I'm getting to old for this crap
Aug. 3rd, 2017 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornIt's the dog days of summer. Each night, heavy rain falls on the soaked earth. Each day, the sun rises from the haze and burns down on the soggy ground. Plants and insects enjoy this weather. Warm-blooded beings don't.
In the middle of this, last weekend flederkatz had to move - again. It's the 11th move I have helped her with. I missed a few.
This time, it was kind of a relief, because she and her boyfriend were living in an overpriced dump. In another story it could have been one of those impressive industrial lofts, great location, lots of light, but it wasn't. I've seen illegally occupied buildings in better state.
The new place is at the edge of town, 20 minutes' walk from the next shop, but there's a bus stop very close by. Also, it's newly renovated, and it has a functioning loo and shower, a decent-sized kitchen, dumpsters in front of the house, and a very nice view. It's also 3 stories up. So's the old place, but that one had a (small) elevator.
As it was the first weekend of the summer holidays, we were short on helpers. There were flederkatz, her boyfriend P___ (who is, fortunately, tall and strong), me, and two other friends, B___, who is a competing athlete in a strength endurance sport, and Gwydion, who is an energizer bunny once he gets moving. Unfortunately he had been at a party the night before and getting him roused took a while. (He showed up 4 hours late.)
I had been in a panic the whole week, because flederkatz had had trouble renting a van. I seemed to have none, but I did not trust it until I saw the van. And when I did see that very nice big van at the rental company on Sunday noon I was vastly relieved, but could not help noticing that it was a very big van. More than 7 metres long, and I had to take through some of the narrowest streets in town. (Yes, I seem to be suffering from anxiety lately. And it feels like it's getting worse.)
The van handled beautifully and made it easy to forget its size, as multiple small dents and scratches showed. I got a parking space right in front of flederkatz' door, and we started to work. Not fun. I like lifting heavy things, I don't mind carrying said things up or down stairs, I like real-life Tetris, but so much of the furniture threatened to come apart, so that much of this required way more thought and consideration than I'd like to expand on a workout.
We filled the van and found that we'd have to do two runs. It was half past two by then, and we went to MacDonald's for lunch. Sometimes nothing else will do.
The plan was that we'd unload as quickly as possible and that the men would get everything upstairs while flederkatz and I would drive back and load the car again (hoping fervently for Gwydion to show up any. moment. now!).
That plan had one weakness: You probably do not want all your worldly belongings standing outside, unguarded. (Some IKEA parts had already been stolen while we were loading.) So I called Ceridwen and begged her to help. She arrived at the new place the moment we got the van there. (Later she even managed to get in another friend who brought cake and helped carry stuff.)
We are always among helpful people. Back at the old place, the neighbour not only moved his cars to make space for the van, but he and a co-worker got the big pieces into the van, because they could not bear seeing two women wrangle the big items. Finally Gwydion arrived and got to work. We filled the van again. Good thing it was so big!
Back at the new place, everyone but Gwydion and B___ flagged visibly. The sun was sinking, the damp got worse, the midges came out. But with the finishing line in sight, we managed to get everything up before sunset. We left flederkatz and P___ to enjoy their new fully functional shower, and I accepted a ride home because I did not feel up to a 10-minute walk.
When I came home, I visited Ceridwen to thank her again, ate all her pretzel sticks and the salt at the bottom of the package, then I got to my place, had a long cold shower, then logged in to work to check and fix some long-running processes and send a mail to my boss that I'd be in later on Monday. Because were not done yet.
I hurt all over, and despite being foggy with exhaustion, I only fell asleep after taking two ibuprofen. During the night, there was another thunderstorm. The lightning woke me and I heard the rain rushing down.
The sun had barely risen above the mist when I got up, walked over again, picked up flederkatz and P___, and we went back to get the trash out of the old place. And there was a lot of it. Not having access to a dumpster will do that, and having furniture that has been moved far too often already, too. We filled the van a third time and navigated through construction sites and blocked roads to the junkyard.
We were very lucky. There was a lull when we arrived, we could talk to the person on duty, and got a good space. In a proper German junkyard, you do not just throw all your trash out, much less have the employees do it for you. You need to get out every item that is not in a bin bag, disassemble it to its component materials, and then heave it over a low wall into the correct container. If you hit the wrong container, you need to call the person on duty who has a ten-foot-pole with a hook at the end, and is skilled in using it, to get the mis-thrown item out again. Most of the containers do not smell. The big ditch which reminds one of the Star Wars trash compactor, however, picks up all the slack. Especially in the sweltering July heat.
Sounds horrible? Actually, it was fun. (Not the smell, though). P__ kicked the furniture to bits, and flederkatz and I shoved it in the containers, or with special joy into the "everything else" ditch. We regretted not having large sheets of glass, as there was an axe provided to smash it into smaller pieces. Really, I can only recommend this junkyard. Very therapeutic.
Smelly, tired, and a lot happier than before, we returned the van, got into my mini car, I dropped off flederkatz and P___ in town and drove to work.
I have never in my life enjoyed coming to work so much. There was cool, airy parking space, a shower (I had thought to pack a full change of clothes!), hot food, and as much water and free coffee as I could want. And then I sat at my desk, listened to the beating of my heart, and tried to get my mind into work mode. I managed after 30 minutes, and actually had a productive half-day. I love my job. Sometimes.
