Dogs are amazing aren't they? Shadow, who after last year's stroke became even more loving and protective of me than she had been previously, has been on ultra high alert this year with me since I've been home. The first couple days of being home she would crawl up next to me wherever I was and sniff my chest in the area of the heart monitor and then lay her head right on top of it. It became our resting position. And she's started barking more at the people that come into our home. She used to never bark, but after this stroke, there have been more folks in and out of our home, bringing food, helping Tommy with this or that, delivering things for us, just general daily helpers. Shadow does not care for the intrusion but she's warmed up to a handful of them. The rest she uses her ugly, BIG DOG bark to greet.
Speaking of helpers, if you remember I was moving my storage unit when Act 2 occurred. It was still half-moved. The manager at the storage facility had told me when I told her that I wanted the larger unit (back in April) to just wait and pay for the month of May when I had moved everything over, so I hadn't yet paid for any storage for May. She was there the day the ambulance hauled me off. She had even told my friend's husband that I WASN'T there (fortunately he insisted on looking for himself) and so she had granted not only him, but the firefighters, the ambulance and my husband access to the area. She was aware of the situation. Shortly after we returned home from the hospital, Tommy had to go up to storage and grab something that I had promised to a friend for her to use during her daughter's graduation party. When he got to the gate at the storage facility and entered the code, it said in its ominous green letters ACCESS DENIED.
He went into the office and asked the manager about it and she said, "I wasn't sure what you were doing so I put it on lockdown." Excuse me? What we were doing? Well, Shadow and I are napping and playing tiddlywinks...FILTER, FILTER, FILTER...Tommy reminded her of the situation, of which she seemed totally clueless. Guess the blonde doesn't come from a bottle after all in her case. She granted him access but during the conversation it was somehow deemed that the old unit needed to be vacated the upcoming weekend and that Tommy could then come back in on Monday and pay the prorated amount for the new unit and whatever was due on the old unit.
Since there was a considerable amount of stuff to move and it was more than Tommy could do on his own, he sent a text out to 7 of his friends who had called recently (when they heard about the stroke) and asked if we needed anything or if there was anything they could do to help. (Be careful what you ask or volunteer, my husband will take you up on it!). He simply asked if anybody would be available to help him move the unit on Saturday afternoon. He'd provide pizza and soda after the work was done. We figured maybe 2 or 3, at most, would be available. We are extremely blessed. We had 5 of the 7 confirm that they would be there and could help. Tommy arranged for Big Sis to come over and babysit me while the guys went and moved storage.
I should admit that I'm a little bit OCD when it comes to my supplies and stuff. I have, in my head, a vision of how it all is displayed, stored, used, and so forth. So of course I had a definite idea of how things should be put into the new storage space. I drew a map. On gridpaper. Complete with a legend and measurements and detailed instructions on how it should all be put away. I wasn't holding my breath that it would happen this way though. But a girl can hope, can't she?
Saturday came around and the guys showed up right on time. There was an accountant, a financial planner, a dental manager, a dentist, an insurance rep, and a state worker. This was a motley crew for sure. I gave Tommy the map and asked him to please use it. Big Sis and I hung out at the house waiting for the pizza to arrive (we had pre-ordered it online) and just chatted (my speech was beginning to come back the more I talked so I was forcing myself to talk more and more, but I really preferred to stay silent. And if you know me, THAT is a miracle in and of itself!).
I knew how much HEAVY stuff there was in storage and just the plain abundance of stuff. I figured it would take them a good 2 hours to get it all moved IF they paid attention to what they were doing and didn't just throw it in the new unit like a lot of people do when placing items in storage. 50 minutes later, the whole crew of them pull back in the driveway. How on earth could this be? I told Big Sis that they probably had to use the bathroom or something. Nope, they came rambling into the house and informed us that the entire unit, all 100+ pieces of gridwall, all of the cabinets, and supplies and furniture had been moved to the new unit. They even alluded to the "map" and said they casually glanced at it but may have made a few adjustments. This made me nervous but I knew this group, or at least hoped that I did, and prayed that their adjustments were not too drastic. I'd just have to wait and see.
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