Apparently I live here now, since I can't number the days I've been here off the top of my head. With that in mind, some reflection and remarks on being transplanted from Pittsburgh to Denver.

To remark on the move and trip: To take a sentimental moment, thank you very much to those of you who helped, prayed, chipped in, bought food (bought beer!), cheered us on, took crap off our hands, and especially who did multiple of those things. Also thanks for those who entertained us like angels along the way: beren1hand (Columbus), and arrius (Columbia).

For those of you who haven't heard the tale, yet, I'll give my own little Pittsburgh Flood story: On the Friday before the move, we scheduled Das Bettymobil to go into the Ford place for oil change and once-over before we drive it 1400 miles halfway across the continent. Of course, there's a nostril-load of work to be done on it, brake work I expected, and this little matter of a scary ball joint problem, plus the alignment is screwy. Do it, I sez. So I wait... And you who live there know: it rained. And it was rainy, yeah, and hard, and I found a leak in the lounge window, and the hours went by... And the rain kept coming. And I Looked outside the showroom, and the water was 4 inches deep, and running crazy down the side of the hill the dealership is built on... in fact, it's coming up to, no, now it's coming in beneath, the showroom door, I tell a manager. Of course, it keeps coming, and it's flowing at least 6 inches deep along the uphill side of the building; it starts to leak through the garage door into the service garage side... Yeah, it flows into the garage. Slow at first, while they start moving cars away from where the ground is eroding fast... But by 2pm, it's ankle-deep water inside Moon Twp. Ford, and some guy is till finishing up after the ball joint replacement, brake job, and alignment. That is, power tools, cars on racks, and Das Bettymobil, plus me, ankle-deep in muddy water, along with some agitated Ford employees. I ask the guy, hey, what's going on with my car, man? He goes to find out. Yeah, it's almost done, how you gonn pay? Well, I was gonna do it by credit card... [*dark building*] He copies it down, and the tech says, well, I just got it off the alignment rack before the power went. I sez, is it good to go? He sez, I didn't get to test it, but my experience says yeah, and the machine says yeah, but it's not tested... Good enough, sez I. (Can't go out the front drive, it's a foot under water, flowing like mad.) I drive out the back and maneuver around dislocated hunks of ashpalt, crumbling seams in the back lot, and cars relocated to solid ground, and head uphill.

And I had it easy in that town, it turns out...

So while the city and surroundings flooded, and I gained a new appreciation for the power of flooding watching the news, we packed. With my parents, who saved our collective butts from insanity (well, almost). They came pretty much prepared, as I'd asked, to just do whatever I asked, no matter how crazy. And they did. The packing mistakes were trivial (except for the mover guys who had to lift a couple *very* heavy large boxes). And I don't think anything they packed was damaged at all (overall casualties very light, thanks to the Anderson/Bekins moving guys). Sendoff at church was fine, though my deacon did *not* get to preach, which was rather just a touch of bitter, though I got to bring her up high and visible by not standing below the rector for commissioning. I leave them all in God's hands, and put mine in his. That's all I can do.

Because of the flooding, our move got pushed back a day. This turned out to be a good thing, and it allowed us a nice evening meal w/ Random, TLJ, and the Godsonz of D00M at LuLu's, one last time. (On top of letting us finish last packing, taping, labeling, and cleaning semi-sanely.)

Movers arrived an hour early, 7:30am, and hauled things away with mighty speediness. While I sneezed madly and hauled crap to the curb, piscis finished cleaning the house. (note: piscis kicks ***. you are all jealous. duh.) We dropped a couple more armloads of crap on our awesome (for all to short a time!) neighbors, cooed at their lil' spawn one more time, weaseled the last stuff into Das Bettymobil, and hit the road...