Moving is an immense pain in the ass. And lower back. And feet. It’s just a pain. Since last Saturday, when Allied deposited 8,300 pounds of our stuff here, I have spent several hours each day moving boxes, opening boxes, emptying boxes, refilling boxes, dreaming about boxes, and learning to hate boxes.
We’ve played the “what’s in this box?” game a lot. Sure there are labels on the outside, but the third grade hand writing often defeats my ability to figure out what is in the box. And some of the labels are, ah, creative. “Garage Misc.” appears on several boxes out there.
We’ve managed to find most of the things we use in daily life, but some items continue to remain hidden in the sea of boxes filling our tiny little garage stall. I can’t for the life of me find my tools. No hammer means no pictures on the walls. Today I gave up looking for the box of tools and bought a new hammer. If my memory is right I did the same thing at least once before. This is the third hammer I own.
I had hoped, a week ago, to be ready to move this stuff to storage by this weekend. Now I am hoping we’ll be ready for that chore next weekend.
One good note: one of our neighbors is moving out and they are taking all the empties as fast as we produce them. They get much needed boxes, and I don’t have to haul them all to the trash compactor.
Seeing as how I lost my last employment gig through exploration of the client’s network, I am trying my best to not cross any known or unknown boundaries here at my new gig.
It isn’t easy.
The messages here are contradictory at best. We have seemingly open internet access, but we aren’t given administrator rights to our workstations. There is a prominent link on the client’s intranet addressing “un-approved software.” It isn’t allowed.
Yet two of my co-workers discovered that they can avoid using GroupWise (the client standard for email and scheduling) by setting up Outlook. Their reasoning is that if the powers that be didn’t want us using the software on our machines, then they wouldn’t have installed it in the first place.
Much as I want to follow in their footsteps, and maybe make a few of my own, I am resisting the urge to explore for now. If the nonconforming steps my co-workers have taken go unnoticed for a while, then I may poke around a bit.
Well it is now official. We’ve moved. The Allied truck with 8,300 pounds of our stuff arrived at 8:30 this morning. Yes, eight thousand three hundred pounds. This was a welcome figure as the original estimate was 11,400 pounds. Between giving and throwing away stuff, leaving behind a refrigerator, washer and dryer, and selling the big screen television and its surrounding furniture, we managed to shed over 1 1/2 tons. Whew.
Our apartment is shaping up nicely now. All the major furniture is set, and a few boxes have been emptied. Since we’ve had our bed, office and kitchen set up for two weeks, we aren’t under any pressure to unpack everything all at once. We did take a 10’ truck full of stuff to our storage locker. In fact the driver’s assistant rode with me to the locker and helped to pack it all into that space. Our garage is about 2/3 full of boxes. Tomorrow we’ll start the process of finding the boxes we most want and unloading them inside. We anticipate spending several evenings doing a few boxes. We also suspect that our 5x10 storage locker isn’t going to be enough. We will either get a second locker, or a bigger one once we have a better idea of what else will need to be stored.
We are using the second bedroom as a den/Lucy room, the office is setup in one end of the main room, with one couch and the overstuffed chair in the other end of the room. The room that is most complete and will likely see the least change in the coming days is our bedroom. We focused on it today so we have a comfortable retreat when the unpacking loses its considerable ability to amuse us.
Tomorrow we’ll get the rest of the kitchen unpacked, and take another load over to the locker. On Monday we are going to get our Kansas driver’s licenses. We couldn’t do this before as we didn’t have any of the secondary identification documents available until today. With our birth certificates, and $25 in hand, we’ll be official Sunflower state citizens.
Michele’s job search continues. She has applied to several diverse potential employers including a local community college, USDA, the Kansas City, Missouri school district, and a medical laboratory. Hopefully she’ll start to hear back from her efforts soon. My job is progressing nicely. I’m working as part of a design team of 20 or so people on modernizing the entire application suite used by the Farm Service Agency within USDA. Over the next 6 months the project will double in size, and in a year the population is expected to be 300 or more. I think that I’m going to like this position.
We are finding Overland Park and Kansas City to our liking. There are some beautiful neighborhoods and parks here, and as we discovered last Sunday, parts of the downtown are very nice. There are blocks that need attention, but there is money being spent rehabbing and upgrading large sections of the core city.
