it could’ve been worse

It could have been worse…. Could have been a lot better too. (Just sayin’)

We’re on our way back to Missouri… Do I say ‘home’ still?  It is technically home…. not for much longer though….

At any rate, were on our way back from a week in Florida. We tossed Mom, Boo and all the cats into the new RV and headed to our future home in Florida. The plan was to test out the RV… See if we could all survive in it… Shake loose any bugs before our warranty expired and see what we though we’d need to add before we tried doing this full time. 

We found some bugs (figuratively), blew some fuses and terrorized the cats. Boo could have cared less… she’s an expert traveler…. we could all learn from Boo. 

The first night one of the cats pooped in our bed… while we were in it.  We discovered one of the nice things about staying at an RV Park is they have laundry facilities. (Some do anyway, and that’s an amenity we now know to look for!) Three loads of laundry later all was well again and the cats been fine ever since (fingers crossed.) Three cats have been super chill about the whole thing… Two have stayed hidden under furniture while we’re moving (which I put in the ‘good enough’ category) and one has been a complete psycho-shit. She and I have had a few conversations…. It’s not going well for either of us.  (Yes, I have conversations with the cat. Don’t look at me like that… You know you do it too). 

We got a Low Coolant light on the first day too, but fortunately we found a truck stop service station that helped us refill the coolant and that seems to have stayed fixed as well. 

The refrigerator seems to have died, so we lost everything in the fridge and had to eat out more than we’d planned, but we survived. We found a cool little pet store near our future home and bought Boo some kibbles since her preferred cold food didn’t survive the loss of the fridge. She got an extra bag of treats, so she was cool with the whole ordeal. 

On our last night Mom and I discovered that you can’t brew a pot of coffee and blow dry your hair at the same time… Not without blowing fuses. We tried flipping breakers and resetting GFI’s but the electrical outlets weren’t coming back. (I even broke down and started reading the manuals.) 

We’ve got an appointment with our RV dealer when we get home and hopefully they can get everything fixed and show us how to fix it ourselves in the future.  

Aside from an RV Life trial run, we were supposed to be doing our Design Meetings for the new house. We had two days of meeting with all the people who are handling the different aspects of the house. I went in expecting it to be a bit overwhelming… Lots of choices and decisions and important questions, but exciting too.  Right?  

I dunno… We’ve got some issues that need to be worked out. I’m not… happy. I still love the area, I still love the community… I dunno….  (I know, I know… I’m the blogger here, I’m supposed to be more eloquent and open, but right now I’m just disappointed and not feeling up to it…) We talked to our FL Real Estate agent and she’s working on solutions… so hopefully it’ll all work out. 

After a semi-crappy trip punctuated with just enough awesome moments to keep me from hurling myself into the ocean and saying to hell with it all (teeny bit dramatic, maybe?) we decide to pack up a day early and go home. 

So we’ve got the RV ready for the road, got everything stowed, cats accounted for, Boo comfy… ready to pull out of the park…. And our home security system texts us. Smoke Alarm. Then our phones start ringing. The smoke alarm is going off and they’ve dispatched the fire department. Really?!  Really?!  

Spoiler: NO FIRE

Fortunately, my uncle lives nearby and he was able to get to our house and let the fire department in. After a thorough search of the house they found a faulty smoke detector. Thank God!!  I’ve never been so thankful for a faulty piece of equipment. (Okay, it would have been better if it hadn’t been faulty at all, but I’m so much happier that that was all it was.). 

I’d texted our MO Real Estate agent and told her we’d gotten the alarm and she and her daughter blasted off to see what was happening. She called to tell me that she was on her way and I’m bawling on the phone and she’s trying to reassure me…. It was awful. (I adore that gal so much. I’m planning to pack her and her daughter up and take them with me to FL. Don’t tell her…. I’m going to lure her into the RV with Starbucks… It’ll work.) 

After what seemed like forever, but was probably a total of 25 minutes (from first text to last phone call) we heard from the alarm company, the fire department, my uncle and our agent that everything was fine. The alarm was just on the fritz and the house was secure and definitely not on fire. 

It seemed stupid to keep crying at that point, but… well, I was on a roll. 

I am utterly and completely emotionally DONE. 

I am thankful to the fire department for their rapid response…to not need to do a damn thing… I wish all of their calls went so well. 

And I’m thankful to our real estate agents who both spent a lot of time today telling me that our houses would be okay.

Maybe this was the Universe’s way of telling me ‘It’s just a house… everything that is actually important is right here with you.’  I wish the Universe would just send me inspirational quotes on Facebook instead of big/scary object lessons. Hey, Universe!  I’m not that emotionally stable!  Please tone it down!  

It all could have been so much worse. Then again, it could have been better too.