Packing

Quantum arrived in Denver around 8 Tuesday night and I picked him up at the Loaf & Jug at 6:30 the next morning. (The bus didn't get into town till nearly 4am and he didn't want me driving in the dark.) He'd been gone an entire month, and it occurred to me that we'd had Karma longer with him away than with him there.

Our first job was to get the cap on the pickup. The thing weighed a ton! We pulled and shoved at it. I could barely budge it.

"We've got to get this on," Quantum said. "It's starting to snow.

After a good half hour of lifting and tugging, we got it up onto the pickup bed, but couldn't maneuver the heavy piece of crap onto the edges of the bed, Just as we gave a final heave, the cap's weight shifted and it went flying past my head to land like an upside down turtle in the driveway.

"Why didn't we bring CK back with us?" I asked for the fifth or so time. (The plan had originally been for CK to drive out with us so he and Quantum could tow the Blazer (which we'd gifted to CK. Why that had changed, I wasn't sure.)

It took us about two more hours to get the darn cap on. We stacked straw bales and lifted it a bale at a time. Several times the bales toppled and the cap nearly went with them. Finally it was on.

We took a break. The cold had followed Quantum from Denver, where it was snowing the previous night. Quantum drilled holes to bolt it to the bed and went to town to get CK (and test the bolts on the driveway) while I continued packing.

Next morning we woke to a thin blanket of snow. "Told you the weather forecast called for it," Quantum said. I hadn't seen a newscast in at least 3 or 4 months.

We spent the morning loading the truck and hoping we'd be able to get up the driveway.

"It's not going to fit," Quantum said. 

"I'll make it fit," I said. In the end most everything did. Last o be loaded were the cats in the PVC framed cage CK had made to bring his cats to CO, and which he and I had spent a long night re-covering with chicken wire.

The snow was kind enough to melt, and at 2 pm we were on the road at last. We drove into town to fill up on gas, noticing RY & S sitting by a light. We'd hoped to make it without running into them, but the managed to snag us at the gas station.

S insisted on coming around to my window and telling me how much she loved me (a crock - she loves herself) and whining about her electric nearly being shut off. I realize they've got financial hardships like the rest of us at times, but compounding it by causing trouble?

At 2:48 we pulled onto the highway and left our beloved Walsenburg behind.