Long Neglect

Oh, my silly little blog, I have long neglected you!
But suddenly the work is done, and a holding pattern commences. The baby is napping, Russell is on a plane bound for NC, we signed a lease on a house, I have a job with the nearby Trader Joe's in Santa Rosa, and there's nothing to do but wait.
California is as incredible as I had hoped. The weather is weird - cool and foggy, hot and dry, good for sleeping in the mornings and changing to excellent for afternoon excursions. The produce at the local market is noteworthy and difficult to deny. We're on a tight budget, so I haven't yet begun to indulge in the 50 different types of tomatoes, mounds of stone fruits that are fragrant, ripe, and juicy, more breeds of melons than I've ever seen before. Even the city, San Francisco, boasts so many fruit trees and flowers that it actually smells good - the first big city I've ever experienced that didn't reek of too many people, trash, and fumes. Instead it smells of jasmine, lavender, and countless flowers I can't even name. Here at the Berkeley/Oakland border, where we're staying until our house opens up next week, there's a lemon tree in the front yard with fruits like small footballs, and the planters in the back boast all sorts of herbs and greens. The flowered tree that stands as tall as the house is home to amazing little hummingbirds, the males of which have metallic red heads that shift and shine in the sunlight. A house up the street proudly displays a small redwood tree, larger than any pine in a front yard in NC. Next door there is a massive growth of aloe, and the lavender grows wild out of cracks in the sidewalk. There's color everywhere, bees and birds, ground squirrels, and blooms to enjoy.
There are more murals here than anywhere else I've ever seen. The local cannabis dispensary, CBCB (Cannabis Buyers Club of Berkeley) is covered in a scene from the coral reefs, with octopuses, eels, fish, and undersea plants. Another restaurant up the way shows jazz musicians playing, the Starry Plough Irish Pub is covered in images from constellations and Irish folklore - and that's just on my walk to the Berkeley Bowl.
I'm in love with this place, and I hope against hope that we can make it work here. Our house in Rohnert Park is about an hour north of here, where it is cheaper and there is more room. I'm amazed at the place we found - there is such a vast difference in available housing in our price range from one city to the next. We wanted to be closer, but the same $2,000/month in Novato would have gotten us a condo with no parking, no yard, an annoying HOA, no garage, and no storage. In Petaluma we found a similar house, but run-down, that shared a drive with the house next door, and required $60 just to apply to live in it - and once we turned over ALL our personal information, there was no promise we'd even be accepted. Closer still in Richmond, a 3-bedroom house surrounded by concrete and in the ghetto would run us $1,800. However, we lucked out, and by going a little further north we found a beautiful three-bedroom, two and a half bath, with a fenced back yard, large deck, 2-car garage on a corner lot in a healthy suburban neighborhood full of families, kids, and pets. It looks like Shangri-La to us, and we're all flabbergasted that we found such a beautiful place. It's the nicest house I'll have lived under my own efforts. It's also just a short drive to the redwood forests and the coasts, with many opportunities to get out of the suburbs and enjoy the BIG nature that California abounds in.
Yesterday we spend the day with Verity, the little girl who will be living with us, the daughter of our new housemate. She is cute and kind, and the relationship between her and Orion looks to be beneficial to them both. Having a housemates allowed us to find a better place to live, share the weight of childcare and food prep, and made us realize a good part of our dreams about living here in Cali.
As soon as we found a house, I went to the nearest Trader Joe's (a mere 5 miles north, in Santa Rosa) and applied right away. The First Mate gave me an interview on the spot, and called me two days later to tell me I had the job. I start in two weeks - that was even easier than I expected it to be! Now we just need to find a job for Russell... Which we knew from the start would be harder to do, but once we're here and settled, getting to know people and the area, I think something will come through for him, too. He's got school to concentrate on anyhow, so there are priorities regardless. And there's always someone free to watch the kids, which saves money for all of us!
Next week Russell will arrive with the Jeep, the cats, and a trailer full of our stuff. I can't wait to see my kitties again! I have missed them. I hope they like their new home. Though we won't have much furniture for a while, at least we'll have the essentials - like my sewing machines! He starts school on the 16th at College of Marin, and on the last week of August at Dominican University. I'm so proud of him for going back to school, taking a chance on bettering his situation, and getting out of the construction industry. I was so tired of having him come home hot, tired, and as often as not injured. His hands are already looking so much better for lack of nicks, cuts, scrapes, bruises, and broken nails. We may not have much money to throw around for a while until he's done with school and finds a new career, but I think the couple years of penny-pinching will be well worth it. Then we can look at where we want to be, re-assess our situation, and make some decisions about the rest of our lives... Maybe even have another kid!
And that's the news today. Much love!

Strike a Pose!

