Looking For Storage

I made the decision after last weekend’s visit to LaCrosse that I am going to look for a storage unit for Sarah’s stuff until she can get back up to her new apartment to move things in.  The only problem is that with it being less than two weeks until Sarah moves out of the dorm, the pickings are a little slim.  I found out on Saturday that lots of places have no open units since a lot of students will store their things there for the summer.  I called around on Monday and found one place that had one unit open and was very reasonable price-wise, except that Sarah would have had to call him, go meet him to look things over, sign papers, etc.  When I asked if she could find someone to drive her to meet the guy, she had a bit of what I would call a meltdown.  At the very least it was a “just leave me alone” type message.  So I guess I’ll have to handle it myself from the Falls.

One place I called was full up, two other places never got back to me, One place that did get back to me told me they have two openings, and they are lockers that are bigger than what we would need, and they are a little more expensive than I was looking for.  I am holding out for one more place to get back to me, but if I don’t hear anything, I guess I’ll need to go with the one pace that did get back to me.  With any luck they will pro-rate it for the days we don’t NEED it, and then since Sarah can pick up her keys on June 1^st, maybe we can go up the weekend after and move the things out so we only end up paying for one month instead of two.

It's Wet

Happy Spring!!!  It is raining like crazy outside.  We had a couple of warm, dry days and I thought that the back yard was beginning to dry up.  I even cut the grass for the first time.  However, with all the rain we have had the backyard is like a wet sponge right now.  How do I know?  I had to go and replace some blocks of suet in our bird feeders.  And in just walking back to them my feet were squishing like I was squeezing out the sponge when I wash the cars. 

The good news is that my grass is nice and green, even without fertilizer.  The bad news is that it is growing like mad!  It needs to be cut again, and I can’t do it until the ground dries up a little.  I think that when it finally is able to be cut, I’ll have to make at least two passes, because the grass will be too long to take it down to the length at which I normally cut it.  Maybe I can use the break in waiting for conditions to dry up as an opportunity to sharpen my mower blade.  I don’t think I have done that in a couple of years, so it probably wouldn’t hurt.

Additionally, I need to put down some seed to help fill in the bare spots.  I don’t know how much it will end up helping since in reading up on how to get rid of the moss in my grass, it looks like I need better drainage and possibly more alkaline soil, in addition to some more good topsoil to build up a few low spots.  But that is again all stuff I can’t really do until it dries out.  Although, with the ground as wet as it is, maybe I should use the opportunity to try and pull my fence posts back to being straight.

Cable Company

As everyone in America that has (or had) Time Warner Cable knows, they have been bought out by Spectrum.  Two years ago we made the switch from AT&T U-Verse to Spectrum when AT&T wouldn’t negotiate on the price of our service, at least until we had already committed to TWC, and by then it was too late.  Well, the time period of our initial promotion with TWC had come an end at the end of April, and the new bill from Spectrum jacked the price $25ish a month.  So I went in to see what we could do to bring the bill back down, what sort of promotion was currently running, etc…

Fully expecting to have something in hand, I was shocked to find out I needed to select a new TV package, because the service I had been getting with TWC does not equate to any Spectrum packages.  I thought, OK, no problem.  Then I find out that the channels that we watch most are split between three different programming tiers, and that if we wanted them all, well then we’d be paying basically what we are now.  But we could drop down a level or two, and then we’d just be losing channels.  Personally, if we dropped from the top, we’d lose a couple of channels that I watch, and I guess I can live with that, though I sort of liked them because they were showing the programs that used to be on H2 before it was replaced with that crap-pile called Viceland (AHC and Destination America in case you were wondering).  We’d also lose a couple of channels that Alison watches from time to time, like Nickelodeon, though I can’t for the life of me imagine why Nickelodeon isn’t in the basic tier of programming.  And MTV would be gone too, though they don’t play music videos anymore, and when they do, it’s all R&B and rap…  Sorry, no.  But we’d get other MTV channels.  So how they get rid of the flagship, but keep lesser ones is beyond me.  At least with ESPN, you still have the basic ESPN but would lose some of the ESPN satellite networks (ESPN Classic, for example).

 

But even with the change in programming to something with enough channels to still make most everyone in the house happy (i.e. not me) the cost is a couple bucks more than what we were paying.  I’ll probably go with the mid range programming package for now that keeps us at what we were paying, but I am also going to start exploring the streaming options, like the Amazon Fire Stick, or Chromecast, and see what sort of streaming services I can get with those.  Because paying as much as I am for the crappy programming we get with cable is getting out of hand.  I have heard that Sling might be a good option and isn’t too bad as far as a price goes.

