(no subject)
What a weekend.
My friend, Chris, asked me to help him move into his new condo. Naturally, I said I would. I've helped Chris move five times now over the past 10 years or so. He says this'll be the last time. We'll see. What makes moving Chris kinda tough is he's a pack rat, which means lots and lots of stuff; Milk crates full of LP's, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDs...LOTS of VHS tapes and DVDs, Xmas decorations and a slew of sundry knick knacks. And then there's the filing cabinets full of various documents dating 20 years or more; He's got receipts of stuff he doesn't even HAVE anymore! What's up with that? He's also got several fire-proof cabinets that he keeps various data CDs and DVDs, computer programs, including ones he's never used and are now sorely out of date. Oh and did I mention he's also got several pieces of rather large, wooden, custom-made furnishings that had to disassembled and moved? It's just mind-boggling the amount of crap--er, belongings--he can cram into a one-bedroom apartment. And now he's moving into a TWO-bedroom condo? Lord help us on the next move, if there is one.
OK, now that you have a picture of what we--meaning me and a couple of Tom's--were up against, here's how things went. Saturday morning Chris and I went out for breakfast and when we got back one of the Tom's was waiting for us. A few minutes later, the other Tom showed up. The four of us starting assessing how we were gonna move things. Since we were concentrating of the heavy stuff, we started with the filing cabinets. Naturally, we took out all the drawers first. He has a couple of two-drawer units that were easy to cart out. The hard ones were the four- (or was it five) drawer cabinet (which was one of those big, heavy, 1950s-style office cabinets) and the four, fire-proof cabinets, while small, weighed a ton, even empty. The cabinets themselves were put into Chris's mini-van while the drawers went into both Tom's vehicles. We were also able to load up the milk crates of LPs, along with a few other boxes of stuff. Time to head out.
The good thing about Chris's new place is that it's less than a mile away. The bad thing about it is it's on the second floor, and there's no elevator, so everything had to be hauled up two flights of stairs. The complex itself is a number of converted apartment buildings, which, to me, resemble a nice, two-story motel. Anyway, when we got there we started hauling cabinets, drawers, milk crates and boxes up. While we were gruntin' and groanin' and hoping we wouldn't need a truss the next day, we met a few of the residents and I was blown away by how friendly they seemed. This is atypical behavior in an apartment-type setup, at least in my experience; People tend to keep to themselves, including myself when I had my apartment. Maybe it has to do with the close proximity you are with the other tenants, or maybe it's the environment your in , I don't know. Now, I'm not saying people rushed out to see the new person moving in, but when one happened by, they'd say "Hi", tell us their name, that kind of thing.
When we got back to the apartment for the second load, we focused on the rather large, wooden, custom-made furniture, which first had to be disassembled. A number of pieces were put into the mini-van while the largest ones were strapped onto the top. Again, the other two vehicles carried various boxes and bags of stuff. Returning to the condo we discovered a moving had had showed up and they were hauling stuff into the condo right nixt door to Chris. How's that for coincidence? Fortunately, we were, for the most part, able to keep out of their way, however, they seemed to feel they had priority and one guy even suggested we wait until they were done. Yeah...right. Chris politely told him that that wasn't possible but we'd do our best to keep outta their way. Nothing more was said and we all kept doing what we were doing without incident. Well, one of the moving men did chastise me because our dolly got dirt on the stairway carpeting. Excuse me? Who are you? And why are you complaining about something that doesn't even concern you? That's what I wanted to say. Instead, I simply told him that I wasn't even using the dolly and wasn't aware of the situation, and moved on. Sheesh!
