what else?

In theory, movers are showing up at my house sometime between now and 5 pm.  We're not sure what's going on, since the ladies are not fully packed and they have disappeared.

My husband is convinced that they're rescheduling the moving truck.  He further posits that they are using some kind of advanced math to figure out the worst possible day and time and reschedule it for then.  I suspect he may have entered the realm of the bitter.

Last night, I went down and helped Mollye pack.  I figured that I shouldn't behave badly just because I was emotionally exhausted and feeling badly used.

Afterward, my husband and I sat together on the edge of our bed and wondered where we go from here.  This is the second time Ann has asked for help and the second time we've moved her in.  We cannot go this again.  Each time, it's gotten progressively  more expensive for us physically, emotionally, and financially.  In the interests of full disclosure, the last time only her things came over before she changed her mind.  This time she made it 10 days.

Sleep was hard in coming.  Perhaps unsurprisingly.  Instead this came along.  Click to make bigger.

No, you're not seeing wrong.  That IS a border.  I modified the beech leaf boarder slightly to make it less.. erm flappy is the best term I can come up with to describe it.  I am just exhausted, so I think this is all that will be worked on for today/the weekend.  I need time to recharge and figure out what happened and how I feel about it.

And sometimes it hands you lemons

It's hard not to think that I'm the most vile person ever.  I mean I hardly interacted with them, and when I did it was to help or take them someplace.  And yet.

Long story short, the ladies have decided to move to Cape Cod because they believe rent will be cheap there.  Or so they say.  I'm surprised and pleased they found something for less than the nothing we charge them.

They honestly believe that Ann will not have any more medical issues.  The 2 hospital stays in less than a year that happened ... well, 6 months ago... that forced her into bankruptcy are a fluke. 

I can't help but worry.  But they are adults.  And so they must do what they will.

So, now I'm forced to wonder "What the heck do I do now?"

The point of this blog/project was to make their lives easier while making something beautiful.  I can't use this to underwrite them.  If they want to stand on their own, I have to let them.  So what do I do now?

The house still needs upgrades, but we're not elderly and can live with things the way they are.  On the other hand, our oldest son will be going to college next year.  200 shawls wouldn't be enough to upgrade college to something fancy, but it might be good to help out. 

I just don't know.  I'm kind of at a loss.

In the meantime, well I knit of course.  I had 2 shawls off the needles, it was time to do something new.

I was craving something alive, so I picked out this:

Those are some of the skeins of yarn I got from the Woolery last weekend.
This is an interesting yarn.  It's 85% cotton, and 15% silk.  It reminds me of knitting lettuce.  It's very satisfying through the fingers.  I think it inhereted the best qualities of both materials.

You can probably see that I've been writing my own charts out on graph paper.  So above you see all of the important tools in determining how things will work out.

And here's how it's going:

Not a great photo, but a very satisfying knit.  Again, still working out edging.  Might be an ongoing theme for me, we'll see.  Thank goodness for knitting.  Regardless of what happens, it's always exactly what it is.

It occurs to me

I think I'm coming across very bitter about the move. I have to admit I am a little, but I am trying hard to be a better person. I want to document some of what we're up against, so that I can look back on it and laugh in the future.

To document, I have unpacked 45 boxes from Saturday night to this evening. This is what is left to be unpacked and put someplace.

The front porch in its entire 35x12 foot space:


This is what the left side of the porch looks like.
It doesn't all fit in a single shot, so I've broken them out.





















Here are the shots of the right side of the porch













































By last count, we're down to 14 bags of cloth-type things, and only about 65 boxes left to deal with.

The only fly in this ointment is, well, this is where the stuff would go:



Or here in the kitchen, which already has 6 boxes and 14 bags of food waiting to be be unpacked and organized somewhere:
























This is my last post about the move/results of the move. The blog will officially be returned to its purpose starting.... now.

It Continues! The moving part deux

We only had myself, my husband and our oldest with us yesterday so no matter how much was packed and taken care of it was going to be a harder day all around. We were also on a time limit because my folks were watching our littlest and they're in the mid age range between Ann and Mollye.

We drove the 2 and 1/2 hours back down to the apartment on nothing but determination and coffee.

When we got there, nothing had been packed.

Again.

Mollye is diabetic, but not disabled. To be fair, she did only have 20 hours to pack, and I'd only made up 15 boxes for her before we left the night before.

Those 15 boxes sure came in handy when I packed up the kitchen while Mollye made and ate her breakfast.

My husband and our oldest tackled the quagmire that was the upstairs. When they got far enough to reach the walk in closet, they actually started exercising their four letter words. I'm known for my unladylike language, but my boys tend to be more temperate. So I went upstairs to see what was going on.

They'd found the closet was packed from top to bottom, front to back. Nobody could actually walk into it, even to unpack it. They put clothing with tags on it in sizes she hasn't worn in a decade into roughly 9 large sized garbage bags. And then they continued to unpack.

I won't get into the details, but suffice it to say that we filled another 14 foot truck from top to bottom and front to back with nothing but the things Mollye has been hoarding for the better part of my lifetime. While she complained off and on the entire time that we were being unfair in making her move.

On the only weekend we could get vacation time for, using the truck that we paid for, in the boxes that we paid for, while we did all the lifting. And packing.

Our home is only 2100 square feet, and built in 1852. Closet space is non-existant.

Ann says she will help Mollye with her hoarding. I sure hope so.

We rehomed and recycled and got rid of a lot of our things to make enough space for them to live with us. We just don't have room to store non-essentials. Say a prayer for all of us, we could use the good thoughts.

It begins!

So here we are back to the blog. This weekend, we spent 26 hours packing and moving my in-laws stuff. My brother, his girlfriend, my husband, my oldest son, and myself were all there working on it.

We had anticipated that they wouldn't be able to afford moving boxes, so in June we purchased and dropped off packing boxes at their place so they could pack up and get ready until we knew the exact date when they could move (due to mother in law going through bankruptcy). We knew their lease was up August 30, so whenever we got the go ahead we'd have to move fast.

They had not packed anything when we arrived. We packed up the entire downstairs. From this 600 square foot apartment the downstairs, not including the kitchen, filled a 14 foot moving truck. We looked at each other, and then went upstairs. Mollye had not packed anything, and we could not enter the room because the room was literally stacked from top to bottom with random unidentifiable things.

I made the suggestion that, since there was no way to bend space and time and fit any more in the truck and we'd have to make a second 200 mile round trip on Sunday, Mollye stay that last night and pack the kitchen as well as sorting, tossing, and packing the things in her room.

We drove the 2 1/2 hours home, unpacked and arranged and got Ann settled in and able to relax.

There was no way Ann was going to be able to pack or unpack. Between her other medical conditions and the arthritis, we were lucky she was okay enough to get home and in place.

Then, we fell into bed and prepared to do battle with Mollye's stuff the next day.