"Up from here" Chapter 17: Storage Finally Done
I left on Thursday afternoon to make the trip to Alturas to condense the two storages there down to one. I took out all the back seats with the exception of the middle one, as it was not going to budge. I took out the four back seats and left the center one in its place due to the fact that it was not going to come out and I was not going to force it.
When I arrived in Alturas, the Alturas Mini Storage was closed. I went to the storage that is located outside the gated security area and looked inside to see how much room I was going to have to bring things from the storage unit behind the fenced gated security area.
I then went to the panel to punch in my security code for the gated security area and for some reason my code was not working. Moments earlier I saw Windy one of the owners of the Alturas Mini Storage and I thought to myself that I should hurry and try to see if I could get in before she left. It was already closed but maybe if I had a problem she could help me. I punched in the code for the units but it did not work. It was too late she already had driven away.
So here I was in Alturas and no way to get behind the gates to get to the other storage units behind the gated security area. My plan when I left is that I would get as much work done while it was cool out and then do the rest of it when I ran out of time as I had until 10 PM. I had planned on sleeping in the van by the wildlife refuge in order to save a trip back to Tulelake and then drive back to Alturas the next day when I was done.
But as luck would have it I had to change plans and load into my van some things to take back to Tulelake and make the drive back in the morning when I could get the code to get through the gated security area to my other storage. So instead of wasting a trip to Alturas and having to spend the night for no reason at all. I loaded the van with things I wanted to take with me to Tulelake and headed home. I unloaded what I could fit into the van into my new home. One of my wooden tables and four wooden chairs, a bed frame for the bed in the bedroom as the bed I had in the van that I was sleeping on already had a frame. I brought to Tulelake my 14 x 14 tent, god forbid I may need it in the future if things do not work out where I am living now. I put two fans in the van, as the fan that Arnold has was useless. I bought some pictures that I could put on the walls to make it seem more like home again and a few other odds and ends of things on this trip. I cannot afford the extra gas but what choice did I have I needed to condense the storage units down to one if I was ever going to get ahead again.
I woke up the next morning and left around 9 AM to hopefully arrive at 10 AM this time as Alturas Mini Storage opens at 10 AM and they close at 4 PM. They are also only open Monday-Friday. After I arrived in Alturas I went into the office to ask them if they had changed the security code for the gate? And I was informed that they did not. The problem was I punched in the right code for the storage unit numbers and then I had waited for it to ask for my password. The problem was I needed to punch the code in all at the same time and I had forgotten that because the last time I was there was back in September of 2007.
Once I got in behind the gates and drove to the storage units (they were two storage units that they had combined into one) and it was costing me $61.00 per month for this one, that was almost as big as the one outside the gates that I was paying $66.00 a month on. I unlocked the storage and opened the door to get a look for the first time in almost a year to see what I was up against in moving everything out of there to the storage unit outside the gates.
It didn’t look like it would take too long or many trips but enough to not be certain if I could do it all on one hot day. That is why I wanted to do it when it was cooler and made the trip the afternoon before. Standing around looking at it was not getting anything done and as had been the case in the past, as usual, I was doing it all by myself, but what is new.
I had Feisty with me now, where before I could leave her at home in Alturas in the backyard. But now I had to load the van with Feisty and keep her on her leash tied to a pole in the storage unit or tied to the van door to keep her from running off, as she would do if she got loose.
After putting Feisty inside the storage unit and securing her to a pole where she could lay on my Mom’s recliner chair and be comfortable with water if she needed it. I began the dredge job of loading the van. I loaded it up and then put Feisty back in the van and headed to get out of the gated storage area where I had to punch the code to get back out. I pulled up to storage unit outside the gated area and unloaded my first load into the storage unit outside the gates. This time I tied Feisty to the front passenger side of the van and closed the door over the leash and began to unload the van.
Then I decided I would take my first break and head to the Alturas Rancheria Casino and buy two cartons of cigarettes, as they were cheaper there. When I used to live in Alturas I would buy them there all of the time at $12.00 a carton but they had gone up and they were a different brand called Smokin Joes for $17.00 a carton. I bought two cartons to save me from paying $3.59 a pack the cheapest ones in Tulelake.
When I first went inside the Casino I noticed there had been some big changes now, they had a big screen TV and ballroom and bar for entertainment events. Wow! How things change. I even noticed this other strange building on the other side of the casino parking lot. I asked one gentleman standing in the parking lot what it was going to be and he told me they were building a cigarette factory. Things were moving up in Alturas. After I bought my cigarettes and left I decided to stop at the Veterans Park so that Feisty could do her stuff if she needed to. Then, I left to head back to the storage unit as I did not want to be in Alturas any longer that I needed to for reasons I will explain some other time. I noticed a few other new businesses and buildings had been built since I was in Alturas last.
