Scraps Of Life

Past and Present

My youngest brother graduates from high school tonight. It has been a bit of a bumpy road all in all but he has survived and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. What he will do now I do not know, only that Aunt M is making motions to have him go to Jersey with her to do work around her house. It could happen!

This weekend does bring to mind, however, the events of this time last year, when A graduated and C and I moved from her apt to the mobile home we shared until I married V. In light of that catastrophic weekend, I have gone back to the blogger days and pulled up the saga as I transcribed it then. Enjoy!

Saturday, May 25th, 2002:
8am I expect Matt to be at my apartment so we can go pick up the truck and get started. He's not here. No phone so can't call (it was transfered the day before)

9am Jason and Michael (the other movers) were supposed to be here by this time. Nuh uh.

9:30am Jason shows up. We go to get the truck. At the U-Haul place, there is a large crowd...but not a lot of trucks. Rumors abound that they are overbooked. Rumors are true. We finally get to the counter, and guess what...they DON'T have the 14' truck I reserved over a week ago. Hmmm.....calls the manager over to see what they're gonna do. What happened was the location itself was covered but corporate/internet orders jammed up the works leaving them 2 trucks short (not to mention a couple of break-downs and Traffic not sending them the trucks they needed in the crunch). After much deliberation they decided to give me a 26' truck (at no extra charge of course) which I would have back by 3pm...according to plan. The counter guy leaves to go pull the truck around. Jason (the designated driver lol) wanders around and later comes in as the little dude with the keys is coming back around the counter. The scene goes something like this:

"Did you just hear that?"
"What," I say feeling like he's gonna pull my leg or something.
"No, I'm not kidding, your truck just blew up. Pa pow, pow!"
I turn to Jason, who nods his head..."I heard it," he says.
"Well now what ?!?!"

The engine in the big truck had, indeed, blown, and was now unusable. Several phone calls and lots of deliberation in a short amount of time lead us to an understanding that we are now going to drive to Woodville (20 miles away) to pick up a 26' truck for a "one way" trip and they are going to spot us 50 miles no charge. Calling over to the Feed Shack in Woodville the girl on the phone refuses to let the truck go for $20 (even though they are not allowed to rent the truck themselves for some reason). As Matt, the friendly yet perturbed counter person, goes to call a higher up to get this straightened out we see a truck being driven into the lot. Hallelujah! Someone is returning a 26' truck that they then turned over to us.

11am Jason and I return to the apartment with the big-a$$ truck as he calls it, only to find that Michael and Matt have yet to arrive. I use Jason's cell phone to call Michael first, since he's closer. Luckily he's home. The convo goes something like this:

"This is Michael"
"Michael, this is Jennifer, where are you???"
"Hey, I'm home...you called me remember."
"It's Saturday, the 25th...you're supposed to be helping me move today..."
"Oh my gosh...I'm sorry I forgot. I'll be there in 30 minutes....Relax, everything will be fine."
"grrr" click

Next I call Matt. He's groggy when he answers the phone. He had worked himself too hard trying to get everything ready for his own move and had not been getting much sleep. Plus he had to be at the realtor's at noon for an unexpectedly positive note: there was a serious buyer for his house. There's no way I'm recounting that convo but needless to say I was not pleased but considering he was about to move far away for a while I was trying not to make TOO big a deal over it.

11:30am Down 1 mover, Michael on the way. Jason asks are you sure your brothers can't come help? (Andrew was graduating at 4pm and there was a slew of family in town) I resigned myself to throwing my case at my mother's feet and asked for the cell-phone again. Mom asked, Andrew, Jason, and my Aunt Marie all said they would come and help for a while. Desparate in the interim, I sprint down the sidewalk to see if a guy I barely know through Michael is busy and could help us move...he's got "company" so no dice....but I tried. Michael shows up on my return sprint and we high tail it upstairs to get started.

