The Mover is Here!....The Mover is Here?

Yes, folks, you read that right.  Mover, not movers.  No, there is no plural there. There is also no 26 foot straight truck.  Before I confuse you any more, please let me explain.

Last Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from our moving company stating that our movers, note the plural, would be arriving on Thursday morning.  The movers, again note the plural, would be calling as they got closer to our home to let us know a more exact time to expect them.  A few hours later, I received a text that was either very poorly spelled or very broken English, at that point I wasn't sure which,  stating that he was on the road and would let me know when he would be arriving tomorrow.  As in Wednesday.  Hhhhmmmmm. Already something doesn't seem right, but I'll go with it.  If they do come on Wednesday, that would be fine since we were now ready for them.  We spent all Wednesday morning working around the house, waiting for our long anticipated call.  By early Wednesday afternoon, we decided to go out and do some shopping while we waited since we would be within a half an hour of our house and could get back before the movers if they call.  It was a lovely afternoon. We shopped, ate, and went for a ride to scope out a riding stable for Mountain Man. Finally, on our way home from the stable at about 5:30, I got a call from the movers.  They were in Tennessee and would be in Blairsville at around 8:30 if they didn't hit any traffic or get lost and would like to start the delivery then!  I don't know about you, but I for one think that its a very bad idea to start a move at my bedtime.  Ok, so I'm not really in bed at 8:30, but I do like to have my jammies on and be relaxing with a good book before bed.  Thinking that this was one of the worst ideas that I had heard lately, and believe me, I've heard A LOT of really crappy ideas in these past few months, I promptly called the moving company and plead my case.  The compassionate fellow on the other end of the line agreed with me about the poor timing and called off the move til 7 a.m. on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we were up bright and early ready and waiting.  We had coffee and waited.  We cleaned up the kitchen and waited.  We sat on the swing on the deck and waited.  Finally, a little after 8:30, the movers are here!!! We heard them coming down the gravel road at the bottom of the mountain. Mountain Man walked up the drive way and down the road to meet them and instruct them on the best way to get up our road and down our drive without going over the edge of the road.  He wasn't gone long.  Not nearly long enough and when he came back, there was no moving truck following him and he wasn't smiling and whistling.  For any of you that know my Mountain Man, know that if he stops whistling, things are NOT going his way.  I met him at the door already knowing that the news I was about to get was not good.  Without me even asking, he wasted no time telling me that our movers was just a mover and our 26 foot straight truck was an under powered 24 foot flat bed truck pulling a 35 foot overloaded low slung enclosed trailer that would not only be able to make it up our road, but definitely would NEVER make it down our driveway.  Oh, and our "mover" had arrived in this country seven months ago from Siberia and spoke very broken English.  I had to see this to believe it! I got in my car and drove down the road with Mountain Man in tow.  I drove, not because I am too lazy to walk, but because our cell phones get no reception at our house and our new land line wasn't working.  But that's a whole other story. So, down the road we drove, I met "Paul" who was very confused and apologetic and I left Mountain Man with him while I drove to our friends on the other side of the mountain so I could use their phone.  I explained the situation to Mountain Friends and as we were discussing the predicament, I realized that I was working with very limited time since the moving rig, if you can call it that, was blocking a good portion of the road leading up to ours.  Not a good foot to get off on with our new neighbors.

I've always been good at thinking on my feet and this time was no different.  I looked up the phone number for the moving company in Blairsville, called and plead my case.  They obviously have dealt with mishaps like this before because they were awesome!  Within two hours they had three guys and a straight truck on their way.  While our mover waited for the other movers to arrive, he had to unpack almost half the trailer onto the roadside because he was also moving a household to the Orlando area when he left our house!  Mountain Man stood and watched this whole escapade take place, met and visited with all four of our neighbors as they came by to see what the ruckus was on their quiet mountain. Everyone was very sympathetic to our plight and was very friendly. What a way to meet the neighbors!  

We also had time to get acquainted with "Paul" and learn that he came to our country to try and make a better life for his family.  He is trying to get settled and then will bring his wife and ten year old daughter over.  You never know what other people are going through unless you take the time to listen to them. We also learned a great deal about life in Russia and also how a person new to the United States perceives our country.  Needless to say, this was an awesome reminder of the gratitude that we should always have for our awesome lives and the people in them.

Once the other moving company got here, within three hours everything was transferred from trailer to truck and was unloaded into the house.  The local moving company guys were such a great bunch of guys.  Seeing that our mover was new to this country, they really helped him out and explained easier ways to do things.  They even helped him reload his truck and got him on his way again.  It was really beautiful to see how some good old boys from Georgia took a foreigner from a foreign land under their wing, even despite the language barrier.  

Just as the movers were all leaving, our Mountain Friends pulled in with two bottles of wine to help us celebrate our move.  After an evening of celebrating and enjoying their company, we woke the next morning to a house full of boxes. After working to make sense of things, we took a break and Mountain Man left to walk down to our mailbox.  A guy in a four wheeler from the other side of the mountain stopped and gave him a ride.  Mountain Man introduced himself and the first thing the guy said was "heard you had quite a moving experience yesterday!"  News does travel fast in these here mountains!