The Move (packing)

Changing your residence from one city to another can be a daunting task. Relocating to another state all together adds even more troublesome factors. These factors are magnified even more when you do not enlist the assistance of a moving company.

Generally when you relocate from one city to another you have some friends and family that can come along for the road-trip and assist in the moving process. When you make a move between states, this can test the bonds of friendship in relation to moving assistance.

In my lifetime, I have changed residence four times. I moved to an apartment in Lansing, Michigan a townhouse in Auburn Hills, Michigan, another townhouse in Port Jefferson, New York and a house in Port Jefferson at the age of 34. Hopefully there will be no more moves in our near future.

With each of these moves, it seemed there were more and more items to pack up and move. I suppose somewhere along the line I acquired the “pack-rat” gene. This is more of a visceral urge to attribute memories to physical objects, than any true traceable gene sequence. No matter the monetary value of the object I always found a reason to keep them around.

The largest and most complicated move of all was that from Michigan to Long Island, New York in the first week of July. Yes, it was hot. As we packed we sifted through all the “stuff” and kept the treasures and dumped those deemed unworthy. Due to financial constraints we found that the only realistic method of moving was to do it ourselves. This was probably the biggest mistake of the whole process. For with this one decision came a downhill ride into the move from Hell.

A prime catalyst to this big mistake arrived with the choice of using U-Haul as our moving truck. We picked the biggest thing they had plus added a car trailer to tow my Chevy Blazer.
I suppose it was a sign when on the morning of the move I tried to start the truck to move it to our door and found the battery dead. This was mildly frustrating but definitely fixable. I used my aging Chevy Blazer to jumpstart the 26 foot diesel goliath and was able to get it started. I let it run for a while to charge up the batter, then moved it to the door.

Many family members and friends came to our aide and helped us load the truck to its full capacity. It seems my wife has the same genetic dysfunction as I when it comes to throwing anything away.

The loading went off without a hitch. My brother proved to be invaluable at finding ways to pack everything right to the ceiling of the huge trailer.

We spent the night in sleeping bags in the now nearly empty townhouse. We woke early to finish cleaning from top to bottom and pack the last few items into any available open spaces we could find.

We were finally on the road in the late afternoon headed for New York!