Box City

Now we have 9 movers working very hard. Fortunately, it's a beautiful, cool day, so some of the work can be done outside. This move to Alaska is more complicated because everything must be wrapped. Then it gets put into crates and then the crates get put into a container. Next, everything is loaded onto a barge and sent on its way through the Panama Canal to Alaska! Let's hope there are no storms because sometimes the containers roll overboard! I won't think about that...

In the meantime, I've had some wonderful free time to work on redesigning my website which I recently discovered does not open well with browsers other than IE. There are some great new templates at Go Daddy, so I've been having fun working on it. I hope it will be up and running before we leave.

Packers, Part 2

Yesterday we had two packers, today it's up to five. Two downstairs, three upstairs and the house is slowly turning into box city. They're doing a great job and I'm grateful for real professionals. As many times as we've done this (3), it's still disconcerting.

I have to say, though, I'm happy with how organized we are, except for a mini disaster this morning - no SUGAR! That might not sound catastrophic, but without sugar, I can't have coffee. And not that I'm addicted to the stuff, but I needed some this morning. Just one little, bitty cup. But it had to be sweetened, because without sugar, I can't stand the stuff. Fortunately, I unearthed the plastic container that I had filled before the packers arrived. (My memory of where it was was that I had last seen it on the counter, that same counter that was now empty. Meaning that it was already boxed...)

More later...

They're here!

After an extremely hectic weekend of more sorting, more organizing and even more tossing, (including stabilizing the washer for moving at 11 PM last night...), the packers are finally here. Today is the first day that I've actually been able to sit still for more than 2 minutes... One of my biggest fears was that I'd turn around and want something and whoosh - it would have already been packed. But I think I've taken care of all of that and now I can relax a little bit and continue to plan our trip.

Isn't moving the most uprooting thing in the world? I've included some photos of the proof of packing to give you a sense of what's going on here.

Thanks so much for checking out this blog and for all the emails you've sent. I love receiving them and reading your comments. I feel like you're all coming along!

Packing

Today we got serious. While Robert worked on the garage and basement, I attacked the study and bedroom. I transferred files from the filing cabinets to the boxes, cleaned out closets, purged drawers and sorted. I feel like I never want to buy another thing that will have to be moved. I feel like I'd like to toss out every non-essential so that it doesn't have to be packed and it doesn't have to be unpacked. By the way, someone once told me that you throw out an additional 50% of junk while you're unpacking. I know it's true because when we unpacked in NJ, I almost threw out yearbooks. I didn't, and I'm glad, but it was close!

Biking through Nickerson

D-15! Which means departure in 15 days! I know I said I'd write every day, but that is just not happening, here. I am actually writing - I'm writing lists, and lists and lists. I'm crossing off lists and then recopying lists (yes, it's true...).

But today we played hookey and went biking at Nickerson. It was very tempting to stay home and organize, pack, make calls, sort, etc. but when the movers switched their preview appointment until tomorrow, we decided to put the bikes on the van and take off for Nickerson. I am so glad we did! We ended up biking further north along the rail trail than we usually do, and it was so pretty. We made the obligatory stop at the Hot Chocolate Sparrow for ice cream (and also for dark chocolate sponges, one of my favorites...). Then we biked on and on. I had hoped we would eventually reach the National Seashore, but I think you have to turn off for that and we went straight instead. As a result, we ended up at Arnold's Clam Shack, which after I read the newspaper articles they have framed inside, is one of Cape Cod tastiest Clam Shacks. And is it ever! I had hoped to have real light and crispy fried seafood when we first came to the Cape and I did find a couple of places that were good, but this place is GREAT. We ordered the shrimp and instead of the usual puny little pieces, we got jumbo shrimp lightly battered and fried. Yum!

Then back on the bikes for the return trip of about 9 miles. We are really beat, but really happy that we had our day.

And I'm happy that I took the time to write about it!

Off, off, off and then on?

Today was a day for off, off, off. I spent the day making phone calls scheduling the turning off of the cable, the Internet, the electricity, the phone and the gas. I tried to turn on the electricity in Ketchikan. I tried three times to reach the folks at KPU but I never did. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to turn the lights on in Alaska.

18 more days! I'm going to try hard to write every day until we leave. I may not have any big news, but I am wildly checking things off my list. It's, once again, amazing, how much there is to do in order to move 3700 miles AND plan a driving trip across the country. I know it will all get done, it's just that I'd like it done now so I'm not up in the middle of the night writing lists...