Waiting for Ernesto

It looks like Hurricane Ernesto is heading for us, and I think that Matt and I are ready for it. Today I went and bought a second case of bottled water and some flashlights. We don't really have a plan if we have to be evacuated. I figure we'll just start driving inland and find the first hotel with vacancies outside of the hurricane's path. We're not too concerned, though, because the storm has to cross the peninsula before reaching us, and land breaks up hurricanes. I don't think we'll be evacuated, but I'm sure we'll still get to se one heck of a storm. We'll see!

Getting settled

All of our stuff is in the apartment and in tact. There were no major damages. The worst of it was the top of our coffee table, which was glass, shattered in a thousand pieces. Since that's the worst, I can't complain. We have the bedroom pretty much completely unpacked and organized as well as the kitchen, living room and bathroom. We only have the computer room to go and we'll probably have it done by the end of the weekend.

We're both feeling much happier (and comfortable) now that we are surrounded by everything that we're used to having. Matt had his school orientation on Wednesday and he registered for his classes today. He signed up for ROTC as well. As things look right now, he will most likely be entering the Air Force as an officer after he's done with school. He officially starts classes on Monday. All is going pretty well there with the exception of the GI Bill. The Atlanta office is backed up and we won't get our first check until at least November. That means that we will probably have to pay for his first semester out of pocket, but again, things could be a lot worse. All in all, life is pretty good.

Finally

I slept in my own bed last night! The movers finally arrived yesterday, but it wasn't without trouble. They were supposed to arrive on Monday, but when we called him to find out where he was, he told Matt that he was just in an accident and would have to call us back. !!! At that point, I considered losing my head completely and running around punching walls and causing bodily harm to anyone or anything that got in my way. Instead, I quietly checked the internet for a lawyer, called my renter's insurance company (and found that it wouldn't be covered) then spent 45 minutes or so on the phone with the moving company's main office.

I called without identifying myself and just told them that I had a general question - what were to happen if the driver were in an accident and my stuff was damaged? The first person I asked to me she was new and transferred me to someone else. I was then transferred to about five other people that didn't want to touch my question. Finally, I talked to a guy that insisted that there wasn't an accident, the driver just backed into someone and there was nothing to worry about. I had to ask my question six more times before he finally told me that if there was damage, I should talk to the driver.

Anyway, our stuff arrived and nothing (that we've seen anyway) is damaged. The apartment is overflowing with cardboard and paper and our living room looks like a war zone, but we've got a pretty good start in the bedroom. Today my project is the kitchen while Mat tries to get the living room somewhat set up. Hooray!

It's that time of year again!

That's right, it's football season, and I'm excited as usual. Football has become my favorite sport to watch (although I will never stop tracking the Brewers, it's just hard to watch baseball) and there seems to be an interesting phenomenon here in central Florida regarding the preferred football team. There are three teams to choose from here - Jacksonville Jaguars (they are closest to us), Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Miami Dolphins. The two that get the most coverage on the local news, surprisingly, are the Bucs and Miami.

I have always been somewhat of a Bucs fan, so I am considering jumping onboard the Bucs bandwagon. I will always have a special place for the Packers, but after Favre leaves this year, they won't be the Packers that I know and love anymore anyway.

I have also rejoined my fantasy football league. We had our draft yesterday and I think I came out ok. We'll see if I end up taking the money prize at the end of the year. I'm a little more excited about it this year than others because one of my old rivals from a different league has joined this one. He's going down :P

Air 1 Moving and Storage

If you are ever planning to move cross country, I strongly recommend that you do NOT use Air 1 Moving and Storage. I still do not have my stuff. When I first contacted them, they told me that it would be no problem to have my stuff delivered as close to August 1 as possible. Then, after they had picked up the stuff, they increased the amount that they were charging us. Matt said that they didn't pack the truck very efficiently, adding to our cubic footage. Then I was told that their policy is to deliver the stuff 10-18 days after the day that you indicate that you are available to pick it up. For us, that day was July 28.

On top of all of that, the company is horrible at communicating with you. Every time I've called and talked to the long distance guy, I feel like I'm inconveniencing him. The last time I called I expressed my discontent and he said that he really didn't have a reason to call me every two days. I instead had to call him once a week (not every two days) to find out the status of my move. Well, it's been more than 18 days, but I guess now it's 10-18 business days.

In any event, I got a call from the manager of the long distance department and they are supposed to be delivering the stuff between Tuesday and Thursday (that's another thing, they can't seem to give me a definite date for anything).

