I opted to go ahead and post since I had a lengthy update available! We’re here in NoVA for my grandfather’s funeral, which was this morning. It’s now 8:50 p.m. and I’m about to go to bed for the night because tomorrow is going to be a LONG HARD DAY. But not nearly as long and hard as YESTERDAY was.
It all started Saturday morning. I got a call at 11:15 a.m. from the moving truck driver, who said he was at the storage unit and ready to begin emptying the storage unit. Unfortunately, Denis was not home and I was with the kids, so I told him to wait and I’d be there as soon as I could. About 20 minutes later I got a frantic call from the owner of the storage place, telling me she’s going to call the cops on the “redneck SOB” that was there to move my stuff. She said he was parked in such a way that blocked all her customers from getting in and out of the storage gate. I calmed her down then hung up and called the moving truck driver (we’ll call him TD). TD said that he was sick of talking to that “poor excuse for a Yankee” and that he WASN’T blocking her gate. I told him I’d bring the kids and come to the unit. I got CootieGirl dressed and woke CootieBoy from his nap and was about to leave the house when Denis walked in the door. I ran out with a “gotta run – drama at the storage unit!” and drove lightning fast to the unit.
TD’s truck was HUGE – it was literally a SEMI. And it was NOT blocking the gate. Long story short, we determined that his truck was just too big to get even close to where we’d be unloading the storage unit. He recommended that I rent a UHaul and just unload the stuff onto that and bring it over to the house. Dejected, I had to agree, and TD went on his way. I immediately drove to the nearest truck rental place and they had ONE TRUCK – a 10 footer. I yelled, “I’ll take it!”
Once home (without the truck – I told them I’d be right back to get it), I walked over to our neighbor’s house to ask if one of them would be willing to drive with me to the truck rental place and drive my car back to the house. When I explained my plight, Don said he’d help me at the storage unit. God bless him – he was IN HIS POOL and he got out, took a shower and came over to go with me to get the truck.
We spent the next two hours loading up the entire 10 feet of truck and the unit was STILL half-full. But we trucked through – Don was a trooper given the fact that he has bad knees and it felt like 100 degrees outside. I drove the UHaul back to our house and parked it in the driveway and went on to the next things on my list: mowing the lawn, gassing out the lawn mower, and packing.
Sunday morning, Denis and I got up at 5:30 a.m. and unloaded everything from the UHaul. We then started taking out boxes from the house and putting them in the driveway as well so that we’d be that much further along when TD arrived. Ace and Anthony showed up at 6:30 a.m. or so and helped move out more boxes, and then at 6:45 a.m. we left for the storage unit.
At the unit we were met by Carlos, a friend from church. We spen the next 90 minutes loading the truck – it was a PERFECT FIT because we could not have gotten one more thing on the truck. As it was we used Carlos’ truck to carry the king sized mattress and a few chairs. At 7:30 a.m. TD showed up at the house and they began loading. Two more guys from church showed up – John and Mike. So all total we had Denis, Ace & Anthony, Carlos, John, Mike and TD. It was around 10:30 a.m. that we realized there was NO WAY that we’d get everything on the truck. It was around 10:29 a.m. that we realized that we did not pack about 1/4 of our stuff. At 11:24 a.m. when TD drove off into the sunset, our house was a disaster area and we still had to come up with a plan to get the rest of the stuff out of the house before Thursday.
We decided to leave the cats at the house, and Denis’ friend June took Cooper for a few days. Denis and I took showers then went and picked up the kids from our neighbors’ house and said goodbye. We then went to Don and Lydia’s and said a teary goodbye to them as well. Then we hit the road. We made good time and got to Marmie and Pop’s house at dinnertime. Totally exhausted.
We have our plan on place. I’ll be leaving my car here tomorrow and the entire family will go in the van to SC. We’ll sign the lease and unload the van into the apartment. On Wednesday morning at 5:15 a.m. I’ll trek into Charlotte for an 8:00 a.m. flight to Dulles Airport. Mom will pick me up and bring me to my car, and I will then drive to NJ and pack up the rest of the house. On Thursday morning another moving truck will arrive at 7 a.m. to load the remainder of my stuff – I’m hiring 3 professional movers to help load the truck. Then a couple friends from church will come over and help clean the house from top to bottom. Then I’ll put the pets in the car and head back to VA for the night. Then Friday we’ll all get in the car again and drive to SC.
As of Friday night I’ll be on vacation for a week, during which I plan on doing NOTHING. When the moving truck arrives with the second load, I don’t plan on lifting much more than a finger to help – I will merely point and direct where everything is to go.
So that’s my story. Good night – I’ll tell you about the funeral once we’re settled, as well as how Moving, Part II went.
Hey this wasn’t a week!