A long but productive day

Well, I--and everyone else(!) lived through yesterday. I packed boxes, loaded up the jeep and took some to the new house. It was soothing to roam around putting things away. Then, when it wasn't so early anymore, I called the locksmith to have him come out on Monday to change the locks.

I only have the key to ONE lock on the house. Tenants lost or changed the others, apparently. And each of the three doors that go to the outside have the regular lock and a deadbolt. The key isn't to a deadbolt lock but to a regular, door-handle-type lock. In fact I recalled on the second time I'd seen the house, the real estate agent/owner had accidently locked himself out! The tenants were home, so they just let us back in. But it would be very easy to do, if you come into the house with the regular, and only key, lock the deadbolt to that door (which has no key) and then go outside from another door. I've almost done it already!

The locksmith, who is from my old city and has rekeyed my houses for me before, was doing a job at a hotel in the new city, so said he could do it on Saturday! I was thrilled when he said he'd call me as soon as he was done with the other job, and we'd meet at the new house. Well, I packed boxes, son and I brought a car-and-jeep-load over, and no phone call from the locksmith. I called him before we left with the vehicles and left a message asking if he still could do it today (Saturday).

I also called the rummage sale people and the fence people to let them know that I wouldn't be coming over to pick up the stuff that day. Neither were home, so I left messages and felt a bit better about that, for some reason. Probably because I knew they weren't still sitting around waiting on us! Son had to go to work, so I went to our dusty storage shed and got our lawn mower, some garden tools and the clamshell outdoor cooker. Then I drove to son's store to buy a shower curtain rod, CO2 alarm, smoke alarm (there is one already there but we needed at least one more) an electric weed eater, a mailbox, a toilet paper holder for the downstairs bathroom and some other things.

It was fun to put the letters and numbers on our new mailbox. The agent/owner had not rehung the old mailbox as he had promised. But when I really looked at it carefully, I was glad of it. The old box is brown colored and didn't match the house at all, it's also dirty and rusty. The lawn mower, garden tools and the weedeater had to go downstairs in the basement. I don't have a lock yet for the storage shed on the property. We're going to use the lock off our rented storage shed but can't yet, until it's empty.

So I came back home, tired, exhausted and not feeling well. The temperature was 89F and very humid and I had been doing physical labor all day. I had a message on our phone: the locksmith had been calling my cell number and said it didn't work. I called him back but it was too late for him to come out by then. He told me to try calling the cell from my phone. My son has never had trouble in getting ahold of me during business travel, which is almost the only time I use the cell phone (it's a work phone.) It's long distance to call the cell from our phone, but I tried it and it worked fine. So I called the locksmith guy back and politely told him that. We decided that I'll call him on Monday morning to set something up.

Then I went to lie down. I was feeling very awful, a pounding headache and even though I'd barely eaten anything, I felt like I was going to upchuck at any moment. The phone rang and it was the nice elderly people that I'd bought stuff from at the rummage sale last week. They had been out of town all day helping their daughter pick out a new puppy! It was an Avon Terrier, which I've not heard of before, but sounds very cute. Anyway, he offered to take my stuff over in his pickup! So I hurried, put my sandals back on and drove to his house.

The vacuum cleaner and rug shampooer, bocce set and the two pretty yellow chairs all fit into the jeep. The outside lounger and the wheelbarrow went into the pickup. We drove to the new place where I unloaded everything (he's a old guy, remember) thanked him profusely and waved as he drove away. I stored everything in the basement and drove back home where I was horribly and violently sick for several hours. The only thing that seemed to help at all was taking a mint teabag and breathing the scent up alternative nostrils. I was so sick that I couldn't even hold water down.

My son came home at midnight and shook his head. "You overdid it again, Mom. Why do you always do that?" Why indeed? Well I finally got to bed and to sleep at 2:30 AM and today is another day. I do hope it won't be so hot out today, though. I don't take heat well. Oh, I like it fine when I'm just sitting around but for physical labor it's pretty brutal. Happy Sunday to you!