Hat on Top, Coat Below
« previous archives home notify list e-mail next »
Moving Day
December 15, 2018
I still haven’t managed to get through all the photos or tell the story of the trip that created the contract that was completed today with the delivery of Joan’s household goods to her new city; maybe now that they’re here, I’ll be able to focus on that. Right now, I have the story of today, which began way earlier than I like to start things, namely 6:15 when the (first) alarm went off. Really, it began about five minutes earlier, when my brain decided it was time to be awake, despite having spent the first three or four hours after we went to bed worrying about what all might go wrong with the move (there was a lot; my anxiety brain is good at spinning scenarios from mildly uncomfortable to truly disastrous). Getting ready to go went smoothly, with just one moment of panic when the driver texted twenty minutes before he was going to arrive at the storage unit and that’s normally a fifteen-minute drive and Mr. K was still moving vehicles around in front of the house so the truck would have space to unload when it made its second stop here. Except before eight o’clock on a weekend morning, it turned out to be more like a ten-minute drive so we were there waiting with the storage unit unlocked and empty when the truck pulled in.
Two and a half hours later, the combined efforts of the driver, the local guy he’d hired, Mr. K, his sister Kathy, and I had 89 boxes and various pieces of furniture loaded into the storage unit, which turned out to be just the right size (only because we put a bulky dresser in our pickup and a four-drawer filing cabinet in Kathy’s, to be delivered to Joan’s apartment later). My happiest moment of this part of the process was when the driver complimented me on how I’d stacked the boxes into the back of the storage unit while they were back at the truck getting another load—all that Tetris I played on the Gameboy wasn’t in vain, I guess.
When I’d called the storage place to verify access for the big rig, they’d made a point to tell us we’d have to stop traffic on the main road to back the truck out when we were done. The truck was not to pull forward through the parking lot to the side street. Well, after the driver looked at the situation, he went ahead and pulled forward through that parking lot and it worked out just fine … possibly because it was a weekend and the businesses along that lot weren’t as busy as they might be during the week. Soon enough we were all back at Kathy’s house, pissing off a few of the neighbors before the driver got the truck where he wanted it and people could get by in their vehicles without having to drive through the vacant lots across the street. The remaining furniture in our lot got unloaded pretty smoothly, with the exception of the upright piano, which all five of us got involved in wrangling down the ramp from the truck and down the driveway, though we let the professionals handle getting it up on the porch and through the front door.
After tipping the guys and watching them back the truck a block and a half down the street to where they could turn (the cul de sac at the end of the street was way too tight for such a big vehicle), we went out to lunch before taking the furniture in our trucks to Joan’s apartment. I’d expected this to be the easy part of the day, but it wasn’t, what with the retirement home being busy with families and having to share the elevator and hallways with seniors and their walkers (crushing one of Joan’s new neighbors with a dresser just wouldn’t do). But we did manage to get both pieces up and in their new places, which allowed us to unpack some boxes that had been waiting for this occasion. Also in here, Kathy took Joan for some lab work, I did a load of Joan’s laundry and washed her dishes (she eats breakfast and snacks and has coffee in her apartment rather than going down to the dining room in the mornings). After we left the retirement home for the night, we had a quick dinner and then the thing I’d been waiting all day for: celebratory frozen yogurt.
Today was a big milestone. There’s unpacking to be done, and furniture still to be moved from storage to the apartment (and maybe vice versa), but everything’s in one city and there’s no particular rush to get through that part. It’s a relief. I’m sure my brain will find something new to worry about, but for this moment, I’m feeling calm and tired and satisfied with what we got done today.
On this date in 2017: Or Something
2016: Peer Pressure
2015: Ski Day 1
2014: Three Books Behind
2013: No entry
2012: Sidetracked
2011: Big and Bright
2010: No entry
2009: Obsolescence
2008: Socks of the Corn
2007: WDW VI: The Undiscovered Attractions & A Night at the Opera House
2006: No entry
2005: Winter Count—May
2004: Pictures Taken and Not & Froggie Went A-Courtin’
2003: Weekly Update
2002: Unofficial Party
