The Moving Truck Victory that Overcometh!

After a few days, our moving truck finally arrived.  Ryan had been stressing about the truck’s arrival because it was packed to the brim with all our stuff.  He had no idea how we were going to unload the whole thing and move everything into a storage unit.  And this was not a typical U-Haul truck either.  It was a full on 28-foot trailer with probably a 10-foot ceiling.  It had this steep and dangerous ramp down the tail end, that went about 5 feet up to the edge of the back of the trailer.  I tried bringing one load down the ramp using the hand cart (by myself) and almost died.  The weight of the cart came screaming down the ramp towards me and it almost ran me over.  Ryan came running to my rescue and saved me…. it was scary. 

• 

• 

One of the locals (actually a few now that I think of it) offered to help us with unloading the stuff.  That’s just how the locals are here.  They are so genuinely friendly offering up things like that.  But they weren’t available until the next day and Ryan felt a lot of pressure to get this trailer emptied and removed off property as soon as possible.  So believe it or not, Ryan unloaded that whole thing by himself!  He started around 7am and was finished by 4pm.  It was a very hot day, which added up to 9 incredibly long hours. 

I knew the work had taken everything out of him because at around 3:45pm (with only 4 small boxes left to unload) this guy in a truck shows up to open his storage unit right next to us.  As he is opening it up, I could see Ryan’s face make this weird expression. I don’t really know how to describe it.  Basically, it looked like he was about to fall to his knees and cry.  This lucky guy had a storage unit that could only be described as a man cave on steroids.  It was so incredibly organized with kayaks, canoes, camping gear, bikes and etc.  You name it, it was all there.  Everything in pristine condition, all in perfect order by size, color and shape.  He was headed out on an epic kayaking adventure with his buddies.  “Just a quick one after work,” he said, like it was no big deal.    

Meanwhile, our storage unit was just crammed to death with every last ridiculous thing we had ever held onto a broom here, an extra car seat there, a throw pillow that we literally threw into a small crack found in the way back. The stroller that we would never ever use again (come to find out), was right on top of our 8 million dollar stereo speakers, once known to be more precious to Ryan than his own life.  Hey, at least we wrapped them in leftover cardboard that we found last minute, right? 

The two storage units’ side by side could not have been a better description of just how different our two worlds were at that very moment.  That lucky guy was living the dream, about to have the time of his life.  Ryan on the other hand, well, I could feel his agony.  He was dying and desperate for a break.  And he would get one, but only after “third lunch”, walking the dogs, making dinner and getting the rascals off to bed. 

• 

• 

• 

He hung in there for a few more hours, like a champ and eventually got to rest on his inflatable mattress (which decided to deflate a little that night).  He was pretty dang proud of himself for doing all the heavy lifting on his own and I was too. It was impressive and he never ceases to amaze me with his strength and determination. 

(to be continued…..)