the cedar chips again
A while back I talked about moving "stuff" and likened it to cedar chips. I just spent the last five days traveling up to Columbia, going through all the family possessions in storage for the last year and a half or so in our friend's barn, parsing out what was my stuff, and giving away or throwing out everything that would cost more to store than to buy again some day as well as all kinds of obsolete files and assorted other junk. Several trailer loads are ready for the dump. (and there were already several loads culled out when we moved out of the house) Then all that simply couldn't be parted with was loaded up into a 16 foot yellow Penske rental truck.
--- And here I will pause and say a REALLY, REALLY BIG THANK YOU!!! to my former students Adam Erickson, Jon Duren, and Aaron Jolly who, without my asking, insisted on coming to my aid. YOU GUYS ROCK! And thanks to Rod and Allison for your hospitality. And last but not least, my daughter Stacey who stuck with me for the long haul and provided the best moral support a dad could ever want. ---
The guys really did help me tremendously, moving all the heavy stuff and generally making everything go faster. Ever since I schlepped all that stuff up the long flight of stairs to the barn's loft I have dreaded the day when I would have to carry it all back down. The guys did the lion's share of that and my back, right hip, and left foot are eternally grateful. Seriously, my hip has been giving some trouble again and I seriously doubt I would have been able to negotiate those stairs many more times than I ended up having to.
So, all got into the 8x16 foot truck, albeit with a good bit of airspace above the load. And a canoe, acetylene welding rig, and air compressor that would have other places to live. But I still worried a good bit during the eight hour trip to Orlando if I would be able to shoehorn it into my 5x9x12 foot high storage unit. I had built two levels of lofts in it turning 45 square feet of floor space into 135, but the top two feet were already packed with boxes of stuff from my office at the school which had been stored at a friend's office. (I just helped him move his company a week ago and he no longer has surplus space.)
I got to Orlando and went straight to the storage facility pulling in at 8:00pm. The gate is locked at 10:00 so I had two hours. I got an awful lot done in that amount of time and got to the point where I could see how it was all going to go. I had a plan and it felt good. After 10:00 I took some stuff to the house where it was to go and then dropped the canoe and the little motor and boat stuff at Dave's house on the lake. He was there but sleeping so I was werry, werry qwiet. Got to bed at a decent hour and slept well.
Today everything was safely stowed and the truck returned by 8:00pm. All went in like an engineering project. I don't think a car cubing machine could have gotten it any more compact. The space is 540 cubic feet. It's crammed tight to the ceiling. I had enough room left over for maybe one or two more boxes. That's it. All archive video on VHS, etc. is in my room at the house to be transfered to DVD and originals tossed. (That was about six boxes worth. I had already tossed four or five boxes of tapes at the barn that had no archival value.) Went out and bought myself a good meal to celebrate. Now I'm back at the house ready to get a good night's sleep and be at a camera gig starting at 8:00am tomorrow. I have seven days of work in a row.
I'm about as de-junked and organized as I've ever been in my life. I know where every single thing is. It's quite extraordinary. And a little weird to have every earthly possession from a lifetime of accumulation reduced to such a finite known volume.
So, the last nagging thing left hanging, the barn full of junk, has been dealt with. I'm officially out of South Carolina. I have Florida plates on the vehicles, a Florida license in my pocket, and will soon have an area 407 (or more probably 321) cell phone number.
And life goes on...
--- And here I will pause and say a REALLY, REALLY BIG THANK YOU!!! to my former students Adam Erickson, Jon Duren, and Aaron Jolly who, without my asking, insisted on coming to my aid. YOU GUYS ROCK! And thanks to Rod and Allison for your hospitality. And last but not least, my daughter Stacey who stuck with me for the long haul and provided the best moral support a dad could ever want. ---
The guys really did help me tremendously, moving all the heavy stuff and generally making everything go faster. Ever since I schlepped all that stuff up the long flight of stairs to the barn's loft I have dreaded the day when I would have to carry it all back down. The guys did the lion's share of that and my back, right hip, and left foot are eternally grateful. Seriously, my hip has been giving some trouble again and I seriously doubt I would have been able to negotiate those stairs many more times than I ended up having to.
So, all got into the 8x16 foot truck, albeit with a good bit of airspace above the load. And a canoe, acetylene welding rig, and air compressor that would have other places to live. But I still worried a good bit during the eight hour trip to Orlando if I would be able to shoehorn it into my 5x9x12 foot high storage unit. I had built two levels of lofts in it turning 45 square feet of floor space into 135, but the top two feet were already packed with boxes of stuff from my office at the school which had been stored at a friend's office. (I just helped him move his company a week ago and he no longer has surplus space.)
I got to Orlando and went straight to the storage facility pulling in at 8:00pm. The gate is locked at 10:00 so I had two hours. I got an awful lot done in that amount of time and got to the point where I could see how it was all going to go. I had a plan and it felt good. After 10:00 I took some stuff to the house where it was to go and then dropped the canoe and the little motor and boat stuff at Dave's house on the lake. He was there but sleeping so I was werry, werry qwiet. Got to bed at a decent hour and slept well.
Today everything was safely stowed and the truck returned by 8:00pm. All went in like an engineering project. I don't think a car cubing machine could have gotten it any more compact. The space is 540 cubic feet. It's crammed tight to the ceiling. I had enough room left over for maybe one or two more boxes. That's it. All archive video on VHS, etc. is in my room at the house to be transfered to DVD and originals tossed. (That was about six boxes worth. I had already tossed four or five boxes of tapes at the barn that had no archival value.) Went out and bought myself a good meal to celebrate. Now I'm back at the house ready to get a good night's sleep and be at a camera gig starting at 8:00am tomorrow. I have seven days of work in a row.
I'm about as de-junked and organized as I've ever been in my life. I know where every single thing is. It's quite extraordinary. And a little weird to have every earthly possession from a lifetime of accumulation reduced to such a finite known volume.
So, the last nagging thing left hanging, the barn full of junk, has been dealt with. I'm officially out of South Carolina. I have Florida plates on the vehicles, a Florida license in my pocket, and will soon have an area 407 (or more probably 321) cell phone number.
And life goes on...
posted by wingman at 10:36 PM
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