Wandering Wahls

Ah, life on the farm. We found a field mouse in one of our window wells. I was about to get Joe’s pellet rifle, or at least one of the dogs, but Mary Claire handed me a shovel and a bucket so that I could save the mouse and let him go in the scrub oak. That’s easy for her to suggest, she doesn’t have to carry the bucket with the mouse, wondering if the darned thing can scamper up and onto her. She also didn’t consider that this little guy might end up in our house come winter.

The mouse was a distraction from school registration: this process is another transition to life back in the US. Previously, our children have experienced a Japanese Montessori school, German public schools, and home/road schooling. So, when they enrolled in the school here last January, it was their first time in a US public school (though we selected a charter school).

Now, as we experience the beginning of the school year for the first time, we’re going through the whole back-to-school registration and buying sprees. We have the lists and we’re off to the BX, Kohl’s, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. for binders, pencils, uniform clothes, etc. This is not a very “green” process though, which is surprising considering how schools teach the kids about respecting the environment. I wish the school had a less extensive shopping list or process. In Germany, the school registration was much easier – and “greener:” Registration was done through the mail, the kids met the teacher on the first day, and for supplies we made one trip to the local bookstore, told the clerk our school and grade, and he returned with all books and supplies: One stop shopping at its best.

Things are good though. The kids are excited. The 8th grader is in Honors Science, the 6th grader is in 8th grade math, and the 3rd grader is in the same class as his buddies. And, the only whining we hear is that cross-country practice is too hard on the older two. I can live with that.

Yes, you read that right.

We recently had a bit of experience with the local non-military medical system – you know, the one that is in disarray. This was new to us. Living in Germany, we had all medical appointments and such on base. Well, let me add that we did experience one medical appointment on the German economy – and it was a great experience. We were visiting Garmisch, Germany and my mother-in-law needed a doctor’s appointment. The British hostess of our B&B called the local doctor and we had an appointment within an hour, and only a two block walk.

We saw the doctor; didn’t have a wait; he did some tests; and, we walked away with the prescription: all for about 30 euros. The best thing though – the doctor’s name was Dr. Seuss (insert Green Eggs and Ham jokes here: would you like your shots in house, would you like them with a mouse…).

Back in Colorado, my father is visiting and we had to go the local ER due to an eye problem he had. The doc was nice but couldn’t see behind my dad’s retina, so he sent us to one of their specialists. In the military clinics, I’m used to walking down the hall to see the specialist. Here, I have to drive five miles to see the specialist.

At specialist #1, we fill out the same forms we did at the ER and the doc takes the same initial tests as at the ER. Finally, we get to the “behind the retina” exam – he can’t see anything, so we are referred to specialist #2. (Isn’t this the reason we were sent to specialist #1 – are these people in cahoots?)

After a six mile drive, we arrive to more of the same forms and the same tests. Finally though, specialist #2 gets behind the retina and prescribes a blood test, and suggests bed rest and a follow up appointment.

We drive five more miles to the blood test (forgive me Landstuhl Medical Center for complaining about long walks down your corridors) and we’re done.

While the docs were all nice, the experience made me thankful for our military medical system – even if just for the electronic records system that eliminates filling out redundant forms and allows the specialists to know what has been done previously.

Oh, and my dad is fine.

We have friends in Colorado Springs who are getting ready to retire in a couple of months. It’s interesting watching from the outside as they go through the house cleaning, garage sales, landlord dealings, planning the retirement ceremony – as well as planning for the new location: schools, house, etc. In a few months, I’ll be interested to watch as they experience post-retirement.

Post-retirement, for us, has been frustratingly interesting.

For one thing, buying the house has brought “joyful” moments dealing with large organizations regarding our loan, particularly with the bank’s 800 numbers. Dialing a bank’s 800 number and waiting on hold reminded me that when I was in Germany, I used to wonder how much of my life was wasted at the Shoppette’s gas pumps waiting for the inside clerk to clear the pump so I could fill my car. I have now found a new and greater source of wasteful moments – phoning our bank regarding our loan.

We weren’t informed when we signed the loan documents that calling the 800 number would result in forty-five minutes of hold time, only to be transferred among three agents and end up back with the original. The only thing worse though is having the 800 number labyrinth bring one to the patronizingly sweet female computer voice responding with replies such as: “ookkaayyy, that was banking, right?” She does not help calm the frustration of an 800 number.

If I could only reach into the phone and shake her – or better yet, talk to the financial institution and ask who approved this? As with all big organizations though, I’ll bet the people who approve these procedures are high enough that they never have to use them.

Well, the time has come. The “Wahlstar” (our Newmar Allstar 4154 RV) is being put out to pasture in a sense. We’re driving it to Steinbring Motors in Garfield, MN so that they can try to sell it for us on a consignment basis.

