A moving story

I know I've been neglecting my blog readers the past couple of months, and I apologize for that. Work has been crazy busy, but I'll try to do better. Let's start by rewinding a month to when I made the big move from apartment to townhouse.

Because we were going to move both me and my roommate, I rented the biggest U-Haul -- the 26-footer -- to make sure we'd have enough room for all of our stuff. Now, I know 26 feet sounds big, but the diagram on the Web site should really have a little person or something to show relative size. Because the morning of moving day, after I filled out all the paperwork and got the keys, I walked outside to find I had rented a big rig. It ran on diesel, had a cab I had to climb up into and a huge, horizontal wheel like you see on a bus.

For those of you who don't know, I normally drive a small, two-door Saturn.

I was in a little over my head.

I got to Roommate's apartment without incident and managed to park it on the street because they had saved a sizable spot, thankfully. About a dozen of us loaded everything up quickly and we headed to my apartment. I backed the big rig up and would have run into the neighbor's car, were it not for Roommate's boyfriend, who warned me with inches to spare.
Whew.

The rest of the move went without incident, both the loading and unloading. We finished in about four hours overall. Then I went to take the U-Haul back, feeling confident in my ability to handle the monster I had rented (although rightly so, as we just barely fit everything in it).

Of cousre, hubris is always my downfall.

I pulled into the U-Haul parking lot and considered just pulling into the diagonal spot next to another large U-Haul truck. But it was parked facing the opposite way, and so I thought, well I'll just pull around and park it facing the same direction -- piece of cake.

It would be my fatal mistake.

Trying to make the turn and park next to the other truck, I got stuck on the back corner of the other U-Haul. The only way to get out of it was to keep going and scrape the entire side of my U-Haul against the back corner of the other U-Haul. It was the most painful few minutes of my life. Especially when I saw the guy who had rented me the U-Haul behind me, no doubt wondering what the hell I was doing.

I immediately hopped out and apologized profusely.

"You can't make a turn that sharp in something that big!" he said -- advice that would have been immensely helpful had it been given a few minutes prior.

He got into the U-Haul to straighten it out so he could inspect the damage better. It was scraped along the side and a side reflector was busted.

Luckily, karma was on my side and he graciously told me not to worry about it. It had been pretty scratched up when I rented it, but he was still far nicer than he should have been.

That was pretty much the only traumatic experience of the move. It took me awhile to get anything unpacked because I was hardly home. My room is still largely in shambles, and I haven't had a chance to hang pictures or do much in the way of decorating, but it's getting there. I'll let you know when I get it finished.

There have been some minor home-repair projects since I've moved in. I built a couple of shelves for a kitchen cabinet to make better use of the space. This involved buying a jigsaw and cutting wood, which made me feel very manly. And I still have all my fingers -- certainly a plus. I may end up buying some new appliances, too -- a fridge, washer and dryer. But we'll see.

Overall, I'm still a big fan of the place. Once I finish unpacking and take care of some things here and there, it'll really feel like home.