Another productive day!

This morning didn’t start out too good.  We headed out to the van to find the rear driver’s side tire flat.  This is the first time in the 5 years we’ve had the van that we’ve needed the spare tire, so I pulled out the instruction manual to get us in the right direction.  Ryan had the spare on in about 20 minutes and we were on our way.  We stopped by the realtor (Re-Max) to drop of the first 2 checks – a deposit and the fee for the credit check, etc.  She said she’d call us to let us know if we got approved or not, and it would probably be about an hour.  Yeah, right.  By the time we got to the van and got in and seat belts on, she was running after us to tell us we got approved.  Yay!!!!  So we have a house!

Then we headed to a tire place – after being referred there by our realtor.  We went to Discount Tire and the guy looked at everything and said he would try and repair the tire first before selling us a new one.  We walked across the street to Sonic for breakfast.  Ah, Sonic!!!!!!!  Yum!  Then we went to check out a bookstore next door, but they didn’t open until 10 and it was only 9:30.  About that time, the guy from the tire place called and said that he wasn’t able to fix the tire and told me how much a new one was and said they would have it ready shortly.  We walked back across the street and waited about 5 minutes and it was ready.  I will definitely recommend this place to others!

Then it was off to the Harley dealership for a bit – Ryan had seen his bike out front when we drove by earlier and he wanted to make sure they weren’t selling it to someone else.  Nope.  It had only been out for about 2 minutes and our salesperson (and I guess the manager/owner/something high up like that) saw it and told them to take it back in the back and put a sold sign on it so there wasn’t a mix-up again like there was today.  We looked around a bit and Ryan found a helmet he likes and a reflective vest as well (he’ll need that for on post).  

And then we headed back to post to get a waiver letter for the deposit for electric hook-up (deposit is $265 and the waiver letter gives me electric with NO deposit).  Then we began our rounds.  We stopped at the gas place.  They waive the deposit just because I’m Active Duty Military – just had to show them my "discount card", I mean my ID card, for that.  They’ll be coming Friday morning.  We stopped at the electric place.  They’ll have it turned on tomorrow if they didn’t get to it today.  We stopped at the cable place for cable/internet/phone.  They will be by Saturday morning.  Those three were all on the same street within a few blocks of each other.  Then we had to drive to the other side of town to the water company.  I had to pay a deposit there, but it’s refunded after a year of keeping my account in good standing.  Water will be turned on tomorrow.  Woohoo – we have utilities for our house!!

Since we were already down in the area where Ryan’s college is (Cochise College), we stopped by there so he could change his address and get his student ID card.  And then, since Michigan Secretary of State couldn’t/wouldn’t work with Ryan over the phone for his motorcycle endorsement on his brand new license, we went and found the Arizona DMV office and did the paperwork to get Ryan an Arizona drivers license.  VERY EASY to do!  And then he went to take the test for the motorcycle endorsement.  Not so easy.  He does get 3 tries within a year to pass though.  So he failed it.  No big deal.  We’ll just get a booklet thing, study tonight, and then go take it again tomorrow.  Nope.  They don’t have study materials.  WHAT??????  That makes no sense.  Eventually (after he called the state office and talked to several levels of supervisors) he found out that all the motorcycle books had to be pulled because someone had been offended by something in it (what’s offensive in a motorcycle manual????) and was suing the state.  Good grief.  After we got back to the room and had taken a walk to the Post Office to mail something, the PX to look at TVs, and the Furniture Store to look at tv stands (they really didn’t have much selection), Ryan did some extensive searching online and finally found some free practice tests for motorcycle.  It’s not Arizona ones, but he said the questions were very similar to the ones he had had on the test today.  He went through all of them and by the end of the night was getting 100% on them.  So hopefully tomorrow he passes.  While he was doing that, Robert played on the playground by our room and I crocheted on (and finished) a dishcloth.  While Robert was in the bathtub later on (after we watched Betime Stories), I walked to the shoppette and got ice cream sandwiches (the cookie kind!) for me and him.  Ryan didn’t want anything.

I’m heading to bed early tonight, and tomorrow we sign our lease and get our keys!!

Today’s high:  93
Current:  82