It's on the truck

That has to be one of my all-time favorite salesman excuses for why an ordered product wasn't delivered on time. In our case, however, it literally is true. After a marathon night packing session Tuesday night, we called it quits around midnight, set the alarm for 4 AM, got a few hours of sleep, then resumed stuffing our lives into boxes.

The movers showed up on time and were very efficient. They were also grateful to us because we had culled a large pile of stuff that we weren't taking, but it wasn't trash either. As my sinister-in-law said the night before, "somebody could start a new life (a good life) with all the stuff you're leaving behind!" The movers culled that pile further by picking through it to find treasures for themselves to take.

As for the picked-through leftovers, the church very very very graciously offered to cart it away for us. Thanks, Bob and Dwain! Meanwhile, another church member showed up with fresh chocolate chip cookies, and another member carted off most of the opened (but still edible) food from the fridge and pantry. Good people.

Anyway, the truck pulled out around 3 PM or so. We spent another hour doing the final walk through and clean-up (I use the term loosely), then packed up our cars with the stuff we wanted to keep with us, stuffed Zane into a space amongst the clutter, said a last few tearful goodbyes, and headed to St. Louis for an overnight rest.

The plan is for me to drive up to Chicago today to meet the truck when it arrives Friday morning. Sarah, Zane, and "Grumpy" (Sarah's Dad) will drive up on Friday. The old man got a senior discount on Amtrak, so his trip back will be on the cheap.

Did I mention the weather? Monday (our originally scheduled moving day) was clear and beautiful, but we changed it last week after it became abundantly clear that two full-time workers with a toddler can't get much packing done without extra time and/or extra help - as it turned out, we needed plenty of both. Yesterday was cold and nasty, with early drizzle changing to freezing rain and then to snow, but just enough to make things messy.

Meanwhile, Chicagoland got hit with a mini-blizzard on Wednesday, although the city seemed to escape the worst of it - maybe about 4 inches total, as opposed to the 12-14 inches that the northern suburbs were pounded with. Today is supposed to be cold, but only flurries. Friday should be a bit warmer, but still cold enough for flurries. What fun!