Today we left Austin!

Since the last post 10 days ago, Lorie and I have run around like chickens. Here's a few of the things we've been doing...

...scavenging free (used) boxes from friends and strangers online, packing those boxes with all our belongings, breaking down furniture, mulching/trimming/mowing/and otherwise cleaning up all the landscaping (ignored since Lorie left), wrapping up loose ends with existing customers so I could focus on fixing up the house for sale, visiting with friends and saying goodbye, selling my car to a friend, spending a whole day attending to an emergency computer issue for a customer (unexpectedly, I've built a thriving two customer tech support business in Bastrop - a town 45 minutes east of Austin!) hosting a goodbye party at our house Friday night, having a yardsale Saturday, surviving over 48 hours of no electricity after two severe storms blew through in a 24 hour period, renting a 12' Penske cargo truck Sunday, using the truck to take household items to Salvation Army and Construction materials to Habitat For Humanity's Re-Store, attending a wedding and reception Sunday afternoon, and picking up a new 7' tall metal storage cabinet for my tools from the Sears Grand in friggin' Round Rock Monday - then assembling it with the help of best friend Gail...

...and all day Tuesday, loading the truck with the help of two wonderful friends, and cleaning the empty house with the help of another wonderful friend!

And we are SO, SO grateful for those friends Gail, Derek, Eric, and Beth for their unflagging assistance in getting us out of that house on our target day!!! We never could have done it without them, and even with all their help we barely made it. As the clock approached midnight, Master Truck Loader Eric was artfully squeezing in the last few standing lamps as a third lightening storm boomed louder and louder!
With absolutely no more room in the cargo area,
and three large expensive wrought iron plant holders sitting in the driveway, Eric had the brilliant idea of wrapping them in pads and strapping the bundle on the roof of the cab utilizing all his Boy Scout knot-tying and bungii-hooking skills! It was a beautiful solution and off we went into the western darkness. (photos taken next day.)

Funny truck-drivin-newbie anecdote: just a few minutes outside Austin we stopped to gas up and I checked the tire pressure. I noticed one of the wheel lug nuts was totally loose, so, not having any tools available (all packed up), I tightened it by hand as much as possible. Upon checking all the rest of the lug nuts I discovered I could hand tighten about 50% of them!!! Needless to say, we were a tad alarmed by this, but since everything was closed (just past 1:00am) we were determined to forge on to the nearest motel and deal with the lugs tomorrow. We fretted cautiously all the way to a Best Western in Johnson City



Map of
Johnson City, TX
and were in bed by about 2am. Next day we stopped at the first service station we found where a nice grease monkey informed me that real trucks like this have plastic lug nut COVERS, which is what I had been straining to hand tighten the night before. duh. duh. duh. duh. duh. etc.