8 April 2005 ... With the Wind May I Roam

Yay! We made it from Phoenix to Oregon! Without any problems!!! Yay!

The U-Haul Story

We picked up our 17-foot van on Thursday 31 March. And we loaded it from 9am to 5:30pm. Then we got the trailer attached and loaded partner's mini-van.

Back home we got the last minute stuff out to the cars and then some major cleaning occurred. Bathrooms clean, carpets vacuumed. Partner did an incredible job in our kitchen while I worked on the back porch. (We really wanted our apartment deposit back!) (And, Yes, we got it back today!)

The day had started at 6am, and we checked into a local motel at 10:20pm... and we hadn't even eaten any dinner! A long day, it got grumpy at times, but we made it, with much pain and many bruises. And trying to get out of bed the next day was pretty slow and painful, too.

And then we started driving. About eight or nine hours, got us about 400 miles every day for three days (Fri, Sat a Sun). On Monday we drove the last 70 miles to our new home.

There were U-turns with the moving van and trailer. And there was an extremely tight turn-around which involved backing up around a corner that terrified me, but partner got through it with flying colours. But my advice to you: never stay at the Castaic Inn because their parking lot SUCKS!

The rest of the drive is all a blur, now. We were both sore, and so very tired. We slept in everyday, not leaving until almost check out time from our motels. But still, tired.

The Coughing Rib Story

The day before we got our U-Haul, I woke up with weird rib pain... I was to the coughing part of my disease at that point, and I guess I coughed myself a pulled muscle or something. Now coughing brought crippling pain... I would crouch down on the floor in an upright fetal position to cough, it hurt that much!

'Course, I had to mostly ignore my stupid rib the next day while we were packing up the truck. It was okay since it didn't hurt to lift anything, just breathing deeply and coughing. The day after that, everything hurt -- head, arms, shoulders, back, legs, bruised shins, everything -- at the same level! Just swallow some pills and deal with the leftovers, huh.

I think it was Monday, the soreness from moving furniture and boxes was getting better. But the rib was not getting better... now I'm noticing constant pain, I'm barely coughing anymore but a deep breathe or turning around causes that same intense shooting pain.

Partner wonders if I've cracked my rib. I wonder if I'm going to die soon... My health insurance is no longer in effect, but I'll have to see a doctor at this rate. And I've not even seen the bill for the new car transmission, yet, let alone our travelling bills. *cheri freaks out*

But the next day is no worse. Thank goodness. The pain is still there, and the intense pain is still there to breathe and move... But it's decidedly better: This morning, I was actually getting out of bed before I even thought about my precious pain pills. haha.

The Story of the New Home

We took an easy three days to unload the U-Haul: we arrived on Monday at noon, unloaded the back end. Unloaded the heavy stuff on Tuesday. Then finished up on Wednesday and returned the truck with hours to spare!

Our town house is tiny. Tiny. Teeny Tiny. But really nice. New paint job, new carpets, new tile and new vinyl, phone and cable jacks everywhere, and the crown: the little garden area in the back!

We have to re-arrange boxes in order to unpack a box. Then we have to re-arrange boxes again in order to go get a coke. Re-arrange some more to get to that one box labeled "Important" and re-arrange again so the bed is uncovered so sleep is possible.

I finally got most of my boxes sorted out on Wednesday... So all the random boxes are on shelves in the walk-in closet, all the book boxes are on the floor in the closet, all the computer boxes are out and ready, and all my other boxes are not even in my bedroom!

On Thursday morning, I set up Tegan's house. She has been so good! She was much more comfortable with the drive this time. It didn't bother her at all! But she was getting restless in her little travel box while I was trying to re-arrange my boxes for the millionth time. She's much happier, now that she's got some space to walk around in.

And Thursday evening I started setting up my two computers. I was sad because I thought my old monitor had died... but there's actually something wrong with my old surge protector. Fine, I'll buy a new one.

And the new computer couldn't find a hard drive the first time I booted it up. I only had to freak out for a few minutes, while I pulled out the computer and pushed in all the connecting cables. Everything's fine now, yay! And no problems connecting with the local Earthlink dial-up, yay!

With Tegan and the computers up, it's feeling more like home! We've got new stuff put into our bathroom: a water-saver shower head, a delightful dolphin shower curtain, and little non-slip happy fishy stickers in the bottom of the tub! The shelf paper is down in the kitchen, and it's really sharp looking... black marble, our pantry looks so cool!

The re-arranging and unpacking seems like an endless job right now... but we'll get there eventually!

Happy Birthday, Buddha!! Celebrate by going vege! :)