So, it's official.

Thirty-six drums, twenty cymbals, gods only know how many stands, pedals and accessories, all torn down and ready to go to a friend's extra bedroom.

Eight standing toolboxes, four beds, five nightstands, couches, chairs, dressers and tables set to go to a storage unit.

An entire kitchen to carefully wrap and box up, also headed to storage until we have a place to put it.

And seventeen years of memories.

Eleven months we've looked for work up here. Eleven months of applications, the rare interview, and... nothing. Doesn't help that the economy sucks all over, and it's always worse here than anywhere else. That we could have gotten past, I think... twenty-five plus years of experience can open a lot of doors. When you have an ex-boss who isn't satisfied with forcing you out of the job you had, and wants to make sure you don't get another one outside of a fast-food restaurant, though...

Yeah, no kidding. We spent a long time wondering why we kept almost getting a position, then... dead stop, but that was one possibility we hadn't considered. Then a little bird whispered something... my brother called to check some work history... and what do you know.

So looks like we're starting over. Middle of next week, our oldest will come down, load up our clothes, the computers and us and we'll go stay with him for a bit, until we find something up there and get our own place again. Hopefully with a nice little basement, just right for a very large drum set.

It's not such a bad thing - we'll be back in civilization, with all the bonuses that go with it. Concerts, zoos, someplace to shop without a Wal-Mart sign out front... And OUT of this valley, which has the most beautiful views I've ever seen, and some of the ugliest people I've ever met.

And I want to say one thing to Ken Beck and Steve Vandiver...

Karma's a bitch.

You destroyed everything we built here, over so many years... and that's fine. I'm looking forward to our new life, can't wait to see what adventures are ahead for us. But it will come back on you, someday... and not even the Mormon's version of Jesus really advocates screwing over your fellow man, so I don't think he's gonna save you, either.

So anyway... wish us luck! See you all in a couple of weeks... Front Range, here we come!

Twenty-nine minutes... it's amazing how much can change in twenty-nine minutes.

So, I was going through the caller ID yesterday, looking for a number, and noticed that by looking at the times of the calls received, I had a pretty good timeline of my morning - and it was quite a morning.

At 10:10, we received a call from the National Park Service. Al applied for a job there back at the end of June - maintenance supervisor, his old position, at about the same pay level. Thing is, this job is at...

Yosemite National Park.

We'd pretty much forgotten he even applied for it, but he did, and did his phone interview right then and there. It's not a job - yet. But he is in the final running, and it's not one we have any intention of passing on if it's offered.

What, you think we're nuts???

At 10:21, Nic (~lostko) called. She has a friend with a new baby who was born with heart problems, and in the first ten days of her life has already had open-heart surgery. Little Julieanne was taken off her ECMO machine yesterday morning, and Nic called to let me know that her heart was beating strong, vitals were good and all looked great. YAY!!!

Needless to say, at this point I was riding high. Little did I know...

At 10:39, there was a call on the ID from a number that's never called here. That would be a house about four miles down the highway. Immediately after Nic's call, I headed into town to run some errands. I was going down Highway 17, a two-lane road with a 65mph speed limit - which, thank ALL the gods, I was at least ten under - when the tread tore completely off my back right tire. I drifted to the right, took my foot off the pedal in hopes of slowing down enough to pull off the road... and the car immediately bounced LEFT, traded front end for back and wound up at the bottom of the ditch, nose out to the highway. Still running... seems I didn't forget to leave my foot on the clutch, thus preventing any power from going to the wheels and keeping it from stalling out. According to the amazingly wonderful State Patrolman who arrived shortly afterward, it was... "absolutely textbook, you couldn't have handled it any better."

Brook and I are both fine, if a bit sore... she banged her knee pretty good on the door handle (we think), and I torqued pretty much everything, but all in all, not nearly as bad as it could have been. To be honest, I truly thought we were going to flip when we hit the ditch - if I hadn't been in the Nova, which is old, STEEL, very heavy and low to the ground, I probably would have. LOVE that car!

So we have a couple of tires to replace - I also flat-spotted the right front pretty good (NASCAR slang, look it up! ), but we're HERE.

Love you all... and remember... twenty-nine minutes.

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY dA!!! Here's to nine more years...

Now that the good news is out of the way, the bad. I'm writing this journal from my neighbor's house... two days ago, we lost our phone and 'net, and in all likelyhood, we'll be in foreclosure sometime in the next few weeks. Despite applying for every job we're qualified for, and a bunch we're not, nothing has broken for either of us. We've held on as long as we could, but we're officially out of options now, so...

So I'm out of here until further notice. I don't have the slightest idea what's in front of us, and frankly, I don't want to know... I've stopped believing that things have to get better, since every time I've tried to tell myself that in the last six months, something else has come up and hammered us again.

To be honest, I've stopped believing in ANYthing.

Anyway, I'm going to miss you guys. I love you all, and I can't wait to see you again... sometime...

As in, I'm gone for the duration. I was right, it wasn't hard drive - it was RAM. New RAM is on the way, but once again, through DHL, the worst shipping company ever (more on that later, using a friend's comp just to post this), so it probably won't arrive until next Tuesday or Wednesday. And if y'all hear about an enraged woman opening fire on various corporate headquarters, remember... you know NOTHING.

Miss you guys, so much... see you when I can get back on!