Moving week

This past week was moving week and like all the others recently it was also hectic. We left Ariel again early Wednesday morning to return to the house for last minute preparations. We still needed to patch and paint nail holes and get the last of the documents to our attorney. It was just our luck that the day we had picked to load the truck had temperatures in the 90’s with very high humidity. This was the biggest problem for us, requiring breaks to avoid heat stroke. It took all day and the truck was filled to capacity. The last time we moved ourselves was in 1973. We have moved many times since, but they were always corporate relocations and the moves were handled by professional movers. We wanted to do it this time to have more flexibility as to timing and the arrangement of the items in the container on the other end. While we did it without damage to our furniture or serious injury to us, this is clearly the last time we will load and unload the truck ourselves. Just the fact we will both be five or so years older for the next move precludes this option. Barbara Wheeler our broker stopped by with a wonderful gift, a painting of the USS Constitution. It was so thoughtful, reminding us of Massachusetts and tying into our interest in the sea. We originally met with Barbara in January and have been in frequent communications since. This was a tough market but Barbara worked very hard to find a qualified buyer. We were on our way early Friday morning after loading the few remaining items. Our Budget truck was fairly new and the drive to Penn Yan went well. We unloaded about 1/3 after arriving Friday, but put off the remainder until the next day. We knew from the load size that the fit in the container would be tight so we gave the living room upholstered furniture and a television to Linda’s brother Durwood and his family. We were happy that he accepted these item because we were always unsure whether we really wanted to store these long term We were able to leave a very narrow aisle the length of the container providing access to just about all the boxes. It was fairly easy unloading the truck as the ramp into the container had a gentle downward slope. We took our time with the container so it is well organized and things we may need are positioned near the doors. We covered the entire contents with tarps in case any condensation drips from the ceiling and the solar powered cooling fans were working well. Even working at a casual pace we were able to return the truck by 3 pm.

Sunday was a day of relaxation. It was actually a little hard to wind down, but it was much needed by both of us. Norm’s brother Bill came up for the day. It was just what we needed and everyone enjoyed the day.