Missed Opportunities

While confirming a points rebate on my Priority Club account, I discovered that I'd not realized that Budget was a partner with Priority Club. Had I realized this, I could have used their discount code for 20% off the cost of the two moving truck rentals (thus saving over $200) and earned maybe as much as 5000 PC points (about one-third of a free night at the less-expensive Express locations). No retroactive credit or discount is available, however. Phooey! I was so focused on getting the move done that I forgot to check for discounts and point opportunities.

Fernley Follies

I thought it might be faster (albeit about ten miles longer) to go to Fernley via Altamont Pass, I-580/205/5 and CA-4/99 through Stockton. I was wrong, although that was mainly by bad luck. A big accident closed the freeway in South Sacramento as I came into the city from the south on CA-99. I bailed off the freeway and cut across the south end of town over to I-5, with a stop for coffee. By the time I was moving again, Sacramento's rush hour had started, and I moved through stop-and-go traffic across the top of town on I-80 until well clear of Rocklin. Indeed, there was a fair bit of traffic heading up into the mountains. Things were not helped by some yahoo pulling a fifth-wheel trailer who I think must have been watching too many of those Big Pickup Truck commercials who figured that pulling out of the line of slow trucks and passing uphill was no problem. He was wrong, and both lanes of the freeway came to a crawl for miles around Gold Run while he laboriously worked his way up the hill with all of the faster traffic (including me) hung up behind him.

Surprisingly, I managed the approximately 300 miles from Fremont to Fernley (including the backtracking detour) in about six hours, which is a pretty good average speed considering that I made three stops.

Apparently, while I was coming through Sacramento, there was a disaster at Reno in the form of the airplane crash at the air races. I heard about it after an exchange of phone calls with our plumber.

( Above and Beyond the Call )

After getting to the RV park in Fernley, Lisa and I went over to the house, where she asked me to turn my back while she opened the garage door. When she said I could look, I turned around and said, "Wow!" She had completely reorganized the garage, the floor space of which had been mostly filled with her boxes from two moving trucks. In the past week, she'd gone to Lowe's and bought lots and lots of modular shelves, lining the garage walls with them and getting the boxes amazingly well organized. The only thing she hadn't moved was the seat from my minivan, which was too heavy for her to move without my help. When I left, it had been surrounded by boxes. Now it was sitting rather forlornly in the middle of the floor, and Lisa and I moved it back against a wall. There is now enough room so that Lisa will be able to move her pickup inside and work on it on a cement floor, which is a great luxury when she goes to work fixing the wiring for the lights.

I wish we'd taken photos of what the garage looked like after our two moving trips and after Lisa reorganized things. Lisa was very happy at my "Wow," saying that she had been striving for that. She apologized for not having bought all of the shelving at once, as there turned out to be a quantity discount that she missed out on by buying things piecemeal. She said she didn't realize just how much shelving we needed until after buying the first batch.

We got the three bookshelves and two folding 6-foot tables out of the back of my van and moved them to temporary locations. Due to where the phone lines come in to the house, our temporary working area is actually in the living room. This will change later once Lisa wires the house for internet, which she does intend to do. Tomorrow I'll get the DSL router programmed so that we can have multiple computers online again. Lisa should be able to take it from there as her time permits.

It was full dark by then, so we walked to the Wigwam and had dinner. The waitress already recognizes us. After dinner, we needed to walk some more, so we explored a bit of the old downtown district including walking to the post office. There, we had an envelope with a bit of a present from the fellow selling us the house: a package of 10% discount coupons from Lowe's! Too bad we didn't have these last week so Lisa could have used them on the shelving, but I suspect that there are quite a few more purchases on the way.

Finally it was back to the RV park, where I chafe under a wi-fi signal that comes and goes depending on whether the lawn sprinklers are running. Tomorrow we have a full day of chores and errands, including getting the home network moving forward.