The Big Moving Day

I’m looking for an electrical cord.

Not just your average electrical cord but, one that goes with a rechargeable air pump that I have. Without it, I can’t recharge the air pump and therefore, I can’t put air into my bicycle tires. It’s a horrible catch 22.

Sure, I could not worry about it and just take the bikes to the local gas station to put air in the tires. But then, I would have to load the bikes up and haul them and it would just be so much easier to just use the battery operated air pump to fill them up and before you ask, no I don’t have an old fashioned hand pump.

The whole idea of this article and the point I am trying to make is NOT about an air pump, an electrical cord, bicycles or even the fact that I am too lazy to take the bikes to the gas station. The point I am trying to make is why I can’t find the electrical cord. I can’t find the electrical cord simply because my wife and I just purchased and moved into our first home. I know the cord is actually here somewhere but, the question is where?

We began to pack almost as soon as we put the offer on our house. I thought I would try to make it as easy and as simple on us as we could. I began by labeling everything that was in the boxes and even listed which room they should but put into on ‘The Big Moving Day’. We had more than enough time to pack, clean and throw out garbage while we waited for the offer to be accepted and to settle on a closing date, only to have the closing date pushed back. Then we had more time to pack when the closing date got pushed back further. Needless to say, very few, if any of the labeled boxes made it to the correct room once they were moved. Most of the boxes made their way to MY basement, no matter what label was on the box. The list of items in the box would help, I was sure of it, if only I could remember what I meant by ‘Kitchen Items’ and ‘Bedroom Things’

As we packed, we soon discovered an amazing law of physics. Items packed in a box take up much more room than these same items cluttering up your living space and being strewn about the place. This created a new dilemma, where do we put everything so we have room to pack more boxes? The basement was out of the question, this was its own disaster area by itself. Besides, it needed packed and cleaned too (I didn’t realize how much of an understatement this was until later). Its times like these that you realize what families are for. So we moved our boxes into the garage of a family member, “For just a couple of weeks” (please note above where I mentioned our closing date and what happened to it).

When “The Big Moving Day” Finally arrived, I realized how useless it was to have the boxes labeled. By this point in the whole ordeal, you don’t care where the boxes go, what’s in the boxes or even if you got everything. Those ‘prized possessions’ that you took so much care in wrapping and protecting, you are just TOO willing to just chuck them into the nearest dumpster, just so you don’t have to carry one more box or try to find room for it in the overpriced rental truck you shelled out a weeks hard earned wages for. Of course, you park this truck in your driveway just as your buddies come pulling in with their pick up trucks.

You further discover that the labeling of boxes was by now, a ridiculous idea because on that moving day, you are taking your garbage can and throwing into it anything which is not nailed down, and if you could find a hammer you would get those items too. In your garbage can you find a collection of food from the fridge, telephone books, bathroom plunger and the TV remote. Once you finally have the truck unloaded and get to relax for two seconds, it slowly dawns on you that you still have more boxes in the garage of a family member.

When you have settled into your new home and can take your time opening boxes, trying to figure out what you meant with the strange abbreviations on the boxes, you can take your time looking for something as simple as an electrical cord. Which I am sure was put in a box where I would remember where it was.

But I don’t have the time to look for it now, I need to load the bikes onto the car and go to the gas station to put air in the tires.