January 30, 2019
Moving day no. 2
Moving Day no. 1, continued
Before moving on to Moving Day no. 2, let’s go back to the first one. In our last episode, we emptied out the top layer of our old storage unit and moved it to the new one, thereby exposing the heavy and larger objects that needed a second set of hands. Rachael and I went back together the next morning to finish the job. Together we moved the oak dining room table, the desk, the footlocker, and the glass coffee table. Very difficult, especially the top of the glass coffee table - it’s incredible how heavy glass is! We didn’t try to carry it down the stairs. Instead, we wrapped it in a carpet and carefully, slowly slid it down the stairs. If I’d had a fifth hand free I’d like to have taken a video.
After moving the heavy stuff to the new location, we emptied out the second storage unit that I filled yesterday so that we could start loading it from scratch. The tables are the main structural units for the storage plan, so they need to go in first so everything else can fit on or around them.
That done, Rachael went off for a ride and I wrapped up by packing everything else over, under and around the tables. It went amazingly fast and well. Everything fits in easily, and we have plenty of space left over to give us access. We could even fit the bikes in, I think. We could have kept more stuff!
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Moving Day no. 2
The day after we left our old storage unit behind, it was time to leave our Airbnb. You’ll recall that we were there for only the two weeks by which we shortened our tour of Taiwan, and that most of our residency will be spent in a different condo down on the waterfront.
Like a bad penny, the Jetta saw its opportunity to ingratiate itself back into our lives and rolled around just in time to help with the move. Very timely, and we gladly welcomed it back into the family for the next two months. The move went smoothly with no unpleasant surprises, and now we’re in our new home for the next two months. It’s a rather small studio with a rather narrow Murphy bed, but we’ll fit in fine. It has a good sized covered balcony where we can stash the bikes, and the location on the waterfront is terrific. It’s an easy walk to downtown and we’ll really enjoy being by the river.
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Around Sicily again
This is a blog about our upcoming tour of Sicily, so we should really say something here about it rather than just gas on about our daily lives. In our last post we revealed that for the good of our perfect union I’ve agreed to go with a Rachael to Sicily for a second time. We won’t be in Sicily for the whole three months though, so there must be more to say about the plan. There is, but not today. I’m too tired out from all the move activity, so trip planning will have to wait for another day.
Powell Butte
We’ve had a short series of beautiful but cold days in Portland this week. Well, not really cold - not Polar Vortex cold like my son and his family are hunkering down under back in Minneapolis, or that our friend Greg was insane enough to go biking in. Still, at just a bit above freezing and with an annoyingly cold wind blowing in from the east, it was enough to discourage me from my original plan for the day: my annual challenge-to-self to bike my age in miles.
I have a very attractive 72 mile loop mapped out for my challenge this year that goes south through Oregon City to Canby and then loops back home by way of Champoeg Park and Newberg. So attractive in fact that it seemed a shame to waste it on a day too cold to fully appreciate it. Much better to put it off for a month or two or five and enjoy it at its best when it’s warmer and the days are longer, and to stretch out the pleasure of anticipation.
So, feeling half-hearted about the whole thing, I decided to settle for just half the ride - a 36 mile loop out to Powell Butte. I started out right at sunrise and put in a solid three miles before stopping in at JoLa Cafe for breakfast and coffee before continuing. By the time I re-emerged it had warmed up a few degrees, but it was still chilly enough that I needed my warm gloves and could feel the wind leach the heat out of me nearly all the way to Powell Butte.
If you’ve been following these pages for awhile, you’ll recognize the landscape. Just the usual melange of bridges and snow cones, so there’s not really anything new to say about them. Still though, after not seeing them for the last half year, very nice.
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5 years ago
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If your Sicily tour is half as beautiful as the last one, we readers are going to be in for a real treat.
5 years ago