Another visit to the Detroit burbs ; Planning and packing for The Move
(posted from home)
(This post covers 15 – 31 December, 2009)
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 31 December -
It's New Year's Eve today but I spent it doing bills, insurances, and other financial tasks. I also spent an interesting few hours reasearching Eames chairs. Mom and Dad have some chairs designed by Charles Eames in the mid-Fifties and, amazingly, they still bring a good price--- if, that is, they're in good condition. A couple of them could use upholstery and I eventually found someone who can do that-- but it may be cost-prohibitive.
We tired out well before the year changed and went to bed around 2230. But I had dreams of hearing gunshots and wondering why there were so many gunshots in suburban Detroit (where we were earlier this week). It wasn't till the next day that I realized I was hearing at home.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 30 December -
Ahh, home. Nice. I spent way too much time today on getting quotes for motorcycle insurance and trying to figure out how we can transport the artwork for Labashi's Mom and Dad without spending a fortune. U-haul has boxes but they're $6.50 a piece for the box and another $6 for styrofoam corners which only put one on a box. I looked into building some simple boxes with lauan plywood panels but the plywood alone is now in the $15-a-sheet range and we have something on the order of 150 paintings to move. I don't even want to do the math; I know it's too much.
I also did some blogging to try to catch up. I'm WAY behind.
--------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 29 December -
Today we spent the day at the retirement community, meeting on move-in details and unloading our two loads of 'stuff' we brought back from Michigan. While the apartment is being painted and re-carpeted, we're using the apartment's storage cage and we've rented two additional cages. Before this is over we're going to need more cages since we can't actually move in until February and we plan to bring back another load prior to the big move.
We had lunch at the retirement community's cafe and I was happy to strike up conversations with two of the other guys there while waiting for our food. One was a resident and very happy with the facility. He's in good health but his wife is in the skilled-nursing portion of the facility. The other's uncle is in the skilled nursing area and he too had nothing but good things to say about the staff.
During our visits to the storage cage we met several of neighbors-to-be. They were delightful and we're looking forward to them meeting Mom and Dad.
We finished up around supper time and had supper at a nearby bar-be-que restaurant. This was our first introduction to this style of dry-rub preparation of baby-back ribs. This is one of those situations where we're glad we tried it but probably won't do so again.
That evening we finished the 'Long Way Down' series and its extras. I give it a good-plus. I learned about some of the trials and tribulations of travelling on the BMW GS-series bikes but it didn't turn into a bike-nuts-only thing. I also liked the fact that they didn't sugar-coat their problems. They matter-of-factly stated what was going on and dealt with it. As we learned later, the bikes were only lent to the project. I was therefore impressed that the project (and BMW) had the integrity to not edit out/force out the occasional comments about the bikes being too heavy or the fact that they had multiple failures of the rear suspension system. Anyone with a brain sees that the bikes are being pushed hard and being dumped time after time. That doesn't mean it's not the right bike-- it means you have to prepare for the inevitable. Anyway, good one!
--------------------------------------------
Monday, 28 December -
Today we drove back to PA in two cars. I drove Mocha Joe and Labashi drove her Dad's car. We had snow for the first leg of the trip and that turned out to be the worst part. The road was snow-covered but not particularly slippery. It did seem extra-cold, though. Temps were in the low 20's but winds were blowing at around 25-30 miles per hour. My windshield washer was frozen up for that leg of the trip but I was able to get it working again at our first gas stop.
For the first leg we could only drive about 50-55 miles per hour and we had a strong cross-wind. But once we made the turn east, things got better and the road was dry enough that we could maintain a 65-miles-per-hour pace.
The trip seemed to take an extra long time and we didn't get back to our home area until 1830 or so. We had a filet at The Hillside to celebrate our return and then watched two eps of 'Long Way Down' at home. Labashi has taken quite a liking to this series. I feel guilty now that I was going to just watch it myself when she wasn't around. After all, it's a motorcycle adventure tour! But Ewan and Charley interact with the people quite a bit and there's plenty to keep the non-rider interested.
