MOVING IN DAY!

If we thought selling (or buying) a house required far too much paperwork, renting an apartment isn’t a simple process anymore either! We had rented the small house in Taft the first 5 yrs here, but it was owned by a local woman, not a large corporation and we basically signed a lease, paid our damage and first and last months rent up front and moved in! Not this time! Weeks back after laying down first our $25 each for background checks, then a week later when approved, the $400 Deposit required, then 2 more weeks later when we finally moved in, our first and last months rent, and signing at least 2 dozen or more contingencies, rules, regulations, etc, covering everything and anything that could possibly cause the Corporation to want to vacate us, we finally wandered over to the unit itself to inspect it, do a ‘walk through”.

At first glance the unit appeared clean enough, after all they’d had 5 days to have it done after the last tenants vacated and from what I’d read in reviews re this Complex, would not have refunded a dime of their $400 damage deposit. But to my dismay there was greasy dirt along the edges where lino meets carpet, there were scuffs and tears in the lino, scuffs on the lower wall where the paint had been rubbed off, the cabinets were NOT cleaned, the doors sticky with specks of food and fly or roach specks I suspect. I spent my next entire day cleaning and disinfecting the place, the entire kitchen, the inside and outside of all cabinets with a bleach and water solution, prior to stocking them. We had also seen a dead cockroach laying feet up on the dining room floor, which the office gal said was NOT a cockroach, but a May Bug. Not that those are much better, from what I’ve googled. But we were to soon learn, as we were moving in, we DID indeed have cockroaches. We must have killed 3 or 4 of them within a few hours. Yikes! By that time the office had closed so I had to wait until the next morning to call and request an exterminator.

They WERE pretty quick at sending someone over, by mid afternoon the fellow arrived and sprayed. As he was leaving one large dark colored cockroach staggered out from under the stove like a drunken sailor and promptly keeled over on the spot, feet kicking in the air! For the next 3 days we’d awake to find 5 or 6 of the dastardly bugs, mostly in the kitchen and dining area, so we requested one more spraying, which took place yesterday (a full week from the first one) and are still waking up to one or two dead roaches every morning. But, better a dead roach that we can flush, than a live one scurrying around we have to first catch! I have NO doubt when the lights are out they are still there (in numbers? Who’s to say?), managing to avoid the poisons the exterminator laid out, but myself also…I have put out Borax powder (deadly for bugs but not toxic to humans and pets) in the backs of all my cabinets and sprinkled it liberally at doors, windows, along baseboards and in corners and closets!).

I comfort myself in thinking surely they are at least under control by now. I intend to request they send the exterminator every other week until NO roaches are to be found every morning. Oh yeah, I also have arriving today, two RIDDEX Pest Control electronic devices! These small units plug into a socket and emit electronic pulses into the walls that APPARENTLY the bugs (spiders, roaches, mice, you name it!) truly hate and will flee the premises. I can only hope. The fellow spraying here yesterday told me they don’t work, but the review I read were 75% positive. I WILL think positive. I will post results.

"Cockroaches really put my "all creatures great and small" creed to the test". ~Terri Guillemets

SPOKANE RESIDENTIAL REENTRY CENTER

Once in Spokane we drove over to the Spokane Residential Reentry Center. It is run by Pioneer Services and is located at 3614 East Ferry Avenue. NOT the most attractive of facilities, but many of these are not, and like many, is located in the less attractive, old, industrial section of the city. This one in an area known for its prostitution and drugs. Here are a few pictures we took as we drove past it.



We parked and went inside, the only area accessible to us was a tiny inner room with a window looking into a small office. A young man, early twenty- something, and a maybe 40-something woman were working this day. The young man attended to us right away and was friendly and forthcoming with the information he had available to him. We asked our questions about what Corey could bring with him when he arrived (very little, a cell phone with no internet access, a few clothes, $100 cash max), what the visiting times were (a few hrs in the early afternoon and a few hrs in the evening), how soon before he’d get his first pass to shop for personal items (3 days or so, but that would rest with his Case Mgr), did they have someone who would assist him in finding a job (yes they have someone from Social Services that assists), how long before he’d be able to get his drivers license (“It depends”, again, on his Case Mgr), how long before he’d be allowed to get out of the house and look for a job (again, it depends on what his Case Mgr decides). We learned the house has two 'dormatories', one with bunks that hold 7 men (not sure why so small, WHO has the privilege of sharing a room with so few others) and one that sleeps 40 or so men. BTW, this is a FEDERAL (some HH's house both State AND Federal, as well as County, inmates), and all male-inmate (some are co-ed) Facility. There is apparently a small cafeteria where modest meals are served for breakfast/lunch and dinner, but the inmates are allowed to order IN whatever they like. Family and friends when visiting can bring restaurent or take-out food, purchased snack items, but NO home-cooked or prepared meals. Go figure. He will have a very small locker so won't be able to keep much except bare essentials on hand.

