Not a Hitch

Tonight we sit at my parents' house in the middle of nowhere. All our earthly possessions are somewhere in a shipping container- all 4600 lbs of them. I guess the four to six weeks is an outside estimate- that we should be reunited with everything in much less time. The movers were great, and we tipped them well. I would have thought Mayflower dudes were more accustomed to being tipped. Their appreciation seemed very sincere. We fed them and kept them lubricated with Mountain Dew all day. I was rather nervous that we didn't have a written estimate. I need not have worried, since shipping a container is more of a flat rate. Insurance is determined by weight. There were some extra charges for crating our glass table tops. Again, no complaints.

We spent the night with friends in Saint Paul. Two other friends stopped by for a late dinner. Lise and I were so exhausted that we could barely keep our eyes open. At this point, with all the task oriented issues, I've had no time to be emotional about anything. All I want is for this move to be over. We had left the cats at home and would do a final clean up before the 10:15 walk-through. Our hostess handed me the Culture Shock Norway book that I had heard about- from a much less reliable source. I stayed up late reading about all the wonder work perks given to all residents of this mysterious land. I was feeling even better about the impending move by this point.

When we did our final clean-up, we had more garbage than we could handle. We left some of it in neighbors' dumpsters- after asking permission, of course. We were going to leave our luggage and my bike with the next door neighbors, but they had disappeared. I ended up having to pick up a minivan to drop them off at a friend's place down the street. During this process, my brother mysteriously appeared much earlier than seemed possible- with his SUV rental. The cavalry had arrived. We didn't want to depend on him because who knew when his flight would actual arrive. He was a wonderful help.

Our house closing resulted in a bit more money than we expected. When we went through the paperwork, Lise and I both frowned when we first saw the "bottom line"- that is, until we realized it was a subtotal. The bottom line was on page two.

We next did the paperwork for the actual move. That went quite smoothly. We headed to Saint Paul for lunch, and then to drop off the Porsche with a very heart-felt thank you note.

My brother then drove us and the cats to our parents. It was probably the best time I've ever spent with him. When we arrived home, we were quite surprised to see a new stainless steel refrigerator and stove.

Bottom line: I'm homeless and unemployed- without a care in the world. Things are looking good.