So, where do we begin. Let’s start with me not being connected to the internet as I write this, but more on that later.

Anyway, Saturday was Jenn’s graduation ceremony at SVSU. I didn’t really know anybody else graduating, and it was a little boring, but considering the number of people who were walking I was impressed with the overall speed. Afterward her parents, her, and I went to Krysiak’s (sp?) for dinner, then to Saginaw to their hotel and to develop photos.

Sunday we were running around packing all the rest of everything left. Everything but what I was wearing tomorrow was what I was figuring, Jenn left a little more till Monday, but she did have more than me to pack up. Dinner Sunday was a Mother’s Day special, grilled sirloins and crab strips, salad, roasted potatoes, cauliflower, bread sticks, and chocolate cake. By the end of the day I had 99.9% of everything I owned in boxes on our front porch waiting.

Monday morning (after not enough sleep, due to up late and nervous insomnia) we went to pick up the U-Haul at 9:30 and then loaded up my stuff, then over to Jenn’s to get all of her stuff. By 2:30 we were on the road with a few cleaning items and miscellany that didn’t quite fit left at Jenn’s apartment. Jenn drove the truck and I followed in her Escape. She had quite a bit of fun, as the truck had poor alignment, and the winds were rather strong, requiring her to keep about a 5˚ turn constantly in order to maintain a straight line.

After arriving in Big Rapids around 4:15, we left the U-Haul at our apartment and went to get the keys. On our way we called our parents to let them know we were safe, and Jenn’s parents response was “oh, we’re at the Quality Inn south of town, we’ll grab a pizza and be right over”. They had actually beaten us here. So, they helped up unload the truck, then headed home.

Tuesday was a lot of unpacking, and enjoying the cable the previous tenant hadn’t turned off. A little exploring town as well. Wednesday was much the same.

Overall impressions are people are much friendlier than in Bay City. Meijer cashiers certainly are anyway. There are just a few at the Essexville store that come off a little course. Snyder’s meat market has some pretty nice people as well. They kept offering us samples, but we had just eaten. We will return though.

Late Wednesday night, we headed back to Bay City. We actually made it in about 90 minutes, arriving at around 1 AM, thanks to very little traffic. We slept on my old futon mattress which we had left on Jenn’s bedroom floor for just this occasion. Come morning, Jenn’s Mom and Aunt arrived to kelp us clean the place up and hand over the keys, then accompany us to Rudy J’s for lunch. Jenn and her family then went shopping while I spent time at home.

Then came the fun, would my $1000 car make it 100 miles on a freeway and highway? It had never been attempted, by me anyway. Recall, of course, that it doesn’t like to shift when the transmission gets warm, and refuses to go over about 45 once this occurs. Well, there were some nervous moments, but it did make it OK, though hasn’t been driven since to know how OK it really is.

So, our gift when we returned, was that the cable was out. Charter had come while we were gone and turned it off, so we missed Grey’s Anatomy and er, Jenn’s 2 favorite shows of the week. Grey’s is online, but er is a loss until it reruns in August or September before new season starts. Of course, we haven’t had any internet access since the guy took his cable modem with him, and now have no service at all. We called and they will be out to set everything up between 1 and 5 Tuesday. You should be able to read this shortly after.

So more unpacking and sorting, and moving and unpacking. We take breaks to go explore town, run to Meijer, get food, etc…

Apartment is nice, very roomy. No room is particularly big, but there is a lot of space between the rooms. It’s kind of hard to explain maybe. We did have a few problems. First, the toilet would not flush completely unless it came up to about 1/4 inch from overflowing, and even then would leave quite a bit behind. Second, the shower had very low pressure, and you actually spent about 10 minutes just trying to feel wet. Third, was some missing and broken stuff: torn screen, missing stove drip pan, 8 missing light bulbs… nothing major, but surprising for just moving in. Well, at some point Friday maintenance came and fixed the drain issue, which had affected the bathroom sink as well. We bought a new shower head at Menards that fixed the pressure issue Friday as well. The light bulbs and drip pan Jenn bought at Meijer Tuesday morning, as they were hard to live without. We are going tomorrow to get the screen fixed. We had considered turning all the receipts in for reimbursement, but they only came to a few dollars total, and aren’t really enough to make a big difference.

So, that is the past week, up to Friday night at 1:37:53 AM.

Will update on Saturday – Present when I get internet.

nick