This last week or two has been a complete and total mad house after getting back from Utah. I knew it was a tight deadline, but had ZERO idea really what was entailed in being the leader (aka sponsor) in a move overseas. Yeah... whose idea was this? Oh, yeah... mine. It's still surreal some two weeks after this whole thing REALLY got going... you would think it got real when I shipped my car, but nope.
Packing really didn't make it real. I'm sitting in Germany right now catching up on the blog and it is still surreal and doesn't seem like this is my life... not really. weird feeling... but I digress and I need to get you updated on what has happened over the last few weeks. This was published on the 14th. This was the "household goods" move, so really the 2nd part of the move.... we are a little more organized on what we going to take with us. In hind sight we really should have culled a LOT more...
Packing of storage went fairly well, we had them come in with three guys and get done in a day. They went from 9am to 9pm to get it done and the LAST thing they loaded was the lawn mower. Talk about scary and funny to watch all at the same time... it was scary as they had NO tools to get stuff done on this and funny as they were trying it all sorts of ways without a clue what they were doing. They finally let Butch get them a chain and a pulley to get it into the back of the truck. Geeze, that was some work. That was the 8th and was supposed to go the 9th, but didn't happen, they packed it all out that night and were gone!
Next up was the Household goods:
MONDAY 14th:
the back bedroom getting packed. The cutting machine is packed in a box somewhere in there... the packer is around the corner as well. I tried not to get faces unless they were aware and willing to be photographed....
Maurice in the living room packing up in there... you can see his arm just past the column!
I don't remember this genleman, but he was packing the kitchen and was super slow and meticulous. The rest of the folks gave him crap about being so slow.
THIS packing we bought the crew lunch. The storage guys were in/out in one day so we didn't even think about lunch for them and they didn't eat all day. Very strange that we didn't think to feed them. Duh... Oh, well. That's life.
THIS is what happened when I went to get them lunch at Zaxbys down the road - flatter than flat.
I called a tow truck and got one that hadn't been on the road long enough to have the proper tools to get it done AND the truck was missing the bar to crank down the spare tire so there we both sat looking at the truck and debating how to fix this mess. The driver went to WalMart behind us and got a plug kit and finally got the plug in after three times... I guess in this case third time IS the charm, eh?
This is him STILL working on it.... on try two for the plug...
AND working on it... he finally had success and the truck was sold with that plug IN the tire... we just sold it and ran!!
AAANNNNDDDDD back to packing and emptying out the living room....
lids going on the crates... to be shipped over. It's going to be like Christmas when we open all these boxes again.
And now for TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility)
bedroom in the "hotel" on base. It's older and sort of run down, but did the trick. It was a bed for exhausted bodies to fall in to nightly at 10pm or later.
and the living room of the hotel on base... as seen from the dining area... it has the front door to the left side by the green chair, then the door you see just to the right of centers is to the bathroom. I would have been just as happy with a hotel room at this point, but OK... whatever you want to give us.
It's a BIG puzzle and this guy has some serious skills in cramming stuff in there... one of them he used a huge clamp to get the nails in... and honestly I will be surprised if anything survives this trip, but hey, it's covered, right?
TUESDAY
Packing for these guys is total randomness. They would pack 99% of one thin in one box and the rest some 10 boxes later... as I said, it's going to be like Christmas when we open these boxes!!
Butch'es specially crated Big Green Egg. Fun stuff. He's happy to be taking it with him.
THIS is everything we were shipping in Unaccompanied baggage and in the plane with us... and then we still overpacked for the plane. Lorie. more of that later.
empty room! Well, except the bed.
LOTS of items on the counter that we could not pack. Sad, but true.
Maurice agreed to have his picture taken putting the nails in this crate for shipping...
The first casualty of the move... my Alaska ornament that was a little bird house was crushed.... and so was I :(
Wednesday they had the final push to get the crates out of the final rooms, last bits of beds to get from here and there..then they were gone and the house was almost empty, except the room of stuff to go on the quicker shipment (unaccompanied baggage).