On a final note, I heard from friends of mine still on the VCM project at DHS. It seems that on the Thursday before Independence Day, all the consultants on the project were told that Friday, July 2nd would be their last day. They were told to pack their desks and leave by 5:00 PM that day. Late in the afternoon Friday, some of the consultants were informed that they would get 30 day extensions while DHS “evaluated the situation.” Obviously this is a major shift in policy at DHS. The VCM project was started in 1996 and has cost around 100 million so far. To abandon this effort less than 18 months from completion signals significant political change there. Michele and I feel that my departure in March, painful and abrupt as it was, may have been a blessing in disguise.
Prolog : The week of July 5th I initiate the process of selling enough stock to generate $3000 in cash in the money market account. This money won’t be available until July 13th.
9:59 am : The movers have possession of all our worldly goods. I am expecting a paycheck for two weeks of work, that when combined with our account in Illinois will be enough to get our things back tomorrow.
10:02 am : My check arrives and, lo and behold, it is only for one week’s work. Seems I started in the middle of the pay period. Major oh shit moment. Now we don’t have enough to buy back our possessions.
10:05 am : I strike a deal for an advance on my next check with the boss. This will get us through the buyback transaction. Barely.
10:15 am : I talk to a friend in Springfield who is going to pick up a computer desk we are giving away. He agrees to get it Saturday while our cleaning lady is at the house. I call her and she agrees to let him in when he arrives.
12:45 pm : I leave work for the day, having reached my mandated 40 hour billing maximum. I deposit the paycheck in our new local bank.
2:00 pm : Michele and I enjoy a late lunch and talk about the stress of tomorrow. Neither of us is looking forward to the long day, filled with decisions. We just wish it was over.
3:30 pm : A quick check online of our Springfield balance reveals less money than we thought. Enough less that even with the advance from work we’ll be broke after buying our stuff back from the movers.
4:00 pm : After unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a larger advance from work, I call my father and ask him for the money we need. It isn’t anymore than the work advance, but we won’t have to pay the 8% interest work wants on the “loan” either.
4:10 pm : Ernesto calls to inform me that he can’t get a truck for Saturday, he wants to come by the house on Monday at noon. With my chances of getting our stuff back hanging by a thread I put him off saying I’ll call him back later.
4:15 pm : We talk to the Allied dispatcher and make the first two payments; one that will nearly wipe out our Springfield account, and one on my father’s credit card. The remainder will be paid in cash from our Overland Park account.
5:05 pm : While at Budget Rental getting the small truck we reserved for the weekend to move overflow items from the apartment to our storage locker, Allied calls and says that the charge against our Springfield account was denied.
5:10 pm : Since I was in the middle of the truck transaction I had asked to called Allied back. I suspect that there is a hold on some money due to other transactions against our account that haven’t cleared yet. I called Allied back and ask her to try an amount $200 less. After a minute on hold she returns to say the charge cleared.
5:15 pm : I am now so stressed that I can’t find my way home; missing the turn on to our street and having to find a parking lot to turn around in, with Michele following me in the car.
5:30 pm : Back at the house we are both emotional and exhausted and ready to quit. After breaking down and having a good cry I manage to explain about the pending stock for cash exchange. While our account is down to $500 dollars today, we’ll be depositing via wire, nearly $3000 on Tuesday. The giddy relief that my spur-of-the-moment foresight the previous week provides us is tremendous.
6:00 pm : We are still wiped out emotionally and mentally from all the stress of the afternoon. But at least we are confident that we’ll get our belongings back in the morning.
Epilog added 7.11.2004 @ 4:45 am Saturday, July 10th 6:30 am : We are both up and ready for the movers. Of course they aren’t scheduled to arrive until 8:30 am.
8:00 am : We call the local credit union to find out what their Saturday hours are and discover they aren’t open until 9:00. Michele agrees to go there while I deal with the movers.
8:30 am : The Allied truck arrives. The driver and his assistant begin to setup to deliver our stuff.
8:45 am : Michele leaves for the bank.
9:15 am : Michele returns from the bank. When I walk over to her she says that she doesn’t have the check. That the bank didn’t show the money in our account. For about 3 seconds my heart stops beating and my ears roar.
9:16 am : Michele breaks into a huge smile and pulls the check from her purse, just kidding she says. The line is perfectly delivered and the resulting laugh helps to pop the bubble of tension we both had about the day.
12:00 pm : All our stuff is off the truck, the garage is full of boxes to open, the storage locker is nearly full.
6:00 pm : We’ve managed to complete the setup on our office area and our bedroom. Since we brought enough kitchen with us two weeks ago we can skip the chore of unpacking it today.
