This morning, I awoke to find Brandon at the peak of frustration sitting in the spare bedroom, head in his hands with a frozen computer screen ahead of him. When I asked what was wrong, he began to relay to me the reality of one of our biggest fears with the move we've made: his inability to connect to Principal's network. Without that network connection, Brandon wouldn't be able to do his job. Now some of you that know me well, know that I tend to overanalyze situations to the point of exhaustion, but I'd have to say I held my composure extremely well, considering the circumstances. Without a quick fix, Brandon was either moving home, or unemployed. And being in a village smaller than Beetown, the opportunities for Brandon to find work would be slim to none. For some reason, despite the huge ramifications that would result in things not working out, we found the sense to make a few phone calls and see what it was we could do to fix the problem. Come to find out, Principal sent Brandon a computer that was not mapping correctly with the system's network. All morning, we were worried it was our satellite connection through Hughesnet, preventing network access. Thankfully, it's something on Principal's end, that has been given elevated priority within Principal's technical support system, and things should be up and running in no time.
While this has been an emotional morning, we feel we've been extremely lucky with how life has played out so far in America's last frontier. From shipping to travel, we've only found a few snags along the way. In the midst of the hustle and bustle, we're almost certain we left our Garmin in the rental car. We haven't heard from Hertz, so it's obvious we won't be getting that back. The beauty is we won't need it for at least a year, and by that time, there'll probably be a better version to buy anyway. Although paying for a new one won't be fun, we figured we'd find the silver lining. After all, that's about all one can do, right? I'm excited about this laid back lifestyle. It's really forced some optimism on us that a crazy-busy lifestyle in the city didn't always allow. We're getting back to the basics here. I had forgotten how much fun Brandon and I have in the kitchen cooking together, and as we plan meals and do dishes together, we're enjoying the tasks we were able to avoid when we had Chili's down the street. Our entertainment has consisted of talking, hooking our computers up to our tv to listen to Pandora, and interacting with the people around us. Another one of our favorite things to do has been to take walks down the hill to the P-store and the river. While the trip down is easy, the hikes back up the hill have us winded before we've hit the top, but I'd have to say it feels good. The first time we climbed the hill, we had to stop half-way up to "take pictures" and catch our breath, but every time since, it's gotten easier. We're determined to make that walk every day, even if it kills us. Eventually, I know we'll encounter bigger hills and be happy that we mastered the small ones to prepare us. It's funny how similar a simple walk is to marriage.
We've made friends that we've spent the evenings with comparing our experiences so far. We'll be having a dinner and game night with them this evening, something Brandon and I were hoping we'd find once we got out here. The irony in it is that the two we've seemed to attach ourselves to are Pitt State Alums, dreaded enemies to any Bearcat. Fortunately, none of us have cable, let alone a sports package to watch the college football rivalry to instigate any heated discussions. Dani and Ron are similar to us in the sense that they've moved here with little experience interacting with the great outdoors. Dani, like Brandon, hates fish which might make for an interesting year for them in one of the best regions in the world for salmon fishing. It's been nice sharing down-time with them, and items we've forgotten. Dani brought us a pot to boil water and cook with, since we somehow forgot to pack some of those essential items. Hopefully we'll be sharing the costs of some bulk orders in the near future, too, as Brandon and I decided we'll never have a need for 12 canisters of oatmeal in any given year, and 100 tortillas might make for more taco nights than we'll be able to handle.
Anyway, we'll keep posting as situations allow. We, by no means, have life in the Bush figured out yet, but I think we've got a good handle on it so far. Our landline will be activated today and phone numbers will be sent via email once they're up and running. Keep in touch and know we invite any communication with loved ones. Things are new and exciting right now for us, but the more acclimated we get, the more we might need a message from home about how things are going.
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