Moving, Cleaning, Catch-Up

I realized yesterday that I forgot to renew my license plates, which are due today, and then promptly forgot again until this morning, when I looked at the renewal notice and realized that I needed a safety inspection.

I feel like I’m playing major catch-up this week already, and it’s only Tuesday.

Luckily, my mechanics are wonderful and they took my car for the inspection.  I will walk over to get the other paperwork at the county offices and then I should be able to get over and get my stuff renewed this afternoon, without missing any work.  I guess we’ll see if everything holds together for me.

Well, it was quite a weekend.

Tracy’s graduation went well, and then the move went well.  We ended up having a smaller truck than I had reserved, because the truck I was supposed to get wasn’t there.  (Argh.)  But my dad, the expert packer, managed to get everything to fit in the smaller truck, two minivans, and the backseat of Tracy’s car.  The weather for loading the truck on Saturday morning was miserable- hot and humid- but we were done by 9:30am.  Then a cold front came through on Saturday evening and we had much cooler, drier weather on Sunday for unloading the truck.  We had lots of great help on Sunday, too, so even though the apartment is on the second floor, we were done by 9:30am and had the truck returned by 10:30am.  Fantastic.

I hung around longer on Sunday than I expected, and got back to Columbia with Tracy and her mother around 8:00pm.  That’s when I realized that any extra blankets that I had were used for packing and were now in the backseat of my dad’s minivan, and I didn’t have any extra pillows.  I realized this just in time to fly over to Target and buy a new sleeping bag and pillow (which I’d already been considering).  Then I had to vacuum out the couch, because it is the only piece of furniture in the house that the dog is allowed to be on, and it was just gross with dog hair and buried rawhide strips under the cushions.  But the vacuum spit dust all over the living room because it wasn’t cleaned out after being used for sanding, and it was a giant mess.  I collapsed in exhaustion anyway.

Yesterday I went to work and then came home at lunch to help with the cat-packing.  It was very sad to see them go, but that was tempered by the huge hassle that is getting three cats into carriers.  Tracy helped, so only one cat had a chance to flee, but I had to block all the doors in the room and pull up the mattresses to get him out.  Not fun.  But then I went to work while Tracy and her mother had to ride two hours with three wailing cats in the backseat.

Martha the dog didn’t know what was going on, but now that it’s been about eighteen hours since the cats all disappeared, she’s acting pretty depressed.  I think I have my answer- I’m going to need to get a second dog.  A dog shouldn’t have to sit in a house all day with no one for company, not even a grouchy cat.

But before I do that, I am cleaning the house from top to bottom.  It is a big job.  We didn’t do much spring cleaning this year, and it shows.  Dust is everywhere, and cat fur is everywhere.  After work, I went home and cleaned for about five hours, and only barely finished the bedroom, the linen closet, and the sinks and storage part of one bathroom.  But it was a very thorough cleaning, and I got all the bed linen washed and dried and back on the bed by the time I fell into it at midnight.  I want to wash all of the curtains, and I have a lot of organizing to do in my closet, but I’m going to pull it together.  I even remembered that today is trash day and got everything out before I left this morning.

I’m planning to spend most of the week cleaning and organizing everything, including this weekend.  It’s a three day weekend and I’m even taking a fourth day as a holiday, because I want to get through everything and then finish the pictures from that wedding last month in a bright shiny new workspace.

It can happen!

It can happen.