Yesterday we rented a U-Haul truck and emptied out our storage unit in Oregon. Last night we had two dinner invitations, so Mark went to Vancouver to have dinner with his daughter, granddaughter, and mother (and their spouses). I went out to dinner with my dad and stepmother. We both had good visits with our respective families.
This morning my mother made a wonderful breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast for Mark and me. Then we went to the DMV to try to find out what papers we needed from there to register our vehicles in Washington. The man at the DMV was as baffled as us, so he printed out some papers and suggested we see if that’s what the Washington DOL wants to see.
As we were leaving the DMV, our friend, Ruth, called and asked if we could stop in and see her. We had to regretfully decline because we had a full day of travel ahead of us. We did stop at my dad’s house to pick up a bed frame he was storing for us. Mark was driving the U-Haul truck and I was driving the car. Before we got back in our cars, Mark said he needed to stop and get gas for the truck. We drove to Jantzen Beach, which is at the very northern border of Oregon, the most northern part of Portland, and stopped for gas.
While Mark was filling his tank, my phone rang. It was a man named John Sanders. Months ago I had contacted him about a possible job when we got to Washington, but we couldn’t seem to find a time to have a phone interview. Last Friday night I sent him an e-mail and said we were now living in Lynden and wondering if we could reopen the discussion. He wanted to interview us by phone when he called this morning, but I explained that we were just beginning the five hour drive back to Lynden. What we finally worked out is that tomorrow after Mark and I unload the U-Haul and turn it in, we’ll drive down to Everett to talk with John and get a tour of his business. As soon as you get this in your e-mail, we’d appreciate it if you’d say a quick prayer for us as we interview for this job.
On the drive here, Mark took the lead for the first half, up to the turn off to I-405 which goes a different way past Seattle. Shortly after we got onto that route, I took the lead as planned and promptly took a wrong turn. We managed to get turned around, however, and I led the rest of the way to Aunt Marg’s house.
Poor Aunt Marg had been having problems with Kimba. We’ve always known that Kimba is skittish when there are changes, but we thought she’d eventually adjust. Instead, she kept hiding from Aunt Marg all weekend and wouldn’t come out to eat. When we got there, we tried to call her out of hiding, but she wouldn’t even come out for us. We had to move furniture to get her out, and then we put her in her cat carrier and left her there while Aunt Marg took us out to dinner. When we got back we discovered that Kimba had figured out how to unzip her carrier door and she had again disappeared. Mark found her behind Marg’s washer and dryer, but we couldn’t reach her. Marg had the brilliant idea of scaring her out by pushing the vacuum nozzle down the narrow side and turning the vacuum on. In trying to get away from the vacuum, Kimba moved closer to the wider opening where Mark was able to catch her and put her back in her carrier. This time he locked the zipper in place.
Dobby hadn’t been any trouble for Marg, but after watching the hunt for Kimba, he decided to try to hide. He was much easier to locate and capture. We left the U-Haul truck at Marg’s house till tomorrow and brought the cats home. Boy, were they happy to be home! (So were we!) We’ll have to figure out something different if we go away again.