Moving day

[moneyp]

Well, the first day, anyway.

Today was Mel's storage unit, plus whatever would fit from the house. Yes, we both have storage units, full of stuff that doesn't fit into our one-bedroom dinky apartment. We're moving into a fantastic three bedroom (part of a duplex) with a two-car garage, about twenty miles away from where we are now. Not too bad.

Except it was 100 degrees outside. And the U-Haul got scratched up by the sliding gate at the storage unit (I knocked that sucker off it's track pulling out of there). Oh, and Mel fell down a flight of stairs. But she's alright.

No, she isn't a stuntwoman. Her and a friend Jenna were carrying a queen-size mattress down our apartment stairs. Jenna lost her balance, Mel and the mattress pitched forward about five feet, and Mel wound up bellyflopping on top of the mattress, which wasn't the most comfortable of landings, but one that left her with only a hurt toe, which she banged on the steps when flying forward. In a more precarious position was Jenna, who was not only falling backwards without any cushioning, but faced being crushed by Mel and the Serta corporation. But she athletically managed to grab the handrail and pull herself to the wall as Mel and the mattress went flying through.

Anyway, it was pretty scary to watch, and the rest of the day I was emotionally as well as physically exhausted. The unloading was just brutal, unbelievably hot. The girls couldn't even move, and I somehow managed to tweak my hip and my calf stepping up and down from the moving van since our neighbor Bill, helping us out, thought that the ramp "would just get in the way."

The bright side. U-Haul didn't notice the damage (suckers) and didn't charge me for using the hand truck and the pads. I took the best shower of my life (that didn't involve sex) and got to watch the second half of the Lakers-Spurs game. I promised Mel a trip to the spa, but she's too pooped, so we're doing it tomorrow.

But goddamnit, we're not even done. We've got the rest of the apartment, and I've got a storage unit in San Jose. Thank god we have a three-year lease on the new place.

[Enforcer]

That sounds pretty miserable, Moné. You have my sympathies. I last moved about 2 1/2 years ago now, and it was pretty terrible. I rented a truck, and it was arguably the worst moving van still in use in the United States. It had over 300,000 miles on it, no power brakes, a manual transmission with a clutch that required a leg about 7 feet long to operate within a full range of motion, enough "play" in the steering wheel to complete a revolution without actually changing the direction of the truck and to top it all off, it stalled at stops unless you kept your foot on the gas.

It took me about 3 days and nights to finish the entire job, and I was completely exhausted by the end. As with you, the fatigue was both emotional and physical. I skipped the gym for about 3 days after the final moving day. My muscles were ripped to shreds from the repetitive lifting and I was sore for almost a week. The stress of moving is the worst. I rarely drink just because I have a "sh**ty day," but I drank plenty after that last night.

I feel your pain. At least your girl is OK. I take it you were enjoying a beer on the sofa while her and her friend were struggling with the mattress?

Larry

[moneyp]

Ha ha. No, I actually told her to leave the mattress, so Bill and I could move it, which got a "Pffft, you think we can't do it?" and a rolling of the eyes.

The agony is prolonged here because nobody is free next weekend (F**king Mother's Day... it's a Hallmark holiday, goddamit!). But yes, plenty of ice cold refreshment was on hand. We polished off three gallons of water, along with the odd beer and soda just in the course of working.

Larry, how far were you moving that time?

[GoodSpeak]

Mone,

Honestly...if I was going to be down in SoCal this coming weekend I would have gladly pitched in and helped.

I won't be in your neck-o-the-woods until the week after.

Hope Mel's toe is OK.




BTW, if I may be so bold, next time do like the GoodSpeak household does...hire a mover

[Cem]

Dear Mone, I truly feel your pain. I've lived in over 50 places since I moved to Canada in '83. I even had a moving job for a while. Also, after having lived at my current residence for over 4.5 years, I just got evicted, as my landlady is supposedly moving in here. I'm dreading the dreadful move. I'm dreading it so badly, I may sell most things & move back to the motherland! A major pointer on moving: DO NOT use large appliance boxes for moving books & cds! Wine boxes and milk crates work the best. I truly feel your pain.