I thought to myself as I was heading back I would make another trip from the storage unit behind the gate to the one outside the gates and then go inside and let them know I was cleaning out the storage unit behind the gates. It was taking about two hours for each trip and that would put it around 2 PM by the time I finished the second trip. I loaded the van and did as before with Feisty, except this time I took some larger items that took up more space and I loaded the van much quicker than I thought I would this time. I decided to make a third trip and after I finished it, I would then go inside and let them know what I was doing. The clock light in the van was not working so I could not tell what time it was; because it was not lighting up anymore. It would do that sometimes and then after awhile it would come back on, on its own, but it was not doing it any more and has not been on since we left to go to Reno to pick up Arnold's wife and granddaughter on Sunday morning.
I made the third trip and unloaded the stuff into the storage outside the gates and went inside to pay for the storage on the outside storage that was due on the 9th and today was the 7th of August 2008. The storage unit behind the gate, the storage payment was not due until the 13th of August. I had been concerned about whether I was going to be able to get it all done in one day. Things were looking up and I had already made a big dent in the storage behind the gates, but there was no way I could get it done before 4 PM when the Alturas Mini Storage closes.
I paid the storage for the outside storage unit and then had to write a note and sign and date it for the person who would be working on Monday as Jennifer was not going to be there on Monday because she was flying to Las Vegas to pick up her daughter but she signed me out of the storage behind the gates and would change the code after 4 PM so I could get credit with the 7th as the date I moved out of it. She put in a new code that would work after 4 p.m. so I could still get in and out that would be a temporary code until I got the rest of it moved out.
Then I headed back in for my 4th load and it looked like after loading it that I could get the rest of the stuff I wanted to take with me back to Tulelake in the van for the final load. All I had to do now was unload the 4th load and then do the clean up of the storage unit by sweeping out and taking out all the trash I wanted to throw away. I cleaned it up after I had the 5th and final load out of the storage and now could go home to Tulelake.
I was leaving and headed to the where I had to punch in the code to get out of behind the storage gated area. I punched in the old code first to see if it still worked and it did not work as the system had been updated and download with the new information that Jennifer had inputted. The gates did not open. Then I tried the new temporary code Jennifer had given me earlier and it didn’t work either. I sat there for a moment and thought gee that’s all I need is to be stuck behind the locked gate with no cell phone to call anyone. No one to call because the Alturas Mini Storage was closed and that was all I would need to do is have to climb over the fence and find a phone to call 911.
Finally done and now I was going to be stuck behind the gates at the Alturas Mini Storage, unless someone came along and needed to get out as it would not be open again until Monday morning, that is if anyone showed up as Jennifer wasn’t sure if anyone was going to show up to work on Monday.
I tried the code again and waited for it to work and thank God this time the gate opened, what a sigh of relief it was when the gates opened. I was now finally finished with the storage unit behind the gate and had accomplished my goal of finally, after a year and half of getting the storage units, to now have just one outside the gates. Now it was just a matter of heading back to Tulelake with a wooden table tied to the roof of my van after I had nowhere else it would fit, except on the roof of my van and the van inside was loaded with my dresser, a tall bookshelf, pots and pans, along with other odds and ends of things I wanted to take to Tulelake with me for my new home.
Home sweet home with things now that I had not seen around me in a year and half that now could be unloaded and help to make my new home look like home again.
Praise the Lord!
Mara natha! Cor 16:22
Hope
Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. Hopefulness is somewhat different from optimism in that hope is an emotional state, whereas optimism is a conclusion reached through a deliberate thought pattern that leads to a positive attitude.
Hope From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Optimism
Optimism is "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome". It is the philosophical opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good so that most situations work out in the end for the best.
Optimism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
History of Religion in the United States From Wikipedia.
Religion
A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs, and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendent quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, God or gods, or ultimate truth. It may be expressed through prayer, ritual, meditation, music, and art, among other things. It may focus on specific supernatural, metaphysical, and moral claims about reality (the cosmos and human nature) which may yield a set of religious laws, ethics, and a particular lifestyle. Religion also encompasses ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and religious experience.
The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction. "Religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system," but it is more socially defined than personal convictions, and it entails specific behaviors, respectively.
The development of religion has taken many forms in various cultures. It considers psychological and social roots, along with origins and historical development.
In the frame of western religious thought, religions present a common quality, the "hallmark of patriarchal religious thought": the division of the world in two comprehensive domains, one sacred, the other profane. Religion is often described as a communal system for the coherence of belief focusing on a system of thought, unseen being, person, or object, that is considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine, or of the highest truth. Moral codes, practices, values, institutions, tradition, rituals, and scriptures are often traditionally associated with the core belief, and these may have some overlap with concepts in secular philosophy. Religion is also often described as a "way of life" or a life stance.
Religion From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Divinity
Divinity and divine (sometimes 'the Divinity' or 'the Divine') are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or its attributes or manifestations in the world. The root of the words is literally 'Godlike' (from the Latin 'Deus', cf. Dyaus, closely related to Greek 'Zeus', Divan in Persian and Deva in in Sanskrit), but the use varies significantly depending on which god is being discussed. This article outlines the major distinctions in the conventional use of the terms.
Divinity From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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