Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The big move part 2


The move itself went really smoothly; it was days leading up to the move that was rough.  Jackson needs full attention, you can’t just plop him in front of TV or his favorite toys, the iPad may give you 5 minutes.  You can’t expect you are going to get anything accomplished when he is in the vicinity.  I tried once and he dumped the box I filled in 2.5 seconds flat. As I tried to clean up the dumped items, he was clearing the table of the packing tape and sharpie.  Oohhh a sharpie…sweet find for him as he was taking the lid off to draw on the wall I patched and painted a few months ago… Luckily I was able to grab him before that happened or before he had sharpie mustache or tattoo arm sleeve.   We did have help watching him leading up to the day the movers showed up.  Weekends and weeknights people would come over and watch him which was very helpful.  I know we couldn't have packed at all if we wouldn't have had that help.

The night before the movers came, I left the new home after painting to help Sara with the last of what we could get packed in a box, you know those hodge podge boxes of stuff that are not organized..  It was one of those kinds of packing nights.  I remember getting home, taking a shower, and then laying on the hardwood floor feeling like death warmed over.   Sara and Jackson were on their way after having dinner over at her parents, Andie was on her way to watch him, and I could not move from the floor.  Every fiber of my being was sore.  I have had tough workouts throughout my career in sports and nothing even compared to how my body felt at that moment.  Even though it was a brief moment of rest, I was able to muster up energy to help pack more boxes. 

I don’t remember going to bed that night, or how was I able to get up the next morning.  I left early to meet the Charter guy at the new house.  Even then I couldn't just sit and wait because I wanted to make sure what we had already brought over was out of the way of movers. Charter came and had trouble getting tone on the line, so they had to run a new cable outside to the house.  I brought a laptop and a mac as I know you need to test the connection once it is live.  The Charter guy also had some tests he had to perform, but I made him connect via a cable into my modem/router vs. giving him my router configurations.  The internet was up, but there was one test of his that kept killing the connection.  The Charter guy told me that most likely it was modem and tried basically sell me a Charter modem.  I explained to him that it was not the modem, but the test itself, most likely this happens on all personal routers, he said yes…for some reason they have trouble with this test.  I believe this a ploy they use to get customers to buy their crap.  I explained that it is cheaper for me to buy and configure my own equipment than it is to rent Charter’s, there was no argument there.  I also explained that I have had this modem at two previous homes that both worked fine with Charter services, there was no argument there.  He told me that I would need to most likely upgrade my modem to handle the high speeds that Charter has to offer. I explained, in my house we don’t need anything higher than what we have, but thanks anyway.  Each time his test failed, you had to reboot the modem to regain connection, although I bet if we waited a little awhile that would have worked too.  I told him it wasn't necessary to continue to push this test as it is apparent it doesn't work.  I told the guy I did IT for a living, but he didn't know what that was.  So I explained that I have been supporting computers and servers for over 15 years, but he gave me a look of not impressed.  Either way, the internet was up and working which will make everyone in our house happy.  Did I mention this guy looked like George W. Busch Jr.?  Seriously, could have been his brother…

Sara called shortly after the Charter guy left, the movers were almost done and they were getting ready to swing by the storage locker to get the rest of our belongings.  It was only 11:00 AM, so they booked it.  I figured they would stop for lunch on the way, at least that is what the last movers we had did, but they came straight over.  There were 3 of them, so that helped a lot.  Sara stood in the hallway of the entry way guiding them with each load.  They had trouble getting the box springs up the stairway to the 2nd level, so they passed it through the Veranda.  They ended up passing the bed frame through there as well.  With all the stuff they moved there was only had one causality, one bottle of my pumpkin ale homebrew.  I am not even sure if was a causality though because the less than half case is over 2 years old.  I figured this brew might get better with age, but after drinking one the other night…I am not so sure.  The movers were done by 2:00 PM. 

Jackson was over at Sara’s parents and they were going to bring him over after the movers were done.  Cray was going to come over after work to watch him for a little while we unpacked some boxes.   In-between the exchange I put together our canopy by request from Sara.  I was just about finished when everyone showed up.  Then I worked moving some furniture in the living room and safely securing the TV to the wall.  Sara worked on unpacking the kitchen.  We had some boxes that ended up in wrong places, but overall it was well worth having the movers do it. Sara’s parents said we could bring Jackson over later that night and he could stay with them giving us a few more hours at night to get more stuff completed.  We dropped Jackson off and picked up the dogs from the old house.   We set up Jackson’s big boy bed to which I am happy to report that he has successfully slept several nights in since the move.   We bought a video monitor to make it easier on us in fear of him having a seizure in his sleep.  We unpacked more boxes until late at night before calling it a day. 

The dogs were nervous all night and it has been hard getting used to not being able to let the dogs out the back since there is no fence.   Jackson loves walking the dogs.  He doesn't hold a leash, but he will hold your hand.   He will laugh at them when they get tangled up and then holler at them when they go the wrong way.  It is so cute, but very hard to clean up doggies messes when you have the two of them and Jackson in tote.   So far all the neighbors have been very welcoming.  The neighbors behind us moved in the same day.  Sara has met most of the neighbors when walking with Jackson.  Box by box are getting there.  Sunday evening we had my nephew’s birthday.  Afterwards Sara wasn't feeling very well and then ended up with the stomach flu causing her to miss a day at work.  Both our dad came over on Monday to help with some minor repairs, like hooking up the drain line to the dishwasher, fixing the drain pipe for the clothing wash machine, and the outlet to the microwave was loose.  We did not get to unpack very many boxes throughout the work week. 

Friday I left town, Danville, IL., for work and Jackson started a new patch with a higher dose of Clonidine to help him with the aggressive impulsive behaviors.  Since work went well Friday night, I drove back home on Saturday to help get things done.  As for Jackson’s medicine, the new patch caused Jackson to sleep for 3 solid days.  The last time Jackson had sleep patterns on a medicine like this, he had a seizure so he slept in bed with Sara while I was gone.  Sunday we went to the old house to grab window coverings and the storage space to remove the rest of the items and turn in the keys.  Jackson was like a zombie the entire time.  I felt very winded and tired, figured it was from the driving.  We ate some lunch and I took Jackson up for a nap.  Sara’s dad was going to come over to help hang window rods later that afternoon.  I abruptly woke up in the middle of the nap with the stomach virus Sara had the weekend before.  Terrible timing as I was supposed to leave and head back to Danville.  Luckily one of my work teammates was able to cover for me and my management was empathetic to my needs.  I got some rest and had to return the rental car Monday afternoon.  The drive into the city did not go very well as I was not completely better.  When I got back home I rested some more.  I still don’t feel 100%, but I am eating again.  We removed Jackson’s patch Sunday afternoon because we were in fear of a seizure and school in the morning.  Jackson is back to his bubbly higher self now.  If only we can find a middle ground with this medicine.  Dr. EBK suggested we try a patch and a half that has worked with other kids who were on the smaller dose and had the same sleepy reaction to the larger dose.  She just said she can’t guarantee the amount of medicine distributed in the half patch, but we can give it I try.

Last night we ran up to Lowes and bought some hardware to hang up Jackson’s IKEA hug swing.  On our way home there was a beautiful full Rainbow that looked like it was located directly over our house to welcome us home.  By the time we got home it had faded a lot, but you could see it perfectly from our driveway.  I was able to get Jackson’s swing hung up and even watched Parenthood which was an awesome episode.   “Vote for Max the (braver) MAN”.  This is show is so awesome how it deals with day to day struggles.  I could easily write a review/blog on every episode.  It is a must see TV show in my opinion.  Jackson was asleep before I could have him test his new swing.  We put Jackson back in his big boy bed, but had a very rough night staying sleep between 1 – 4 AM.   Now I am back to feeling like a zombie… LOL!  Oh and did I mention the big orange cable that Charter ran over a week ago is still not buried?  

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