The move from hell
Mar. 3rd, 2007 09:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6No, I'm not posting from beyond the grave (unless the afterlife looks remarkably like my new apartment), although my body still feels like death would be a welcome rest.
Now I don't claim to be the most savvy teacher type, chock full of life-experiences to give my comments an air of credibility, but I do have one piece of advice to impart. Some words of wisdom, if you will, to take with you on this journey through life:
Moving during a blizzard is not an ideal situation.
See, the move seemed deceptively simple. The new place was only 3 blocks away from the old one. Most of our stuff was small and easily transportable. My dad loaned us a flat trolley and a stand up fridge-cart perfect for the many milk crates holding out books. He also agreed to come help us out after work, to take the furniture and other heavy stuff in his van.
Then a few days before the move, we began getting warned about a winter storm coming. Snow turning to rain. Okay, well, hopefully we could be done before it hits, and even if not, it couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?
Oh, but it could.
Problem was we only could get started after we signed the lease, and did a little inspection with the super to see if everything way okay - we couldn't do it in advance because somebody had just moved out and they had to repaint and do a couple other things. Ideally, we should have been able to get moving in any time on the 1st - the lease said the apartment was ours from the 1st for a year, so IMHO we should have got the lease and keys and such the day before, but no such luck and it's a minor complaint. So we were done that somewhere around 11:30 to noon. And we started moving. It was great, at first. We got a few good loads of stuff on the two trolleys, manuevering through the sidewalks was a little annoying, but we managed.
I will now pause this entry in progress until I can see the screen again. More on that later. Feel free to take the time as an intermission to get snacks.
And we're back. Where was I? Oh yes. So we took in 3 or 4 loads like that. Then it started to snow. And I don't mean a little snow. I mean 'Oh my god, where did the sidewalk go we were only up there a few minutes' snow. But, we had to move. So, we switched to carrying things over. I myself had two bags full of stuff over my shoulders, and whatever I could carry in my hands. I felt like a pack mule. But we did it, as many trips as we could manage.
The snow eventually slowed and it started to warm up just enough for it to turn into slush. And walking through that was a joy, let me tell you. We broke for dinner (McDonalds since we couldn't cook and it was closest), knowing it was going to be bad because my Dad had to travel in quite a distance, and the news said some people were experiencing almost 4 hour delays.
Luckily, as it turned out, my dad was only an hour or two late, and he began to help us. It still wasn't a picnic - the roads were all messy and road access to the building wasn't easy, but we coould at least use the trolleys again to maneuver everything inside the building. Anyway, to make a long story slightly shorter, my dad was a real trooper - he didn't so much carry a lot (we didn't want him to as his back isn't the greatest and besides, most of the time he had to watch the car, but driving us back and forth he helped us move the big furniture stuff and our computers - until about 1am (and then he had to drive home and had work the next day). So much thanks to him.
Of course, the job wasn't done even then - we still had loads of stuff at the old apartment, just it was smaller boxes that we could, if need be, handle ourselves walking back and forth (and I must confess, much of it was mine - I have a lot of books and comics, after all). But it was almost 2am and we'd already probably made a poor first impression on our neighbors by moving so late. So I didn't even bother assembling my bed... just put my boxspring and matress on the floor and laid down and tried to sleep. Oddly I couldn't sleep for a while, but eventually I did.
I woke up at some point after the sun came up. Now, one of the more unusual discoveries about our new apartment that we didn't notice in any of the inspections or previous viewings is that there apparently is no light fixture in my room at all. Certainly not a big deal - there's a big window, and 90% of the time I never turned a light on in my old place either. But because of that, and the fact that none of my electronic stuff was hooked up, I didn't notice for almost an hour after waking that there was no power at all. And I don't just mean in our apartment. Or our building. Or our block. Apparently, due to the storm, about 8 transformers blew during the night, and a whole lot of power lines were downed, taking out the power in a good chunk of the city. We were in that chunk.
No power means no elevators. Our new place is on the 4th floor. But, we had to finish moving. So, once again carrying things, as much as possible, by hand through 3 box of slushy sidewalks, we did a trip or two, this time with a lovely side benefit of a four flight walk up the stairs in the dark.
Luckily, the power came on very quick, for us (some people still didn't have power last night). Unluckily, for some reason, the elevators still weren't on. So we pressed on until 1pmish Friday.
Have I mentioned yet that I work on Friday afternoon? No? Well, I do. So, since the last little bit was mine, and the roads were just beginning to clear up enough to attempt a limited trolly treck (with the stand up one good for milk crates), we stopped working. I told my roommates that I'd handle the rest after work by myself with the trolly - it'd be about 2 loads - and they could go to the new place and get ready and do things like check their messages and think about dinner.
So I was now ready to take a break from lifting big heavy things to go to work, where I lift big heavy things. Afterwards, I could go back to lifting big heavy things. Sounded ideal, especially to somebody who, save for a break of maybe 5-6 hours to sleep and 1 to eat, had been lifting big heavy things almost 26 hours.
