Miscellany: A Fast Move

It's amazing how many things people accumulate in modern times. While it's true folks didn't move around much before the Industrial Revolution, I can't imagine that it was as much of a pain as it is now. Having to load all your furniture, as well as the doodads and knick-knacks of a life spent in a consumer culture, makes you truly appreciate Thoreau's exhortation: "Simplify, simplify." My friend had to move out of his place hastily, so we found this out firsthand this past weekend.

Our first stop was to grab a U-Haul truck at Parks Place, one of the most interesting U-Haul locations I've ever seen. It's at once a convenience store, a bait and tackle shop, and a U-Haul moving center, all crammed in one unassuming little store run by a family (their elementary school-age daughter ran the cash register - it was adorable). Flattened moving boxes crowd up alongside the freezer case, and you can purchase both packing tape and Penthouse from the same counter. Too bad they don't sell ammo.

We picked up the truck, and then started the arduous process of loading stuff on. Unfortunately, the couch that sat so long in the living room was impossible to squeeze out the front door; I have no idea how the movers managed to coax it there in the first place (I also recall a similar struggle to get our couch through - suffice it to say, when I sell my unit, it's going to come with furniture included). Objects were broken, injuries were sustained, but by golly, we were going to get the U-Haul loaded in the short time we were allotted, no matter the cost in property or lives.

Oh, and a tip for people wishing to move large or unwieldy objects - the "Forearm Forklift" pictured above does work, but it's not as convenient as you might think, since you have to thread/shimmy it underneath anything you want to lift. The straps were also difficult for me to use, given that my broken arm this past spring has prevented me from working out or even lifting anything heavy for months.

Finally, we managed to offload all the big stuff into some temporary storage my friend had acquired. My friend's going to have to repeat the whole rigmarole in about a month or so, but hey, at least you don't have to do it every day.