I make no secret among family that I've been getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. No sooner does my head hit the pillow than the brain churn begins. What got done or didn't? What's the time schedule for each thing? How's everybody else's schedule going? If we pack into the PODS something somebody is sleeping on, then what do they sleep on for the next nights till we head out? Since we need something to sleep on aside from a concrete floor up through Thursday night, and now the PODS will be gone, what do we do with the bed or chair or whatever before we leave? (I get a folding camp chair just for sitting, the kids get worn chairs which will go to the curb's free pile for two days and if not selected, dumpster.)
Who needs to be called, what do I need to do online before we send the wi-fi box back to the company? How can I make motel reservations for that first night when I don't know when the dumpster will be heading out and we have to be here until it's gone? That means any time between 5 AM and 5 PM. That makes a huge difference in road miles to our next destination.
I contacted Habitat For Humanity since they have a local ReStore and do pickups on furniture... or at least some furniture. They draw the line at lift chairs and that will be Steve's bed his last few nights. Just like mine will be a futon those same nights. They'll take the futon, as well as the couch and the bed that our family helpers currently are sleeping on. It's been Steve's but he hates hates HATES it, and will replace it when we are in our new place. Mattresses of course go in the dumpster, but my bed frame goes north and gets packed out before bedtime tonight so I'll be sleeping on the futon. So Restore gets three pieces of furniture and a local thrift store will take the lift chair. All of this happens Friday, and we're STUCK till the dumpster goes, but not till the furniture goes. It just needs to be on the driveway, even up close to the house, each piece labeled for who is to pick it up. We also need to have made appointments for that to happen that day.
The thrift store needed a photo of the chair. I initially thought it was to see what kind of condition it was in before they could accept it, so I cleaned it up as well as I could, noted the wet spots were very dark in the photos, so reshot a few hours later, when Steve wasn't in it. I also sent them two, one lying back down, the other up high, just to prove the mechanism worked. Later it occurred to me they just wanted to be able to identify it when they stopped to pick it up. I'll have to call and ask, or drop by the store this week.
Some time. When I have some time.
The car wasn't quite ready for a road trip. Friday I made an appointment to bring it in Saturday for a full set of tires and an oil change. The old tires weren't that bald, at least for the Phoenix area around town, no rain, no snow or ice, and never very far from help. But going over 2,000 miles as we visit family on our way, through mountains where snow is still very much a reality, I decided it was time for new ones. It was also a chance for an hour plus of alone time, plus, as it turned out, a nap. There were some comfy chairs in the waiting room.
When they quote you a price on tires, it's just to buy the tires. Then there's installation. balancing, new valve stems, balancing... and the bill goes up. At least in an oil change, they actually ask you if you want air filters replaced. Or at least this place did. Places where they just do oil changes usually show you a dirty filter and "suggest" strongly that you buy a new one from them. I love to take the filter, walk over to the nearest waste basket, and whack it a couple times on the rim so the leaves, etc., fall out. Then I smile and hand it back to them to put back in the car. Unless it's really dirty of course.
Everything on my car was finished in about an hour. (Yeah, short nap.) I got in the car, circled the small parking lot and returned to the door. My low tire pressure icon was lit on the dashboard. I heard a bit several times from several people about driving the car twenty miles and it "should go off by itself."
Say what?
First, I wasn't planning to drive twenty miles for a few days, and by the time I was, my schedule was too jammed to come back halfway across town just for a sensor light or whatever was causing it to trip. A woman employee actually listened to me and went to find one of the men working on tire installations, brought him over, explained my life to him, and he finally agreed to check my car out. Each tire was inspected for its actual pressure, settings were adjusted in the computer, and lo and behold, the light on the dash was out. The actual work took five minutes. They thought I should rely on fate and come back for that only if I was really really sure I needed to? I was sure before I left!
We took a break at the pool in the afternoon. We'd hit that wall where more packing needed to be done before things were ready to go into the PODS for it to be fully loaded. It's still not done, but things are collecting to get done now. However....
