Tuesday, July 29, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,960 – (Tuesday) – erasing and leaving

It’s only Tuesday, but it feels much later in the week. Ugh. The day began and ending with what felt like erasing myself from the house.

There was packing and forgetting and being interrupted by calls and messages from insurance and legal folks. Today had an email asking for a signature on something I did last week, and an application for insurance coverage that had several errors including spelling the city wrong. Cool.

This was all while trying to load the car to get out of the house forever. The destination was the home of friends closer to the new home.

From the start, there were challenges. Up at 5:30, and at 6:00, the roll of toilet paper ran out. Spares of everything had been delivered to Mom’s on Monday. WTF. The closest store opened at 8. There was sweeping and wiping and emptying the fridge. There was the buying to toilet paper. There was no coffee, and I didn't die.

It took a span of four hours to load the car (with detours for other major tasks). Items were sacrificed to the disposal and trash gods because I didn’t have the physical capacity to take it with me (limited cargo space and passenger seat needed for Kiki and carrier).

There was a decision on Sunday to keep Kiki’s litter cabinet in place as long as possible because she was distraught over the chaos. That decision led to issues today when I needed to get it into the car. The cargo area was rearranged countless times. Items previously groped in logical collections were consolidated. The plan of not leaving behind a bin full of trash was abandoned and it felt lucky that I could leave the new folks the rest of the official city Purple Overflow Trash Bags.

A friend came to the rescue and helped with the mattress, box spring, and futon mattress recycling. We loaded stuff into his truck, and after he left and I sat on the couch, I realized we’d forgotten the futon mattress.  

While on the phone with the realtor discussing the news of the one-day delay of the closing of the sale, I realized I had forgot the wall clocks. Later I nearly forgot to take the wifi router.

The final countdown -
Kiki in her box spring.
Kiki was torqued up and hung out in what was left of her beloved box spring until it was ripped from her. The calming treats I gave her must have finally worked because I was able to pick her up and get her into the crate in one attempt. She yowled in displeasure. She yowled the whole one hour and fifteen minute ride to my friends’ house. 

I was concerned the battery might have drained from the car doors and tailgate being open all day, but the real problem was that I neglected to check the fuel level before we rolled out and we nearly ran out of gas. It totally fit with the flow of the day. I finally started to relax somewhere on Route 119, headed to Ashburnham.

Another tiring day, but the finish line is in sight.

Monday, July 28, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,959 – (Monday) – head splitter

The headache came in strong and early, likely due to caffeine deprivation. Instant chai latte tastes nice, but does not have the same invigorating effect as coffee. Fail.

The morning was loaded with hiccups (in addition to the headache, or maybe because of). Trying to log into a bank account resulted in blank screens and not even the benefit of an error message. Logging into the unemployment site was not successful. There was an email from a paralegal about difficulty submitting the mortgage payoff request to the bank-provided fax number. Umm, ok? Should that not be a call to the bank? I ended up signing in to the bank’s online portal for possibly the first time since 2016 to check if requesting a payoff was possible in the portal (nope). I was able to submit a question via chat. 

By 10:15 it felt like an entire day had passed and my head felt like it would crack open. The pod pickup window was 11-2, so there wasn't time to go hunt for coffee. In the midst of trying to sign up for one of the letters of the Medicare alphabet soup bullshit, the truck arrived early to pick up the moving box. I was caught off guard because my phone, which often fails to signal an incoming call, was on strike again today and I missed the call from the driver that he was on the way.

Bye bye stuff,
see you in a few days.
The company sent the 40-plus-foot truck to pick up the pod, which was too big for the space between my driveway and the front steps of the house across the street. I told the driver it looked like a bigger truck than had delivered the thing, and the driver of the smaller truck had trouble maneuvering into position. They had to send the 30-something-foot truck that originally delivered the unit “maybe today, definitely tomorrow.” The importance of the box going away today was stressed and it happened. 

I decided to take on something I could control. The headache was raging, but it was too close to noon to hunt down coffee if I wanted any hope of sleeping tonight. I loaded the car and drove over to St. Vincent de Paul with another donation drop off, where I was witness to more parking lot drama as I unloaded things from my car, this time involving two grown males. One guy was walking through the lot and somehow ended up in a yelling match with an older guy sitting in a car, and called the car sitter “a f*cking redneck.” He kept yelling and swearing as he walked away. A worker came out and the car guy said the other guy tried to sell him drugs and got mad when he said no.

When I ran the vacuum, Kiki started yowling like she was being tortured. Usually, she just slinks out to a hiding place, but the place is empty, save for a mattress and box spring leaning on a wall in the living room, the futon, and the litter box cabinet. Yesterday, when the vacuum was on, she yowled and ran around, but all her hiding places had disappeared, which made her even more anxious. She ended up crouched in a corner of the bathroom for several hours. Today she took refuge in her litter box cabinet, then relocated to the top of the stairs where she remained all day. Prior to these two episodes, I had no idea she was so bothered by the vacuum. Poor kitty has been living in turmoil for two months as things disappeared from rooms and strange people came in and out and she's had enough. Unfortunately, it's not over yet.

