I mentioned, offhandedly, that we couldn't afford to live in the Bay Area any more the other day, not in a "please give me help" way, but in a "what are we going to do with this stuff?" way.
I'm still overwhelmed by the response from this site. I didn't ask for help, and in my pride I would refuse it, but in these times one should never refuse well-intended help from friends.
Sometime early this afternoon Navajo will drop by with a check from you all, and we'll head to Arkansas to stay with my parents for a bit. I won't discuss the numbers written on that check, but I will discuss what you have done.
First off, I got a letter from unemployment disputing the latest two-week claim. Either I didn't dot an i or cross a t correctly, or the employer that sold me on the open-ended part-time job that turned out to be a sixteen hour project is disputing what I claimed for my work hours. Again. But that was the check that would have bought us the gas and one meal a day to drive straight there, so you have, right off, saved us from homelessness.
Thanks to you, and to Homogenius putting us up, we can afford to stop for a couple of days at Disneyland on the way out, and to take a little more time crossing the country. Well, we'd gotten annual passes when things were better, just before my job ended, so most of that money had been spent already. But stopping there, as I've been telling people, makes this more "fun family vacation" and less "Napoleon's retreat from Moscow".
We've still got stuff to move into the 8' by 6' storage container that you let us afford. Cutting down your life to fit one U-Box doesn't sound particularly thankful - until I point out that without it, we'd be cutting down to the trunk of the car. You can fit a lot into a storage box.
Oh, and thanks to you we can pay someone to haul away what didn't get sold in the yard sale, which was most of it. Nothing drives home how crappy your furniture is than when Goodwill rejects it. This means that it's quite possible, given the kind, understanding landlord that we have and that we won't be bolting and leaving behind a cluttered, dirty, furnished apartment, we may see some of our security deposit again.
By the way, if you know anyone that needs a 3br apartment in Santa Clara, CA let me know and I'll shoot you the landlord's phone number.
So the plan is, this afternoon we head south, stopping by to say goodbye to the few family members that Mrs. has locally, and getting to LA late tonight. Wednesday and Thursday in the park, then we start heading east on I-40. Depending on how it goes, we should get there Monday. Internet access will be spotty at best, but I'll try to check in when I can.
I figure about this time next week I'll let you know how the trip went. Today, I'm letting you know what we're doing with the assistance that you gave us, and what I owe you that I'll never be able to repay.