--------------------------------------------
Sunday, 27 December -
I spent the day packing books. Books, books, and more books! Heavy, heavy books!
That night we watched 'Julie and Julia' with Meryl Streep on DVD. Good one! It's the story of modern-day Julie who decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook (and blog about it) interwoven with flashbacks of Julia's life. It sounds hokey, but perhaps that's just the way I express it here. In any case, we really liked this movie (and we're not 'foodies'). Nora Ephron did a great job on this one and we loved seeing her in the extras. And Meryl once again amazes us. I see IMDb tells us many reviewers believe she's our greatest living actress. Roger that.
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 26 December -
I spent today packing, mostly art books, magazines, LP records, and CDs. I backed the car out of the garage so we can have a staging area in the garage and started stacking boxes. We seemed to be filling it up until Labashi's brother came over and we loaded the stuff delegated to him into his van.
I walked my five-mile loop that evening. Between the loading and lifting of the 50-pound moving boxes and the five mile walk, I was ready for bed early tonight.
--------------------------------------------
Friday, 25 December -
It's Christmas Day of course but because we had had our family Christmas last Sunday, today was pretty much just another day. I did manage to speak at some length with my two brothers about Christmas goings-on back home. That was cool.
And though it rained most of today here in the Detroit burbs, I thought I'd take advantage of a brief lull in the rain to walk down to Starbucks for a coffee and paper. But they were closed! And of course as I stood outside the Starbucks door and realized I hadn't dressed quite warmly enough for the breezy, mid-Twenties day, the rain started again. I almost called Labashi to come pick me up--- something I did once when caught a few miles from home in a heavy thunderstorm--- but I decided it wasn't so heavy that I needed to be rescued. I decided instead to just walk faster and dodge between the raindrops and that worked out fine. My trip to Starbucks and back (when I don't include it on my round-the-big-block route) is only about a mile and a half.
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 24 December -
More of the same today. Labashi is interviewing Mom about what will go with them and what will be sold of her things and I received guidance from Dad about the many shelves of books and CDs in his studio.
I made runs to U-haul and Lowe's for moving supplies. Lowe's has great moving boxes in three sizes for .67, .97, and 1.27 each. I also picked up a few mirror boxes from Uhaul to test how to load up Dad's many paintings. U-haul also had a better price on the two different sizes of bubble-wrap.
We've decided, by the way, to do the move ourselves rather than hire a mover. The vibe from the moving companies is wrong – at least for us for this move. Since we have the time, we can do this in stages.
Today I began fixing a crack in the ceiling of Mom and Dad's house. It looked like a simple job but once on the ladder I found the ceiling drywall is broken and one side has dropped slightly. Just patching it wouldn't work. I found I could push the ceiling back into place but I'd have to find a joist above it to secure to. I didn't have a stud-finder so I used a stiff wire and pushed it into the crack all along the way to determine if there was anything I could screw to. Fortunately, there was. Two drywall screws put everything back into place and I put on coat #1 of the spackle.
I also began patching a deep indentation in drywall in the living room. This one will just take a few build-up coats to fill but I'll have to let the layers dry well (as in a day or more) in between. If there's any vibration at either of these fixes, the fix may crack but I don't think so.
I walked five that evening after dark. I've found a really nice alternate on my loop. This mile-long segment is a nice, wide divided street lined with streetlights. On most of my route, the snow reflects the city-lit sky and I can see well enough but this section is park-like and really, really nice
when the streetlights light up falling snow flurries.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 23 December -
Today we visited Labashi's sister and husband in the western Detroit 'burbs. As is true with many areas of America these days, the recession has hit their home area hard and is forcing tough decisions about homes, jobs, and schools. It's shocking to learn that people they know are being forced to take jobs at half their accustomed income and many of us are only a job-loss away from a really, really tough situation. I don't want to sound too down, though, about our visit. We really enjoy visiting these folks and would love to see them more often.
