Well, today marks the end of our fourth full day in Atlanta (Norcross to be exact). The brief version is that things are going very well and we’re looking forward to the future. For those with nothing better to do, continue reading below:
After spending what seemed like weeks packing, taking stuff to storage and throwing stuff away we finally made it to moving day. We rented a truck on November 30th and loaded it up. Brenda and I did all the loading with the exception of my computer desk and other furniture (Thanks George!). We also had to take Brenda’s car to her mom’s, as we decided to leave it behind for now. Even though I’d just put over $500 into it, we doubted it would make the trip. So with that, we ended up working until 12:30am.
Alarm went off at 6:30am and we still had some things to load into the truck. By the time we finished, had all the animals rounded up, stopped for coffee and hit the ATM, it was almost 9am before we got on the interstate. Much later than we’d planned. Murray rode with me in the truck and each cat had its own carrier with Brenda in the van. I think I got the better end of the deal 
For the first couple hours we were hit with some major rain. I mean blinding, slow-down-to-twenty-five type rain. To make matters worse, I’d left Murray’s window open about 5 inches. And the truck cab was too wide for me to reach over and shut it. So Murray got drenched and we both had to smell wet puppy for miles. Luckily the rain lifted and I was able to dry things off at the first rest stop.
After that, we didn’t have any more rain, but high winds hit us the entire way down. That’s bad enough in a minivan, but quite a battle with a fifteen-foot truck.
While it only took us about 8.5 hours to drive down last year in the van, this time it took about twelve hours. This was due to driving a big, slow truck, plus having to stop pretty often for Murray to get out. The original plan was to leave Marietta by 6 or 7am so we’d hit Atlanta by 4 or 5pm (ie, before dark). No dice. It was 9:30pm when we pulled into the complex. So I ended up having to drive that truck about four hours in the dark, which was the main thing I wanted to avoid.
All the way down we were able to talk to each other with walkie-talkies. And Brenda was able to help me change lanes from behind me. That got a LOT harder at night, as I couldn’t distinguish the minivan from any other vehicle on the four-lane highway. My hands were killing me from white-knuckling the steering wheel. But no mishaps, and I’m really proud of getting everything down here by ourselves.
That first night, it was all we could do to find the energy to inflate the air mattress and pass out. But starting the next morning we we’ve been unpacking pretty much most of each day. Took us until Sunday to totally unload the truck, as we’re on the second floor and we were doing it by ourselves. We decided early on we weren’t going to rush it. Never been so happy as when I dropped off that truck Monday morning
So far, we’ve gotten quite a lot done. My office is taking shape and everything is up and running so I can start getting work done again. The kitchen is all set up and we made our first grocery run yesterday. We’d never been to a Publix store before, but it was pretty nice. Yesterday I also set up a new stand for the tv and stuff. Hopefully soon we’ll be going to look at living room furniture and beds. Oh, and we actually put up a Christmas tree today.
On the job front, I’m still trying to schedule a meeting with a local firm, just hard to get times to line up. I also just got another quote request from the Parkersburg tourist bureau. Pretty cool, as they knew ahead of time I was leaving for Atlanta, and they still want me to quote the job.
Oh, and Brenda has a job interview on Friday! It’s a treatment center here in Norcross. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!
I may update this post later if I realize I’ve left out anything newsworthy. But probably will try to stick to short updates as things come up. And as in the other post, you can check out our photos here.