Panic sets in

how do you move 85 boxes weighing an average of 50 pounds 15 miles with 2 people and only one truck?

YOU don't. I will explain.

We are making great progress in packing stuff. All the bookcases are empty, and out of the room.

 All the books and many of the trains on the shelves are packed.

Most of the furniture and whatever else we did not need to take, went to goodwill, or the dump. You would not believe the amount of pots and pans my dad had that he never used. Some were brand new. He did not have a microwave oven so I picked one up before nephew arrived. he was using an old completely black inside (gross) toaster oven that was on top of the refrigerator. For some reason he had a brand new or almost new toaster oven on top of his kitchen cabinets. We dumped the old one and used the newer one.

We still have about the same amount of room as we started. My main concern is can the floor in this old building take the weight? The other thing that concerned me was that we had about 1 week left to go and only 2 guys with a truck that can't hold more that 20 or so boxes on a trip. There are NO ramps to get in and out of the building and there is only one dolly that we can borrow from the manager... Let's see, 20 boxes would mean around 4 or 5 trips, I have a bad back, Nephew is young and strong (but not that strong), The trip to storage will take about 30 to 45 minutes one way... Don't panic... Don't panic!

You may wonder why we did not get the U-haul truck and bring it to the apartment to load it up, then park it somewhere? Well the basic rental was for 5 days, travel time back to Phoenix was hopefully going to take 3, leaving 1 day to unpack. There was no room for extra time sitting around and we needed to get everything out of the apartment and off to storage ASAP. Also there was no place to park a 26' (actual length 35') u-haul at the apartment, especially overnight.

The master plan:
Once the apartment was cleaned out we would spend the night in a hotel near storage (the 21st of Dec) then we would rent the truck early in the morning (22nd Dec), Load it that day, Drive it back to U-haul pickup the trailer, load the truck on to the trailer, and stay in a hotel (22nd Dec), leaving early the next morning (Dec 23 Sunday). Praying that the summits were open for our escape through WA, OR, ID, NV. CA was out of the question as a huge storm had the passes on I-5 south closed. THANK YOU JEBUS!

And now back to our Panicking already in progress.

After some brainstorming with family we decide that maybe we can get a moving company to do it for us! It just so happens that only a couple of blocks away I had seen some trucks with something on it about moving. We googled moving companies in Seattle and the closest one to us was "Two small men with big hearts moving™" I called them and for $270 we get the services of 2 guys and a 14' truck for 3 hours, and they can come out tomorrow. The best part is I don't have to do hardly anything. YAY!

I am going to sidetrack this story for a story I had forgot about. Prior to this on 12-15-2012 or so, we decided to take the afternoon off and visit a friend of mine that lives in Seattle. HA HA HA HA!!! silly me!. All weekend long it had been raining in Seattle and anywhere near Seattle. My mind is Fuzzy as to exactly when it happened but We went to drive the truck and the windshield wipers were acting up (like they had been for a couple of days). Well on this day about the time we needed to head to west Seattle they gave out completely. YOU HAVE TO HAVE WINDSHIELD WIPERS IN SEATTLE CUZ IT RAINS! ALL THE FREAKING TIME! ahem... I am not bitter.

Now begins the quest for the holy windshield wiper motor! Initially I thought I could fix it myself, so after much cursing and working on it (IN THE RAIN), I get the motor out. Of course not one single car parts store had one anywhere close by. So like the 2 completely and totally insane people that we are, Nephew and I decide to drive from Seattle to Federal way, in the rain, with no windshield wipers... The fact that we made it there without dying and that we drove on the freeway, and could not see a thing is irrelevant. WE COULD NOT BE WITHOUT A CAR! We get the motor and try to install it... um.... hmmm... There is something not right. Seems the control circuits box that we had, that was attached to our old motor would not work on the new one or there is something wrong with our circuit board. We take the motor and drive ALL the way back (in the rain) to Seattle where I check the circuit board as best I can and try to re-solder some of the joints with my dad's soldering iron... THE HUNK OF JUNK SOLDERING IRON THAT CAN'T SEEM TO GET HOT ENOUGH! So I look online and cannot find a replacement ANYWHERE! SIGH™ I give up... Time for plan B, since we cannot be without a car, I call my friend and hit him up for a solid. We drive to West Seattle (in the rain), borrow one of my friends cars (he has 3), and drive back to the apartment. Monday we will take the truck in and have someone else deal with it.

Meanwhile the fire truck on ebay does not sell again. RE-LIST! but the previous high bidder keeps wanting it for $1000, I have to have at least $2000 to help cover the moving costs. So "no" I tells him.

Long story short. Monday we drop off the truck early in the morning. We do other things that need to be done. They call us and the control board for the motor is shot, The board is the old style no longer made, The motor we have will not work with the new board, Parts have to come from somewhere else, $680 please. YES YES WHATEVER DO IT! (on the inside), Yes please fix it, when can we get it back? Tomorrow? Thanks.

We are still trying to get a hold of Dave... So far no luck, and the pastor of the church just kind of ignored us even after we donated a bunch of new toy fire engines (and other new toys) to the church that my dad did not need. jerks!

Next Post:

"getting down to the wire" or "the mad insane dash to get ready to leave town, and I still have to clean the apartment (gross)"