Ran with the devil, Walked with angels: More of Monday

It is 11:38 PM now. Cherie and I are both tired and still excited. We worked till 9:00 and decided to reluctantly call it a day. Hit a Dairy Queen on the way home and didn’t fix the frozen dinner we had planned. Got lots done. After breakfast we were off to Stanton.

The first thing we did was drive around to locate things like the courthouse. They were all closed. As we drove down the main street Cherie spied M&M disposal, the place we can get a dumpster from. The lady we talked to was real nice. We talked for a bit and she gave Cherie and I some direction regarding where to take appliances and who did well service in town.

When she asked where to take the dumpster we told her the address. At first she didn’t place it till we told her it was Minnie Lee’s old place. “Oh, where the yellow bus is” she exclaimed. Now she knew.

After that we went to Cap Rock energy to get our electricity turned on. It was another delightful conversation. Everyone knew or knew about Minnie Lee. This woman’s grandmother was a good friend and would mention her often. She said she would also hear about Minnie Lee at church when the pastor would tell of her condition so they could pray.

Then we got our mail box at the post office. Another step on the way to living here. From there we went to the farm. It was bust butt time for the rest of the day. Tons of dust and tons of crap.

You can see how I opened this up. Better view and we get more of a breeze.
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Cherie’s Notes:
We had to find an ATM today to get some cash. That was a weird experience. Even though a sign said ATM when we finally found one – we had stopped in 2 different banks and they refer to ATM’s as “motor banks” must be a southern thing..I don’t know.

We really dug in today and started gutting the place – there was much to throw away, which is a shame as clothes that had been good at one time were thrown on the floor and had been walked over many times by people who’s sole quest seems to be getting the “good” stuff. Even the lady at Cap Rock energy said she had heard that Minnie Lee had a lot of unique things – they’re gone now. I did find a few things – linens mostly that I will clean up and use once we are settled here.

We did find some empty beer cans that were strategically placed in an effort to be “hidden” from main view. Everything hidden in the dark sooner or later comes back to the light and the truth is plain for all to see.

I did manage to clean out a clothes closet and ended up with 4 extra large trash bags full of clothes. I want to find a Goodwill or someplace to take them. They’re a bit out of date, but are still nice clothes.

I realize people are busy, but I wonder how relatives and visitors found time to clean out Minnie Lee’s things, but didn’t have time to take care of basic things around the house. Doing dishes and dusting once in a while instead of going through all her stuff looking for money or God knows what!

As you can see there is plenty of rot in this window. We will be inspecting the whole building to find any more.

It is soo peaceful out there in the country – I love it! It will be even better when we get things cleaned up and ready to move in. I’m already planning on how to redo the bedroom as we took out a temporary wall – it was just a piece of wall paneling and someone had nailed a perfectly good wardrobe (dresser) to it! We want to extend the bedroom out a ways, but if it doesn’t happen for a couple years, I am ready with plans to fix it up. Same goes for the living room and the front porch area, which is a real mess. We worked hard all day.

We must be so happy about building a home together that we only had one meal today – a late breakfast at Denny’s. The restaurant selection in Midland leaves much to be desired. Yesterday was Sunday and all the places that would have been good closed up at 3:00 in the afternoon! Unbelievable. We finally landed at a buffet place, La Frontera. They had a Fajita plate, which was pretty good. It’s a fairly new place and was previously a Chinese restaurant and the décor was an interesting mix of Mexican sombreros and Chinese dragons.

We have mainly stayed in our little area, where there are only a few places to eat. All the hotels and auto dealers are in the same part of town. There are no restaurants open! We’ve eaten at Denny’s twice now. I guess I’ve been spoiled in Toledo with places like The Mango Tree, Navy Bistro – even Bob Evans. I wish they came this far west! The Denny’s is way understaffed and we actually met the night manager who took our order on a napkin. This morning we meet the day manager who seems to have her act together, just doesn’t have enough help. There was one server for the whole place and she was running so hard to get it all done, she was chasing herself!

We are definitely the minority here. After working on the farm today, we stopped at a Dairy Queen for some ice cream, which turned out to be dinner. When we walked in, I wondered what they thought, “Oh look at these grungy gringos, and they’re from Ohio!”
We hear a lot of Spanish, which I don’t understand. Sometimes even the accents are difficult and we have to ask “what”? or “excuse me”? “What” seems to work better.