Time for a break. Chris treated us to lunch at The Avenue (like Ram's Horn). When we were done, we did one more load; More pieces of furnishing, more boxes and bag. When we got to the condo, the moving truck was gone...YEA! By the time we got everything unloaded, we were pooped. By this time both Tom's had to head out so we called it a day. After they left, Chris and I moved a few things around headed back to the apartment for the evening. Since both of us were feeling a bit of digital withdrawal, Chris set up his computer (it had to be moved so we could take the desk out) and I checked my email while he watched an ep of Ghost Whis[perer he recorded. After that was over we both watched Escape to Witch Mountain. With Race to Witch Mountain coming out in a week, we wanted to refresh our memories of the original WM movies. When Escape was over it was only about 9:40, but Chris decided to hit the sack. Surprisingly, I wasn't that tired so I stayed up and watched the rest of Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, that was showing on the Disney channel. I crashed when it was over, at 11:00. Man, that couch never felt so good.
I should point out that all this moving was being done on the wettest, rainyest, drearyest weekend I've seen in a long time. I mean, it came down in buckets. This was a weekend that deserved an April booking. Yet, during the times we were loading and unloading, the rain stopped. It was kinda weird.
Sunday, we got up around 10:30 (DST just started) and went to a coney in Birmingham for breakfast. Afterwards, we stopped by the apartment to pick up the last of the Xmas decorations then headed over to the condo to reassemble his loft he uses to store stuff on and puts his desk underneath. This didn't take too long. When that was done we went to Meijers and did our grocery shopping. Then it was back to the apartment to put Chris's stuff away. By now it was late afternoon and time to take me home. I gathered up my things, loaded my bike in the van and off we went. And just so we didn't become too relaxed, Mother Nature send down more buckets of rain as we drove along. Fun. When we got close to my place, we stopped off at a Wendy's to eat; I love their Frostys.
Despite the downpour, we arrived at my homestead without incident. The rain even eased up to a drizzle while I unloaded my bike and stuff. Chris headed home and I went in, put my stuff away, took a nice hot shower then plopped myself in front of the computer until Midnight, which surprised me, considering all the work I did, but I actually felt fine.
And that's the way it was, March 8th, 2009. I'm Greg, a.k.a., Mortar, good night.
My friend, Chris, asked me to help him move into his new condo. Naturally, I said I would. I've helped Chris move five times now over the past 10 years or so. He says this'll be the last time. We'll see. What makes moving Chris kinda tough is he's a pack rat, which means lots and lots of stuff; Milk crates full of LP's, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDs...LOTS of VHS tapes and DVDs, Xmas decorations and a slew of sundry knick knacks. And then there's the filing cabinets full of various documents dating 20 years or more; He's got receipts of stuff he doesn't even HAVE anymore! What's up with that? He's also got several fire-proof cabinets that he keeps various data CDs and DVDs, computer programs, including ones he's never used and are now sorely out of date. Oh and did I mention he's also got several pieces of rather large, wooden, custom-made furnishings that had to disassembled and moved? It's just mind-boggling the amount of crap--er, belongings--he can cram into a one-bedroom apartment. And now he's moving into a TWO-bedroom condo? Lord help us on the next move, if there is one.
OK, now that you have a picture of what we--meaning me and a couple of Tom's--were up against, here's how things went. Saturday morning Chris and I went out for breakfast and when we got back one of the Tom's was waiting for us. A few minutes later, the other Tom showed up. The four of us starting assessing how we were gonna move things. Since we were concentrating of the heavy stuff, we started with the filing cabinets. Naturally, we took out all the drawers first. He has a couple of two-drawer units that were easy to cart out. The hard ones were the four- (or was it five) drawer cabinet (which was one of those big, heavy, 1950s-style office cabinets) and the four, fire-proof cabinets, while small, weighed a ton, even empty. The cabinets themselves were put into Chris's mini-van while the drawers went into both Tom's vehicles. We were also able to load up the milk crates of LPs, along with a few other boxes of stuff. Time to head out.
