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- My/Our Disastrous TN Move ... (A Photo Essay)

Zeke

- The Retarded Battle Continues ...
Well, as quite a few of you folks here know, I have been in the planning, packing, etc., stages of finally catching up to my Doll, ... @TheresaMLe1975 ...
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... down [here] in Oak Ridge, TN, USA ...
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... TML grew up here in town, but spent some time in Syracuse where I first met her in '97 ... She then returned to OR for nearly thirteen years, & on a fluke, we reconnected in my hometown in '11.

Rewind to a year & a half ago, ... after living together in Syracuse since Christmas '11, she had gotten a job lined up down here & wanted to return "home", chiefly to be back near her two kids again ... Who was I to stop her?

From the time she left in August '13, it has taken me this long to get my affairs straight in New York with "this, that, & the other thing", & she patiently waited for me, knowing I would eventually catch up.

*** A good deal of you know I am disabled from a workplace injury way back in '01, & it is not something I shy away from talking about whatsoever. Well, it was dealing with all the malarkey that is the New York State's Labor Board/Workmans' Compensation Board, etc., & more ... ***

Well, Tuesday, February 10th, she flew one-way to SYR ...
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... just to make the ride down with me last Saturday ... Valentine's Day ... with the truck & a u-Haul trailer ...
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... loaded with all but everything I own ... Then I was to go back, spend a couple weeks finishing up visiting with family & friends, tie up some loose ends, & get my hot rod ...
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... on the road so Herbert, my infamous, sunglass-modeling cat ...
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... & I could zoom back down, ... permanently.

Well, ... would I be sharing any of this if everything went as planned? What about it going almost as worst as possible? Here we go ...

Theresa & I made it 12.3 miles down 81 South before something in the trailer's tongue/coupler system broke, & the trailer COMPLETELY detached from the truck at just under 60MPH ...
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I was able to keep the truck ahead of the trailer & not slow down for a bit so it did not run into us, & thank "SOMEONE" with all the traffic behind us, no one hit the trailer either as it bounced around between the two lanes & guardrails like a F'n pinball & the table was on 'Tilt'. It finally came to rest in the slow lane against two concrete Jersey Barriers that it moved back nearly 4 feet, but with the long tongue on it, it was blocking both lanes of traffic.

In some weird coincidence, there were some local, volunteer fire-fightin' folks about three or four cars behind the trailer that came running around to us as I backed up TWDS the trailer & Theresa was on with 911.

Theresa & I, as can be presumed, were unhurt, physically, & with some tow straps the firemen had, we turned the trailer turned of its axis so it was only blocking one lane, & they put some flares up just before the State Troopers showed up. (The trailer's front bulkhead was all busted by the contents inside, but my undies & other unmentionables - luckily - did not end up all over a major US Interstate.). :rofl:

To fast FWD, the trailer was flat-bedded ...
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... to a u-Haul store back in Syracuse where we were hooked up to another 6'x12' & awaited a transport team to swap stuff between trailers.

The accident happened at 1:40pm, ... we were at u-Haul with a new trailer hooked up & patiently began our wait for a team to arrive just after 3:00pm.

Back to the incident, ... I knew from the moment it came detached, & watched in the rear-view mirror, everything in that trailer was gone, but TML, I love (ya just gotta) the optimist in her, had hoped things were packed well enough that it might have stood up to some of the impact ...

We sat in the truck until 7:10pm before a crew showed, & before my realizations were solidified as the back door was raised for the first time & valuables & memories I packed ever-so-gently, just poured out like junk - as unboxed shards of plastic totes & their contents, & the slivered wood of a dining room set, a timeless heirloom of a nightstand, not to mention the boxspring of an eight-month-old bed, etc.

The dining room set my parents gave us that I had eaten at for 20 years - gone, ...
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... my brand new (eight-month-old) bed, from top to bottom, ... mattress fabric tear & newly soiled, low-profile box spring whereas three of four lengths exploded, all but two center-running slats are now literally splinters inside the body of itself, generic, steel bed frame with *custom*-built center support (to comply with warranty specs), & *custom*-built, 18" lift/riser (for storage underneath & to help my back with getting in & out of bed) - gone, ...
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... a great desk my good friend Katie was kind enough to give us - now a twisted jungle gym ... (Face down in an above photo.), ... even my 32" Sharp Aquos HDTV, while packed in its original box & styrofoam, was toast.

Every plastic tote, holding everything you can imagine, just *exploded* everywhere from the below-zero temperatures & obvious crushing inside the trailer. Everything from clothes to large portions of my 1,000+ CD collection to some of my Oakley stuff. :(

Almost nothing was left untouched in some way or another. Whatever was not literally in shards or splinters, I just had tossed into the new trailer, & then we just drove back to Mom & Pop's. ... back to North Syracuse, ... where we started. Where I was leaving. We had never called them nor anyone else. There was zero need to alarm or confuse anyone since there was nothing they could do, ... & because, physically, T & I were unhurt ... like I said, "physically" unhurt.

It obviously shocked the Hell out of my parents as we entered the house nearly ten hours after leaving, told it till took me about three minutes before I could even start to say I was sorry as I was speechless & on the verge of tears with Theresa by my side. Even knowing none of it was my fault, I still stood there feeling like a failure, ... a complete jackass.

