Saturday, March 19, 2022

SOLSC 2022 #19 - Moving right along

 






It is March 2022 and time for the
Every single day, for all thirty-one days of March,
writers will share stories.
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this supportive community 
of teacher-writers!


I think the tell for me was the sloppy paint splashed along the wood trim and the tile floor; this old house/apartment was not lovingly or respectfully maintained. No one really CARED. I hoped I was wrong; just a visual cue that jumped out at me as I squeezed around the varied moving boxes to use the bathroom.

It was a bitter cold day in late January when my youngest son (Bryce) moved to his new apartment. The five of us made it happen - Tony and I, our three sons.  We know the drill all too well: rent a truck, load it up, shuffle groan up and down stairs, curse the furniture, work up a sweat, hope no one moves again anytime soon, be thankful there is no sleep sofa. It was hard work, and I am so thankful that my three sons are strong and able, doing almost every bit of the heavy lifting and bending, leaving me to packing and unpacking individual boxes. 

That was exactly seven weeks ago, the last Saturday in January. Today - INSTANT REPLAY! I am not kidding. Good news - it's not bitter cold! Bad news - it's going to pour rain. Of course it is. I mean, c'mon, it's moving day. Gotta be uncomfortable! Gotta have pain!

Bryce is moving in with Wade (my middle son). 

That is the proverbial long story short. 

These seven weeks have been an unrelenting series of problems in that apartment rental, unlike anything any of us have experienced. One example - that very first night in his 'new' apartment, the lights went out and his heat went off because he used the microwave. Looking back, this was also one of the rare times the landlord actually responded in a timely manner to a problem - within an hour of sitting in the dark, Bryce was given directions on how to enter a basement apartment and flip the breaker. (And, yes, this is still the required fix for this ongoing electrical problem - better yet, turn off heat and everything else before using the microwave.) 

There's been an endless series of horrors with this place - I cannot even begin to share the story. It really is Bryce's to tell, and he has been advocating for himself on this, reaching out to appropriate authorities, documenting every bit of rot, vermin, outage, leak, request, complaint, response (lame or ignored), violation...suffice to say, it is not a livable situation. 

So, two brothers will now be living together! This situation adds about forty minutes to Bryce's work commute, which is definitely an inconvenience, but it will so much better for his sanity. 

Here's to another Saturday move! May it be the last one for awhile.



8 comments:

  1. Moving is such hard work! I'm so glad that Bryce's entirely untenable living conditions were resolved, and I hope the brothers enjoy their time together!

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    1. Thank you! It really has been untenable...and I am hopeful about the boys living together!

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  2. Oh no, Maureen! When you mentioned the paint job, I was feeling sorry for the place and just knew you were going to give it the TLC it needed, but I see now that someone was probably painting it in the dark. I’m sorry for all of this - it sounds like when we go camping and can’t use the grill, the air conditioner and the microwave all ar once - but we expect that at a campsite. It would be hard to live life running to the basement. I’m glad your two will live together for a time. Often there are hidden blessings that we never see - he will have more time for audiobooks if he is a reader. Bless you fir helping him move and that groan shuffle and cursing the furniture made me chuckle the universal understanding of it!

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    1. Thank you for this thoughtful reply! Not sure why your comment replicated a half dozen times...weird! I tried to delete the extras - now it looks like I am censoring you hahaha which I would never do! I agree that this new living situation has lots of hidden blessings...this Mom is happy for her two boys together!

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  4. Oh my gosh! This is horrifying. I’m so glad for you all that Bryce is getting out of the mess. Hope he did not lose the deposit and that he can get justice in some satisfying form. Your mama heart has to be relieved. Ugh.

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    1. It really has been an exhausting ordeal. I am so relieved he is out - and he's happy, too. That's a win!

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  5. Oh, dear! So glad he got out of there! Living with a brother is always a nice chapter. I'm sure they will remember this time.

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