Relocating My Mother

1/5/05 - Moving Mom to Santa Rosa
Yesterday we moved the coach to the Fairgrounds in Cloverdale (Map). This is a barebones parking lot with power and water, but no cable or on-site sewer connections. It was adequate and well worth the $20/night price. We rented The Terminal which featured Tom Hanks which we thought was pretty good.

This morning we got up a little early and left at about 9AM for Concord (Map). We pulled into a U-Haul dealer's lot at about 10:45Am and were on the road with a 14 ft truck about a half hour later. When we got to Mom's townhouse my sister was there and my brother in law (Greg) was on his way still.

So we started loading the truck with light things and when Greg and nephew arrived we began loading some of the fine furniture Mom wanted to take with her. I was disappointed to find that most of the packing blankets that U-Haul rented us were wet, so we had to be careful about what parts of the blankets wound up against the wooden furniture. We finished packing at about 4PM and left about half an hour later.

The one thing that my Mom has that she was willing to part with at the moment and that I sort of wanted to have were two three foot high bronze statues of Roman warriors with their swords and shields. There was some question about how to get them home (we probably would need to ship them home because of the limited room in the RV). There was another question about what to do with them when we got them home (we have so many things already which we need to get rid of). Third I wasn't really sure that I wanted these two warriors in my home (I prefer peaceful, uplifting, whimsical imagery and objects in my living space). So after considering all of this for about an hour, I decided to pass the statues on to my nephews, who I thought would appreciate them much more.

Considering that rain was in the forecast for today, we got extremely lucky about having virtually no rain while we were loading the truck. Soon after we got under way however, a light rain began to fall. When I tried the windshield wipers, I was dismayed to find that they did not work at all. Fortunately the rain subsided as we continued toward Vallejo.

Just before getting on another freeway, Greg pulled over and I pulled up behind him and turned off the truck. My wife, who was in scout, pulled up behind me. I got out and informed Greg that I had no wipers and asked if he had any RainX (a great product that almost eliminates the need for wipers) and he said no. The three of us agreed that we should continue since it was not presently raining and see how it went.

When I returned to the truck I noticed that I had left the lights on and when I tried to start it again, I got nothing from the battery. So I got out again and asked Greg if he had any jumper cables. He said no, so I decided to call U-Haul and see if they could come out and get me going again. As Greg and I were waiting for somebody to assist us on the phone, we decided to try again and it started on the first try. So we hung up and continued on our way.

We arrived in Santa Rosa (Map) just after dark and spent the next hour or two unloading the truck and deciding where to put things in my Mom's new studio apartment. There was some kind of snafu with the paperwork though and my Mom could not stay in her new place until a certain paper was signed. So we all went to dinner and afterward my Mom went home with my sister, the statues went home with my nephew and his girlfriend, greg went home alone in his Jeep and we drove back to Cloverdale.

1/6/05 - Getting Mom Settled In
Today I spent most of the day helping Mom get settled into her new place. She seemed genuinely glad to be there and happy to have two of her kids helping her out (of course). One of the things I did was to put up some new shelving for her stereo. My wife drove up to Ukiah and handled some business in that area while I helped Mom.

The really good news is that my sister got the signing of the magic paper expedited and Mom can spend the night in her new place tonight.

Tonight we went out to dinner and then drove up to the KOA in Cloverdale to see what it was like. It is way up a very windy road and, although there were some nice sites and the place looked good in general, we decided it was not worth the extra money and that we would stay where we are.

1/7/05 - Cleaning Up Mom's Old House
We drove back over to Concord today and helped my sister and Mom straighten up the place, making piles of stuff to throw out, give to good will and prepare for an estate sale. In the afternoon, my sister to my Mom to an appointment while my wife and I sorted through a large pile of slides that we took in Japan when we visited there for seven weeks when I was in high school. After returning from Japan my Dad and I (with some help from the rest of the family) assembled a three projector, synchronized to music, slide show that we showed at many schools and churches for a few months during my Junior year. It was great to see some of those slides again, especially those of the family - including my Grandfather who accompanied us on that trip. The slide of Japan were interesting but not really worth saving.