New Beginnings, Part II: Radio Silence

It is 11:20 PM on Sunday night, and we're back in Newton safely. We pick up the U-Haul tomorrow at noon, which was the earliest time they could schedule it for us. Daisy is downstairs sleeping.

Yesterday afternoon, I left the house here shortly before 2 and began my drive north in the Monte Carlo. I stopped in the usual spots -- Concordia for gas and a soda, York to get out and stretch my legs at the Walmart -- and made it to the parents' house in Omaha around 7:30PM. Damn good timing, if I say so myself.

The Monte Carlo was wonderful. She drove impeccably, didn't get hot or overheat, didn't give me any shit, didn't blow any parts, etc. It was the furthest I've ever driven the car in one session before, and she performed so, so well. I even think, because of it being almost entirely highway driving, she was even getting better than the 20mpg average. Right now she's parked in the parents' driveway 300 miles away, getting some well-deserved rest. We came back down this afternoon in Daisy's Hyundai.

I got to see the new place for the first time last night -- it's huge. Well, relatively, anyway. It's in a decent part of town (not the best, but decent), it's one building in a large complex of buildings -- each building has its own name -- and the apartment itself is second-floor, very spacious in the rooms with the exception of the kitchen and bathrooms (which are about the same size as the ones I have here) and with a sliding glass door, screen door, balcony, etc. It's nice. It's more than big enough for me, Daisy, and the cats, and the master bedroom is probably twice the size of my Man Cave here even before you account for the two big closets and attached master bathroom suite. I just wish it wasn't as expensive as it is -- we're paying a lot more for it per month than I paid here for this entire house in Newton. That's the price of living in the city, I suppose.

Anyway. We picked up the good vacuum and the carpet steam cleaner from the apartment and the parents' house, respectively, got the parents' dolly, and came back down here this afternoon. We stopped at Subway for dinner (because I have no food in the house anymore that isn't packed/boxed up or little things like American cheese singles and ketchup) and came back to my house...where we almost immediately took out the heavy, cumbersome fold-out loveseat, the broken futon, my two old broken chairs, and the big metal recycling bin (which we have no place for anymore) to the curb for large item pickup -- they have to be out there by 7AM.

It was too dark to do anything else, really, and both of us are already exhausted; just moving that stuff was heavy and strenuous enough, especially the fold-out loveseat.

Here's the plan for tomorrow:

1. Get up early
2. Take out trash, clean out the garage (sweep it out, get rid of the leaves and dirt and mess); while I'm doing that, Daisy is going to try to figure out how to disassemble the bed frame
3. Move everything we can downstairs, gut my Man Cave completely
4. Run final loads in the dishwasher and washer/dryer of stuff that needs to be washed
5. Go get the moving truck at noon
6. Lock the cats in the bathroom and begin loading the truck
7. Let them out when we're done loading it up (2-4 hours, probably)
8. Clean the house -- this involves steam-cleaning the carpets, wiping down walls/sinks/counters/etc. This will take much longer than the loading of the truck.
9. Eat, sleep, get up Tuesday morning, finish whatever cleaning is left, and then call landlord to do final walkthrough and handing-over-of-keys, handshakes, final goodbyes, etc.
10. ...and then drive it all to Omaha and do it all in reverse. Again.

My internet gets turned off tomorrow sometime; I don't know when. It could cut me off at midnight tonight (so, nine minutes from now) or sometime tomorrow. I have no clue, really. That's why I'm writing/typing this all out now. Suffice it to say that once that happens, I will be in radio silence until after the move is over, and possibly until after I get the internet turned on (Saturday afternoon) in the new place. In the interim, to pass the time when bored, I will probably be writing backlogged posts to put on here later, or I'll at least attempt to, anyway. 

[EDIT: The internet gets turned off on the 20th, Tuesday, not the 19th, today.]

The work will be long and difficult, and it won't be helped by the temperatures -- while on Saturday morning it was struggling to get out of the 40s, and last night in Omaha it was probably only in the low 40s, 24 hours later in the middle of the night it's in the mid-60s, and the highs today and tomorrow are supposed to be 89 and 98, respectively -- no, I'm not kidding. It's going to be fun moving heavy shit and big boxes, not to mention cleaning this place top to bottom, when it's that hot and muggy outside. You folks know at this point, as I haven't made it a secret, how this house becomes a greenhouse when it's hot outside. And keep in mind we're steam cleaning most of the carpets. 

We have Gatorade and fresh filtered water on hand already, believe me. 

The cats are already sufficiently freaked out over all of the banging and doors opening/closing/etc. I had to lock Pete in the bathroom when we were taking the large pick-up items downstairs and outside simply because he's the kind of cat who will get under our feet and/or will try to run out the door. It's going to be a pain in the ass in itself to get them in their carriers and to move them, believe me. Again, they like to wail when they're in their carriers in any vehicle. I purchased cans of tuna to lure them into the bathroom tomorrow when we have to shut them in there for a long time for the moving process, as that should fill their bellies and make them stay docile for a good stretch of time. I hate to shut them up anywhere, but we don't have a choice -- we'll have to do the same thing once we get them to Omaha.

[Fast-forward to the morning hours...]

"Your landlord has keys to the house, right?" Daisy asked me.

"Well yes, of course," I said.

"Do you think he'll want to do a real walkthrough, then? If not, we could just call him and tell him we're done and leaving, and we could lock the keys inside on the counter."

That's true, really.

"It's up to him," I said. "I don't really care either way, but it's whatever he wants to do."

Daisy and I are both of the opinion that the more we get done today, the less we'll have to do tomorrow and the sooner we can just get in the vehicles and go. And she's right, obviously. All of the utilities here (with the exception of the electric) get turned off tomorrow or later in the week. Mail should start being forwarded after tomorrow (I still haven't heard anything about the jury duty thing, either).

So, until the move is over, this will be my last post, folks -- and the last one written from Kansas period. When you next see a post here, it will be from our new place in Nebraska. Wish us well, and I'll get back to you on the flip side. So to speak.