Sunday, July 09, 2006

Leaving Saint Louis!

So the change has been effected and I cannot reiterate enough what a big pain moving is!!! Atleast when you stop being the agile, mobile person with only two suitcases to your name!! The last two weeks have been so hectic and I have done so many new things and learnt a couple of trades that could help me with a job, if one day Computers stop working ... I can drive a truck or become a porter!!

I didn't know how much I could be stretched till today. The whole moving looked out to prove Murphy's law. Started out with U haul giving me a 26Ft truck instead of a 10ft one. I couldn't even cover the whole surface of the truck with my stuff. With the trailer on the back it was next to impossible to reverse on this!! I didn't know how friendless I was in Chicago till this move. Having mad Mike help me out in STL, it was so much more of a pain when I could get neither friends nor movers to help me unload in CHI!! Only goes to speak of my organising skills I guess! To top it all off U Haul decided to have fun with me by having me run around town for well over three hours in that blasted trucktrailer searching for a UHaul center that didn't exist.

Well the flip side to it all was that Murphy's Law wasn't really proved 'cause Mike made my loading and starting out a grand success, while I had a good Samaritan help me with unloading the couch and another helping me find the right UHaul place.

Actually the whole thing was an adventure, now I can boast to my grandkids of how I single handedly unloaded the whole truck (Ofcourse I am going to exaggerate) and maneuvered that huge truck with a trailer in city roads. Before the move I was fretting how I would going to effect it without any help on the way (a couple of my friends even called me a whiner!), but then at the end of the day when it was all done, it was not bad I guess these are the kinds of things that build character and also helps people say that they have been there done that!!

A few things I learnt on this move:

  • If you are driving something tall watch for the over passes and trees ;)
  • If you are driving something with a trailer the don't go anywhere where you have to back out off!!! I tried ... 50 feet in 30 mins!!!
  • Lifting the bed, don't dig into the covering ... they tear
  • Using UHaul ... don't!!! Uhaul service is horrible!!! I might even start a award series for this :D
  • dollies don't help if you have stairs
  • Spread out your books on different boxes ... in a single box they weigh a ton!
  • If you don't need it throw it away ... including that PC magazine from 1995 that you still plan on reading ...
  • If you can throw out the heavy stuff do it
  • Don't let people who haven't done it, sucker you into believing how easy it is, and why you are a whiner for even thinking you need help!
  • Finally if you can live off of two suitcases ... do it!!!
At the end of the what matters is if the juice was worth the squeeze, in this case the move worth the new place, so far the biryani I have been able to get is making me say yes!!!

2 comments:

Hermit said...

Bro..put this first on the list..Ask for advice before you do something on your own..Ask if others have had a similar experience, coz each one might have had a different experience..Collect all of them and then apply to your unique situation..I could have saved you a lot of trouble had you asked..Coz, I have done so many of such moves for others..All the way upto New Mexico...

Wisdom comes with age but then even fools celebrate birthdays..

NoViCe said...

Ouch ... that hurt :) ... Accept full responsibility for breakdown of thought process ;)