we're here

Well, we now live in San Francisco. The move was ridiculously difficult. I took friday off work, picked up the rental truck at 8:30am that morning, and started moving everything that I could lift myself, since Stella was not able to take time off work, being a teacher and all.

By about 2:30pm, I had moved what felt like 3 tons of boxes, furniture and assorted crap into the truck, pretty much filling it up. The drive across the East Bay Bridge was just fine, although traversing the hills of San Francisco felt like it was pushing the limits of the engine of a fully weighted truck. By the time I emptied the truck, carrying box after box after box up 14 steps to our front door, I was bruised, sweaty, sore and completely exhausted. And it was a warm and sunny California day - usually perfect weather, but for moving it was just too damn hot. After all that heavy lifting, the long, slow drive back to Berkeley in rush hour traffic was actually a relief.

The next day Stella & I managed to complete empty and clean the Berkeley house, although I finally pulled out of the driveway just after 5pm, again completely sweaty and exhausted. Unloading in San francisco was even harder, since I left the heaviest items for the second day. Fortunately, we were able to dump much of the heaviest stuff in the garage, which is at ground level, to contend with the next day. We finally finished around 9:30 or so. While we were unpacking, one of our new neighbors came by and introduced herself to us and insisted and getting us a couple of burritos from a place near by. Those burritos may have well saved our lives. At the end of the evening, when I finally was able to shower, I was stunned by the amount of bruises covering my arms and legs. Next time we move - and hopefully it won't be for a LONG time, we will definitely hire movers. I think it is probably worth the expense.

Today, Sunday, we moved the last of the heavy items from the basement and spend much of the day putting things in their proper place. We're all completely exhausted, Jeffrey has a bad cold and mild fever, Stella is getting sick and I'm sitting in the living room blogging when I should be sleeping.

Our phone and internet, which was supposed to be turned on Friday, is not working. They are sending someone out tomorrow by 7pm, but that means I can't work tomorrow as planned. honestly, I'm not too upset by that. We still have so much more to do here.

I'll miss Berkeley. It really is a wonderful city to live in. But San Francisco is pretty amazing too. We're half a block from Golden Gate Park and roughly 12 blocks from the Pacific Ocean. We can even see the ocean from the upstairs bathroom window. You can't get too much further west that we are now.