---------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 22 December -
It sure doesn't seem like Christmas week. Though I had various relatively small moving-related projects, I also had a chance to keep an eye on Dealnews and Dealmac web sites. Today I picked up a reasonable deal on something I didn't even know existed-- data updates for the lifetime of my GPS. Ever since buying the unit I've complained about the data being old. On my Florida trips I've gone to the trouble of following the directions to Walmarts that turned out to be empty buildings (because they had moved since the data was collected). I've also been very disappointed on the accuracy of Starbucks locations. In one case the GPS told me the nearest Starbucks was fifty miles away so I settled on something else only to find a new Starbucks just a half-block further on.
The deal in this case is an card which provides me a key code to retrieve up to four Navteq (supplier of Garmin's data) updates a year for the life of my GPS. List is $120 and the deal was $80.
This buy is admittedly a like-to-have versus a must-have. I love my GPSMap 60CsX with City Navigator and south Florida Blue Charts (marine charts) and it has served me remarkably well. But it's time for a data update.
Walked 5 today.
---------------------------------------------
Monday, 21 December -
Well, back to the grind today after our pleasant little Christmas break. I made up a craigslist ad for the desk over the weekend and posted it but haven't had any inquiries.
I also visited the local U-Haul and got quotes on trailers and trucks. We have quotes from moving companies but the more we think about using them for this move, the more nervous we are. I can't imagine watching outsiders packing and loading up Dad's art work or Mom's pottery. The impressions from the movers are they are very competitive... and very fast. Two of them lost our confidence in responding to requests for information very quickly and with identical promises to save us 74% if we book right away. Hurry! Save 74%! Don't miss your opportunity to save 74%!!!! And that's before they even know what they would be moving! Imagine the savings when they have some idea what the heck the job is!!!
---------------------------------------------
Sunday, 20 December -
We had a family Christmas celebration today. This is the earliest ever for us but things just work out better this way this year.
It was great to see the Michigan and Ohio family members again and enjoy a too-rare family-style meal.
I particularly enjoyed talking with two of the 'kids', one a high school sophomore and one a college freshman, about this generation's fascination with zombies and zombie-killers. Hilarious!
Just before dark I walked the four-mile version of my walking loop. With this week's temps hitting their highs in the mid-twenties, I've added long-johns to my regular walking clothes and so long as the wind is light, I'm very comfortable. When the wind blows, I walk faster, sometimes jog a bit (and cover up bare skin).
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 19 December -
Today I drove to Royal Oak to a retro furniture store, hoping to learn more about the desk or some of the other furniture Mom and Dad have decided to sell. I enjoyed talking with one of the owners. He wasn't interested in the desk and indicated it doesn't have any significant value to the retro furniture market. After looking around in the store, I could understand why. The retro items tend to be small, outlandishly stylish, and impeccably clean, while the desk, well, isn't any of those.
Back home I found a list of Detroit-area furniture dealers on the web and sent a picture of the desk to those I thought might be interested.
I walked 4.5 that day.
---------------------------------------------
Friday, 18 December -
Today I began research on Dad's car in order to prepare to sell it. Times certainly have changed in that I could easily find values from Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, and NADA and also use SearchTempest to find Craigslist listings for the same year and model. I also cleaned off the desk and took pictures.
I walked 4.5 that afternoon.
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 17 December-
Today Labashi began the process of going through the home to determine what items will go to the new apartment and which will have to find another home. I began researching Dad's studio desk in preparation for selling it.
That afternoon I walked my 4.5 mile loop.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 16 December -
Today we met with two real estate firms regarding marketing of Mom and Dad's Michigan home in conjuction with their move. The news, of course, isn't good for selling a home in this market. We were impressed by both firms but with the tough market we need to also explore a leasing option. More to do!
Late in the day I walked to the local Starbucks and then on around my 4.5 mile loop.
---------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 15 December -
Today we drove the 10+ hours to Labashi's parents' home near Detroit. They have chosen to move to a retirement community near our home in a few months so we have a LOT of work to do. But our trip today was an easy one. Traffic was very light and the rest stops seemed deserted. The time passed very pleasantly, particularly as we listened to podcasts from RadioLab and This American Life.
We made our destination just before dark and enjoyed the evening with our hosts.
