We drove down the highway west, old son. I can't say I enjoyed how close we followed the various cars in front of us (not counting the hearse with the "MACABRE" licence plate) and in our haste we did almost swerve into a dude and to what would surely have been a fiery death. We got honked at. I feel it was fairly justified honking.
Despite all this, I tried to keep my shotgun-seat driving to a minimum. I suppose it's the result of the same philosophy that says to never criticize a barber while you're strapped to his chair with a bare throat and he has plenty of readily accesible blades at hand.
Arriving at our west end destination, and the apartments dog safely stowed away (a load off our minds), Simon and I got right to it. What's great about working with Simon is that, beyond just being excellently strong, is that he is more than ready to accept instruction (aka: the plan) for moving whatevers, has no compunction about asking for clarification or in sharing his concerns. True, these trates make for slow going when we have to pick what to have for dinner, but in the context of moving they maximize group safety and efficiency.
As a brief aside, a week or two ago (wait... three weeks?) Jordan and I agreed to help move some stuff down at the Salvation Army Scarborough Location. For the most part this was no great chore, and we were paid $50, so, score, but when it came time to move the podium back into place it was my father and I moving it along. When we had gotten to center of the stage and needed to get it back in place I wasn't a hundred percent sure how it slotted in, additionally I wanted to suggest switching places with my father so I could have the heavy portion going in (what with him not being a spring chicken anymore). I said "Let's think about this for a second.." and was about to voice my concerns, when the Corps officer said "you can think about it all you want, but that's not going to get it moved" or something to that effect, cutting me off and marginalizing my good faith effort to get this done and keep my dad from hurting himself. Not surprisingly, my dad laughed along with the officer and got to picking up his side of the podium. I was mad and didn't care anymore, so fine, I'll pick up this end and we'll toss it around until something works. As this scenario is a common one when I move things with dad you'll understand when I say it drives me crazy to move things with him.
Back to the work Simon and I were doing. The only obstacle we really encountered was fitting the mattress and the boxspring down the stairwell. I'm not even sure how we ultimately did it- the last floor seemed to have a lower ceiling that kept getting the top corner stuck- but it worked out. I was worried about how careful we'd be asked to be with keeping the mattress off the ground or whatever (it was covered in a plastic sheet) but we were assured that it didn't really matter how we did it, a definite load off my mind.
The truck we dropped this all off on was... and here my car language is failing me. It's not a truck in the sense that it was a moving truck with a big boxy back end, but a truck that has, uh, an open top, not as much space as a moving truck. More like something you'd expect someone on a farm to own, right? Except that also gives the wrong impression, saying that makes you think of some rusted red number, when this was actually really nice, black, modern, four doors. Oh, here's how I should have described it the whole time: think Marty's truck from Back to the Future, not Optimus Prime.
There we go, that was easy after all. Thanks pop culture.
We loaded everything in the Marty's truck, and I was actually shocked at myself after the fact with how injudicious I was with my leaping off of the truck. After safely landing on terra firma I realized how easily I could have been misbalanced and tripped out of the thing, and that would end your trip real fast, wouldn't it farmboy? I resolved to be more careful when stepping around up there, and specifically preparing before jumping down in the future... but even then, later on when I needed to step up on the side of the cargo hold, an even higher, far more precarious position, I once again leaped down to the ground without thinking, only after touching down realizing- "Yeesh, that could have easily gone bad!" I was, however, pleasantly surprised at how my feet didn't get all tingly hurt/shocked from such a drop. I guess my shoes are holding up all right after all.
Ah, I've just realized a good quote I could've used for the title: "Don't think. Feel." - Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon
If a squirrel could second guess their leaps from tree branch to branch, there'd undoubtedly be a lot more squirrels dropping down to the ground. Guess I'm lucky I'm not a squirrel. That said, it was pretty fun to be jumping around.
We took Lakeshore Boulevard east to the Beaches, it must have been 3 something. Traffic was terrible at Lakeshore and Bathurst but once we passed by Spadina we did far better than I expected. Also, the truck with the mattress, box spring, and chair in the back cargo area didn't get stopped by the cops and get ticketed or anything. Whew.
We didn't need to move the bed stuff into the new apartment, that stuff was heading Kingston bound, so it was just a bookcase and the chair going in, with the bed stuff just needing a readjustment to lay flat in the truck with the new space afforded it.
Our hosts father, a genial man, was very nice to Mister Simon. Knowing Simon, that probably weirded him out. Good times.
With the last bit moved in we were offered payment. I considered turning it down, since I had previously said I just wanted to do a nice thing... but it's hard to get around the fact that I do need cash when I can get it. We were actually offered $100 to split between the two of us and I felt my eyes bulge a bit. Our "boss" looked at us a little funny, worried, I imagine, that she had offended us with a low amount. I quickly assured her that that amount was just very very great to us.
I gave Simon $60, I took $40, which slightly eased my conscience, and Simon did deserve it, not knowing this person, not wanting to go, being sick, and just helping me out.
AND we got a ride home afterwards, saving me the $3 I brought for Simon's bus ride back, and also saving Simon's tokens, which HE had brought for the bus ride back. At least we were prepared for the bus if needed!
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