Now that Master has been paid and we can cover our bills with room to spare we went out and got him an iPod Touch so that he can develop some apps. He’s been having fun with it tonight since we got home. He is also still sick. I’m better, almost 100% now. Not sure what he’s got that’s making him ill and hopefully he’ll be better soon. I worry when he’s looking tired and pale.

He’s been working hard lately to recover the savings we had before we moved. I love him so much for that. He said I might be able to buy the wedding dress at the end of September. That would be right on schedule for when I wanted to get it! I’m now trying not to obsess about wedding stuff too much but I’m so excited.

We might be going to a Ren Faire the middle of the month. It sounds like fun. I’ve never been to one; I don’t think Master has either. The weekend I want to go will have jousting and weight lifting games. I think they will be insanely good to watch – as well as all the costumed people. Not to mention the food. Yup, I really want to go.

–luna

So, I have whatever Master has. It’s not full-blown with me yet but I’m feeling especially tired and congested and just overall icky.

Hopefully this weekend I’ll recover and be back to normal by Monday.

–luna

Master is sick today. Well he’s been developing a sore throat for a few days now but today it bloomed into a flu. He’s cranky and irritable and I’m doing my best to take care of him. Hopefully he gets better soon. I hate seeing him miserable.

We’ve had some issues with our internet and had a network tech out today. He replaced a lot of lines and did a lot of testing but tonight for the real test it failed. Next step is to find the bad equipment in the building that is making the noise on the line causing all our headache. Master is so pissed that he can’t play is games right now. I wish I could help him.

I’m starting to not feel well either. I think Master has passed on some of his sickness. Hopefully I can combat it before it gets bad.

–luna

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that Master works freelance as a subcontractor. This means that we are constantly waiting for him to get paid. This month his paycheck is late. Right now it’s about 5 days late. The stress it is putting us both under is horrible. I’m trying to hard not to let it get to me, but he can see it. I know he’s stressed too. It’s just something we have to bear with.

We have food for this week and then that’s it. I’m working in my mind with ways to feed Master with things he doesn’t usually eat… tuna… pasta… eggs. Things I know we have.  I worry about the bills that need to be paid. Even though it’s not my responsibility.

Even though all this stress Master and I are connecting sexually without sex. My period is taking longer than normal to finish up. I’m so horny and Master is too, but he can just come to me and wave his dick in my face and get it stroked or sucked. I’m being a good cock slut right now.

Focus on the positive and not let the negative overwhelm me. That’s the goal right now. Master is constantly telling me how much he loves me. It feels so good. Our love is still strong even with this stress, and maybe it’s because of the stress that our love is strong. We can be beat this and come out a blissful married couple at the end. Just have to pass this hurdle.

–luna

I’m feeling really down today. I can’t explain it and I don’t know why. I’m going to just have to find peace with myself and enjoy Master’s love for awhile…

–lunaKM

I’m not really sure what to talk about today. I was going to continue the hell story, but I think that’s just done; I don’t want to relive it anymore. Let’s just say it took 3 days of horrible heat, sweat and heavy things.

The floods that came through here we are still dealing with. Drinkable water is still not coming out of the taps so I’ve started boiling water to replenish our supply. I am watching the news to see when we will be able to drink what comes out of the tap and every time I check they say that people need to conserve even more. I’m not sure we can. We aren’t flushing every time we use the toilet, I’m only using water to rinse my hands and boil for drinking. Master and I have taken 5 minute showers and only one each since Tuesday.  The dishes have piled up so I’m going to have to boil some water to use for washing again tomorrow morning (like I did today).

I’m beginning to get into a routine of cleaning and other housework and then website work. I’m planning on doing some of that same on the weekends as well. I only have a handful of boxes left to unpack. We have a lot of open wall space on this apartment and it feels great! The bedroom is huge and Master is planning lots of fun once I unpack the toys.

And I know you are probably thinking… you haven’t unpacked the toys yet? It all has to do with feeling like we are home. It hasn’t sunk in yet… probably because of the crap we’ve had to deal with since we’ve been here. I have no doubt that it will happen soon though.

Then we can start talking about the wedding again.

–lunaKM

I was going to continue to recount the tale of moving in days but yet another challenge faced us this day that has us believing that moving here has jinxed us.

