Move-In Madness

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June 9th, 2016

As a couple, Barbara and I have moved a bunch. Before we got married in 1997, I moved from Indianapolis to her home, in Chapel Hill, N.C., then after about six months there, IBM transferred her to Austin, Tex. We loved both places, although Austin officially did make it almost impossible for me to find any Mexican food that meets the Tex-Mex standards I became accustomed to in that fine city. After four years in Austin, we moved to Woodbury and our beautiful 3-level home on the pond. After 10 years there, we were off to Liberty Lake for what we figured would be two years. It ended up being four.

Home Sweet Home
Home Sweet Home! (And remember, you can enlarge photos by clicking on them.)

While we were in Liberty Lake we pulled the trigger on this new place in Woodbury, for two reasons. First off, the housing market in the Twin Cities was starting to take off and we knew we’d be mad if we came back here in the future and had to pay $100,000 more than what it was listed for when we initially saw it. Secondly, sometimes we need an anchor. Talking about moving back was one thing. We’re really good at talking about doing things. We’re like total experts at that. Making sure we follow through on the discussions is a completely different thing. When our agent told us about this place, and we looked at it during a weekend trip back, we figured we should buy it. We liked it, it would further downsize us, and it was our anchor. At some point, we’d HAVE to move back here.

Add in the fact that individually, before we got married, Barb and I had lived all over the country in domiciles ranging from small apartments to luxury houses, and you can understand that we’re quite familiar with the process of moving. Not much about it is fun, until you’re finally all settled and you can look around and smile.

On Tuesday, the movers arrived here (finally) but all they did was unload. In all my moves, I’ve never had that happen. They’ve always unloaded and unpacked on the same day, and we’ve had much bigger homes than this place. These guys, though, just brought in all the boxes and other goods, then said goodbye. One of them came back yesterday, along with two different guys, to unpack us. Very strange, and what a drawn-out process. For more than 24 hours, the house was barely livable.

A nice backyard patio with a pergola. The hot tub resides under the porch.
A nice backyard patio with a pergola. The hot tub resides under the porch and grilling deck.

And yes, we do pay to have our stuff unpacked. We haven’t always done that, but we’re so over the stress of moving we feel it’s worth it. Plus, and it’s a big plus, they cart away the empty boxes and packing paper. There’s plenty of value in that. And there’s value in putting the responsibility on them to unpack everything without the sound of shattered glass. If we unpacked, that would be on us.

So, as they do, the unpackers (the theoretical football team that is the opposite of the team in Green Bay) simply emptied every box. All they do is put the items on open counters, and when the counters are full they shift to putting things on tables and the floor. It once again raised the question, “Why in the world do we still own so much of this stuff?”

It’s a tough question to answer. A lot of our things are objects we get important use from on a regular basis. That’s a no-brainer. But then we’d get to the bottom of some boxes and find the most bizarre things, many of which I don’t recall ever seeing before. Exactly how many little prongs for holding ears of corn does one household need?

And this is Phase 3 of our major ongoing downsize effort! I think one thing that worked against us was that the Liberty Lake house was much smaller than our previous Woodbury home, but it had the most storage space of any house I’ve ever seen, and it didn’t even have any space in the utility room! Instead, it had cabinets everywhere, including one whole lower-level hallway that was nothing but cabinets, uppers and lowers. So… We never got rid of much while we were there, and a great deal of it was just put into cabinets when we arrived in 2012 and then not seen again until we left in 2016. And now a lot of it is here.

An overwhelming sight. Where do you start?
Good golly. An overwhelming sight.

When the guys left yesterday, we looked around and it wasn’t just “almost overwhelming.” It was truly overwhelming. It was a “Where do we even start?” sort of feeling. And we were hungry. And it was 6:30 p.m. We tackled a few kitchen cabinets just to clear some space, and then we concentrated on the essentials. Unbury the bed. Clear the bathroom counter. Make sure the hot tub is good. Just the essentials. You know, the important stuff.

Today, we’ve been going at it nonstop since right after the Comcast guy was here from 8:00 to 10:00 this morning. We’re upgrading to their new smart boxes and remotes, and he wired the lower level for the home theater, which gets installed next Tuesday. Plus, and this was big, he upgraded us to the newest and best Wi-Fi system. Our old router was officially classified EOL by Comcast. That would stand for End Of Life. It could barely get a signal to the lower level and it was SLOOOOOW. Now we’re firing on all cylinders, although we hiked the front end a little and it was hard to steer. (Wow, cool little drag racing digression there, but she started to rattle and I pedaled her real quick and she hooked back up and trucked right on down through there. She was haulin’…)

Barb has a gene that allows her to see 10 cubic feet of stuff, and put it in 5 cubic feet of space. I do not have that gene. So, the routine has been for me to put stuff in cabinets and then once we feel like we’re making good progress she takes a look and makes it all fit, plus more. Whenever I think the dishwasher is fully packed, she can reorganize it so that six more plates, two bowls, and five glasses can be added.

