How do I get roped into these things?
Short answer is, I'm a nice guy and generally willing to help anyone if asked and I'm able. Sometimes I don't need to be asked, I'll just jump right in. I never ask for pay but they always come off with at least something so that's fine by me.
This is the 6th neighbor I've helped move in a little over 6 years. This couple today had their act together at least and most importantly had a plan. Bob, a great big guy almost a foot taller than me, already had the washer and dryer loaded when he came to get me around 1030 hours this morning. Except for the couch, 2 queen beds and a couple of dressers, it was mostly just carrying boxes. Good!!
I just did the pack muling and Bob did the load-master job. If the load shifts, it's on him and not me. We took the truck for a quick run to the beer store to see how much, if any, the load was going to shift. I road in the back. Good idea that turned out being. I caught a few boxes that were fixing to smash things including Vicki's beloved mimosa plant that was about to crash. She showed it to me earlier saying "it's one of those 'sensitive' plants... watch this" and touched the leaves and it folded up. I said "yeah, that's a mimosa plant, I know exactly what that is."
Anyway, they pulled away at 1530 hours.
I can't believe we had the truck loaded up with the car-carrier hooked up and ready to go around 1430.
Vicki shows me the frig full of stuff saying to take what I want. Amazing! They buy the same stuff and brands I do ... thank Goodness. During a lull in the action I brought an over-filled box of frig stuff over and began combining bottles of like stuff. My freezer is slam-ass packed as well as the frig.
Vicki was cleaning and still packing up boxes behind us as fast as we could get stuff out. What an operation! We finally took a break - after the beer store/test run - we sat and had a drink (other than water, wink wink). Then it was time to hook up the car-carrier. Bob has much experience driving and pulling big stuff so he wasn't afraid of that at all. Vicki was all nervous and didn't to watch. He wanted me to guide him [the truck's ball] right under the hitch. Well, duh, of course. Between my signaling and his backing acumen we had that done in just a few minutes. One of the last folks I helped was to help Don put his ball-hitch right under their boat's tongue. We did that in one try and the hitch snapped right up. His wife was amazed and Don complimented me on signaling. No big deal to me really. I grew up around that kind stuff working on farms and such. As long as we agree on signals up front it should never be an issue.
They left the place pretty much immaculate so I doubt the landlord will be needing my remodeling skills this time. The last 2 or 3 was a completely different story.
Never the less, I hate to see good neighbors go.
And, like the frig stuff, I always end up with stuff. I have yet another computer desk. Pretty nice one actually. Some other minor stuff not worth bragging about.
At least this time I don't "get" to help unload. They are off to Michigan with a few stops to Vicki's daughters somewhere in northern Indiana I believe. I don't imagine they'll get there for a couple days.
I probably need a serious shower right now but I might just be too wore out. Then again, I'm likely to hurt worse tomorrow and won't want to climb the stairs to get there. I'll probably just bite the bullet and climb the stairs tonight lest I won't bother for a few more days.
So much for my Sunday relaxation - not like I had anything else to do anyhow.
Yet another BigE adventure. (sorry to ramble like I am wont to do)
E.
That is sooooo much better than the last major move I had to help with. I've done a couple minor ones since that nightmare, but, they were a stroll in the park.
The bad one involved four volunteers helping a minister move about 60 miles. I spent over an hour sterilizing my cattle trailer a couple days ahead of time. That was a lot of quarters at the car wash. I showed up at the appointed time, as did the three other volunteers. The minister and his wife hadn't had their breakfast yet so asked us to wait a bit. Then we discovered they had not packed one thing and they had no boxes or anything to put it in. The other guys ran all over town begging for boxes while I helped the minister and wife clean up items that really shouldn't be moved without being clean. Then we all packed everything as best we could with almost no direction from the owners. I bet it was months before they found some things they really needed. It was dark when I finally made it back home with an empty trailer. NEVER AGAIN!
Good for you! I've done that many times. Seems like a short hop across town is the worst kind of move since you just figure everything will magically appear at the new place. I have two sisters that I helped move many times. I swear they didn't even pack a box a few times. Have a beer and a shower and get some rest.
to both Andy and Mr. Cow
Yeah, I've helped on a move or several where they didn't have anything boxed up. Perhaps in Mr. Cow's case the minister was waiting for the hand of God to swoop them on their way.
In Andy's case, just plain ole laziness and nothing more. I walked off a move one day with that crap. Even brought my 4wd to load up so as they didn't have to rent a truck. I just said to call me back when you are REALLY ready. They never did and that was fine by me.
These folks today had their stuff together. I honestly can't believe we had that thing ready for travel in less than 5 hours. They had their game on for sure!!
I already got the shower and took a walking trip to the beer store for tonight and tomorrow. Lord knows I'll want the beer tomorrow lest I drink it all tonight - not likely. A shot of whiskey might just put my doo-dads in the dirt about now. 😉
It's lay-down time now.... I'm shot
E
You're a good man BigE.
Many years ago one of my aunts got transferred by her employer from CA back to KS. One of the movers, a bit shocked at the weight of the box he'd just lifted, said "Jeez, lady, what do you have in here, bricks?" Her response: "Yes." It seems she had been using a bunch of bricks to support some garden shelves, and since the company was paying...
My dad got a similar question from a mover once, but there weren't any bricks in the box. It was, however, chock full of National Geographic magazines, which amounts to the same thing.
moving
What Mr. Shepp said.
Many years ago I moved from my first teaching job (Roanoke College) to my second (University of Utah). A friend of mine was willing to supervise the (professional) loading of the boxed-up and labeled stuff in our apartment, so we could hit the road.
Some days later, the big van pulled up to our place in Salt Lake, and stuff began coming off. When we got to the boxes from my apartment, we found that our friend had added labels to most of them. My favorite was old socks, my innertube, the “dog”. The quotation marks were his. It made for moments of hilarity in a hardworking day.
Cheers,
Henry
> You're a good man BigE.
Better than me. I tell them real quick that I made a deal with the moving companies a long time ago. They wont set bluetops and I wont help people move:-/
This morning I was told of a bumper sticker spotted on a pick up truck:
Yes, this is my pick up, No, I will NOT help you move
moving
> Many years ago I moved from my first teaching job (Roanoke College)...
I'm about 25 minutes from Roanoke College, in Christiansburg. Nice little school and Salem is great too.
Carl
That was my first comments to my wife's family when I got ride of my SUV for a full size truck.
Mother-in-law was all gitty that I had gotten a truck.
