A Covid Halloween

I asked Erika a few days ago if she needed to go to Costco anytime soon because we needed to renew our Costco membership.  She said Saturday would work best for her and if I could pick her up that would be fabulous.  I said sure and told her I would be there around 10ish.  Ben was at academy for most of the day in Tenino.

I got up, got dressed, grabbed what I needed and took a breakfast drink with me as I drove over to their apartment.  I let her know I was here and she and Zach came down.  It turns out Zach was coming with us on our shopping adventure.  We drove out to Hawks Prairie, parked and went inside.  We renewed our membership first and then went and grabbed a few things.  They bought way more things that I did.  I ended up with bananas, chicken strips, PB pretzels, heads for Ben's toothbrush, olive oil and some silicone mats for my cookies sheets (I bought those for myself for my birthday.)  We paid and then loaded it all in the back of the Escape.  We went over to Walmart so I could get milk and some candy for the trunk or treat later on today.  They ended up getting stuff too and I had to wait for them in line.  We packed all of that into the Escape and drove back to their apartment.  I helped them bring the stuff in and gave Emmett some pets.

We were gone longer than I expected, got home as quick as I could, unloaded the stuff out of the Escape, put away the refrigerated and freezer items, used the restroom, grabbed my shark costume, my back pack, the recycle and headed out to Rainier.  I felt like I was being hurried because the trunk or treat started at two and I didn't like being late.

Trunk or treat was created by Christina and Shari because they wanted a place to where the kids could have a place to go for Halloween because Covid was destroying a lot of holidays.  We actually thought Covid would go away by now but we were all horribly mistaken.  They planned all kinds of activities, had people agree to come down to Woodbrook Chapel with their cars, candy and decorations.  I was glad that the weather held up for us.  In fact, it was probably one of the best days in October weather wise.

I dumped off the recycle and bought some gas really quick.  I picked up Mom and drove to Woodbrook.  We didn't have time to decorate our trunk but I was able to remember to get a container to put the candy in.  I put on my shark costume and mingled with the crowd.

I was actually surprised to see that many people there and there were tons of kids.  There were family members I haven't seen in years and it was hard to pinpoint which kids belonged to which people.  I made several rounds taking to people I haven't spoken to in years.  Mom and I stayed until about 6:00 talking to people around the fire pit near Bob and Bev's house.  

Shari brought out some Halloween Skittles and we had a Skittles challenge.  Eat your pack of Skittles until you get one that tasted disgusting.  I think I got maybe six Skittles in until I got a yucky one.  We were entertained for about a half hour doing that.  We thanked the hosts and said it was fun.  There was some chatter about possibly doing it again next year.

I took Mom home, gave her a check for my phone bill and started heading back towards home.  I then had this idea so I texted Megan to see if she was home.  She was but Matt, Mason and Miles were not.  I asked if I could stop by to drop off some Halloween candy for the kids and she said sure.  I stayed for about 45 minutes chatting about a bunch of random things.  She thanked me and I was on my way home.

I got home, brought stuff in, put the groceries away since I didn't have time earlier, Ben was home so I made tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner.  We watched the rest of some of the college football games, I worked on my blog and Ben played his game for a while.  We had no trick or treaters this year because of Covid.  I didn't even bother to decorate because no one was going to be around to see it.  I sure hope next year is different and we are able to get back to our normal lives.

Next Adventure:  Geocaching and Chores on Veteran's Day

How It Started, How It's Going

Ben and I started dating on October 27, 2013.  We made it official after the Sounders game that I attended with him and his friend Michael.  At that point, I was driving a crappy car that could blow up at any moment, I was working part-time at a dentist office (who refused to hire me full time or give me more hours even though I worked hard and was reliable), I lived with my parents, I had a lot of (school) debt, no insurance, no money to do anything fun, I was just tired of what I was doing and needed a change.  I had been applying for state jobs but wasn't having any luck.  I soon got frustrated and it seemed hopeless but I trudged on.

