June
Welcome back for another edition
of the Reim Times! This month was chalked full of events…my wife called it craziness!
It started out with me finishing busses on the 12th, while my
elementary school had finished the week before, meaning I was only working half
the hours for the same pay that week! Woohoo!
Following that Friday, we headed
to the Wisconsin Dells with some friends from college. We had a great 2 nights
there, put up in a condo, playing at the waterparks and hanging out together.
The place we stayed at – the Wolf Lodge – had a great waterpark that Tannin…eventually
liked. At first, he screamed in horror when he ran into the water
fountains pluming from the ground. The poor kid was scared out of his mind. Once we convinced
him that it wouldn’t kill him or corrode his flesh, he was willing to play in
it. It took him an hour or two though, but by the end of it, he was very, very
tired…as were all of us, and severely dehydrated. It’s amazing how dehydrated
you can get playing at a waterpark. Ironic, I know.
The next day I went with the
other husband to Noah’s Ark Waterpark while the wives stayed with the kids at
the lodge. Us guys went on all the rides, finding all the extreme ones and
finished right after noon. I even got to try body surfing! My friend had done
it before, sooo he showed me up, lol. There was one ride where you were sealed
in a capsule before hearing a countdown “Three, two, one…” and then the bottom
dropped out! You were dropped straight down into a tube that looped, generating
some serious G-force before finishing the loop to the bottom. Definitely the
best ride there! After that, the 100-ft slide seemed like a breeze, hardly even
pumping my adrenaline. I guess the crazier stuff you do, the more accustomed
your body gets. Not sure if that’s a good thing…ahh, who cares, lol.
After that weekend, we finished
packing our few belongings into cardboard boxes...My wife just smirked at me when I
said “few”, reminding me that it took us a few weeks of slowly packing our
house up, followed by a solid 7 hours of work Tuesday morning before we had
finished packing, loading, and cleaning and hit the road. That day, we made it
just outside of Indianapolis and settled in for the night. No road problems
yet!
The next day, we were making
great time! Tannin was doing awesome, being a great sport and playing with a
makeshift toy holder that Olivia had strapped up for him. It held his attention
for a few hours. He “read” books and watched movies and ate snacks, and slept a
tiny bit. We had passed through Nashville and were going to hit Birmingham by
supper. We were making great time, flying through the towns.
We had just pulled away from a
pit stop and had hit the interstate when all of a sudden, boom my gas was gone!
Gas pedal that is. And no, there was no sound…luckily. But there was no
power, nonetheless. So, I pulled off the road. Fortunately, we had just hit a
section of highway under construction and they had widened it 2 extra lanes, so
I had lots of room in between the cones. Unfortunately, I had not pulled far
enough off the shoulder to be comfortably away from traffic. The trailer behind
us was angled toward the road and I was getting nervous we might get hit, so we
started making phone calls.
We were able to get the number of
the station we had just stopped at and they had someone pick us up. While the
guy was there, I had him help me roll the truck and trailer further off the
highway out of harm’s way. Then, we all packed into his truck and headed back
to the station. During this time, we had received word that a relative lived
within an hour and was on their way to help us.
So, we hung out at the gas
station restaurant, had dinner and some ice cream while we waited for them to
arrive. They put us up in a hotel for the night and helped me get the truck
moving enough to get it off the road. Turns out, the bracket for the gas pedal
had broken, so there was nothing for the pedal to pivot on. The throttle had
seized as well, so once we got that fixed we had about half the power back.
After a great night’s sleep in a wonderful hotel room I got up first thing the
next morning and took the truck into a mechanic (who just happened to be a
couple blocks away from the hotel). He put the bracket back into place with a
screw, told me that it would get me to my destination but I should probably get
it welded once we got home.
We had breakfast and then we were
on the road again. Instead of stopping in Birmingham, like we had planned (we
just wanted to be done by this point), we went straight to Dothan. We were home
by dinner.
We spent the next couple of days
unpacking the trailer into a storage unit and trying to sort out what we needed
right now and what could stay packed away for a while. On Father’s Day I got to
go and watch the new Jurassic World movie. It was pretty great. Gotta love the Indominus Rex :)
Since we have been here Tannin
has had at least one big change. He’s now the youngest in the house (at least
for a bit longer) and enjoys all the attention he gets from his Aunts and
Uncles who are more like big brothers and sisters. I think all the interaction
is encouraging him to talk. We’ve had a couple of words that just popped out of
nowhere that he now uses all the time. For example; he now uses the words “no”, “snack”,
and a weird version of “water”. With that last one he sticks his tongue out
while making a “lal, lal” sound. He’s pretty hilarious.
The last little bit of June was
pretty calm. We just hung out at the house and spent time with family,
including a small pool party for my brother-in-law’s birthday.
Oh yeah! Then the job hunt began.
It started out with me applying to the different job agencies which offer
temporary job placements. After sending out about 20 applications, we decided
to try a different angle to see if we’d get more bites. Opening up the phone
book, my wife grabbed the phone and tried calling every cabinet/carpentry
business in town to see if there were any job openings. I love my wife! The
second place she called said they had just fired two of their employees and
were looking for good, dependable workers. She was able to set up an interview
and I headed there first thing the next morning.
Upon arrival, I noticed there
wasn’t any parking. After looking all around the building, I decided to park at
the food market across the road, slightly confused. I found out later they had
employee parking in the back, but it had a different business marking that
area. Well, once I made it to the door, I found that it was locked. I began to
get worried that it may be closed or that the address I had was wrong, but the
sign for the construction company was still there on the door, so I tried knocking.
After a few seconds, a man answered the door and let me in. It was kinda weird,
but I was glad that I was in the right place.
I introduced myself and answered
questions as he shot them off to me before I handed him my resume. He skimmed
over it, looking at me and asking about my different skillsets. Seeming
satisfied, he asked me when I could start. It took me a second to realize that
he had given me the job before I answered, “Right now, if you want.” I had
dressed up a little to look nice for the interview, but I wasn’t about to let
pass an opportunity to show him my work ethic. Luckily, I had thought far enough
ahead to bring a water bottle. Looking at his work clothes, I didn’t see any
stains or tears, so I thought how bad can
it be? The worst case is I’ll have to spend a bit of money for some new
clothes. So, I headed off to work, calling Olivia to let her know the good
news! I spent that whole day pressure washing the finish off a deck, soaking
myself to the bone, with mixed weather and spotted showers adding their two
cents. But I was happy, happy that I had landed a job within a week and a half
of moving into an entirely new area with almost no connections (family definitely
helped). Life was good. By the end of the week, I had pressure washed and
sanded a deck, packed up a tree, fixed a fence, patched a roof, and installed a
door. I’m definitely enjoying the diversity and I hear we’ll be renovating some
kitchens soon! I can’t wait.
