The word of the week is MOVING !
May 7 - About my novel
Good news for my wrists: I played a few hours of Xbox on and off yesterday with no ill effects as of this morning. Considering that I did a lot of typing over the weekend( with many breaks )including typing out the blog Sunday night, I am quite hopeful that my CTS symptoms are in remission and I am well on my way to recovery. I hope that the next few weeks of moving will not be TOO hard on my wrists as I intend to do a LOT of writing immediately afterwards for the rest of 2012!
On the writing front, so far I have completed two chapters of my science fiction novel; a third chapter is mostly complete. I have outlined much of my world, in more words than I currently have in chapters, which is good: detail makes or breaks a novel. Too much and you overload or bore the reader; too little and the reader thinks you're not doing your job of telling a good story. So far I am VERY happy with the way my novel is turning out!
May 8 - Change of plans!
After much discussion today about time frames for moving, it was decided as a family that we would Move Early. As in, 'Not by May 20th, a few vanloads a day' but 'Get most of the book boxes and ALL of the furniture done on Friday.' Yes, THIS Friday, May 11th, a full week less than planned, which will make my mom happy. Seeing as she's helping to foot the bill for the movers, I'm inclined to go along with the plan. So I booked the movers today, same ones we've used the last 3 moves, though just 2 guys and a smaller truck this time.
Which also meant we have 3 days to pack up all my things in the condo. ALL of it into boxes, carefully and in good order. That's where I made a few trips today to bring a few loads of boxes INTO the condo; fortunately I am an old hand at that and know that most liquor stores are happy to get rid of their uniformly-sized, solidly-made empty boxes, for free. In fact, just ONE store today in Victoria provided ALL the boxes we needed for the move, which was great; one-stop shopping at it's best!
--> I have to say the weather has really turned around this week as well; cool days and on / off clouds have given way to blazing sunshine and blue skies, warming things up. It should be a glorious weekend for moving, if it keeps up!
May 9 - Pack and pack and pack
Packing took up ALL of my day today, into the later afternoon. I have a LOT of books, but I already knew that.
However, I took a break and went into Victoria today after 4pm to meet a former MMart friend for coffee. We tried to sit outside but the wind was gusting very strong and VERY cold in from the ocean so the patios were all empty for good reason. I ended up visiting at his place for a few hours, as we had both been invited to another ex-MMarter's birthday tonight. Happily, it was literally across the road at the 5th Street Bar and Grill, so we headed over there well after dinner to meet about a dozen more folks. We sat 'outside' on their covered patio, which was a square space with a four-sided fireplace in the middle and a few heaters that made it very comfortable. The food was all right( I had some stylish Mac N'Cheese )but it was the company that made the evening special. Everyone ended up sharing all sorts of NON-work-related stories, which was great. I headed home feeling full and happy on many levels.
Which meant when my crazy downstairs neighbour banged on the ceiling angrily after I had been sitting quietly in my chair surfing the 'net for over fifteen minutes, I wasn't really put out. From what I can deduce, they go to bed early, around 10pm, as they are up early. Being sensitive to sound, things like my walking softly in stockinged feet, or closing my mini blinds, apparently are over their sound threshold. I am SO GLAD that the place I am moving to has NO-ONE on any floor below save earthworms and Morlocks! I won't miss the last 3 months of walking on eggshells in my own room, afraid to make any sound above a tiny whisper after 10pm!
May 10 - More Weekday Packing
Going through my things as I packed ALL day today, I am again reminded of how Stuff can subtly come to rule our lives.
We work long and hard to afford to BUY Stuff. Better Stuff, cooler Stuff, fancier Stuff.
We then put a lot of the Stuff away after a while, as it's no longer Better or Cooler or Fancier. But we still keep it, as we paid a LOT for it.
My weakness are books, paperbacks in the main: I have over 2,000 books or thereabouts. I've mainly stopped buying them, due to space restrictions.
Other stuff I've hung onto for mainly sentimental reasons, but things like my old DnD books, some collectables and the like I will be letting go... but the dollar value, if any, that I regain will be a pittance.
But I'll be glad to see some Stuff gone, if only to clear space. Not for more books, though that's a thought...
May 11 - Moving Day!
The movers were here at 9:15am and we got to work; well, my mom and I did, as my Dad had to work and my sister was in Seattle for the weekend( her plans couldn't be changed when the Moving Plans were upped by a week ). Still, we had two efficient moving guys plus two of us and that made things go fairly well. A king AND a queen-sized bed were both loaded along with a couch / chair / loveseat combo, plus other bits of furniture and dozens of packed boxes. We were on the road at noon and unpacking by 12:30pm. Most of it went smoothly, with little or no damage to anything, but the large couch was another matter. Having spend a fair deal of time removing the feet( due to my wrists I couldn't )the movers still couldn't get it in the front door of the place due to the low ceiling and cramped walls. So I went outside, measured and told them to put it through one of the front windows; bonus for living in a ground-floor apartment! A few screws and a set-aside screen later and it was in!
The movers were done by 3:15 and we paid them gladly, as a week's worth of daily grind was done in 6 hours flat; huzzah! My mom and I spent most of the rest of the evening unpacking things
May 12 - Weekend un-boxing
Not much to say today: it was all about emptying the storage unit. My dad and I managed to get a few vanloads done and my friend Kevin spent the afternoon with my mom and I helping to unpack and move around boxes as my wrists were not in great shape. I could push boxes along the carpet( I have carpet now! )but not pick up much of anything with weight to it. By day's end we'd all managed to unpack forty boxes or so, plus another twenty I did in the late eve in a burst of energy; most of those were books, so I could just shove them along and unpack them en masse to the shelves in my room. Efficient!
Pics of the new place will come later next week, once most everything is squared away and nary a box can be seen...
May 13 - Mother's Day
My mom has been central to this move all week, tirelessly helping to pack and organize and unpack things. So today was a very special day, low-key as we always are with Mother's Day - we all gave her small things, with a mutual gift of a trio of different violets in a lovely planter; she loves those things. Just like we do her.
Back to moving... breakfast at the Fountain Diner was great, we left just as it was getting crowded well before 10am to take JUST my TV into town - it was the only aspect of the move I was worried about and it went flawlessly. My buddy Kevin helped us again to empty most of the storage unit today, a MAJOR accomplishment. We loaded probably forty boxes between my Mazda5 and his Mazda3 hatchback, which I nicknamed 'The Black Hole' because it kept taking in box after box. Fully laden, we headed to Victoria before 2pm again and spent a few hours unloading and sorting things. Kevin volunteered to do the lifting and pulling of the boxes onto the dolly, as my wrists had quit yesterday, especially the left one - I have to be careful for a while longer, it seems. The rest of the evening saw me go back to Langford for another load of odds n' ends, especially electronics that my mom had packed very carefully. We waited until after 6pm to head into Victoria, as I'd noticed on the way out before 5pm that the highway into Victoria was jammed for kilometers with people heading into town for the evening with the fantastic weather - it was 24 degrees C here and as sunny as it's ever been. Another few dozen boxes were unpacked and the place is really starting to look like a home.... with boxes in the corners.
That's about all I have in me right now, as my wrists just can't take any more typing. So no pics or fancy aspects, just a blog... I even had to email it into Blogger as my tablet can't use the new Blogger interface to edit online, which stinks. Ah well - hopefully I will be better next week, as I am BEAT after a week of 14-hr days, with another day to go still...