Ben on the other hand, was also driving a crappy car, lost his job at the fire department, was on the brink of losing his job at the ambulance place because of losing his job at the fire department, was living in his car because he lost his job at the fire department because driving back and forth to Bonney Lake everyday was a long drive that sucked up gas and money, he was living in a county where he didn't know anyone, also had school debt and he didn't want to tell me all of this because he thought I would dump him.  I told him circumstances change and so does life.  I said, think about where we will be five to seven years from now.

In 2014, was talked into applying for a job at the local hotel and I was hesitant to do it because honestly, I really didn't want to work at a hotel.  I didn't want to work my weekends away and I felt like my time was worth more than $10 hr.  I ended up just doing it and worked there for a year (which was way too long).  I didn't make much, our hours varied, was stressed out all the time, was over worked, I gained weight and I was very unhappy.  I was able to get a better vehicle that I trusted to get me from point A to point B and back to point A again.  I ended up getting mono from this experience as well and my body was never the same after that.  I was let go just after being there for a year.  In May 2015, they made up an incident that took place to get rid of me.  At least they could have done their research and actually made up that incident on a day that I didn't have off.  I was on unemployment for about three months and made $152 a week.  I was actually thankful they let me go because I was home when we had to take care of my Dad after a quadruple bypass surgery.  That, to date at the time, was the scariest day of my life.  He has since then recovered and changed some of his habits.

Ben had a rough spring that year in 2014, his dad had passed away from a heart attack at their family home and he got a phone call from his mom that morning.  He called me, very upset, to let me know what had happened.  At this point, I did not know what it felt like to lose a loved one and I didn't really know what to do or what to say to make him feel better.  Also, Ben and I were still pretty new in our relationship and I didn't want to insert myself into another family's affairs.  I told him that I will support him in any way I could.  Ben spent a while at home with his mom and sister taking care of stuff.  I went to the service about a month later to support Ben and his family.  Their life had change drastically and in the midst of everything else, Ben kept on going.

The fire station ended up hiring him back as a volunteer but he also had to work another job to actually stay a float.  He was first working at REI but they cut back hours so he was forced to find another job at the Lucky Eagle Casino.  He was working the night shift at the casino as an EMT/Security officer.  Doing both those jobs at the same time literally destroyed his health and his sleep.  His car finally died and had to get another one.  He eventually set his sights on a Subaru at the end of the year.  Then a few months later, in the late winter of 2016, the fire district's levy passed in which they were able to hire him as a career firefighter so he put in his two weeks notice at the casino to work full time at the fire station.  The stipulation was, now that you are considered a career fire fighter you can not live at the station anymore and have to find your own place to live.  That caused a problem because we both were not making that much money to be able to live off of let alone rent a place to live.

That spring, we started the daunting task of trying to find a place to live that we could afford. I had been working at L&I since September 2015 and I was making more money than I ever had at my former jobs.  I was actually able to save some of that money.  He had some money that he has been saving just for this situation as well.  We managed to find a place in the middle of the summer of 2016 and moved in.  It happened fast and I really hoped that all of this worked out. I had moved from one job to another within the building but this one was permanent but it was part-time.  I wasn't making as much money as I had been so I was very stressed out and had to really monitor my money.  Somehow we made it all work.

He worked at the station for about eight months as a career firefighter under probation and one day, in January 2017, they just decided to let him go.  We are from a state where they don't have to tell you why you were fired.  They are not obligated to do so unless they want to be professional about it and actually have that meeting.  In this case it seemed like they never wanted to hire Ben...it almost seemed like they had to, didn't treat him very well at least not like the other career firefighters, told him what he was doing wrong during his reviews but never added constructive criticism on how to be better, there was no comradery, Ben always felt like he never belonged...almost like he wasn't a part of the good ol' boys club.  I knew moving into a house was going to be a problem.  It was a huge risk getting into a place knowing that he was on probation and could be let go at anytime.

A month before, in December, I was finally moved from part-time into full time because one of my co-workers decided to move onto a different opportunity.  That meant I was going to make double what I was making on part-time.  It came just in time too.

