Home Sweet, MoCo Home

A week ago I called an apartment in Ellicott City my home. Today, my home is an actual house, located gloriously within one mile of the Shady Grove Metro station. I've managed to move, unpack, and put together IKEA furniture, but it was one hellacious experience my body and mind will never go through ever again.

After a much-ballyhooed pre-packing for the move, I picked up the 22-foot Penske truck and nervously drove it to the apartment. I had never driven anything longer than a 16-foot U-Haul truck, so now I was driving a real man’s truck!

After a great experience with Penske service and the truck’s solid condition, I will never use U-Haul again. Penske offered unlimited mileage and an appliance dolly (only $10 for 3 days). U-Haul charges by the mile and Ryder didn’t offer dollies. Did I say dolly? I meant to say the tougher sounding, “hand truck.” Grrrr.

It was nice having an automatic transmission instead of the 10-gear manual shifting one that real tractor-trailer drivers endure.

This was as close to driving a real big rig as I’ll ever get. I sat high enough that I saw the top of every SUV. It took three tall steps just to get in the cabin. I was disappointed to not have a cord to honk the horn, instead pressing the steering wheel. No CB radio talker was available either.

I pulled up around 8 and the loading commenced. Around 8:20 two of our friends swung into action and hauled ass hauling our stuff. By 9:30 the truck was stuffed. The truck that I thought was going to be too big was just right.  The drive was uneventful as I became quite comfortable in my mini-big rig.

The move went much smoother than it did for these Disney characters.

The unloading started around 11 and was 3/4 done when MoCoLotion arrived to help with the last 1/4 and just as importantly, deliver some bountiful food. We met a few of our neighbors and managed not to violate any homeowner’s association policies in our first few hours on the property. So far so good.

To serve our creature comfort needs, the Comcast installer managed to actually arrive within the 2 PM to 5 PM window. I asked about installing cable in other rooms and was told it would need another appointment…of course. I’ll just split it myself...hehe. Looks like Comcast of Frederick-Montgomery-PG County is no better than the one we had in Howard County.

By some grace of God, our cable TV and Internet are still working a week later.