Movin' Right Along
Ah, the joy of moving. Moving is, they say, like a vacuum cleaner. It sucks. It’s like a reverse Christmas. You take all of your cool stuff and put it *into* boxes…
Yes, we finally moved Sheeps up to G’ville this weekend. Well, Sunday, at any rate. After the wedding we each still had to go our respective ways, as she had yet another week of school to work. Everyone keeps asking me how married life is, but I have no valid response, as I hadn’t had a good show of it yet…
We’d been wondering when and how we were going to work this out, without making at least three trips to get us both down there, with only one car… Well this weekend past was Art/Sci, and Sheeps was obligated to go, as she is a Laurel, and had to judge. I was retaining for their Highnesses, so had to be there as well. It was (relatively) near my house, so we decided to day trip the event, and boogie out of there as soon as possible, and head for Tampa.
The event was nice, but quiet. It was being held a mere week after TMT, and with gas prices the way they are, there was little participation. Someone said there were only 15 entries. The few that were there were nice, though.
She did her judging thing, and I worked my shift with the Prince, and we bugged out early. We had to make a brief stop back by my house to pick up her purse (which she forgot in the rush to get out of the house on time) and to also pick up one strong-backed teenager that had been donated for the move. Gotta love friends. The downside is that we had to feed it, and, being a lanky teenager, he ate a lot. We even got to play Sheeps’ favorite new game – horrify the passengers with Stephen Lynch. Poor little Iain couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All he could say was “that guy is wrong!” And he’s right.
By the time we got through the drive and had dinner to boot, it was approaching “late”. Okay, it was only 10ish, but it had been a busy day that started very early, and I’d worked at the bar the night before, so we were tired. We left the “kidling” downstairs on the couch with a TV and a remote, and we headed to bed. There was still more packing to do, but we decided to get up early instead of staying up late...
We got up very early the next morning and worked on throwing the rest of her stuff into boxes. We had a couple of hours to work before it was time to pick up the truck, and Sheeps had to head off to work her last day. Ah, the truck. She had reserved it 6 weeks in advance, and got the confirmation call the day before, while we were at A/S. The place they’d assigned her to was an hour’s drive away from her house. She was a bit upset and called the national reservation line. Surely there had to be something closer?! Of course there was. They reassigned her to a place about 20 minutes from her house, which was much better. The fact that we’d passed a UHaul business a mere mile from her home was a bit frustrating… We arrived at the address 30 minutes early, and settled in to wait. For whatever reason, a lot of these places are put in less than savory neighborhoods, and this one was no exception. Other than one woman trying to sell us her unruly child (“Did he lift heavy things,” I asked…), the wait was uneventful. They finally opened and we paid for the truck and waited for it to be pulled up outside. It was a lot smaller than either of us had anticipated, but “we’ll make it work” I said, and sent her off to work, while I headed back to her place.
I arrived back at the house just in time to greet the “helpers” that started showing up. We had quite a few hands, so it wasn’t to bad on anyone, but it was still moving! The process consisted of getting the big stuff and all the boxes into the truck, packing up what was left, and herding cats all the while.
I’d shut them in the one bedroom for a while, but we needed to get in there and get stuff, so we went to shift them. Only, the door was locked. “What do you mean, locked?” I didn’t lock it! “It’s locked!” It was the simple button lock that you can open by pushing a wire through the small hole, so we soon had it open. It occurred to me later that that kind of lock can not be locked from the outside. It unlocks if the door is opened then shut. The only explanation was that Impy had locked the door from the inside. He’d somehow reached up and pushed the lock button… It’s the only way!
Marius was one of the helpers, and go to meet Impy, who was acting very, very uncharacteristically. He was the sweetest thing. This is not Impy! Well, he can be sweet… just before he draws blood... But the move must have had him disoriented, and he wasn’t himself. Impy, not Marius. Marius was his usual self. Marius was responsible for the one truly funny moment. To me, anyway. He carried Sheeps’ exercise bike down the stairs, all by himself. I marveled at that, as I was the one who had to carry it up there, after she’d purchased it. Of course, it was in a flat box at the time, so was a bit bulkier, with the weight spread out strangely… Anyhoo, after I said something regarding his accomplishment, he just pshawed and pointed out that it had wheels on the back, which made it easier. His only regret was that it didn’t fold up smaller. As he said this, the big bolt holding the adjustment arm loosened up enough and the bike neatly folded itself smaller. “Like that?” I asked? Sometimes life just hands you great moments.