Ben was on unemployment through most of 2017 and trying to figure out how to stay a float.  It was a rough year.  We had to start getting creative if we were going to stay in this house.  Ben enrolled in school to take care of some prerequisites and because he was in school, unemployment was stretched out further for him.  We also got a roommate so they could pay for half of everything, even though we really didn't want a roommate.  Subletting was kind of frowned upon but we managed to talk the property management into letting us do it.  There was a catch, we were responsible for the damages or any problems that may occur while they lived there so we created a contract with signatures stating that everyone understood the situation.

We visited some friends over that summer that year and they suggested that Ben apply for EBT to help with food costs since he was on unemployment and going to school.  They said that it helped them a lot while they were in between jobs.  They were right.  It helped us tremendously while we were able to have it.

Also that same summer, my sister had to move from Nevada to come live with us with her dog. So now we had two extra people and a dog living with us and all the same house rules applied.  My sister understood because she knew I was being generous to let her live there since I knew she was basically starting over again and needed the help.  She appreciated it.  She did everything she needed to do and then some.  She was the perfect roommate.

It was fine for a while.  Then one day it changed and the other roommate decided they didn't want to hold up their end of the bargain.  I was frustrated that we've reached this divot in the road because we are all adults and should be acting as such.  It was like we had a 12 year old living with us.  They didn't want to do their chores, clean up after themselves, created more work for the others and the list just goes on.  

We had a pretty important rule about not bringing plants inside the house because we had pets.  Well, they brought a plant in the house and set it on the floor.  Unfortunately, I didn't see this right away but the damage was already done.  My cat had consumed a poisonous plant, tried to puke it up and we had to take him to an emergency 24 hour place in Lakewood because it was the only one in the area that had an EKG machine.  I was very thankful he was fine after a couple days of monitoring and a $1300+ vet bill.  We let them know that since they brought the plant in and caused this mess they were responsible for paying every cent back to us.  They agreed.   

Again, it was fine for a while and then they started to become really withdrawn, secretive, turned into a recluse and started taking advice from their friends.  Those decisions turned out bad for them and they eventually moved out which ruined my weekend.  I was planning on going on a long weekend trip for my birthday but stayed home just in case something weird happened.  Something weird did happen and they decided they didn't want to finish paying us what they owed on the vet bill.  I wasn't going to let them off the hook. For the next few months and into the new year, we tried to settle it but they wanted to be difficult so we took their ass to court.

Meanwhile, Ben's unemployment ran out as fall began and he was forced to find another job.  He finished his college courses and looked into doing more some other time.  He did some seasonal work at Costco, became a volunteer at the Tenino Fire Department through a friend of his and had to start working at Lowes because Costco took their sweet time getting back to him after seasonal work ended.  He was back doing two jobs at the same time with an erratic schedule.

At the start of the new year in 2018, Ben was on his way home from Tenino and some lady didn't yield in a neighborhood causing Ben to not be able to stop in time resulting in his car going into her SUV.  He totaled his car and had to lease a new one for the next three years because that's all he could afford at the time.  When are the misfortunes going to end?  When will we finally have a good year?

That late winter, we won in mediation and they paid us the money they owed in one lump sum about a month later.  That was a large life lesson on how small claims court worked and further shows me how awful people can be when they don't want to take care of their responsibilities.  I was so glad it was over and we got our money.

The rest of that year felt very unknown and empty.  I took a year long non perm job in the last spring and I wasn't sure if it was going to turn into a permanent one.  I was running out of time, because it was going to end in May, and most of my time was spent trying to spruce up my resume, cover letter and interviewing skills.  It was taxing.  Two months later, I was so stressed out.  I had to return to the mail room, I had five interviews and were offered most of them.  I had to choose.  The job I wanted wasn't interviewing until the end of the month and the others were at the beginning.  I ended up with the DOT job but still kept my options open just in case the one (at L&I) at the end of the month was offered to me.