Both ends of my daily life are now enclosed by gates. Here at Chez Nichols West we live inside a gated community. We have to “badge” our way onto the grounds. While there is some feeling of security from this, it does beg the question: security from what?
At work there are also gates segregating the public parking from the employee parking. Not only do I have to badge my way onto the grounds, I have to badge my way past the exterior door to the building.
I’m not sure what it says that we now live our lives in secure facilities. The world is certainly a scarier place than I remember growing up, or even as a young adult out on my own. The building where I work has fairly comprehensive plans for situations that may require “locking down” access even further. That they’ve even thought of a plan for dealing with a “security incident” is perhaps a good thing, but it also a sign of the times.
The current administration would have you believe that their efforts are making the world a safer place for all of us. I’m not sure this is true. I know for certain that I wasn’t living behind bars four years ago when the current government was selected over our popular vote.
We have been living in Overland Park, a southern suburb of Kansas City, for just over a week now. As expected the trauma of moving and the shock of the transition from a house to an apartment is taking a toll. Nothing huge, but we’ve each had periods of depression at the loss we are experiencing.
This weekend we’ve taken several hours each day to explore our new surroundings. What we’ve discovered, affirmed really, is that KC is a collection of smaller communities. Some of these are very pretty and quaint. Some of the neighborhoods closer to downtown are beautiful, filled with nice homes and large shade trees.
The restaurant selection is huge, and while it seems counter-intuitive, no where near as crowded as the few choices Springfield offered. With more to choose from, a LOT more, no one is the hot spot. We’ve enjoyed trying new places and getting away from the old standards.
My work is slowly taking shape. Like all new jobs they were in a big hurry to get me started so I could sit and twiddle my thumbs for a week while an assignment was crafted for me to complete. Hopefully the second week will be better, maybe I’ll even get a workstation of my very own. At least I already have a desk and a phone.
We are preparing for the arrival of the rest of our household belongings next Saturday. We are going to rent a storage locker down the road for the overflow. Moving from 1800 square feet to just over 1000 means there isn’t enough room. Period. Our plan is to rent a U-Haul (gaa!) and have the movers transfer those items we know will be stored straight from their truck to ours. Less work for us that way. It will be a long couple of days sorting out our home, but it will be very nice to have furniture again.
Today was my first day of work after being out of work for 99 days. It felt good and scary at the same time. This has been by far the longest stretch of time I’ve not worked since I graduated from college. Even though we had the specter of unemployment hanging over our heads, we managed to have a lot of fun together in the past three months.
In some ways I feel more relaxed and peaceful than I have in longer than I can remember. In others I am still tense and worried about the future. Moving was difficult and painful emotionally. Neither of us wanted to leave our home in Illinois. Driving away was tearful and full of sadness.
Circumstances forced us to leave separately and at different times. In order to ensure we got the keys to our apartment before the office here closed, Michele had to leave almost 2 1/2 hours before I was able to leave. I can only imagine from my own experience making the long 350 mile drive alone, how difficult it was for her to make this emotional split from our house and pool.
We are relying on my parents who live just an hour away from our house there, to coordinate the removal of some furniture we’ve sold or given away. They are also going to oversee the packing and loading of out stuff by Allied in ten days. We could return there this weekend for the long holiday and tend to some things ourselves, but that would mean returning to our house. And since we’ve removed the computers, and our bed, and other prized belongings, it won’t really be our house anymore. The scab that is slowly starting to form over the wound of losing our house will only get ripped open again. So we are opting to stay away. I doubt we’ll even drive by when we return there for the closing.
I must admit I am slightly worried about the condition of the pool. We were so careful to keep it pristine and clear. I’ve hired the neighbor boy to tend it for us; his family has a pool and I believe it’ll be okay. Still, have the pool turn green on us won’t speed up the selling process. There is little I can do about it from here now, so I must have faith in the trust I placed in the neighbors.
We are slowly adjusting to our new apartment. I suppose it is nice enough, with an attached garage and all. But after living in houses for six years, a return to communal living is a rude shock. Hopefully this place will feel more like ours when the rest of our belongings arrive.
I’m glad to be working again. That piece of stress is now removed from my load. Maybe I can sleep through the night peacefully now.
We are moving. This morning we confirmed our new apartment address, setup utilities, telephone, and the all important broadband internet. We’ve got a small truck reserved for tomorrow, and will be loading enough stuff on it to allow us to set up housekeeping for the next two weeks, while we wait for Allied to bring the rest of our stuff on July 10th.