The smaller truck arrived a couple hours later and the pod was whisked away. I’ll see it again on Saturday. In the meantime, I’ll be praying hard that the securing of the load holds. This pod style had limited opportunities to attach straps compared to the company I used before.

I loaded my car with things to go to Mom’s – random stuff that never made it into the pod. The runners in the porch and bathroom should have gone into the pod, but they were so much a part of the landscape I never even noticed them until the thing had been taken away. There were also items I didn’t want to go into the pod, like the TV. My head hurt the entire trip there and back.

I tried to finish the Medicare alphabet thing again, but ran into another glitch involving the fact that my address will be changing on August 1, the same day the thing is to take effect, and it wouldn’t let me update to the new address. It looks like the fun will continue tomorrow.

As much as I wanted to avoid leaving trash in the barrel, and even added a second “Purple Overflow Trash” bag to the curbside collection this morning, it’s going to happen. With no tv or even books, I kept cleaning things, which kept creating dirty paper towels and more stuff to empty out of the vacuum. The fridge still had items because I still need to eat, which meant empty containers and used paper plates. Hey, I tried. It’s not my fault trash pickup is on Monday and the past two weeks it’s happened five hours earlier than usual.

Ice cream and chips.
Tomorrow, there will be coffee. I’m not going through this head-splitting torture again. For tonight, comfort was sought in black raspberry ice cream with mini chocolate chips and potato chips, straight from the container with a plastic spoon (no bowls, plate seemed dumb). 

Sunday, July 27, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,958 – (Sunday) – firsts

In eight years and ten months at The BungaLowell, I had a perfect record of never needing a “Purple Overflow Trash Bag.” Yes, that is how it’s referred to on the city website. Usually, my tall kitchen can size trash bag is less than full, sometimes only half full. Today, because moving generates a lot more trash with the tossing of no longer needed items in addition to the regular trash, I needed a purple overflow bag. I did not realize this for sure until nearly 7 pm, but luckily, Market Basket, the local purveyor of the Lowell official city purple overflow trash bags is open until 8 on Sundays. Off I went.

Leading up to the realization of the trash excess, I had suspected it might be the case, and then, through a combination of forgetting and neglecting, failed to buy any of the purple magical bags to spirit away what doesn’t fit into the bin. The package of bags, quantity not specified on the label, was $10, which almost had me reconsidering my dedication to leaving the bins empty for my buyers. Almost. I bought the bags. I ended up using one.

Before visiting the customer service counter for the valuable purple overflow garbage bags, I visited the paper serving ware aisle. In the thoroughness of packing the kitchen, which began at 5:30 this morning, I neglected to leave out a coffee mug for my coffee substitute beverage of choice, instant chai latte. Duh. 

The partyware aisle had packages of 80 cups, 40 cups, 30 cups, all more than I need. I decided to go to Family Dollar and buy a reusable coffee mug, even though I know from having just packed them, that I own about 10,000 frigging coffee mugs. But a reusable mug could accommodate any liquid and go into the microwave while also meeting the desire to not generate more trash.

Family Dollar was painful. There was a kid chattering away in full blown outdoor voice, a couple aisles away. She started yelling/singing about getting a backpack. As I looked at greeting cards, said child came into the same aisle I was in, which also holds craft and school supplies. Holding two backpacks, the youngling started filing one of them with items. Giant bottles of Elmer’s Glue, packs of colored markers which were gushed over with admiration, crayons, a jar of something pink, whatever. All were stuffed into the backpack I chose a couple cards and went to the coffee cups, the source of my mission.

There were mugs for $3 with sayings on them – “Wake up and be awesome!” and “Hello Sunshine” and such. I got on that says “Choose Happy.” It seems like a good reminder.

As I proceeded towards the register, there was screaming. Apparently, the adult in charge of the backpack child had other ideas about the purchase, and the kid was wailing “I want a backpack!” and “I don’t want to leave” and other protests. The kid had quite a set of lungs. The cashier looked unfazed. The customer ahead of me seemed unbothered. I probably looked calm, but I was dying to see how the drama would unfold.

The adult didn’t blink, and continued paying for the sanctioned items. There was no negotiating, just a “no.” Then the rest of the party, adult woman in a nice dress, teenage girl in a red dress, and young boy in long pants and a shirt headed for the door. The wailing girl child wouldn’t budge from the checkout, and when she finally did, she bolted towards the door, slapping backpack set on a chair at the checkout displays on the way, then slapped the door with both hands a couple times, entered the vestibule, turned around and reentered the store, and headed back towards the main backpack display that sparked her desire. The rest of her party began walking across the parking lot. The still sobbing and wailing kid finally left the store under her own power.