That month was spent learning an archaic job.  DOT was so far behind L&I when it came to filing, imaging and doing your time sheet. I was spoiled at L&I.  I didn't know anyone and spent a lot of my time by myself.  I mastered just about everything in two weeks or so.  I eventually was offered that L&I job, I wasn't their first choice but the person they picked declined it, so I accepted it.  I wanted to go back to L&I.  I was at DOT for only a month.

Ben spent most of that half of the year trying to get a better job whether it was at a fire station, a state agency or even at a private industry that didn't involve retail.  He had no luck but did talk Lowes into letting him leave for wildfire season over the summer for two weeks.  He spent his time in northern and southern Oregon.  When he got back, he continued working terrible hours at Lowes and the fire station.

The summer of 2018 was very hard. I finally, after almost three years, got myself a full time permanent state job.  I could not believe it took that long but a lot of hard work, support from those coworkers who cared and putting up with a lot of terrible coworkers went into it.  It was hard to be happy and proud of it because my grandmother wasn't doing too well after her stroke that spring and all my energy went into that.  She eventually passed and it was devastating.  I really don't remember how I made it through those three months.  Life had changed forever.

The rest of that year was trying to get used to our new reality.  It was hard because that person has always been in your life up to that point.  She had a giant role in my life.  Family holidays were going to be difficult.  I cried myself to sleep most nights.  It was a rough time in my life.  I now understood how Ben felt when he lost his dad.  Grief is the hardest human emotion to deal with and the toughest to overcome.

2019 showed up and it looked like we were going to be spared through the first quarter of the year.  Things were actually comfortable and nothing was going wrong.  Then I got a text message from Ben one day at work asking me to call him.  I walked down to the parking lot in the front of the building and called him.  He basically said that the landlord wanted to move back into the house and we had until the end of June to move out.  It was the beginning of April.  I was angry because moving was going to be expensive.

We started looking for a place to live that would fit three people, a dog and a cat.  We had some good leads but the places online needed to update their info because a lot of the places we contacted said that the place was rented already.  We got frustrated.  A few days later Ben found one so we went and took a look at it.  I wanted to be in a house before the end of May.  I wanted to enjoy the stuff I had planned for the summer.  We decided to take it because we just couldn't wait for something else that might not have become available.  It had plenty of room, a pretty good sized yard, less than a quarter mile from the other house, the price was decent and we could move in asap.  We struck a deal with the other house and had to be out of there by mid June.  We were frickin busy that May and June.

Ben's grandma had to be put in a home and it was a terrible place.  Her heath got worse throughout the year.  We tried to go visit as much as we could.

As we got settled in, we were able to go through a lot of our stuff and get rid of some of it.  My sister did the same.  We got into a pretty good routine and everything was going well.  I was learning the ins and outs of my job, my sister was working through her degree, the dog and cat were getting used to the new place and Ben had an opportunity present itself in the form of maintenance on JBLM.  We've had our "hard but true" discussions over the years about his ambition to become a career firefighter and it just wasn't happening for some reason.  I told him to just find something to start making money so you can have hobbies, pay off some of your bills and can go out and do some fun things again.  He decided to go for it and learned a lot of skills very quickly.  He was tired of working retail.

As we got into 2020, everything was working out for us.  Things were paid off, we were able to save money, Ben started taking jujutsu classes with Josh and I had my entire year planned out and all the fun stuff we were going to do throughout the year such as a trip to Ecuador and Peru, concert with friends, geocaching in Canada and a visit to go see Ben's extended family in New Mexico.  I was so excited.

Then effing Covid hit and it ruined our entire year.  I wasted money on a trip I didn't get to go on and everything was postponed or canceled.  All we did was work our life away.  Ben had to physically go into work and I worked from home.  I was so done with Covid after a couple weeks.  It altered everything including my job.  We were forced to take furlough days because the state was losing money due to the stupid shutdowns. My sister moved in with her boyfriend in May so Ben and I had this giant house to ourselves.  With some of the extra time, I was able to go through a lot of stuff I had been putting off for about a decade or so.  We also did a lot of yard work.  Then in August, my cat that I've had for about 12 years was dying.  I had to take him to a vet where we had to make that horrible decision of putting him to sleep.  It was awful.  I've never been without a pet before and the house was very lonely. 