At some point soon, enough bottles to fill two of these racks will take their place in the wine room.
At some point soon, enough bottles to fill two of these racks will take their place in the wine room.

The fact I’m sitting at our dinner table, and Barb is on a conference call in the room formerly known as Bob’s Office, means we’re making some headway thanks to her superpowers. But, you should see the lower level, where the theater and my office are going to go. I can’t even bear to show you what it looks like. First of all, there are about 1,000 bottles of wine on the floor, waiting to be organized in the wine room. Secondly, there are roughly 50 framed photos leaning against the wall, ranging from baseball stuff and a lot of my dad’s memorabilia, to dozens of racing photos featuring the CSK team and the LRS team.

When you haven’t won much, and you win a race, you collect everything. Jackets, Wally trophies, and many Winner’s Circle photos. Back in the early CSK era, I got it all every time and framed a lot of it. And now I still have it. The jackets and Wally trophies are collectible by a lot of people, and frankly they raised a lot of money for me as rewards on the Kickstarter campaign for my book. 13 people pledged $500 or more to get a Wally, and nearly as many pledged half that to get a jacket. Despite the fact the jacket had my name embroidered on it. The Winner’s Circle or starting-line photos, although they are nicely custom-framed, really only mean something to me and the other people in the photos. So I keep them. And they take up space. Now I’ve got them all stacked against the wall in the lower level.

My goal for tomorrow is to go through all of them and pick the framed photos I want to display. Then I’ll find a place to store the rest. The utility room here is quite big, and I put in heavy shelves to make it more efficient, so “shelves, meet framed photos” is likely the plan.

Boofus and Buster have applied to live out there.
Boofus and Buster have applied to live out there.

This house also has a nice screened porch, and Boofus and Buster would probably live, eat, and sleep out there if we let them. It’s connected by a sliding door though, so to let them hang out on the porch we have to leave the slider open a bit. That’s a fun way to air-condition the great outdoors on a hot and humid day like today. They’re inside and don’t seem to mind.

The house is what’s called a detached townhome, like the Liberty Lake house also was. It’s a stand-alone building, with a real “cottage” look and feel to it, but the Home Owners’ Association hires crews to cut the grass, trim the bushes, and scrape the snow during the winter. They also pay to have the sprinklers fired up in the spring and blown-out in the fall. It’s worth the monthly dues. Plus, the entire subdivision has a very strong HOA, so the look and upkeep of the development are excellent.

And ah yes, the hot tub. Boy did we miss having a hot tub out in Liberty Lake. We had an incredible steam room there, but there’s nothing like a hot tub and we were spoiled by the one we had overlooking the pond at the old house. Now, every night if we want to, we can flip the lid and relax in privacy. The tub is tucked under the screened porch, facing out toward the trees in the back yard. It’s basically awesome.

Progress! I can see the table and work here. And I can see the countertops!
Progress! I can see the table and work here. And I can see the countertops!

And here’s my next mission. We’re getting a new surround-sound receiver for the home theater, to bring us up-to-date with current technology. That’s great, and the theater is going to be incredible, but at the same time I’m planning a concurrent move the other direction, back to ancient technology. I’ll use the old receiver, and some old bookshelf speakers to assemble an old-school stereo near my desk. On the top shelf of the rack will be something I’ll be buying soon. A turntable!

Digital music is more efficient than anything in history, but digits don’t have soul. Turntables and vinyl records have soul, and a real depth to the sound they produce. Also, reestablishing an album collection is going to be great fun. I lost a ton of albums in a flood back in the early 90s, but I still have 40 or 50 and the market for new ones (and the reselling of used albums) is booming.

Do you know what the single most popular piece of music technology was last year at Christmas? It was turntables.

Psychologically speaking, being back in Woodbury is already so “right” it’s hard to believe we haven’t been here all along, although there’s one thing I’m having to adjust to. People drive FAST here, and they’re not actually speeding. Regular boulevards in Woodbury, complete with stop lights, can have speed limits as high as 55. In Liberty Lake, we had one half-mile stretch of road that was 45, and the rest of the town was 35 or 30. And everyone did exactly the speed limit, which is pretty wise in a town that allows golf carts to be driven everywhere, even by kids. I told Barb the other day, “I actually have a hard time keeping up with traffic here. It seems like we’re flying!”

