This weekend we helped My daughter Sarah and her husband Ricky move to Clarksville Tennessee. I've been really dreading this day for some time but it turns out they are not but three hours away and there is plenty of shopping, a zoo, and an awesome winery between here and there.
But the move was torturous for my sweet child who is used to everything going pretty much her way.
As soon as Sarah learned Ricky was to be asigned to Ft. Campbell Kentucky she called the base looking for housing. The base was full so she used the internet to find housing close by in Clarksville. Sarah found a lovely little mobile home/prefab housing community complete with ball fields, fishing ponds, playground, and a security gate. She and a friend took a trip up there and secured one unit. There was no deposit and free first month's rent. Cool deal, she thought. A week before the move Sarah called Bells Crossing with a couple of questions only to find that they had rented the home to someone else.
Sarah was livid. She was to pick her husband up at the Nashville airport the next evening and only had a few days to find new accomodations. And she did. Sarah was not happy with the choices she had but took an apartment that seemed nice and neat at the time.
The move was scheduled for Wednesday, they thought, but a communication failure cause the Army to not be able to Move Ricky and Sarah that week and they were left on their own to rent a truck and pack up all their belongings.
That was some fast packing! They did it mostly on their own. My husband Rick and his Dad, Richard, drove the U-Haul to Clarksville while Ricky and Sarah each drove their own cars. They arrived at the apartment complex and called the manager for an appointment. They were to meet at the management company's office and get the key at noon. They signed paperwork and left with their keys. Once at the apartment they unlocked the door to find it crawling with roaches! Sarah flipped out! They called management and were told the maintainance man was on vacation. Oh poor Sarah. Nothing about this move had gone right so far.
Laura and I had lagged back in Decatur for a few hours thinking it best to keep the dog and Warren out of the way. We spent the morning allowing Warren to spend a little time with my parents. They are going to miss him so much. We finally left at about noon and were stopped for lunch just south of Nashville when we got the call. Sarah was trying to tell me the situation between wails bless her heart. She told me that her dad and her Papa were going to have to move all her stuff in with the roach family because the truck had to be returned that day before the U-Haul place closed.
By the time we arrived with the boy and the dog, Rick had been to the store and bought almost $40 worth of bug bombs and sprays and was ready to set them off. We ate at Olive Garden after locating a motel that was simpathetic to the situation enough to let the dog spend the night.
We drove home Saturday night and returnnned Sunday morning. That's a lot of driving for one weekend. Sunday morning we helped Sarah clean while Ricky reported in to Ft. Campbell. I took the kitchen, Sarah took the bathroom, and Rick was left in charge of the boy and the dog.
The kitchen was dripping with roaches! Even after three bombs in this little bitty apartment, there were still plenty of live ones creeping around unfazed. The dishwasher was full of them and even the refrigerator. I always thought that if any place was safe it was the fridge. Nope, guess not. Sarah took zillions of pictures and I know you would love to see them but I don't have any right now.
When Rick started having a hard time entertaining Warren he decided to move the TV over to the wall with the cable outlet and set it up so Warren could watch a video. The electrical outlet did not work and neither did the other outlet on that same wall. We had to dig up an extension cord and run it over the door and under the window to the next closest outlet.
I was concerned about Warren chewing or sucking on stuff that still had poison residue on it so I asked Sarah to start throwing stuff in the washing machine beginning with the throw pillows on the couch. I've seen Warren chewing on mine and it was a concern for me at the time. The washing machine was loaded and turned on. Two minutes later the kitchen was sitting in a puddle. Sarah decided this was a good time to get out the checklist provided by the management company and start making notes. We were a little scared to put the clothes in the dryer.
AND THE NEIGHBORS! They would be good competition for my neighbors on the NE side (the one's whose house number is 911). Sarah put a little welcoming bench outside her door as did a couple of other tennents in the building. Sarah and Ricky went out to pick up breakfast and come home to find her neighbors all sitting on her bench. Then she discoveres that someone has picked all the little snap dragon blooms that had just openned up the day before. Another nightbor discarded his motor oil bottle in her rubber tree pot and still another neighbor walked off with her lovely little dishgarden that had been a gift from her grandmother's funeral earlier this year. Stole it in broad daylight!
What a weekend. We left them with a livable place, still a lot of work to do but we thought they could handle it from there. I also left Sarah with a lot of advice on getting out of her lease early. She should have no trouble at all.
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