I like the new place that I’ll be sharing with my brother Paul. We were living in two 2-bedroom apartments in Scarborough but that was rather expensive. So now we moved into a single 2-bedroom apartment in South Portland. This new place feels a little like a badly designed video game level, where all the doorways and ceilings are way too large. There’s a nine-foot ceiling and all the doorways are about a foot wider than what I’m used to. Maybe this is what being short feels like. This place was definitely designed by a tall person, or at least designed for tall people. Perhaps the architect followed plans sketched out by Nigel Tufnel. I’ll probably never know the truth.
I tried to keep a running account of my moving days. I wrote these entries over the past few days without an Internet connection. I had intended to keep a running account of my move from Scarborough to South Portland but without a Net connection, it’s kind of hard to post updates…
Saturday: Hell Is Just A Sauna
Today was, in a word, brutal.
Temperatures soared into the 80s and it’s very humid and muggy out. Paul and I spent about seven hours going up and down from our third floor apartments with everything we could carry and fit in our cars. In total, we filled each of our cars four times. It sure doesn’t sound like a lot of stuff, and it really wasn’t. I think we only moved about a third of our stuff. At least unloading at the new apartment is nowhere near as bad. Just pull up, walk about ten feet to the sliding glass doors on our porch, and you’re in. Nice and easy. The old place is up and down three flights of stairs for every single box or item you’re carrying. In this heat, I call that brutal. We’re both feeling it, mostly in our backs and arms and legs. Tomorrow won’t be an easy one.
Sunday: Hell With Furniture
Paul and I were both up about 5am. We started by putting his LCD TV in his car and loading up the trunk with other stuff. We brought that to the apartment and then hit a Dunkin Donuts. After getting back to the old place, we both loaded as much as we could into our cars. Another terribly hot day, ugh. But at least today we have some help.
My friend Lee and Paul’s friend Nick both offered to help. Lee arrived around 9am, and Nick showed up with his truck around 10am. Nick’s pickup truck was a great help, but we had to make five (or was it six?) trips with it packed with our furniture. I was totally expecting my TV (57” Toshiba, about 250 pounds) to be the worst part, but it wasn’t nearly that bad. The four of us were definitely needed to move that thing out, down three flights of stairs, and it only sustained minor damage in the process. I really was way more worried that someone would be hurt in the process, but we did it and we did it safely. Lifting 250 pounds sounds hard but with four people sharing the load, it’s really not that bad. I still would rather sell that beast than move it again.
By the time we finished the last trip, we were all totally burnt out. Paul and I filled our cars with stuff and brought it back to the new place… where we proceeded to spend several hours drinking beer and moving furniture around to make some sort of order in here. I discovered a few more bruises on myself that I’m pretty sure came from moving my TV. All in all, a successful day.
Monday: Brutality Personified
We were up early again. Crappy rainy day, but it was cool outside for once. We made a run to Sam’s Club to get some stuff we were missing (read: beer). Then the cool day went away and the temperature shot up into the 80s again. Add in the same (worse?) humidity and you have a freaking brutal day. This is why I left Florida… how far north do I have to go??
I’m writing this after having finished my fourth trip today. I feel it in every bone and muscle in my body. I ache in places I didn’t know had muscles. In fact, there’s only one spot on my entire body that does not ache, and that’s only because I haven’t figured out how to get it to help me move. And I didn’t even get a chance to start cleaning the old apartment yet. I moved a lot of the remaining stuff, but I guess I have to do all the cleaning tomorrow. Plus I still have a few more things left to move.
Monday night, 8:30pm: Oh The Pain
Right about now I’m starting to feel a little like Scotty in the movie Eurotrip. Just take all the scenes where he wakes up vowing that he’ll “never drink again” and dub in me saying “I’ll never move again”.
I’m typing this with shaking fingers because even they hurt. And I’m once again typing this without an Internet connection because Time Warner lied to me (again). They assured me that I could just plug my modem into this new place and be up and running… but someone apparently disconnected this apartment at the pole even though they weren’t supposed to. Yay. Another day, another move, another screw-up from them. I really wish they weren’t the only game in town. Anyway, I’m getting ready to give up and go to sleep even though it’s only 8:30. It’s been a long couple of days and I need my rest because there are still a few miles to go before I get a break.
Tuesday, 1:53pm: One Down…
Today is cleaning day. Oh and there’s still about three trips’ worth of stuff in the apartments, not to mention all the cleaning supplies I’ll be using. So far I’ve managed to clean about two thirds of my apartment. Haven’t started on Paul’s yet. I ran out of paper towels and came back here to resupply.
I decided to take back one trip’s worth of random things. So on the first flight of stairs with my first item - POP! My right knee finally gave out from all the moving. And I wasn’t even moving anything manly, like a 250 pound TV or a weight set. No, it was a freaking pink lawn chair that my parents handed down to us years ago. I only still have it because it’s comfortable (I really should paint it white). Thing weighs about four pounds and I popped my damn knee cap carrying it down the stairs. Ugh!
I still went ahead and filled my car with stuff. Every step is pure pain, but I have too much to do so I have to just deal with it. Now I’m back here to grab paper towels and some Advil, and then I go out the door again for more “fun”. Well at least the first two letters of that are right. Oh and there’s still no Internet connection here…
Tuesday, 8:40pm: Cleaned
Both apartments are clean now. Took me all day and my knee was throbbing with pain all day, but I did it. Called Paul and had him help load up the rest of the items in the apartment and now we’re all set. Still no Internet connection, so I called Time Warner. Of course the first thing they always ask for is my phone number… which they haven’t given to me yet since I switched to their VOIP phone. Ugh… so after several phone calls to them I finally get someone who tells me that it’s active, but I probably have to try another coax jack. So I don’t get to have my servers where I wanted, but at least I found a jack that works and now have an active connection. The connection sucks (8 Mbit… I’m paying for 20+ Mbit) but at least I have some kind of connection to the outside world now. Paul called mom and got her to tell us what our number is from her caller ID since Time Warner isn’t organized enough to tell us.
Tomorrow is another day of work. I have to do the inspection on the old apartments, and then I have a bunch of stuff to bring to the St. Lawrence Arts Center in Portland for their July tag sale. I have more stuff to do, I’m sure, but I haven’t set up my main machine or looked at my calendar yet. I need to get some sleep and hope my knee heals enough that I can get all this other stuff accomplished.
Wednesday, 4:35am: Filed Under “Ha ha ha.. oops”
I woke up early and spontaneously realized that I was running a speed test on my Internet connection using my laptop’s wireless card. *sigh* that just shows how tired I am. I plugged in a cat 5e cable and my connection tests out around 30 megabits. Not bad at all. Now to do another 50 billion things around here.
My knee is still aching so much that it’s almost totally eclipsing the pain I feel in the rest of my body. I’m certainly not as young as I used to be. All in all, this whole week has managed to blur into one extended beating. I’m running low on Advil. Good thing I have a Sam’s Club membership and can buy like 30,000 pills at a time.
Thursday, July 1, 3:26pm
That just about brings us up to date. I have boxes mostly unpacked but there’s still a veritable slalom of furniture in the living and dining rooms. Kitchen is almost set up but I’m not used to it yet so I can’t find anything. I’m still sore all over and constantly tired. But at least the move is done, and in a few days I should be settled enough that I can get back to some real work.
