The two-bedroom house move was an illusion; we really had three floors of “stuff” and it’ll be challenging to fit it all into two floors and a garage.
Lizzie seems to be fine sleeping on the first floor by herself.
The nightlights are providing enough illumination to allow us to navigate.
Crashed early last night, up early, 3 am or so, today. Cleared a few boxes. Got started on sorting out the garage. After a lot of wandering around, Lizzie has been sleeping next to me.
We brought more boxes upstairs – heavy ones. Clothes and linens mostly.
Long conversation today with John from GEICO. Found a repair shop in Pittsfield and booked an appointment for January 16.
Also got an appointment to pick up Ron’s rental car tomorrow afternoon in Bennington.
Learned that rental companies reserve cars for insurance claims, so you can’t always tell what’s available because the website only shows cars for the general public.
Called a Greek restaurant for delivery and turns out, they are our next door neighbors!
Lizzie got to go out a couple of times today and seemed to enjoy it. No escapes or playing in traffic!
Had conversations with the lawyers’ office, Ryan and Pete the electrician. Also called United to complain about Colony.
Ducey, Lee, DeSantis and other governors — including New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu, Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker, Maryland’s Larry Hogan, Ohio’s Mike DeWine, Texas’s Greg Abbott, Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson, Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin — make a strong Republican bench.
Forget about anti-choice zealots Ducey, Lee, Abbott, DeSantis, DeWine, Reynolds, Hutchinson, Ricketts, Youngkin.
Eventful day.
Our angel – he’s got to be, no human being ever lived who’s as good as this person – delivered our goods from the storage unit in Wareham to us. He’s offered to come back weekend after this coming one to help us organize. Says he’s OCD, which is pretty much what we need now.
Lizzie had a good romp in the back yard and found an open gate. We’re told cars were driving around her (they do race up and down this hill). A kind person stopped to corral her, and Ron did the rest.
We found a way to use the broken down trash shed and got our garbage stowed for the night. Hope to get a transfer station sticker tomorrow (Thursday).
Still no word on the closing.
Ron got the platform for the king bed apart until the last step. Turns out the bottom rungs come out by themselves, otherwise there’s no way to get it up the stairs.
What else? Got the cable account set up for autopay. Slammed enough money into Chase and HFCU to clear both accounts.
Took a shower, figured out the faucet upstairs.
Outlook is working. Miraculously.
Except for a few things we had to leave in a Wareham storage unit, 99.9% of our goods are in Williamstown.
The moving crew made it back safely. I would have lost my mind if it hadn’t been for young Gino and Mark. Their good humor kept us going. Mark had it right: doesn’t seem like it now, but having all our things here is a blessing.
There were some heavy items that Ron and I were able to haul upstairs, with leverage and a bit of cleverness, like figuring out how to remove heavy metal file drawers.
I was up early to unpack yesterday. By evening I really had lost it, screamed and screamed and screamed.
The hunt for everything – spoons, meds, towels – wore me to a shred.
Ron refused to go out, repeating his refrain of the week: couldn’t charge his phone so he had no GPS, the rental car didn’t show up, on and on. The moving company guy wasn’t much better, complained endlessly about how he would have brought a drill if he’d known about moving the king bed. As if it’s normal for a moving company to not have a toolbox on their truck.
Ron barricaded the part of the living room where I’m sitting so Liz couldn’t trump and leak on it again.
One of the movers found the switches for the garage doors, which was fantastic. It’s full of stuff again, only this time, ours.
Along the way I gave myself quite a knock on the left side of my head.
We still haven’t done a food shop. Yesterday evening we did a DoorDash from a local Chinese restaurant, and the meals were topnotch.
I found my meds for the week. I stupidly left behind a big suitcase with all kinds of essentials. A gent from Wareham agreed to transport it along with everything else from the storage unit; I’m sending him a key today.
Ryan dropped by yesterday on his way back from New York. Nice to meet him in person.
