{"id":4018,"date":"2023-07-30T16:43:50","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T20:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2023-07-30T16:43:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T20:43:50","slug":"moving-reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/?p=4018","title":{"rendered":"Moving Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

See \u201cThe Big Move<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday we finished packing the trailer.\u00a0 <\/span>Amanda got the cats ready and loaded into her car (left running with the air conditioning on).\u00a0 <\/span>I told her I needed her help get the trailer hooked up to the truck.\u00a0 <\/span>She guided me as I backed up.\u00a0 <\/span>I got out of the truck and started lowering the trailer onto the hitch.\u00a0 <\/span>Lower…lower…lower…until it bottomed out on the piece of lumber on which it had been resting.\u00a0 <\/span>I cranked it back up a few turns and put a the scissor jack from the car under the tongue and then removed the lumber.\u00a0 <\/span>I started to lower the trailer again…lower…lower…lower.\u00a0 <\/span>I let the hitch get to about 3 inches from the pavement and still could not remove the jack.\u00a0 <\/span>If the front tires of the truck were still on the pavement, they were only barely there!\u00a0 <\/span>I jacked the trailer back off the hitch, completely discouraged.\u00a0 <\/span>I had so thoroughly crammed the front part of the trailer with our stuff that it was too front-heavy.<\/p>\n

Defeated, I sent Amanda on her way, took care of a few last-minute things and then drove to the new house with most of our stuff left in the trailer in the driveway in Potsdam.\u00a0 <\/span>After all, there was nowhere else to sleep but the couch, and certainly nothing to eat and no clothes to change into.\u00a0 <\/span>On the way to the new house I did a lot of thinking.\u00a0 <\/span>I was down.\u00a0 <\/span>I stopped in Malone and had 3 slices of pizza from Stewart\u2019s for \u201cdinner.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>I drank Mountain Dew for the first time in years.\u00a0 <\/span>I listened to Barry Manilow.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, folks, it was bad.\u00a0 <\/span>I had initially thought that a bigger truck might be the key and started wondering where I might rent one if I couldn\u2019t borrow one.\u00a0 <\/span>Then I thought if I need to rent a truck why not just rent a moving truck and transfer everything from the trailer to the truck and not have the hassle of towing a trailer?\u00a0 <\/span>I eventually realized that unless I found someone with a dump truck, the trailer was not safe to pull.\u00a0 <\/span>I committed to returning to Potsdam Saturday morning to unload and re-load the trailer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I arrived at about 10:30 Saturday morning.\u00a0 <\/span>Brady was waiting for me.\u00a0 <\/span>Two things made the looming endeavor easier than it otherwise might have been: 1) Most of the stuff in the front of the trailer was in small boxes (Lowe\u2019s sells boxes in Small, Medium, and Large); and 2) the trailer has a front-side door.\u00a0 <\/span>Opening that door revealed that we could extract the boxes, which were piled on top of furniture.\u00a0 <\/span>And so that\u2019s what we did.\u00a0 <\/span>We started by moving as many boxes as would fit into the back of the truck and into Brady\u2019s car.\u00a0 <\/span>Then we took the awkwardly-shaped stuff out of the back of the trailer where there was otherwise still a good deal of room and began removing boxes from up front and piling them in the back.\u00a0 <\/span>After about an hour and a half of this I determined that the trailer might be more properly balanced.\u00a0 <\/span>We hooked it up to the truck and I was right!\u00a0 <\/span>In retrospect I think it could have been just a little lighter in the front, as I could tell my steering was affected; but we made it to Keeseville just fine.\u00a0 <\/span>(Well, the truck and trailer were fine.\u00a0 <\/span>Brady, however, blew a tire just outside of Champlain and we changed it in the rain.\u00a0 <\/span>Did I mention it was raining?\u00a0 <\/span>Yeah…it was raining.)<\/p>\n

We unloaded most of the boxes and committed to doing the rest in the morning.\u00a0 <\/span>Sunday (today) was supposed to be a much nicer day.\u00a0 <\/span>And it was\/is.\u00a0 <\/span>Mom, Kelly, and Dean came over and we all made quick work of the furniture and emptied the trailer.<\/p>\n

For 7 months we have been coming here, to the new house, to move a few things and to spend time here.\u00a0 <\/span>But each weekend ends knowing that we must head home to Potsdam.\u00a0 <\/span>But not this time.\u00a0 <\/span>As I type this on a Sunday afternoon I am still somewhat in shock and denial about the fact that I am not leaving this time.\u00a0 <\/span>This is now Home.\u00a0 <\/span>Again.\u00a0 <\/span>I am here and I am staying.\u00a0 <\/span>I can go down to Camp tonight if I want to.\u00a0 <\/span>I can go there tomorrow night too!\u00a0 <\/span>I can see my Mom in the middle of the week instead of FaceTime or a phone call.\u00a0 <\/span>And I will.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Potsdam has also been my Home.\u00a0 <\/span>My boys grew up in that house.\u00a0 <\/span>That house has seen divorce, loneliness, hope, and much, much happiness.\u00a0 <\/span>Many memories have been made there.\u00a0 <\/span>But a house is just a house.\u00a0 <\/span>Home is where your heart is, and this new house is now our Home.\u00a0 <\/span>Moving doesn\u2019t erase the memories.\u00a0 <\/span>And we haven\u2019t 100% moved yet anyhow.\u00a0 <\/span>The house in Potsdam is still ours and will be until we completely empty it, prepare it for sale, and eventually sell it.\u00a0 <\/span>Until then, there will be the occasional weekends spent in Potsdam maintaining the property and finishing up the packing, doing some painting, and taking care of the place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll feel more than a little sad when I pull out of that driveway for what I know will be the last time, knowing that from now on I will only be a visitor to Potsdam.\u00a0 <\/span>It is no longer my Home.\u00a0 <\/span>But then I\u2019ll smile because I know I\u2019m heading<\/strong><\/em> Home.\u00a0 <\/span>Again.\u00a0 <\/span>This time to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(As far as I know! \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See \u201cThe Big Move\u201d Friday we finished packing the trailer.\u00a0 Amanda got the cats ready and loaded into her car (left running with the air conditioning on).\u00a0 I told her I needed her help get the trailer hooked up to the truck.\u00a0 She guided me as I backed up.\u00a0 I got out of the truck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4335,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions\/4335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romeyn.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}