I was awake at 6 a.m. I was dressed at 6:15. I stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru and got an Egg McMuffin (the only item I recognized on the morning menu) and a coffee. I know that they've tested it, and there are nutrients contained in the Egg McMuffin, it still chews like expired plastic window sushi. It took the 30-minute drive to La Crosse until the coffee was cool enough to drink.
So I was at the house at 7:15. I did a Y turn (very easy with the parking pad there) and backed into the garage. I assumed the truck would have to pull into the driveway to unload. I "rested my eyes" for about 20 minutes, then came back to the world. I hadn't slept much the night before, and was sleep I got wasn't very restful.
Around 7:45, two middle-aged gentlemen stopped on the sidewalk at the end of the driveway. They immediately reminded me of George and Lenny in "Of Mice and Men." George was probably 5'10" and a gentleman's gentleman among the local packing and unpacking packers here in La Crosse. He had pulled up, rather quietly, on a sharp vintage Harley. Lenny was about 6'5" with a massive frame. He rode up on a mountain bicycle.
They were both really nice guys, and did this work on a regular basis for about a half dozen national moving companies. Jerome, the Stevens Van Lines' driver, had told them to arrive at 7:45. George asked if he could park his Harley in the back of the house and I said sure.
I was a little concerned about what form the unload would take. My street, West Avenue South, is a state highway, so there is no parking in front of the house. Unless you really want to, I guess. Jerome pulled the truck up so the back doors opened onto my driveway. Not only was he blocking the neighbors' driveway, but also one of the two lanes of this state highway.
So when he opened the back doors and started unloading, I shrugged and thought if the cops come by Jerome's the one getting ticket. But that never happened. He put out his bright orange triangles and, when two temp guys showed up to help out, he had them park behind the truck for extra safety.
The first things off the truck were the box springs and mattress, both of which had to go up and over the balcony on the back porch). Everything else fit fairly easily through the front door. Big highlights: the condo-sized sectional fits perfectly along the far wall in the living room. If it hadn't fit, I was going to put it in the basement room and be at a loss for living room furniture.
Several things I discovered during the unload: notes on the boxes referring to their contents never seem to work for me. I try to list the major items but end up suffering from vague reference to the other 75% of the contents. And then there are times when you have room left in a heavy box, so you pack sheets or pillows in those boxes, even though they're labeled "kitchen."
The upshot was that about a third of the boxes ended up in the wrong rooms (totally my fault). It was obvious that these guys had been doing this for years. They critiqued the competency of the packing by Pink (a couple of instances, I had to agree with them) while never missing a beat in the rhythm of unloading and distribution. We were done by just before noon.
After they all had left, I surveyed the field: they had put the bed back together and put the box springs and mattress on it. They had reassembled the dining room table. Boxes were stacked neatly in the corners of every room, and unpacking was not something I wanted to jump right into. I drove back to Winona and had a solid afternoon nap.
Thursday morning, I drove back to La Crosse, back to the house. The cable install guy was coming between 3 and 5 p.m., so I wanted to clear out the TV corner (cable) and the office upstairs (internet) so he had access to them. I quickly found out there was no way I was going to get the big-screen TV out of its box by myself. So I located the TV from the office and offered it up as the monitor on which to check the cable box.
When he arrived, the cable guy said this place had never been wired for cable. The coaxial I found was from a digital antenna (which I later noticed on the ground near the garage). So he set about, getting the wire from the pole out back and splicing it deftly into the existing coaxial so as to maintain all the seals into the house. Overall, it was a very good job. That night, with the cable shadows dancing once more, I stayed my first night in the house.
Friday I got up one sore muscle. One big ache. I took a couple ibuprofen and reminded myself that this was not a race, there need be no desperation. I was plugging along, taking pleasure in cutting down empty boxes and stacking them back in their corners, when my brother Steve showed up, took the nickel tour and proclaimed it to his liking. He extended an invitation of Pizza Night (every Friday is Pizza Night), which I accepted.
After pizza, I drove back to Winona to get a shower, a change of clothes and check up on Patty. The cat was doing fine and seemed very affectionate, even playful. Saturday morning, Amanda and I met at my house and focused on getting the kitchen up and functional. I know it was too much to ask for that all the counters be cleared, or that everything had found a home in the new cupboards. We got all the kitchen boxes unpacked and broken down, and that felt good.
At some point during the weekend Pam and her friend Connie dropped by the house and seemed to really like it. They both certainly like the carpet a lot more than I do. Pam was impressed with the size of the workshop space in the basement and advised that I take up some hobby or another. I know from Alaska that having a large project or hobby during the winter often keeps one from insanity.
Sunday my niece Emily and her steady-freddie Jim were here. We took a good deal of the time with Jim and I trying to figure out how the cable box plugs into the Blu-Ray plugs into the sound system plugs into the TV plugs into the cable box. Jim did the lions share of the squatting, connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting while I tried to devine exactly what the configuration was before they were torn asunder.
While Jim and I were busy with guy stuff, Emily unpacked the framed artwork and tchotchkes that were still packed up in the dining room. She did a dynamite job and I've only just touched the surface of the piles that await. The only other multiple-person jobs were uncrating the World's Largest Paperweight and moving the dresser from one room to another upstairs.
That evening I enjoyed a full-screen cable experience by discovering all my favorite channels that are not covered in the Tier 1 (Standard) cable plan. With just an upgrade, I can get those channels (and who didn't see that coming). There's well over half a dozen that I'd like to have, and that would only be a couple bucks a channel per month. I still have time to ruminate about that one.
Monday morning, I woke up with a determination to go retrieve the cat and move her over to the new house. I figure if I waited until everything was in place, it would be sometime next month. In the afternoon, Amanda came by the house again, and we spent a good deal of our time packing up paper and breaking down boxes. The living room is the only space without boxes any longer. Turning my attention to the kitchen is the next move, as I actually want to cook my own food for a change.
So Tuesday I took off. I slept in. Twice. Then I went out to Menard's (kind of a Home Depot, only with nicer people) and picked up two lidded bins (one trash, one recycling) for the kitchen, a shower curtain with rings for the bathroom and an economical microwave oven. Now all I have to do is find places for all the stuff that previously resided in kitchen drawers in Pasadena, which I think is going to be my chore for the rest of the day that I'm taking off. It's after 7 p.m. and I still haven't thought about supper. There sandwich fixin's in the refrigerator, and I could make some kind of pasta thing, I suppose.
Wednesday will be the calling day: lawn guy, electrician, handyman. If it works out, I should also head back to Winona one more time to pick up my clothes and the remaining paperwork I have over there (as well as one or two cat toys). It's funny, but part of me wants to leave a couple things over there, just because I don't want that time with Amanda and Natalie to be over.
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