June 15th-16th -- Dayton & 500
I didn't know when the packers were going to arrive, and my paperwork said I had to be there by 0800 just in case, so after five hours of hotel snooze, I jogged back over to my apartment to finish getting ready. The movers arrived around 9:30, youngish Jason and RipVanWinkleish "Pappy", nice fellers. Jay joined them with the truck later, and they were out of there by around 1:45.
Cleaned the joint until around 6, then grabbed some Skyline Chili, as I had grown addicted to the stuff and it's not a chain they have around here. At 9, I went back and packed up the car with everything except the fridge stuff and my bike (didn't want to leave that out on the street), then strolled up to the Riverscape to see if there would be a laser show up against the fountain. I had never caught a show, and thought it might be neat to see. It was no Pink Floyd concert, but a neat thing for a downtown. I wandered past my apartment building for the last time...pain in the ass, thin walls, extra expense, but it was home. We made it work.
The next morning I woke up at the same time to finish packing and cleaning up the smallest crumbs from the edge rails of the fridge. The landlords know I'm Air Force, want to leave a good impression. I had washed the baseboards, mopped the kitchen floor tiles with Clorox sheets (I was sans mop) and pretty much smelled like bleach for a day and a half.
Of course, even though I had borrowed the elevator key the day before, and the office dude said he would put my check-out on his calendar, there was no one around at 8:45 when I was ready to leave. The cleaning lady gave me his cell phone number, but he didn't answer it..she said the other guy would be in at 9. So I went out and fed the meter some more and stewed on the waiting room couch. I have a 500-mile trip ahead of me, pal, that I wanted to start fifteen minutes ago, let's go. At 9:10 the first guy strolled in, said he doesn't take calls from strange area codes, and then said "Well, I'm sure your apartment's fine, we don't need to check it out," which is at once flattering and a bit annoying. "But...I cleaned the little knobby deals on the bottom of the toilet covering the screws..."
And of course I get outside and the Culligan watery delivery truck is double-parked next to my Thunderbird. I just smiled.
The trip home was uneventful, though on a whim I hung a right on I-77 rather than continuing on I-70; I figure I've seen enough of Wheeling in the last two years, let's try another route. Very pretty, hilly, central West Virginia route 50 took me over to I-79 and back up to Morgantown and my usual route. I got in just after 7 pm, just before little tyke's bed time. Griffin was the first to see me from his perch in the foyer, standing up with a stretch and a wave of his tail. "Oh. It's you," it seemed to say.
One address again. One home. A land-line phone! Very weird feeling, this non-temporary stay here with my own wife and child. I'm sure it's an adjustment for all. It's a lot hairier here, that's for sure. And within a half-hour of arriving, I had ingested two-week-expired milk and being asked by my wife to remove the dead rotting possum from the backyard that we hope died of natural causes and not Griffin causes.
Cleaned the joint until around 6, then grabbed some Skyline Chili, as I had grown addicted to the stuff and it's not a chain they have around here. At 9, I went back and packed up the car with everything except the fridge stuff and my bike (didn't want to leave that out on the street), then strolled up to the Riverscape to see if there would be a laser show up against the fountain. I had never caught a show, and thought it might be neat to see. It was no Pink Floyd concert, but a neat thing for a downtown. I wandered past my apartment building for the last time...pain in the ass, thin walls, extra expense, but it was home. We made it work.
The next morning I woke up at the same time to finish packing and cleaning up the smallest crumbs from the edge rails of the fridge. The landlords know I'm Air Force, want to leave a good impression. I had washed the baseboards, mopped the kitchen floor tiles with Clorox sheets (I was sans mop) and pretty much smelled like bleach for a day and a half.
Of course, even though I had borrowed the elevator key the day before, and the office dude said he would put my check-out on his calendar, there was no one around at 8:45 when I was ready to leave. The cleaning lady gave me his cell phone number, but he didn't answer it..she said the other guy would be in at 9. So I went out and fed the meter some more and stewed on the waiting room couch. I have a 500-mile trip ahead of me, pal, that I wanted to start fifteen minutes ago, let's go. At 9:10 the first guy strolled in, said he doesn't take calls from strange area codes, and then said "Well, I'm sure your apartment's fine, we don't need to check it out," which is at once flattering and a bit annoying. "But...I cleaned the little knobby deals on the bottom of the toilet covering the screws..."
And of course I get outside and the Culligan watery delivery truck is double-parked next to my Thunderbird. I just smiled.
The trip home was uneventful, though on a whim I hung a right on I-77 rather than continuing on I-70; I figure I've seen enough of Wheeling in the last two years, let's try another route. Very pretty, hilly, central West Virginia route 50 took me over to I-79 and back up to Morgantown and my usual route. I got in just after 7 pm, just before little tyke's bed time. Griffin was the first to see me from his perch in the foyer, standing up with a stretch and a wave of his tail. "Oh. It's you," it seemed to say.
One address again. One home. A land-line phone! Very weird feeling, this non-temporary stay here with my own wife and child. I'm sure it's an adjustment for all. It's a lot hairier here, that's for sure. And within a half-hour of arriving, I had ingested two-week-expired milk and being asked by my wife to remove the dead rotting possum from the backyard that we hope died of natural causes and not Griffin causes.
posted by Dan at 1:56 PM
1 Comments:
so glad you're GLAD!
Post a Comment
<< Home