This doesn’t mean that our RVing adventures have ended. Far from it: Two of the discoveries we made on our RV journey were that we truly enjoyed our countries state and national parks, and that we liked the RV life. “Roughing it in style” was how one RVer put it to us. So we want to buy a smaller version of an RV (a Class C for those who know) and explore the national and state parks within reach from Colorado – from Rocky Mountain National Park to Bandelier National Park to Grand Tetons National Park to Custer State Park. Seeing the parks in this fashion allows us to hike the trails, see our country’s unique natural beauty, and still sleep on a comfy mattress.

Speaking of Custer State Park, that is where I’m writing this entry. We’re here for 5 nights on our way to Minnesota. This is a wonderful park in SW South Dakota that you should consider seeing. It is where Lt. Col. George Custer surveyed before his little adventure at Little Big Horn up the road. This strikes me as interesting coincidental since Custer had his last stand in this area, and we’re having our last stand in the Wahlstar.

I hope our “last stand” has a better ending though.

Well, the naming game has been settled. We had some good nominations, and endless conversation with the kids. Choosing a name seemed to put everything on hold for a whole weekend, as everyone wanted a name they liked. We tried to take a vote on a list of names, but that produced hurt feelings. Then we offered to have Mary Claire and Anna name one dog and the boys and I would name the other. Then Sam dropped out and didn’t care – until we it looked like there would be a name he didn’t like.

We also had to address names not fitting: I liked Fuji for the German Shepherd but my daughter thought it odd calling a German Shepherd a Japanese name – I tried to explain that they were allies.

Finally, with the weekend over, and the PetsMart training approaching, we settled on names. Gone were names such as Blackjack, Eiger, Teddy, Bryce, Zion, Timo, Fuji, Kuro.

In were Rocky for the light colored German Shepherd (and part Lab) in honor of the great time we had at Rocky Mountain National Park (not an homage to the movie series); and, Marcus for the Weimaraner/Lab (pronounced “VYE-ma-rah-ner” everyone wants to call him a “why-mah-riner,” but there’s no “I” in the name). We chose Marcus as a good solid German/Austrian name for a breed from that area. Plus, we have a good friend in Stuttgart with that name – both the dog and our friend are really nice.

Who would have thought that our transition back to the states and civilian life would be occupied for a time by naming a pet?

We chose 5 acres because of the view and the ability to have an abundance of land to run around and, well, just do things on. I’ve built a tire swing for the kids and a climbing wall is up next (still deciding on Craftsmen tools vs. Home Depot’s brand though, and watching “This Old House” – I started with “Home Improvement” but realized I knew all of those tricks).

Another area the kids were excited about is that we could now have animals. Our German neighbors had dogs, cats, rabbits, and goats. One neighbor told us that we should have a rabbit. When I replied that the idea wouldn’t work because we couldn’t move it, she promptly replied that we could have it for dinner (she might have used the German word for “duh” at that point). This explained why we kept seeing changes in her rabbit stock.

As we’ve moved though, we always told the kids that we couldn’t have a pet; it would be too hard to PCS overseas and back. Now that we’ve settled, we’re getting requests for dogs, cats, chickens, goats, horses, and alpacas. We finally jumped into the fray and got not one, but two puppies at the pound – they were so cute. We adopted a 6-month old black Weimarner Lab mix and a 4-month old German Shepherd mix.

Now comes another transition – pets, and training them. Any suggestions? Mary Claire and I hadn’t quite prepared for this transition.

As a final note, the dogs came with the names of Thunder and Bimmer. We’re trying to think of new names. We’ve covered Jack, Snoopy, Marcus, Fuji (we’re trying to think of a name that relates to Japan or Germany) – but we’d like to ask our readers (reader?) for ideas. Any good names that fit these cute guys (they are both guys)?

Tom doesn’t remember this, but I certainly do: We were warned by other RVers that when we moved back into a “stick house” (home without wheels) we would have some misgivings.

I really did not believe that, especially after we had hit our one-year mark living in the RV. After all, five people sharing 400 sq feet is cozy to say the least. At times I couldn’t wait to get back in to a regular house—to have more than one bathroom, kitchen space to cook, and my own closet!

Well, here we are now living in a 4,300 sq ft house with 5 bathrooms (yes, 5!). It was way more than we wanted, but that’s for another blog. When we moved in from the RV, we still did not have all our household goods, so we dragged in our RV mattresses and set up camp in our bedrooms.

It didn’t take long before the kids were dragging their mattresses into the master bedroom. (A little loneliness blamed on strange noises.) Soon it came time to do a little house cleaning. Oh, how I miss having only one bathroom!

Now that the household goods have arrived we are in more chaos just trying to find places for all these things. Yes, life was more simple living in an RV. But we are determined to take our RV way of living with us to our stick house.

I realize I don’t need so many clothes just because the closet is bigger. And we’re already in the habit of taking shorter showers.

My dilemma now is  how to clean this monster house as quickly as I cleaned the RV. Any suggestions?

Our most recent transition experience arrived in the form of the need to wash clothes. We had a nice washer and dryer in the RV. Unfortunately, we can’t use them in the new house because we don’t know how the W/D could physically be taken out of the RV. So off Mary Claire went to research the brands, energy efficiency, etc.

