This particular 'long weekend' happens to coincide with a move and we are pressing on so that we can be finished and ready to focus on Monday.
Looking back to the beginning of this adventure, I can now see certain irony in it, and humor. Karin can stretch a penny like no other and she will research for amazing lengths of time before committing her hard earned money to a project. As much as she is almost a clone of her daddy, she is definitely not like him in this respect. His approach was always just "get 'er done.' He did not worry about the cost so much if it was a job that had to be done. Time is money so you pay either way - that was his philosophy.
We got past too much evaluation and picked the rental truck place closest to the house. Why pay mileage for pickup and return, right? Everything was a breeze. She settled on a 14 foot box truck for $59.99 - loading ramp included. Not bad.
Roger would not have let them, but Kristin and Karin even drove the truck! Wow! Is this family actually going to be able to pull off the stuff we counted on Roger to do? Not that we liked it at all, but we were actually feeling empowered. That made me think about Roger and work. I learned not long ago about how he 'delegated' out so much to others. He called it empowering.
Well, I guess his premature departure is going to have to empower us whether we like it or not!
Fast forward to Friday - oh, that has even more great stories, but I'll stay focused on the truck. The truck that Karin drove all the way across town. Perhaps my favorite comment was, " Driving a truck is the best. All of the things I hate about driving the 408 just went away. When you are in a U-Haul, people just expect that you don't have a clue what you are doing, so they are patient and just go around you as opposed to trying to run you off the road in a regular car."
Of course my team of two amazing young men who helped us haul and load made the morning go quickly - along with my carefully ordered manifest - and soon we were on our way back home, fully loaded. Karin ended up arriving only a few minutes after my fully loaded SUV! I was soooooo impressed!
Skipping to the end of the day, actually early afternoon, we returned the truck. I forgot that little detail about filling up with gas before return and thought it would totally throw her budgeting out the window. Nice surprise for me! It did not bother her at all.
" How much gas could this thing take for 50 miles? Even at only 10 miles to the gallon, that's just $5 extra." WOAH! Is this a child of mine speaking, I wondered? She sounded just like Roger! Was his lesson - the one he lived all the time - actually sinking in?
Roger's Lesson: Sometimes, you just pay the money. It costs you in time or it costs you in money, and really, they are one in the same actually. Make the decision that gives you the most free time.
U Haul bill - $127. I never figured that one out, but for a $59.99 rental, I guess it could have been worse. Was it deception? Well, the price was not reality, but it was all of the add ons. (Mileage, Gas) Tax) Did we ask enough questions? Probably not. Did we need the product? Yes, it made life simpler. Are we glad we don't do a move often? YOU BET! So was it really worth the cost?
Yes, because free time means time to spend with people, right?
And then we went to Arby's to reward ourselves on finishing early and upright. And we got three shield pennies in our change. TRIPLE CROWN!
Roger would have been well pleased with our efforts for the day!
Judi you could have used my truck and I would have even done the driving.
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