[Enforcer]

Moné,

I didn't move very far, about 5 miles. But not everything I took out of my apartment went to my new house. Some of the stuff I wasn't going to keep went elsewhere. My last moving day saw me making a late trip out to my mother's house, and a few other such stops. Of course, everything we unloaded was heavy, and all of it was carried up at least one flight of stairs. Anyway, there was a lot of extra driving involved because of all the stops. And the place that rented me the 1932 model truck was a good 45 minutes away. So there's that anxiety of dropping the truck off in time and wondering if there's any way to squeeze one more trip out of it, etc.

The whole situation with the truck was the worst part. I called a week in advance, which seemed like enough time to me for a reservation. It wasn't. The guy who rented the thing to me was a real prick, too. The final insult was receiving my credit card statement, when it was revealed to me that they overbilled me. I appreciated that, considering all the enjoyment I got out of that fine ride. I eventually got the billing error squared away, but not before a lengthy and confrontational exchange with the manager.

If I'm wrong and there really is a Hell, then that motherf**ker is tagged with a single digit number in the deli line to the big basement.

Larry

[Jazzooo]

There are no words, Mone. Moving is the worst--and trust me, you could be moving all your shit next door and it would still be hell and result in injuries. Goodspeak is right on this--movers are the only answer. And still, it's the worst ritual a healthy person can encounter.

[moneyp]

Goody, thanks for the offer, but we actually turned down help this weekend. One thing I've learned in moving over the years, is that if there are too many people around, you have chaos. This was a four-person job and it worked out well in that regard. For the rest of the house, we'll be upgrading to six.

And with so many friends to take advantage of, who needs to hire movers? :-)

No, seriously, both Mel and I have gotten ripped off by movers before, in the form of broken or stolen stuff. We'd rather have friends around handling our stuff and having a feeling for where things go.

Cem, I'm with you on the wine crates for CDs. I probably missed something, but where is the motherland?

[Cem]

Originally Posted by mone peterson

I probably missed something, but where is the motherland?

Türkiye

[mke]

My parents moved out of there house recently and I went down to help my father one week-end. We spent at least 15 hours in my mother's room with her desk and papers, sorting everything (bills, an industrial amount of unused greeting cards, etc.) and throwing out vast amounts of crap.

[tippy]

>>I take it you were enjoying a beer on the sofa while her and her friend were struggling with the mattress?<<

ROFL. Hey Mone, good luck with the rest of your move and congratulations on the new digs. Moving is one big ole pain in the keester.

[Dr Dave]

I'm old, and I'm tired, and by God this time the movers are going to pack us. Thanks, Mone, for removing any remaining traces of cognitive dissonance regarding this decision.

[clinthopson]

Mone,

I feel your pain. Moving is a bitch. Fortunately we've been in the same house for 16 years but have moved our business four times in the last 10 years and that's even worse than house moving, what with al the infrastructure that has to be set up.

It has been a hot mother whis week and we spent a mong time Saturday moving our outside furniture back in place after a patio redo. WHy couldn't we get the June glom when we need it?

Advice:do what I did, sit down and hammer down a couple of Negro Modelos - it really helps.

[Enforcer]

I didn't move in hot weather, but weather was a factor. It was December in Michigan. The temperature was below freezing and there was snow and ice on the ground. Salting the steps to avoid slipping was necessary at every stop. Driving the truck in the snow didn't help. And while you have to wear a coat and gloves outdoors, you get suddenly way too hot when you get indoors, especially with all the physical activity. You can't win, really.

Larry

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

I feel your pain. Moving is a bitch.