I came home exhausted from the pool, had a bite to eat, and went to bed. Or tried to, anyway. The "in bed" part happened, sleep didn't. Wheels started churning about what was left undone, so I got up, found a box, and emptied out the bathroom, sorting what heads north while in storage from what heads north in the car for use on the trip, like medications, toothbrush, hairbrush, etc., some of which is still in use and will hit the suitcases last minute on Friday. Steve looked at me with a question in his eyes, and I explained my usual current explanation for not sleeping: panic mode again.
This time he decided to do something about it, rounding up all the crew, who up to that point thought they were done for the day, and organized packing up the kitchen. Some stuff went back to Rich, some out to the curb under the "FREE" sign, some into boxes until bubble wrap ran out. At that point I pulled clothes out of the closet which were not needed for possibly a few months, and fragile things got wrapped inside them. We may have fewer shorts or long pants or whatever to wear over the months till we have our new home, but we can just do laundry more often. Besides, not all of our clothes will fit into the car anyway, along with everything else that MUST go up with us.
It turns out I pulled out too many clothes for what was needed in the kitchen, so the excess will get their own box(es) packed as well, just as soon as everybody is awake and I can enter all the bedrooms to empty closets. Hangers take up way more space than clothes do without then included, or clothes make hangers take up way more space then necessary. Time to separate them. The basically useless hangers went out to the FREE pile, clothes were folded and filled up the clothes hampers first while there was room, then more will fill boxes later. Empty hangers, I found out, fill pillowcases just fine, and two full pillowcases fill a garbage bag just fine so everything stays organized. So far that's three garbage bags of them, but with closets yet to empty. There will be some queen sheet sets with no matching pillowcases, but then I'm downsizing my bed up north to a full, and after laundering the sheets from all their travel grime as they get used for furniture scratch protectors or space fillers, they'll be given away.
This morning things are calmer, though 6 hours of sleep seems to be my current version of a full night. Looking at the jumble of what was produced last night started me off in reorganizing some of it this morning. A few things needed to stay here to go in the car. Others needed their boxes filled. While I was busy it was time to empty all the wastebaskets into one garbage bag hanging from a kitchen drawer so the scattered waste baskets can be packed to go north themselves.
Last night the "kids" were in their own quandary, trying to figure out how to make enough room to get everything into the PODS today in its final packing. I settled them down with an explanation of what didn't go, like two mattresses (dumpster), a futon, the bed they were sleeping on, the sofa and the lift chair (pick ups scheduled), and much of the pantry which would go into the car the way we usually travel, though the car stack would be significantly higher this last trip, and only in part because we had no dogs this time.
Monday will be more cleaning, Tuesday even more cleaning, plus painting and getting Rich's junk out into the dumpster while very able bodies were still around to help. Wednesday will be their trip back to the airport, and just three of us will be left for the final touches. Rich has a place to stay for a week (paying rent) and is supposed to have another person locating a storage unit for his stuff. I can't pack up the car till Friday morning because it might be needed for transporting his things... IF the friend comes through with locating a storage unit in time. It's been a week now and no word yet. No communication at all. I asked if I could help make calls, several times as the days passed, and each time he said it was being taken care of.
Really?
He also has a friend in the junk business who has offered to take away all the metal trash for free. Just one stop, however, after all is gathered up in one place.
I have a friend coming over Friday night with her huge vehicle to take refrigerator items which would otherwise have to be tossed out, like margarine, uneaten frozen meals, etc. Since we can't take chemicals in the PODS, and there won't be room in the car, she will get a mess of cleaners in various quantities, etc., plus some fresh lemons and grapefruits from the neighbor's trees.
In a bit the kids will be back from wherever they took the car to, and they'll have to kick out all the things in the room they're using so Steve's stuff can get its final sort / pack.
And tonight we no longer have the TV for relaxation. It goes in the PODS. Steve's son is a Tetris King when it comes to organizing the PODS and while we're leaving it till nearly the last minute, it needs to be in a good location and not fighting for space with, say, Steve's lumpy scooter which a bad bump would propel through the screen despite protecting it
And I have been up for 6 hours already and need a break.
From everything!
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