The hunt continues

So we've been here for two weeks and I still haven't found a job. It isn't for lack of searching, though. I check three different job search web sites every day and have applied for four or five jobs. I've gotten one call, but it's for a call center job doing entry-level work and I need to make a lot more money than they would be able to offer. There is one promising opportunity, however, with the local post office. It would be for a clerk position (the people that sell you stamps and stuff) but it pays $18/hr plus government benefits. It's not anything related to what I really would like to do, but I really can't turn down pay like that.

I have to take and pass an exam, which of course I'm not concerned about at all. It sounds like I'd basically have the job locked after the exam. I called them and they're sending me the materials I need for the exam. We'll see what happens :)

Holy wildlife!

Matt and I went canoeing today at a state park not far from here. If you like wildlife, Florida is the place to come. We saw a lot of it. It was really hot and there isn't any shade out on the river, but it was worth it. We saw 10 alligators, a couple of which weren't really far from the canoe. We actually tried to get as close as we could to one of them, but we kind of ticked him off and he took off in a huff. It's one thing to see alligators on TV or even from the car, but to actually be in the water only a few feet from them is humbling and intimidating at first. I took several pictures, but the gators like to stay below the water with only their eyes and nostrils sticking out, so there's not much to see. Here's a picture for you anyway:

That's our gator, right there in the middle. He was probably 15 feet from the boat at the time I took the picture, but when we first saw him, he was only about four or five feet directly in front of us.

We also saw a lot of fish including these strange fish that jump quite a ways out of the water. We never really figured out what they were doing. We saw some stingrays, a few turtles, lots of birds including a hawk that had a fish in it's talons and a river otter (that was the pleasant surprise of the day). We definitely plan on doing this again!

HAHA

So yesterday I blasted the Discovery Channel because I haven't seen an alligator yet in Florida. Today Matt and I went to the Kennedy Space Center. It's about 45 miles south of here, located right on the coast in a pretty swampy area. In fact, the ditches lining the road are full of murky water. And guess what I saw on the way there? Not one, but two alligators in the water right next to the road!! I was excited to say the least.

The space center is pretty cool. Matt and I got 12-month passes so when friends and family come down to visit and want to go there, we don't have to pay again. There's a lot to see, and we didn't get to see it all. It was really hot and humid and I developed a headache late in the day. We were also pretty hungry and didn't want to pay $7.50 for a sandwich. But we both learned a lot and I got some cool pictures. Of course, Mom and Dad, you'll see it first-hand when you come visit this winter. There's a launch in the end of August that we're going to try to see as close as possible.

On the way home, you'll never guess what else I saw. A dolphin!!! It was just swimming along in the Cape Canaveral bay. Again, I was probably more excited about that than the space center :P

Stupid Discovery channel

Don't let the Discovery channel steer you wrong. I have been in Florida a week and haven't seen one darn alligator. The Discovery channel would have you believe that you will see them walking down the sidewalk, but nooo, not one in sight. In talking to local people here, they tell me that they are in this area, they just stay well away from people. Again, this is contrary to what the Discovery channel tells me. They tell me that they will chase you down the street, biting at your heels the whole time. Oh, Discovery Channel, why have you led me astray?

LOL. I may not have seen any alligators, but there are little lizards everywhere. They're cute. There are also ducks living in the pond in which our apartment overlooks. There's a lot of birds, too. My guess is they're egrets of some sort. We also saw a lot of pelicans the other day while driving on the ocean coast. There's also squirrells, too.

An interesting day

Today started out like any other day. We had a couple of things to do (and buy) so we went to Matt's school to take care of a couple of things and went to Home Depot and Sears to buy a couple of other things. Then we decided that we would go and check out the beach area. We headed over the bridge to the barrier island and found a spot to park near a beach. Just as we were getting out of our car, two women came up to us and asked us if we wanted a couple of free tickets and weekend stays in Orlando if we came with them and checked out their hotel. We didn't really have anything planned and we like free stuff, so we followed them.

On the way there, we were trying to figure out exactly what we had just agreed ourselves to. Would we end up on some reality TV show? Were we following our killers to our doom? We did actually arrive at a hotel. At said resort, the lady told us to lie and say that we still lived in Colorado and that we made more than $50k per year. We did. As a result, we had to sit through about an hour spiel on why we should buy their time share. Of course, Matt and I both knew that we can't afford to buy one yet (we have thought about it before, though, because Matt's dad, grandma and brother all do timeshares and it's a good deal) but we sat through it anyway. The guy was really nice and we actually enjoyed getting him to tell us all about the area - where to go, what to see, etc. We got free soda, too. I had fun playing with the guy, telling him that I was interested but we couldn't afford it, watching him run to his manager, coming back with a better offer, etc.

In the end, we did get the free stuff and got some invaluable information about our new city. :)