The move from hell

On my way out to Canyon Lake last week, my wife called movers for quotes on my office move. We found one we liked (Mighty Man Movers) and booked them for a 1pm move on Friday.

All week long I returned to the office after putting my girls to bed so I could take care of all my paperwork and get the office packed. I left the office at 1:30am the night before the move. 

Friday morning broke and I headed down to Galveston to take care of a couple of matters and then rushed back to be at the office in time for the movers. Now I wasn't born yesterday and I know that afternoon moves never go off on time because the morning moves always take longer than planned. Friday was no exception. 

As I sat typing on my laptop in my office I got a phone call about 1:30pm telling me the movers were running late and that they expected to be at the office within the next 60-90 minutes. They were up off 290 and Highway 6. So I ran some errands.

I was back in the office by 3pm and still no movers. Then I got a call telling me they were on the way and asking for directions. Since they were on the Beltway I told them to get off on I-10 and come down to Chimney Rock. Easy, right?

Wrong. I called about 30 minutes later to find out where they were and the driver told me they were waiting for a tow truck to get them out of a parking lot on Westheimer and the Beltway. No one ever had a good explanation for why they were there -- and so the wait continued.

I decided that it was as good a time as any to run my computer equipment to the new office (since I didn't trust Larry, Curly and Moe) - so off I went. As I was putting boxes in the closet my phone rang. It was the movers. They were on the way to my office. I told them I would be back in 15-20 minutes. They assured me they were just around the corner.

Thirty minutes later I was back at the old office -- but no movers. Finally, about 6:15pm they made their way into the parking lot -- in a U-haul truck!?!?

About 45 minutes later everything was packed into the back of truck (and, yes I went back to double-check) and we were off to the Heights. Quite slowly, however, because apparently they had rented the 4-cylinder truck.

After what seemed like an eternity we arrived at the new office. I parked in the front lot and the movers stopped on the street. I ran to the back to make certain they could turn the truck around; but as I returned to the front of the house I heard a noise that a truck carrying all of my stuff shouldn't be making.

Larry, Moe and Curly had tried to back up the driveway and had managed to get the hitch stuck in such a way that the rear wheels of the truck were lifted off the ground. So there they are, blocking the entire width of the southbound side of Heights Boulevard. I didn't quite know what to do or say -- it was like watching a train wreck.

Luckily my wife and girls had arrived with take out from El Rey and we went inside and ate our supper while the Stooges tried to figure out who was on first. In the meantime they unloaded the truck at the foot of the driveway and began wheeling it to the back of the house.

I then had to supervise them while they moved my stuff into the new office because, believe it or not, the detailed diagram I provided them showing where everything went, was (apparently) a bit over their heads. Finally, at a quarter after nine (after getting the truck unstuck with the help of unidentified passers-by), the last of my stuff was in the office and I sent them out into the night to see if they could screw up another move.

I then hung around until a bit after 10 moving boxes around and putting my bookcase back together before heading over to Onion Creek for a (well-deserved) ice cold Shiner.

I'm just glad I can laugh about it now - because I certainly wasn't laughing yesterday.