He's a handsome baby man.

Broke Down in Nebraska!

On Saturday morning we awoke early at Johnson Lake and started the big packing-up process, happy to know that we'd have just one more day of driving before we'd be able to have a bit of rest in Colorado, get the baby to stretch his legs, and re-up on the default world. Although our week-long stop with my family in Louisville is meant to be primarily restful, there is still a lot of stuff on our list to do. Russell needs to sign up for courses, we needed to do some banking, I need to find a used cell phone, Russell needs to get his phone fixed, etc. etc. So we need to reorganize and line up our ducks, so to speak, but we also knew we had just six hours to go before we'd be in a place with a real bed, AC, and plenty of amenities! No long car rides for a whole week! Yay! We told Orion all about how we'd be at Noni's house (my mom) that night and he'd get a good long break from the car seat...
Alas, but we were mistaken! On the Des Moines-to-Nebraska leg we started having some trouble with the car and the 'check engine' light came on, but we sort of thought it was related to over-stressing the cruise control for miles upon miles with the loaded car in the heat. The rising altitude was also a factor on my mind... A little hesitation in the engine, just a bit of a stutter... Hmm... It seemed to get better, though, and once we were stopped at the lake we sort of let is slip our minds. When we got back on the road in Nebraska, the 'check engine' light had gone off - and we figured we were in the clear!
We even left slightly unprepared: the cooler needed ice, the baby was fed but we'd had a light-to-nonexistent breakfast, and we had a limited amount of water. We weren't in dire straits or anything, but we certainly weren't totally prepared for the day ahead. After only a couple hours into the drive, the engine started stuttering badly and we were losing acceleration. We pulled over on the side of the road and called AAA. Thank goodness for them - that's a purchase that I'm constantly glad to have made!
However, the place where we stopped wasn't ideal. We were in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, and it was hot. The grass on the roadside was high and full of bugs like spiders and biting flies. It's not safe to sit in the car, so I sat under an overpass (for the shade) until I just couldn't handle the bug factor. We decided to try to get to the next exit and get off to wait for the tow truck there. Thank goodness the Subaru, my good sweet zippy girl, cooperated and got us off the highway to a Shell station. With Orion asleep in his carseat, we posted up on the porch of a restaurant that had yet to open for the day's business to wait. I scooted in to the convenience store and got us ice cream sandwiches and water, and when I came out the tow guy had already arrived.
His name was Rob and he was really nice - I appreciated that immensely, because it can be pretty luck-of-the-draw for crazy mechanic guys in the middle of the country. He towed us about 40 miles toward Colorado, to the shop he worked for: Steve's Towing and Recovery. The place is right on the Nebraska/Colorado border, a garage adjacent to the owner's house, with the usual complement of broken down, used, or half-fixed cars spread about the place. The area was beautiful - good thing, too, because we were there for a good four hours, maybe more.
Rob did a diagnostic on the car, then hooked some readers to the fuel line and took her out on the road. Bad news: we needed a new fuel pump. They had the power to fix it, but not the part - and the part wouldn't arrive till Tuesday. Suddenly we were looking at a three-night stay in a hotel in nowhere, Nebraska.
Fortunately the house had wi-fi, so we got our computers out and started scrambling for a fix to our problem. Having the car towed to Louisville would have cost roughly $600, so that was out. We then figured we could rent a car, get to Louisville, and then go back for the Subaru once it was fixed. However, a recent hailstorm had damaged enough cars in the area that all the rental cars were booked. The only hotel in the nearest town, Julesburg, CO, was a run-down motel. There was one restaurant nearby, a Subway. It was starting to look like 4 days of hell, stuck in a town primarily populated with liquor stores, with no car, one phone that only sort of worked, and a dwindling food supply. Bummer.
Thank goodness we were only about 2.5 hours out from our destination at my mom's place in Louisville. We threw ourselves on their mercy, and DB was kind enough to make the drive out to our place of stranded ennui to pick us up. We waited for hours in the yard near the shop, getting more testy and burned out as the night went on. As the sun went down a storm moved in on the horizon, and I got some amazing photos. The temperature cooled a lot in the evening, too, and that helped our state of being quite a bit.
The piece of country where the shop was located was intensely beautiful. The house was on a hill, surrounded by wheat fields and wild grasslands. The sun setting over the wheat fields was so intensely beautiful that it was almost worth the car trouble. There were jackrabbits and mourning doves all over the place on the property, and I really enjoyed sitting with the sweet little bunnies that came out to investigate us. Fortunately we did have sandwich fixings and some drinks, and the folks there were nice - though they didn't invite us in. We had access to their patio, though, so we sat out there and watched an episode of Game of Thrones.
A little while after 8 PM, DB and my mom arrived, a bit harried after driving through the storms that we could see a few miles off. We all stood and watched the amazing sky show happening across the horizons, with the burning colors of the sunset peeking out below the indigo and gray of the storms. Absolutely stunning!
Finally we arrived in Louisville, sans-Subaru and in need of some serious showers and rest. The car will be available on Tuesday, and we're borrowing a car to go pick her up. We're even trying to find a babysitter for Orion so that he is spared the extra day of driving.
Today we just kind of lazed around... But at least I caught up on blog posts! There's a few more stories I want to relate from the first leg of our drive in West Virginia - keep an eye out for those, coming soon!

