Ed asks me today -- can I help in any way? He's referring to help with my move.. Nice offer, but so far I have to tell him no. Unfortunately. I've learned that moves are like travel: the complicated sequence of preparations hasn't much to do with packing clothes into a suitcase for a trip. For me -- that's an hour at most. It's the everything else. So, too, with the move. nd I have experience, believe me! Third move in less than a year.
My official move-in date is July 3rd. I set that up even before I moved to Sally's House. I booked movers back in February. July 1st is set aside for cleaning Steffi's House and in this I get help. Not from Ed, but from a professional team. I have no idea how the renter has treated the premises (do meth labs rake havoc to the surroundings??). I hope one day is sufficient for cleaning. I hope he hasn't torn up walls and splattered blood all over the carpets. But in case he has, I hired carpet cleaners for July 2nd.
Once he is out and the management company has inspected the house (I'm told they will do that on June 30th), I can start moving stuff in (at least into the garage). This is when I will need Ed's help. His truck is currently filled with city wood chips and he has to dump those on the driveway of Steffi's House, but he cant do that until the renter has moved out and once he does dump the chips, in order to free the truck for our moving use, I have to quickly disperse them, so that the driveway is free for my movers by July 3rd. For this, I just purchased a wheelbarrow at Home Depot, which I have to pick up later today, along with a shovel, because it's nuts to have to drive over to the farmette every time I want to dig something up. (Why did I think the wheelbarrow would be small and that it would easily fit into the trunk of the car? Just because I googled "small wheelbarrow?" The thing turns out to be monstrous!)
Do you see what I mean?
And it goes on like this. I call to set up payment for water and sewage, even as I can't discontinue it yet at Sally's House. And don't get me started on the switch of Internet service. Spectrum finally convinced me (it took years of trying) to give up on ATT mobile service and switch over to theirs (and therefore Verizon). They did this by offering a better price. That's all fine, but do you know how stupidly complicated it is to switch your mobile phone service? Of course, it also took an hour of phone time with the Spectrum guy before we settled on a package that would serve my needs. No one believes how low my needs are! I don't stream or game or do any of those high data usage things and yet, they keep telling me that I can increase my speed so much if I sign up for their new and fast fiber-optic cable service. Speed for what? To post updates on Ocean? Nevertheless, I upgraded just to get the better price. Too, I am always scared that I'm running behind as the world moves on. Ed always laughs at me: that's what you get from being raised in commie Poland, he'll say. You're always afraid of losing out.
The morning is cool. I actually take out a blanket for the porch breakfast. Millie, my beautiful shadow, joins me, at first on a chair, then in her usual spot under the bench.
(the poppies are from Tivoli...)
Millie is an "under the furniture" kind of dog. She keeps me company by resting under the couch, not too far from my legs. If I get up, she'll get up and follow me, but so long as I am on the couch, she is under it. (I'd rather have her on the couch next to me, but I have learned to accept a dog's idiosyncratic preferences. As Julie her caregiver last week told me -- Millie is Millie.)
(Pause for a second cup of coffee: here I have to admit to buying souvenirs; I don't normally do that anymore. I'm downsizing! But, on this trip of all trips, I picked up a commemorative plate and cup in Poland, the breakfast poppies and the candy below in Denmark, and the tray in Finland. I'm not likely to ever forget where these came from!)
I take the time to brush Millie. She is due for a haircut, but in the meantime, I like to keep her untangled. Honestly, I do not know why I enjoy doing this so much! She wiggles like a dog possessed and yet, I patiently run the brush for a good twenty minutes over all her curly hair. There, done!
I drop her off for a half day of doggie daycare. I need to plant what I failed to plant yesterday. And I need to check up on the fencing project -- the owner of the company agreed with me that they did a lousy job installing the mini fence for my mini dog. So they are redoing it. I'm keeping an eye on things there. And the mosquitoes notwithstanding, I go over to the farmette and do some hasty weeding. I just feel bad about leaving the mess there. All those weeds and my dense plants only help increase the mosquito population and frankly, I thought the garden would look okay in its first year of neglect, but it's not looking okay,. It's looking like a jungle, darn it. I need to at least take out some of the density. And yes, I see the first beautiful day lilies popping out!
(Irises, too, are going strong.)
At the farmhouse, Ed asked me to trim his beard and hair so that's next on my list.
(done)
And while at the farmhouse, I empty out one more bookshelf that I'll use for garage storage.
The two plants. I have to put those into the ground at Steffi's garden. And in doing that, I realize that I no longer have a watering person, and the last time she watered the newly planted flowers was Monday. True, it rained a day after but still, I need to roll out the hoses.
That takes an hour.
Finally, I pick up Millie. And I take her over to the young family's house -- I want to reacquaint her with the kids and I want her to feel some people chaos! Julie agreed that she is still a shy pup and that she would benefit from more people exposure. Here's her people exposure:
A moment of hesitation, a pause. Then my pup has a flashback -- I know these people!
And then she and I go home, tired, having done not nearly enough to facilitate next week's move, but of course, it'll get done. Slowly, it will get done.
with so much love...