Have our own domains makes the internet portion of our move rather seamless, our e-mails will continue to come (although I’d like to fake out the 300+ spams I get every day). Having our own routers and cable modem means we should be online again tomorrow evening. Nice.
This will be the forth cross-country move Michele and I have made since getting married, and five if you count the one she made to Illinois from Colorado. Each move had its own flavor, but generally we’ve learned how to make the process smoother and easier on ourselves. This move will be made without a stay in a motel in the middle. We’ll sleep in our own bed tonight, take it apart in the morning, and reassemble it tomorrow afternoon in Overland Park. Very nice.
Posting maybe a bit sporadic as we adjust to our new home and circumstances.
For some weeks now I have been sitting on an offer of work in Kansas City. It was the first, and is still the only, offer I’ve generated in over three months of looking. Because it is located in a city I had never before considered it was hard initially to generate any enthusiasm for going there. Because it was not a position that would allow us to keep our home here it was hard to envision us moving and being happy.
In the days since that offer was first made I’ve managed to generate interest from several other potential employers, none however have made an offer yet. I managed to have myself bid on three different state contracts. Two of those have now gone to someone else. The most recent only this morning. With only one iron left in the state fire I feel like that future is slipping away.
The other opportunities were through a large, multi-national consulting company. One contract possibility was put on hold until mid-August. There is no guarantee I’d get the spot then, and it is too far off for me to safely wait. Another was for a position that would require my drive close to 170 miles a day in order to be home at night. I passed. The final option is still pending. It will allow me to work from home four days a week and only be on site one day each week. I am hoping for this position, but I have no way of knowing if I’ll be selected. Interviews have yet to happen and I fear that the longer it takes the less likely my chances are.
I’ve always believed that when one door is closed another is opened. When the door on my contract closed in March it seemed like there were no open doors anywhere. I spent eight solid weeks searching and calling and not finding anything. Then a single door opened. After so much emotional battering I was leery and hesitant. I didn’t immediately walk through but I have allowed my self to look at the space beyond and I know we’ll be okay there.
I managed to open some other doors in the last month, but now I’m not so sure that I opened them, or just pried them apart long enough to build false hope. All but two of the additional doors has now been closed. The remaining two are good opportunities and they would each allow us to stay here.
On Monday I’ll take the first steps through the open door in Kansas. It maybe that we’ll like the feeling there enough to let go of staying here. It maybe that I’ll be made an offer to come back here and walk through a door here. That would mean my shutting the door in Kansas City.
I feel like the guy in the fable who is faced with several doors. One leads to safety and salvation, the others may lead to safety and may lead to disaster.
This week has been a new experience in letting go for me. I spent considerable time sifting through more than fifty boxes of stuff in our garage, preparing for a potential move.
We have a 3-bay garage, with generous shelf space in the main portion, and a virtual storage locker, with more shelves in the separate third bay. The shelves were full to capacity, and the stall of the third bay was jammed with old exercise equipment, bicycles, boxes, and junk. Some of the boxes have been packed since we moved in 1998; packed since then and moved three times.
It was time to let go. Letting go is not something my family practices, so it is not something I grew up doing. My parents have lived in the same house for 43 years now, it is filled with a lifetime’s collection of books, records, old papers, and the scraps of life that we all seem to collect. My family doesn’t let go emotionally either. My sister’s death over thirty years ago still looms large and unattended in the corner of every room where we gather. Somehow over time I learned to equate the idea of letting go of possessions as a trauma best avoided at all costs.
However, from the martial arts, and in my recent spiritual quest, I have learned that you must clean house, you must make room for newness in your life, unless you want to be trapped with only the old. You must “empty your cup” in order to fill it again.
So I sifted and categorized over forty boxes of books, and perhaps a dozen other boxes of stuff this week. Today we loaded up a cargo van and took a few hundred pounds of junk to the dump. And this afternoon we donated shoes, and kitchen items, fans, and other small household items to Goodwill.
I had originally planned on selling the books I could bring myself to part with to a used book store. Only the woman in charge was rude and dismissive. I know there was no earthly way for her to understand the emotional space I had come to in order to part with these books, but her abruptness and unwillingness to acknowledge my effort pissed me off. I stormed out of the store wanting to take my books home again. I didn’t want to let go under these circumstances. After a few minutes of cooling off I decided to donate the books as well.
I was able to let go the anger I had for the smallness of the used book store owner. And I was able to let go of over 900 pounds of books at the Goodwill store. Now someone less fortunate, someone unlikely to visit a used book store might find a good book to read. I like that.
Letting go, it turns out, is a very good thing.