C's furniture is extremely heavy, and requires quite a lot of man-power to get it down the flight of stairs and then up the ramp into the truck. The boys and my aunt arrive and she starts hauling stuff and directing traffic...We have the 26' truck packed with all furniture and a fair amount of boxes in approximately 1 1/2 hours. Then off to the new house.

Our biggest concern was maneuvering the truck through a narrow and twisting driveway (one lane) without crashing some trees (needless to say I got the insurance on this truck lol). It was a miracle but we made it, and were able to back the truck right up to the porch so that the ramp didn't even have to come out halfway to bridge the gap left by the porch roof jutting out at truck-level. It took us 15 MINUTES to divest the truck of its contents (piling stuff on the porch and putting the furniture into the correct rooms). By now it's 1:45pm and the boys and Aunt Marie had to get back home to take showers before graduation (Mom gave them until 2pm lol). Micheal, Jason and I bring things in from the porch then Michael goes back to the apartment with Cassie to put some more items into her car for the trip back (at which point she still doesn't know where her sister is who, incidentally, was watching the 5yo who is also heaven knows where). Jason goes with me to return the truck back.

2:34pm Back at the U-haul place. We're early for them but I'm running late anyway. So what do I do? Go back to the apt, load my tv and computer into the car and then head to the house.

3:11pm Home now, I unload my car and debate whether I have time to take a shower before graduation. I decide its not an if but a must. I make it out of the house at 10 til 4.

4:15pm Having rushed through town and circled the block seeking parking I give up and pay the frat-boys for the use of their parking lot (same as the Civic Center was charging only the Civic Center lot was full to overflowing). Then I get to walk a block to the Civic Center and circle the concourse looking for my family. I go all the way around to the other side from the door I came in from but I actually found them. They were amazed I made it. So was I.

Sunday found me making 1 trip with a car-load-full from Matt's in Crawfordville, then 2 more from the apartment (the rest of my boxes,etc. and some stuff from the kitchen)--my calves were caput from all those stairs so I called it a day and started to unpack. I have all but 3 boxes unpacked at this time, plus the kitchen boxes, and what is still left in the kitchen at the apartment which I said I would help with. C, on the other hand, still has quite a bit to move (her ankle having held her up for most of the move--it's not broken btw, only severly sprained and several lovely shades of blue and purple I might add) between her closet, B's stuff, some of her books, and her portion of the kitchen....but then that's how I imagined it would be. Different styles of moving in play here.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! For those who read this far I hope you were amused at my meanderings and maybe grateful that it wasn't you in this situation. Laugh at it, I do; and be grateful it's done, I am!

Meltdown

I may be down but don't count me out yet. Need to detach for a day or so. Check back on Friday???

--j

27.95 I had a better use for

But when you're dim enough to lock your keys in the car, you do what you gotta!

Yes, I got a bit flustered yesterday getting out of the car at Old Navy to exchange some pants for V that I got out of the car with the keys still in the ignition. Now, granted, I did hear the dinging that my car emits if a) the lights are left on and the door is opened or b) the key is in the ignition and the door is open, but as I was trying to pay attention to what V was saying it took more than that split second to realize what that dinging was telling me!

Alas and alack, we know no one who routinely breaks into cars so it was a call to the friendly Pop-A-Lock folks who did come and rescue me. Luckily before my cell phone battery ran out. And I have now a spare key in V's possession just in case this happens again.

I think I know how cat's feel...

You know, when you (or you see someone) blow into a cats face. They kind of get this startle look in their eyes and then get kinda fiesty, trying to get away. (Not that I can recall even doing this, but I've seen it done!)

It's hard to breathe when you have a lot of air concentrated at your airways! Sounds weird, huh? But it is....I went to be fitted for my AutoPAP machine today and, after chosing the style of mask I preferred, she fitted the headpiece and showed me how to check for leaks (air shooting into eyes is not a good thing) and regulate my breathing. I admit, I did have to fight some small bouts of claustrophobia/suffocation before I got the hang of it, but I did really well she (the Respiratory Therapist) said: I didn't cry or anything. Not that I wasn't tempted at first....it really was a strange sensation.