Everyone else is sick or on vacation, so I have free evenings the whole week!
But I was still hurting all over two days later. I'm getting to old for this.
Even if it was kind of fun.
In the middle of this, last weekend flederkatz had to move - again. It's the 11th move I have helped her with. I missed a few.
This time, it was kind of a relief, because she and her boyfriend were living in an overpriced dump. In another story it could have been one of those impressive industrial lofts, great location, lots of light, but it wasn't. I've seen illegally occupied buildings in better state.
The new place is at the edge of town, 20 minutes' walk from the next shop, but there's a bus stop very close by. Also, it's newly renovated, and it has a functioning loo and shower, a decent-sized kitchen, dumpsters in front of the house, and a very nice view. It's also 3 stories up. So's the old place, but that one had a (small) elevator.
As it was the first weekend of the summer holidays, we were short on helpers. There were flederkatz, her boyfriend P___ (who is, fortunately, tall and strong), me, and two other friends, B___, who is a competing athlete in a strength endurance sport, and Gwydion, who is an energizer bunny once he gets moving. Unfortunately he had been at a party the night before and getting him roused took a while. (He showed up 4 hours late.)
I had been in a panic the whole week, because flederkatz had had trouble renting a van. I seemed to have none, but I did not trust it until I saw the van. And when I did see that very nice big van at the rental company on Sunday noon I was vastly relieved, but could not help noticing that it was a very big van. More than 7 metres long, and I had to take through some of the narrowest streets in town. (Yes, I seem to be suffering from anxiety lately. And it feels like it's getting worse.)
The van handled beautifully and made it easy to forget its size, as multiple small dents and scratches showed. I got a parking space right in front of flederkatz' door, and we started to work. Not fun. I like lifting heavy things, I don't mind carrying said things up or down stairs, I like real-life Tetris, but so much of the furniture threatened to come apart, so that much of this required way more thought and consideration than I'd like to expand on a workout.
We filled the van and found that we'd have to do two runs. It was half past two by then, and we went to MacDonald's for lunch. Sometimes nothing else will do.
The plan was that we'd unload as quickly as possible and that the men would get everything upstairs while flederkatz and I would drive back and load the car again (hoping fervently for Gwydion to show up any. moment. now!).
That plan had one weakness: You probably do not want all your worldly belongings standing outside, unguarded. (Some IKEA parts had already been stolen while we were loading.) So I called Ceridwen and begged her to help. She arrived at the new place the moment we got the van there. (Later she even managed to get in another friend who brought cake and helped carry stuff.)
We are always among helpful people. Back at the old place, the neighbour not only moved his cars to make space for the van, but he and a co-worker got the big pieces into the van, because they could not bear seeing two women wrangle the big items. Finally Gwydion arrived and got to work. We filled the van again. Good thing it was so big!
Back at the new place, everyone but Gwydion and B___ flagged visibly. The sun was sinking, the damp got worse, the midges came out. But with the finishing line in sight, we managed to get everything up before sunset. We left flederkatz and P___ to enjoy their new fully functional shower, and I accepted a ride home because I did not feel up to a 10-minute walk.
When I came home, I visited Ceridwen to thank her again, ate all her pretzel sticks and the salt at the bottom of the package, then I got to my place, had a long cold shower, then logged in to work to check and fix some long-running processes and send a mail to my boss that I'd be in later on Monday. Because were not done yet.
I hurt all over, and despite being foggy with exhaustion, I only fell asleep after taking two ibuprofen. During the night, there was another thunderstorm. The lightning woke me and I heard the rain rushing down.
The sun had barely risen above the mist when I got up, walked over again, picked up flederkatz and P___, and we went back to get the trash out of the old place. And there was a lot of it. Not having access to a dumpster will do that, and having furniture that has been moved far too often already, too. We filled the van a third time and navigated through construction sites and blocked roads to the junkyard.
We were very lucky. There was a lull when we arrived, we could talk to the person on duty, and got a good space. In a proper German junkyard, you do not just throw all your trash out, much less have the employees do it for you. You need to get out every item that is not in a bin bag, disassemble it to its component materials, and then heave it over a low wall into the correct container. If you hit the wrong container, you need to call the person on duty who has a ten-foot-pole with a hook at the end, and is skilled in using it, to get the mis-thrown item out again. Most of the containers do not smell. The big ditch which reminds one of the Star Wars trash compactor, however, picks up all the slack. Especially in the sweltering July heat.
Sounds horrible? Actually, it was fun. (Not the smell, though). P__ kicked the furniture to bits, and flederkatz and I shoved it in the containers, or with special joy into the "everything else" ditch. We regretted not having large sheets of glass, as there was an axe provided to smash it into smaller pieces. Really, I can only recommend this junkyard. Very therapeutic.
Smelly, tired, and a lot happier than before, we returned the van, got into my mini car, I dropped off flederkatz and P___ in town and drove to work.
I have never in my life enjoyed coming to work so much. There was cool, airy parking space, a shower (I had thought to pack a full change of clothes!), hot food, and as much water and free coffee as I could want. And then I sat at my desk, listened to the beating of my heart, and tried to get my mind into work mode. I managed after 30 minutes, and actually had a productive half-day. I love my job. Sometimes.
Everyone else is sick or on vacation, so I have free evenings the whole week!
But I was still hurting all over two days later. I'm getting to old for this.
Even if it was kind of fun.
