A Final Post from Tallahassee

This will be my final blog post written from Tallahassee.

Probably.

While we are mostly packed up and ready to go, we thought we were loading up a trailer this morning. As you may recall, Melanie’s parents are driving out to meet us with a large trailer that they own. That was to be our mode of moving, and we expected them to arrive last night so that we could load the trailer this morning. We then figured we’d officially depart Tallahassee on Sunday morning.

Then disaster struck.

On the way out, Melanie’s parents broke down. They had to get a new alternator. We thought this might delay them, but the work was done quickly and we were relieved to learn that they would still make to Tallahassee at the regularly scheduled time. But then, yesterday, their truck broke down again. Only the situation was much worse. The truck very nearly burst into flames. Everything under the hood was so hot that mechanics couldn’t do anything with it for quite some time. The heat damaged tons of stuff. The computer was fried, and before they even got done looking things over, they knew it would cost at least $4,000 to fix the truck, just for the parts. No labor included.

Moving postponed.

Although it’s not Melanie’s and my fault, we both feel some residual guilt that her parents are in this situation. I don’t know how they are handling it, but I feel terrible for them. The damage was so bad and would be so expensive to fix, they have decided to buy a new truck. Their generosity of coming out to help us move has resulted in them having to buy a new vehicle. They are already on their way to us again, and will be here tonight. We can then load up tomorrow. I’m not sure if we’ll try to leave soon after loading up, trying not to lose any more time, or if we’ll try to catch our breath and leave on Monday morning. It doesn’t really matter for Melanie and me, thankfully. But Melanie’s dad has taken time off work to come help us out. You can see how the guilt adds up, right?

To focus on good news, we sold several big items in the last week or so. We’ve sold many things for very little, so it’s not like we’re raking in the dough. That’s not the point. It’s just nice to simplify. And yes, we’ve given away some things for free. But the most wonderful news is that we sold our minivan, the one that gave us relentless trouble after we first bought it. The van wasn’t even in working condition when we sold it, so we feel pretty lucky. The guy that came and looked it over knew what he was doing and got it running. We then sold it to him for half of what we were asking, which is about what we had hoped to get out of it. We honestly thought it might end up being donated to Goodwill, so the fact that we got anything out of it feels like reason to celebrate. We are stoked. It will help us immensely.

And that’s that. Although I guess it’s worth mentioning that, even with our home packed up in boxes, I haven’t started to feel weird about moving. I thought it would hit me by now, but apparently it’s a delayed reaction. Or maybe I’m more mentally prepared for the change than I expected. I suspect it’s just a delay, but we’ll see.