Observations on Moving

1. Don't rent from U-haul! Let me tell you all what those creeps did. I had reserved myself a 14-foot truck and an appliance dolly online. The day before the scheduled pickup, they were supposed to call me and tell me where I could pick the stuff up. Meanwhile, I had gone ahead and changed my cell phone number to an Ohio number, so I called them, since they still had my Michigan number. The woman I talked to told me I would be picking up my stuff at their location on Seven Mile Rd. Wait a minute, that's 30 miles from my home... er, my old home. I don't think so! Somewhat in shock, I asked her to please try to find something closer.

A couple of hours later, I called back and was told that I could now pick things up from the location at Thirteen Mile Rd. and Ryan Rd. To which my response was, "I wanted something closer, not further away!" Plus they still had my wrong phone number, even though I'd given the correct number to the first woman. I asked this person to please try again, since that would be a 40 mile trip one-way. (Did I mention that you're only allowed a certain number of miles when you rent a U-haul?)

About an hour later, I received a call from a man who told me I could pick up my truck from their Michigan Avenue location. Fifteen miles from home. I figured that would be the best I could get from these people and told him, "Okay, fine." Tirithien and I picked up the truck at 11:00 as scheduled, only to be given a very small utility dolly instead of the nice, big appliance dolly I'd actually requested. But at least we had the truck.

2. I cannot believe they just let people rent these gigantic trucks without any training on how to drive them! My car is a Saturn. It's tiny. I've driven a big van before, but that's nothing like a 14-foot moving truck! My poor brother rode down with me, brave soul that he is. We made the trip without incident, until we were almost to the new apartment. A wide one-lane street becomes a narrow two-lane street, and the lane was just a little too narrow for the U-haul. I was trying to keep as far to the right as possible, so as not to interfere with other cars, but bumped the tires up on the curb. This causes a U-haul to wobble and weave like a drunken frat boy on the way home from a party. Not fun! I was screaming, my brother was screaming, and I think my stuffed animals were probably also screaming. It probably lasted less than 2 seconds before I got the truck back under control, but oh, that was terrifying!

3. Moving on a day when it is 95 degrees out is a bad idea.

4. If you do have to move when it is 95 degrees, you need to purchase more than one pack of Propel. (Electrolytes... gone!)

5. When you've been moving heavy stuff in 95 degree heat all day, Waffle House seems like gourmet food. Besides which, they were probably the only place that would have let us in, as grubby as we were.

6. When you have your door open all day to carry stuff in, flies will probably also come in. If one of the flies is in the bathroom with you while you are getting ready for bed, and you attempt to kill it with your bare hand, make sure you do not hit the bathroom counter at full force. The fly will fly away laughing at you, and you will have a sprained ring finger which swells up and turns a very interesting purply color.

Observations on life in Ohio to come later. :-)