When I went outside, the kid was sitting in the spot where the access road into the parking lot forms a T with the road running along the storefronts. There was crying and the stamping of feet and hands on the ground. Live kids theater (of this caliber) in the parking lot a Family Dollar was a first for me. The adult stood by calmly, looking at her phone. The teenager and young boy were already at the edge of the plaza, turning onto the sidewalk.

I don’t think I would ever have done that as a child, but mostly because sitting on the ground was gross and I would have been afraid of messing up my perfect little coordinated shorts and top outfit. This girl was not concerned about messing her very cute and sassy shorts and top outfit, she was committed to the drama and definitely choosing not happy.

If there hadn’t been 10,000 things needing doing at the house I might have sat in my car watching for the resolution to the histrionics. Instead, I avoided running over the child sitting on the pavement by turning away and looping through the nearly empty parking area. Then it was vacuuming and dusting baseboards, kind of a warmup for doing the same thing in a different house next weekend.

Saturday, July 26, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,957 – (Saturday) –full day

‘Twas a full day. There was performance preparation (hair, makeup, costume parts that are okay to drive in), driving (1 hour and 20 minutes), carpooling to the festival site, final preparations in one of the dancer's office (the spangly costume parts), dancing our dances, chatting with friends who attended festival and saw our performance, carpooling, driving back home (1 hour and 20 minutes). The weather was less humid than recent days and it was lovely. In all, the dancing and related activities were a 5.5 hour chunk of the day. 

After changing into shorts and tee shirt, there was more packing. A visit to the shed to gauge the volume of stuff (too much) led to the discovery of a couple large boxes and packing paper. The lawn was mowed for the final time.

At nearly 9:00, during a quick text break with my sister, I realized I forgot to visit Home Depot to buy a TV box. Luckily, they were still open for another hour and I dashed out into the world to accomplish the task.

At 10:00 while packing the kitchen, I discovered some microwave containers that had been set aside and tucked into a corner of a cabinet. The leftover pasta and vegetables was transferred from the pot in the refrigerator to the container and it was too small. To solve the problem, I heated up some of the pasta and ate it. It felt very European and vacation-y eating supper so late.  

Then it was back to the packing. The kitchen is now closed, except for microwavable leftovers. The boxes from the shed are large, and that makes then unwieldy when full. At east the new ones bought with the TV box had handle cutouts on the sides.

Tomorrow is the final loading phase. That will be a relief.

Friday, July 25, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,956 – (Friday) – still packing it in

It is the home stretch for life-size Tetris - The Build. The box gets picked up Monday, so it needs to be loaded and locked Sunday. Productive quality time today was spent rearranging some of the placements done last weekend, now that the questionable items have been decided and there is a clearer picture of exactly what is coming with me and needs to be packed.

Still packing it in.
The packing tape ran out again, requiring a trip to Family Dollar. All the smaller boxes have been used up (again) as I built up the back wall. Three bookcases were relocated from a side wall to the center back to square the load off. The bookcases were emptied in the house and brought to the cube, then refilled with books, boxes, whatever fit. Today, they were emptied at least enough to slide, walk, rotate, whatever maneuver it took to set them in a different place a few feet away. There are still odd-sized spaces in need of items. There are odd-sized items in need of boxes.

There are three large, sturdy, awkward boxes that need to be placed in the cube and then filled (one person job), or filled in the house and brought into the cube (with help). Plus an armchair, the home office desk and chair, file cabinet, random chairs, and some other things. 

There was a known casualty today. I was placing a box containing a soup tureen, tray, and ladle, plus a Pyrex baking dish with a lid that used to be Mummu’s. As I stood on a chair in the cube and raised the box to place it, it slipped, grazed the scar on my wrist (ow!) and landed on the floor. It was cushioned a bit by a bag of soft items on the floor but when I picked it up again, there was some rattling. It was taken back into the house and opened. Better to check out the situation now instead of getting surprised and sliced during unpacking. The lid was shattered into a gajillion shards.

Pieces of broken glass were removed and wrapped for the trash. And now I’ll be searching for a lid for my 1961 2.5-quart white Gourmet black leaf casserole dish. It’s fun to have quests. Today, life-size Tetris, a week from now, reverse Tetris and unpacking a million boxes, and in a couple weeks, the hunt for a Pyrex lid to replace the broken one.

Angel hair, veggies, pesto.
With 99% of the kitchen packed, preparing food has become interesting. Today’s freezer purge resulted in a supper of frozen Brussels sprouts and mixed vegetables with chopped salami ends and angel hair pasta tossed with a jar of pesto. It was delicious, and there was a ton of it, which ended up in the fridge still in the cooking pot because all the microwave and storage containers are packed. 

