I didn't mean to make it sound like Paul's job is top secret, its not at all! He's working in the IT department for a big company. Basically he sits at a desk with a cell phone and a computer and when anyone in the company has a computer issue, they call or email him and he goes over there and does some sort of Engineering degree voodoo and then the problem is fixed. Ta-Da! He can never tell me stories about work because I don't understand what he does even a little bit. The pay is decent, the benefits, sick days, vacation etc. are outstanding (starting in 3 months) and he likes it, so yay!
I didn't take pictures coming up here because the trip was WAY TOO HARROWING to do so (24 foot truck, tow dolly with car attached, two dogs in cab with us...). People us here do not live in shacks, quite, but it is remarkably ... rural here. Which suits me just fine. I grew up on a farm that was 3/4 of a mile from our nearest neighbour and then moved to a town of about 1700 people, so this is still plenty urban for me. I truly cannot understand anybody though, like at all. For example, there is a town somewhere around here called 'Maryville'. The folks here though call is 'Murvul'. Another eg: Versailles = 'Vursales'.
The dogs are settling in poorly. They bark and whine and pee and poo and then repeat that. But the past few months have been extremely stressful for them so I'm hoping that in another week or two they will be back to normal.
We did have movers! Well, for part of the time. I've never used movers in all of my 20 or so lifetime moves, but in this case we had to. We had no friends willing to help and we were sick and exhausted and incapable of carrying, say, a washer and dryer up 11 stairs by ourselves. I packed everything myself and then hired a company that sent 4 guys for two hours to load the rental truck. Holy crap were they fast. Unbelievable. They got all of our crap loaded in an hour and a half. Then on this end we did it all ourselves (how? I don't know) except for the 5 biggest pieces of furniture. Fortunately we had a friend recommend someone up here who would help Paul move that stuff for like $40. Oh, and I called the moving truck people today and got a 15% refund on the truck for all the trouble we had...not much, but it helps.
We are settling in okay...the move in progress is slow since my arthritic knees aren't too happy about ALL THE FREAKIN STAIRS and Paul has been working non stop. But things are fairly close to unpacked. Now that we have phone and internet again I'm frantically trying to change all of our addresses etc. Its a lot more difficult when you have moved to a different state since, for example, our old bank has no branches here and our tenant insurance has to be with a different company etc. Once the unpacking and address changing is done, then I can start hanging pictures and measuring for curtains (stupid blankets on the windows) and stuff and then this place will start to feel like a home, I hope. For now, I do what I can each day and that's all I can do.
As far as our health, Paul is doing quite well. He hasn't had serious pain in about 3 days. I still have discomfort most of the time, but its not as bad. There is some mold in our bathroom that we will have to take action on. I just found it yesterday and I'm hoping to God that it is not going to affect us. Our energy level is slowly improving too, again, Paul's at a faster rate than mine. I've lost between 23 and 24 pounds now. My clothes are quite literally falling off me!
I think I answered all of your questions...thanks for all your questions and comments and support and prayers as we have gone through still more trying times. Hopefully things will get better from now on.
9 comments:
Sounds like a great job! Anything in IT or the medical field is usually great nowadays. Congrats for him!
And a cheap alternative to *shudder* curtains. Besides the fact that blinds themselves are so cheap nowadays, you can buy these paper temporary blinds that literally have like a stickered top you just smack onto the top of the window frame. Sounds awful, I know, but they actually (and surprisingly!) look really nice - almost like Asian blinds. I think you can get them for like 3 bucks too.
Actually, that sounds pretty cool. I've never heard of those but I'll definitely look for them. If I could get those for now they're certainly better than blankets and then when we can afford curtains we can put the curtains over top and get added light protection and privacy. I'm definitely gonna check Wal-Mart for those, thanks!
I look forward to hearing about and seeing pictures of the progress of the house. Thanks for the update, my dear. Hope you're feeling better soon. Here's to no more mold!
If you listen really closely, Knoxville is actually Knoxvull to the ones who grew up there. There are lots of new-commers to the area, though.
What little town are you living in? Knoxville has spread so far out, that it basically takes up all of Knox County now, with lots of talk of making it a Metro area. Not many rural areas left, sadly, like the one I grew up in, since the spread is moving closer and closer to it every day. I'm always curious and it always makes me a mixture of happy and sad to hear stories from back home.
Hope you feel better soon and the dogs get settled in without much more stress.
Maybe you can get one of those little stair chairs that goes VROOOOOOOOOM and takes you up and down the stairs like the lady had in Gremlins except don't get the Gremlins too because then you'll go flying out a window or something. To recap: little stair chairs = good; gremlins = bad.
Unless it's lovely gizmo.
But some jerk always spills water on him anyways.
Kim - you're TOTALLY right, I hear Knoxvul a lot. I normally quite like the southern accent, but that bugs the crap out of me for some reason. And, call me paranoid, but I don't like to be too specific about where we are, town wise. If you email me I'll of course tell you, but just like I prefer not to say where Paul works and stuff, some identifying characteristics I keep private. I worry about vicarious doocing etc. I have problems.
And, I would LOVELOVE one of those chairs!! Whee!
Awww, I kinda like hearing it and was every so proud when I realized that my little one had picked up saying all the good ones: Knoxvull, bawll, dawg... etc. Heh. Of course, she also did the Norwegian speaking English thing: saying vant instead of want, for example. She's so unique. ;)
I worked at a call center once, making hotel reservations. I seem to recall them wanting us to be off the phone as soon as possible, just so we could get more customers per hour, screw the needs of the customer or niceties. If I'm not mistaken, Paul worked at the same one for a bit. Or maybe it was the other roommate... too? Gah, teflon Swiss cheese memory. Old stuff has holes in it and the new stuff keeps sliding off.
Kim - I'm guessing it is Paul you're thinking of, was it C.L.? I bet you and I know all sorts of the same people...Nikki, who got Paul this job also worked at C.L. I believe. And, a few weeks ago Paul and I went to UT and talked to a guy who was the manager of the Student Union or something...Brian, I think maybe? And he knew you too I believe.
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