Big Update
I’m still alive just really exhausted. Lots of things have been happening with some big news and changes.
End of May
On Memorial Day weekend I went up to Sarnia Canada to meet Maer since she could no longer cross the border. We went to a bunch of different restaurants in the area and went back to a few placed we had found in April. We also watched some movies and TV episodes that we have been saving up and started playing Dark Fall 3. Going through the border on the way back home took about 1 ½ hours it was a holiday weekend though but there was also construction that slowed it down even more.
June
Near the middle of the month I received a shut off notice from the city utilities that said I did not pay the last bill. I checked with my records and it showed I sent them a check. So I went to the bank to verify that the check was cashed and it was. Although the check was forged in someone else’s name and cashed. I had them check for other checks like that and they found another one for my Car insurance that was the same way. I looked at the checks and I did not recognize the name and it was obvious that the name I put in was over written with this other person’s name. I checked my records and those 2 checks were placed in the mail box on the same day so it looked like someone had stolen my mail. The manger of the bank was looking into it and from the print out of the cashed checks they could tell that the person had cashed one of the checks in that very location and another at a local credit union. I filled a report with the bank then went to the Police station to file a report there. The next day I went to the post office to file a report there as well. I was contacted by the post office first and they said that they had complaints of about 8 other people in the area about mail being stolen and they would follow up with charges against that person since it’s a federal crime to steal mail. I went back over to the bank to close my accounts and re-open new ones since the guy who stole the checks had all my account info now. I also ran a credit report to make sure nothing was out of place and everything looked fine. The bank said they would credit my account with the cost of the checks that were stolen and set up a new account/checks for free so that part nice. They also informed me that they had the guy who stole my check on video since he came in at that location to cash one of the checks and the video would be forward to the Police. Over the next month or so I would get mail/paper work from the police and prosecutors office to fill out and explain what my rights as a victim were. Beyond that I haven’t heard anything else about the case and from the paper work I filled out I should be notified once he has been found.
The rest of the month was fairly uneventful I finally finished pulling the concrete blocks out from the old patio and cut the old couch up downstairs in pieces so I could take them up stairs and store them in the garage till I found a way to dispose of them.
July
At the start of the month my air conditioner slowly started to die. It would get less cool in the house and be on longer. After some time the outside unit would shut off after the motor overheated from being on for so long. It got to the point where I just stopped running it and stayed in the basement during the day where it was cooler and have the attic fan on at night to bring the cooler outside air in.
On the 4th I went over to my sister’s place since they were having a party. A lot of people showed up and they had a lot of thing going on with the pond being used quite a bit. They had 4-5 corn hole games going, 2x volley ball nets up one outside (I helped put this one up and spray paint the lines on the grass)and 1 in the barn, and 2 tents up with tables and chairs. I brought my Caesar salad and it went over well and was gone by the end of the day. I also helped grill the brats/hamburgers/hot dogs we had 2 big grills going and 2-3 people on each grill just placing the food on the grill seasoning and flipping them. When it got closer to evening I helped prep the fireworks then it started to rain and everyone went inside the garage while a few of us helped keep the tents down so they wouldn’t blow away. Luckily it only rained for a few minutes and we were able to set the fire works up on the far side of the pond and set them off. These were the big tube one that cities use for their displays. We had rows of the tubes nailed down to boards and others would drop the balls down in them and then someone with a blow torch would go by and light the row off. It took us a bit to get into the right flow of things, buit we got it down after awhile. We were luckily and only had a few duds and only1 blew up in the tube on the ground. You can tell when one was stuck when you didn’t hear it leave the tube so we would back away and waited to see what happened before approaching it again. After that I stayed over and talked a bit with the family and I was one of the last people to leave.
On the 6th CM came over with his Fiancé and we went out to dinner at Lone Star. The food wasn’t too bad but the country music started to get annoying. They were surprised the margaritas were fairly cheap but partially watered down I think. After that we went over to Token & Tickets since they saw a DDR machine through the window and wanted to check it out. There weren’t too many other interesting machine in the store so they only played a few rounds then we left. After that we stopped off at a used music/movie/video game store in the same strip area and browsed. On our way back CM spotted the local chocolate place DeBrands and we went in and picked up a few things. While in the store we heard this huge explosion in the lot next door which sounded like a cannon going off. Apparently the fireworks store on the other side of the lot was letting off some of their excess stock. After that we went back to my place and vegged a little bit then played some Rock Band 2 till we were tired then headed to bed.