Not when the Army does it for you. All the stuff Carm and I brought back east from Seattle will be going into our new place on May 21 or thereabouts, and the Army, Carm's former employer, quite rightly pays for it. I hope my books were packed OK. By God, I hope that. I have nightmares of destroyed spines and torn or folded pages.

When we left New York City in March 2000, the subcontractors hired by the Army were not the best movers in the world. One guy held up my Aretha Franklin box set and asked me, "Do you want this?"

Hehe. Yeah. I kinda want all the stuff you see. That's why I HAVE IT IN MY FUCKING APARTMENT.

Excuse me.

[stonemonkts]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

I rented a truck, and it was arguably the worst moving van still in use in the United States. It had over 300,000 miles on it, no power brakes, a manual transmission with a clutch that required a leg about 7 feet long to operate within a full range of motion, enough "play" in the steering wheel to complete a revolution without actually changing the direction of the truck and to top it all off, it stalled at stops unless you kept your foot on the gas.

I swear I must have rented the same truck in 1999 (the last time I moved without hiring movers.) Spying my friends in the sideview mirror following in their car laughing hysterically as the truck I drove pitched and rolled after running over a pebble was quite an experience. I am still amazed I didn't roll that piece of shit.

So there we were with this truck packed like a sardine can heading towards the storage unit (a pre-move before a big move...talk about a fucking recurring nightmare). We arrive at the storage place 40 minutes before they close, and after unloading approx. 1/2 of my shit we discover I rented a unit TOO small for everything. So long story short, I bribe the desk clerk to rent me a larger one AND stay open a few more hours.

By the time I was ready for the final move I knew I would never do it myself, so I hired movers. I was lucky. They moved everything smoothly in one day from the storage place, the crap I had at the temporary digs, all the way out here (167 miles).

Mone - Good luck in your new place.

[Gentle Giant]

Thanks to this wonderful orange powder, every day is a "moving" day in my household:

[bostontricky]

Monte - my brother-in-law was in Navy ROTC at Cornell and due to color-blindness wound up putting most of his time in behind a desk in Arlington, VA. He had mentioned some loophole involving being reimbursed for moving by the pound or something like that which made it worthwhile for people to purchase items such as weight sets and pianos prior to the move. Anything like this still in effect?

- - -

We moved out to Boston from the Midwest in 1992. Our anal-retentive landlord in Ann Arbor typically wrote all his leases as 51-week deals so he could prep his vacant apartments during the last week in August. So we were out on the streets on August 24, and our lease in Boston didn't start until September 1. We had a 14-foot U-Haul packed to the gills and had to unload the contents at some warehouse up in Lawrence for a week, and rent another truck on September 1.

Try renting any sort of vehicle in Boston (or any college town) on September 1. U-Haul was kind enough to rent us a 24-foot truck for the day. Nice introduction to New England, driving that behemoth on these cowpaths around here...

[Chris D]

You have my sincerest sympathy, mone.

Last time we moved was our first since owning a home. I knew I couldn't do it myself. This one cat gave me an estimate for a move with us packing the boxes. One figure included my wall of LPs; another didn't. The "with albums" quote was $100 more! Hell, yeah, I took 'em up on that. We wound up 1,000 pounds over his estimate, but they honorably stuck to the figure. Those kids gave me a dirty look when they saw all the LP boxes, but they did laugh at the "No Heat/No Sun" warning I had written on all of them. It was 5 degrees F and snowing on moving day.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by bostontricky

Monte - my brother-in-law was in Navy ROTC at Cornell and due to color-blindness wound up putting most of his time in behind a desk in Arlington, VA. He had mentioned some loophole involving being reimbursed for moving by the pound or something like that which made it worthwhile for people to purchase items such as weight sets and pianos prior to the move. Anything like this still in effect?

Yeah, there are such loopholes still in effect. The Army will pay such and such a pound for household goods up to a maximum. If the Army hires a moving company (like for Carm and me moving waaaaay across the country), there is no way the soldier can scam it. But if you move YOURSELF, well then hello! They also give you a per mile gas allowance. But in the end, most soldiers probably don't game the system so much that a professional moving company would be cheaper.

