Friday, Day 64

On Friday, I drove Barbara to Camp Millennium near Roseburg. This is a camp for kids who have cancer. Barbara has been a volunteer for the past 12 years.

The World Cup has slowed down my painting, etc. Matt noticed that the Malian referee for the US - Slovenia match was named Koman Coulibaly and wondered if he might be Andy's cousin. I am sure that the US players in this picture were offering him beans.

Monday, Day 60

Almost everything has been moved out of Andy's old room. The big event was moving the 55 gallon fish tank. The tank was moved to its new home downstairs. The only way to move it was to put the fish into buckets, and remove all of the water and gravel. Of course, I also cleaned it and bought a new pump / filter, etc. Here is a picture of the fish tank at its new location. Notice that Random is carefully guarding the fish.

Tomorrow, I will pull up the carpet and begin to prep the room for painting.

Sunday, Day 59

The primary writer (Barbara) has been too busy and tired from her work at the bookstore. You will have to be satisfied with my updates.


We finished painting (and repainting) Ted's old bedroom. The new carpet was installed on Friday. Here is a picture:

Friday also was the start of the World Cup. On Saturday, I went to Ron and Jill's to watch the US - England game.  We were all happy with the result. The British press was not kind regarding Robert Green's howler -

Another British headline was Shock and Draw and one comment was that this was "one spill that the Yanks would not complain about."

Today I gave blood platelets at the Red Cross.  It takes two to three hours but I was able to watch the Germany - Australia world Cup game.
 

We are now ready to start the last room upstairs - Andy's old room. One extra challenge is the 55 gallon fish tank. The tank is going to move downstairs. Since I have to empty it to move it, I am going to clean and replace much of the equipment. Here is a picture of a new pump, filter, heater, etc. that cost about $250.

In the upcoming week - more World Cup, cleaning, carpet removal, plaster repair, painting, and Barbara goes to camp.

Tuesday, Day 54

Tom made it back home, a little worse for the wear. He packed and tossed and packed and drove. He said his cold disappeared during the drive to New York. It's not as cheap as Dayquil, however. He played with Miles, who still laughs uproariously at the sound of "Kung-Kung," one of the Chinese words for grandfather and the one Andy chose for Tom.

Welcome home to a lawn that grew a foot because of all the rains Portland had. Welcome back to the bedroom that still isn't completely painted. Welcome home to the fish who might have gotten fed while you were gone ... and might not have. Are there fewer fish? Welcome home to a cat (Random) who missed you.

Now grab a paintbrush and mower!

Sabbatical Useful Projects Running Total: Started-14, Completed-13.7.

Sunday, Day 52

I have been to New York and back. The all night trip to NYC went as well as possible. I had some mist and fog but no bad weather. I navigated the George Washington Bridge and got to the apartment house at 10:15. The movers and Theresa were downstairs waiting. I double-parked the truck and stayed there to avoid tickets. Peter took some fragile stuff upstairs but the movers were pretty efficient given the limited elevator space. I got to view the street wash shuffle on the street outside. Everyone moves their car and double-parks on the other side of the street for 90 minutes while the street is cleaned.

Theresa and Andy's new apartment is pretty nice. They have a great view and a fair amount of space. Here is a picture during the early unpacking. (The Hudson river is in the background.)

Peter helped me return the U-Haul truck and let me sleep in their nice apartment that is one floor below Andy and Theresa's. Here is Miles sleeping in his new room.

On Saturday, I took Miles on a walk while Theresa continued to unpack. There were some challenges because the quality of the packing went downhill toward the end and some of the box labels were dubious. (The Ukranian movers wanted to know where to place the box labelled as "crap".) 

The neighborhood around the apartment is quite nice. There are shady streets, parks and playgrounds in one direction and restaurants, grocery stores, etc in the other. The subway stop is a short block away. Here is a picture of Miles on a swing at the playground. Miles is cutest and smartest kid ever.

I left NYC on an Amtrak train at 3:45 pm Saturday afternoon. That is, I should have left at that time. We got about 1/4 mile from the station and the engine quit. They unsuccessfully tried to fix it. Then we were towed back to the station for a new engine. We went through heavy rain on the way and had to slow down because of high water. We arrived at Cleveland at 6:00 am Sunday about 2 and one half hours late. Andy picked me up and immediately went on rounds. I went to his house for a couple of hours of sleep. Andy was done after a few hours and we went out to breakfast and just saw a movie.

Andy is finishing cleaning the house and we will move tonight to a friend's apartment. I guess a cleaning service and painters will be here tomorrow. 

Tomorrow I return to Portland for more furniture moving, carpet removal, and painting.

Thursday, Day 49

It's Barbara again.


I can only guess why Tom hasn't posted. He's tired.


He and Andy have probably been packing the van, and on Friday Tom has to drive into Manhattan. And he doesn't have me to entertain him while he drives.

Theresa and Miles flew to NYC and are already there. Andy has 15- to 18-hour shifts at the hospital. (I like to think that my future physician is learning how to doctor while exhausted and sleep deprived. Not.)

And then what happened? What a coincidinky! Tom called just as I finished this post. (It's actually Friday morning (8 a.m. PDT) and I've been in the dark about what has been going on.)

At 1 a.m. Friday morning, Cleveland time, Tom and Andy (after a mere 15-hour day) finished packing the truck, and Tom began his drive. (Say that again.) Tom started driving to Manhattan at 1:15 a.m. in order to meet the movers at 10 a.m. in Manhattan.

He made it successfully. (Without my nagging ... I mean, help.) Theresa and her brother, Peter, were there to greet him. Yay! And the movers showed up on time. Double-yay! He called as the movers were emptying the truck. A police car didn't even stop to ticket the double parking. Now all Tom has to do is stay awake long enough to deliver the truck to its final resting place.

A quick nap. A longer snooze on the train back to Cleveland. A last day spent with Andy (if he's awake). Then home again on Monday. Jiggety-jog.

Wednesday, Day 48

Today, I made another trip to Goodwill.

We picked up the U-Haul truck. We got a 10 foot truck which should be much easier to drive and hopefully will be big enough for the items to be moved. (Of course, the cost of the truck is many, many times $19.95!!!)

Miles and I played while Theresa packed.

Sometimes Miles and Theresa played and I packed.

Tomorrow, Miles and Theresa will leave for New York from the Akron airport and I will drive them. Andy and I will finish packing the truck for the early Friday trip to New York.

Tuesday, Day 47

Today, I went to a going-away lunch with Theresa and Miles' parent group. I met one person who had spent a year in Portland as an intern at Outside/In. She said that she would have stayed and gone to graduate school at Portland State if not for meeting her husband. Another women is about to relocate to Eugene. They both liked talking about Oregon. We had a nice long walk to and from the restaurant.

We did a variety of errands. We sold books to a used bookstore. Theresa said that she wished she knew about it when Barbara visited. I agree that Barbara would have enjoyed it.

We went to Goodwill. (We will probably need to make another trip. Now that I know where it is, maybe I will drop off things by myself.)

Miles and I played while Theresa had a haircut. When Theresa went on other errands, Miles fell asleep in the sling for more than one hour. Kong Kong was pretty tired too.