Altoona, IA - 3rd Move: Mary gets the Rest

As I mentioned in the 6/11 blog, Lloyd takes the ‘high-end’ furniture and Mary gets the rest. Today it was Mary’s turn. We began the day when I dropped Gary off at the storage facility to organize the storage area a bit better than the movers had left it. Tom, our brother-in-law drove over, met us there, Gary keyed in the gate code and they walked in to the storage area, leaving Tom’s car out side so he could leave when he was done.

I then drove to our house to meet Mary who rolled in with her truck about 9:00 with Bradley, her assistant and they began to load all our ‘valuable’ things. She stood in the truck while Bradley and I fed her things. She then placed them in the truck, tied them down and made sure they were secure and could withstand a drive through town. Loading was not so much fun but seeing the garage getting empty was. Do I think that we will get much for the things that Mary took? Nope, but getting any money from her for what we had is much better than having my own garage sale. But, that’s not saying much: I think that cleaning the lint catcher in the dryer is more fun than a garage sale.

Here’s our garage with the ‘loot’ for Mary in the center. The two covered piles are not for her: one is a bunch of office things like folders and plastic organizers and pens and pencils and notebooks that we have put aside to give to Andy, Tom and Cathy’s son, who is a local teacher. We thought his school might be able to use all these. But there’s a bench grinder, a patio set, some dining chairs, some yard tools - what a great haul. Ha, ha. The guy in back is Roger who works with Lloyd.

She filled the truck once and drove off, saying she’d be back in about 1 1/2 hours.

Back at the storage area, Gary and Tom had finished moving the heavier pieces that needed 2 and Tom walked to the entrance where his car was - on the other side of the 9’ tall chain link fence. Next to the key pad. Oops. No keypad on the inside of the gate since it automatically opened when a car approached it from the inside. Hmmm. Well, two smart guys figured this out: Tom had to climb over the fence to his car.

Meanwhile, while Mary was gone, I jumped into the car, hit a convenience store to buy a sandwich and a soda, drove out to the storage area and had lunch with Gary. Sitting on pallets in an air-conditioned storage area surrounded by cement, under the fluorescent lights, what a romantic dinner setting. What a guy!!

I took off and drove back but Mary was a bit longer than she had said so I got out my trusty I Pad to read. Well, reading sounds fun but remember, there is no furniture in the house, no chairs, no sofas, no love seats. Just a step with carpeting on it. And there I sat, on the top step with my I Pad in hand. Comfy? In a pigs ear, I am. I was so comfy that I was happy to hear Mary drive up for her second load. Again she stood in the truck while Bradley and I fed her stuff to pack. She then left, the garage was mostly empty, I swept and then headed off to the storage area to help Gary and eventually to head home.