I started sleeping about 5 hours a night about a week or so before the movers came. It is a measure of how much I have unwound that I have been sleeping about 7 hours a night this week. For awhile, I never really "relaxed", I just got enough rest to start another project, until I couldn't do anything more that day. I was pretty played out by the week I was off SI entirely, especially since we had to spend time going back to Annapolis to pick up a couple of things the movers missed; cleaning up after the move (it is amazing how much crud hides under things, even when you think you have cleaned); taking a couch that we had no use for, and was too large to store, to my mother's; and hauling things we had saved for last to the dump. As I was deteriorating, I was fortunate that my wife and son picked up some of the slack, thus, for example, giving one of my shoulders a chance to heal, but I still had to do some of the heavy lifting. We finally got the last couple of discardable pieces out, and picked up our lawnmover and other such items, on Monday. We tried to unwind before that, especially when my birthday came up, but it was hard. For example, my wife's birthday was on the Monday we had to finish up, and I didn't get her to a nice restaurant until the next evening, we were too tired and sweaty.
A lot of times when I was not boxing, carrying, unboxing, or putting away stuff, I was working the phones. I got a lot of that done before "moving day", for example, getting my mail- forwarding order in, putting in the order for switching phone and cable at the right time, and so forth, but there has been some "clean- up", like finding that they had my name wrong, and had over- billed me, for the cable installation at the new address, or having to get in a call to the Motor Vehicle Administration. There is a lot of detail work, and I was resolved to bear the brunt.
We bought a new bed, the top of the line Sealy, called the Crown Jewel, which provides support with a top layer of softness. It is also our first king- sized bed at home. It is very nice, and I am sure I would have slept less without it, but it has not prevented me from being somewhat restless, and getting up few times a night. I am getting up less, though, in the last couple of days.
The living/dining room is looking really good, though, and that is making us feel very good. I still have to put together some new bookshelves, and shelve my books. (I thinned out a lot, but there are still tons). I also have to reshelve records (some, such as the St. Matthews Passion, we had, but most came as a result of inheritance. My father- law- had an extensive collection, for example,of Sinatra and Edward R. Murrow).
It amazing how much buying you have to do to get settled. Not only do you finally dispose of things that are worn out from the old place, but there are incidentals one hadn't thought of. For example, we used to have wall to wall carpeting, but now have area rugs, so we need a dust mop. I gave my son the large room in the basement, so we had to get him some extra- chairs for potential company. We bought the new bed, so had to search for sheets that fit, since it is a non- standard king. Fortunately, Wisconsin Avenue turns into Rockville Pike near our house, and Rockville Pike has an immense number of shopping centers, so that one can find almost anything. Thus, most of what we need is less than a half- hour away, depending on search time.
Well, I have run on awhile, I will catch my breath here..... |
