The Move

Busy weekend. Worked until six Friday evening. Only ate two slices of Mellow Mushroom pizza. Might’ve been better if I had eaten more because I didn’t get sick. Stopped by Dollar Tree on the way home. Met Ceil in Roswell and drove her to Avalon to meet Anna. Anna had already eaten so we went home. Supper was leftover baked chicken and salad. Anna had homework to do.

Will had reserved a big U-Haul truck to load their stuff in, but Friday when he went to pick it up they were out. He had to drive to Columbia to find one. They loaded it on Friday, and he was on the road early on Saturday morning. MC was it follow in Will’s Camry, but immediately had car trouble. She backtracked to get her SUV. We met them at their apartment and emptied out the U-Haul. Soon their tiny one bedroom apartment was packed with boxes and stuff. At one point we had eleven people in their bedroom: me, Ceil, Will, MC, Anna, Matthew, Regina, Thomas, Holly, Joel Norman, and Anna Gilbert. Later Anna’s husband arrived to help. For lunch we got a Chickfila nugget tray.

We had to keep moving because Will had to be back in Augusta at nine to work the night shift. We loaded a bed into Regina’s Ford pickup. Will was going to rent a storage unit for his extra stuff for $75 a month, but they had so little left over it was decided they’d sneak it into MC’s grandmother Gigi’s East Cobb basement. Gigi was to be out of town most of Saturday. Thomas is living with her this summer to be near work and Holly. I rode in the truck with Will, and he pulled up in front of the house to unload close to the basement door. Holly’s mom Carol came over to load up a table and chairs for Holly’s apartment in Athens. We unloaded and started to move things into the basement – when Gigi arrived home several hours earlier than expected. She was fine with the arrangement, since Uncle Patrick and others were also storing furniture downstairs as well.

The move had gone well. Now it was almost 4 pm and all that was left was for Will to return the truck. Thomas and Holly left, and MC and I headed to our house to drop off a few items. Then Will called – he had driven down the dead end street and gotten stuck in a driveway. He couldn’t go up, and he couldn’t back up. The trailer hitch had ground into the street. Will was tired and frustrated. No one was home at the house where he was stuck. Both he and MC called U-Haul. MC and I went to unload at our house. I grabbed a snack and some water.

When we got back to Will, we convinced him to head back to Augusta. Just as they were leaving I looked down the street. A car was approaching. It drove up to me and stopped - the lady of the house. She was good-natured about our dilemma. At least there was room on the other side of the truck for her to get up into the driveway. Will apologized to her as well. MC was driving back so Will could rest on the way back, but he had to get updates on the truck. I was tired as well, so I rolled down the windows in the truck, deleted emails, and took catnaps. At first help couldn’t come until after 9 pm. That changed to 7:15.

The big guy arrived and tried to free the tail end of the truck, without success. Then he backed up the driveway and hooked his wrench to the truck’s front bumper. Only when I got in his truck and held the brake down did the truck come free. I let the guy steer the truck out of the driveway (the same way Will had entered). He backed the truck all the way down the street a tenth of a mile to the intersection at Gigi’s house. The lady and I surveyed the damage. The hole in the asphalt road should repair itself for the most part. The truck tire sank a hole in the nice grass but hopefully didn’t break a sprinkler head.

Ceil followed me on my journey to return the truck. I had downloaded the U-Haul app and logged in to review the return location and procedures. Saw a rainbow ending at SunTrust Park. Drove almost all the way to Six Flags, dropped off the truck, and rode back home. Barney had come along for the ride. A long day.

Sunday we decided to go to Passion City Church – the 11:45 service. Louie Giglio had just turned sixty. The guest speaker was author Lee Strobel, the teaching pastor at Woodlands Church in Houston. A modern day Josh McDowell, Strobel’s “sermon” and book “The Case for Christ” was the story of his unsuccessful two-year journey to disprove Christ’s resurrection. An avowed atheist, his agnostic wife had become a Christian. At the end of the two years he realized that since he couldn’t disprove the resurrection, and he needed to accept Christ as his Savior. A good testimony.

Afterwards we drove through Decatur to Dekalb Farmers Market. I grabbed Wendy’s while Ceil was inside. Listened to the Braves. Didn’t get home until five. I popped corn for the first time in a long time. Ceil found a new favorite TV Channel – The UP Network. Like Hallmark.