The storms and tornadoes that were supposed to roll through here last night and this morning consisted of, seriously, four big rumbles of thunder and a little rain in the early morning hours while I was sleeping. I know this because the thunder woke me up around 7AM, and I only heard it thunder four times before it was all gone. That's it. When I finally got up around 11, the pavement was a little damp, but even that didn't last long in the afternoon sun.
It's supposed to be a lot cooler this coming week, with highs in the mid-50s and low 60s. I'm mostly fine with this, really; I only have to leave the house twice this week, both times for teaching. Both of those days (Tuesday and Thursday) will involve errands as well; one of my friends is picking up a big box of my old comps books from me on Tuesday morning, and on Thursday morning after my 102 students' final finishes, I'm taking my two massive bags full of donations over to the Goodwill next to the West campus.
I will not get a whole lot of sleep this week -- tonight, really, will be my last night of really good rest I'll get for almost a full week. Why? Well, tomorrow night I'll have to go to bed early to stay awake all day on Tuesday (as per the usual), on Wednesday I'll have to be awake and mobile most of the day as I will have, and will be grading, my 102 students' final papers -- as well as tagging more items for the garage sale and moving said items downstairs. On Thursday I'll give my 102 students their exam, come home, and will have to focus on nothing but readying for the garage sale for most of the afternoon and evening before I crash, and then early Friday morning the garage sale starts (8AM, which means I have to get everything outside and ready by then), meaning I'll be outside in the yard/driveway for most of the day. On Saturday that cycle repeats again (it's a two-day thing). Next Sunday I'll be grading everything I have that I -- of course -- couldn't get to during the weekend when I was working the garage sale, as well as doing more boxing/cleaning/situation-assessing as to whatever's left afterwards, likely creating another massive filling of the trash/recycling bins for Monday morning.
That's a full week, folks. A full week of frantic tasks, running around, taking care of everything possible, and barely sleeping. And the rest of May isn't going to get any better. Everything's just going to get harder, time is just going to move faster, and I'm just going to get more tired and worn down.
Tonight, I booked the U-Haul truck for the moving. However, the problem is that there will be two of us, with two cars, and a truck. We can't drive three vehicles to Omaha with two of us unless one of those cars is a black Trans Am voiced by William Daniels. And sadly, it is not. So, with that in mind, we had two choices: either spend between $60 and $80 more to get a trailer for Daisy's car (my car I don't trust on a trailer, as it's falling apart anyhow) or I drive up there the night before the moving starts, park my car there, and come back down in Daisy's car when she'd come down anyhow.
Obviously it doesn't really matter either way when it comes to the Monte Carlo -- regardless of when it happens, the car still has to be driven up to Omaha, as it's not like I'm leaving the Millennium Falcon of automobiles behind. I kind of need the car. Duh. But it's less hassle to drive it up and park it there than it would be to have Daisy drive down here, hook up her car to a trailer, and take it back that way with me following. I'll probably spend about $60 on gas for the Monte Carlo just to drive it up there anyhow (well, something like that, anyway, depending on gas prices) and it'll get rid of the hassle.
The 17-footer truck itself was $267.00. Adding in insurance and two rental dollies (because while we may have one if Daisy's parents have one and can find it, I don't have one here, and I needed a big one for the washer/dryer), the total for everything came to $336.00. And that's before tax. They don't charge my card now; they only charge it when we pick up everything. They require it to reserve the truck and equipment, though. It would've been $500 or more if we would've gotten the car trailer too. It may still be $500 or more after tax. I don't know how they'll work that out when we go to pick it up.
We get the truck for three days and 363 miles. We pick it up in Wichita, make a stop here to load it up, and then drive to Omaha. The entire trip is 325 miles -- I mapped it. That means even with a little wiggle room we'll still baaaaarely slide in under the maximum mileage limit. I'm also guessing they base that limit on the pickup and drop-off points for the truck, so that makes some sense (obviously). We pick it up on a Monday and drop it off on Thursday in Omaha. That gives us plenty of time to get everything done both here and there.
The truck was the cheapest option; in doing a little research on the U-Haul website, they have a service similar to the Pods moving people as well...you know, the company who comes and drops off containers at your house, you fill them, and then they pick them back up and move them to wherever you're going...yeah, that started at about $1,000. For the "apartment" sized set. They also had the option to add contracted moving crews as well -- people who do the heavy lifting on both ends (both figuratively and literally). Those plans started at about $400 more...each way. With an additional $70/hour charge if it took them longer than the requested time limit.
Yeah. You know, it's good sometimes to have friends and family already waiting to help (and asking to help) in the city to which one is moving...
Anyway.
After everything involving the move is done, I plan to sleep for about three days. I'm not kidding. Daisy works the next two nights after we drop off the truck, so we'd be "apart" for those days anyhow. I have the feeling that I'll really, really just want to curl up with the cats and sleep like the dead.
In the meantime is when everything else must be done, of course. If I don't want to go insane, I have to see if I can near-seamlessly transfer the internet account to our new place and have it ready to go by the time I get there and am settled in enough to use it/need it. I have to close the utilities' accounts and give them the final forwarding address. I have to change my address on everything else as well. And then, of course, is all of the packing and cleaning I've yet to do, which in itself makes me go a bit nuts.
I've been progressing with that a fair amount over this weekend, though. It's still slow going, and it feels like I'm somewhat dragging my feet, but most of the major stuff will be done in the last week or two leading up to the move anyway. All of now is simply preparation for that time, more than anything else. This weekend I finally finished cleaning out the storage room, and readied a good chunk of the stuff in the garage to be moved out to the yard/driveway for the yard sale. I packed several boxes full of both yard sale stuff and actual moving stuff. I'm slowly clearing out the spare room. In a week or so, I will have finished packing the stuff that I can pack up now, without fear of needing something that's boxed away before I move. I've reorganized boxes, I've cleared off shelves, I've done laundry and dishes. I've tried to map out which rooms need to be worked on and completely boxed up on which days, start to finish. I even found three new jobs to apply for in Omaha, in case nothing else works out between now and when I get there. I'm off on Wednesday. On Thursday, my 102 students take their final exam.
I can finally begin to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. That's what I'm getting at, really. Even though that light may seem far, far away for the time being, I can still see it.
On that note, I'm going to get something to eat, decompress with several episodes of Scrubs, and go to bed. I have a feeling I'll need the sleep much more than my body and soul will let on.
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