It's been an exhausting few days.

I stayed home on Wednesday to pack, but it wasn't enough. When the movers showed up on Thursday we didn't have as many things packed as we wanted. But they did take the bulk of the heavy things, including the television. They swept through the house like locusts, taking all the packed things; meanwhile, we packed up what we could ourselves. Soon all our things were deposited at the new house, but too many things were left behind.

We hitched up the television, but all that contretemps with the Dish guy seemed to have been for nothing on Monday, because we weren't getting any signal. We did get everything else working.

Next day I went out to our friends' house to pick up their two sons who I had hired to clean out the back yard. They made some progress, but the back yard is really overgrown with vines under the leaves, so they couldn't do much in three hours. James was at the new house to hang the shades in our bedroom as well as the curtain rods, but it turned out the shades weren't a fit. He came to the house to help me pack instead. When I ran the boys home I picked up two more shades of the correct measurement.

We don't know what happened, but the television has gone berserk. James met the Dish network guy who was out to straighten out the mess the other had made. The Dish guy didn't touch the television, and James only shifted the stand it was on, but when he pressed one of the buttons to cycle through the different video inputs, suddenly the television did a cycle of the channels like it was doing an auto setup, and now sometimes the remote works, sometimes it doesn't. The power switch on the TV itself suddenly doesn't work and sometimes the remote works and sometimes it doesn't. Too weird. We finally got it to input channels and watched the dog show. Also got the two desk computers working, but have to get online using the laptop because the modem doesn't work in mine and we didn't have phone cord for James'.

Today the last of our helpers turned up. This was service above and beyond because it was in the thirties and raining. The boys went back into the back yard and worked five more hours cleaning up the yard; their mom finally joined them (after packing up the kitchen) and then their dad after he and the others transported a van/truck load to the new house. I had loaded my car again with kitchen stuff, but stayed at the house when they went for a second trip, and ended up in the back yard helping them finish up.

Finally, dirty and damp and cold (at least it had stopped raining), the bulk of the leaves were gone.

Also nominated for sainthood, with performance above and beyond:
Ron Butler
Lin Butler
Neil Butler
Colin Butler
Alex Lucyshyn
John Campbell

We dragged ourselves home as well and I had to take a hot shower to warm up since I was so chilled that my skin was cold to the touch and then collapsed under a fleece in front of the television for a couple of hours (it's still freaky). We later treated the Butlers out to dinner because they'd spent so much time out in the cold rain on our yard's behalf.

Sorry this is so disjointed but I am pooped and can hardly keep my eyes open.

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. . . . . Linda at 11:19:00 PM

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