What's in this box?

Sigh. The question of the day. You have to remember we moved from a big huge house into a not so big flat. With stairs. And all of our belongings were either up a swirly staircase into the flat, or down an equally swirly staircase into the basement. Needless to say, we never unboxed some things we brought from Minnesota. Mike tried to pull the old, "well you haven't needed this in a year. let's toss it". But it didn't work. I am emotionally attached to pieces of paper that do indeed look like trash to everyone but me.

Like that postcard Grandma sent me from Monocco or Greece or somewhere else. And Minnesota Dad can attest to my book addiction. I'm keeping all the Dostevsky, Pynchon, Abbey, Rand, McPhee and a bunch of other ones. I don't know why but I am. This is the last time I haul them though. Each time he barked at me about my books I pointed to the 12 bike boxes and told him to "can it!" We have no real furniture...but we have bikes and books and cycling clothes. Sigh.

We bark at each other but we made "hey" today and actually got the truck all loaded and so I think we're heading out a day early. The guys who rented us a truck yesterday were the same two guys who were working the day we dropped off the truck a year ago. Only they were smaller. Much. One of the guys, Rob, said "aw you'll become a Patriot's fan before you leave!" He weighed about 300 lbs last year--maybe more. I asked him, "Hey---did you lose a ton of weight?" He grinned and said he lost a 100lbs! I told him he looked great and he gave us a 12% discount on the rental. Our truck going all the way to NV is now cheaper than the one we drove from CA to MN or MN to MA! Not only that, but we requested a GMC because the one we drove from MN to MA almost tipped over when Mike would go faster than the speed limit. We not only have a GMC---but it is brand spanking new!

Our backs and legs and arms ache---but the Taylor's are departing Massachusetts sometime this morning and heading to points West---back across this land we love. Back home. Or at least close!

This is Joni, reporting live from just outside of Boston---over and out!