To see familiar faces still working at convenience stores, the grocery, and other businesses is amazing and heartwarming. We’ve been coming back here for random weekends, or even individual days, for quite a while, so it’s not like we disappeared completely, but it’s still fun to reconnect. The girl at the wine store said “Are you back for good now?” The first time I went and got lunch for us at Chipotle, after we got back, the checkout girl smiled broadly and said “I don’t think I’ve seen you for months. Where have you been?” It was enjoyable to tell her.

Last Saturday, Dylan Blake celebrated his high school graduation at his parents’ house. That would be Lynn and Terry Blake, who live just around the corner from our old house. We had a fantastic time celebrating all afternoon with Dylan and his guests. Just about all of our Marsh Creek neighbors were there, including Neighbor Dave and Nichol, Mary Beth and Joe, Scott and Barb, Kristy, and lots of others, some of whom we typically only see at the annual New Year’s Eve bash. It was nothing short of sublime to be surrounded by the greatest friends ever, the friends that made it essential for us to finally get moved back here. Four years have passed, but it felt like we never missed a beat.

The Blakes won’t be in the old neighborhood for long, though. With Dylan graduating and their daughter Maddie also getting her degree from the University of Minnesota (“The U” in Minnesota parlance) they are officially about to be empty-nesters. They’ve talked for a while about totally downsizing to a loft apartment in the bustling “Lower Town” area of downtown St. Paul, and they actually had the guts to pull the trigger. They officially move into their new 2-bedroom unit in just a couple of weeks. The old gigantic Post Office building in St. Paul has been converted to luxury residential, and their apartment will have spectacular views of the Mississippi and the skyline. Maybe someday, for us. I’m so impressed they’re doing it!

Dave and Nichol’s nest is also empty, so they’re in renovation mode, tackling project after project to get it spruced up. I think they’ll stay here in Woodbury like us, though. They’re starting the process of looking at detached or semi-detached condo life, too, here in “The Bubble.”

Always vigilant!
Always vigilant!

Here at our place, we did “hire” some guards to keep an eye on the place while we were still out in Washington. A couple of years ago we were at the famous Minnesota State Fair when we spotted a couple of concrete cat statues at a sales display. We had to buy them, of course, and they’ve been guarding the front walk ever since, through rain, snow, and everything else. I think they’re happy we’re back, but it’s hard to tell. They just sit there stone-faced. Totally stone-faced.

We’ve already had our bikes out on the trails once, and plan on doing that all summer. This development we’re in has many of its own paved trails, around lakes and ponds, but the city of Woodbury has miles and miles of them, around bodies of water of various sizes and through the woods. I’m still searching for that elusive route that covers 15 miles in a loop, with 100% of the distance being downhill, but that doesn’t seem to be scientifically possible. A guy can dream, though.

Out on the NHRA Mello Yello tour, I stay in touch with many of my former PR colleagues (Facebook helps, in that regard) and like so many people I’m following along on Fox Sports 1. The “live” coverage has been fantastic, and it’s getting better by the week. And, I’m proud to say that I predicted what’s happening when I told my colleagues, at our annual PR dinner in Pomona last year, that I felt like I was leaving the sport at the right time for me personally, but at the wrong time in terms of the future of the sport. I saw what Peter Clifford was accomplishing, in such a short time span, as the new President of NHRA and I was really energized and optimistic. And then the FS1 and FOX announcement made it inescapable, to me, that the sport was about to enter an entire new era of success. The TV ratings are, quite literally, through the roof. Attendance is on a major upswing, including a number days at a variety of races where the “SOLD OUT” sign had to be hung in the ticket window (including at Charlotte, the biggest drag racing stadium in the world). We were drawing TV audiences of 350,000 sometimes last year, maybe 500,000 when a good time slot and a good lead-in on the old network maximized our viewing numbers. We just had a race (I still say “We”) with 1.3 million watching, on FS1. And we haven’t even been on the main FOX Network with live programming yet. That is some mind-boggling (and very exciting) growth for the sport, and we haven’t gotten to the big numbers yet.

NHRA is big news and “the hot topic” for those in the sports-marketing world who pay attention to such numbers. There’s always a lag in terms of corporate sponsorship ramping up as the numbers get bigger, but I’m confident it will begin to happen in the next budget cycle. The sky is officially the limit.

And don’t count out Wilk for the Funny Car championship. He has the LRS car dialed in.

So now, it’s time to begin to tackle the lower level. The technical term for this undertaking is “Ugh.” One step at a time, here. One step at a time.

As for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” I’ll have Chapter 21 done tomorrow. It’s been a fun one to write, although I did most of it on Sunday and Monday before the madness started around here. I’ll figure out a snippet for the next blog installment.

See you next week!

Bob Wilber, at your service during Move-In Madness.

 

 

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