*********************** END OF POST *****************
(posted from home)
(This post covers 15 – 31 December, 2009)
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 31 December -
It's New Year's Eve today but I spent it doing bills, insurances, and other financial tasks. I also spent an interesting few hours reasearching Eames chairs. Mom and Dad have some chairs designed by Charles Eames in the mid-Fifties and, amazingly, they still bring a good price--- if, that is, they're in good condition. A couple of them could use upholstery and I eventually found someone who can do that-- but it may be cost-prohibitive.
We tired out well before the year changed and went to bed around 2230. But I had dreams of hearing gunshots and wondering why there were so many gunshots in suburban Detroit (where we were earlier this week). It wasn't till the next day that I realized I was hearing at home.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 30 December -
Ahh, home. Nice. I spent way too much time today on getting quotes for motorcycle insurance and trying to figure out how we can transport the artwork for Labashi's Mom and Dad without spending a fortune. U-haul has boxes but they're $6.50 a piece for the box and another $6 for styrofoam corners which only put one on a box. I looked into building some simple boxes with lauan plywood panels but the plywood alone is now in the $15-a-sheet range and we have something on the order of 150 paintings to move. I don't even want to do the math; I know it's too much.
I also did some blogging to try to catch up. I'm WAY behind.
--------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 29 December -
Today we spent the day at the retirement community, meeting on move-in details and unloading our two loads of 'stuff' we brought back from Michigan. While the apartment is being painted and re-carpeted, we're using the apartment's storage cage and we've rented two additional cages. Before this is over we're going to need more cages since we can't actually move in until February and we plan to bring back another load prior to the big move.
We had lunch at the retirement community's cafe and I was happy to strike up conversations with two of the other guys there while waiting for our food. One was a resident and very happy with the facility. He's in good health but his wife is in the skilled-nursing portion of the facility. The other's uncle is in the skilled nursing area and he too had nothing but good things to say about the staff.
During our visits to the storage cage we met several of neighbors-to-be. They were delightful and we're looking forward to them meeting Mom and Dad.
We finished up around supper time and had supper at a nearby bar-be-que restaurant. This was our first introduction to this style of dry-rub preparation of baby-back ribs. This is one of those situations where we're glad we tried it but probably won't do so again.
That evening we finished the 'Long Way Down' series and its extras. I give it a good-plus. I learned about some of the trials and tribulations of travelling on the BMW GS-series bikes but it didn't turn into a bike-nuts-only thing. I also liked the fact that they didn't sugar-coat their problems. They matter-of-factly stated what was going on and dealt with it. As we learned later, the bikes were only lent to the project. I was therefore impressed that the project (and BMW) had the integrity to not edit out/force out the occasional comments about the bikes being too heavy or the fact that they had multiple failures of the rear suspension system. Anyone with a brain sees that the bikes are being pushed hard and being dumped time after time. That doesn't mean it's not the right bike-- it means you have to prepare for the inevitable. Anyway, good one!
--------------------------------------------
Monday, 28 December -
Today we drove back to PA in two cars. I drove Mocha Joe and Labashi drove her Dad's car. We had snow for the first leg of the trip and that turned out to be the worst part. The road was snow-covered but not particularly slippery. It did seem extra-cold, though. Temps were in the low 20's but winds were blowing at around 25-30 miles per hour. My windshield washer was frozen up for that leg of the trip but I was able to get it working again at our first gas stop.
For the first leg we could only drive about 50-55 miles per hour and we had a strong cross-wind. But once we made the turn east, things got better and the road was dry enough that we could maintain a 65-miles-per-hour pace.
The trip seemed to take an extra long time and we didn't get back to our home area until 1830 or so. We had a filet at The Hillside to celebrate our return and then watched two eps of 'Long Way Down' at home. Labashi has taken quite a liking to this series. I feel guilty now that I was going to just watch it myself when she wasn't around. After all, it's a motorcycle adventure tour! But Ewan and Charley interact with the people quite a bit and there's plenty to keep the non-rider interested.
--------------------------------------------
Sunday, 27 December -
I spent the day packing books. Books, books, and more books! Heavy, heavy books!
