Wild Wild West

So I survived our trip to Dodge City, Kansas. I fell out of bed at 4:30 am, somehow managed to put myself together and we hit the road at 6 am. That was the most boring drive of my life!! There is no direct shot from here to there so it was mostly back roads. Hills and cows. I did see 2 horses on the trip back. But still. And of course it wasn’t all ONE back road but numerous ones. Just enough that I couldn’t cat nap for fear I wouldn’t wake up to tell him which way to turn. Because our GPS is a piece of crap and wanted to take us every other way but the shortest, most direct route. The longest we’d be on any given road was 30 miles. So yeah, I didn’t get any sleep on our trip. But neither did he *snickers*.

So anyway, about Dodge City, Kansas … it is small. And you knew when you entered the town and when you left the town. No questions about it lol. And it is mostly industrial. Numerous meat packing plants (OMG the smell of cows!!!!) and grain mills and lots of other plants/mills I couldn’t figure out. Growing up in SC, there aren’t many factories. Charleston does have a paper mill. But most of the industry is Ports and plantations and farming (of the non-animal variety). Now Ohio has tons of factories, all spread out, so it was a ‘Woah" type moment for me to see so many in one general location. Hubby said he prefers the smell of cows (shit!) over the paper mill. Not me. We lived next to a pig farm in England and if I never have to smell animal shit again it will be too soon! LOL Growing up in the country, we farmed with pigs and chickens and grew our own veggies so I should be used to the smells and all but yeah, I don’t like it so much in my old age lol.

We got into town about 10:45 am, found the place his interview was at and then decided to drive around to scope out the town. Took about 30 minutes lol. We did see a nice apartment complex and stopped to inquire about them. They are tax controlled. WTF? If you make over a certain amount, you don’t qualify to rent there. So yeah, we left. It almost pays to be on welfare anymore these days. We stopped to eat lunch and kill time (lol) and then headed over to the job site at 12:30. The Child and I decided to stay in the car during his interview. For one, we had pretty much seen all there was to see and two, he was going to want to do what ever it was her & I did after his interview so what was the point in doing it twice? About 10 after 2 he come back out & said the interviewing guy was going to take us on a tour of the city at 3. Didn’t we do that when we rolled into town? So anyway, we drove to the city center, walked around, stopped in the visitor’s center and was back to the job site at 10 to 3. The guy, Jerry I believe his name was, was nice enough. He drove us around in his truck and pointed out some places we had missed (mainly the hospital & high school lol) and we were done by 4. We left & went to Walmart (we have this thing where we have to hit Walmart whenever we visit a new town) and was rolling back out of town at 5:30. Got home about 9:50 and crashed shortly thereafter lol.

I really don’t want to live there. It really isn’t my cup of tea. But I’ve lived in worse places so if that is where the Good Lord wants us, that is where I will strive to make it work.

Because he got a call yesterday (Friday) that he has the job. They want him to start September 24. That’s in 6 weeks and 2 days. So unless a better offer comes in, that is where we will be headed. Am I happy? No. I mean, yes, I am very thankful he got offered the job. That was the biggest cross on our backs. One of us needed to find a job and soon! So here we are, with a job offer. God did provide for us. As I knew He would. So if Dodge City, KS is where God needs me to be, then that is where I will hang my hat until God tells me otherwise. And I will make the most of it even if it is not where I want to be.

Surprisingly The Child is okay with all this. She’s happy enough with Dodge City. She hasn’t put up any fuss. Maybe because, aside from Tommy, there is nothing here to hold her attention. Leaving Charleston was hard on her because of my family (why when they pretty much ignored her!!) and the friends she had made. Whatever it may be, I’m grateful that she isn’t pulling out the drama and making this harder on us.

I get to spend Monday on the phone calling Realtor(s) in Dodge City looking for rentals. There are 6 apartment complexes in the city, 2 of which we drove past and looked ghetto as hell, and the 1 that is tax controlled. We don’t want to have to buy if we can help it. But there is NO info online about any type of rental properties. We’ll have to go up in a few weeks for the weekend to look at places I am sure but if I can get the ball rolling now, that will be a huge help. Because we need to schedule TMO to come pack us up & move us. And we have to put in a 30 days notice with housing. All kinds of fun stuff to be done. But, I’ve been down this road numerous times so it is all do-able. The icing on the cake is knowing it is the last time having to move with the military! And I don’t care if he likes it or not but I will be paying the $275 fee to have this house cleaned. I refuse to clean anymore base housing!! Especially after what Charleston did to me by screwing me royally back in December. If HE wants to clean this house, more power to him. But this fat-ass chick ain’t doing it!

After we ate lunch in Dodge City & were sitting in the parking lot of the job interview, we were talking and he made a comment that it would suck if he was offered the job and then he got another offer with a different company. Uhm, suck? How? I told him that would be a good thing, Murphy’s Law and all, and that if he does get a job offer he would rather take, that all he has to do is call Caterpillar back and say, "Look, I’m sorry but I’ve been offered a job with a different company with better pay, etc. and as much as I appreciate you taking the time to consider me, and offer me the job,  and blah blah blah, I’m going to have to go with the better offer for my family’s sake." He’s still stuck in Military Mode lol and thinks because he accepted the offer that he HAS to take the job. Uh, no. You did not sign on any dotted line, committing x amount of years to Caterpillar like you did with the Military. If a better job offer comes your way, and you would rather work there, then by all means, take the damn job! It’s as simple as that lol. So here’s to hoping a better, or at least an in Ohio, job offer comes his way. And if not, so be it.

He had a telephone interview Thursday morning with a company in Ohio. His uncle works there and is trying to pull strings to get Hubby hired on. Hubby said that the company will call back next week for another telephone interview and then hopefully they will offer him an on site interview and then we’d go from there. We still have 6 weeks so it’s do-able … if that is what God has in store for us. He also mentioned to me that he has 3 applications in with Boeing here in OKC and so there is a chance he could still get on there. But again, it’s all up to God.

Whatever happens, whatever may be, we are moving out of this house and there is a lot to do to prepare for, regardless of where we move to. It is a done deal and there is no turning backnow …

Till next time ….