I just hope my books are intact. My books, man!

I'm going to take it easy on the fellas at this end and let them put all the books on the ground floor. Those poor suckers who moved me out of my Seattle apartment had to walk down two floors. After ten years in publishing, I have a hella lotta books. Had a lot before.

[moneyp]

Moving Day, Part Two

Much smoother than Part One, although I think I got a close relation to Larry's aforementioned truck. The thing started shuddering when it went over 45.

More stuff, six people this time. It went surprisingly smooth considering a lot of our stuff wasn't packed. Yeah yeah, I know, but the old place is a freakin' closet. We didn't have room for all the boxes. We only have loose items here now, some clothes, refridgerated goods, bathroom stuff, and some files that Mel didn't want to take but at least had to look through, which she's doing now. Oh, and my computer, because DSL won't be in the new digs for a couple of weeks. I'm already getting seizures thinking about it. I have web access at work, so I'll still be around some.

But what I feel right now, along with the exhaustion, is an overwhelming sense of relief. I'm so damned happy to be out of this dump, and into a place that's actually NICE, that words can not justify it. It actually feels like a giant weight has lifted off my shoulders, one that I was only partially aware was there to begin with.

Oh, and as I was telling Lois, we have a backyard now, and a garden, and permission to actually do stuff with it. So, uh, Tanager.... what the hell am I supposed to do with it?

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Pave it over and put up a basketball court..............

[Tanager]

Hrm...you live in California? Xeriscape that baby. You're probably lucky enough to be in a relatively warm hardiness zone (*), plant plenty of salvias ("sage"), yuccas, and other drought-tolerant stuff. Maximum color, scent, hummingbirds, etc., minimum maintenance. That would be one way to tackle it. (I'm assuming you don't live in one of the West's few soggy spots, like a coastal redwood forest or something.)

A variation on the xeriscape theme would be to plant an herb garden. Lots of herbs are well-adapted to warm, dry climes. Good, easy to find (and easy to maintain) examples include cilantro, rosemary, lavender, and the aforementioned sages.

If you want a more in-depth take, PM me. But one of the best things in any case is to identify a local nursery run by knowledgeable people. Skip the big garden centers, the Home Depots, etc. Plants adapted to (or better yet, native to) the local environment and raised locally by people who are familiar with your local climate (and advice from the same folks) are almost always the best way to start. I can probably point you in some directions to dig for some good starting points, if you like.

(*) Most of California is in the very mild zone 9, some of the foothills are in zone 8. I'm assuming you don't live in an alpine zone, which would obviously be considerably colder. You can consult the USDA hardiness zone map to be sure. Nurseries (knowledgeable ones, any other kind isn't worth patronizing) will know how hardy their plants are in terms of the coldest zones in which they can survive. The zones only refer to average annual minimum temperature - true plant hardiness is much more complex than that, which is why, unless you've been experimenting with plantings for a while, a good local plant geek is an invaluable resource.

[clinthopson]

Tanny, you're on the right track. I've tried to stick to native plants or stuff from Australia or South Africa which easily adapt to our climate.

I would also recommend using drip irrigation.

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

I would also recommend using drip irrigation.

I do that all the time. It seems like someone's always tying up the bathroom, so you gotta do what you gotta do.

Larry

[Darryl]

One times, I met this nutjob in the street outsides my crib when I was livin in Manhattans! My own single and mingle pad where I coulds love the ladies much to my hearts content!

So I was datin' this dames who had a hairy ass, that was so disgusting, and I meets this other lady in front of my pad! And she is sendins out such sexual innuendoes and what not that I'm like, "LADY YOU ARE READY TO THROW DOWN AT THE DROP OF A HAT!" So I gets her number and I leaves while practically fannin' my balls because this chicks is so damns hott!