The only thing left to do was pull up a piece of couch & floor, & try to sleep ...

Sunday morning came quick & there I had Theresa who was supposed to be at work the next day (Monday), ... but we knew that was not going to happen. After a few phone calls to further report the accident & loss(es), I had an insurance adjuster who wanted me to itemize everything that was in the trailer within that next forty-eight hours - just so they can end up writing me a pittance check of $1,000, or the like. Yeah, F that!

As I said a moment ago, on Sunday the insurance company wanted/needed the contents of the trailer gone through & inventoried as such. Sitting in North Syracuse it just made no sense to unload it back where it just came from, assess everything, then whatever was worthwhile to take down south, reload those items, & head out ...
only to unload again once in Oak Ridge.

I told the insurance company since the accident happened twelve miles from our starting point, it also could have happened twelve miles from our destination, ... & since I am disabled, I was only going to go through one unload.

So late last Sunday night we decided to leave for TN around noon Monday, & to make it as far as possible, as there was a Hell of a storm brewin' down here before it was to come up through the Mid-Atlantic.

After living in Syracuse, NY, USA, for forty years, & driving since the day of my 16th - & before that, to an extent - I have quite a bit of experience & "nerve" to drive in almost anything weather-wise, but as the time approached 1:30am, as did Roanoke, Virginia, I realized I needed not show how much bigger my balls were than the rest of the folks still braving the four inch snow ruts in the middle of 81. We simply grabbed a Holiday Inn Express in Troutville, & said to heck with it till noon the next day.

Just about 4:45pm on the dot Tuesday we pulled up in front of her place here in OR & it did not take long to see how much of an affect the storm had here.

Around East Tennessee it was basically an all-ice event ... sleet, freezing rain, etc. We watched it change on the trees literally at the border of Virginia/Tennessee - snow on the limbs to the heavy ice near pulling them down. Nearly every school within a 75-mile radius of Knoxville, to include OR, canceled for the whole week, so many businesses closed before it got dark ... major, big box businesses even. It has been Hellish to see. Back in Syracuse this would have been bad as well, but people would figure it out after twelve hours or so, or be ridiculed. The ultimate culture shock for me indeed.

But back to the issue at hand, ... With all the ice, & some snow on top of it, it has made it completely impossible to move Theresa's car up her driveway so that I can drive my truck & trailer down it to begin the slow, arduous task of unloading the mess. Nothing would/will melt, & the landlord flat-out had refused to do a thing about it. Yeah, ... wow is right.

So, as of this past Wednesday evening we knew there was a minimum of another half inch of ice coming, & some snow. I could wait no longer ... I bit the bullet, for the hundredth time on this journey, & just had to throw money at it & hired three guys from MovingHelp to unload for us - from up curbside.

Remember, ... I had not opened the back door of the new trailer since it was repacked with what was left after the accident ... & I am glad I did not ...
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The guys were great with being as gentle as possible, & just shy of two hours later, everything had been "moved" into the apartment.

Wow. I really had a lot of stuff ... I cannot imagine if we still had the whole bed set, kitchen set, desk, shelving, etc., that I just left in the wrecked trailer when it was all said & done after the accident.

Now comes the hard part. Itemizing the damaged, broken, or what-have-you stuff.

This is part of the main "heap" that I will be starting with.
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Theresa has been more than fantastic ... I suppose I should not have expected anything different, still I cannot stop myself from apologizing for all this mess, & how it totally messes up our timeline, etc. Eh, ... it is what it is, & she claims to still want me to hurry back in a couple weeks.

Mom & Pop have been fantastic, too. Able to talk to them on Skype & share photos of the disastrous after-effects of the ice storm ... They even gave us money to buy a new TV because mine is wasted.

After goibg through my belongings Friday, yesterday, & today, it appears of all my "O" stuff that I brought on this trip, the only things I have lost are an IH pin & bag (I assume they got loose & are buried in the snow & other stuff in the front of the trailer that no one could get to because it was so slippery & dangerous with the broken steel frame & wooden bed riser exposed), & as far as things found ruined or broken, three small POP cards - two from water damage, one folded in half -, & one of these cool display things ...
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Anyone have one of those laying around they would care to sell? It is like a black plastic. PM me, please.

Either way, at this time I am expecting to leave for New York either late Tuesday, or very, Very, VERY early Wednesday ... the extra week for the truck & trailer is drawing the money tighter 'n tighter - although u-Haul has stated they will be knocking off a few days of rental for all this whatnot. u-Haul has actually been a pretty decent company to work with ... so far. I sure when it comes to the insurance angle, fault angle, etc., attitudes will likely become much more adversarial.

I shall rise above, right?

Ugh.

FML, royally ...
 
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Sorry to hear about all that - early on I was like, "there's a 'but' coming up, something went wrong..." I'm glad it was only the destruction of some personal possessions. Not to understate it; I understand totally what that's like, especially the items with sentimental value. But it helps teach what's important in life, and that is: life. And people. Thanks that you made through it ok, and with the people to support you.

You were starting fresh with the move; think of it as an opportunity to start even fresher. Either laugh or cry...
 

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