Helped Maria move

Well, we helped Maria (Norah's mother) move to her new apartment yesterday. My job was to assist with the large heavy items.

I emptied out the back of my truck and took the cover off in anticipation of using it for moving furniture. Unfortunately, as I discovered when we arrived, there is no visitor parking near her new building. She moved from one building to another within the same complex, and the nearest parking for her new building was where we were already parked for her old building.

So, we had to walk all of her stuff across the parking lot. Fortunately, our chiropractor Dr. Ed Fillion had loaned me his hand cart, which converts to a flat 4-wheel dolly. When I mentioned to him that I was going to be moving, he insisted that I borrow it. I think he didn't want me to undo all the work he's been doing on my back. Good thing too, as that cart pretty much saved the whole move. Maria's friend Steve had a cart that had been designed along a similar idea, only it was ancient, about half the size, and the wheels kept falling off. Our hand cart only has two wheels. We would have had an interesting time moving a lot of the stuff that we easily handled with Ed's cart.

It's amazing how quickly the time goes when you're trying to get an apartment moved before dark. I've never had a day in the office go that quickly. I blinked and it was already 7:30. We weren't that late starting in the morning. Well, we managed to get almost all of her stuff over to her new place. She doesn't have to be out of her old place until tomorrow, so she was planning on getting the rest of her clothes and food today. Steve is there to help as well. I don't envy the unpacking and organizing job she has in front of her.

So, I survived walking all of her furniture from between buildings. I hate using elevators to move. As much as I hated bringing all of our stuff downstairs in to our apartment here, I hate waiting for the elevator much more. I think that's where a large chunk of our time went, especially as the superintendent who was supposed to set the elevator to service mode was strangely nowhere to be seen.

Maria lives in a senior's building. Senior citizens amuse me. Having someone new move in to their building is apparently the event of the year. We were constantly answering questions regarding who was moving in. I think several people thought Steve and I were either professional movers, or employees of a furniture delivery company. One gentleman asked regarding Maria's mattress, "is it new?" Steve replied it was fairly new. "How much does it cost?" he wanted to know. I don't know if he was comparison shopping, or if maybe he was going to make us a better offer if we took it to his place instead. Another lady waited until about 9:30 PM to comment "you guys have been at this all day. When is your truck going to show up?" Well, lady, we have the truck right there... if only we had a place to park it.

Today was recovery day for me. My feet were none too happy to see my shoes again this morning, and I've spent the day moving in slow motion. I have no idea how Steve survived the experience. Although, Maria won't have a phone for another week while the phone company gets around to deciding whether they want her money badly enough to hook her phone up. For all I know, maybe Steve never made it out of bed this morning and didn't show up after all. I certainly hope that isn't the case, as we weren't able to make it back to help Maria finish up.