Tonight I had planned to attend Wear-a-Skanky-Hat night, but things don’t always go as planned when you’re in the process of moving across the country. I’m writing to you tonight while sitting in the midst of many, many boxes in my soon-to-be-former apartment in Alabama. This morning we went to Penske to pick up the 22′ truck we reserved for moving week. However, the truck wasn’t ready. The last driver reported some problems, but the mechanic hadn’t had time to look at it. We took the truck anyway, drove it a couple of miles, then turned around to return it. It had major vibrations, the sort which dislodge your internal organs, so driving it to Colorado was not an option. Penske didn’t have any other trucks for us, so we left and decided to work on a different, impromptu plan.

Early in our moving plans we had gotten quotes from many moving companies. They were all very expensive, so we nixed that plan… until this morning. With no Penske truck and full of movers’ fatigue, we decided that hiring movers would be a better plan today. The first company we called offered us a good deal, only $100 more than renting a truck ourselves, so we decided to go with it.

The movers were scheduled to depart Atlanta at 1:30, therefore should arrive about 5:30 or 6.

We were pretty tired by 5:30 or 6 and expecting their visit at any moment, when Guillaume accidentally sliced his finger on a rough metal edge. There was lots of blood and screaming, plus panic-stricken cats. I’d already packed the first aid box, but managed to find it before he bled to death. After I got everyone settled down, he decided he didn’t want to go to the ER. The fingerprint on his index finger may be very different when the wound heals. In fact he may yet end up going to the doctor to get stitches, but for tonight some bandages and electrical tape seem to be sufficient.

The movers actually arrived at 8pm and told us they had come from Miami that morning. That’s quite a drive. They took a look around at our furniture and boxes, then told us that the quote was too low and they didn’t have enough space in the truck for our stuff. We negotiated for a while and I think we came to an agreement.  The head mover told us he needed to get some sleep, would get up in the morning to drop off his current load in order to make room for our load, and be back to pick up our stuff in the morning. He told us that a different crew would be unloading our stuff in Colorado, so I assume this means that it will go by train.

I’ll be glad to get all this stuff on a truck and see it away. I have lots of unfinished work on my checklist, but most of it is dependent on getting this stuff westward bound.