Moving Day For Nikki

Yesterday - Friday - was beach day. We had promised to take Andrew to the beach and it was time to pay up. We packed our essentials and drove over to Jaycee Park. Amazingly, we found a great spot to park in the shade of an old oak tree. We played in the surf for about an hour before dropping the "Ten more minutes" bombshell on Andrew. He was a good sport and came without much fuss ten minutes later.

On the way home, we stopped at Publix for some dinner items. At home, I grilled some burgers and fixed dinner. Publix' Southern Style potato salad is my new-found favorite potato salad from a store. The burgers with all the fixin's were perfect on fresh rolls from the bakery.

At 7:00PM, Andrew and I called Aunt Cathy to let her know we were packing the car and would be on our way soon. At 7:30, we we backed out of the garage. Why does it take 30 minutes to go from 'leaving soon' to 'leaving'? I have no idea; but it seems to be a fact of life when mothers and kids are involved. :-)

Driving north, we were witness to the most fantastic storm I can recall. Lightning lit up the sky from the southwest around to the northeast. The further north we drove, the move strikes became visible. After a while, the strikes changed from cloud-to-ground single strikes to cloud-to-cloud 'finger-like' strikes spreading out from a single point in multiple directions. I found myself glancing at the road now and then, instead of glancing at the sky.

We arrived at the C&D B&B around 9:30. We chatted awhile before Uncle Dave went to bed - he had an early morning golf match. Soon after, Aunt Cathy went to bed - she had to work in the morning.

Today, we awoke to an empty B&B; we were on our own for breakfast and company. Uncle Dave was golfing and Aunt Cathy was working. We found some cereal in the cupboard and had some toast on the side.

Uncle Dave returned with John from their golf match around 11:00, grabbed a bite to eat, and left again to pick up a 24-foot U-Haul truck. A half hour later, they returned with the truck. I loaded Andrew's booster seat into the truck. He was pretty excited about riding in the big truck, but mostly because he got to ride up front, where he could see everything. On the way to Nikki's old place, Dave let Andrew "drive" by placing his hand on the wheel, but Andrew acted shy and quickly pulled his hand away. Susan stayed behind to wait for Aunt Cathy.

When we arrived, we found that Nikki had already moved a lot of the smaller items. All that was left was the big, heavy, awkward, cumbersome, back-breaking, agonizing appliances and furniture. Luckily, we had quite a crew to help. In addition to those already mentioned, we had two of Zack's friends, Alex and Gin, and Zack's friend's mom and sister. Aunt Cathy and Susan arrived a little later.

We really didn't have a plan at all. People were everywhere, doing separate tasks. It was a far departure from the organized, well-planned placement that we witnessed from the professionals when moving from Bothell last year. Yet, the truck quickly started to fill, and as far as I know, nothing - and nobody - got hurt.

There were a couple moments during the move that stood out for me. One was a tall piece of furniture with about five horizontal shelves with glass doors. Alex and I tried to pick it up and, to our amazement, it started coming apart in our hands. It was as if it was made by LEGO. It was stacked in layers like individual LEGO pieces. Another was the entertainment center. At first look, there was nothing daunting about it. But somehow, for some reason, it was probably the heaviest, most awkward piece of furniture in the house. It turned out to be nearly the last thing loaded on the truck. Andrew was helpful, too. He carried the support pieces for the bed all by himself.

The drive to Nikki's new apartment was quite short. I think the 'as the crow flies' distance is probably about a half mile. Dave worked the truck into the narrow parking lot so the ramp lined up nicely with the sidewalk and the unpacking began. As is usually the case - from my experience - unloading seems easier and quicker. The furniture quickly started filling the spaces of the new apartment. Before long, the truck was empty - well, almost. The one item remaining on the truck was the heaviest, most awkward piece of furniture of all - the entertainment center. We managed to unload everything else from the truck, literally moving stuff around the entertainment center to get it out. It was as if we were all intimidated by the thing. :-)

The heat was something else. Once the sweat started to flow, there was no stopping it. Nikki had plenty of water and Gatorade on hand to help beat the heat. At one point, while waiting to get some tools to swap out the dryer cable - from four prong to three - we took a break and ate sandwiches and chips. Uncle Dave and others put the dining room table back together, only to have Nikki say it was all wrong. The tripod legs were pointing in the wrong directions. Zack's friends stayed busy putting Zack's room together. Alex cracked us up when he said something about 'still moving'. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, this idea grew and the living room scene eventually became the centerpiece of an online art exhibit entitled "Still" Moving, worthy of the 'finest' art museum in London - the Saatchi Gallery. I'm not kidding; you can see it on his Facebook page! :-)

At 4:00, we took the U-Haul truck back to the B&B to drop off me and Andrew. This time, Andrew still didn't want to drive, so Uncle Dave grabbed his foot and place it on the steering wheel. Andrew 'drove' the truck with his foot! What an amazing talent.

Back at the B&B, I made myself at home on the couch, soaking up the air conditioning. The thermometer on the back porch was showing over 100 degrees. Before long, the subject of dinner came up. Since we were watching "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery channel, Dave suggested crab legs. The previous commercial block included one from Pizza Hut, so I suggested calzones. Dave agreed with the idea of calling up the local Italian place and ordering a pizza and some calzones to go. Thirty minutes later, I was enjoying a fresh, delicious meatball calzone - yummy.

After dinner, we started packing the car. After some time - you guessed it, 30 minutes - we backed out of the driveway and headed south to Vero Beach.