is behind me purring

Anyone visited the chat room while I was gone?

Jill

What about your bird, did I miss something?


Yes, where is Peaches??????

PS, Welcome back - hope you have taken a nice long nap to recover
(probably interrupted by Persia's nose-tapping "feed me" reminder_.

--
^..^ This is Kitty. Copy and paste Kitty into your signature to help
her
wipe out Bunny's world domination.
--
The ONE and ONLY
lefthanded-pathetic-paranoid-psychotic-sarcastic-wiseass-ditzy
former-blonde
in Bloomington! (And proud of it, too)©
email me at nalee1964 (at) comcast (dot) net
http://community.webshots.com/user/mgcmdjeep

wrote in message
...


What about your bird, did I miss something?

Good question. I thought one of the brothers was taking care of Peaches but
on a temporary basis. When will she be coming home (even though it will be
a *new* home to her)?

MaryL