Life goes on. Have another cat. (Misty). She's sweet, not Mouse, but sweet. Love winter here. snow, ice, power outages, it's an adventure. I'm glad we're here. Wish people wouldn't complain. I love it.

Earazona's Dona Cristobel Colon

aka "Mousie"

October 12, 1995 - November 23, 2005

I cannot tell you how utterly shocked and destroyed I am right now. Mouse went to the vet to be boarded while I took my father to Delaware for the holiday. I am in NJ at the moment. While she was to be boarded, her dental cleaning was scheduled for Monday, but due to an emergency surgery, the date got bumped to Wednesday (yesterday) morning.  She had a reaction to the anesthetic, which disclosed an underlying heart problem no one knew she had. In short, after half an hour of intense CPR and herculean efforts on the vet's part, Mousie could not be revived. I am suffering in silence, in an effort not to ruin my father's, nor my family's thanksgiving ... I will tell dad when we get home. As it is, he's happily telling everyone here about Mousie sleeping on his bed, and what fun she is to live with. I've called Hugh, who is equally devastated ... Mousie's grandfather Fletcher (and his mommy Joan), and her birth mother Buttercup and Uncle Flyser (who live with Jeff).

Patty, wiping tears.

Well, it's been a month;. We've found a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and my dad's moving here to live with us ... which is a good thing.   The job market still sucks, but we'll get htat straightened out one of these days.  The house is on 23, and is heavily wooded ...

