1) Just as I finished the last entry, Tuesday morning at 9:17 AM, the movers pulled up in their large truck with my stuff. They headed off with an empty truck at 10:31 AM. I can’t believe it happened so quickly! Everything had been tagged with one or more numbers. They handed me a sheet like a bingo card and I had to check off the numbers as they brought things into the house.
1a) They were up front about a couple damages: a finial broke off a bedpost, and a wheel at the base of the big bookcase split in half. They ended up taking off all the wheels, which was most sensible.
1b) The foreman assembled my grandmother’s four-poster in my bedroom, pointing out a loose join in the headboard. Before I could stop myself I replied “Well, I lead a quiet life.”
1c) The foreman thanked me for being so prepared and organized - I knew where I wanted everything to go - and since I’d taken a heavy dose of good-natured ribbing about not being ready a few days before I rather preened myself.
2) Once they were gone, I concentrated on books, which led me to some unexpected damage: to the base of the bookcase that had the broken wheel and to the bottom door of a banker’s bookcase. I did not fly off the handle but kept remarkably calm. They can be fixed. Mostly I just wanted to make space by getting all those books off the floor and onto the shelves!
2a) And five hours of that (including lunch) brought me to the end of my rope. I began the cocktail hour in the tub. A hot soak-and-scrub and a manhattan made me a new man! I have rarely felt so rejuvenated.
3) After that I had to change my focus from books to something else, and I started unpacking the fragile stuff. NONE of the wedding crystal or other glass broke, as might be expected. The only two things I found damaged were an alabaster fish bookend from which a point can broken off, and a hole punched through the base of one of Granny Dimmick’s candelabra (and I almost want to leave it as a character mark).
3a) At the end of the day, I couldn’t help thinking that it’s a good thing I didn’t take anything else from the house. I wouldn’t have had the room!