Oct 29, 2007 10:33
So my grandparents are all moved -- all eight billion boxes, too much furniture, crazy shed, and 5x15 storage room's worth of junk. A lot of it is nice stuff, a lot of it isn't, and there is, generally, far too much of it. That whole depression-era obsession with hoarding food....I'm just WAY over that. I mean, they *get* it now and they've been full participants in the process, but man, you've never seen so many expired cans of food in your life. Now to break Granny of the habit of trying to save and re-use plastic disposable stuff...
My folks had started around the same time, but didn't have the 40 minute drive, and my uncle was there too....and my cousin Mike and his girlfriend showed up around 2pm and busted ass with us for the rest of the night. (I was SO glad to see that huge empty van....) I left my house at around 9 Saturday and didn't leave until oh, about 1am, so when I got home it was nearly 2am. Then I couldn't sleep until after a nice hot cup of tea and some toast. We'd been running all day on some Dunkin Donuts, coffee, water, and fast food lunch. (Dairy Queen hamburgers are not too bad, as it happens.)
I still hurt.
Also worthy of note:
- Change is hard on the elderly. I kept having to remind people that Grampa John's had the hardest year of his life, physically, and then of course he had little say in the process and couldn't really help much...and then had an excruciatingly long day and no nap. He's 90 years old and he needed to sleep. He was much better the next day, when he could help unpack and feel useful.
- There's nothing like paying $100 a month to motivate you to clean out a storage space.
I have more stories to tell of the weekend, including the inconvenient punctuality of the phone company, the joys of emergency box purchasing, and the unexpected bonus pleasure of finding Chili Cheese Fritos for sale...
zzzz,
family,
to do,
ouch