Moving Pains

Yes, it hurts to move. It hurts to move all your stuff from one apartment to another, and it hurts even more to move yourself (with or without your stuff) after you've dinged you knee on a corner while you're moving from one apartment to another.

This move's highlights were:

1. Lots of labor. My home teacher, the Young Men, and Young Women all helped, in addition to their leaders and the usual supects (Jeremy, Craig, Dave, Dan, their spouses, and everyone I missed.)
2. Lots of boxes and bags. I was able to use some once-used moving boxes originally from our big faculty shuffle over the summer at work, along with paper boxes (the kind reams come in) and 20 bankers boxes. I have about 10 bankers boxes of just books. I also have about 10 bags of different sizes with all my camping and sports gear in it.
3. The shortest (distance) U-Haul rental ever. when we checked the truck (19.99) back in, we had driven 4 miles ($1/mile), used 1.5 gallons of gas ($2.51/gal), and paid taxes, for about 28 dollars. Best idea ever, except for:
4. The Best Idea Ever: My workbench was built on our deck, so I didn't even think about whether it would fit through the doors. It didn't. If I had cut the plywood in a perfectly straight line exactly as the plan called for, it probably would have, but I cut it a little wobbly and gave it an extra 1/4 inch (give or take) all around it. We couldn't just pick it up and lift it out because we were on the third floor. What to do? I did what any crazy climber-type would do. I got some retired climbing rope, paid out enough to reach the ground on one end, tied a knot around one end of the table, tied another around the other end, and we lowered it, with one guy on the ground pulling it away from the building and everyone else on top, making sure it didn't fall. It was great, and took all of 30 second to do. When we got to the new apartment, we just reversed the process.
5. Cleaning: Our vacuum wins the award for most durable and effective vacuum cleaner I've ever seen. If I was asked to give a testimonial for it, I'd say something like this: It cost us an arm and a leg, but man, it works. It picked up dog hair, more dog hair, nails, bits of wood, screws, dirt, lint, yet more dog hair, dirt, and assorted plastic and metal bits. I like it.
6. Time: It took me, personally, probably 15 hours to do this move, but Tracy did almost all of the packing, so she suffered more.

Cocoa is still getting used to the new place; she doesn't like it yet. We hope after we get all our stuff unpacked she'll feel more at home, but we may set up her kennel and keep her in it until she's comfortable.