Saturday morning is blocked out for a dance break as Salaamati World Dance performs at Riverfest in Jafffrey, New Hampshire. According to Waze, it’s an hour and 21 minutes from The BungaLowell. As long as I remember to do the eye liner before too much coffee makes my hand shake, I’ll be all set.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,955 – (Thursday) – eating, packing, meeting

Breakfast sammie.
The current rhythm of the day begins like the working life days with the alarm still going off at 6:15, followed immediately by one tap of “snooze” before getting up ten minutes later to start the coffee. Coffee is taken with a side of Wordle, Words with Friends, and Duolingo (except when I forget, which is a lot lately). Today there was a breakfast sandwich of fried egg with cheese and salami on toast rounds, under the plan to reduce the freezer holdings. 

Before, the routine was to sit at a desk and work. Now, it’s organizing and packing boxes and loading them into the cube. There are at least 1,000 daily rounds of “where is the tape?”, “where are the scissors?”, “where is the Sharpie?”, “where is the [cup, plate, whatever] I just had in my hand?”

The day’s entertainment had a big detour after an email from the closing attorney’s office. There were also two messages from yesterday that I missed because of the way Gmail nests messages (which I hate) and the segregation of messages to “Primary” and “Promotions” (which I also hate). The law office needed my signature on the documents for the closing. I could print, sign, have notarized, and mail them to the office – or I could go to the office in Worcester. The absence of access to a printer was a big impediment, so I chose to go to the office.

That’s when I discovered some bad guesses when setting some clothes aside last week for the next couple weeks and packing everything else into the cube. Two pairs of shorts, jeans, and camo pants with some tee shirts and a white shirt covered only a couple bases and none of them were “visit a law office.” I also neglected to keep aside a skirt so I could dress like a civilian on the way to and from our dance performance Saturday morning. Too late now!

The volume of traffic on 495 was heavy. Thanks to typing in the address wrong (225 Park Ave), Waze directed me to the middle of Elm Park. Oops. A quick stop in the nearly empty Price Chopper lot let me check email for the correct number (255) and then I was on my way to the Parkview Office Tower, located close to where I lived in Worcester once upon a lifetime ago. Like, around the corner and down the street. 

The very quick signing meeting today means I don’t have to attend the closing next Wednesday, so that is a nice benefit. After the meeting, I drove down Elm Street intending to go past my old apartment building, then I wondered why exactly, thought about traffic, and turned down a side street that runs along the park and continued homeward instead.

The traffic home was worse than the traffic earlier, but the Emerson radio station was playing some great songs from ages ago mixed in with the new stuff. Today’s trip down musical memory lane included The Neighborhoods and one of my favorite songs from the 90s, “Prettiest Girl.” I sang my way up 495 with the radio playing LOUD and it was an enjoyable stretch of approximately three minutes. Then the volume was reduced to the regular level for the rest of the ride.  

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

random thoughts – Day 1,954 – (Wednesday) – chipping away

Several tasks were knocked out today and the overly full plate is beginning to feel a smidge more manageable. Boxes were sourced and brought to the house, and I got to visit with former colleagues for a minute in the process.

The futon frame, wood dining chairs, and glider are now spoken for. It’s a relief no longer having to worry about what to do with them. Next up, addressing the patio table and umbrella and a racing bike. And maybe the slightly cracked white leather chairs.

Luckily, the new address has the same providers for electric and Internet/cable and service has been scheduled to be transferred to the new address. The change of address has been filed with the Postal Service. The gas account is set up with a final service date and now I can shift the worry to the learning curve and burning my food all over again like when I had an electric stove in Tennessee. My future stove is a glass top which will be a whole new world of cooking and potential stovetop breakage. I wonder which will be my favorite burner at the next house. And how many times I’ll set something that can melt on a hot stovetop. Kitchen fun times ahead!

The state of the cube.
Everyday bowls were wrapped, boxed, and labeled. The rest of what has turned out to be a large collection of Ace bandages, physical therapy bands, and heating pads are now packed. Even though boxes of things like dishes and toiletries are being packed in an order with the most frequently used being done last, the placement in the cube is along the strategy of what fits where, so boxes with dishes and flatware may not emerge along the optimal timeline. No worries, there is delivery pizza and Chinese food in the new little city. 

Day by day, the daily-use items disappear into boxes and routine actions become more comical. Things like repeatedly and habitually reaching for utensils in now empty drawers and for spices in an empty cabinet is starting to feel crazy.

The freezer food reduction plan is underway. Tonight there was maple syrup on raspberry ice cream. Potential weird main dishes on the horizon may include frozen brussels sprouts on toast with shooters of vegetable broth. Could be a new taste sensation.

Tomorrow morning is the fire department inspection of the detectors and one more thing will be chipped away from the list.