Time to head home

Woke up this morning to say our goodbyes, a bittersweet time.

 

 

The path out of town is not very straight. We first stopped off at the Hat for lunch, By far some of the best Pastrami on the planet. No photos, the pastrami did not last that long.

Next stop was Space Bank Mini Storage, We had a nice talk with my old General Manager Mike.  His claim to fame is that he knows everyone , and he will be the 2016 Tournament of Roses President. 

 

To say that it was a different place to work is an understatement. One of the owners is the founder of the Pasadena Museum of California Art.  So you never know what  you will see hanging around.

 

 

The office I started in.  It has had a face lift since I started. The original office was what was left over from the Navy. We upgraded to this configuration in 1998.  The oldest photo of the property hangs in the office.  The best guess is that this would be in 1950’s or early 60’s.

 

After that we stopped at Trader Joe’s. Once again no photos we were too busy shopping. Since Oklahoma Liquor laws are keeping Joe out of the state, we will stock up on 2 buck Chuck whenever we get near a TJ’s.

By this time we have hit the heart of rush hour traffic (which starts at 2:00pm and last till 8:00, 9:00 and sometimes 10:00 pm). It was not as bad as it could have been but 45 mph on a 5 lane highway was the top speed and a complete stop was quite often.

 

Traffic is not one of the things I miss.

 

 

Since we were moving slow I got a nice shot of the back of Vasquez rocks.  For you out there that may not know Vasquez Rocks is the famous location where Captain Kirk Defeated the Gorn Captain in the original Star Trek series. Also there have been thousands of westerns filmed out there.

The end of the week

Our stay here in Southern California is coming to an end. This day started off wonderful pancakes and bacon, then a nap on the couch with my grandson.  Naps with babies are the best. Now it is time to start packing.

Yesterday I took Josh to the beach and we had fun in the morning. Some of the waves got bigger than Josh but not many. It was a good time for pop and son.

 

Funny thing about the beach, even on a Thursday morning during school you can find people on the beach having fun.  This morning we had to walk around a wedding on the beach.

Later we had the family over and Stef and Tommy’s living room was over taxed. This is a small showing of the family.

Lunch with the family has been known to go over 50 and holidays are just silly.

Anther look into the life of Bob

This was an interesting day for a Bob.  We have made it to California, got one good night sleep under our belts and started our adventures. When in Southern California visiting family, what is the first thing you should do?  Go get haircuts! 

Linda has been going to the same person to get her hair cut for 25 years and when we are in town she gets an appointment.   This time we have a shaggy boy named Josh and the lovely Stef whom all need trims. It was a fun morning telling stories, catching up, and making everyone look stunning

 

Me, I was the designated driver.

Day two on the road

“Wow we are not in Kansas anymore”!  Ok, I know we drove from Oklahoma, but this is only Arizona and we have not even reached the So. Cal pricing yet. I didn’t think I would miss $3.65 a gallon. 

 

Here is the best thing about driving the 40, it really isn’t the best thing but it is in the top 5, 

 

In-n-Out.  Ahhhh, a Double Double Animal  style, that’s good eating.

 

9:30 to 10:00 last night we made it to Stef and Tommy’s and Micah was up to greet us!!!

Blog From The Road

We have left the comfy village of Yukon and have hit the road for the land of sunshine and sharks.  I am speaking of the United States’ left coast, California! What brings us on such a long road trip? The latest installment of grandbabies. 

We have left the store in the capable hands of John, Brad, Andrew, and Debbie. I hope to have some fun stories when we get back from them.

Our first night on the road took us through the panhandle of Texas and to the home of the 72oz steak. The Big Texan Steak House has been a fixture of interstate 40 for as long as I can remember yet this was the first time I ever stopped and ate there.

 

It was crowded noisy and fun… and only slightly expensive. We did watch one very large individual eat the 72oz Steak meal with under a minute left. I just can’t imagine trying to stuff Steak, potato, salad, roll and shrimp cocktail down my gullet.  The record holder did it all in under 9 minutes…

Time to get back to the license plate game with the rest of my travelling buddies. 4 hours till we reach our next bench mark, the In-N-Out in Kingman Az.

Todays Fun

I noticed yesterday that the water level in the sump of bay four was kind of high.  Well today it was within an inch of overflowing so I guess it was time to do something.

 

Unfortunately, I know what that entails, me grabbing the shovel and finding the clog.  So I spent most of the morning digging through some of the most disgusting muck.  Now when it comes to muck I know my muck.  Back in California I have had many sewer moments. In fact I may have to tell those stories at another time. For now please accept the fact that I am an expert in the field of disgusting muck and when I say that the odor that came off of this decomposing pile of putrid slime was special, then it really was.

