The Longest Week

This was a LONG week! I am still tired, but can type.

First some background. My in laws are moving from Virginia to Arkansas, and are downsizing from a five bedroom mansion to a three bedroom cottage. So, they had a lot of furniture that they wanted to get rid of, and the idea was that I would fly up, rent a truck, and drive it back with what we wanted.

Ahhh, the best laid plans of mice and men...

Everything is set for me to fly up early on a Saturday, and get the rental van. Then at 9:30 on Friday night, there is an automated call from the airline. My flight has been cancelled, please call to reschedule. So the call is made and the flight is now in the afternoon instead of the morning. This will mess up the rental truck, so Saturday morning I call the rental van place. After talking with Forrest Gump at the rental truck service that shall remain nameless but rhymes with Fudget, come to find out that they did not have a rental van available for me anyway!! But did they bother to call? NOOOOOOOO! I really wish I could have taken a picture of my face at that point. I told the guy that I had a reservation. His response: "Well they didn't bring us one". He did not seem too concerned that I was flying halfway across the freaking country to rent this thing! And to top it off, they closed at noon on Saturday anyway, and weren't open Sunday, so Monday would be the earliest I could get one. However Forrest couldn't guarantee me that one would be available. So on to Plan B, fly up and see what happens. I wasn't going to eat an airline ticket, and all the furniture had been moved down to the garage anyway already.

So after the flight on Saturday night, I rented from Penske for pickup on Monday (They were awesome). Looking at all the stuff to haul down here, it was decided that a 22 foot truck was needed. What shows up at the rental place is this incredible large 12 foot 7 inch high diesel truck that I was not sure was to make it up the 45 degree angle driveway of my in laws. I tried driving it. Fugeddabowdit. No way I could drive this thing cross country. So a relative volunteers to drive it with me as he as the experience of driving very large vehicles, and with the help of some very large men this entire truck is filled to the brim with extremely heavy furniture. Hernia inducing type furniture. And a piano for good measure.

The next morning we are off. For 16 hours we drive to my aunts house in Arkansas, and drop off half the load. THAT was a long day, and the cherry on top was unloading a glass top table top and bottom that weighed several hundred pounds each. Oh did I mention its August? Its hot, and humid. The following morning we drove home to Dallas, and I put Pat on a flight back to Virginia (thanks Pat!). That afternoon I got some help to start unloading stuff, which would end up taking three days. Everything that was in the house had to go to the garage, so it took a while for sure!

And finally, took the rental truck back to where it was supposed to be dropped off late Thursday night. And parked it in the wrong place, and dropped the key in the dropoff slot before realizing the mistake. The U Haul people were amused.

By this writing its now Friday, and it looks like the fridge may be on the fritz. I really need to go back to work. I need the rest.