Moving day

The movers came from Vermont on Monday, 19 November. They arrived early afternoon and worked until dark, returning the next morning to finish. (For photos click here.)

The day began overcast and seemed to darken as the morning wore on. By the time the moving truck pulled up in front of the building it had started to snow and pretty much snowed off and on for several hours afterward, although the flakes melted as soon as they hit the ground.

It was, all-in-all, a fairly uneventful experience, with the singular exception that two pieces of furniture could not be brought up our stairs. A corner hutch and our sofa bed were simply too bulky to make the turns necessary to go up two flights. Here's where the Europeans have it figured out: on several occasions in Italy we watched trucks with specially designed with conveyors on the back hoisting large pieces of furniture up maybe six floors on the outside of the building, and then simply going in through the windows. Of course our windows are too small anyway, but still it's the principle of the thing.

Fortunately one of the other flats in the building was empty so we arranged with the builder (that's Bob the builder in the photo below) to place the two pieces there until we could sell them. Another bit of good fortune, at closing the builder gave us a sizeable gift certificate to one of the larger furniture stores in the area, so one door closes and another one opens. . .

Susie and I spent the rest of Monday and early Tuesday unpacking as much as we could so the movers could take the boxes and paper with them.

Overall we saw little damage to our furniture: one piece, the corner hutch in fact, had a loosened base and there were a few scratches here and there but certainly nothing significant. And so far noting seemed to be missing; in fact, we are amazed at what we did keep. "Hey! I didn't know we had this!" I would say. But the more we unpacked the more we kept asking ourselves: "Why did we keep this?" Why indeed. A question that would reverberate through our flat for the next days to come.

Soon after the movers left Monday late afternoon Rosemary -- from Gerrish fame -- showed up passing through town on her way back to the Boston area. We chatted for a while, catching up on all the news. After a glass of wine amidst the packing debris, the three of us drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda, to meet up with Dick and Dorothy for dinner. They showed up soon after we pulled into the parking lot, driving by us once in the dark -- not surprising since this particular part of western Providence known as Olneyville Square, is a maze of twists of turns. Anyway we were all chagrined to find the place closed. So the five of us convoyed over to Atwell's avenue where we found a Mexican restaurant, Don Jose Tequila, with great food and tasty Margaritas.

After dinner we all headed back to our place. Susie and Dick and Dorothy stayed at the flat while I took Rosemary and her bike to the train station, where I said au revoir. I'm sure we'll be seeing her again before too long. Dick and Dorothy said good night soon after I returned home, and the two of us found ourselves alone with a home full of "our stuff."

That night Susie and I slept on the floor on our mattress, that wonderful memory foam mattress, which had been unloaded but without the bed frame that had not.