The work yesterday ended around 9pm. Afterward I sat down at my computer to write about the day and couldn’t — the synapses I needed to fire were smothered by fatigue and refused to cooperate. I walked away and fell into bed.
We’ve officially (if not completely) moved back into Ernie. There’s no furniture left in the house, so since Sunday night we’ve been sleeping in the bus. The overwhelming feeling now is that shit’s getting real, quickly approaching the point at which we’re living two lives instead of three.
The coffeemaker’s still in the house. After taking the dogs out yesterday morning I went inside, made a cup and took it out to the patio (car port) to watch the sun come up. its golden rays dancing through the huge burr oak in the back yard.
Then came the day’s main focus — renting a 15-foot U-Haul truck and transferring our leftovers from Second Chance Ranch to the storage unit. Just ahead of me at the rental agency was, coincidentally, our auctioneer, turning in the 26-footer used last week for our sale.
Once back at The Ranch we were joined by a former colleague of mine, a young Marine who’d offered to spend a few hours helping us move the largest and heaviest chunks from the house into the truck. His presence was invaluable, and we’re grateful.
While that was going on behind the house, the other end of the driveway was occupied by a truck and trailer. A couple of local guys pruned shrubs and spread mulch to boost the property’s all-important “curb appeal.” And around noon a document-shredding truck pulled up at the curb to haul away several dozen file boxes of papers we wanted to dispose of.
If that sounds like a Charlie Foxtrot, it was — but it worked out fine.
Mid-afternoon Deb left for a doctor’s appointment. Her arthritic hands hadn’t been tended to since last winter, and she submitted to another round of (excruciatingly painful) cortisone injections in her thumbs to help her get through the rest of The Move to The Mountain.
I stayed back and kept loading the truck, eventually resigning myself to the fact that we weren’t going to get everything moved in a 24-hour window. I called the rental agency and extended the truck another day.
As I rolled down the door on the truck’s cargo box, a friend came by the house to do some final touch-up work. I hung out for a while, then drove up to the storage unit and began offloading our stuff. Deb joined me a couple of hours later to help. We finished around 8pm.
The heat and the heaving combined to make Monday a very difficult day, the toughest push yet. Today will be more of the same.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB