While moving someone across Des Moines the last few days, the ambient temperatures have been exceedingly hot… close to 100 degrees some days. I drank a lot of water and took frequent breaks from work.
On Sunday I was present for the second truckload of stuff heading to the new place. Being a long-time transportation person, I hung with the crew most of the day, helping load, then unload the stuff. It was kind of them to allow a septuagenarian weakling to be a small part of the operation.
The owner served three tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom, so I compared notes about being in the military. He said the first tour he dined solely on Meals – Ready to Eat (MREs) for 29 days, which I found to be appalling. I mean, for as much money as the U.S. spent on that war, they could at least have furnished a mess crew with provisions to prepare meals. From time to time, someone hunted a deer and the dried the meat into jerky. At least they had that to look forward to.
I made it a point to talk to each crew member. At the loading location there were more crew members, some of whom had another job in the afternoon. At the unloading point there were three of them, plus me. While I’m not as strong as I used to be, it was great hanging out with strong, young men and unloading the truck.
The new place is a 100-year-old home with everything that means. The house isn’t standard anything and that created some challenges. There will be a process of working through them. The laundry equipment is in the basement where I could envision a homemaker working a wringer washer like my aunt did. Luckily the current machine is a couple upgrades from a wringer washer. The unusual layout could be nice once all the settling in is accomplished.
Tomorrow I start posting at Blog for Iowa for the month of August. I plan to cross post here, so stay tuned!
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