The move is complete, but last week has to have been one of the worst seven-day periods I have ever experienced.  Murphy decided to hang out with us all week, so things definitely didn't go as planned.

As was expected, the movers were late Monday, so we didn't finish the main portion of the move until late in the evening Monday — around 8:00 PM!  Considering we had been on our feet all day, my roommate and I were ready to collapse by the time the movers were done.  Since we had much to do before we could sleep (like assemble the beds so we'd have something to sleep on), it was well into Tuesday morning before we actually crashed.

The satellite guy showed up Tuesday bright and early — much earlier than we expected.  I had gotten up early just in case that happened, but I was so tired that I could barely function.

While he was hooking up the satellite, he found that none of the phone lines he was trying to use actually worked.  I went back and checked the phone box and found the damn thing in such a mess that I couldn't figure out what had been done and how to undo it.  Out of nine separate phone jacks, I could only find three that worked.  After abusing the wiring box for a while, I was able to get a fourth jack to work, but I couldn't get the others to work without really taking the phone wiring apart.  I'll have to call the phone company on this one since it looks like they had the place wired for separate phone lines to most of the main jacks.

My roommate had a doctor appointment early Tuesday afternoon, so he headed out shortly after the satellite guy left.  Not ten minutes after he's out the door, he calls me to let me know he'd just been in an accident.  Apparently he made a successful left turn into the left lane of the main road outside of our place.  After his turn, a large box truck in another lane changed into his lane without checking to see if it was occupied.  The damage was extensive and the force of the impact spun my roommate's car across the median and into the left lane on the other side of the road.  Thankfully no one was coming from that direction at that exact moment.

The car is totaled according to the insurance folks (the frame is obviously bent, so no surprise there).  Now he has to pay off that car and find a new one in relatively short order.

We spent the rest of the day unpacking and moving furniture, since neither of us felt like much travel.  Of course, he spent much time on the phone filing an insurance claim and canceling appointments and plans, and so on.

I turned the ice maker on that afternoon and found no ice had been produced by Tuesday evening.  I checked and reset the on-off switch, but several hours later found no ice in the bucket.  I added that to the growing list of problems I would need to address once things settled down.  Luckily, later in the week, I decided to check the water connection behind the refrigerator and found the valve closed.  After turning it on, the ice maker began spitting out ice cubes at a much-appreciated rate.  Mark that one off the list…

Later Tuesday evening, I noticed that Kazon was limping.  This sent me into a complete panic.  I checked him thoroughly and found he wasn't in much pain, so I decided to watch him carefully to see if it got worse.  By the next day, the limp was practically unnoticeable, so I can only assume he was exploring the new place and fell or jumped incorrectly or landed wrong or something just as trivial.  By Thursday, there was no limp at all, so the panic and worry was unnecessary (wish I had known that at the time).

We eventually went back to the old place to shampoo the carpet, do some touch-up painting, and general cleaning and repair work.  That turned into an all day affair and wiped us both out (like we had any energy to begin with…).

We expected some new furniture to be delivered at some time Friday, so my roommate planned to hang around the house while I ran some errands.  At 7:00 AM that morning, the phone rang with the furniture delivery folks needing final directions to the new pad (since they were practically there at that point).  7:00 AM?  What the hell is that about?

Needless to say, another early morning with no control over our schedule…

I finally called the DSL folks Friday to find out why the DSL wasn't up and running.  Due to technical difficulties on their end, it'll be next week before it's turned on.  Given the rest of the week up to that point, I was not surprised by this.  With the way the week had gone, I was actually surprised to find out it would be turned on at all.

The list of minor horrors and problems is quite extensive, so I won't inundate you with those details.  Most of it is minor (some damage to the new furniture when it showed up, levels of fatigue that simply can't be explained, bruises of sizes and in locations that boggle the mind, and so on).

Oddly enough, with all of the trauma, we still survived the entire fiasco.  Quite possibly the worst move experience of my life, I'm just glad it's over.  Oh, we still have unpacking to do, of course, and not all of the new furniture was delivered so we're still waiting on that, but overall the major inconveniences are over.

Now, if I can just survive being back at work for the next few days, I think I might actually live.  As for my roommate, that's still up in the air.  With the whole car situation and two consecutive business trips in the next two weeks, I think he has enough stress to cause spontaneous human combustion.