Prague Journal

Saturday, August 28, 2004.

Why did I think that we were on top of things? We spent a frantic Saturday trying to get packed, at the same time sorting, loading, and cleaning for the arrival of the Sperrys who are renting our house for the year. Poor planning. Sally and Ron were ready to move in at 10 a.m. Despite the fact that I was up at 5, we were not even close to ready for them by noon. They unloaded some of the big furniture and appliances in our garage and ate lunch before 11. The second load came around 2, which went mostly in the living room and dining room, with some things in the kids’ rooms in the basement. Matt kept the kids occupied by playing “Sorry” with Bailey while Jamin played drums; the three (with Adain) played ball outside later in the afternoon. Sally helped me pack the kitchen dishes, utensils and cookware – a much bigger job than I had expected. It seems that every drawer, closet, and shelf had something still to be packed. Only the downstairs was ready – except for Rick’s office which was still nearly untouched. Rick spent the morning sorting and loading file cabinets and boxes of books into the storage room. All the vitamins had been stacked and ready near the suitcases in our bedroom upstairs, but he hadn’t yet started to pack any clothes. I hadn’t yet touched the drawers in the bathroom or cleaned out my desk, so I, too, held up our departure.
We were able to get most of our furniture in the furnace room storage area, but Kong and Yanfei kindly took the living room chairs and John Rios took the dining room chairs to their respective basements. We loaded the rental car and pulled out of the house at 8:30. I had grossly misjudged the capacity of a “full size” car and the size of our suitcases. We had the car piled high and I had to sit on Matt’s lap in the front seat.
Matt and Rick took a late run to the shoe store for running shoes and sandals for Matt; Vitamin Cottage had closed by 7 p.m. so Rick was not able to get the last of the vitamins he wanted. I didn’t have time to get to Radio Shack before they closed, which turned out to be a good thing. We headed to Walmart at 8:30, getting last-minute stuff like ibuprofen, a clock for Matt, and new socks for Rick. I had hoped to get a camera case, but they were sold out.
We got to the house of our dear friends, Jim and Vivien, around 9:30, after they had gone to bed. Fortunately, they had not gone to sleep! Rick and Matt went out for a last father-son dinner while Jim and I re-weighed and re-packed some of the heavier suitcases so they all were 70 pounds or less. The small carry-ons were 30-45 pounds each! We loaded everything in Jim and Vivien’s Subaru and slipped into bed around 11:30 p.m.

posted by JWinn @ 8:14 PM