Trip back, part I

Monday evening, I flew back to my old town to meet the movers, finish up some painting, hang out for the carpet cleaner, do a walk through on the house we're planning to rent out, change our address at the post office, turn in our cable cards and hang with my girlfriends. Whew! I got an evening flight because I really wanted to pick up Master J from his first day of school in his new school. My flight landed at 11:35 and by the time we got off the plane and to the rental car desk all they had left was minivans. I think this is how they punish you for making them work until midnight. Oh well, minivan or no vehicle? Yeah, I'm sucking it up and driving a minivan. Again. I hate them, but they do get you where you're going so I guess I can survive. Anyway, I got to our house close to 1:00 and it was FREEZING! Mister C had turned the heat down to 55 degrees to save a few bucks. Nice. I was planning on painting as soon as I got in but paint requires a little more heat to dry properly so that was out. So I started throwing what I thought were just a few last minute items into boxes to finish up the packing before the movers got there in the morning. I ended up staying up until 3:00 am. Which is when I figured out that Mister C had also turned the water off. I went down to the basement to see if I could figure out which knobs to turn but for the life of me I couldn't remember anything. I knew Mister C had told me that two of them needed to be turned on and he had even showed me which two. Evidently though, I was sort of tuning him out at the time because while I can clearly remember him standing there and asking me if I understood, and I clearly remember telling him that I did, I clearly did not. I knew there was no way I was going to call and wake him up so I just went to bed.

The alarm went off at six and I actually got right up. I had no coffee pot so I figured the first thing I needed to do was head to FourBucks and get some coffee. As I was getting ready to go, I remembered that it was garbage day and thought I should probably put that on the curb. I went in to the garage and reminded myself that I needed to plug in the garage door openers because Mister C had unplugged them as a theft deterrent. But I didn't remember that he had also used the slide bolts. I plugged in the openers and pushed the first button. The door started to go up, then hit the bolt and just stopped. I pushed the button again, hoping that it would just go down, but no. That would be too easy. It went down. And then right back up to the stuck position. So I tried to race it. You know, push the button so it goes down and run like hell over to try and unbolt it before it goes back up. I would stand in the "launch" position, with one foot in front of the other and my finger on the button, push the button and run. Just as I would get to the damn door, it would be hitting the bolt again. AAAAARRRGGGHHH! I'm sure if anyone had seen me they would have had me committed. Un-showered, slept in cloths, wild hair, running like a madwoman and cursing as I'm going. Oh yeah, I'm quite a sight. I finally gave up and used the other garage door (which I unbolted first)to take the garbage out. I got my coffee and coffee cake and headed back to the house. The movers showed up at 9:30 and the first thing I had one of them do was push the stupid button while I unbolted the door.

The movers asked me if I needed to go anywhere or if I was staying the whole time. I told them I was staying. Honestly, I thought it would take about three or four hours. I mean, Mister C and I have moved our entire house in eight hours with three of us. There was four of them. And the do this for a living. Long story short, it took them 7 1/2 hours to get everything out of the house. I couldn't go get lunch, or snacks, or run errands or anything. The first thing they took was the family room furniture and all the dining chairs. Then they took all the mattresses off and stood them on end. Then I don't know what the hell they did because it seemed to slow way down. And I had nowhere to sit. Or nap. I think there's a possibility they may have hoped I was going to buy them lunch. And normally, I would have. But I couldn't get my car out. My "lunch" consisted of a squished peppermint patty and a chocolate bar that has been in our refrigerator for way too long. Mmmm, candy!

I'll have to finish this up tomorrow since it's now after 11:00 and I am exhausted.