It's Been A Long Time Since I Worked This Hard

Today is the T minus one day in which we loaded the 26' rental truck with all our earthly posessions. William's uncles Jim and Jock, came and helped us, along with Dan and Jacquie. So, I figured out that we all worked 4 or 5 hours apeice, which adds up to 25-30 hours of work. Wow.

Yesterday, our good friends Jamie and Christina came over, and we all worked together finishing all the boxing and bagging and cleaning out things. It has been such a blessing to have friends and family help us with this huge task, and it was a lot more fun, too.

I have to tell a funny story about the Penske Truck rental pickup place. We drove this morning out to a part of Lancaster I'd never visited before, and for good reason. I was wondering if the store was really there because we were driving through Joshua Trees and tumbleweeds all alone, when we saw the place on the side of the road. We pulled into the dirt driveway, avoiding chickens, roosters and one large peacock who was showing off his plumes. We knew we were in the right place, because there were a number of Penske trucks parked in the yard. The business turns out to be a family owned business/homestead that has been in operation for 46 years. We walked into building, and began to notice the many collections lining the walls. There were Precious Moments figures, Pepsi bottles, various antiques, soaps and lotions for sale, more figurines behind glass, a lifesized poster of John Wayne, some calendars for tracking your pregnancy, a special pet food display, and two cats wandering it all.

We eventually got called back behind the partition, where Grandma was at the computer (grandpa was down with the flu), auntie was at the other desk, and two grandsons were around playing with the other computer. We sat down on our side of the desk facing the sign on the back of the computer that said, "If you are rude, mean, or just plain difficult there will be a $10.00 charge added to your bill for the trouble." We tried to be extra nice. And, it was necessary because our records didn't come up when our name was entered. Next, when it did come up, it suddenly disappeared. There was a five minute mystery until Grandma ferrited out the fact that Grandson had just unplugged a cord on the router, thus cutting off the internet. That got fixed, and we were back in business.

All the while, William was getting more and more nervous. I, on the other hand, was giggling at the uniqueness of the situation and surroundings. At one point, Betty came in. She was a skinny lady with long grey hair in a ponytail under a baseball cap. She wore an old flannel, and very baggy jeans that had seen many days of work. She told us in a raspy command that we had better be sure to buy insurance for the tow dolly, because one time some people had turned down the coverage and the dolly had been stolen, so they had to pay around $3000. Grandma sent her out to do her job, which was to locate the dolly, attach it to the truck, and bring the truck around. I think she is in charge of the outdoor inventory. I was just delighted to find so many unusual people in this unusual place, and it really started the day off right. We finally got everything settled, and left with our huge truck.

So, tonight we are relaxing, and having a BBQ sendoff at the DeHarts. We'll try to go to bed early, and leave around 5:00 tomorrow morning. We are going to take the more northern route through Flagstaff, AZ, Albequirqe, NM, and Amarillo, TX. It is supposed to be a much more beautiful route, and for us here in Palmdale, it is also more direct. Next time I'll try to post some photos of the move.