What happens to a dream deferred? Desperation...

We moved. We are here in the vernal and temperate climate of Napa Valley. There is a river within a short walking distance of our new home, and the weather hasn't gotten hotter than 80 degrees, I believe, since we've been here. So why aren't we basking in the glow of our recent move to Perfect Land where life is better, people are nicer (they actually are), and birds pick your keys up for you when you drop them? I think it's because we are waiting for another ball to drop. Let me explain, briefly.

On our way up here our car broke down. The Rav 4 proved to need a clutch far more than we realized. It died about 200 miles south of Napa, and was towed to a little town whose name epitomizes all of it's charm- Los Banos. Luckily there was a AAA special that day, and we didn't need to pay the tow truck guy the nearly $500 it would have cost to tow our car the 50 miles to the mechanic in Los Banos. This was Thursday.

I had to leave Chris with the tow truck guy because I needed to make it to Napa before 5pm so that I could sign the rental agreement (must be in person) and get the key to our new place, which we never had seen before, so that we would have somewhere to sleep that night.

I arrived, in a flurry, to Napa. I was so attuned to trying to get to the rental office on time that -oh yeah, I had the baby with me this whole time- that I didn't even realize that she had shredded up a napkin into millions of little pieces. When I opened up the car door to take her out a huge cloud of napkin confetti blew out onto the street. She was also poopy, wet and had peed through her pants. I grabbed her and we flew into the rental office. It was after 5pm, but I had made arrangements. Chris also needed to be there to sign the agreement, but they felt sorry for me and gave me the key without having signed the papers. I did leave them a big, fat check for security and rent and promised to be back in the morning to sign the papers. Finally, I was in our new home. It was nice, and I got to change Lenore.

Meanwhile, Chris was in the hot, little town of Los Banos waiting to hear the result of our car troubles. Yup-the clutch. The mechanic gave us a quote of $1200. I was outraged. Luckily I had received some quotes prior to leaving and told him to start calling Aamco, or other transmission places for quotes. He told the mechanic that he was going to have it towed to Aamco because they quoted him at $720. That mechanic changed his price and said he would finish it for $750. Still over priced but not by $500. We were content, and laughed at how stupid we had been for not getting the car fixed sooner.

I was then going to go back about 2 hours and pick up Chris because he had the baby's crib, and our bed, which were all things we needed. He said not to worry that he would rent a car and drive to Napa. He wouldn't be there until late, but at least he would be home. The car would not be ready until Saturday, anyhow. I was glad but made preparations to purchase a portable crib because Lenore was exhausted. All of our stuff was being delivered in 2 days via PODS. We had only brought a few necessities with us.

Everything seemed like it was working out okay. Things were looking up. I had already ordered all of the utilities to be on when we got there, including DSL so that Chris could work. So we were all set.

Or were we?... Stay tuned for part 2.