Summary

Successfully migrated one human, one cat, and approximately 3,000 ethernet cables from South Carolina to Georgia.

Impact

This incident caused a moderate amount of emotional stress, with three (3) major breakdowns over a span of 3 weeks. My diet went entirely to shit, consisting of takeout, pizza rolls, yogurt, and cold brew.

Timeline

On June 29th, I picked up a U-Haul and a tow dolly for my car. Because corporations refuse to schedule a reasonable number of employees per shift, pickup took over two hours and landed me with a sunburn. To the credit of the employees who helped me, they walked me through how to use the dolly, got my car situated, and replaced a tire that looked suspicious.

The first major breakdown occurred when I got home and had to take my car off of the dolly. Temperatures were above 95°F (35°C), with humidity rarely below 70%. I was hot, dehydrated, sunburned, and the ratchet straps had jammed. Once I’d finished crashing out, I found that needle-nose pliers fixed the issue in about 30 seconds.

On June 30th, movers I had hired arrived and filled the truck for me. I had hired two people for two hours — they were done in about 30 minutes. The folks at my complex helped me re-hitch the dolly and made sure the car was secure, then wished me and Duck well as we headed out.

The GPS said our drive to the hotel should have taken 6 hours. Because the dolly was limited to 55mph, the gas mileage of a 15’ box truck + tow dolly is terrible, and I began to get road hypnosis, it took us 8 hours to arrive at our hotel. We spent a night in blessed hotel air conditioning and I slept on a bed for the first time in a week.

Duck deserves a shoutout at this point for being an absolute trooper. I’ve known cats that would hide or sleep in their litter box after a disruption of this magnitude. She slept for the majority of the drive and made herself at home in the hotel.

July 1st was somehow both more and less interesting. I got keys, movers unloaded my possessions quicker than they’d been loaded, and I saw a man get kicked out of a Walmart for being disrespectful. Truly the highlight. I returned the U-Haul, lost my phone in a Lyft, and had my second major meltdown. Thanks to a very kind Lyft driver, I got it back. Yay!

July 2nd through the 14th was a combination of unpacking, acquiring furniture, building furniture, and irritating admin tasks. All of that brings us to today: I am settled in my new home, more or less.

The final breakdown occurred when I realized I still had to decommission my South Carolina license plate and ran into a minor issue in doing so. Thankfully, this was resolved, but I was mad about it.

Current Status

Incident: Resolved.

Root Cause: Apartment lease expiration.

Mitigations: Movers, caffeine, hotel air conditioning.

Impact: Savings account is now empty.

Remaining issues:

• One (1) bag and two (2) boxes remain unpacked.
• Using a plastic drawer unit as a nightstand.
• Modem/router sitting on floor.
• Still eating off of paper plates.

Monitoring will continue.