I took a quick shower, dressed, then ran out to catch a bus, fearing I'd either be waaaay too early, if the truck was delayed a few hours, or too late, if it was a little early. In one of the few bouts of good luck I experienced, I arrived at virtually the same time as the truck. (Also a lovely irony, the elevator began working when it was time to go down to catch the bus - would have been lovely if it worked on that last trip up with stuff only 20 minutes earlier).
The truck wasn't a light load, but we managed it quickly, and the truck driver gave me a ride most of the way home. I did one of the two loads on the way back, and it wasn't too bad with the trolly. Found we had cable agan, although nothing of mine was hooked up yet, so I went back for the last load of stuff, finally.
Then I started hooking things up slowly while I waited for dinner. Dinner was one of those store bought pop-in-the-oven lasagnas. And you know how they say 'hunger is the best seasoning'? Well, apparently hunger + exhaustion + having worked for the past 30 hours on only a McDonalds meal, two pieces of toast, and things made primarily of processed sugar is an even better seasoning, because that was the best damn lasagna I've ever had.
After that I was pretty well wrecked. I was able to get my computers and tv set up (though I couldn't get access to everything because of minor problems) - but, although I checked my flist and a few other sites, I didn't really have the concentration to do very much.
It hurt to move much. And my muscles were... well, I guess the best word would be anxious. They'd been put through so much, they were convinced that being able to rest was merely some terribly cruel trick, and they'd be pressed into service once again, and so they were constantly on guard.
I fell asleep watching TV.
Today, I'm still sore, but I'm better. One of my main projects of today was putting up a privacy screen - there's a huge window and no curtains (or even curtain fixtures) were there, so I had to rig up something with some old bedsheets. As it was, I felt like Winston Smith in 1984 - I had a corner of the room to myself to change without being in constant fear of surveilance, but anywhere else I was terribly self-conscious. The night before I'd managed a partial screen which allowed me freedome of movement but the top part was still open. During the morning, the sun shined right in and on my computer screens, making them all but unusable. But I've managed to fix that during the intermission.
My room's also not in its final configuration, so netting and such is going to be a little uncomfortable. I have to leave a path to the window clean because there was a crack when we moved in, and a work order's been put in to replace it. So until they do, I can't clutter up the room in the way I need to to make my ideal online environment. But it'll do for now.
And that concludes the tale of the great move of 2007.
Now I don't claim to be the most savvy teacher type, chock full of life-experiences to give my comments an air of credibility, but I do have one piece of advice to impart. Some words of wisdom, if you will, to take with you on this journey through life:
Moving during a blizzard is not an ideal situation.
See, the move seemed deceptively simple. The new place was only 3 blocks away from the old one. Most of our stuff was small and easily transportable. My dad loaned us a flat trolley and a stand up fridge-cart perfect for the many milk crates holding out books. He also agreed to come help us out after work, to take the furniture and other heavy stuff in his van.
Then a few days before the move, we began getting warned about a winter storm coming. Snow turning to rain. Okay, well, hopefully we could be done before it hits, and even if not, it couldn't be _that_ bad, could it?
Oh, but it could.
Problem was we only could get started after we signed the lease, and did a little inspection with the super to see if everything way okay - we couldn't do it in advance because somebody had just moved out and they had to repaint and do a couple other things. Ideally, we should have been able to get moving in any time on the 1st - the lease said the apartment was ours from the 1st for a year, so IMHO we should have got the lease and keys and such the day before, but no such luck and it's a minor complaint. So we were done that somewhere around 11:30 to noon. And we started moving. It was great, at first. We got a few good loads of stuff on the two trolleys, manuevering through the sidewalks was a little annoying, but we managed.
I will now pause this entry in progress until I can see the screen again. More on that later. Feel free to take the time as an intermission to get snacks.
And we're back. Where was I? Oh yes. So we took in 3 or 4 loads like that. Then it started to snow. And I don't mean a little snow. I mean 'Oh my god, where did the sidewalk go we were only up there a few minutes' snow. But, we had to move. So, we switched to carrying things over. I myself had two bags full of stuff over my shoulders, and whatever I could carry in my hands. I felt like a pack mule. But we did it, as many trips as we could manage.
The snow eventually slowed and it started to warm up just enough for it to turn into slush. And walking through that was a joy, let me tell you. We broke for dinner (McDonalds since we couldn't cook and it was closest), knowing it was going to be bad because my Dad had to travel in quite a distance, and the news said some people were experiencing almost 4 hour delays.
Luckily, as it turned out, my dad was only an hour or two late, and he began to help us. It still wasn't a picnic - the roads were all messy and road access to the building wasn't easy, but we coould at least use the trolleys again to maneuver everything inside the building. Anyway, to make a long story slightly shorter, my dad was a real trooper - he didn't so much carry a lot (we didn't want him to as his back isn't the greatest and besides, most of the time he had to watch the car, but driving us back and forth he helped us move the big furniture stuff and our computers - until about 1am (and then he had to drive home and had work the next day). So much thanks to him.
