Need a box or two, or 50?

Hello all,

It's with much joy I'm writing this post from my own desk. Over the last 7 days we've laughed several times at the withdrawal symptoms we've gone through not having access to the web. It's surprising how quickly we become dependant on a technology only to realize that dependency once denied access to said indulgence. Fortunately the tremors and night sweats weren't too bad. I think we'd have simply lost it if we hadn't had access to the cell phone... How people moved before cell phones, e-mail, and the web is beyond me.

We've spent the last three days unpacking the house. At this point we're through about 3/4 of the boxes. The delivery day was this past Friday. Our moving truck arrived at 9:00 and pulled out at 2:15. Unfortunately it rained the whole time we were unloading. Outside of the rain, the unloading was fairly uneventful. Only a couple things were broken or scarred. Thankfully, Michelle's library cabinet made it without issue. That was the one piece I was most concerned with.

Friday afternoon and most of Saturday we were both a buzz with excitement and energy. It was kind of like Christmas morning but without the true surprise as to what was behind the clear packing tape and reams of packing paper. Friday night we called it quits around 7 and headed out for some hot wings with some friends from my office.

Friday didn't come off completely without a hitch. As the rain came down I realized mid storm that the roofers who had put on a new roof the day before didn't properly connect the downspout by the front door. Unfortunately, the waterfall from the roof didn't completely stay outside. Before I could get out there to correct the problem several gallons managed to get in between the wall and the dining room window. As the wet stuff found its way to the lowest point that turned out to be in the middle of the dinning room. So, as the unloading carried on, we realized that the front room really began to smell like wet carpet (or worse). Several phone calls later, one trip to the local Publix for a Rug Doctor rental, and finally a run to Home Depot for a carpet drying fan we've begun the drying process. Thankfully, this morning the carpet and pad were dry and the smell had all but gone.

Saturday of course had a bump or two. Thinking we had passed the half-way point last night we decided to take a walk up to the local strip mall for a frozen yogurt treat at the TCBY. With Bandit leading the charge we forged our way through the swamp err'... I mean subdivision. Things were going fine until we headed back home. We made it about 2 blocks and Bandit put on the brakes. He simply stopped walking. At first we thought he was just tired, so we slowed down and waited for him. That didn't work. He had given up. It must have just been too hot for him. (it was 9:00 at night mind you) So thinking something was really wrong, I ran the mile or so back to the house to get the truck. Michelle stayed with Bandit. When I returned to where I left them, they weren't there. Fortunately, I caught them in the corner of my eye a block and a half further back down the trail. (Closer to the TCBY). Backing up to where they were I thought Michelle had just walked him in circles until I returned. As she loaded him in the cab it became apparent that wasn't the case. His harness was on sideways and Michelle looked like she had seen a ghost. Apparently right after I took off running, Bandit decided he really didn't want to go any further and started to pull on his leash, backwards. In doing so he managed to slip out of his harness. According to Michelle, he then made a 180 and took off running at full tilt straight back toward the 6 lane main drag. Darting into traffic, stopping one car, and about to run into more, a fellow walker saw what was going on and called to him. Being the people lover he is, he ran right to him. Thankfully he was able to grab his scruff and hold him until Michelle could catch up. All this in the 3:45 min it takes me to run a mile.. Riiight.. ok it was probably more like 8 minutes. Anyway, thankfully we got him back unharmed.

Needless to say getting back to the mundane unpacking routine today has been a nice change of pace given the roller coaster of events from the last couple days.

This evening we're headed out to check out a new church. Hopefully it's a connection the first time around. We've only been away from Christ Community and we both already miss it.

I'll cut this one off here for now. We need to get ready to head out.

Hope you all have a great labor day weekend.
Your friend,
J