After about an hour I found the drain hole and as expected it was clogged.  Now I need to know how bad,  bad is. To do this I am going to stick my hand down there and feel around.  Who here remembers the scene in the first Star Wars movie ( I do mean the first one made not the crap they tried to pass off years latter) When the heroes are stuck in the trash compactor.  For some reason every time I stuck my hand into the slime I kept thinking of Luke. 

Two hours now have gone by and I can reach no further.  So back to the office I go to clean up and come up with plan “B”.  Unfortunately the only thing I got left is calling in a company to clean out the sumps and that is going to cost a pretty penny. While I am in the office My good buddy and friend Dave Liszeski Stops by to say hi. I should mention that besides being a great guy, District Commissioner of the Boy Scouts, and one of the guys voted not able to post my bail because he is in jail with me…..he is also a plumber extraordinaire. 

He never went out to the sump, he just listed to my ranting  and says “ I got what you need” and he goes out to his truck and brings back this,

 

This is a homemade pipe rooter of his own creation. Just hook it to a hose, stick it into the pipe, and turn on the water.

 

So I did. With the help of John who came in at 1:00 today, I followed Dave’s instructions and inside of three minutes that pipe was clear and the water was draining like it should.

 

 

A happy Bob once again……a smelly Bob, yes, but a happy Bob never the less.

What makes Bob happy?

The weekend crew is a surprising duo.  Yesterday I showed up unannounced ton Access to pick up an abandoned TV and take it to a recycling drop off.  9 am and both guys are sitting behind the desk…

 “What’s up guys?” I say.  “Just balancing the drawer.”  They answer. 

That is the first thing that any employee needs to do when they come on shift. Wow did they listen?

 So I let them finish and I tell them that today being a rainy day they need to work on learning close out etc. and getting themselves ready when I go to California.  Then I get help loading this behemoth TV into the van and off I go.

Fast forward 40 minutes and I am driving back to drop off the change to petty cash and I see this.

  Now this makes me happy!

 These guys are going right down the list and knocking out the daily to do list.   Way to go Andrew and Brad.  I am going to have to make sure to give these boys cookies for next Saturday.

 

 

Auction day

Today was Auction day!!!(Actually it was two days ago, it took some time to get back to the blog).   And I did not take one photo.  My apologies to all.  This was one of the best auctions I have had since I started managing here in Yukon.  Ok that is not totally true, this was Linda’s  first auction ever, and it was her site that really rocked today.

The auction started at Guardian Storage at 10: 00 am.  We had a total of 11 bidders signed in, that is 7 more than I have had here in three years.   With that increase we got the first of the, I know what  I doing and if you don’t believe me just watch me strut around, bidder.  I will call him the whistler.  This guy is a great example of someone who watches too much Storage Wars.  At least I hope he watches too much Storage Wars…. Gee, if he is naturally that much of a self-centered person his mama needs slapped.   This guy was so obnoxious it was almost fun to watch.  He would talk and talk , and when he was not talking he was whistling.  He was the first one to look in the door of a unit and the last to leave and he would stand in front of anyone else trying to look.  As the saying goes “Karma is a Bitch”.  

The first unit that went up on the auction block was a very nice room full of house hold stuff.  The whistler jumped into the fray early.  The bidding moved quickly and he would up anyone’s bid $25 even before they could get the bid out.  Around $300 it was down to the Whistler and the Big Spender.  The Big Spender was this nice guy who ended up buying the most units. I could tell the Big Spender was starting to wear down the Whistler because the bidding was slowing down. When the Big Spender hit $400 there was a long pause by the whistler as he looked and leaned as much as he could into the space.  At this point I was done and started to call for a final bid when out of the blue our First Timer chimed in with a bid of $425 The Big Spender nodded to the First Timer  to let her have the space I called out $425 going , going , gone.  With that the Whistler turned around and looked at me with a”what just happened” look.  I think he might have thought he had said the bid, but he did not and the First Timer got a real good deal. 

This is the way the bidding went for the other spaces, if the Whistler went after a space the Big Spender would out bid him or let someone else.  At the close of the Guardian Auction the Whistler was not whistling anymore and made a hasty retreat off the property.  So hasty that Linda and I, and several bidders made sure to get out of the way so not to be run over.  The lesson to learn here is to play nice with others. If you try to be the big dog of the pen you might just get bit.

Here is a picture of our Big dog