Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Keeping it on Topic


This is a submission from Kurt. Found outside of Austin on Hwy 71 I believe. Thanks Kurt! Sorry it took so long to post.

We're In!

The move into the new house began on Friday 1/17/09. I started promptly at 9:00 am with a furniture dolly and a lot of "Good ole fashioned Try!" I was able to complete three loads of the heavy stuff from the condo by 1:30pm. If you've been to S's condo you will know that she has two large trunks that when filled with stuff to move should be at least a 2 man lift.

I was able to scoot one end up on the dolly, then the other end, and wheel it out to the truck...thank god for first floor living! It went something like this scoot out the door... run around lower one end down the step (damn, this is heavy)...run around lower the back end...scoot...up the other ledge (gett'n heavier)...scoot down the curb. Then push full steam ahead running the dolly up on to my motorcycle ramp and slid it up into the bed (Sweet Mother of God! I think I popped something!).

Then I went to the apartment and started loading the truck. Note to self, sprinting up a flight of stairs with a duffle bag on my back and a duffle on my chest is neither easier nor as good an idea than it was when I was 19 years old. Ow, what just crunched? Did I just lose an inch in height? I think I pulled something. Luckily Debbie and Billy came with a very large trailer and helped us clear out the rest of the condo.

Air mattresses suck! We should've slept on the floor. My air mattress partially deflated during the night so S and I would slide to the edges and eventually roll back into each other. Thunk! Crap! Try to find another position...roll to the center...thunk! A scenario that was repeated throughout the night.

I awoke promptly at 6:00am to begin moving again. Kurt and Matt came along to help and we moved all of the heavy stuff out of my apartment. My apartment has a multi-level garage to navigate not good for the back or using a trailer. So we used the fire lane that runs behind the complex instead. The worst design ever! We would load up the dollies and roll the 1/2 block down the fire lane and out to the street to the locked, waist high, fire gate. Then we would have to lift the item over the gate and set it back down on the dolly on the other side. "We're having fun now!"

We are in the house and now I can't find a damn thing! But we're very happy and we now have a place to call home!

Thanks to Matt, Kurt, Debbie and Billy, Jerry and Tanise, Harley, and Punkin' for all of their patience, assistance, and friendship during this move!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Welcome 2009

I believe it was Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher that said..."A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." If that statement is true, we have been sprinting. Now I'm not blaming Lao for being unable to predict global air travel, the Internet, telecommuting, craigslist, the economic crisis or any other distraction that has been hurled at us, however, 2008 seemed like such a whirlwind, especially in the later months of the year.

We have so much to be thankful for and the many who have been there for us. Our families, Kim and Chris, Robin, Jenny and Dusty, Kurt, Robert and Veronica, Matt and Rachel, John and Carol, Sharon, Cindy and Jeff, "The" Lisa Chapin, and our new riding buddies Candy and Koob.

We've been all over the country Maui, Anaheim, San Diego, Nashville, San Francisco (big thanks to our friends Kim and Chris, we owe you more than you will ever know), and then the house search. We even found some time to hop on the bike in search of BBQ.

So this is our First Step of the year...or as Neil Armstrong put it "Giant Leap!" On 1/17/09 "S" and I move into our new home. Our new base of operations. (Please excuse the real estate agent's photo with the tree in the middle of the frame, I didn't take it :-D)

Happy New Year! It only gets better from here.