Speaking of cats, everyone has been wondering how well ours were going to integrate. Well, they haven’t, yet. Hers are being kept in the spare bedroom until they settle down a bit. Especially Impy. He has gone completely feral. He is attacking anything and everything, including his beloved Mama. She can usually do things with him that most cats would freak over. (Like holding him upside down while rubbing his belly.) She can do no wrong in his eyes, but he was coming after her with a vengeance after the ride. He bloodied her up pretty good. Then he hid in the closet and growled whenever anyone walked into the room. As of this morning, he is doing better, but only slightly. His Mama brought breakfast in and he came out and ate, growling the whole time, but he didn’t attack her. He’ll eventually settle down and we’ll get on with the trauma of introducing them all. For now, they get to smell each other under the door…
Noonish came, and I had to make a trip to Wally World to pick up a tarp, and to grab sodas and lunch for the crew. As we were walking in, we noticed a man sitting on a bench in the foyer area, with a suitcase beside him. ‘Oh, no!’ I thought, but he remained quiet as folks passed him. Okay, maybe he's not as freaky as he looks. But, sure enough, my freak-magnet was on, and the moment I walked by he launched into a tirade about “Bathrooms having no baths; no parking on parkways; no driving on driveways; no walls at Walmart…” “At least there’s a nut in the nuthouse,” was my response, which seemed to shut him back up.
Lunch was fed to the crew, and Sheeps got home from work in time to supervise the last little bit, and to round up the kitties into their PTU's. (Prisoner Transport Units) They were not at all happy about that part, and were perfectly willing to let the world know it. I was just happy that I was not the one who had to ride with fuss the whole way. Luckily for Sheeps, they settled down once on the road.
The drive north wasn’t too bad, but did have a couple of scary moments. We’d hit a couple of good storms, and the wind knocked the truck around a lot, but we still made pretty good time, and arrived in G’ville right around the time I thought we would, with a crew waiting in the front yard to unload.
The unloading went fairly fast, but, as we are mixing two households full of furniture, things were essentially piled up in the living room. It is now jam-packed, floor to ceiling, with her stuff. She is going to spend the next few days figuring out what goes where, and we’ll sort out what goes to Goodwill… Mostly my stuff, I’m sure. Her stuff is all antiques, while mine is, mostly, bachelor furniture. That’s fine. As long as we make one house out of two, eventually, everything will be fine. If we can get the cats to get along…
Stay tuned for more in the saga of General Cat-Bitchin’…
Yes, we finally moved Sheeps up to G’ville this weekend. Well, Sunday, at any rate. After the wedding we each still had to go our respective ways, as she had yet another week of school to work. Everyone keeps asking me how married life is, but I have no valid response, as I hadn’t had a good show of it yet…
We’d been wondering when and how we were going to work this out, without making at least three trips to get us both down there, with only one car… Well this weekend past was Art/Sci, and Sheeps was obligated to go, as she is a Laurel, and had to judge. I was retaining for their Highnesses, so had to be there as well. It was (relatively) near my house, so we decided to day trip the event, and boogie out of there as soon as possible, and head for Tampa.
The event was nice, but quiet. It was being held a mere week after TMT, and with gas prices the way they are, there was little participation. Someone said there were only 15 entries. The few that were there were nice, though.
She did her judging thing, and I worked my shift with the Prince, and we bugged out early. We had to make a brief stop back by my house to pick up her purse (which she forgot in the rush to get out of the house on time) and to also pick up one strong-backed teenager that had been donated for the move. Gotta love friends. The downside is that we had to feed it, and, being a lanky teenager, he ate a lot. We even got to play Sheeps’ favorite new game – horrify the passengers with Stephen Lynch. Poor little Iain couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All he could say was “that guy is wrong!” And he’s right.
By the time we got through the drive and had dinner to boot, it was approaching “late”. Okay, it was only 10ish, but it had been a busy day that started very early, and I’d worked at the bar the night before, so we were tired. We left the “kidling” downstairs on the couch with a TV and a remote, and we headed to bed. There was still more packing to do, but we decided to get up early instead of staying up late...
We got up very early the next morning and worked on throwing the rest of her stuff into boxes. We had a couple of hours to work before it was time to pick up the truck, and Sheeps had to head off to work her last day. Ah, the truck. She had reserved it 6 weeks in advance, and got the confirmation call the day before, while we were at A/S. The place they’d assigned her to was an hour’s drive away from her house. She was a bit upset and called the national reservation line. Surely there had to be something closer?! Of course there was. They reassigned her to a place about 20 minutes from her house, which was much better. The fact that we’d passed a UHaul business a mere mile from her home was a bit frustrating… We arrived at the address 30 minutes early, and settled in to wait. For whatever reason, a lot of these places are put in less than savory neighborhoods, and this one was no exception. Other than one woman trying to sell us her unruly child (“Did he lift heavy things,” I asked…), the wait was uneventful. They finally opened and we paid for the truck and waited for it to be pulled up outside. It was a lot smaller than either of us had anticipated, but “we’ll make it work” I said, and sent her off to work, while I headed back to her place.
