Holy Cow, what a whirlwind! We just endured two days of packing and one full day of moving. Endured is definitely the right word here. It was very hard, and I hope I never have to do that again! And did I mention that we all had a vomiting bug at the time?
On the first packing day, the packers came about 9 am and overwhelmed us with *eight* people. Aramco sent specific instructions that Mike and I were supposed to supervise each person as they packed our personal effects, because there are so many restricted items that we are not allowed to bring. (That is, we were supposed to make sure that they didn’t pack any alcohol or fireworks or bibles or bikini swimsuits.) We had thought that we had already sorted all of our restricted items out, but as they packed, we discovered items we had overlooked. And eight people! All in different rooms! It was physically impossible to do. And these movers had never moved anyone overseas, much less to such a restrictive place. Most of the people they move just pack their entire households and put it on the truck, and 5 days later it arrives at their new home in Albuquerque. All day, all we did was run around the house saying “No, don’t pack that!” or “You have to take everything out of this box because we are not allowed to bring food in.”, etc., etc. Out of desperation, we just threw everything that we confiscated from them into a big pile in the living room. So much for being organized!
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| Can you tell there are 4 separate piles of items in this room? Each pile is a different destination or shipping method. |
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| Everett's Room |
The second day was slower, with only three people, and the third day was amazing. They brought more people, and they loaded nearly all our worldly possessions into a “curtain truck” (a big semi with curtains for sides) that had giant wooden boxes in it called Lift Vans.
We filled a dozen lift vans by the time it was all over. When it was time to leave, the moving coordinator let Everett and Lawrence climb into the cab and honk the horn – very exciting!
As the truck finally pulled away, Mike and I stood there in the road and said goodbye to all our stuff – sniff - until June. I wish I could follow the journey of our things…what will break? How does a lawn mower fare at sea? Are the mattresses too squashed by the piano? Will the vegetable oil from the deep fryer (which I accidentally forgot to pour out – oops!) spill out of the box and lift van and into the ocean, for our own little Benchich Oil Spill? And I hope we made all the right decisions about what was to go into the shipment! Time will tell. But I can do without it all for a while, as long as I know it’s coming. But the worst part of all of it was turning around to face our empty house. It was very sad.
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| The curtain truck rolls up to the house |
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| The Curtain Truck and the moving van |
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| Somebody forgot to spell check. Yes, this was on EVERY box. |
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| Lift Vans in the curtain truck |
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| I can barely look at the For Sale sign in our yard. |
We filled a dozen lift vans by the time it was all over. When it was time to leave, the moving coordinator let Everett and Lawrence climb into the cab and honk the horn – very exciting!
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| Honking the horn! |
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| Bye bye stuff. |
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| There it goes. |
As the truck finally pulled away, Mike and I stood there in the road and said goodbye to all our stuff – sniff - until June. I wish I could follow the journey of our things…what will break? How does a lawn mower fare at sea? Are the mattresses too squashed by the piano? Will the vegetable oil from the deep fryer (which I accidentally forgot to pour out – oops!) spill out of the box and lift van and into the ocean, for our own little Benchich Oil Spill? And I hope we made all the right decisions about what was to go into the shipment! Time will tell. But I can do without it all for a while, as long as I know it’s coming. But the worst part of all of it was turning around to face our empty house. It was very sad.
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| Empty House. |
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