Move

The Move South:

I've been quiet for a few days while moving house. A few notes on the experience:

1) I've never driven a truck quite that size before. It was a very large Penske rental, right at the upper limit of what a non-commercial license allows.

2) Naturally, therefore, the first part of the drive included crossing the Blue Ridge mountains.

3) In the worst rainstorm on record.

4) Having gotten off the mountains and into the Shenandoah valley, where the rain was even worse, we came across (in the little village of New Market) an absolutely horrendous wreck involving six semis and numerous smaller vehicles. "Great," I thought. "Even the professionals can't keep the big rigs on the road today."

5) "Perhaps it was a fluke, though," I thought, carrying on down the road. About ten miles later, there was another wreck, this one involving two semis.

6) The rain was so bad that, on some occasions, traffic just stopped. After a while, people shut off their engines and waited for a break in the rain.

7) A "break" still meant very heavy rain.

8) Penske's trucks are top-notch. I loved the thing -- beautiful, powerful, outstanding.

9) Penske's service sucks. The truck was more than half a day late showing up. Nothing they told us about it was true. No proper instructions were given for anything, including the question of whether it could accept low-sulfur diesel fuel or how it was to be returned.

10) Did I need a truck that large? Yes and no. Only about one third of the truck was actual furniture or household goods. The other two thirds? About half of that was the wife's art supplies and artwork in progress. The rest was flowers. Tons of them, pot after pot, three shelves full lashed together to make big platforms and then all the floor space. I can't understand how she could acquire so many flowers.

11) OK, I can understand it -- she grew most of them from seeds. But still.

12) In spite of everything, we survived. All is well, more or less. Hope you've had a good few days.