I emptied the passenger seat and the extra cab to make room for Ron and Lizzie. Spent the night with them at the Holiday Inn in Sturbridge. Gorgeous place, good people, including the night manager who checked Lizzie in as an Emotional Support Animal.
We tracked down Ron’s car in Charlton and took out some of his things. Did more today.
The tow company emailed a release form which the desk clerk at the HI printed off after I emailed it to her. I emailed it back and we are now square with the yard. They will coordinate henceforth with GEICO.
The other main thing was to charge Ron’s phone and get batteries for his hearing aids. Done.
On the way back to Williamstown, we stopped for homemade chow at a restaurant in Lanesborough. They allowed Lizzie to lie down next to us and made a nice fuss over her.
I found someone who is willing to transport our storage unit goods to Williamstown. Had good luck on a Wareham FB site.
We did the walk through at Henderson and emptied the truck. Found more issues. I emailed our attorney. We met the next door neighbor who rescued Lizzie when she ran into the road in front of a car. She seems to really like the back yard!
Miss Dog has been hiding her face in the corners of rooms. She was very thirsty tonight.
Ron likes the “project house”.
Nastiness with the owner of the Williamstown motel. May Karma bite him in the butt.
Nice people dropped off food from Burger King (2 orders by mistake, lunch tomorrow I guess) and and pain relievers from Walgreens.
Took 1000 mg of Acetaminophen and an aspirin.
I’ve been screaming in pain since this morning, it is less intense now.
Lots of back and forth on 71 Henderson. And Ron’s rental, which I hope has shown up at his motel by now. And Ron’s Corolla, which I found.
And Ron’s lack of a phone. He’s promised to pick up a burner.
Ron got into an accident on the way to Williamstown last night. He and Lizzie are at the Holiday Inn in Sturbridge. The poor beautiful new car had to be towed, it was leaking fluid.
Ron hadn’t slept the night before, did the packing that should have been done for a week.
I found myself nodding off more than once on the Pike. It’s easy to do, especially at night. I was lucky, didn’t hit anything or run the truck off the road. I did nap briefly at the Ludlow rest stop, gassed up the truck there as well.
Strange thing, I may have heard and seen Ron’s accident. There was a bang and I saw a car careen from one side of the road to the other.
I found the 1896 House easily. Nice people but no heat or hot water in the room, they said I could move next door.
Our friend/realtor Barbara was spectacular. Negotiated more time for us to clear out the house and help load up the truck for the last trip. I was convinced we couldn’t fit it all, but she engineered it brilliantly.
She also found a way to remove the sticky residue from the floors.
The closing went fine as a result and I’m in Williamstown for the second closing. I can’t say all’s well with Ron and Lizzie stranded, though.
I had so many great memories with the grands at 20 Dixon. That’s all in the past now that they are grown up. It still pulls at my heart, but I hope there’ll be more good times ahead on Henderson.
After 21 years, we’ve packed our bags and the rest of our household for a town in the Berkshires.
I picked the location even though the weather isn’t as mild, the tax rate is higher, utilities are more expensive, the local newspaper is just okay, the shopping is less convenient and the house and property we’re moving to are not as nice, at least not yet.
We didn’t move for all reasons that Those In Charge tell you people leave the Cape.
In our mid-70’s, we are leaving a comfortable home, established relationships and familiar territory. We are not young people who are migrating for better jobs or more affordable housing.
Rather, we left because after 12 years for Hubby and 21 years for me, it still felt that we never had a common understanding with most of the people who live here.
It was like being misinterpreted because you don’t speak the language or “get” the punchline of in-jokes.
Admittedly, we don’t share a common background with a substantial number of people who live in Mashpee or for that matter, the Cape. In spite of Barnstable County’s allegedly liberal political leanings, being “not the same as” was an impediment to acceptance.
We hope our new town will be more welcoming of diversity, whether it’s ancestral, religious, political or philosophical. On paper at least, it seems to be.
We will miss the good people we’ve met and the Tribal Leadership’s positive influence on the whole community.