 

I’ll have to make a list of the channels we HAVE to have and see what we can do.  I’d be willing to bet there are only about 25 or 30 channels that make up 95% of our TV watching.  Everything else is just waste as far as I am concerned.

New Resident

When we got back from LaCrosse yesterday I noticed a robin that was hopping into the bushes in the front of the house.  Then as we got closer, I noticed some grass and leaves on the ground in front of the garage.  I knew exactly where to look, and sure enough, we had the beginnings of a nest in the crook between the garage light, the siding of the garage, and the downspout.  Then as we were bringing in the things Sarah sent home, I happened to notice a broken robin’s egg in the grass next to the back stoop.  I suppose that was why it was making a new nest?

I like having the birds in the yard, so I don’t mind that it is building a nest, as long as it is out of the way.  The only problem will be if and when I need to clean out the front gutter of the garage, or walking past the corner of the garage when I cut the grass.  If it doesn’t mind the garage door going up and down a couple of times a day, then I’ll leave it alone.  The last time this happened a few years ago, I found its eggs broken on the ground one day and it had just left.  I hope that the eggs actually make it this time. 

LaCrosse Visit

We drove up to LaCrosse to visit Sarah today.  Actually the visit was two fold.  When she was home for Easter, we had discussed the whole moving out of the dorm process.  I didn’t want to have to either take two cars up in May to get her, and I didn’t want to have to rent a trailer to haul everything back home.  So we had decided we could come up one weekend before the end of the semester and take home some of the things she didn’t need, like some of her clothes.  Then after thinking about it, I thought we would rent a storage unit and put everything except her clothes in it until we could move it into her apartment next year.  So I thought it would be a good chance to scope out some places and see if I could find a place that was affordable and secure.

Since we brought Alison along she wanted Sarah to take her up on the bluffs.  It was a little cold, windy and misty/rainy, so the conditions were not optimal for walking around on the bluffs.  Sarah was actually wearing her Birkenstocks to walk around and I told Sarah that if she really wanted to hike around on the trails around the bluffs she should get a good pair of hiking shoes/boots.

Storage Debate

As the end of the school year is approaching, we are faced with a decision, how to get Sarah home from school.  The trip up to LaCrosse involved packing the back of my car full in addition to having to rent a U-Haul trailer.  If we do that to get her home for the summer, we’ll have to turn around and do it again to take her back up for school this summer.  Since Sarah decided to live off campus next year, she is able to move her stuff into the apartment in June.  But that will also entail getting back up there a month later, which seems like it would be counter-productive as well as expensive.  So we have been debating renting a storage locker for a couple of months until we can get her moved into the apartment instead.

The way I figure it, the cost of renting a storage unit is going to be roughly a wash with renting a trailer to go both ways as well as the cost of gas to go back and forth.  Or at least it shouldn’t be more.  The only thing is that if that is what I am going to do, then I should have really been looking for a unit to rent at least a month ago.  We are actually going up to LaCrosse this weekend to see about taking a few things back home for Sarah so that we don’t have so much to take back in a couple of weeks (mainly clothes) so the pan is that while we are up there to look around and see what we can find.  Hopefully we’ll be able to find something for not too much since it is only for a couple of months.  Stay tuned…

Well This Is Unfortunate

Today I was leaving for work when I happened to notice a dark spot on the garage floor.  I had noticed what I thought was a wet spot under the new car over the weekend but I didn’t think much of it because I thought it was just water dripping from the climate control system.  The old Santa Fe did that all the time, so when I saw the dark area, I just blew it off.  However, this morning after Kris left for work as I was getting into my car, I saw a large, dark area that looked “dry” and another spot that looked wet.  I thought, if this was water, why wouldn’t it have evaporated by now since Kris’s car had sat for at least 12 hours. 

I bent over and touched it, rubbing my fingers together and it was definitely wet and slippery.  And it smelled like oil.  What kind I didn’t know, but it was some sort of oil for sure.  So tonight when I got home from work, I crawled under the car to make sure, and there were a couple of beads of oil hanging off of a spot under the rear differential.  I don’t know where exactly it is leaking, but it is leaking, so I called the dealer right away.  There is no excuse for a week old car leaking oil.

When they found out it was a brand new car, they got me in right away.  So I will be taking it in tomorrow for them to look over.  Hopefully it is something that can get taken care of the same day.  I thought I would try tightening bolts and plugs, but I thought why should I do it?  It is under warranty and the job of the dealer/car company to make sure it is running properly, not mine.  So I am going to be making them do it.  Unfortunately, that means Kris is without a car for a day!  They better get this right!