The Deities Smiled Upon Me - And I Am Nearly Struck by Lightning
I had the most perfect move on Saturday. Unbelievable. Every single thing that could have gone wrong, did not.
The movers only charged $850 flat fee to move me to DC (and that was after an in-home estimate by the owner of the little company).
He said it was a 2-guy job, but sent 4 guys on Saturday morning to load the truck. They had everything packed in one hour. ONE hour!
I was able to leave my dressers packed and they just shrink-wrapped them closed.
I didn't have to pay for gas or tolls because the owner had written "no additional charges" on my contract.
They even took more boxes than I had estimated for - even though I had originally said 15 boxes, they happily took at least 20, maybe more.
Then, while Scotty and I were driving down to the DC, the weather took a turn for the unimaginably worse, with rain plummeting so heavily that we literally could not see more than ten feet ahead of the car. The rain would stop for brief, odd silent periods, where the sky remained so dark it seemed as if we were experiencing a solar eclipse. Then without warning, the rain would begin hammering again, punctuated by lightning and thunder. I shuddered to imagine what I would have gone through, trying to drive a u-Haul truck in that weather, having never driven a large truck before in my life.
As we drove into the city proper, the sky cleared like a scene from a romantic movie and the sun came out bright and hot. We arrived early enough to unload his car and snag a spot directly in front of my new building. Scotty (who hadn't seen my new flat yet) loved it and ferverously agreed that it is so much better than my old place.
The movers were able to double-park in the driveway next-door to my building. Two of them had driven down and both were ready to work.
The perfect weather continued for the entire time they were unloading - not a single drop of water on any of my possessions.
Both of them commented on how they liked my new place better than my old one, of their own accord and without any mention from me.
They put every piece of furniture where I directed. (I had already made a floor-plan on Adobe Illustrator and determined the ideal layout.)
They even hoisted boxes of winter clothing onto top shelves of my closets, where I could never have lifted them.
Nothing was broken, or even damaged, not even the antique 3'x5' mirror that sits on top of my antique dresser from Eastern Europe.
Within five minutes of their departure, the rain began. No joke - less than five minutes had passed and we saw rain tapping against the windows and spraying through the open screens.
At Scotty's encouragement, we set to work immediately and reassembled the bed. With no instruction sheet, the pieces resembled an enormous GRE problem, but I solved the puzzle and soon we had a completed captain's bed, with shelves beneath and the bed up top. With renewed fervour, I tore into the boxes and unpacked all the books, dishes, food, and remaining clothing. Setting up a new apartment has to rank at near the top of my list of favourite activities. All the pleasure I enjoyed as a child while arranging and rearranging my dollhouse, now came flooding back as I arranged my twin mannequin heads first on this cabinet, then on that one.
We left the city by 9, and began the drive back up to Philly. The rain returned with a vengeance as we drove, lightning striking across the horizon and thunder crashing unexpectedly. At some points, the rain became so vicious that I had to stop reading to Scotty - he couldn't hear me over the pounding on the windshield and roof of the car. The sky let loose with swarms of tiny hailstones a few times, making it some of the most bizarre weather I've ever experienced.
While we were driving through lesser drizzle, a sudden flash hit all around us and the simultaneous thunderclap rattled my teeth and made both of us jump. I glanced out the window as we continued to speed along the highway and noticed the lightpost. With bulbs barely glowing, a few sparks were leaping out from the light sockets. I turned to Scotty, who was saying, "I've never been that close to a lightning strike before." "Neither have I," I replied, as the cabin of the car began to fill with a strange sharp smell. The vents were pulling in the air through which the strike had just flown - air that now smelt burnt with a sharp, hot chemical odour. “Do you smell that?” he said.
I looked out the window again. The lightposts we were passing now were all lit and working normally. “It’s the ozone,” I said slowly, realizing exactly what had happened. “I remember reading that you can smell lightning, if you’re close enough…the energy changes the air molecules. I think we’re smelling the ozone released.” I got a huge grin on my face. “This is so cool! Do you realize how close we actually were??”
He grinned. “Charming.”
After a few more seconds, the smell flowed away, as we passed out of the immediate vicinity of the strike. We saw more lightning, and drove against curtains of rain, and it all felt somehow familiar, as if we’d been introduced to the storm and it wasn’t just a stranger anymore.
Back in Philly just after midnight, and knowing that the new Harry Potter book was waiting for me in the management office of my building (I had convinced Scotty to pre-order a copy with his bookstore gift card), and felt giddily happy. My dinner cappuccino no longer flowed through my veins, and I passed out in a matter of minutes. If I had been asked to write a story of the perfect move, I couldn’t have done any better than the truth of this day.
