Newton Newbies

 The Movers Arrive!

 The day before the van arrived there was an "advance man," Mark, who came to determine how difficult it would be to back the truck up to the house.  There is a slight jog in the driveway, and massive trees (not to mention some lighting fixtures and the mailbox) that made it a challenge.

Fortunately they had a 20 year veteran who backed it in with no problem.

 He did have to adjust the trailer in order to allow the ramp to make a bridge between the truck and the porch landing.  As they said, it was much better to spend 30 minutes getting the truck "set up" than have to schlepp everything from street side!

 The unloading had begun by 9:15 am.
First off the truck were the items we had had in storage back in Texas.  Mostly books, paintings and canvases.  Those went into the basement.

Then came the books we had still had in the house and boxes and boxes and boxes.  Most of them were labeled, but the only labels the moving crew cared about were the inventory numbers:  i.e., yellow 245... I was in charge of crossing them off the list to see that everything arrived.

We got somebody's suitcase from Georgia.  Don't know HOW that happened. We put that one back on the truck, which was itself from Indiana.

 The furniture came off at the end, with the grand piano at the very very end.

They could not, however, get DH's massive desk into his new "cave."  Even if they took the top off the desk (union rules or custom said they could undo up to 8 screws!) it was too wide for the interior doorway with or without the door on.  There was at least an hour of silent grieving.

For now, I think There will be a "business annex" of the cave in the sun-room/breezeway.  Huge desk + portable stereo + couch + love seat.  

The movers had pretty good ideas about how to arrange things, but encouraged us to have them to rearrange things sooner rather than later, because it was easier to rearrange a few things than the whole room.  I tended to defer to their recommendations, because after all, they set up living rooms from scratch five times a week, and I probably will only do that five times in my whole life. 

 Before the van was empty Tim ( of T & M Landscaping) arrived.  His reputation is that he is the only "legitimate" landscape/lawn guy in town. The town Select(wo)man and the previous owners recommended him.  He had a helper and they both rode giant wide mowers around the yard like cowboys.  Or... as if the mowers were Zambonis for grass.  Nice patterns!

 Not quite the same as a cabana boy.  But I'm no cougar, so it really doesn't matter!

 

On my way back from getting my hair cut the next day
 I drove around looking for professional's shingles:  doctor, dentist, optometrist.  (I have an insurance provider's list to chose from, but until I know the roads, I don't know which office locations make sense!  At least with the shingles, I know they are close by.)

Not to mention that one of the more prominent hospitals in the area had a sociopathic drug user in their employ who has Hepatitis C... and would inject himself with drugs intended for patients, give the patient saline, and THEN put the USED SYRINGE back in the supply closet.
It is possible that more than 1000 people were infected. 
Oh, and he was a "supply" nurse who went from state to state on assignment.

I came across this backyard (huge!) with a giant play structure in it.  I don't think HRH the grand-daughter will need QUITE this much... but you never know.

She had a grand time on her first visit running in circles around the "island" garden at our well head.