Chapter 17: Storage Finally Done (Part One)

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 wild life 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 for bid 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 brought 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 the same time and I had forgot 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 out side 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 in 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 back yard. 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.

Go to Chapter 17: Storage Finally Done (Part Two)

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