That night we watched 'Julie and Julia' with Meryl Streep on DVD. Good one! It's the story of modern-day Julie who decides to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook (and blog about it) interwoven with flashbacks of Julia's life. It sounds hokey, but perhaps that's just the way I express it here. In any case, we really liked this movie (and we're not 'foodies'). Nora Ephron did a great job on this one and we loved seeing her in the extras. And Meryl once again amazes us. I see IMDb tells us many reviewers believe she's our greatest living actress. Roger that.
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 26 December -
I spent today packing, mostly art books, magazines, LP records, and CDs. I backed the car out of the garage so we can have a staging area in the garage and started stacking boxes. We seemed to be filling it up until Labashi's brother came over and we loaded the stuff delegated to him into his van.
I walked my five-mile loop that evening. Between the loading and lifting of the 50-pound moving boxes and the five mile walk, I was ready for bed early tonight.
--------------------------------------------
Friday, 25 December -
It's Christmas Day of course but because we had had our family Christmas last Sunday, today was pretty much just another day. I did manage to speak at some length with my two brothers about Christmas goings-on back home. That was cool.
And though it rained most of today here in the Detroit burbs, I thought I'd take advantage of a brief lull in the rain to walk down to Starbucks for a coffee and paper. But they were closed! And of course as I stood outside the Starbucks door and realized I hadn't dressed quite warmly enough for the breezy, mid-Twenties day, the rain started again. I almost called Labashi to come pick me up--- something I did once when caught a few miles from home in a heavy thunderstorm--- but I decided it wasn't so heavy that I needed to be rescued. I decided instead to just walk faster and dodge between the raindrops and that worked out fine. My trip to Starbucks and back (when I don't include it on my round-the-big-block route) is only about a mile and a half.
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 24 December -
More of the same today. Labashi is interviewing Mom about what will go with them and what will be sold of her things and I received guidance from Dad about the many shelves of books and CDs in his studio.
I made runs to U-haul and Lowe's for moving supplies. Lowe's has great moving boxes in three sizes for .67, .97, and 1.27 each. I also picked up a few mirror boxes from Uhaul to test how to load up Dad's many paintings. U-haul also had a better price on the two different sizes of bubble-wrap.
We've decided, by the way, to do the move ourselves rather than hire a mover. The vibe from the moving companies is wrong – at least for us for this move. Since we have the time, we can do this in stages.
Today I began fixing a crack in the ceiling of Mom and Dad's house. It looked like a simple job but once on the ladder I found the ceiling drywall is broken and one side has dropped slightly. Just patching it wouldn't work. I found I could push the ceiling back into place but I'd have to find a joist above it to secure to. I didn't have a stud-finder so I used a stiff wire and pushed it into the crack all along the way to determine if there was anything I could screw to. Fortunately, there was. Two drywall screws put everything back into place and I put on coat #1 of the spackle.
I also began patching a deep indentation in drywall in the living room. This one will just take a few build-up coats to fill but I'll have to let the layers dry well (as in a day or more) in between. If there's any vibration at either of these fixes, the fix may crack but I don't think so.
I walked five that evening after dark. I've found a really nice alternate on my loop. This mile-long segment is a nice, wide divided street lined with streetlights. On most of my route, the snow reflects the city-lit sky and I can see well enough but this section is park-like and really, really nice
when the streetlights light up falling snow flurries.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 23 December -
Today we visited Labashi's sister and husband in the western Detroit 'burbs. As is true with many areas of America these days, the recession has hit their home area hard and is forcing tough decisions about homes, jobs, and schools. It's shocking to learn that people they know are being forced to take jobs at half their accustomed income and many of us are only a job-loss away from a really, really tough situation. I don't want to sound too down, though, about our visit. We really enjoy visiting these folks and would love to see them more often.
