Oh, my aching back!

Friday, December 14, 2007
Did I say Whoo-hoo, we have a washing machine? The good news is that I hear the comforting sound of the machine washing clothes as I type. The bad news is that all didn’t go exactly according to plan. As we unloaded the machine from the rented truck (we had a dolly, but no ramp), I slipped and managed to hurt my back. Did I mention that this was a fully-loaded truck and the washing machine was the first thing out? So we got it onto the dolly and up the steps into the building, feeling hugely grateful that we’re on the ground floor, and discovered we had made a completely amateur moving mistake. We measured the space, which is quite small, for the washing machine carefully, but neglected to measure the last door the washing machine would need to go through. Door: 56 cm, washing machine: 60 cm. Oops. So we decided that the washing machine would look lovely in the kitchen, and Wayne has purchased and installed the necessary hosing to make that work. The first load is in now. I actually think it’s worked out for the best, as any machine less than 56 cm wide would wash about 3 articles of clothing at a time. Given that washing machines are slower here (a load takes from 90-120 minutes), that means I’d be doing laundry constantly.

The other furniture that was in the truck was moved in almost completely by Wayne. I could carry stuff, I just couldn’t bend, so Wayne gave me a couple of things, I carried it in, Wayne put it down. Luckily the cabinets we were moving came in lots of mostly not-too-heavy pieces. (All those pieces are currently stacked awaiting complicated reassembly. It took Wayne and one of his friends hours to disassemble it to move, and will presumably take even longer to reassemble.) We didn’t finish unloading until nearly midnight.

Thursday morning, while we still had the truck, we went to look at a couch advertised in the classifieds. We didn’t really like it, so we’re still without a couch. We did buy a bed at a furniture store – the only thing we’ve bought new. We brought it back, unloaded the pieces, and returned the truck.

To all of you with chronic back problems, you have a whole new level of sympathy from me! Thursday morning I literally couldn’t get out of bed by myself (it didn’t help that bed as of Thursday morning was a mattress on the floor). I had never hurt my back before, and so am learning new skills, such as how to pick something up off the floor without bending over, how to put on socks with the minimum bending, etc. My back is already much better, though still painful. Ibuprofin is my friend.

Abby’s first week of school has gone well. She’s only had one hard day, which given the language challenge seems like a miracle. She is very excited about the trip to the children’s farm next week, and we managed to get waterproof pants and rain boots on our shopping trip. Her job at the farm will be caring for the ducks.

Still no internet or phone at home – we did get a letter from our service non-provider saying that the waiting period would be longer than the month they had first told us.