Stranger still was what happened when I tried to talk. I kind of gather now that you're really not supposed to talk or open your mouth with this thing going: as soon as you do the air rushing through your nostrils comes out your mouth! When I described this feeling to the RT she said, "Yeah, that's a big leak." Ha ha freaking ha!

As for the mask itself, I had about 5 options, and whatever one I chose gets to last me for 1 year on the Insurance company's dime. If I want a new one before a year is out I have to shell out the big bucks. I nixed anything too terribly face covering (i.e. mask with a frame that extended up over my entire noseand making a "t" over my forehead) and anything with a bulky clasp at the back of the head. I also wasn't too keen on the one that actually got stuck UP my nostrils, even if it didn;t have headgear (only a small strap from ear to ear in back) and was very flexible, I could see myself a)getting tangled in the length of the soft tubing and b) rolling onto my stomache and smooshing the air hose. SO I settled on the blue headgear with the smallish nose piece. I'll get a picture posted in the near future I'm sure.

So now I get to kill time til I get really sleepy and then go wrangle the contraption on, preferably without disturbing the hub-meister.

Where to begin?

Well, I guess I'll start by apologizing for the tardiness of this entry! I got back from Mobile Sunday evening at it's just now, 72 hours later, that I'm feeling somewhat back to normal! I'm still very sleepy but have caught up on just about everything else.

So, the weekend. Well, I was overly anxious to get a move on so I left my home before 11am to go pick up sodas (on sale at Tar-get) and then head to C's house. I called C from the road to let her know what was up. Turns out she was really not expecting me til 1pm (figuring I'd be late) but was actually ready except for her clothes (minor detail when most of the weekend will be spent cropping). I was kinda surprised she was ready, I guess I figured she'd still be assembling things when I got there but we surprised each other. We didn't even fill Mom's Rodeo lol.

The trip over was pleasant and went by in a flash. We stopped in DeFuniak Springs for a late lunch at Arby's. Let me just say that this was a very, uh, Friendly Arby's. When we walked in everyone at the counter (a total of 4-5 people, hard to remember now) fairly shouted "Hello!". And they seemed to know everyone else in there just about. Small towns, what can you say?

SO we got to Mobile, went through to our exit, took the exit, and missed the hotel. Sigh. The directions I had from Yahoo weren't explicit in saying that the hotel entrance was alongside a Race-Trac gas station and immediately (and I do mean immediately) to the right like one inch from the end of the off-ramp. But we got there, got unpacked, met a very friendly maintenance man who even went and ferried our keys back down to the front desk when they wouldn't work (meanwhile he used his pass-key to let us into the room).

Then, having a couple hours to kill before the crop started, we decided to go for a little look-see of this part of Mobile. First stop, Office Max. I know, probably seems strange but I had been sent an OfficeMax gift card that could only be used in stores and, just after I pitched it since our store had closed a year ago, I thought to lookup OfficeMax locations for Mobile, and lo and behold there was one a scant 7 miles from teh hotel. The LSS was not fr from that, so we decided on a loop. Well, I think C and I agree that Mobile has the smallest street signs in the WORLD!!! When there were signs of course. We drove through intersection after intersection without being completely sure which road we jsut crossed! It was a nightmare. Once we get to where the OM is supposed to be, we get a little confused as it's within this warren of a shopping center.

Me: Do you see it anywhere?
C: Oh, there's a sign it must be over there.
Me: Where is it?
C: Must not be here, maybe it's around the corner, go around there
Me: Okay...ew...constructon....do you see it?
C: Um...oh, there it is, go back in there it's across the parking lot!