On the 7th we went over to Cosmos House of Pancakes for breakfast. It wasn’t’ to bad fairly cheap it had the atmosphere that older people would hang out at though. Went to the bank after that to pick up my new checks then back to my place to veg some more. For Lunch we were going to go check out the Tai place that I haven’t been to but they were closed (I looked them up later and it looks like they were away on a trip to Thailand so they closed the whole store till they came back) so we decided on BWs for food and we played the quiz game there. Went back to my place and browsed on the net a bit while they looked up if there were other places in town that had DDR machines. After that we headed out to Putt Putt Golf, but on the way went to the Half Price Books store and browsed through their books and games. After that we finally made it to Putt Putt Golf and found the DDR machines they had there. It was pretty nice they had a separate room in the back with both machines with seats for people to sit and wait and it was heavily air conditioned. They played a few rounds and coaxed me to play the last song which I failed miserably. We finally decided on dinner at Asukusa (Japanese restaurant). The was a 30-40 minute waiting period for a table so we zipped over to the Meijer across the street and picked up a few things including some MTG cards to play with later that night. When we got back to Asukusa we found that the front door had been knocked off its hinge which was a bit odd. We finally got in and the food was pretty good but a bit on the expensive side. I had some chicken teriyaki and vegetable tempura. The tempura was actually really good which constituted of broccoli, squash, seaweed, mushrooms, and something else I can’t remember. I gave my mushrooms to CM since I’m not a mushroom fan. After that we went back to my place played a few rounds of MTG and then crashed. The next day on the 8th they left early in the morning I got up and saw them off and then headed to work.
Sometime around this time Maer had spoken with a lawyer and they had recommended that getting married would be the best solution for her to get across the border without being harassed. We had discussed getting married a few times over the last year or so, and with the situation at the border she was being put through this kind of forced us to advance our plans. So we started planning on short notice and scheduled the wedding for August 14th in Sarnia Canada. I didn’t send out any invites since I was pretty sure no one would be able to come on such short notice and have a passport ready to go across the border by that time. Also we both wanted to keep the wedding small and simple. I found a Scottish site that sold handmade rings she choose the style she liked the best and I ordered it.
On the 18th I went to the Caylor reunion. I took a 2 fruit trays and came back home with 1 of them. Not many people had showed up so it was fairly quick and uneventful. Afterwards me and Mom went over to my grandma’s to visit her for a bit and then I went back home.
August
On the 8th I went to the Platt reunion in Pennville. Not as many people showed up compared to last year but about 70-80 people were still there. There was lots of food for lunch and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs with left overs for dinner. I brought my Caesar salad and it was all gone by the time I left. The set up was pretty much the same as last year. They had the wild horse ride (go cart pulling a trailer with bouncy shocks that has a phone pole dressed up like a horse), homemade ice cream makers, cotton candy machine (I helped with this part), corn hole with a tent set up over it, croquette, Bingo, Horse shoes, & homemade version of Minute to Win It. It was nice to see some of the family that I only get to see at the reunion once a year. One of my cousins has been taking classes at the 2nd City institute up in Chicago. It was interesting talking with her and she seems to be enjoying the classes and invited everyone to come see one of her sets if we are up in the Chicago area Monday evenings. Another cousin had brought his new puppy as well I can’t remember the breed but she was a pretty brindle color. I think that was most of the things going on at the reunion all in all it was a pretty good time and I was one of the last people to head home for the evening.
Through the 11th-15th I went up to Sarnia, Canada again to get married on the 14th. Pretty much the only ones who could make it were the kids and a close friend of theirs. But Maer had an idea earlier to use the webcam on her laptop to broadcast the ceremony via yahoo so some were able to watch that way.
11th
I made it to the hotel before everyone else and settled in. After they came in we tried to order food from one of the places across the hotel but we were having a lot of problems with them so order from another place and ate in the room. The air conditioner in the room wasn’t working to well either so we called down and they said they would have the maintenance guy come up to look at it tomorrow. After that we all went to bed.
12th
We went to one of the restaurants across from the hotel (not the one we tried to order from last night) and it turned out to be pretty good. It was in the style of an old Irish pub and I had a burger with these really good fried crispy onions on them and fries. After that we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some things we needed one which was a back up ring since the one I placed the order for hadn’t showed up yet. Then we went over to Dairy Queen and got blizzards because of some charity thing they were doing that day. When we got back we noticed that the air conditioner had been cleaned out and it was little better than before but it was still not cooling the room enough. I set up my projector in our room and we started playing a find it adventure game called Dire Grove. It was pretty fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
13th
We went out to the Greek place that we have been to in past visits for lunch then over to the Bones and Stones museum to drop the kids off while we went to the City Building to get the marriage forms filled out. Unfortunately we were there a lot longer than anticipated since there was a problem with the Maer’s divorce papers and it took the clerks a lot of extra work to sort it out so we could get married the next day. We went back to pick the kids up and didn’t have enough time to go through the place since they were closing soon. After that we went back to the hotel ordered take in for dinner and finished playing Dire Grove.
14th
We all got dressed up and prepared for the wedding. I was tasked to find flowers and went out to the flower shop we saw down the street. Unfortunately they were closed on weekends so I tried 2 different grocery stores nearby with no luck. Once we were all ready we headed over to the marriage officers place. It was pretty nice he was at the top of a 12 story apartment complex that was surrounded by park area and you could see the lake and bridge across the border from there. We set the laptop so the webcam could be viewed by those on YIM and then did our vows in front of the fire place. After that we went to a small area next to a park walk way and took some pictures. After that we headed out to Boston Pizza for dinner. Then came back to the hotel and watched UP.