The good thing about Chris's new place is that it's less than a mile away. The bad thing about it is it's on the second floor, and there's no elevator, so everything had to be hauled up two flights of stairs. The complex itself is a number of converted apartment buildings, which, to me, resemble a nice, two-story motel. Anyway, when we got there we started hauling cabinets, drawers, milk crates and boxes up. While we were gruntin' and groanin' and hoping we wouldn't need a truss the next day, we met a few of the residents and I was blown away by how friendly they seemed. This is atypical behavior in an apartment-type setup, at least in my experience; People tend to keep to themselves, including myself when I had my apartment. Maybe it has to do with the close proximity you are with the other tenants, or maybe it's the environment your in , I don't know. Now, I'm not saying people rushed out to see the new person moving in, but when one happened by, they'd say "Hi", tell us their name, that kind of thing.
When we got back to the apartment for the second load, we focused on the rather large, wooden, custom-made furniture, which first had to be disassembled. A number of pieces were put into the mini-van while the largest ones were strapped onto the top. Again, the other two vehicles carried various boxes and bags of stuff. Returning to the condo we discovered a moving had had showed up and they were hauling stuff into the condo right nixt door to Chris. How's that for coincidence? Fortunately, we were, for the most part, able to keep out of their way, however, they seemed to feel they had priority and one guy even suggested we wait until they were done. Yeah...right. Chris politely told him that that wasn't possible but we'd do our best to keep outta their way. Nothing more was said and we all kept doing what we were doing without incident. Well, one of the moving men did chastise me because our dolly got dirt on the stairway carpeting. Excuse me? Who are you? And why are you complaining about something that doesn't even concern you? That's what I wanted to say. Instead, I simply told him that I wasn't even using the dolly and wasn't aware of the situation, and moved on. Sheesh!
Time for a break. Chris treated us to lunch at The Avenue (like Ram's Horn). When we were done, we did one more load; More pieces of furnishing, more boxes and bag. When we got to the condo, the moving truck was gone...YEA! By the time we got everything unloaded, we were pooped. By this time both Tom's had to head out so we called it a day. After they left, Chris and I moved a few things around headed back to the apartment for the evening. Since both of us were feeling a bit of digital withdrawal, Chris set up his computer (it had to be moved so we could take the desk out) and I checked my email while he watched an ep of Ghost Whis[perer he recorded. After that was over we both watched Escape to Witch Mountain. With Race to Witch Mountain coming out in a week, we wanted to refresh our memories of the original WM movies. When Escape was over it was only about 9:40, but Chris decided to hit the sack. Surprisingly, I wasn't that tired so I stayed up and watched the rest of Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl, that was showing on the Disney channel. I crashed when it was over, at 11:00. Man, that couch never felt so good.
I should point out that all this moving was being done on the wettest, rainyest, drearyest weekend I've seen in a long time. I mean, it came down in buckets. This was a weekend that deserved an April booking. Yet, during the times we were loading and unloading, the rain stopped. It was kinda weird.
Sunday, we got up around 10:30 (DST just started) and went to a coney in Birmingham for breakfast. Afterwards, we stopped by the apartment to pick up the last of the Xmas decorations then headed over to the condo to reassemble his loft he uses to store stuff on and puts his desk underneath. This didn't take too long. When that was done we went to Meijers and did our grocery shopping. Then it was back to the apartment to put Chris's stuff away. By now it was late afternoon and time to take me home. I gathered up my things, loaded my bike in the van and off we went. And just so we didn't become too relaxed, Mother Nature send down more buckets of rain as we drove along. Fun. When we got close to my place, we stopped off at a Wendy's to eat; I love their Frostys.
Despite the downpour, we arrived at my homestead without incident. The rain even eased up to a drizzle while I unloaded my bike and stuff. Chris headed home and I went in, put my stuff away, took a nice hot shower then plopped myself in front of the computer until Midnight, which surprised me, considering all the work I did, but I actually felt fine.
And that's the way it was, March 8th, 2009. I'm Greg, a.k.a., Mortar, good night.