I still don't know how she saw it...not a clue. I certainly couldn't through the trees. But anyway, we found it, made an eventually purchase and then tried to find the LSS. Now, granted, we didn't have exact directions from one to another, but the map made it look easy enough. Again, we were somewhat impeded by the utter lack of visible street signs not to mention NO familiarity whatsoever with the city. We drove and we drove, and we got caught im 5 o'clock traffic. Eventually (luckily before I ran out of gas) we found the street we needed to turn onto anddrove down it just enough to a) see an Office Max directly across the street and b) see the LSS as we passed it...and it was small. Very small, at least it looked so from teh outside. At any rate it was running close to time to start to crop so we headed back to the hotel without stopping. The dirve back was much less eventful as C became "one with the map."

Okay, this is getting long and there's still a saga to go! Friday and Saturday's crops went quite well, and by bedtime (1:30am) Saturday night/Sunday morning I had finished 41 pages! I remember placing my head on the pillow at 1:56 am. The next thing I remember is the phone ringing.

Me: 'ello
Judy: Sorry to call, but there's been a small leak downstairs.
Me: Oh no...
Judy: Some pages were lost...
Me: Oh God...
Judy: We need you to come down.
Me: Oh God, oh, okay, we'll be down.

C: What now?
Me: There's been a leak, some pages were lost, we have to go down.
C: Oh, great...

...yeah....great...

Turns out C had already been awake for a bit because of the vicious storm outside and was fully expecting the call to say a tornado was coming. So this was sort of a relief to her! But we eventually roused ourselves to go downstairs, C first, I followed shortly thereafter. The looks on the faces of those still up was not a comforting sight.

Turns out the heavy rains caused a leak in the roof that was above a section of the meeting room. The very same section that was directly above our table. Fortunately, very little was lost, but it was a narrow escape fro what wasn't. Turns out some of T's pages were damaged, and the splattering caught some miscellaneous supplies, but no pictures were damaged. Judy had heard the sound of the first few drips immediately and she and another lady rushed to the tables and moved them before calling us down. Still, the damage could have been much worse: C's pen caddy was full of water when she went to move it, a pan caddy that sat right next to the next roll of photos she was to scrap and very near where her album sat, standing up in it's top-loading pages. As for my area, there was signifigant water where I generally set my digital camera while I scrapped, and very near my completed pages and page kits. I shudder to think at what might have happened!

At any rate, management had been called down, maintenance called in, and all of our things (mine, C's T's and T's Mom) were moved to the opposite corner of the room where C and I finally got resettled and tried to get some more pages complete. I think she finished a layout and I did 3 but we both took some classes and it was just plain difficult to crop with the upheaval. The hotel was very copperative in settling any damages or incoveniences we encountered through the debacle and I do not think anyone was left with any hard feelings.

Meanwhile the storm continued to rage outside. During the remainder of the morning we got to see maintenance remove the now-rotted ceiling tiles (and see water stream out of one), smell singing electrics as the near-by light fxture pooled with water, nearly shorting out, and have the lights flicker a few times. Made for an interesting rest of the morning.

Noon came, and after a quick pack-up we were on the road again, just in time for it to start raining in earnest! Now, I despise driving in the rain in general, but to be in a much bigger and higher vehicle which I am just getting used to: not a comfort. It rained so hard it was like a cloudy shower curtain all around the car, all I could do was keep a safe distance behind this big camper with a wide blue streak on it and pray it didn't slam on it's brakes. It pretty much stayed like this until we were through Mobile and then continued a steady rain through Pensacola. After that the rain got more sporatic and I had to resort to singing to every song I knew on the radio or chatting to C (which tended to put HER to sleep) so as not to nod off. A full day on 3 hours of sleep was not part of our plans that I guarantee you!

But we made it home in one piece with all of our pages accounted for. Despite the water odyssey, it really was a fun weekend, we met a lot of really great ladies and got some serious work done on our albums!

Posted by Jennifer at 09:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack