Our First Day at Home?

Disbelieving neighbors shook their heads and claimed we would never fill our first humongous dumpster. Not only did we pack the first dumpster to the top, we filled the second one with debris from the house! With all the warm weather we enjoyed in December, the dumpster began belching vile odors. Tammy snapped a shot of the interior and found nothing suspicious nor worthy of an episode of Monk, a detective with obsessive-compulsive disorder who would not touch it with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

Because all demo work is finished, Steve called the dumpster company this morning. Business must be slow this time of year because the truck arrived in about half an hour. Our neighbor probably uncorked a bottle of champagne once she saw the foul beast depart from our driveway. We were glad to be rid of the stench worthy of Shelob's lair. And, we are excited because we can finally park our cars, side by side in the driveway. Our carport is full of junk again and cleaning it up is yet one more project on the to-do list.

Readers might wonder why we were so adamant about moving into our new old house in Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We faced two intractable deadlines: (1) our lease expires on our rented house by the end of the month and (2) Steve’s nephews and their father were visiting Universal Studios in Orlando all the way from El Salvador. The cousins had not seen each other in two years, and we hoped to share some quality family time. We knew we would not enjoy a vacation with the dread of a move hanging over our heads, so we gritted our teeth, ignored our sore muscles, and pushed ourselves.

We spent the morning washing clothes, dropping the dogs off at the kennel, and packing for the trip. Steve, Tammy, and the children (Pamela and David) ate a hearty lunch at Tammy’s parents—leftovers from Christmas dinner, even better the second time around. We left at 2:30 P.M. and spent the rest of the day in the car, allowing our sore muscles to stiffen! What ought to have been a six-hour journey took seven-and-a-half because of traffic backed up on I-95 going through South Carolina and Georgia. We arrived in Orlando completely exhausted between the hard work of the past two days, the chirping birds in our house (two smoke detectors in dire need of batteries, stashed in an unknown box in storage), and the long ride.