And I break up with this hairy-asseds chicks because she was ready to date some uglyfatass coast guard dude rights in front of me! Can you believe her audacitys! Hittin's on some military fuck because he gots Benjamins and Darryl only gots coinage!

So I calls up this wackjob and says, how 'bouts we hang, ready for the times when I can introduces her to the tastes of Darryl's sweet symphonic lovemakins. But she did not have no big butt, whichs shoulds have been a warning signs 'cause that coulds be a signs of a chick of little quality.

Well, push comes to shoves so to speaks and on the third dates she is ridin' my pony! Big time, too! We dids it in the bedroom in the hallways and even in front of my windows! But THEN THIS FLAKE ONE MONTH LATER TELLS ME "I WANTS TO MOVE IN!" YOU WANTS TO MOVE IN! WHAT ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKINGS MIND? BUT DARRYL WAS SUSCEPTIBLE TO THE FLAVORS OF LOVE AND DIDN'T LISTEN TO HIS INSTINCTS AND LET MISS LOONEYTUNES SHARE HIS ABODES!

I thoughts maybe I'd get like half the rents paid, but no. So then nutjob tells me she wants to get married! I'M LIKE I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOUR LAST NAMES AND YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU AND SHE STARTS CRYIN' ON THE COUCH REALLY FREAKINS ME OUT!! FUCK, WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN TO MYSELF!

So in spites of myself I succumbs to getting engaged and nextthings you know, the PHONE IS RINGING OFF THE HOOK WITH OLD BOYFRIENDS AND OLD GIRLFRIENDS AND WHO THE FUCK ARE THESE PEOPLE CALLIN'S ME AND HANGIN' UP!!!!

So she moves in not only with herself but her piano and her bigass tables and three chairs and she couldn't even sing worth a lick but who cared because she could romp.

Wells, next things you know, I FIND OUT SHE BEEN SPENDINS THE LITTLE MONEYS I HAVE and then I FIND OUT SHE BEEN ENGAGED SIX TIMES! SHE DIDN'T LOVE MES! SHE LOVED WHOEVER COULDS PUT HER UP FOR A NIGHT!

Holy moly! I lost hairs on my face and I got sick and my bodys tellin' me GET HER OUT! GET HER OUT!

So I cancelleds my trip to Mexico with her because she be all tellin' me she wasn't sure she could give it up or even have a conversations but she was damn sure gonna walk around half-naked with her tops off and actin' like I'm all insecure 'cause I don'ts want no flabby ass man hittins on my lady!!!!

So she says, "WHY YOU CANCELLIN'?"

I says, "Because youre moving your skanky ass the fuck out of my house and if you don'ts do it in a month you'll be homeless and skanky instead of just skanky."

And she goes, "If you throw me out I won'ts respect you!"

And I says, "I NEED YOUR RESPECT LIKE I NEEDS BOTULISM!"

So she moves but whilst she does so my baby brother stops by to make sure she doesn't steals nothin' like my radio or my cat.

And whiles she's movin' my little b' is givin' her all kinds of dirty looks like, "How come you fucked my brother's heart up, you ho!"

And she calls me to tell me she took some of my cheese and "WHY DID YOUR BROTHERS GIVE ME SUCH EVIL STARES?!?"

And I says, "Get off my fucking phone, lady. Just go gets engageds for a change, and leaves the rest of us alone. And anothers thing, you ain't that hot."

[Jazzzoline]

.oO( thinking seriously of growing a beard on my ass)

[Enforcer]

Originally Posted by Jazzzoline

.oO( thinking seriously of growing a beard on my ass)

If I wasn't such a gentleman, I'd make a funny joke right now.

Too suave,
Larry

[Jazzzoline]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

If I wasn't such a gentleman, I'd make a funny joke right now.

Too suave,
Larry

*Raising a brow and wondering how long the guy can hold back*

[Jazzzoline]

.oO(seriously thinking I'm gonna dream another nightmare)