End of an Era

Vaughn McMillan

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Here are a couple of pics of my shop taken this morning...

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I am SO going to miss all those cabinets and drawers.

Yesterday four gorillas from Allied Van Lines loaded 2400 cubic feet of stuff -- an estimated 22,000 pounds -- into the trailer. (About half of that weight was shop stuff). I think the name of the moving company is sort of a last hurrah and a farewell to the Golden State. ;)

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I've gotta say these pro movers are a breed all their own. We were in awe all day watching how easily they lifted and carried the heavy pieces, and they often literally ran to go grab the next load. They worked hard from about 8:30 AM until about 8:00 PM.

We moved into this house 10 years ago this month, so this marks a pretty major milestone in our lives. It's also big in that it officially ends my life as a Californian and returns me (and all my things) to my home state of New Mexico. I moved to California in 1991 due to the opportunities here. I moved away because of the lack of opportunities in my field and the fact that I was tired of how things are run in this state. California is a great state, but IMO it is being run into the ground. (I'll just leave it at that to avoid breaching the CoC.)

All of our things will be arriving in Albuquerque sometime around Tuesday of next week, via another house in LA, a stop in Flagstaff, and a stop or two in Santa Fe. Everything will be delivered to an independent storage facility in ABQ, and we (plus as many friends and pickup trucks as I can gather) will be moving it ourselves into the new house once the sale is finalized...hopefully within about a month from now. The new shop won't be happening for a while, since I need to have an electric subpanel installed and get sufficient power run to the garage before I can do much in there. Lots of other projects to tackle along the way, too. ;)
 
As your new (old?) home state would say, "Vaya con Dios!"

A new chapter in your lives. Tell Kian we all wish her a warm welcome to New Mexico and hope she finds new friends and a new job that she absolutely loves. We know you are happy and comfortable there. We hope she will be also. Tell her her extended family from the Internet wishes her the very best. Maybe she will come to Indiana next summer and meet a bunch of us face to face. We'd look forward to it!
 
Wow, now that's a clean shop :D. I knew professional moving was not in the cards for me when I saw a guy move a four drawer file cabinet onto a dolly without emptying it. He just bear-hugged it and picked it up.

Happy trails and enjoy the ride.
 
I hate moving... it's a lot of work. And years ago I worked for a moving and storage company out of the bay area in CA.... we had guys that were built like gorillas that would touch a piece of furniture and if it moved, they picked it up.... that said, when we moved to Tennessee, my wife was working for a company out of Houston that did international as well as domestic moving. As a courtesy, they had a crew come out to pack our truck for the move... honestly, I was disappointed with the way they packed the truck... nothing broken or marred, but I think I could have packed it much tighter and gotten more in the truck... granted we had some big pieces, but we hauled a lot of air and wound up leaving behind some things I would have liked to have moved.... we had a separate trailer with my truck on it and the truck loaded with as much as would fit on it.

Over the years I've moved many more times than I care to think about... I lived in Calif for 15 years and I think I moved 9 times... 5 of them while I was married and we were only married 7 years.

Edit: I was going to ask what part of ABQ you were moving to, but would be silly, as I don't know much about ABQ... I've been through the city and what I could see from road, looked like a really nice town. I've been to Santa Fe and wouldn't mind living there, except think it's out of my budgetary range.... my sister lives in Rio Rancho and I've been there, but don't remember much about it except the Mexican restaurant she took us to... liked that.

Longest time I ever spent there was a day at the airport... I flew in from OKC and got bumped and had to wait about 20 hours for the next available flight... working for an airlines was good, flying was cheap, but you were vulnerable to lose your seat... I missed a days work back in SFO and lost a days pay and made a supervisor unhappy... was a long day sitting in the waiting room at ABQ airport.
 
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We were the first to move into a group of new houses; most of them were not even finished. A couple months later the people moved in across the street. One of the sons brought their possessions in one of the largest semis I have ever seen. He parked it out front. His mother stood out in front of the truck and like a traffic officer at a busy intersection said things like, "Shirley, that goes in the back bedroom on the right; put it just to the right of the large window." The three sons and one daughter did all of the work. Josephine, the mother, just directed traffic. Dad was smart; he was at work.

Myrna said, "Now that's the way to move!"

I wish you two the easiest move of your life. Does your wife still have her red "Baby?" She loved that car.

Enjoy,
JimB
 
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Thanks all. This move has been a lot of work. We own WAY too much stuff. And that's despite filling a 20 yard roll-off dumpster last week (and another 20 yarder a bit more than a year ago). The mover's inventory was 22 pages long, with 650+ tagged items.

This is the second time in her entire life that my wife has ever moved, so it's been particularly stressful for her. She doesn't know how it's done. She also made a serious mis-estimation of the amount of time it would take to pack her personal things, and the more I pestered her about one or two weeks ago, the less she packed. (And she didn't want anyone else packing her stuff because she wanted to decide what to keep and what to get rid of.) I decided I had to be like a parent and let her fail in order to learn. Plus, I already had my hands full getting my own stuff packed. She finally came to realize Tuesday morning that she had a mountain of packing to do before the movers arrived Wednesday morning. As it turned out, neither one of us went to bed at all Tuesday night. Once I got finished with my stuff I packed a lot of her things that could have been packed a month ago. We were both up for 36+ hours straight getting things done, then monitoring the movers. (She'd never pulled an all-nighter before. She's almost always in bed before 11:00 PM.) I think next time she won't wait until the day before the move to start getting serious about packing, lol. ;) She did manage to catch nap Wednesday afternoon in the bathroom, the only room where she and the dog could stay out of the way of the gorillas...
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Now we're camping in the house on air mattresses and keeping food in an ice chest while we finish up the final cleaning. This is all very unfamiliar territory for my wife, who is a creature of habit, and who loves her amenities and modern conveniences. (She's not a camping kind of gal, to say the least.) ;) I, on the other hand, am always open to a new adventure, so I'm getting a kick out of it all, especially watching her have to adapt. :D

And through all the stress and physical labor, we've had a lot of fun and enjoyed each other's company...something we've not had a lot of for the past three years. We're both looking forward to this new chapter. :thumb:
 
Moving sure will test the bonds of a marriage. It's always an adventure and we get a kick out of how much crap we move, only to toss it out when we unpack. You would think after ten or fifteen moves it would be a breeze. A soothing beverage helps:)
 
Vaughn
You will miss the good ole place but look forward to all the new experience you will have in lovely Albuquerque. Look at all the fresh green roasted chili you can have.
Best of luck
David
 
Welcome home! Pain in the booty...yup, endless sweat...yessir. Knowing you are about to be home with your home...yeah buddy!! Gratz bud...some way, we'll see you soon! Area 51 moving up to here and over to you!!:eek:
 
Vaughn.....I wish you well in your move!

And...I am so glad to see photos of your wife and you talking about her. I have been so afraid to ask if you were living apart these past 3 years or if you were divorced.
 
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