Step 88: A Recap

I was browsing through the past couple entires to see what I've talked about recently, and I realized I forgot to mention the calamity that was the day I actually left South Dakota. In between the minor and major catastrohpes there ought to have been a calamity. (Is Mercury in retrograde or something? I dunno.)

Anyway, I think the old spook house tried it's best to keep me there the day I left. It pulled out all kinds of interesting tricks.

First, the night before the movers came, I found myself struggling in vain to paint my green walls back to white, with primer. You know, paint that made specifically to cover obnoxious paint colors? The first couple walls went beautifully, and I was able to cover them in just two coats, but when I moved to the third and fourth walls, things went bizarre. For some strange reason, even after FIVE COATS of primer, green paint was still showing through, like the walls were just drinking in the primer. Finally, when the 5th coat still proved ineffective, I gave up.

The next day, the movers came to pack our things. The lead guy, also the driver, decided he'd take on the kitchen, while the other three guys took the rest of the house. AS they worked, the lead guy seemed to be getting nowhere in the kitchen, filling box after box, while the rest of the guys were breezing through everything else. Since they really couldn't start loading the truck without the driver's direction, him being in the kitchen was inconvenient. It seemed like there were about 15 boxes of kitchen goods, and yet once they got here? Only six. But everything is here and accounted for.

As the day went on, the electricity in the house started to blink in and out, at first for less than a second, but by the time the truck was being loaded, it was blinking off for two minutes at a time. It wasn't a big deal, except that the guys were trying to pull things out of the windowless storage room, and it was impossible to see in the pitch dark.

Then, once everything was moved to the garage, the garage door randomly started to come down on it's own. It happened to be as one of the guys was walking through it, and his foot kicked through the sensor to stop it closing, but it was that point at which the guys all really believed my casual stories about a "ghost" in my house.

Finally, the truck was loaded and all that was left was to round up the cats, sweep through the house to pick up the big garbage (a friend of mine did the scouring and scrubbing for us once I left), and hit the road. Toes was an easy catch as 1, he likes to be held and 2, he likes car rides. Missy, on the other hand, is always a challenge as she HATES being held and she LOATHES car rides. And of course, she'd chosen the windowless storage room to hide in.

I should remind everyone that I am a dark-o-phobe, and more than a few seconds exposure brings on the full song and dance, feeling like I'm going to die, heart racing panic attack associated with most crippling, irrational fears.

So, I go down to the basement and flip on the lights. I wait a few moments to ensure the electricty is steady, then I head into the storage room. I go over to the scary under the stairs place where Missy usually hides, and right as I peek in to look for her, the electricity shuts down with a POP! Naturally, I flee back out to the main room in the basement (that has a window, and therefore light, and breathe deeply while trying to tell myself it's just weird timing and the rain outside (though it's just a light drizzle, and not even freezing at that...). On a whim, I simply call to Missy, hoping she'll come out of the dark on her own, and to my utter amazement, she does, and right to me! Excellent. I put her in the car, and I'm free!

I should mention that I'd done the garbage sweep before getting the cats, and my car was already backed out of the garage, in case of anymore garage door shenanigans. /clearing up confusion

So, the house is locked up, no going back now, just fill my gas tank and get on the road.

Except that since I forgot to keep the kennel out, and the movers didn't even realize we had cats, both of them are loose in the car (not ideal, but they usually settle down and stay put after the first half hour or so). I go to pay for my gas and grab some road munchies and an energy shot (which I tried for the first time, and would recommend for anyone looking for a one-time, but certainly non-habitual energy boost, as it made me just feel like I Was Not going to fall asleep at the wheel, without making me feel like I was also going to spaz out and start twitching). When I get back to the car, Ican see Toes at the window all "HI, MOMMY! 8D 8D" But I figure Missy's back in hidey-hole land and I'll not see her until I get to the new house. Guess who was incorrect?! Guess! ME! I WAS!

I'd barely opened the door wide enough for her to fit went a flash of grey darted out of the car. I held onto the very tip of a tail before the hairs came off in my hand and Missy was no longer visible.

Awesome. I'll now spend the next twelve hours trying to get her out, in sopping wet, cold weather that's only supposed to get worse as the night falls.

Fortunately, The House's poweres were weakened from that distance, and a fantastic young couple helped me get her out by crouching on one side of the car and crackling candy wrappers while I called to her from the other side, and she came right to me for the second (perplexingly uncharacteristic) time that day. After that it was smooth sailing, and as far as the new house goes, it is fantastically devoid of any paranormal activity, good bad or just weird.

I love this house, which is good, being that we closed on it on Friday, and it is now Ours Until Further Notice.

Tensandaire, zero, zero.