Resurfacing

Whodathunk that I, of all people, could or would go for a week and a half between posts? But time does, indeed, fly when you are having fun ... or moving. Not that the two are absolutely mutually exclusive — close but not absolutely.

A week ago last Monday, the movers arrived just slightly before eight o'clock in the morning. I'm very glad that they did arrive that early because although we had been told that they would probably finish by mid-afternoon, such was not the case. In fact, they were still in the process of loading the truck when Cuppa and I left town many hours later, shortly after 5:00 pm. Of course, we hadn't planned to depart while they were still loading, but they were almost done and had itemized everything and had us sign the forms. So we took a chance that the final items would be safely loaded without our supervision, and we hit the road, for it had already been a long day of sitting, and we still had a long drive ahead of us.

Fortunately, my current back malady, which is still very much present by the way, generally allows me to sit in relative comfort. So it was that I was able to sit through that long day while the movers packed the truck and later during the eight hour drive here to Mills. Somewhat surprisingly, I was able to do most of the driving, which turns out to be about my only contribution to the recent gargantuan effort. (Fortunately, we have kids and even friends of kids who have pitched in above and beyond the call of duty.)

When we finally arrived at Butterfly's at one o'clock in the morning, the following welcome sign was tacked to the front door.

The next day, Tuesday, the lawyer called before 8:00 o'clock, and we were soon up and off to see both him and the bank in order to close the deal on our new place. Later that day, we picked up the keys and made our first tour. At first, it what somewhat disappointing to see it sans furniture with various blemishes looming starkly, but we soon overcame that and decided that all was quite good, and we remain in that frame of mind.

We had several fairly calm days to spend between the closing and the move-in to do some cleaning (although the place didn't need a lot — thank goodness ). The Boy wired the house for broadband (which we don't have yet) and ran some extra telephone wires here and there. Let's just say that we are now the proud possessors of a very well-wired house. And there were and continue to be all sorts of trips to the stores to buy this and that: garbage can, stacking trays, storage units, shower curtains, and many thises and thatses, which add up to a very impressive total cost, let me tell you.

The huge moving van (big enough for three houses) arrived mid-Friday morning. They kept bringing boxes and more boxes for hour after hour. Where to put everything? Although we had divested ourselves of a lot of stuff, there was still rather a plethora to cram into this smaller space. We narrowly missed a catastrophe (of small proportions) when they were unable to get our queen-size box spring up the stairs. Fortunately, they were able to hoist it through the window. Likewise, our basement fridge could not be forced to navigate those stairs and is now now parked in the garage.

We were finally organized enough to sleep here, rather than at Butterfly's place, on Sunday although we have since been back there for a meal or two. Life is beginning to approach some sort or normality. There is a wireless network somewhere in the neighbourhood that I can surreptitiously piggyback onto (shhh) until I get my own set up, and I also have my own dialup access. However, there are still many boxes to be unpacked, things to be sorted and arranged, and furniture to be bought and set up.

Life is good. While major relocations such as this are not without their small difficulties and hurdles, they rather pale next to the plight of New Orleans and area. Although greatly absorbed in my own stuff, I am not totally unmindful of events down there and feel mighty fortunate to be who I am where I am right now. I have more or less caught up with all of your blogs, but, although it was diffiult at times, I have restrained myself from taking the time to make comments. Perhaps soon.