We actually thought it would be under control by the fall, hahaha!  Joke's on us!

Anyway, since 2013 Ben and I have had some ups and downs, losses and gains and learned a lot of patience and life lessons among other things.  These situations were not meant to last forever, however, they were put in our lives to teach us lessons on how to overcome, grow and deal with them.  A lot has happened since that day back in 2013 and we could have easily given up but we didn't.  We were determined to make the most of it no matter how difficult the situation got.  

Here's to another 5-7 years when we check in again. 

Next Adventure:  A Covid Halloween

A Meet and Greet in Astoria

The last event we were able to go to before Covid shut the world, country and state down was the Leap Day event that was held at Woodland Creek Park in Lacey.  Since then, nothing.  All of our planned caching trips such as TriCities, GeowoodStock in Canada and the 20th Anniversary Party in Seattle and all of the little events here and there were postponed or canceled.  I had to cancel my 10 Year "Cachiversary" event because the governor banned gatherings a week before my event.  It wouldn't have mattered because it was going to be outside and social distancing is easy.  I even had hand sanitizer available!  I will never get that moment back even if I do it next year.  It just won't be the same.

A few weeks ago I noticed that there was an event down in Astoria.  Bev messaged me asking if I was going to go because she would need a ride.  I told her to let me think about it.  I really wanted to go but what if it pours down rain?  Will going down there be worth it?  I ended up telling her probably unless the weather was gross.  Apparently that county in Oregon was allowed to have outdoor gatherings.

As the event approached I put in my "will attend" log on the cache page and waited until the weekend of to really decide to go or not.  I was keeping an eye on the weather.

The weather was going to be cold but favorable so we planned on what time we were going to go and such.  Mom decided she didn't want to go with us and neither did Bob, which was surprising.  I guess if he wasn't going to go get like 50 of them he didn't want to go.  Well, he and Bev had most of them because they've been down there several times in the past.  I had lots to get still.  The night before I solved some of the puzzle that were in the area we were going to be in.  Some were pretty easy and some required some thought.  I put a preliminary list together.  I got my stuff together and headed to bed. 

I also found out that we were going to miss the Seahawks/Cardinals game since it was a 1:30 start time.  We would have to listen to it on the radio.  However, it was a big game so it was changed to the Sunday night slot at 5:20 on NBC so we might be able to watch it if we got home on time.  We would have to see.

I got up around 8:45, got ready, put my warm clothes on in layers, since it was going to be cold and said goodbye to Ben.  He had just gotten home from a 24-hour shift at the fire station and wanted to take a nap.  I told him that I wasn't sure when we'd be back from Astoria.  He told us to have fun.  I grabbed my lunch and banana and headed out the door with my coat, hiking shoes and poles...just in case we needed them.  I drove out to Rainier and picked up Bev around 9:40, only to find out that I still need to do my front driver's side bearings now.  Ugh.

We drove towards I-5 through Tenino and Grand Mound.  Since Bob and Bev have most of the caches, we didn't stop and get any on the way there.  Traffic wasn't that bad which was nice since we had about a two hour drive ahead of us.  We got to Longview and went over the Lewis and Clark Bridge onto Hwy 30 west to Astoria.  Because we didn't stop for caches, it didn't take us very long to get to Astoria even though it's a pretty long drive.

We rolled into town around noon and had to pull off the highway into a parking lot to find out which cache was closest to us and where it was.  We put the coords into Bev's phone and she directed me to where I needed to go.  

Our first one, Skip A Bit Brother (GC83F4R) took us up the hill and onto a pull out.  When we got there I recognized where we were.  Not too far from where we parked the Escape, was a trail head that I remembered.  When we came here for the Long Beach Cache Machine, January 2012, we had gone up to the Astoria Column for some caches and were talked into walking down the Cathedral Tree Trail to pick up more caches and do the Goonies themed series around town.  That trail head a few yards away is where we ended up and we were taken back up to the column to our cars.  The cache we came here for was hidden amongst the logs.  I signed our names and we got back into the Escape.  

