My phones back on! My phones back on! My phones back on!
Well, its been on for a little while, but not long enough to fully bask in its reactivated glory before acquiring job number four. I’ll get to that in a nano, though, I have a comment or two about resurrected my texti first.
I must say I was strikingly disappointed at how anti-climactic the procedure of turning it on ended up being. After the payment processed electronically, a single message was sent to my email confirming the receiving of adequate funds. Then nothing.
No cascade of backed up text messages overflowing my inbox. No lost voice messages appearing again out of the ether. No new video messages unwatched and awaiting my moderation. After three months, nothing was saved in any sort of backup server by my carrier service, though I’d hoped desperately to see what anyone trying to contact me had wanted, or said discovering my unavailability. What’s lost is lost, though.
Sorry, I’ve digressed. The point of this transmission is to let you know my about my most recent occupation, and the physical hardships that accompany it.
Today is my third day on the job as a removalist. Not professional by any means; I may have the stamina and the creativity to perform well, but I hardly possess the fortitude or even strength needed to make a living out of moving people’s personal belongings. I guess you could say its more of a PBO gig, though I’m not really the owner of what I move either.
I’ve been helping the Magnate family in their hastened exodus from Newport Beach. Packing, lifting, carrying, loading, unloading, carrying again, setting down and unpacking. The past 50 hours or so have been expended with this seemingly never ending process of transplanting the delicate furniture and personal effects that have surrounded them for years.
I’m in the middle of distributing the cases and cardboard boxes containing most of that matter to the various quarters they belong to. I don’t have much time before the final large load comes and the rental carryall needs to be returned, so I won’t go into too much detail. But since today was the first day they actually had keys to get inside their new home, the bulk of the moving has been done in he past few hours.
The fridge, beds, gigantic teli screen and baby grand piano were all moved already today, just to name a few of the larger things. The kind of ancient baby grand piano that weighs at least a ton and requires a whole gang of people to carry. The kind of fridge that could be oozing with deadly Freon as we speak. And the kind of television that can’t be laid flat, it has to remain upright to prevent the light crystals from resettling.
To ensure it’s safety, I had to ride in the cargo bay of the carryall with a full load of the heaviest items. It wasn’t a particularly intimidating task at first sight, it even kind of looked comfy in there, on top of a pad of pillows and blankets between a vertical stack of mattress and the precious teli screen. I brought my texti, to keep in contact with the much safer riders in the cabin, and an old scratched up tuni that I used in lieu of a proper, more modern media player. The 7-mile trip wouldn’t be too long, I was mostly only afraid of being bored along the way.
It started off calm enough. It was a nice break from the lifting–nestled into a stack of comforters–I almost felt like sleeping, I was so relaxed. Well, ‘was’ being the pivotal word there. It wasn’t long at all into the drive that the already loosely packed contents of the giant, silvery hold began to gyrate and jostle about. That massive king-sized headboard looming above my head looked more menacing with each bump and dip in the road.
The speed picked up. I wouldn’t really even say we were traveling that quickly, just a little bit above the pace we’d maintained on what I assumed were the neighborhoods and side streets. Nonetheless, a jolt of feeble acceleration informed me that we were on a freeway. The heavy, wooden bed piece above sagged further into impending view. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t wait for the Magnates in the cabin to bring the cumbersome truck to a halt; I’d have to act on it quickly.
Metal wobbled and wood creaked around me. As I moved into position, a mattress close by shifted and let loose the Damocles headboard it kept upright. So much for getting ready, I leapt forward and threw my weight against the falling object before it could come crashing down on the fragile cargo. I hoped I was sturdier than the silicon and plastic I’d sworn to protect.
For the rest of the trek I sat perched against it, pinning the huge piece of wood against the forward end of the cargo hold. It seemed like forever before the harrowing journey came to an end, and at long last the rental truck stopped. That is, before it pulled away from the Martian-run strawberry stand on the side of the road and continued to our final destination.
I’d love to be able to just lay down right now and sleep. There’s so many more things to carry and so many stairs between where they need to go. If only there were some way that I could recharge and lift at the same time, but there aren’t any that I know of. Instead I’ll just push through the hunger and the delirium a little longer until someone comes to relieve me. And they better hurry up soon, otherwise there won’t be anything left for them to move.
Wait, I think I hear air breaks squeaking outside. That must be Mr. Magnate with his final load, I better go help them get it off the truck before I can even think about setting anything else down.
Gork, does this day ever end?
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