A place for our "stuff"

In one of his most famous schticks, the late George Carlin regales the task of having "stuff", storing your "stuff", downsizing your "stuff", and valuing your "stuff". Those that have seen this routine will immediately attest that Carlin was not quite so G-rated, but the idea is the same.

You can find Carlin's wisdom here Click Here

It never quite seems real until the nasty actually happens, and while that sounds pretty ominous, I'm referring to our recent move from our home city for the last 30+ years to the fine city of Guelph. The big day was filled with loads of sweat, Herculean efforts, the occasional curse outburst, and even a wispy eyeball of two, culminating in a condo-full of disheveled chaos with each room in a state that would make a hoarder blush. When that condo is to be occupied by two type-A personas like Joyce and I the task at hand is quickly undertaken, and in our madness, we neglected to record the chaos for posterity's sake. 

When we agreed to sell out home of 30 years, we also agreed to a considerably long closing, so when the big day of moving finally arrived, both of us were up to our collective eyeballs with living in the boxed, Spartan conditions of our final days. We made lists and checked them twice like some reincarnated St Nick, filled 90% of the garage with the boxed-up memories of our married life, and disassembled all our really big "stuff". Even though the moving van was scheduled for 8:30 am, we were sitting with a cup of Joe in hand, eagerly awaiting the day's start.

We had contracted Rockbrune Bros Movers because I knew one of the owners, John Rockbrune, but having never hired movers before we were ill prepared for the sheer brilliance of the two young men assigned to be our saviours. Jason and Donald immediately demonstrated their expertise with a quick evaluation of our "stuff", quickly formulating a battle plan. If I have learned nothing as a father and home owner who failed miserably at a wide variety of Bungalow Bill tasks, it is that having the correct tools for the job makes everything smoother, and our two guys made light work of packing the truck in under 80 minutes. 

We hadn't seen anything yet.

When the moving truck and our Tacoma arrived at the condo in Guelph, the real talent became readily apparent with Jason and Donald working with the choreographed precision of a well rehearsed orchestra as our crap was tenderly transferred from the truck to our second floor condo. Incredulous at their efforts, I felt compelled to counsel Donald that he needn't sprint the hallways between hauling efforts, but I was reassured that this was the normal way of doing things. 

Who'd have thunk?

The truck arrived at our Barrie doorstep at 8:45 am and departed our condo parking lot at 2:00 pm. As I have already said, we have very little experience with this stuff, but we feel strongly that this was an amazing effort, especially when you factor in 3.75 hours of that was driving!

The rest of the day was spent arranging, unpacking, sifting, sorting, and deciding on numerous first world problems like which glass vase stays or which pair of shoes gets gifted. Sure, we moved a number of items that we should have donated or trashed, but until you have downsized from a detached house to a condo, I won't be listening to your meanderings. As the day's light slowly faded, the surroundings were looking more and more comforting and inviting. True to form, we proclaimed victory by 11:00 am the day ofter the move.

The only glitch in the entire day surrounded our Rogers installation. Over the years we have reduced our need for Roger's services to the point where only wireless and wifi remain. I was informed that moving from Barrie to Guelph would mean that our "legacy" service was not an option so we had to arrange for a more recent version to be installed. The technician was certainly competent, but as luck would have it, things didn't work the way they were supposed to, necessitating a second technician the following day to diagnose the issue. In the end, he located the issue ... it's always a simple thing ... it was 24 hours without wifi. Oh how we suffered, says he with all the dripping sarcasm possible. If that was the only issue, I'd venture that we made out pretty gosh-darned well.

I'm writing this post in my trusty recliner, laptop sitting perched atop my things in familiarity, taking in the new vistas, and counting my blessings at how fortunate and lucky we are to be able to take a flier on relocating so late in life. 

I think that we will truly feel okay in these new surroundings.

I even squeezed in a bike ride in my new community today.

Life is Good!