I arrived back at the house just in time to greet the “helpers” that started showing up. We had quite a few hands, so it wasn’t to bad on anyone, but it was still moving! The process consisted of getting the big stuff and all the boxes into the truck, packing up what was left, and herding cats all the while.
I’d shut them in the one bedroom for a while, but we needed to get in there and get stuff, so we went to shift them. Only, the door was locked. “What do you mean, locked?” I didn’t lock it! “It’s locked!” It was the simple button lock that you can open by pushing a wire through the small hole, so we soon had it open. It occurred to me later that that kind of lock can not be locked from the outside. It unlocks if the door is opened then shut. The only explanation was that Impy had locked the door from the inside. He’d somehow reached up and pushed the lock button… It’s the only way!
Marius was one of the helpers, and go to meet Impy, who was acting very, very uncharacteristically. He was the sweetest thing. This is not Impy! Well, he can be sweet… just before he draws blood... But the move must have had him disoriented, and he wasn’t himself. Impy, not Marius. Marius was his usual self. Marius was responsible for the one truly funny moment. To me, anyway. He carried Sheeps’ exercise bike down the stairs, all by himself. I marveled at that, as I was the one who had to carry it up there, after she’d purchased it. Of course, it was in a flat box at the time, so was a bit bulkier, with the weight spread out strangely… Anyhoo, after I said something regarding his accomplishment, he just pshawed and pointed out that it had wheels on the back, which made it easier. His only regret was that it didn’t fold up smaller. As he said this, the big bolt holding the adjustment arm loosened up enough and the bike neatly folded itself smaller. “Like that?” I asked? Sometimes life just hands you great moments.
Speaking of cats, everyone has been wondering how well ours were going to integrate. Well, they haven’t, yet. Hers are being kept in the spare bedroom until they settle down a bit. Especially Impy. He has gone completely feral. He is attacking anything and everything, including his beloved Mama. She can usually do things with him that most cats would freak over. (Like holding him upside down while rubbing his belly.) She can do no wrong in his eyes, but he was coming after her with a vengeance after the ride. He bloodied her up pretty good. Then he hid in the closet and growled whenever anyone walked into the room. As of this morning, he is doing better, but only slightly. His Mama brought breakfast in and he came out and ate, growling the whole time, but he didn’t attack her. He’ll eventually settle down and we’ll get on with the trauma of introducing them all. For now, they get to smell each other under the door…
Noonish came, and I had to make a trip to Wally World to pick up a tarp, and to grab sodas and lunch for the crew. As we were walking in, we noticed a man sitting on a bench in the foyer area, with a suitcase beside him. ‘Oh, no!’ I thought, but he remained quiet as folks passed him. Okay, maybe he's not as freaky as he looks. But, sure enough, my freak-magnet was on, and the moment I walked by he launched into a tirade about “Bathrooms having no baths; no parking on parkways; no driving on driveways; no walls at Walmart…” “At least there’s a nut in the nuthouse,” was my response, which seemed to shut him back up.
Lunch was fed to the crew, and Sheeps got home from work in time to supervise the last little bit, and to round up the kitties into their PTU's. (Prisoner Transport Units) They were not at all happy about that part, and were perfectly willing to let the world know it. I was just happy that I was not the one who had to ride with fuss the whole way. Luckily for Sheeps, they settled down once on the road.
The drive north wasn’t too bad, but did have a couple of scary moments. We’d hit a couple of good storms, and the wind knocked the truck around a lot, but we still made pretty good time, and arrived in G’ville right around the time I thought we would, with a crew waiting in the front yard to unload.
The unloading went fairly fast, but, as we are mixing two households full of furniture, things were essentially piled up in the living room. It is now jam-packed, floor to ceiling, with her stuff. She is going to spend the next few days figuring out what goes where, and we’ll sort out what goes to Goodwill… Mostly my stuff, I’m sure. Her stuff is all antiques, while mine is, mostly, bachelor furniture. That’s fine. As long as we make one house out of two, eventually, everything will be fine. If we can get the cats to get along…
Stay tuned for more in the saga of General Cat-Bitchin’…
posted by Turtle at 4:44 PM
2 Comments:
No, not the beer can pyramid and the wire spool coffee table!!!!
;-)
And who is Stephen Lynch?
ps
That Sasha is one hoopy frood.
Stephen Lynch is a singing comedian who knows no boundaries. Well, I think he knows full well what social boundaries are, and crosses them with utter and absolute glee. And his material is most assuredly NOT child-friendly. He relies a lot on shock value, and is utterly brilliant.
And yes, Sasha is great. He is my "brother from another mother".
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