Adventures in Moving

During our move from Waco to Athens, Georgia, I've had some interesting experiences:

1. Our packers (yes, for the first time we hired packers) stayed in our house for something like 13 hours. They were incredibly slow (we lived in a small duplex) and actually packed the contents of our filing cabinets, which was not a happy thing.

2. While wife and kiddies took a plane, I drove the cats 14 hours from Waco to our intermediate stopping point in Alabama where my folks live. After a round of cat urination and ear-rattling screeching from one of the felines, I found a small-town vet enroute to inject them with tranquilizers. The rest of the trip went better, but I couldn't stop for fear of rousing them. My only stops were gas and restroom visits combined.

3. I listened to a dense unabridged audio tape of George Washington's life. Like most such volumes, it made the man sound significantly less interesting than we think he was. It also made the Revolutionary War sound less exciting and victorious than advertised. I'm going to hope David McCullough's new book will revive both subjects for me.

4. I forgot to mention two massive interstate traffic jams along the way and a skull-ripping headache in the midst of the last jam a mere twenty miles from home. Did you ever want to know what makes a grown man weep? I know the answer.

5. We purchased a Honda Odyssey minivan (don't worry paleocons, it was built in Alabama) prior to leaving for Georgia. I love it. The family man thing has its compensations.

6. The cats rode in the originally urine-stained vehicle for the last leg of the trip, which my wife drove while I got kid duty. The same cat obliged again, despite being tranquilized.

7. Anybody know what gets out the nightmare ammonia smell of cat urine from a Honda Accord?

8. We arrived in our old house rental in Athens, Georgia. It has a lot of charm, but . . .

9. The basement floods a bit, the air-conditioner gave out on the fourth day, and the kitchen floor is approximately seven decades old.

10. Back with more later . . .