Nov 1-4, 2009
Nov 5-11,2009
Nov 12-15,2009
Nov 16-Dec 2, 2009
Dec 3-6, 2009
Dec 7 -, 2009
This was a busy period of time. I can’t remember what exactly happened each day, but we filled our days with packing and repair work.
Things quickly reached the point where Carl would be looking for something and walk around muttering that the “Mad Packer” had struck again. Sometimes it would be right there, sometimes it would be in a box downstairs, sometimes what he’d be looking for would be in Colorado.... It made life interesting...
The deck got restained in here. The upstairs bathroom got some much needed repairs. We spent one weekend just cleaning. And I’ve been filing change of address forms with everyone I can think of.
Before we left for the first trip west, I gave our 30 day notice at the gym. The gym manager I talked with seemed defensive at first when I asked the procedure for dropping membership. When she asked why we were leaving, I told her we were moving to Colorado and that’s a bit far to commute. Her tone changed immediately and she helped me fill in the paperwork.
The post office should start forwarding our mail to the new address on November 27, the day after Thanksgiving.
A few specific items came on specific days:
Monday, November 23
I closed the safe deposit box today.
The realtor came by this afternoon. We’re signing with Remax. Paulette seems confident that this house will sell quickly. We’ll see. The economy isn’t encouraging... She had some suggestions to improve our chances. Some we will take. Others we will ignore. She left three silly signs on the front deck when she left (see below).
Late that night, as I lay thinking about it, I had another meltdown. Seeing one’s house through a stranger’s eyes can be depressing...
Wednesday, November 25
I closed the M. P. Reflections checking account today and filed the papers terminating the LLC. It was an interesting experiment....
This afternoon, two of the Remax salespeople stopped in for a whirlwind tour of the place. When they left, I felt like a tornado had struck... Such enthusiasm!
Thursday, November 26 - Thanksgiving
We decided that today would be a complete day off. Nothing related to moving. No packing. No repair work. No worrying.
After a leisurely breakfast of Carl’s french toast (yum), we sat there catching up on some reading while taping the Macy’s parade. About 10:30, we drove to Kroger’s to pick up a turkey dinner at the deli. Brought it back to eat while watching the parade (and zipping through the commercials). Not a bad meal. And, when 3/4 of the kitchen has been packed up, it's a bit hard to cook.
Then we vegetated, sitting in front of the tv watching reruns of House (g). During the commercials, I started this journal, which accounts for how disjointed some of this is...
It was a relaxed day. Back to work tomorrow, however.
Friday, November 27
We closed the rest of the Bank of Tennessee accounts today.
Carl spent most of the day working on the grout in the small bathroom. It’s looking much, much better. I spent most of the rest of the day on packing....
After a trip to the gym, we had dinner at the nearby Italian restaurant.
We wound up telling the gym class about our move tonight. They say we’ll be missed... The good news is that there's a really, really nice gym just five minutes from the apartment with lots of classes and a whole lot of gym equipment (and it costs less too....)
Saturday, November 28
Another busy day around the house. Carl spent most of the day working on the grout. I did laundry and a bunch of little things (and more packing).
About mid-afternoon, the doorbell rang. A couple and their mother wondered if they could look around. The mother is moving to this area and needs a house. They only had the weekend for looking. Come on in! The couple seemed to like it. The mother seemed reserved....
We also got the first coat of paint on the bathroom vanity. It needed something...
And Carl picked up a rental floor scrubber to use on the garage floor. He’ll work that fix into tomorrow’s schedule.
We ended the day with a trip to the hot tub.... This moving stuff is hard work!
Sunday, November 29
Another busy day around the house. I did some painting (the vanity in the bathroom). Carl spent most of the day cleaning the garage floor and putting the base molding back in. It really looks better - worth the work.
And I got a lot more packing done. I’m starting to run out of things to pack!
>b>Monday, November 30
Another busy day. This moving is hard work!!! The bathroom repairs are done. The cabinet is finished.
I ran a bunch of errands in the morning, including paying for our first payment for the unoccupied house insurance, canceling our next dentist appointments (it’s really too far to commute), returning the floor scrubber Carl rented over the weekend, paying his cell phone bill (it got caught in the forwarded mail and is somewhere between here and there), and picking up some minor items at Lowe’s and the grocery store.
This was our final gym class. After class, the instructor gave us some very nice Christmas ornaments that she and her three daughters had picked out for us. Here's what they looked like on this year's tree:
Carl fixed some spaghetti and meatballs for dinner - some of his special meatballs (yum). Then we watched an episode of House and part of Christmas Vacation (g) before hitting the sack.
Tuesday, December 1
And we’re still here... I had gotten concerned about a missing check from the IRA and had called my sister last night to see if it had arrived in Westminster yet (she’s picking up our mail). Nope. So this morning, I called our broker. It had never been issued!!!! After a quick scramble, Carl signed yet more forms, and they promised it would get done today.
The cow at the front office of the broker’s place had misunderstood our request for a mailed check and somewhere, it got stopped because they didn’t have a checking account to wire it to. So, they did a special wire transfer for the funds and, I think the broker is taking the fees associated with that out of the cow’s hide.... The full amount was deposited in the credit union checking account this afternoon...
Carl had taken a final load of stuff to the dump when they called him about this snafu... I was running errands myself this morning - a final box of magazines and stuff for Kelly and dropping a last pile of stuff at the Good Will. We really didn't need this mixup.
This afternoon, we started loading the truck. The living room furniture (most of it) is now on the truck. Our elderly next door neighbor came over to help Carl get the tv moved into the truck. Carl’s half hoping it breaks during the trip so he can justify a flat screen... However, it’s well padded and secured. It will probably outlast us both...
With that, Carl moved the truck back to the lower driveway. He then went back to repairs and I started loading boxes. It’s all one giant three dimensional jigsaw puzzle... We both knocked off about 7 for quick showers and dinner. Chinese tonight. It is Tuesday, after all...
Wednesday, December 2
Today was a wet, stormy day. It would drizzle most of the day with periods of downpours. Just like when we loaded the truck last time!!!
Carl ran a couple of errands after lunch, shutting off the cable and returning the cable modem. We’re without the internet for the rest of our stay here.
After he got back, we continued loading the truck.
We took a break for dinner. Since the kitchen is mostly packed and the internet is down for us, we took the laptop and drove over to Atlanta Bread where we checked email and had a couple of salads.
I decided to check and make sure the rent check had cleared and discovered that the bank had charged me an NSF fee!!! The account was overdrawn by $0.16... Interestingly enough, the amount of interest the teller had told me had been accrued was $0.16... It must not have been posted in a timely manner. I was upset, to put it mildly. (A quick call the next day got it straightened out - the interest was posted, the fee reversed, and the account closed)
We went back to the house to disassemble more furniture and pack some more boxes, then into the hot tub one last time. Just as we slipped in, the rain that had been misting off and on all day suddenly intensified and came down in buckets with lots of wind behind it.