"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Also known as Murphy's Law.
I'm not sure I have experienced any event in life that more graphically illustrates this natural law than the process of packing up and moving all of one's worldly belongings. As in most of life, a sense of humor is essential during a move. Admittedly, humor is more easily embraced a few days removed from any catastrophe than at the precise moment of its occurrence.
In the interest of full disclosure, this really was a pretty smooth move. At least from this end. Two days to pack everything up and one to load the truck (around 18,000 lbs worth) has to rank up there with the quickest we've ever experienced. Of course, the proof is really in the state of things as they come off the truck and out of the boxes once we land in our new home. But that will be for another day.
So below, just the highlights, of our several day move:
Friday - Packers arrive. We are ready for them to pack the 5 sets of china, crystal, and glassware. They politely nod at our suggestion to begin with these then proceed to tell us they will pack the entire basement, all the large pictures, the basement storeroom, the office, and the formal living and dining rooms. These have not been staged. We hustle to stay ahead of them. Only a few things (that we know of) are packed which we hadn't intended to pack. Packers depart at 5 informing us they will begin Monday with the upstairs bedrooms.
Saturday - No packers today or tomorrow, so we work to prepare remaining rooms. The powder room toilet is running, so Tom makes a trip to Home Depot to get a replacement kit for the broken flapper. In the process of repair, the 24 year old hose connecting to the shut off valve in the wall breaks and water shoots all over the ceiling and walls. Rush to close the main water shut off. Dinner out (yeah!) and another trip to home depot.
Sunday - Pick up the 5X8 UHaul Trailer. As we situate it in the driveway, we back it too quickly and shatter the light fixture mounted outside the garage.
Monday - Packers arrive and announce they will begin in garage and kitchen as well as upstairs. We haven't prepped garage and kitchen (past movers have packed these last) so we are hustling to prep as they pack behind us. Science experiment discovery - a stick of butter someone kindly stowed in its covered butter dish in a high, deep cupboard (I'm guessing around the holidays). Tom is sure with a little extra care we could have had a fine cheese. We are happy we recovered this and cleaned it out before it was packed and stored for the year.
Tuesday - Movers arrive with trucks loaded with 8 crates. Good news, they will crate our goods here. HUGE crew (in our experience) of 6 strapping young men. The loading goes quickly and smoothly. Bozzellis subs for lunch. The only problem, when I arrive with 10 large sandwiches (turkey, ham, roast beef, Italian), the driver asks if I got any vegetarian. Yikes! So I quick pull together an assortment of fresh veggies from my fridge. He's happy.
Wednesday - Cleaning day. And weighing the trailer. And another trip to Home Depot for a new outside light fixture. Some complications with installing the new fixture turn a 15 minute job into an hour job. As I finish mopping the floor, the tenants arrive to pick up the keys. Perfect timing!
Thursday - Early morning departure. As we pull out of the neighborhood with the trailer rattling loudly, we realize we neglected to tighten down the lock on the ball. Smooth sailing all the way to Dayton. When we arrive and park the trailer, we realize we never locked the latch closed on the trailer door. The padlock was locked, but if the trailer hadn't been packed so tightly the door could have bounced it's way up and we would have left "bread crumbs" from D.C. to Dayton. Thank you St. Christopher or whoever was watching out for us.
Friday - Tom heads out to fill the car with gas. I meet him in the parking lot to attach the trailer and get going. A gentle rain is falling. Then, as he's fastening the chains the sky opens up and it's coming down in buckets. By the time we're heading back to I-70, he's soaked to the skin. Oh well, it's only 6 hours to St. Louis. He's almost dry by the time we arrive.
We spend a couple of wonderful, relaxing, restorative days with family (in spite of 100 degree temps) and are ready for an early departure tomorrow for Colorado Springs.
