Garage Abyss
S and I spent today emptying the garage at the fire house. At the end those two increcible long days at the beginning of October when I worked with the movers it was dark and we had 3 feet in the end of the pod and they asked about the garage and I was an hour past my wall and I said no. We’re done. S and I deceded to leave it because we didn’t think it was something that needed to be done and who would subject themselves to the hell of emptying out someone elses garage if they didn’t haved to? Not us.
But the “project manager” (those are sarcastic air quotes) has this habit of avoiding questions I ask of him and resisting providing me any information….. essentially ignoring me 5 out of 6 interactions. The 6th is never an update. It is a directive. It is something I must do immediately. It is generally something that hasn’t ever come up before and it is always followed with the finger pointing comment of “we can’t until YOU… “ or" “so YOU don’t delay it”. Earlier this week he suddenly needed the garage to be emptied before the contractor could finish putting the estimate together for insurance.
You heard that right. After weeks of not giving me an update his update finally was the superstar contractor couldn’t possibly get the quote submitted to insurance until I emptied the garage. Bullshit. The first contractor did. But I’ll play.
So that is how we spent our day. Unloading shelves. Taking apart shelves. Boxing crap. Dividing crap up into the following categories
trash
we will use this in the shop
what the hell is this
pack it for the pod
pack it for her apartment inside
pack it for the storage unit at the apartment
And for everyone who has done this you know that also includes what will fit in the unit what will fit in the storage locker will this freeze WHY ARE THEY SO MANY and what order does it go into IS THAT ANOTHER POT?, etc…. And that feeling of being stunned into inaction at least one time per hour because do you put all the cleaning supplies in one big heavy box or do you stack up all the small little bins of cleaning supplies? The small bins will tip and we need to fill a box to go underneath them but everything is making those big boxes to heavy and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OF THE SAME THING???
It is just the worst. And then done isn’t done. Because when we drove away we drove to the apartment and had to carry the storage shelves the full length of the building because our truck was too tall. Then we unloaded most of the van into the storage unit. Then we unloaded the rest of the van onto the curb in the parking garage and then into the room by the elevator - then on the elevator - then off the elevator then into her apartment entry way- then into her back bedroom. THEN SHE WOKE UP. At which point she mentioned “I don’t want anything else in here.” She also started quizzing us “Now, my big pot with the black and white design?” packed. “and my angel statue?” packed. “and my…” PACKED. While you were watching Hallmark movies and smoking and dozing on the couch we packed it. We packed all of it. All your shit. Packed. And even though you didn’t need 17 additional bottles of toilet bowl cleaner you have them in the back room now. I have no idea where you’ll put them but you bought them. You keep buying them. So you must need them.
But I digress. After everything was in her apartment we drove the empty van to the truck so we could load the boxes of tile into the van so we could go into the garage and unload into the storage unit. And then the truck back to the shop to unload. Then the van had to be loaded back up so S is ready for work tomorrow. There are too many damn steps. I have touched all of her things so many times. So many times. Today felt worse because I know in my heart that I will be unpacking them myself at some point in the future. It all just felt futile. And when S hit the wall he said WHY ARE WE DOING THIS? And my answer to him was the same as his answer to me. Because it had to get done this weekend. We spent our extra hour today eating pizza and playing Sequence as a family.
I walked 6 miles today. Mostly inside the garage abyss.