The past 2 nights we’ve had a total of 9 inches of rain. This could only mean one thing… flooding. Apparently we moved in very near a creek that is known for flooding during record rains. I knew we had a chance of flooding in the area but not quite how much.

I woke up this morning at 5:30am and watched the news. It wasn’t pretty. They predicted record crests that would outdo the known big flood year here in Iowa – 1993. I looked outside and barricades were up but I couldn’t see any water just yet. I feel asleep for awhile and woke abruptly to a knock at the door.

Opening I saw a man in a yellow vest, “Do you have a car out back?”

“Yes I do”

“You are going to want to move it, we need to sandbag.”

OMG I freaked. I got dressed and went to move my car to the mall parking lot a block up. When I got outside I was shocked. There was water in the parking lot and the apartment building behind ours was surrounded by water. I moved my car and on the walk back I looked where the barricades were earlier and now there was water, lots of water. Water was coming from 2 sides and I was beginning to think we’d be flooded out just over a week after moving in.

This is the building behind ours

This is the road that goes in front of our apartment, to the west

After I got back upstairs I put the news on and hunted down the local newspaper online to find out some information only to be greeted with images like this.

Retail and Business District South East of us

At 9:30am the shut our power off to protect the transformer from water damage. Worse then was that the forecast was for 90 degree temps with heat index in the 100-110′s. We were going to be hot and without power. Not a good look for the day.

I’m terrible under stress. I get snappy and bitchy. I get really tense too. Master was feeling it and said we’d go to the grocery next door and get some coffee and cool air. It was a nice relief. On the way home we watched tons of people come to take pictures and site see the flood waters. Our road was also part of a detour for other roads that were flooded so it was busier than normal. The whole day went like this. Lots of people, cars and trucks and no power.

The water crested about midday right at the levels from 1993. We didn’t know until a few hours later that the moving water had blown a water line and the whole city is under a boil order for at least 3 days but could be a week. We went to the store to find out that all the water is gone until tonight. We stocked up on sparkling water and some pop for caffeine. I found a few 20 oz bottles of water so that the cats can have fresh water.

We both need showers but the water pressure isn’t good enough. I need to wash dishes but it’s not recommended for cleaning or anything really. At 5:00 they turned the power back on because the waters had fallen back enough.

We’re in a waiting game now. If you want to see more pictures of our town flooding you can check them out here:

flood photos from the Ames Tribune: Gallery 1 • Gallery 2

I know it’s taken a week to write about the rest of our moving experience but as you’ve seen we’ve had to deal with a little pet crisis. Zeus is now home and recovering well I think. He gets to have boiled chicken and plain white rice this week for meals – he’ll think he’s being treated like a prince.

So, in the previous part of this tale, we had a hell of a time getting moved out of the previous apartment. We collapsed at the hotel in our new town and hoped that moving in wouldn’t be so bad.

The day broke hot and steamy. We packed up everything and into the car we went to find food for lunch. We opted for Subway under a tree with the kitties. Master was still very sore and exhausted from the previous day and I was tired – I hadn’t slept well.

We called a friend of ours to try to find moving help. She offered her 2 male slaves for the afternoon if they didn’t have commitments. We were so grateful for any help she could provide. After lunch I packed Master and the kitties into the cab of the truck, turned the AC on and went to Wal-Mart to get water and snacks for the move in process. When I got back I checked in with him and then before long I had to go to the check in appointment at the office.

On the way there I noticed that there was a huge truckload mattress sale advertising in a parking lot of 60% off prices on Sealy mattresses. I made a mental note about wishing we had a new bed.

When I got there there was quite a few people sitting around. They do orientation in groups so that the speech doesn’t get boring I guess. I signed forms for receiving keys, turning on the internet, picked up my car permit and move-in inspection form. The orientation was very thorough. Our manager stopped at me and gave me a list of all the repair things they still have to do because the previous guy left our apartment in poor condition. They have to recaulk the bathroom sink, replace the light and patch the ceiling in the kitchen, 2 kitchen drawers are busted and the ceiling is peeling in places. They promised all the repairs done within a month. We knew we were moving into a poorly apartment, but trust the manager to do the repairs (so far he’s been great at getting them started).

After orientation and receiving the keys I went back to the truck, loaded my car up and off we went to our new apartment. I told Master about the mattress sale and he said we could stop and look.

