There is lots of things I could talk about today. I'm choosing this as a distraction from my thoughts. I'm a mess but I'm holding it together til I get home.

I guarantee you did not have this on your bingo card. Hold on to something...

Dusty is a 16' Chevy Express box truck. We got it years ago in a trade for some labor. We essentially got it for nothing in that we sold a lot of the stuff we moved with it originally and made money. Cleaning out storage lockers has been good to us over the years. We were still in Lake Elsinore when we bought it and pretty much that is how we moved from there. Trip after trip 4 hours away to the kern property and a bunch of stuff to the apartment in LA. It has been great having a big truck all this time and now I guess I have to keep it for a while longer. You may remember Dusty is the truck the wheels literally fell off of not too long ago. That's it there in LA in the picture below. It was that guy that was supposed to do some of this work. So new hubs, brakes, a buch of electrical and timing stuff and more. Lot's more. Considering how much money I just put in it I should have a great truck again when it is done. That is the problem now... it is not done.

Let's back  up. The last load out of LA to go to NY was loaded and ready to go. I needed a new driver after some dumb driver drama. I called my good driver who had made two Penske trips for us. He's a monster and made those trips in like three and a half days. It takes me 5. He couldn't do another trip at the time and we searched and he found a cousin who could do it. We packed up the last stuff  from Kern in the back with the LA stuff and I drove back to LA in it to bring it to the new driver. It ran like a top. I did 70 miles and hour for 3 hours and all seemed well with the world. We went over a few things and Tommy and his girl climbed in and took off. Everything seemed fine.

Over the course of several days we lost contact as he passed through through the Rockies. Then nothing again for 2 more days. Frantically texting and calling we could do nothing but wait for an answer. When it finally came it was a text that said "finally got service, had truck trouble on the way down the hill and we're in Aurora CA and looking for a mechanic. We found a guy who came up and gave it a look and found several things that I I had just paid to get done in preparation for the trip did not in fact get done or done right. Front brakes for one thing and several others that were keeping it under 55 and sounding really rough. Tommy had to go home to help teach a chef's class and they left it with the mechanic and I arranged for a storage spot where it could be safe till I got another driver there. He got all that fixed and found some other stuff and gave me a good deal so while we waited he kept working. He kept finding stuff and we wracked up a good bill but all said and done I'll have a great truck in the end.

So now we needed a driver and Tommy said he could do it the following weekend. As we got close I tried texting and calling and emails and I could not get hold of Tommy and no one knew where he was. Days went by while I tried to find another and eventually made a plan to go get it myself. Finally I get a text from Tommy that says "I just got out of jail call you in a bit." WTF?! JAIL?! I wait and wait and finally hours later I get the story. Turns out Tommy and his girl are felons (from years ago and rehabbing through chef's school. He was really doing well.) and not supposed to leave the county nevermind the state. Getting on the airplane triggered some felon flag and he got arrested at LAX. I really felt bad cause he was just trying to do us a favor after his cousin filled him in on our nightmare move. It was his choice however so I got over it. He reasured me I shouldn't feel guilty. He knew he was an idiot. He was just honestly trying to help. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. Before he left he made sure our stuff was safe, ran for parts when needed and relayed our story to the mechanic who also, kindly kept shaving off his labor costs down to the minimum even when he had three guys on it trying to get it done fast.

It came down to one part that we had to order and it is supposed to be here today, installed tomorrow and I should be able to drive it home on Thursday. We'll see. If you have been following along on Facebook you know this move has been one thing after another after another but no matter what I thought about I did not have "driver gets arrested" on my bingo card. You?