Doc 'n Faun's Adventures 2000

July 3rd.
We looked at a nice 1260 sq. foot apartment today and have put down some money to hold it so that we can get the paper work done; checks for credit and "what kind of tenants we are."

July 12th.
We are still waiting for our landlady, Mrs. Gadot, to get back in town, to tell the manager at the new apartment, what wonderful tenants we are! The move date is September 1st. Faun says, "65 boxes packed and counting!"

July 16th.
Mrs. Gadot finally turned up after a severe bout of phone tag! She seems to be more concerned with when we will actually move so she can start showing the place than anything else. At least I managed to be civil. She has been in town since last Sunday!!!! and "...apparently the voice mail and call waiting was not working..." Funny thing about that. But then, our call waiting service has never worked properly more than once in a row.

July 18th.
Faun couldn't sleep last night so, instead she thought about paying Mrs. Gadot a visit at 7 AM with one of out 5' stuffed cat fish. She thought she might wait on Mrs. Gadot's door step and whack her one to get her attention or perhaps sit on her until she called Kelly at the new apartment. Instead, she called me at work at 7:40, when Poofer woke her up "rwooahwl!!!", to say, "Call her now!"And so I did.

Mrs. Gadot said that she had called Kelly the day before at 9:30 AM, but; had to leave a message because the office was only open from 10 AM to 6 PM. She volunteered to call him again today but; I had to understand that she had guests from India and had to go to work but; would try to call between classes. Apparently, she did!

At about 2 PM I got a call at work from Kelly, the manager. We had been approved. He thought that it was strange that Mrs. Gadot would call again and thought, maybe they didn't get the word. I'll call them again. He said that He had left a voice mail, but; my phone didn't indicate I'd gotten one.

Anyway, now it is just pack and pack and pack and pay the deposit and pack some more and clean... Fun huh? Faun is telling the cats that they get their own bathroom. How nice for them. I hope they have an exhaust fan.

July, 19th. 2000
Today we took a step into the new apartment, by paying the 1st. month deposit in Elk Grove Village. We have to wait until September 2nd. to move. We thought we might be able to move sooner and create a larger moving window, but; the remodeling won't be done before Aug 30th. So, instead of paying an extra week rent, to move in 1 week early; we will spend about a quarter of that and pay a maid service to come in and clean on moving day.

Faun has filled another 10-15 boxes!

July 20th.
Today Doc call the utilities to arrange to have service moved. Amertitech said; 847-933-2545 will be discontinued 09/02/00 w/ message 847-427-9556 will be in effect 08/31/00 after 5 PM and the transfer fee is only $53.55, to be on our next bill !!!!!

Now, isn't that special? I just love getting special treatment, don't you? And if that isn't enough fooling around, I've gotta call 'em again after the next bill to tell them where to send the final bill??? Seems pretty redundantly stupid to me. Oh well, I havta remember, they are only a monopoly. Poor babies...

ComEd and NiCor have no fees to transfer service! Hummm, kinda makes ya wonder...

Faun packed another 2 boxes and spent quite a bit of time tearing up magazines, picking colorz to paint the new place. It'll be great!
Bedroom - lavender/rose
Living room - rose/gold glaze
Kitchen - sea foam blue to go with the white cupboard, appliances and tile.

July 21st.
Doc called AT&T cable services today and got the same redundant stupidity as with Ameritech. Seems phone companies are all stupid. Or is that greedy?

Tomorrow will be spent finding a moving company. Oh joy! Actually, it started today. First bid is $105 per hour. Minimum 3 hours. Truck fee of $75. Figure 1 hour per room. We have 4 rooms. I suppose this isn't too bad, all things considered.

July 22nd.
Today, after about 20 phone calls (half of which didn't answer or wanted us to fax our needs or had answering machines) we found the movers we are going to use. John, the gentleman to whom I spoke was very friendly and explained more than Doc wanted to know about moving. I have a very good feeling about this!

I don't know about where you live but; I feel like we got a good estimate at $547.00, which includes a 4 man crew, truck, extra boxes, insurance, and minor unexpecteds. I figure that it'll cost another hundred and that's OK if everything goes smoothly, otherwise, no tip!

July 25th.
We just received the paperwork in the mail from the movers. The above quote was there but; the list of items that I gave them was wrong and anything not on the list would be extra! The search is on again...

July 29th.
We just rearranged the moving company. We got a much better deal from a moving company in Skokie. About $100.00 less and NO EXTRA CHARGES!!! We are still going to move the TVs, stereos, and computer ourselves. The box count is over a hundred already!

August 9th.
Called AT&T Cable Services again and they were perfectly happy to play the redundantly stupid game with me. Ameritech, on the other hand could not understand why I was calling again. Hummm ??? Oh well, The move is still on. We're going to pack up the 2 computers that are not being used right now and the network and whatever else we can find that is not necessary to stay online.

August 10th.
In the middle of all the fun and games, come a summons for Doc to appear for jury duty. Funny thing about this, I've always wanted to do jury duty and now that it is happening I'm not so sure. Turns out my employer will not pay me for jury duty time because I'm not a regular salaried employee. I'm a regular salaried contractor. I almost think I'd rather take the $100 fine for not showing than loose a day of pay.

