A Moving Summary

I never thought I would be living in DC. I certainly didn’t think we would be moving for my job. We always imagined we would move for Andrea and then I would figure something out. But as you read in the previous post, surprises happen! And while we anticipate enjoying DC, to live here, we had to move here and moving is never ever enjoyable – unless you or someone else is paying for someone else to do all the hard work. Unless that is the case, there’s no easy way around it, you just have to get through it. (photo below - the last things to get loaded into the truck...the plants!)

Andrea is a bit of a minimalist. If something hasn’t been used recently, she would prefer to get rid of it. I, on the other hand, tend to hold on to things. But this move made me vow (it made me mutter and curse all sorts of things as well) to take some drastic action to downsize. As I hauled box after box of books out to the truck, I all of a sudden realized the benefit and point of e-readers. (I promised myself that I would never buy another book in my life and that I would get rid of half my books by Christmas! OK, so half is not going to happen but a box or two have already been set aside!) I also became a believer in tatami mats (Thank you Japan!) If Jesus showed up today and told a cripple to pick up his bed and walk, it just wouldn’t happen. Or consider the man who was lowered through the roof on his bed mat by his friends to get to Jesus. It wouldn’t work today with our box springs and mattresses that are so unwieldy and have carrying handles in places where they are the least help!

And so we were soo thankful for our friends Deb, and McKennon and Anna (photos to the right, not during the move!) who stopped by the day we were loading the truck to give us a hand – helping us in a huge way! And thank goodness for Jose and Luis, two guys we hired in DC to help us get everything from the sidewalk up to the 4^th floor of our building. We knew we would need them for some of our bigger furniture, but they helped us with everything – and without their help we would not have been able to move in. The building we live in, stipulates that all moving has to be done by 5PM. Without Jose and Luis, it would not have happened – and even the couple times they had to take the stairs, it was amazing to watch and I was so thankful for them and that it wasn’t me as I would have just left it all on the sidewalk and walked away.

And while we are being thankful – a big shout out needs to go to Joe, our next door neighbor in Durham, who has helped us out many times before and came to our rescue once again – just as we were starting our adventure. Let’s just say we had planned on towing our car behind the 30' rental truck to DC (like we did when we moved to North Carolina three years ago) – but as soon as we pulled into our parking lot things went downhill – we couldn’t turn around, the trailer kept coming off – it was disastrous and not a good start to the day knowing how much work was ahead of us to load everything into the truck. Joe, as he has always done, helped us out with a smile and a big heart. Long story short, we decided after an hour or two of wrestling with the trailer, that the trailer would be staying in Durham – and it did! And perhaps this was God’s kindness to us. If we had that much trouble with a trailer in our empty parking lot in Durham, imagine the havoc we would have caused on busy DC streets. Again, I would have just left the truck and all its contents and walked away!

So thank goodness for friends (and people you can pay to be your friendsJ) because moving leaves you beaten up and sore (and I’m not even talking about the emotional part of moving and leaving.) Friends are wonderful.

Duncan

(photo to the left - boxes and stuff piled up inside our new home)