Fun by the Lakeside!

Johnson Lake was really a beautiful spot. There was some old skool playground equipment, beautiful trees and plants, a nice biking path, and even an enclosure full of goats, miniature ponies, and alpacas! (Perhaps a petting zoo's permanent home?)
Orion really enjoyed playing in the calm shallows of the beach. He also got to go on his first slide and merry-go-round! He loves playing in the tents and having snacks out on the grass. He's a happy camper!

Johnson Lake, Nebraska

We drove for two days with the over-night stay in Des Moines, and decided that if we found a spot we liked in Nebraska that we'd camp for two nights, take a day off with the baby. Russell did some good research and found a campground by a lake that wasn't too far off the route. We rolled in on Thursday afternoon and decided then and there that we'd stay a for a couple of nights. It was beautiful! As we pulled into the gate the cottonwood trees were bursting with foamy fluff, which looked for all the world like a summertime snowstorm in the late day golden sunlight. We rolled in with the sunshine sparkling off the waters of the lake, and found a nice little spot to set up our tents a little ways off from the RV's.
As we were setting up we quickly discovered the only downside of the Johnson Lake area - mosquitoes! There were swarms of them, and none of our granola-crunchy 0-Deet bug repellents really worked. We kept having to reapply, and they were particularly interested in Orion. He kept getting bitten on his face because I couldn't put the repellent near his eyes, and he didn't wave the little beasts off! We scrambled to get the tents set up and get him under cover, but boy did they get him good until then. All of us, really. Fortunately the damn things aren't actually as bad as the big zebra-striped ones we're accustomed to in NC; the bites aren't as big and itchy. In any case, I've never been more happy with my screen house tent. We usually use it for shade and rain cover, and it acts like our 'living room' in the camp set up. We downright hid out in it during the evenings when the bugs were bad. Luckily, they weren't as bad the second night because there was a bit more breeze!
We mostly just lazed around our camp, took a few nature walks and photographed plants. We went to the lakeside a few times, but it wasn't really warm enough to swim for a long period of time. We encountered some rainy weather while we were there, which made for good sleeping but not the best beach going! It was a really beautiful spot and we were glad for the rest, for sure. Orion had a great time rampaging around in our tents and playing around outside. It was a good stop!

Driving through the Heartlands...

Hello, Heartland America! There's corn, and wheat, and cowboys (but not that many cows), and lots of white bread folks who seem slightly afraid of hippies! We've certainly had the eye on us in restaurants and campgrounds... Apparently we're a rare breed out here! It's a trifle unsettling, but mostly just funny. I can't imagine what people are afraid of; I suppose they assume we're out to corrupt their children and coax them to run off with the freak show like some dready pied piper.
The country out here is really beautiful though, with long rolling hills and high grasslands, plus tons of farms - huge acreages of corn and wheat. There aren't many animals, livestock or otherwise, however; I've only seen a few cow herds.
In several places on the road, most notably a rest area we stopped at for lunch, the views were miles-long stretches of undulating green with the occasional farmhouse, silo, barn, or cell tower... And all those beautiful windmills!
In Kearney, Iowa, we passed under this big wild bridge. Apparently the locals think it's kind of a joke. It was built to attract tourism, but really I don't think people would make a point of going to it. We just took photos of it through the window of the moving car. I did enjoy the pegasus statues on either end of the structure quite a bit though. Another randomly interesting roadside attraction: thanks, America!

Wind Farms!

We've had a crazy couple of days, but I'm still going to try to go in some sequence with my storytelling! Suffice to stay, we're still doing well, if carless, and hanging out in Colorado with my mom and David!
Anyhoo... We left Des Moines and got on the road to Nebraska. On the way there we went through some rainy weather, which also coincided with our cruise through some big wind farms! Yay, sustainable energy! They look so graceful turning in the wind... I took a lot of photos through the moving car window, in hopes of getting a few good ones. One of the coolest aspects of being in a part of the country where there are windmills all over is the presence of the windmill arms on the highway. We saw several trucks toting the individual blades. Up close they are so strong and swift looking. The long sweep of the blade made me think of seagulls on the wing... Very inspiring!