---------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 22 December -
It sure doesn't seem like Christmas week. Though I had various relatively small moving-related projects, I also had a chance to keep an eye on Dealnews and Dealmac web sites. Today I picked up a reasonable deal on something I didn't even know existed-- data updates for the lifetime of my GPS. Ever since buying the unit I've complained about the data being old. On my Florida trips I've gone to the trouble of following the directions to Walmarts that turned out to be empty buildings (because they had moved since the data was collected). I've also been very disappointed on the accuracy of Starbucks locations. In one case the GPS told me the nearest Starbucks was fifty miles away so I settled on something else only to find a new Starbucks just a half-block further on.
The deal in this case is an card which provides me a key code to retrieve up to four Navteq (supplier of Garmin's data) updates a year for the life of my GPS. List is $120 and the deal was $80.
This buy is admittedly a like-to-have versus a must-have. I love my GPSMap 60CsX with City Navigator and south Florida Blue Charts (marine charts) and it has served me remarkably well. But it's time for a data update.
Walked 5 today.
---------------------------------------------
Monday, 21 December -
Well, back to the grind today after our pleasant little Christmas break. I made up a craigslist ad for the desk over the weekend and posted it but haven't had any inquiries.
I also visited the local U-Haul and got quotes on trailers and trucks. We have quotes from moving companies but the more we think about using them for this move, the more nervous we are. I can't imagine watching outsiders packing and loading up Dad's art work or Mom's pottery. The impressions from the movers are they are very competitive... and very fast. Two of them lost our confidence in responding to requests for information very quickly and with identical promises to save us 74% if we book right away. Hurry! Save 74%! Don't miss your opportunity to save 74%!!!! And that's before they even know what they would be moving! Imagine the savings when they have some idea what the heck the job is!!!
---------------------------------------------
Sunday, 20 December -
We had a family Christmas celebration today. This is the earliest ever for us but things just work out better this way this year.
It was great to see the Michigan and Ohio family members again and enjoy a too-rare family-style meal.
I particularly enjoyed talking with two of the 'kids', one a high school sophomore and one a college freshman, about this generation's fascination with zombies and zombie-killers. Hilarious!
Just before dark I walked the four-mile version of my walking loop. With this week's temps hitting their highs in the mid-twenties, I've added long-johns to my regular walking clothes and so long as the wind is light, I'm very comfortable. When the wind blows, I walk faster, sometimes jog a bit (and cover up bare skin).
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 19 December -
Today I drove to Royal Oak to a retro furniture store, hoping to learn more about the desk or some of the other furniture Mom and Dad have decided to sell. I enjoyed talking with one of the owners. He wasn't interested in the desk and indicated it doesn't have any significant value to the retro furniture market. After looking around in the store, I could understand why. The retro items tend to be small, outlandishly stylish, and impeccably clean, while the desk, well, isn't any of those.
Back home I found a list of Detroit-area furniture dealers on the web and sent a picture of the desk to those I thought might be interested.
I walked 4.5 that day.
---------------------------------------------
Friday, 18 December -
Today I began research on Dad's car in order to prepare to sell it. Times certainly have changed in that I could easily find values from Kelly Blue Book, Edmunds, and NADA and also use SearchTempest to find Craigslist listings for the same year and model. I also cleaned off the desk and took pictures.
I walked 4.5 that afternoon.
--------------------------------------------
Thursday, 17 December-
Today Labashi began the process of going through the home to determine what items will go to the new apartment and which will have to find another home. I began researching Dad's studio desk in preparation for selling it.
That afternoon I walked my 4.5 mile loop.
--------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 16 December -
Today we met with two real estate firms regarding marketing of Mom and Dad's Michigan home in conjuction with their move. The news, of course, isn't good for selling a home in this market. We were impressed by both firms but with the tough market we need to also explore a leasing option. More to do!
Late in the day I walked to the local Starbucks and then on around my 4.5 mile loop.
---------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 15 December -
Today we drove the 10+ hours to Labashi's parents' home near Detroit. They have chosen to move to a retirement community near our home in a few months so we have a LOT of work to do. But our trip today was an easy one. Traffic was very light and the rest stops seemed deserted. The time passed very pleasantly, particularly as we listened to podcasts from RadioLab and This American Life.
We made our destination just before dark and enjoyed the evening with our hosts.
*********************** END OF POST *****************
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 11:59
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