August 23rd.
We called Kelly, the manager at The Eagles Apartments to let him know that the apartment front door needed a little help. It looks as if the door had been forced, as the sash that the bolt fits into was splintered and nailed down. Even before I was done telling him, he said, "Oh yeah, I'll get that taken care of before you get here. You are still planing on getting the keys next Thursday, aren't you?" "Oh yes!" I said. Then not two minutes later, a woman from the moving company called to verify that we were actually moving on the 1st. How nice.

Box count is probably close to 150 now and we're still packing.

Thursday August 31st.
Thursday I shredded the computers and put them in their boxes, then finished off packing the bathroom and stuff. Doc finally got here after paying the pet deposit and first month's rent. It took him a long time to get home because of the holiday traffic. Then we loaded the computers and stuff into the minivan, along with a 6' table. We got there to find the bedroom/computer room didn't have a source of light. (No ceiling lights)

Went back to Skokie and tried to crash, thinking about how to organize stuff. I woke up at 5 AM and started trashing/sorting the back bedroom. Docus came in too see what I was up too. "Guess I'm up," he said, so we started repacking SnoWhite with the paintings and monitors and more paintings and top load things that we didn't want the mover to touch.

7:30 AM. Started herding cats into the bathroom. All three got out at least twice. They did NOT want to go into the bathroom. Poofer was PISSSED!!!!!!! & she had Pookie FREAKED, as I grabbed them Both at once. Finally I taped the bathroom door shut. Then I went out to see the front room.

The moving guys came in at about 7:40 (early, they were scheduled for 8 AM). The lead EXperienced guy came in and his eyes got bigger and BIGGER! Soon he looked like one of the dogs in Han's Christain Anderson's, The Tin Soldier, with eyes as big as saucers, then dinner plates! I think the office told him it would be fast and easy. He left the apartment shaking his head.

He worked hard but; the kids (helpers) were problems and slower than molasses. One guy just carried one or 2 boxes. The experienced guy, Greg, did PILESSSSSS of boxes. To beat it all, the kidz, were having a tiff that cost us a hour, over the entire time. It bothered me so, I started carrying stuff and shamed them into working faster/better!

About 9 AM Carole & Athena arrived to help us. There was not really much for her to do during the loading process, but; she was GREAT moral support. Later, after the bedrooms were emptied, she vacuumed them better that they had ever been done! Doc managed to strain his back, duh! Carole did some pressure points on his back and the pain miraculously disappeared! "Thank you, thank you Carole!"

Finally the movers got to the basement storage. The kid was still going after piddly stuff, "DO the ROCKKKKKKKKKKKKS," I told em, as I gave him one more box, and another. I was pushing them and moving big and heavy things out. "I need the HEAVY stuff MOVED! Leave the light stuff for the car, please!" So the kid picked up the car stuffff. *&^%%$#! He put it down as requested & promptly tried to pile a heavy box on top of it. We were at 3 hours of the ordeal, done loading the truck!!!

The truck was loaded with in a inch of its life! Steel display grids flat against the back door. The truck was packed from front to back and bottom to top. There was NO room left inside. AND there was still things that needed moving! It took an hour to get to the new place. The truck tilted to starboard about 20 degrees! Turning was a trip! We lead the way, they followed and Carole followed them. We watched them in the mirrors as they tilted on down the road. Poor guy needed a new tranny! They wanted to stop to get stuff!!!!! Tried every trick in the book to jack up their time.

Finally they got here and I unpacked the quick pack (a very large box on a 4 wheeled dolly) as soon as it got into the apartment, and pushed it back to them to refill. They could have made it last 10 hours and we couldn't afford it. Doc unloaded SnoWhite while the movers did their truck. Finally, as we were putting a shelf in place, it swung low and tore my big toenail off, OUCH !!!!!!! My nail just came straight up and stood at attention waving, "Hi mom!!!!!!" I put my foot up in the kitchen sink and ran cool to colder water on it. Poured earring stuff on to numb it and managed gently to remove the flag, then put on a Bandaid to stop the bleeding. So I got put on the injured list but; I kept getting the stuff to unpacked. No time to rest!!!

Finally, got it was DONE !?!?!?!? and we did the money thing. He (the experienced mover) didn't charge for the last 15 minutes, which was a $60 tip for me. They said I worked harder than they'd seen other movers work! And I was trying hard to hold back. If I had done a normal loading job I would have taken a hours off their time. Sigh, oh well, that's boxes under the truck...

We went back to the old place, packed the kitchen, cleaned, and packed the SnoWhite, the minivan, and finally got the cats outta the bathroom and into cat carriers... In fact Pookie was already in the cat carrier hiding from Poofer. I think he was already in shock.

Carole, Wonder Woman, that she is cooked supper! Swarma and Falafal, a middle eastern banquet! Yummy! Athena was the hungriest of all.

