Not Quite on the Road

I was hoping against hope that we would be able to finish the move today and be on the road to the East Coast. However; that didn't happen and it really doesn't matter. What matter most is that we have everything safely stored in our three locations and we as a family embark on this cross country experience together.

Yes, last night was a difficult night as my wife and I laid in our bedroom for the last time and in addition to it being the last time in our house we were on the floor because all of the furniture had been moved earlier in the day. I was exhausted so I didn't have time to let my mind do its awful tricks and fell asleep fairly quickly. However; my son who was sleeping in his room for the final time was in his "special" sleeping bag. For the record it is a blow-up mattress which a tent attached; it really is very cool and my daughter has one as well.

My daughter's "tent" is a princess theme and by son's tent is a Spiderman theme. Sorry about the digression my son woke-up about 3:30 am and was startled by something. He was startled because his environment has changed but there will be many changes in the coming months so he will have to get used to them unfortunately.

He came into our bedroom and I did my best to comfort him and put him back in his "tent". He did fall back to sleep but for only two hours. He was back in our bedroom at around 6:00 am so I told him to grab a piece of the floor and lay next to me and he did. I laid there for a few minutes and decided it was time to get moving. I did want to complete everything today so I thought and early start would be a good idea and it really was.

Even though we didn't finish everything by this evening we got most of the things taken care of. Tomorrow we will drop off some things to Goodwill; pack up the car and head to (all places) Las Vegas to visit with two dear friends over the weekend. These are great old friends and they have accepted me with all my faults and I so enjoy their company.

Earlier today I had to meet the movers at the storage facility due to the mishap last night and that took up most of the morning. From there I went to one of our dear friend's garage and deposited more boxes while my wife stayed behind and tried to conquer the never ending packing. I swear it looked like we may never finish and sometimes I thought we were accumulating more items as the items were placed in the box. However; we did manage to get through the day and get most everything boxed up before we lost daylight.

I mention losing daylight because I scheduled to have the power transferred out of my name today and low and behold all of the power was shut off around 10:00 am. I was hoping to get a few more hours but that was not the case and the fact that it was close to 100 degrees outside didn't make matters much better; however; in spite of the few obstacles we did get it done with a great deal of sweat and minimal negativity. Even the children were troopers; they managed to entertain themselves and even pitched in a few times.

I loaded up the mini-van with more boxes this evening and drove them to our other dear friend's garage. By this time daylight had subsided and my wife and children were going over to yet another dear friend's home where the air conditioner works great!!! This is where I am right now and their couch which is where I will be sleeping looks great!! Tomorrow morning my wife and I will drive over to the house for the final time; load up the mini-van for a run to Goodwill and after that load up the car for our journey. Hopefully; God willing we will be on the road by mid-morning.

Yes, it really has been a trying time but my wife has been great; the children have been wonderful and we have so many dear friends here it really is so very hard to leave. Everyone has been beyond great and I have been touched by so many wonderful people that I will be forever grateful for their unbelievable kindness and generosity; thank you so very much.

Finally here are two very good stories about compulsive gambling. The first one deals with the horrible consequences a compulsive gambler must face when the compulsive gambling takes over one's life much like it did mine. The second story is very well written and hopefully there is some one out there who is thinking about getting help for their compulsive gamblng addiciton and this story can help anyone who wants help.