After kissing the ground and vowing never to drive again, the work begins as we argue over who gets which air mattress. Then we promptly forget our no-driving-vows to make runs to Target and Lowes, along with Sonic and Starbucks.
We’ve been here a week now and everything seems to be tracking on schedule with the exception of our household goods and storage which appear to be delayed somewhere in transit indefinitely. In the meantime, we’ve begun completing the requisite move checklist:
- Break a body part: Our eight year old tripped into a bannister a couple days ago and broke his front tooth in half (as in the bottom half of the tooth snapped off), prompting an emergency visit to the pediatric dentist and a referral to an endontist. Jet had a partial root canal and the doc was able to bond the tooth back together. We were sent home with instructions not to bite anything for the next couple weeks and to take it easy. Jet promptly came home and got on his skateboard. We’re still working on following directions and the meaning of “take it easy.” On the positive side, we now have a pediatric dentist.
- Break something major at home: Our upstairs AC stopped working last night. We called the warranty service to have the service call scheduled. Everyone moved their air mattresses downstairs to sleep for the evening. We’re still waiting for the AC repair people. Thank goodness the air downstairs is still running. For now.
- Job hunt: we arrived here on Wednesday night, the 15th. On Monday, the high school where the kids will attend called to schedule an interview. I went in the next day and was hired on the spot. Orientation is on Monday and Tuesday. If only our household goods could commit to such urgency!
Everyone is coping in the usual way. Matt is jumping in trying to get us to the YMCA, water park, and on outings. The rest of us are content to hide in our empty house testing the wifi capabilities, watching too much tv, and taking periodic naps in the lawn chairs or on air mattresses. Don’t worry– we’ll be out annoying the locals soon enough.
The next step is officially re-entry where I have to be social and attempt to make acquaintances and friends. I may or may not report on those results, since I fully plan to cheat a bit and begin with co-workers at meetings. Maybe the weather will cool off a bit and I’ll run into some of the neighbors outside—oh wait—our AC is out. A heat wave is probably in the forecast.
Anyway- we’re here. We miss our people and places. And we’re starting over again. Let the tilt-a-whirl spin.