Monday, September 01, 2008

Moving Update Updated

We've been in the new place a week now, and I've solved my three major problems. We have cable TV and internet, we have hot water, and now we have a refrigerator!

Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. I called the appliance guy to see when he could move my old refrigerator to the new house. He was out of town, but said he would be back and move it Friday. So Thursday night, I cleaned out the old fridge and got rid of any questionable food. Has it really been 15 years since I cleaned out the refrigerator? Of course not; I just bought the thing about five years ago. Then I remembered I cleaned it thoroughly in the spring. But two kids who are learning to cook can make a monumental mess in a short time!

Friday came and went with no word. Most of Saturday, too. I got the idea he really didn't want to do this. It's getting quite expensive to eat out every day, and even with a big bag of ice, milk was going bad in the cooler too often. Mom encouraged me to just buy a new refrigerator, so I sighed and said OK. At the store, I found that new units cost way more than I thought! I'd never bought a new refrigerator -just used ones. I selected one that would fit the space alloted with the features I wanted. Then whaddaya know, Mom paid for it (bless her)! This being Saturday night, I figured it wouldn't be delivered until Tuesday, but the clerk said they could bring it on Sunday. Hoorai!

So not only did I get a new fridge, I also saved 1) the money I would've paid the appliance guy to move mine around, b) the $20 the city charges to haul off the old unit, 3) eating out bills for who-knows-how-long, and 4) ice costs. Also, I still have a refrigerator at the old house which will make it marginally more sellable. And it's clean! Very clean, while the rest of the old kitchen is covered in tomato juice. I'm finishing up the canning there, because I don't want to hose down TWO kitchens.

Sunday morning, the delivery guy calls at 10AM. He said they had two stops before mine, so it would be around 1PM. They came at 6PM. The wait was not extremely difficult this time around, because the kids watched TV and I surfed the net. Yeah, I had plenty of unpacking to do, as always. Anyway, the delivery guys had to take the handles off the old monster-sized non-working refrigerator just to get it out the door. They said it was at least 20 years old (no wonder the appliance guy didn't want it, even for parts). The new one didn't even have to be brought in sideways. After all, a family of three females doesn't need a meat locker, just a place to put our yogurt. We celebrated with a trip to the grocery store, where I let the kids buy what they wanted. What they wanted were the things they missed over the past week -butter, milk, orange juice, Kool-Aid, eggs, and cheese. They've had their fill of warm soda pop.

Oh yeah, there was an interesting coda to the cable story. Friday morning, a cable installer shows up. He found it hard to believe that I already had cable, since he was supposed to put it in. He apparently suspected piracy, because he asked for the names of the installers. I said I don't know, it was dark. Maybe they weren't really installers. Maybe they were angels sent in answer to a prayer. Then I explained that they had rescheduled my install for Thursday and probably never bothered to take it off the schedule. Mind you, it was Friday when he showed up.

Today, my brother and sister-in-law are coming over to help me load those furniture items I can't wrap my arms around. That will be a load off my mind. But I will have to call the pros to move the piano. They only brought it to my house a couple of months ago, said it was the heaviest upright they'd ever moved, and also mentioned they never wanted to move it again. They are going to hate me.

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