Plan B

The overwhelming business of getting all of our stuff to Arkansas has forced some changes in plans.

As planned, Maria drove back to Indiana early Saturday - she left about 3:30 a.m. her time and rolled in her about 2 in the afternoon. And she left about 9 a.m. today, but she didn't swap cars with me as we had originally planned.

Her son Austin and one of his friends and I thrashed around with heavy, unwieldy loads all day Saturday and much of today and only now have furniture covering the floorspace of all four vaults.

At one point, it looked like we were going to have to jettison my $1,800 armoire because it just wouldn't fit into one of these vaults. Then, after much measuring, swearing and poking and prodding, we managed to remove the massive top from the piece and Austin and his friend sweated it into a vault on its side.

It didn't take long for Maria to recognize that I'd taken on an impossible task, given the time frame and the amount of stuff.

She proposed - and I agreed immediately - that she not swap cars with me - and take as much of our fragile electronic stuff, including my main computer, back to Jonesboro today in the Subaru.

In the meantime, she said it's not worth killing ourselves just to have all of our stuff in the new house within days of taking possession of it. Instead, she said we need to re-negotiate the pickup dates with the hauler and pay to have someone come in and do the packing and loading. I'm cheap, but I'm also smart enough to know when I've taken on an unrealistic challenge and I'm not in a hurry to have a heart attack or wreck my back.

So first thing tomorrow, I'll be on the phone to the SmartMove folks in Colorado and set up a more realistic timetable with some assistance - probably on the Jonesboro end as well as here in Indiana.

In the meantime, I just got a call from a guy interested in Morgan's drum kit that we advertised in the paper over the weekend. I'll be delighted to get that out of the house and I'm sure Morgan will be happy to have some cash.