On the trip back to the new place we got serenaded by a kitty chorus. Got to the new place and I set up the cats in "their" bathroom, with new litter and stuff. The girls came out right away. They are so happy to be somewhere else. Pookie laid down in the litter, almost crying. Faun called the Momster to say that we were in. Hadta leave a vmail. We finally crashed about midnight. That was friday...

Saturday, September 2nd.
Started Unpacking the kitchen as Doc did a load. I waited for the cable guy. Doc and I went back the next time, he loaded up & I cleaned the bath and kitchen. We hadta drop off the keys at the land lady's place cuz the phone had been disconnected and we couldn't call her to come and get them. By the time we got back to Elk Grove Village we were too tired to unload. "Leave it for tomorrow. We have everything," we decided.

Doc said, "I'm not sleeping on that sofa bed again!" and began putting up the water bed. Our apologies to anyone we made sleep in it. I got to talk to the Momster! who called from the cabin in WI.

Sunday, September 3rd.
Today is Sunday and the cats are out having a ball! Mirrors all over. Pookie is following me like normal. The computers are now up! I got mine up before doxxx so, I got the internet and my email while he got to play freecell and put up the printer & scanner.

We're tired and sore but not as bad as last time we moved! I'd been lying back with feet my up, and with keyboard in my lap, writing this, 'til my tail got numb. My big toe has been having loud conversations at me. Yuppers we're all here!

We only lost a few pieces of glass (candle holders) and the steel step stool. Not to bad...

We've decided to go down to Potions' in Blue Island to visit. The rest of the unpacking can be done on Labor Day. Somehow, that seems appropriate, and is much better than shoveling pool water out of the basement, like last year!

Sunday evening, 9/3/00 23:15
A few hours ago, I had a very strange experience. I was hit by a car. The strange part was, I don't think I am hurt. Well, maybe a bruise. Faun and I had finished moving into our new apartment, in Elk Grove Village, and decided to go visit friends at Potions' in Blue Island, IL.

We were there and showing some of Faun's paintings, when a semi drunk, knocked over a beer on one of the paintings. After cleaning the paintings, I took the whole mess of them out to the car. There was a box with 16 paintings and one framed one that would not fit into the box because it was already full. I'm going to keep this short because my arm stings from elbow to wrist. I had left Potions' with boxed paintings in left arm held against me. I had the framed one in my right hand.

Potions', is just off the corner of Vermont and Division Streets in Blue Island, IL. I was crossing in the crosswalk, when I saw a small white car approaching. I wasn't walking all that fast, because I was still very sore from moving this weekend. I sort of slowed down as I crossed the middle of the street, to make sure that the car would stop for the stop sign. I saw the front end of the car drop as they do when decelerating to and stopped. So, I continued. Then the driver accelerated hard away from the stop sign.

I raised my right arm as if to ward off the car and spun counter - clockwise on my left foot. My right arm impacted with the center of the left window edge on the car. The paintings went flying and I stood there swearing at the driver. Then I started to pickup the paintings. There were paintings spread across a 10 or 15 foot area in the roadway and I tried to pick them up before any were damaged any more. There was a lot of traffic. I managed to get them back into the box and pickup most of the parts before the police arrived.

I was actually crossing Division Street, when the police arrived. I was going to talk to the driver, who wisely pulled over to the side of the road in front of a convenience store driveway. I actually had a piece of paper with my name and stuff on it for her, (she was suppose to be doing the same thing, but; I don't think she did) before the police came back to the intersection.

Funny thing, the lieutenant, did not seem too interested in what I had to say... Don't understand that one.

Then an ambulance arrived and Faun was there and insisting that I at least let them check me out. So, I went into the ambulance. It was wierd, I have been in many ambulances, but; never as a patient.

While one guy asked questions and filled out the forms, the other guy checked out my arm. Nothing apparently broken. He asked about an ice pack and Faun said "yes, please." So, he put on an ice pack and wrapped it with gauze to hold the ice pack in place.

After I got a copy of the on site report from the police, we went back to Potions'. I had another beer and we ordered the pizza we had talked about ordering earlier.

Now, 3 hours later, all I seem to have is a lump and a bruise, 3 fingers below the elbow. There is a burning sensation on the skin wrapping half way around the arm to the outside, like a floor burn. Also, the outside of the right wrist burns in the joint. I think that this keyboarding is making it worse.

If nothing else rears up its ugly head in the next month, I'll just forget the instance and that driver's bad karma catching up with her. After all, she had broken glasses and the right side of her car looked like it may have side swiped something...

If I start feeling something else in the next month, I'll will probably sue the driver, but; not maliciously. I want her to get her glasses fixed and take a driver training class. She said to Faun, "I did not see him." Well, no wonder. With broken glasses???

If I lose time at work, I'll have to sue for more than that. Who knows. I might just get mad and sue her and her insurance company for everything I can get!

Friday, December 29th. New Years Eve eve
We are working on our usually late holiday letter. It will be posted here when done. Also, some hard copies will be sent out to those without computers. Yea, I know, it is hard to believe that in this day and age, some people still do not have a computer!

Stay tuned for the further

Adventures of Doc & Faun

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