The Longest Yard

I have to write about this to document it, b/c looking back on it, I still don't even believe that it happened and that I was there. So let's get started...

Get the request to help my sister-in-law move. Now, I hate moving. In fact, I hate it so much that I'm packing stuff that I don't use right now in order to prepare for my next move - which could be this summer, next summer - I really don't know right now... but I'll be ready. Anyway, this is family, and I've managed to avoid helping anyone move in over 5 years, so I was due.

Pack up the family, make the 2 hour trip from Philly to NY, get there Saturday, noonish. A few other family members are already there loading the truck, so I get in the rotation, eager to make up my share of the hour or so headstart they had on me. So far, so good. I'm thinking, we'll be back on the road to Philly around 8. Front room is pretty clear. Other's on the first floor not looking too bad. There are a lot of steps in the front of the house, but we work out a nice little assembly line among the moving crew (moving computers at work every summer has taught me to search for any short-cut possible), so we're good to go. But as I take a closer look around, realizing that I'm loading scrap wood, old computers, and construction supplies, I realize three things. 1) We're not moving big stuff yet, 2) Sister-in-law has a lot of extra stuff that's keeping us from moving the big stuff, 3) A lot of this extra stuff isn't packed any kind of way.

Fast forward to end. Wife and kids are sleep on the sofa. Two movers are back at the old house, trying to get a car onto the trailer. Two others are scheming on the sofa and the mattress in the new spot. It's 6AM. We JUST FINISHED. Repeat JUST FINISHED. The final effort was putting the Sony flat screen on the stand. That thing was the heaviest thing I have ever lifted in my entire life. You just don't know how good it felt to inch that thing closer to the stand. Took three people and maybe 10 minutes to get it all of 50 feet or so. This is why they make 1) TVs that hang on walls, 2) TVs with wheels, 3) video iPods, 4) ranch homes, 5) elevators, 6) professional movers.

I ain't mad, though. But be warned. If anyone asks me to help them move, and you hear cursing, and the words "Sony" and "all night," don't take it personally.

That was probably the longest day of my life. My wife commented that it seemed like it wouldn't end. That's exactly how I felt. Crazy thing is now, 10 hours after getting back home, I don't even remember it. But it happened. My body knows.