Moving Day April 2, 2016

With the boat safely settled in to Halifax Harbor Marina in March, we returned to Mount Dora to wrap things up before our big move-in day on April 2nd.  It was a busy month with kids doing school, spending time socializing with friends on their Spring Breaks, and with me trying to  get a full schedule of work in before we left.   The week of departure was especially overwhelming not only with kids doing school and myself working every day but also trying to get the house ready to leave: cleaned, laundry done, outdoor freezer emptied, and packing all the remaining items to move onto the boat.  And to add to the chaos, that week one of our toilets decided to stop working so the entire family was limited to one bathroom while we waited for the plumber to come, who couldn’t make it until after we left.  The morning we were supposed to leave I woke up to water all over the floor of our laundry room.  I opened the extra refrigerator and it was warm, everything was defrosting onto the floor.  So we spent all morning going through both refrigerators and freezers, throwing away ruined items, combining what could be saved into the one remaining refrigerator. While we were at it we checked all expiration dates and tossed anything expired, organized all the condiments, washed all the jars being tossed so they could be recycled and cleaned all the shelves, bins, and walls of both units.  On top of this we did laundry, wanting to make sure that we left a house with clean bedding, clean bathrooms and clean floors. We considered calling it a day and postponing the move until the next day.  But Daytona is only a little over an hour away, so we pressed on. Needless to say we got a much later start to Daytona than expected.  Kim and I took separate cars.  Ben and I pulled our powerboat that we are selling to some friends, Kim in the van with Aislin.  Our caravan was halfway there when we realized we left the keys to the gate of the marina at home, so Kim returned to Mount Dora to get them and Ben and I continued.  We were on I-4 when suddenly I got a flat tire in the boat trailer I was towing.  Fortunately, I was able to safely pull over on the side of the road at the exit for 44 in Deland.  I surveyed the situation, decided this was a great opportunity to teach Ben how to change a tire (which I hadn’t done in 25 years).

Now,  I know my car has a jack in it somewhere.  I unloaded the back of the car until I found it, and then couldn’t figure out how to remove it from the car.  I searched the owner’s manual to learn how to remove the jack.  Once I got the jack and tire wrench out Ben and I started trying to loosen the lug nuts.  We were able to slowly get them loosened from the flat tire (not an easy feat in flip-flops), but the lug nuts on the replacement tire were a different size and didn’t fit the tire wrench. How is that even possible?  Aren’t these things a standard size?  It is the same size tire!  I think this might have been my final straw.  I was hot and tired and exhausted having already worked my tail off all day, all week. Nothing seemed to be flowing.  How many obstacles was I going to have?  Was this something I should just keep pushing through?  or was this telling me that today is not the day, go back home and try again another time?

I was in the midst of wallowing in my frustration, asking God for direction.  Should I just give up?  Am I hitting one roadblock after another to test my determination and ability to keep rising above, pushing through?  Or is this a big “NO” from the heavens and I’m just too stubborn and determined to stop and listen.  Or was this just one of those things?  That sometimes one can have a stopped up toilet, warm refrigerator, forgotten keys, and a flat tire and it not carry any divine significance at all. The line between giving up and letting go can be very fine and hard for me to differentiate sometimes. Maybe we should just turn around and go back to Mount Dora.  Maybe we shouldn’t be moving onto the boat at all.  Maybe we should just stay home like normal people and go to work and go to school and maintain our house so that it can have both working refrigerators and toilets at the same time.   What is this living on the boat thing anyway? A pipe dream?   I thought it was something I wanted to do, I thought it was something we had been led to do–despite all the obstacles; the big wreck, the fender bender wreck, the ups and downs.  Now what?

“Hello, God?  Are you trying to tell me something?”

Then this man pulled behind us.

Yep, the FDOT road guy. He hopped out of his truck, used a 3 ton lift and power tools and had that tire changed in 5 minutes. And with that we were on our way.

I guess we’re going to live on the boat after all.