The movers only charged $850 flat fee to move me to DC (and that was after an in-home estimate by the owner of the little company).
He said it was a 2-guy job, but sent 4 guys on Saturday morning to load the truck. They had everything packed in one hour. ONE hour!
I was able to leave my dressers packed and they just shrink-wrapped them closed.
I didn't have to pay for gas or tolls because the owner had written "no additional charges" on my contract.
They even took more boxes than I had estimated for - even though I had originally said 15 boxes, they happily took at least 20, maybe more.
Then, while Scotty and I were driving down to the DC, the weather took a turn for the unimaginably worse, with rain plummeting so heavily that we literally could not see more than ten feet ahead of the car. The rain would stop for brief, odd silent periods, where the sky remained so dark it seemed as if we were experiencing a solar eclipse. Then without warning, the rain would begin hammering again, punctuated by lightning and thunder. I shuddered to imagine what I would have gone through, trying to drive a u-Haul truck in that weather, having never driven a large truck before in my life.
As we drove into the city proper, the sky cleared like a scene from a romantic movie and the sun came out bright and hot. We arrived early enough to unload his car and snag a spot directly in front of my new building. Scotty (who hadn't seen my new flat yet) loved it and ferverously agreed that it is so much better than my old place.
The movers were able to double-park in the driveway next-door to my building. Two of them had driven down and both were ready to work.
The perfect weather continued for the entire time they were unloading - not a single drop of water on any of my possessions.
Both of them commented on how they liked my new place better than my old one, of their own accord and without any mention from me.
They put every piece of furniture where I directed. (I had already made a floor-plan on Adobe Illustrator and determined the ideal layout.)
They even hoisted boxes of winter clothing onto top shelves of my closets, where I could never have lifted them.
Nothing was broken, or even damaged, not even the antique 3'x5' mirror that sits on top of my antique dresser from Eastern Europe.
Within five minutes of their departure, the rain began. No joke - less than five minutes had passed and we saw rain tapping against the windows and spraying through the open screens.
At Scotty's encouragement, we set to work immediately and reassembled the bed. With no instruction sheet, the pieces resembled an enormous GRE problem, but I solved the puzzle and soon we had a completed captain's bed, with shelves beneath and the bed up top. With renewed fervour, I tore into the boxes and unpacked all the books, dishes, food, and remaining clothing. Setting up a new apartment has to rank at near the top of my list of favourite activities. All the pleasure I enjoyed as a child while arranging and rearranging my dollhouse, now came flooding back as I arranged my twin mannequin heads first on this cabinet, then on that one.
We left the city by 9, and began the drive back up to Philly. The rain returned with a vengeance as we drove, lightning striking across the horizon and thunder crashing unexpectedly. At some points, the rain became so vicious that I had to stop reading to Scotty - he couldn't hear me over the pounding on the windshield and roof of the car. The sky let loose with swarms of tiny hailstones a few times, making it some of the most bizarre weather I've ever experienced.
While we were driving through lesser drizzle, a sudden flash hit all around us and the simultaneous thunderclap rattled my teeth and made both of us jump. I glanced out the window as we continued to speed along the highway and noticed the lightpost. With bulbs barely glowing, a few sparks were leaping out from the light sockets. I turned to Scotty, who was saying, "I've never been that close to a lightning strike before." "Neither have I," I replied, as the cabin of the car began to fill with a strange sharp smell. The vents were pulling in the air through which the strike had just flown - air that now smelt burnt with a sharp, hot chemical odour. “Do you smell that?” he said.
I looked out the window again. The lightposts we were passing now were all lit and working normally. “It’s the ozone,” I said slowly, realizing exactly what had happened. “I remember reading that you can smell lightning, if you’re close enough…the energy changes the air molecules. I think we’re smelling the ozone released.” I got a huge grin on my face. “This is so cool! Do you realize how close we actually were??”
He grinned. “Charming.”
After a few more seconds, the smell flowed away, as we passed out of the immediate vicinity of the strike. We saw more lightning, and drove against curtains of rain, and it all felt somehow familiar, as if we’d been introduced to the storm and it wasn’t just a stranger anymore.
Back in Philly just after midnight, and knowing that the new Harry Potter book was waiting for me in the management office of my building (I had convinced Scotty to pre-order a copy with his bookstore gift card), and felt giddily happy. My dinner cappuccino no longer flowed through my veins, and I passed out in a matter of minutes. If I had been asked to write a story of the perfect move, I couldn’t have done any better than the truth of this day.