Bye, Bye Furniture!

Hi all -- Dianne here.  Well, vacation was over, and it was back to work.  We returned to Indiana on Monday, July 12.  Our POD was delivered early Tuesday morning.  Wow, what an interesting process to watch the POD delivery!  The POD is secured onto a frame, which is independent of the flatbed truck it arrived on.  The frame has its own motor and by using levers, the driver can maneuver it off the truck bed, into the driveway, and then lower it into place.  The frame then is "driven" back onto the truck bed and driven away.  

After two men that we hired helped move the five heavy furniture items for us into the POD from the house, Roger and I wrapped them in blankets and shrink wrap and secured them with rope into the POD, using eye bolts that are spaced four feet apart.  

After the large, heavy items were in place, we carried everything else from the house and it was like working a giant puzzle to get the boxes and items into place and secure so that they wouldn't shift in transit.  This took a couple of days in the 90+ degree heat and humidity. 

When we were finished loading, Roger gave me endless grief for my "handy hint" of using an old tennis ball to enclose the padlock to keep the elements from corroding the lock mechanism.  I pointed out to him that yes, the POD was on its way to an indoor warehouse for five or six months, but in order to get to Texas it would be riding on the back of a truck over a thousand miles in the dead of winter.  I rather like my little tennis ball lock protector!!   Roger will like it too when the key slips easily into the lock next January.  (Roger here....  What Dianne did not tell you is that it took her more than a half-hour of struggling to get the tennis ball to slide over the lock - many ugly cuts with a hand saw and lots of exertion trying to make it fit.  The best part, though, was when she told me that she did not know that tennis balls were hollow!  Pretty amazing for such a smart girl :-).

Friday the POD driver returned, added a name tag to my tennis ball lock, loaded the POD onto the frame, jacked it up, and expertly backed the truck under it.  


 It was a great feeling to wave good-bye to our POD.  That means we are one step closer to our full-timing goal and our new life as Winter Texans.

As soon as the POD left on Friday, we left to spend a wonderful, relaxing weekend at the lake with our friends Jay & Nancy.   Roger will update on that next.