The Forever Move

Air Mattress--oy, my back

How long has it been now?

I'm not a big fan of moving. For that matter, I'm not sure that I know anyone who is.

On the odd chance you don't know, yes, after a little over 2-years in Cincinnati, The Lovely Bride and I are returning to Georgia. We bought a really cool house in Smyrna and though we announced it a month ago (seems like a year), we are moving in full this week.

There is nothing about moving that is fun. And I should know. Since graduating college in 1988, I've moved 13 times (I had to count), with the current move being number 14. So this is a subject that I know a little something about.

Out of those 14 moves, at least 9 of them I did myself with the help of friends. We don't do that anymore.

Where I wrote this--temporary office

And over the years I've added and subtracted, gained and purged a lot of stuff. When we came to Cincinnati from Atlanta in 2009, we moved from a 2600 sq. ft. house to a 1300 sq. ft. rental house. Since living here we downsized to an 1100 sq. ft. apartment. And now we are moving back to an 1800 sq. ft. house.

But back to the question. Why does it take so long?

Here are my thoughts: First, you have to give notice at your job if you are leaving it. I finished work at the palatial digs of WCPO on Sept. 25th. I gave them notice on the 7th. That is 18 days. And what's worse, I knew I was leaving at the end of August. I just couldn't say anything.

Maybe that is why this seems like such a long process: We've known we were moving for 60-plus days and are just now getting to do it.

Anyway, continuing on my list: You have to find someplace to live. Sometimes that is easy, sometimes it isn't. We were lucky. We are friends with our realtor and she's helped us in no short order; sell 2-condos, buy 2-houses and sell 1-house. She knows us pretty well and what we like. We found a place in a matter of a couple of days. Specifically, in one weekend.

Then there is the move itself, which may be one of the single most stressful things you'll ever do in your life. Yes, it was easier, to an extent, when you did it yourself. It's much more difficult when movers are involved.

We got estimates from 2 sets of movers. And believe it or not, the cost was nearly $2000 different. For the same stuff. To pack and load our stuff, which there is no longer a ton of; and to move it to Georgia.

You then have to schedule them..in advance to do it.

Sept. 2009 the move to Cincy

They came yesterday (Tues. the 4th) to move our stuff and I now sit, writing this in an empty apartment. TLB is cleaning parts of it that I didn't yesterday and we drive down to Georgia tomorrow (6th).

I've never been so ready to be done with something my entire life. No, I don't have a job down in Atlanta (yet), I think it won't take as long as it did here in Cincinnati (6-months). So I'm a little anxious about that. But it's also a lot easier to find something in the town you are living in than from 500+ miles away.

I know, it will all be over soon and we'll be spending our weekend unpacking our stuff and finding out how much we need to fill up the house. I look forward to that.

I guess though I really shouldn't complain too much. It does pale in comparison to the move up to Cincinnati. That one, we knew about at the end of March 2009, we didn't get to move until that September.

Guess this kind of sums it up...and it is one of my favorite songs of all-time: