LXVII. Regresar a Los Estados Unidos, Parte 1

Back in the United States, Part 1

Our penultimate night in Mexico—a week and a half ago—I partied too heartily and launched myself onto a 50-year drunk that led to a fall and me looking, and feeling, like I’d just spent a dozen unlucky rounds in the boxing ring. Although it provoked knowing and good-natured laughter among my Mexican friends, that didn’t augur well for our first visit in a year back to the Land of the Free.  A few days later we woke up on our first morning in the city, and even neighborhood, I had called home for more than forty years. We had a massive to-do list with a complete-by date of less than a week from arrival. We got it all done three days ahead of time. We’re patting ourselves on the back.

The storage locker is five feet wide and ten feet long, and
packed to nearly three-fourths of its eight foot height.

Item #1—after Younger Daughter picked us up at the airport, and a short and fitful night’s sleep—was picking up our beloved car Eddie from his year in a suburban storage facility, hoping, of course, that Ed Man would start and his tires not be flat. Dealing with any kind of motor-driven device is problematic for me, raising red flags of worry that I know are unreasonable but deeply felt nonetheless. Ed's tires were fine, but the battery was dead. Fortunately I was being helped by YD who is Positivity and Good Humor Personified. I’d asked her to bring jumper cables and those worked as per instructions. She followed me the half-hour back into the city where, upon stopping, it was revealed that Red Ed had lost his charge and that a new battery would be needed. That would have to wait.

The U-Haul is six feet long and ten feet wide
with a six foot ceiling--not much wiggle room!

Next up on that first day back was moving all our belongings from the storage locker we had rented and stuffed full almost exactly one year ago. I knew I couldn’t do the job by myself—some things were just too big, awkward or heavy to move alone. I had thought of hiring some temp labor but was balking at the idea when YD suggested that she and Older Daughter would be happy to help. They are strong, smart, hard-working young women and we had the mercilessly small U-Haul packed to the roof in only a couple of hours—after several dozen round-trips up and down a long, narrow and dimly lit hallway, past locked and anonymous flimsy steel doors, down the freight elevator into which we’d jammed our two piled-high and hard-to-turn dollies, finally to punch the button that slowly lifts the roller door to reveal an increasingly laden truck. 

Back at OD’s house, where she had graciously donated driveway space and cleared room in her garage to serve as a staging area, we resuscitated Dead Ed and, after many hugs and thank you’s, I drove crosstown in the glooming to our Air BnB and a late deli dinner. The plan was for us to spend the next three days pulling every single item out of the U-Haul, deciding if it should 1) be inventoried and re-boxed for shipment to our new home in México, 2) set aside in the garage for gifting to friends and family, or 3) put back in the truck, driven and donated to

Two sweet daughters in the now empty $72/month
storage locker.

Big Brothers/Sisters at a nearby ValueVillage. After everything had been sorted, all the packed pieces would go back in the U-Haul for inspection and final off-loading by the international movers, which will happen tomorrow, and only then will we return the rental truck. This was the plan thought up by my Sensible Solutions Spouse. 

Fueled by ibuprofen, the plan worked to a T! Worry about rainy days during our largely outdoor endeavor had caused us to lose sleep in the weeks leading up to this grueling test, but even the weather cooperated. We even managed to cut almost in half the amount we had estimated for shipping, saving us several thousand dollars. And the unusual idea of using the U-Haul truck for temporary storage worked fine. We vowed to remember how well this all turned out in the future, whenever we stress about some complicated event we are planning.

There was only one glitch in our well-made plans that first week...to be continued.