Of course, the job wasn't done even then - we still had loads of stuff at the old apartment, just it was smaller boxes that we could, if need be, handle ourselves walking back and forth (and I must confess, much of it was mine - I have a lot of books and comics, after all). But it was almost 2am and we'd already probably made a poor first impression on our neighbors by moving so late. So I didn't even bother assembling my bed... just put my boxspring and matress on the floor and laid down and tried to sleep. Oddly I couldn't sleep for a while, but eventually I did.
I woke up at some point after the sun came up. Now, one of the more unusual discoveries about our new apartment that we didn't notice in any of the inspections or previous viewings is that there apparently is no light fixture in my room at all. Certainly not a big deal - there's a big window, and 90% of the time I never turned a light on in my old place either. But because of that, and the fact that none of my electronic stuff was hooked up, I didn't notice for almost an hour after waking that there was no power at all. And I don't just mean in our apartment. Or our building. Or our block. Apparently, due to the storm, about 8 transformers blew during the night, and a whole lot of power lines were downed, taking out the power in a good chunk of the city. We were in that chunk.
No power means no elevators. Our new place is on the 4th floor. But, we had to finish moving. So, once again carrying things, as much as possible, by hand through 3 box of slushy sidewalks, we did a trip or two, this time with a lovely side benefit of a four flight walk up the stairs in the dark.
Luckily, the power came on very quick, for us (some people still didn't have power last night). Unluckily, for some reason, the elevators still weren't on. So we pressed on until 1pmish Friday.
Have I mentioned yet that I work on Friday afternoon? No? Well, I do. So, since the last little bit was mine, and the roads were just beginning to clear up enough to attempt a limited trolly treck (with the stand up one good for milk crates), we stopped working. I told my roommates that I'd handle the rest after work by myself with the trolly - it'd be about 2 loads - and they could go to the new place and get ready and do things like check their messages and think about dinner.
So I was now ready to take a break from lifting big heavy things to go to work, where I lift big heavy things. Afterwards, I could go back to lifting big heavy things. Sounded ideal, especially to somebody who, save for a break of maybe 5-6 hours to sleep and 1 to eat, had been lifting big heavy things almost 26 hours.
I took a quick shower, dressed, then ran out to catch a bus, fearing I'd either be waaaay too early, if the truck was delayed a few hours, or too late, if it was a little early. In one of the few bouts of good luck I experienced, I arrived at virtually the same time as the truck. (Also a lovely irony, the elevator began working when it was time to go down to catch the bus - would have been lovely if it worked on that last trip up with stuff only 20 minutes earlier).
The truck wasn't a light load, but we managed it quickly, and the truck driver gave me a ride most of the way home. I did one of the two loads on the way back, and it wasn't too bad with the trolly. Found we had cable agan, although nothing of mine was hooked up yet, so I went back for the last load of stuff, finally.
Then I started hooking things up slowly while I waited for dinner. Dinner was one of those store bought pop-in-the-oven lasagnas. And you know how they say 'hunger is the best seasoning'? Well, apparently hunger + exhaustion + having worked for the past 30 hours on only a McDonalds meal, two pieces of toast, and things made primarily of processed sugar is an even better seasoning, because that was the best damn lasagna I've ever had.
After that I was pretty well wrecked. I was able to get my computers and tv set up (though I couldn't get access to everything because of minor problems) - but, although I checked my flist and a few other sites, I didn't really have the concentration to do very much.
It hurt to move much. And my muscles were... well, I guess the best word would be anxious. They'd been put through so much, they were convinced that being able to rest was merely some terribly cruel trick, and they'd be pressed into service once again, and so they were constantly on guard.
I fell asleep watching TV.
Today, I'm still sore, but I'm better. One of my main projects of today was putting up a privacy screen - there's a huge window and no curtains (or even curtain fixtures) were there, so I had to rig up something with some old bedsheets. As it was, I felt like Winston Smith in 1984 - I had a corner of the room to myself to change without being in constant fear of surveilance, but anywhere else I was terribly self-conscious. The night before I'd managed a partial screen which allowed me freedome of movement but the top part was still open. During the morning, the sun shined right in and on my computer screens, making them all but unusable. But I've managed to fix that during the intermission.
My room's also not in its final configuration, so netting and such is going to be a little uncomfortable. I have to leave a path to the window clean because there was a crack when we moved in, and a work order's been put in to replace it. So until they do, I can't clutter up the room in the way I need to to make my ideal online environment. But it'll do for now.
And that concludes the tale of the great move of 2007.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 07:42 am (UTC)Also, I was terribly ill from what I later realized were dust/mould allergies caused by the moving. Now I take allergy pills when we stir up a lot of dust, because I get *really* sick when they act up.
Our next move had better not be in winter.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 07:32 pm (UTC)I don't mind terribly, since it's my living room, but it's a bit disconcerting that everyone walking or driving by can see me on my PC.