Moving, combining, cleaning, selling, donating...

You would think it would all be done by now, but it is not.  The saga is far from over.  There are still little things to be done here and there.  There are still boxes that need to be opened and sorted.  There is the garage that is now so jam packed you can barely get in there.  There is the attic that stuff, once all sorted, needs to have stuff put in it.  Last night we had crab legs for dinner.  I went looking for my crab stuff, and couldn't find it.  SGG said, there is "another box over here", and sure enough it was in there.  Is there some strange unexplored and undefined law of physics governing moving boxes?  What is the source of their staying power?

Yard sales make for interesting times.  Mine was a couple of weeks ago, during one of the three hottest days on record ever here.  Combine that with 99.999999999999% humidity and you have a formula where bodily water loss exceeds the body's ability to replenish it.  Everything was cheap, and some stuff was free.  For some reason the ad didn't make it into Craigs List, but we essentially sold everything.  That was the goal.  I had to shuffle a few pieces around the city, and we made appointments for people to pick other stuff up.  In my typical "do it all" crazy mentality, I had also scheduled a backpacking trip that I had to be at a carpool point at 11:30am that morning.  I figured I would just pack it all up around 10:45 (or be done hopefully), but with so many people coming back, etc, I had to cancel the trip.

The most comical moment I think came when an elderly lady stopped by and wanted the twin bed mattress and frame set.  Economically priced at $10.  The problem was that she didn't have a way to get it to her house.  I didn't have my tools with me to break it down.  This was a large metal frame, but light, that was part of a bunk bed set that my son has been using for 8 years now.  Earlier this year I took the bunk bed down to one bed.  The lady lived about 2.5 blocks away.  I told her if she couldn't find someone to get it, we would bring it over there.  Worst case I would just carry the thing (in the heat and humidity).  She could find anyone, and it wouldn't fit in SGG's vehicle, so I carried it over.  I didn't really want to have to break it down.  We would bring the mattresses over a little later.

Turns out carrying it wasn't the hardest or craziest part.  It really was no problem getting it there.  However, she must have the smallest house in the neighborhood, and at 105 Degrees, 119 heat index, was trying to get by without AC.  The frame would barely fit down the hall, and had no chance of fitting through the doors.  She got a little mouthy at this point, complaining about how she maybe didn't want it if it wouldn't just fit.  I got to practice a little transcendental meditation.  I went back to borrow my neighbors tools, essentially an allen wrench and a pair of channel lock pliers since one bolt was stripped.  In short order the bed was disassembled, put back together, and had the bunky board and mattress on it.  I left puddles of sweat everywhere as she didn't have the windows in that sun facing room open (and no AC).

Once all of that drama was done, we concentrated on cleaning the place up and getting unpacked/combined at SGG's.  We had a gigantic yard sale at her place the next weekend (last weekend).  She also invited a few friends over.  I made coffee and bagel egg sandwiches for the ladies, in addition to moving all the heavy stuff out front.

SGG's two boys came back from New York last Sunday.  I've been working on getting network connectivity to  the rooms.  The transition has gone fairly smooth so far.

We definitely need a shed.  Between bikes, lawn tools, recreational gear, etc, we are packed to the gills.

This weekend has been a lot more relaxed.  Still a lot to do, but we decided to take it a little easier.  This morning, we've been sitting on the back porch drinking coffee, reading the paper, talking about the state of the country, making jokes, and now I'm writing out our adventures.  Or at least a little slice of them.

Work is going well, and much less stressful!  A blessing really with all the house stuff.

A project/idea came to me recently, inspired by my recent blog book project.  I may start taking my photo albums and doing another blurb book for each year, writing up stories about the pictures as I go.  I have almost all of those photos scanned in, due to another multi-year project.  SGG's eldest son was going back through the book I made for her again, for like the 20th time.  He was very intrigued, asking questions about the pictures, reminiscing about various activities.