SO, pretty much as we've come to expect, from information on other HH's in LA, Salt Lake City, Portland, San Diego, where we've gotten reports from buddies of Coreys who have served their time in these places. Each one is somewhat different in how its operated, but the BASIC rules set out by the BOP are established in all of them. It will be "find out as he goes" pretty much, but at least we've now seen it, spoken to some staff, and that helps prepare us and Corey about what to expect. We just hope the restrictions and endless bureaucracy we hear about in so many other Halway Houses won’t be as stringent at this one, IF one dares to even hope!

"People cannot go wrong, if you don't let them. They cannot go right, unless you let them". ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

CABIN TIME

It has been a crazy past month, but now here I am, sitting with my early morning cuppa Joe, enjoying the sun coming in my apartment windows. Another milestone, another chapter of this continuing California journey, that is soon to come to a close in mere months. It started with the sale of our house, which sold so quickly our heads were spinning! One day on the market, 30 days later we were out of the house! All our belongings in storage in 3 rental storage units.

As low as the housing inventory appears to be in Bakersfield currently (that accounted for the quick sale and great price we got for the house!), so is true with decent apartments in the city, and long story short, we had to secure one that wouldn’t even be available to us until 2 weeks after vacating the house. So we had decided in that time we’d load up in our truck and trailor, as much as we could fit from the storage units that we wouldn’t need in the apartment, and make a trek north. It was a good opportunity to put into storage a good 1/3 of our things back home, and make a side trip over to Spokane to check out the hallway house Corey will be going to in a few months time, and then stop and visit a few days with our son and his family in Oregon on our return trip.

The few days we enjoyed at our cabin on the lake passed way too quickly. It rained a few of the days but we enjoyed that immensely, getting so little rain in southern California. In all the craziness of moving I had misplaced (temporarily thank goodness) our Passports, so we were unable to make a quick jaunt into Canada to see my mother or visit other good friends living across the border that I have know most my life. But it won’t be long and we’ll be back permanently, and able to do this on a more regular basis soon.

Everything was lovely, fresh and green at the lake, the small, yellow buttercups and tall, purple shooting stars filling our front yard, the brilliant gold of sunflowers covered the surrounding hillsides. Our young pine and tamarack trees had grown even larger providing ever more privacy from the neighbor to the east (who is NEVER there anyways, he lives in Seattle we hear and rarely is to be seen, in fact we’ve yet to see him in 12 years!)


We relaxed and read our books, ate simple meals that I cooked in our small but efficient cabin kitchen, watched a few movies I’d brought along, and took long walks lakeside, exploring. I puttered and cleaned, reorganized things and furnishings, just something that gives me pleasure and comfort whenever we are there. And with our new stacking washer/dryer we installed last fall I did a few washes ‘just because’, and hung the clothes to dry on my outside rustic clothes line so they would have that fresh, piney scent to them. Most of all we enjoyed the fresh clean AIR itself!!! NOT something we take for granted after almost 10 years in southern California. Bakersfield lies in the Central Valley, and is known to have THE worst air quality in the NATION! We were sure to fill our lungs, every cell and pore, with every breath, much as a thirsty desert traveller gulps down his first long- awaited drink of water! All too soon we were taking our leave, next stop Spokane, to investigate the Halfway House our son is expected to be sent to in a mere 4 ½ months now! Wow, just saying that, ” four and a half months”, stops my very breath, that we are at the door, reaching to open it, arms outstretched, is becoming a long awaited reality for this Prison Family.



"Learn how to exhale, the inhale will take care of itself". ~Carla Melucci Ardito

STUFF

This morning I’m drinking my first cup of joe (I always have at least two to start my day) and looking around me at an almost empty house. Its overcast and coolish (65 degrees) outside and leaves and twigs are floating in the pool that was pristine just two days ago. One of Bakersfields common dusty, dirty windstorms blew through here all day and all nite yesterday so I’ve yard cleanup to add to my To Do list today. No worries, at least it will be a cool day, a nice break from last weeks 100 degree days. So hot, SO early in the year it seems.

Back to my empty house….. I had worried by the time we finished packing and moving out, the last memories I’d have of this house would be of these empty rooms, now devoid of personality and warmth. But as I sit here, and its funny in a way how the brain works, as I look at the empty spaces surrounding me, I still see them furnished with whatever filled that particular space, the images still clear in my mind of ‘the way they were’ and I’m content that those are the images that will stay with me.

After two weeks now of continuous boxing up, loading into our trailor, hauling to our storage unit, unloading once there and stacking everything as orderly as we can, filling every available space, we still have those remaining items we’ll need until our last day here in the house, before we hand over the keys to the new owners. Small boxes of personal items still clutter the bathrooms, there are a few cooking and eating utensils, and we are slowly emptying out the refrigerator of all edible items.