• Friday, March 11; Picked up the truck at 9:30 from the fantastic people at Penske.  If you ever need to rent, go to them, their service is excellent, and their prices at least a third less than their comptetitors!  Initally it was just Big D and I packing, but Chippie joined us at noon, Hugh brought lunch at one (he couldn't help, too crippled up with RA, but he brought moral support and hugs).  I was running a fever, so I wasn't much help. More in the way than anything else.  At 5, in tears, I called friends Dave and Liz, who hightailed it over, complete with work gloves, and by 11pm we were all loaded. Those last boxes are a hoot to unpack. More fun than a christmas sock! Never know what you'll find.  With no furniture left, we slept on the sofa bed we had left behind, and laughed at the absence of a TV, lamps, or even books to read. Mouse wasn't too sure about any of this, she kept a good watch on the door.  All week she had been "guarding" the boxes. Guess she feared we'd leave her behind!
• Saturday March 12, we said goodbye to the folks at 7:45, which didn't go well at all, and then hit a hamburger joint for egg McMuffins. From there to our beloved Chiropractor, who attempted to set us to rights before we left Mesa.  By 9:30, we were On The Road.   Our first stop was Payson, for food.  By then we had figured out it takes SIX parking spaces for that behemoth and the car dolly.  Our second stop was at the junction of 77/40 at Holbrook, for fuel, having gone 195 miles.  We saw lots of petrified wood, and believe it or not, DINOSAURS as we looked out the window of the truck ... at 3:30pm we crossed the border into New Mexico.  we stopped in Grant NM for the night, having gone 350 miles.  End of Day One!
• Sunday, March 13, we were on theroad at 6:34a.m.  Our first "big adventure" was at the Flying J truck stop. UG!! We figured we weren't a "car", or an "RV", so we got into the "Truck" lane.  Oh Lordy. What we didn't know about being truck drivers.  You see, there are these weird pumps. On the left side is the pump, a phone, the credit card thinggie ... and then on the RIGHT side a "satellite" pump if your tank turns out to be on the passenger side of your truck.  Ours was. But no one told us how to make the satellite pump PUMP!  Finally someone came to our rescue and we got the heck outta Dodge.  At 10:15 (551 miles) we saw a herd (actually several) of Antelope!!!  As is "deer and the antelope roam"!  This was in the Santa Rosa area. They were elegant creatures, and I was fascinated watching them.  We crossed the TX state line at 11:33, which became 12:33 (first time change). The clock in the truck, and our watches just sat there and did nothing, but our cell fones changed all by themselves!!!  We were at 642 miles at this point.  And then glitch number one.  We got a flat tire on the drivers' side of the car carrier. Gulp. Over to the side of the road, mile marker number 151, and called the nice men at Penske.  In half an hour two arrived (Jim Bob, and John Boy, never did get their names) ... changed one tire and didn't like another so we followed them back to their shop where they changed a second tire.  "Irish Roadside Tire Sales and Repair, from Shamrock TX".  NICE people.  We finally called it a day and rolled into the Elk city Tavelodge, exit 41 off I-40.
• Monday, March 14, we got a 6:38 a.m. start at 867 miles.  The Travelodge lady was real nice, the "housemother" type, who fed us waffles and hugged us goodbye, and told us to be safe ... It was overcast and 42 degrees.  Mid day we had lunch at a Waffle House (gotta love those places, always nice folks, good hot food, and predictable). We decided to stay overnight in Rolla MO, which would leave us approximately two 400mile days left to get to Oscoda.  We were really getting tired of our big yeller truck.  Mouse has been a great traveller, beenwell behaved, and we've been quite proud of her.  What goes thru her kitty-mind is anyone's guess, but she's been a trooper. We've been sending text messages along the way to keep folks alerted of our progress, even as far away as Australia! (I have a quilter-sister there). Check out www.walnutbowlstore.com. The billboards have had me drooling!!!  At 1373.1 we called it a day.
• Tuesday March 15.  What can I say. The alarm went off and we said "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight."  At 9:45 we hit the road again.  Two hundred miles later some overzealous rookie cop hauled us over for going 7 miles over the speed limit. Admitting no one would ever give us a ticket for that, he proceeded to tell us that "ever since 911 ...." and demanded we open our truck for his inspection. Not sure how Big D, me and a cat fit the "profile" of terrorists, but he checked us out.  Big D had some comments to make as we were sent on our way ... I mean geeze, this guy still had donut crumbs on his collar.  His training officer was with him, in "street" clothes ...  At 6pm or so we decided to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead", so at 8:34p.m we crossed the Michigan state line!!!  Whee Doggies!!!  We'd come some 1900 miles. 
• Wednesday March 16 we were on the road at 10:30. Miss Mouse was sitting at the hotel room door dragging her leash, looking over her shoulder at us as if to say "C'mon guys, it's time to GO!"  We hit FLint at 1:30, and a Verizon wireless store, where the nice people there lived up to THEIR advertising (my problem was their problem) and half hour later I had a replacement fone (brand new one!) as mine had crapped out.  Around 5p or so, we called ahead to Tawas, as we were now in a snowstorm (first rotten weather all the way from Phx) ... to the only motel that didn't object to a puddy tat.  The nice man there said he had plenty of room for our truck, just "BE CAREFUL" and that the light  was on in his lighthouse on the edge of his property.  We dragged in the door, and he got us settled in for the night.  We were never so glad to see anyone at that point.  we realized we had neither the energy nor the strength to unload that truck (which had surely doubled in size by then), so off we went to "Mama's Restaurant", where we had dinner, checked in with our waitress buddies from February, and one of them volunteered her boyfriend and neighbor to rescue us the next morning.
• Thursday March 17, Leo and John showed up and in less than four hours had us unloaded at both the cottage as well as the storage facility where more than half our stuff ended up ... Again we stayed with nice couple in Tawas with the lighthouse ...
• Friday March 18 we dumped our Chevy S-10 at the cottage, rented a car (having been afraid to drive the chevy), and set off for Bay City (90 miles away to return the Penske) ... While down there, we went to Saggy Paws (Saginaw) to the Mall for some R and R (okay, so I wanted some paperbacks and a manicure) ... and while we were there, Big D dropped his cell fone (we were unaware of this).  At 2:30, afraid of impending bad weather, we headed back up the road to Oscoda. About 7 pm we got a phone call from Big D's sister Mary in Mesa, who had gotten a call from his parents (also in Mesa) because they had gotten a phone call from some lady in a Mall in Saggy Paws, reporting a lost telephone.  Ahem.  We got BACK in the rental car, drove BACK to Saggy Paws, got the #*@!! Phone, returned to Oscoda. 
• Saturday March 19 we returned the rental car, "Larry the Cable Guy" showed up to fix us up with Television ... and we hunkered down for a snowy weekend. 
• Sunday March 20 has us convinced that cardboard boxes are a lot like rabbits: they multiply when you're not watching them.  More snow. But it only falls on the trees and grass, not the sidewalks and streets.
• Monday March 21 we get a note from the post office that they have too much mail to deliver, we'll have to pick it up!  We utilize the "hush-puppy express" to Mama's. How far can that be, right? RIGHHHHHHHHHHHT.  Can you spell "out of shape"? We were gasping for breath a mile and change later as we arrived at Mama's. Some sweet ole geezer offered to drive us home. We said NO, not before FOOD!  Asked the ladies at Mama's where we could walk to for bread and information, and off we went. Hit an auto supply store, who recommended a mechanic (who had also been recommended by the one our Landlord recommended, who is too booked up to help us with the truck).  On the way home, stopping every 50 yards or so to pant, we stopped at a "mattress store" with a sign out front saying there were recliners on sale.  Big D didn't like the chairs I had, said something about torture chambers.  We stopped, he picked out a Papa bear chair, and I got a Mama bear chair ... the nice lady threw in a lamp for free, and assured us she'd deliver them that afternoon, and take the aforementioned offensive chairs with her.  Got home, called the mechanic, made appointment for Tuesday. Chairs arrived, we plopped in front of the toob. 
• Tuesday March 22.  We started up the pickup truck and prayed it would make it the mile or so to the mechanic's place, which is right next to "Ralph Scott Excavating and Septic systems" who is the landlord for Dave Taylor's auto service.  The FUNNY part of this is that my DaddY's name is Ralph Scott!  He listened to our sad tale of woe, had his "man" drive us home ... boy are the people polite up here!  We stopped at the post office and picked up a crate full of mail (mostly squishies) ... and now we're hunkered down again. Ordered in a pizza from Little Geezers.  Oh, and the nice man from the auto place called ... the estimate is between 18-2200 ... (gulp).  We blew head gasket, and did lord knows what else to the engine. 

BUT!  The crocus are starting to peep thru the snow, and the hyacinths my daddy sent me are trying to bloom ... and it's so pretty and peaceful here ... 

t-6 days until I set foot on Michigan's soil ... we fly to Detroit on the 10th, drive to Flint, and then on to Oscoda whre we hope to find a place to live .... we return to AZ on the 20th ... complete our packing, and be outta the desert by the 13th of March. I'm excited, it's a new adventure for us.  At the risk of sounding like a child, "are we there yet?"!!!

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