There were so many questions with this purchase:

• Do we get top loaders or front loaders?
• Why don’t the front loaders just come with the pedestals vs. charging the consumer another $200 to avoid broken backs? (I’d like to thank manufacturers for looking out for consumers with that development: build a newly designed, energy efficient consumer appliance but make it 10 inches too short and charge $200 for the necessary pedestal.)
• Are the utility savings from the energy-rated units worth the extra cost?
• How does the Base Exchange system stay in business?

I know that last item came out of the blue, but the thought did occur to us as we shopped. As both of my readers know, one factor my wife and I took into account in considering where to settle was to be able to take advantage of base benefits, such as tax-free shopping at the commissary and BX. However, that experience does come at a cost. Frustration.

Mary Claire found good buys on a Whirlpool washer and dryer at the local BX. We traveled there ready to announce: “We want these,” thinking that spending $1,000+ would make us valuable customers. However, we couldn’t find anyone to listen to us. When we did find someone, they did take our money but then informed us that the units were on back order at the manufacturer and delivery was 2 months away.

It was explained that the sales promotions are done 6 months out so they aren’t always sure that the sale items will be in stock when the sale occurs. On top of that, the washer could be delivered sooner than the dryer. But, the manager didn’t want to allow that because the two are “one unit.” We pointed out that a washer could operate without the dryer, so hopefully we’re getting the washer delivered early. We aren’t too sure about this point though, because we can’t get our calls returned.

But, you can’t deny the savings and lack of sales tax, so we’ll be washing our clothes in an energy efficient frontloading washer, and doing our part to help the environment by hanging the washed clothes out to dry until our dryer arrives.

We actually prefer clothes hung to dry anyway.

Last night I was reading my checked-out-from the Air Force Academy library book (we’re making full use of the base services in Colorado Springs). The book is my first experience with a large print edition. Not that my eyes are going bad, it’s just that I put my name on the wait-list for Dan Brown’s latest book and the large print edition is the one that became available. After reading 80 pages in my first sitting, I was pretty proud of myself. However, I realized that since this was large print, what I read was probably the equivalent of 3 pages in regular sized print.

I gave up on the book and started thinking of how this business of settling down is full of interesting experiences. For most of you, the issues we are experiencing while settling down are probably nothing new. For us though, this is our first time buying a house (first time being able to paint walls), first time finding a school in the US, first time buying a new washer and dryer, and so on. Additionally, there are still cultural issues to get used to (i.e., how did “sweet” become such an integral adjective in my kids’ vocabulary even though they’re not talking about food or candy?). Also, is running a red light legal now? It’s frequent enough.

Anyway, we did find a house and we’ll recount that experience for you later (as well as the associated adventures). We were fortunate to have a great realtor, Brian Slivka, who was a Godsend in helping us through the labyrinth known as house-buying. Now we must get used to an empty bank account as well as getting things done in the house and getting the RV ready to sell.

Regarding the last point, we want to scale down from a 41-foot behemoth to a smaller behemoth more suited to week-long trips to National Parks – as opposed to a 16-month trip across the US. If anyone needs a great RV well suited for full timing on the road (bunk beds for kids, washer & dryer, 6 TVs – one outside even, and “super storage”), let us know. It is kind of sad to be thinking of selling our home-on-the-road though.

Stopping the RV has been interesting. There are times I feel like I should be hooking up the car, putting the antenna down, and plug an address into the GPS for our next stop. Of course, this may be due to single digit weather as opposed to a feeling to get on the road again.

However, the arrival here has been a culture shock – and a shock in general. Getting used to having to arrive at work at a specified time has been a change. But, I’m teaching at a good school and in a great department, so it has been easy to ease into a new career (“about time” as my brother-in-law would say).

Then there was the car search. We lost a perfectly good, high mileage, well maintained, Volvo early in the trip. It burned to the ground while being stored over a weekend by a mechanic. Unfortunately, the storage building was owned and shared by three local businesses, so finding fault was like finding good Mexican food in Europe. We went through USAA for the loss, but the payment didn’t quite equal the real value, and it was less the deductible (how about this for a bad choice: I raised our deductible before the trip in order to save premium, and we end up having 4 claims during the trip that more than exceeded the premium savings).

Anyway, looking for a second car was not so much an eye-opener but a reminder of how much I despise buying cars. The Scotch-Irish in me made me look for used cars instead of buying a new vehicle. We had to deal with the anonymity of CraigsList  and local want ads, and the related cynicism about the real reason the car is being sold. And, of course we met the local car dealers’ salesmen (they’re always men, but that’s probably a positive statement regarding the integrity of women). I’ve never met so many best friends in such little time who really cared about my family (my hand was on my wallet the whole time).

In the end, we came across a nice guy who emigrated here from Poland a few years ago (I mention that only in honor of my late mom who was always proud of her Polish heritage – she would have enjoyed meeting him). He had an ’05 vehicle with low mileage and a great price. On top of that, he owns a few hotels around Colorado and threw in a free weekend at his hotel in the mountains at Frisco, CO.

Things are settling well. Now, on to the house issue.