Let the Purchases Begin
But first for me was a stop at Target. A short while later I emerged with a vertical bike rack (the bikes hang horizontally, but one goes above the other), a two bag golf rack with shelves for shoes, balls, etc., an electronic stud finder that also senses live wires, a multibit ratcheting screwdriver, some C batteries, a box of Duraflame logs (for our two fireplaces until we arrange for a delivery of firewood) and a pair of work gloves. Whee!
House accomplishments today:
- Assembled bike rack
- Assembled golf rack
- Loaded golf bags, shoes, and balls on golf rack
- Unloaded folding bike from car
- Put toilet paper in all three bathrooms
- Programmed thermostat for the coming week (see below)
- Removed all child safety annoying thingies from cabinet doors
- Tested door keys and gave one to parents, who have volunteered for cat feeding duty and any other needed coverage (such as meeting window repair people, etc.)
- Determined who gets which side of the garage, and distributed garage door openers accordingly
- Washed child-sized handprint off inside of living room window
A good day, I think! The thermostat is really cool. It controls the heat and air conditioner (obviously), and you can set it for every day of the week, with changes for morning, day, evening and night. So you can have it be cooler at night while you're sleeping, then warm up in time for when you wake up and take your shower, then cool off during the weekdays while you're at work, then warm up again for the evening, then cool off for overnight, but then on Saturday and Sunday you can have it warmer during the day than during the week. Plus you can set different days of the week for different patterns, like if you're going to work from home on Wednesdays or something. I spent a significant time getting it just right.
On the way home we stopped at the U-Haul store and waited for a really long time behind a very nice woman who just moved here from Ohio and was returning her truck with her mother. We all had Starbucks beverages and were gossiping about the couple that had been in the store ahead of all of us. The annoying couple had three small children, none of whom had on coats even though it was 44 degrees outside and the parents had nice warm fleecies on. They (the annoying couple, not the nice woman and her mother - their only issue was that they had left the furniture dolly in the driveway and blamed it on "because we're chicks") had a long tale of woe for the poor clerk who was on by himself, listening to them tell about how one truck broke down and they don't have a contract for this truck because U-Haul's fax machine broke but the manager said don't worry and wrote something on a piece of paper but he no longer works for U-Haul and I don't care to remember the rest of it.
Anyway, we left there with a bundle each of small, medium and large boxes plus four wardrobe boxes plus a china box and china packing set (foam envelopes, dividers, etc.) plus a two-wheel hand truck (ours to keep, not rented). Most of which is still in the cars because after a day like this (don't forget, I had a high stakes exam this morning), we were too tired to haul all that shit into the house. It can come in tomorrow, when we're being joined by four friends (two couples) and my sister for a big ole packing party!
Speaking of which, I have to go sort through my closet and pull out items that are being donated to the Vietnam Veterans' Association, who came last Monday and took away a mountain of boxes and bags of clothing, sheets/blankets, dishes, glasses, etc. that we don't need. They're scheduled for another pickup on Monday.
Tomorrow: Packing, packing, packing and moving oddly-shaped and/or fragile items out to the house. Anything that will either cause the movers difficulty or that will make us worry if the movers are being careful.
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