For the first time in these moves the past few years (and there has been a lot of ‘moving’ since our lives took an abrupt turn back in 2004!) I experienced feelings of depression brought about I know by utter exhaustion! I would find myself standing in a room, unable to simply decide if I’d need this or that in the next weeks time, should I keep or toss…I would find myself unable to make a decision. I worried if it turned out I would need it, where the hell would I ever find it, in the milieu of boxes stacked to the ceiling in the storage units!! In those moments I would be rendered completely useless! The panic would become palpable! Perhaps I’m just getting too old for these uprootings, physically and emotionally. I’ve also been forced to realize I’m not as strong or fit physically as I was when we first left Washington over 9 years ago now. That is frustrating, and a wake up call!! This time around I find I can’t as easily lift and stack heavy items that ten years ago didn’t even give me pause! Note to self: get back on my SOLOFLEX!! The walking alone is not cutting it!! I knew this of course, I just got lazy!

Trip after trip after trip to our storage units was when I realized we (I) had allowed ourselves/myself to be too encumbered by our possessions! Thinking it over I realized there was really NOTHING in these material possession we could NOT do without! It was all dispensible! Everything that matters, and by that I mean life sustaining (including emotionally) we will always have, or find a way to get! It is time to let go of all the STUFF that just takes up space! Simplify! Now, to just remember these good intentions once we find ourselves moving into another new home back in Washington! Ha!

I know we aren’t alone in our “consumerism”, it’s a problem with Americans in general. Information abounds that illustrates how we went from a mighty nation of manufacturers/exporters to a nation of importers/consumers. Our television sets bombard us with constant commercials to buy, buy and buy more. That only with this or that product will we be happy, fulfilled, will our lives be easier, free us from cares and enable us to enjoy our lives better than ever before.

AND so, with eyes newly opened, the cobwebs clearing, and 3 storage units stuffed to the brim, I look forward to beginning anew, in a fresh new SPACE.

"You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy". ~Eric Hoffer

WATER WORRIES

I read in yesterdays news that Cal Water, who supplies our water here in Bakersfield is going to be raising their rates by 25%. They have asked for approval to increase rates for water service throughout the state by 19.4 percent in 2014, another 3 percent increase in 2015 and yet another 2.9 percent in 2016.

Cal Water serves 67,000 customers in Bakersfield and another 4,300 customers in Kern River Valley. The rate hike for Kern River Valley comes out to more than 44 percent over a three year period. To some this is the only water utility available to them, its not as if they can simply switch to another company to provide their water.

Among the reasons for the substantial, by any measure, increase cited were 1) to pay for its employee benefits. In a notice sent to customers, Cal Water Service noted that $1.5 million was needed to "retain the same level of employee health care, pensions and retiree benefits for district personnel" and 2) is needed in order to maintain the quality of the city's system, said Paul G. Townsley, the company's vice president.

I was surprised at such an increase, our water bill already averages around $300 a month and in the hotter summer months of June through September, closer to $500, but short of going to ‘desert’ landscaping, we expect to pay more those months to maintain ‘luxuries’ such as our pool, landscaped gardens and my vegetable garden. Were we to be living in this area our remaining days I can see where we’d be reconsidering keeping any of those things!

As long as one has a decent paying job or a comfortable retirement income the news of such a hike probably is just a blip on their radar, sure, no one likes to pay more for anything, but I imagine to most in this desert valley I am sure the news is dispairing indeed! The unemployment rate in Bakersfield remains at 14%, and it seems to me most jobs here are in low paying agricultural jobs or the service industry. Anyone living on a fixed or low income is going to suffer greatly with an increase of this nature. Water is not a luxury (unless used for recreational purposes or in lush landscaped gardens, which, trust me, most low income people do not have), it is a necessity of LIFE. One wonders how so many will adapt, what will be their choice…drink less, bathe less, clean their homes less, grow fewer gardens which help to reduce their food costs (even as we see food prices continue to rise)….all of these I imagine.

Cal Water states it is “only” for three years. Well sadly we know how that goes, just like in politics, bad legislation, once instated, is near impossible to get rid of. There are surely alternatives to an across the board hike in rates, perhaps rate increases above a certain level of use, so those who use the most pay more for it. Why not propose something similar to the Presidents suggestion to increase taxes on the wealthiest of americans who can afford to pay more? Of course those ‘wealthiest’ amongst us are fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying even their fair share, so those less fortunate (the remaining 95%) are required to make up the shortfall (created by the loopholes lawyers and accountants which only the wealthy can afford to emply, and the hidden offshore bank accts ) to maintain programs so necessary in a civilized society.

But I’m getting off track, but its easy to do when its all part and parcel anymore. The news articles stated it will be awhile before any decision is made on the matter. CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) could reject all of the proposal or grant a lesser amount than what Cal Water Service is asking.

"Water flows uphill towards money". ~Anonymous, saying in the American West, quoted by Ivan Doig in Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert, 1986