Box of Rain

Some of you may think that we chose this title because we love the Grateful Dead.  Although that’s also true, it’s mainly because those two things have comprised the majority of our daily existence for the last two weeks.

Hard to find words to describe the last 24 hours or so, particularly the last 15: sad, surreal, bizarre, exhausting, humorous at times. Like Lori said, I lost my nouns but not my adjectives. Just can’t seem to identify what things are called anymore! Went to have lunch at Tomatina with my friend Adriene in Alameda – it was delicious and also bittersweet.  Then she kindly took me to Home Depot for still more boxes and then to the vet to pick up Marley’s ashes, just in time. Got the keys from the new apartment in the mail. Finished packing, finally, late last night. Got about 5 hours of sleep. Woke up around 3am, very congested from all the dust. Thankfully we have cleaners here now with a good vacuum. Of course, ours died 2 days ago, right on schedule.

Movers came at 8am on the dot. 

Luckily they finished just before the super heavy rain and wind arrived.  We had estimated in our contract to have 30 boxes but knew we were going over. By how much you ask? Well the grand total of boxes was 85!!! Lori asked the head mover dude if other people are that bad at guessing how many boxes they have. His answer: “Every last one.” Good to know we are normal in some way 😉

All of our stuff is gone except what you see in this picture plus an air mattress, cooler, suitcase, 2 backpacks, another cat, another computer, cat stuff, whatever is going in the suitcase and very little else. The air mattress, though, is heavenly – thank you Lorena and Tess! Tried to take a nap but couldn’t sleep with all the meowing going on – more on that, below.

We are a walking Apple ad with our laptops, phones and wi-fi router so we can use said laptops…Steve Jobs should come over and personally deliver us a big check. In fact, right about now would be the perfect time – hello? Steve?

We decided to sedate the cats with a whole pill this time. The cats got super stoned and totally cross-eyed and stumbly. And meowy – so very, very meowy. So meowy that we now hate sedatives and pray we don’t need to use them…on the cats, anyway. Buster meowed for about 5 hours straight and is still occasionally meowing. He is the saddest cat on the planet. He had finally settled down in front of the fireplace when the cleaners came and then started meowing  again – finally he has settled in Lori’s lap and is using her laptop as a pillow.

Nikkyo also became aggressive – our bright idea was that since she was sedated, we’d take the opportunity to clip her nails so she wouldn’t puncture the air mattress. Instead of being more mellow about it, she became a raging hellcat (We’ve been calling her Garrosh Hellscream for any of you WoW players out there). She hissed and pawed at Buster a bit then also was pretty meowy. Finally she has settled down.

I can say that these beach chairs aren’t cutting it. Lori just stood up and stretched and I think every joint in her body just popped and cracked. Thankfully Lorena  & Tess are delivering a bean bag chair and some cushions to sit on. Looking forward to tomorrow – my aforementioned primp day plus some other errands. I’ve continued to track the weather on our route and I think it’s going to be okay, if the forecast doesn’t change too much. Plan is still to leave on Monday the 28th.

Empty office

Empty Living Room

Lori contemplating minimalism