The Day After

Sunday night I didn’t sleep well. I ended up driving downstate to finish loading our possessions and then closing on the house, and driving back, and helping to unload the uhaul trailer on only about 3 hours of sleep.

This morning when EJ woke up at 5 a.m. to get ready for work, I got up with him because I had to return the uhaul trailer at 7:30 a.m. As EJ drove up the hill to our house last night, the “Low Fuel” alarm went off and I was concerned that I didn’t have enough gas to make it to the gas station. So I ended up following EJ to a local gas station at 6 a.m. because EJ wanted to make sure I made it there ok and wasn’t stranded along the road. He pumped my gas for me, paid for it, and then he continued on to work while I went home until the uhaul rental place opened.

Last time I had to return the uhaul trailer, EJ positioned the sub/trailer so that I just had to drive down the driveway. I do not know how to back up with a trailer. But it occurred to me just before EJ and I parted ways this morning that he wouldn’t be there this time to position the sub/trailer. I would have to make it up the driveway and somehow turn the sub around so I could make it back down again. In a panic, I asked EJ how I was going to manage it. He told me to just drive in a circle at the top of the driveway and to remember that if I had to back up, I needed to turn the steering wheel in the opposite direction that I wanted the trailer to go. Easey Peasey. Yeah, right. All the way home I tried to think of how on earth I would get the Sub pointed the right way and back down the driveway.

I couldn’t drive the Sub around in a circle at the top of our driveway because the HHR is parked outside and there wasn’t enough room. But I pulled in next to the HHR and backed straight back and then turned so that I was pointing down the hill. Success! Whew! I did try to back up so that I was parked on level ground instead of down an incline, but the trailer went wonky so I said, “Screw it!“ and just left it there, hoping that it would stay and not start rolling down the driveway to crash in a tree at the bottom. It didn’t.

At 7:30 a.m., I got in the Sub and successfully returned the uhaul trailer. We are totally done with uhaul rentals. Yay!

At 9 a.m., I had to drive to our bank to deposit the check from the sale of our house. Yay! All the way to the bank and back, I admired the beautiful scenery. My route takes me along the coast of a beautiful lake and our bank is located on its shore.

When I got back home, I sat down and called the various downstate utility companies connected with our old house to cancel our accounts with them. We had continued to pay the water/sewer, natural gas, and electricity for the old house so that the pipes wouldn’t freeze in the winter and so the realtor could show the house. The realty company had paid off our loan for us with the money from the sale of the house, and I had already canceled our lawn care service. Paying bills down there in addition to up here at the new house really made finances tight this last year. As I called the companies, I found that the new buyer had already switched the accounts to himself, which made it easier for me–I basically just verified that service was stopped for us. It was really enjoyable crossing these companies off my list.

With my tasks finished, I was so tired that I lay down and took a nap.

When I woke up, JJ was up and I fixed us lunch. On the way home from the bank this morning, I had stopped at the grocery store for a couple of items, including a watermelon. Later I served JJ and me watermelon for lunch dessert, but I cut it so there was still watermelon on the rind and JJ and I went out and threw it to the ducks and chickens. I had read that they liked melon. This was the first time they had ever had melon and they didn’t seem to know what to do with it, but later I went out to the pen and saw that the rinds were picked clean so they must have figured it out.

I asked JJ what the grocery store he works at does with melons and stuff that doesn’t sell. I’m thinking about asking them if I can have or buy (at a reduced price) the unsaleable too-ripe melons for the chickens and ducks.

After we fed the ducks, I was tired again so I took another nap. Several minutes after I woke up, while I was preparing supper for EJ, I looked out the window and saw Danny. He had gone outside with us when JJ and I went out to feed melon to the ducks and chickens, and I had forgotten to bring him back in with us. He always likes to be with me, and I left him wandering outside for who-knows-how-long. Poor dog! He was glad to rejoin us in the house!

Because EJ had taken yesterday off from work, he is supposed to work 10 hours each day for the remainder of this week. However, he lasted only an extra hour today because he, also, is exhausted. In fact, he was so exhausted that he said he fell asleep driving home. I fed him a good supper and then encouraged him to go right to bed. It’s taken longer and longer to recover from our trips downstate each week, and yesterday’s trip totally exhausted us. I think we are going to be extra tired for a while until we get rested.

I’m so glad there will be no more long trips and hard work downstate. I’m looking forward to being able to focus entirely on our life up here in the north.