We drove down the hill and decided we should hit up the Safeway and use the restroom while we were here.  I wasn't sure where else there would be a public restroom available because of Covid.

I asked her what cache we should go to next and she said let's go to the Columbia River Maritime Museum because that's where the next couple of them are.  We parked, grabbed a snack and had to choose between Astoria Riverwalk East or West and we chose East (GC7HWA3).  We grabbed our hats, gloves and coats and started on our walk and wow what a walk it was.  

It took us to six different places along the trail, which we had to answer questions about to gather coord numbers, we did the math and then walked to the final.  It wasn't too far from where we turned around to head back to the Escape.  There were quite a few people using the trail including walkers, joggers, people on bikes and people walking their dogs.  

At one point, a creepy homeless guy snuck out of the bushes carrying around a Starbucks cup.  We weren't sure if anything was in it but the guy sounded pretty sick since he kept hacking and coughing.  We steered away from him just in case he had Covid or something.  At the final, we ran into a pair of other cachers who were probably here for the event, MrWalkie and snosrfpolo, who were both from the Oregon area.  We found the cache together.

We walked back to the Escape and I just about wore Bev out.  We did a lot of walking.  We had to have walked at least two miles.  I noticed my Discover Pass was on my windshield underneath one of my wipers.  It must have blown out of the Escape when we were leaving.  Who ever saved it for me thank you!  We pulled up the coords for the event and Bev led the way.  We turned into some baseball fields and parked the car.  I recognized this area.  The fields were below the school that Kindergarten Cop movie was filmed at.  We grabbed our masks and headed to the WSGA booth.  The Superknots gave us both tickets for the raffle and we weren't able to sign the log to Hey You Guys WSGA Meet and Greet (GC906DE) so they signed the logbook for us...because you know, Covid.

We spent most the time talking to Sean and Seth and then we saw Rhonda and talked to her for a bit.  We did the raffle and Bev won twice and I didn't win.  Sad day.  We thanked everyone and headed back to the Escape and then went to go grab one more cache that Sean gave us coords to so we didn't have to do a lot of walking for the multi.  It was called Pipe Dreams (GC7W6A6) and we tried looking in the trees where the coords pointed to but we were pretty off.  Then Cool Cow Cachers thought about following me into the woods but checked in one tree closer to the trail and found the container.  We all signed the log and he put it back.  We told them to have a nice day and we walked back to the Escape to head back towards home.

We went the same way home and the traffic wasn't bad getting back into Washington.  We got onto I-5 north and stopped in Kelso at the Taco Time because Bev wanted some dinner and that there is always time for tacos.  This was the first "fast food" restaurant that we actually got to go into instead of having to use the drive through.  We both ordered the burrito meals, used the restroom to wash our hands and enjoyed our food while we chatted about random things.  

We used the restroom one more time and I asked Bev if she was up for finding two more caches just down the road.  She said of course.

We grabbed Welcome to the Corner of My Road (GC4KE2H) and Happy Anniversary Geocaching! 15 Years of Fun! (GC5TRMX) and both caches were hidden by our friend Freda (bearsandme) who we miss dearly.  We are glad her daughter checks up on her caches and keeps them alive.  

We got back on I-5 and drove the rest of the way home listening to the Seahawks on the radio.  

When we got to her house she invited me in for some carrot cake.  We got wrapped up in the game and eventually stayed the duration of the game working on the current puzzle she and Bob were working on.  Sadly, we gave the game away with a field goal in OT to the Cardinals after leading the entire game.  It was stupid.  I thanked them for inviting me over and headed back to Lacey to get a shower, log my caches and headed to bed.  Ben asked how the event went and I told him it was different but it was an event.  It was also fun being able to see some of the cachers we haven't seen in person in a while.  Hopefully we get to go to events again soon like normal.

Next Adventure:  How It Started, How It's Going