15th
Everyone packed up and we checked out of the hotel then we went over and ate Lunch at the Irish place again. Then we went back to the Bones and Stones place since me and Maer did not get a chance to go through it last time. After that we went back to hotel where I left my car and said our goodbyes and I drove back home. The toll lanes on the bridge were backed up more than the border crossing this time which was kind of odd. I didn’t have any problems going through the border this time. On the way back home the air conditioner in my car started dyeing.
After returning home Maer sent an email to the Lawyers to see what the next step for us would be and they replied saying they could no longer take our case. So we had to look around to find another lawyer to see what we needed to do.
I’ve have been wanting to put a concrete patio behind the house so I looked around on the internet for local concrete contractors and found an Amish one that had a website and I emailed them.
I have also been looking for a local dentist that is part of my companies plan so I finally got info on the plan and found someone nearby, but I have yet to contact them to see if they are covered under my company’s policy.
I looked up the company that had put in the furnace to see if they could check on the central air. I though that maybe they had put the central air in at the same time the furnace was put in and they would know more about what is going on. So I emailed the place and they called back the next day to set up an appointment for the repairman to come in and take a look at it. It turned out that they didn’t’ put in the air condition since it was installed 6 years before the furnace. After cleaning the unit and testing it he found that the Freon was almost empty which it really shouldn’t’ be since it is an enclosed system. I had found a coupon on their web page for the cleaning and a free 1 lb of Freon for $69 so he put 1 lb in but it was still 3-4lbs low. When we went to check the system it helped a little but it was still pretty low. He asked if it was running fine at the beginning of summer and I said it was running just fine. He kind of suspected there may be a leak in the system, but it would cost about $150 more to find it and if the leak was in certain area the whole system would have to be replaced. Since the system was 15 years old (the life span is usually 15-20 years) and nearing the end of its life I decided just to bear it out for the rest of the summer and check on prices for new central air conditioners late next spring.
At one point during the middle of the night the ceiling fan in the bedroom stopped working. I tried switching it through the different cycles and nothing helped. After a few days I went back to test it again and I tried to spin the blades through low/med/high and it finally started back up on high but it doesn’t work on the other speeds. Looks like it is slowing dying so I have only been using it during the night when it was hot inside.
Throughout this time the heat and stress at work was causing a lot of sleepless nights for me and constantly sweating, restlessness, and nightmares waking me up.
Also during this month the light switch in bathroom started acting up. It would flicker off and on if you lightly touched the switch. I let it go since it wasn’t too bad yet.
September
On the 1st I received a wedding invite from CM to there wedding on October 10th. Sadly it doesn’t look like I will be able to make it because of time constraints and the long drive to get there.
On the 3rd - 6th I went up to Sarnia Canada to see Maer for the Labor Day weekend. The day before I left the ring that I had ordered back in July finally came in so I was about to bring that with me. We didn’t do too much we watched some shows and finished playing Dark Fall 3 and played another find it game called Salem Witch Trials which was about Nathaniel Hawthorne. At one point we went over and paid the wedding officer since we didn’t get a chance to pay him after the ceremony. The border wasn’t to bad going through or coming back for a change they opened up more gates for traffic to go through so it was much quicker.
We also found a new lawyer to tell us what to do and help with the paper work so Maer can get her green card. There is a lot involved and I will need to ask some people that know about us to write letters of support to file with the paper work. Right now they are trying to work out a package so she can show the border guards and make it across the border this October to go to the overnight at the Willard Library in Evansville.
One weekend I went out to get supplies at Menards to get the light switch in the bathroom fixed and to start tearing the wall in the basement so I could seal the crack. The light switch was pretty easy to fix I finally bought an electric line tester and pulled the switch out and replaced it so it works fine now. The basement wall was a bit more difficult it was easy sawing the drywall out but I had to take out a 2x4 beam and the crack was right in the corner at an odd angle. It looks like the previous owner didn’t seal the wall behind the drywall which I had suspected, but he had filled in the crack halfway up with a lot of concrete. Not sure why he didn’t do the crack all the way up. So it was mess trying to get the injection ports in since it wasn’t on a flat surface. The cover sealant wasn’t sticking very much and took awhile for it set. When I started injecting the foam seal there were leaks that had to be repaired before I could go on. It was all a big mess but looks like the crack was filled in since the foam came out on the outside of the house. I will have to wait and see when all the leaves are off the tress and the first big rain storm comes though that is usually when it floods in the basement.
I finally contacted some more Concrete places since I didn’t hear back from the one I sent a message to last month. I finally decided to go with one and they will be her on the 30th to pour the concrete.
So that is the majority of what has been going on with me it has been pretty busy and stressful with a lot of big changes going on. I hope that everyone is doing well and will try to post more when I can.