We stopped, looked at the cheapest they had $375 for a queen firm set. Master was sold. Talking with the sales person he went through inventory and found out they were out of queens in the firm so he bumped us up to the super plush for the same price. We agreed and he threw in a $40 bedframe too. We processed the payment and he came back and said he just sold his last of the super plush too. So… he was giving us the pillow-top one. At the sale, this one was almost $550 bucks. We left with a $550 bed and frame for $375. And that’s on sale. They loaded it into the back of our big-assed truck and we headed off to our new apartment looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

When we arrived at our new apartment we brought the cats in to the master bedroom and closed the door. The heat had gotten worse and we were dealing with mid-90′s with 60% humidity. We were in a heat index warning for the day. Yeah, great. We waited for our help to arrive and when he did we started with the heavy furniture and things that we’d definitely need help with. Each trip we came up the 3 flights of stairs totally wiped, but our help was just fine. He went up and down like superman. We were astonished. After 3 hours we bid him farewell and that we just had boxes left so he could go spend the rest of the afternoon with his Mistress. We went out for dinner to refill our tanks and hoped that it would be cooling in the evening for all the boxes.

By now we had been moving boxes in and out and traveling for 28 hours. I think we had about 6 hours of sleep in there somewhere.

More to come next time…

–lunaKM

My cat Zeus is at the vet right now. I found him this morning very lethargic and having had thrown up at least 3 times last night. They think he might have a mass in his stomach (I think hairball) that won’t come out or break down.

Our cash is depleted and can’t afford much of a bill…

because of that they actually suggested euthanasia. No way am I killing my cat just because I can’t afford the bill. That’s insane!

I just want my cuddle buddy back.

–luna

On Friday night we weren’t even sure we’d have a moving truck. It was one of the worst night’s of stress in my life. Saturday morning wasn’t that much better. I called every 2 hours to check on the status of a truck for us, only to be told that there wasn’t any available yet. At 12:30pm we got a call that they had found a truck for us(a 26′ behemoth) but it was 2 hours drive away. The towing dolly was available in our local branch office. We accepted the truck; there was no way we were waiting in line for a different one. I called the location that the truck was at so that I could let them know when we expected to be there. The man on the phone said they closed at 2pm. Even if we drove like our tailpipe was on fire we wouldn’t make it before they closed. When I shared my plight he said he’d wait for us. Blessing number 1! While I calculated the time it would take for me to go get the truck, drive down to get the dolly, drive back up to get my car on the dolly and then back down to start loading it looked like we’d be able to put things in the truck by 9:00 pm. That’s right. We had till midnight to be out of the place.

Luckily we have some fantastic friends that we called last minute and they agreed to drive up from another hour south of us to where the truck was (a 3 hour drive for them) and drive our car back down for us. That way we’d be able to start loading by 6pm. And that’s what we did. They stayed to help us load the truck and bid us safe driving around 9:30 pm. Some quick cleaning and we were on the road at 10:30 pm. I seriously doubt we’ll get any of our deposit back because I had left so much cleaning left to be done, but by then I just wanted to be out of there.

We hadn’t eaten all day. We hadn’t stopped to rest. We were so beat and I had to drive to the hotel in our new city before the rest could happen. It’s a rural drive for the most part and things aren’t open past 10 pm so eating would also have to wait till we got there. We both wanted showers really badly. The cats had been cooped up in travel bags most of the day.

Driving a 26′ truck and towing your car is insanely hard. I was grateful for the quieter night roads and the fact that I was barely going above 55 mph the whole way. Our new home was about 1.5 hours away by car and we had a hotel room waiting for us and the cats. We had to be there by 2am or they could give up our room to someone else. The road construction was the most stressful. I was gripping the wheel so hard; never sure how much clearance I really had between the pylons. That was the longest 6 miles I’ve ever driven.

We rolled in to the hotel about 12:30 am. We wearily checked in, got the cats out of their bags, talked with the hotel clerk about where to find food and a Walmart because in our rush to get packed we forgot to pack overnight bags == no change of clothing.  Unloaded the car in the dark and practically collapsed inside. Went to Perkins and had some comfort food then over to Walmart to get clean clothing. We got back to the hotel room about 2 am. I showered quick and then passed out. Master did the same.

Tomorrow we hoped wouldn’t be as bad.

–luna