The truck bed was empty when we pulled back into the driveway at 4:20 this afternoon. Not a stray box, not a lamp, not the floor fan Josh swore he did not need until he found out his new bedroom faces west. Greg backed the U-Haul trailer into the side yard, unhooked it, and stood there for a minute with his hands in his pockets. Then he went inside and took a nap.
Josh is 21, a senior in the mechanical engineering co-op program at UC, and this is his last college apartment. He graduates next spring. We have done this move, in one version or another, four times since August of 2022. This was the last one.
How the day went
We were on I-75 by 7:00. Greg drove the F-150 with a 5 by 8 enclosed trailer behind it, and I followed in the car with the things that would not survive a trailer: Josh's monitor, a bag of hangers and a laundry basket full of towels I washed twice because he had left them damp in a closet since May.
Josh had moved most of his own things from the old apartment on Thursday. What we hauled was the furniture he had stored in our family room all summer, a desk, a dresser, a mattress, two bookcases and a couch his roommate's parents gave him that weighs about as much as a small car. Four flights of stairs. Greg's knee took the first two and then Josh's roommate took over his end. Nobody had to say anything.
We had the place set up by noon, ate lunch at a chili parlor near campus, and I made the run I have made every single year.
The $46 Kroger run
I have a list I keep in the notes on my phone called "Josh apartment." It has not changed much since freshman year. This year it came to $46.18 at the Kroger near campus:
- Dish soap, sponges, paper towels and trash bags, about $14.
- A family pack of chicken thighs, split into freezer bags before I left, $9.
- Rice, two boxes of pasta, a jar of sauce and peanut butter, about $10.
- Eggs, bread, a bag of apples and coffee, about $13.
He told me he did not need any of it. He put the coffee away before I had the bag folded.
What the move cost, all in
The trailer was $34 for the day plus $12 for the damage coverage, $46. Gas for the truck pulling a trailer down and back, about 90 miles round trip, came to roughly $28. Gas for my car, another $11. Lunch for three, $33. With the groceries, that is $164 for the day.
That is not bad for a move. It is cheaper than the year we rented a 10-foot truck because I did not trust the trailer, which cost $96 before mileage and taught me to trust the trailer.
The drive home
Greg and I caravanned back up I-75, him ahead with the empty trailer bouncing, me behind. Somewhere past the Tylersville exit I realized that this was the last time we would be moving Josh into anything we pay for. Next time, he will sign his own lease in some other city, and we might help carry a couch, if he asks.
That is how it is supposed to go. It still felt like something closing.
Then I got home and looked at the family room, which for the first time since May has no desk, no dresser and no mattress leaning against the wall. There is carpet down there I forgot was beige.
The house this fall
It has been a full summer here. The water heater died on July 9 and cost $1,650 to replace. Our homeowners renewal went up 22 percent. The August electric bill was $214 after Greg and I fought about the thermostat and settled on 75 degrees. I have written about each of those already.
Next month I start part-time bookkeeping for a small landscaping company, about 12 hours a week from the kitchen table at $21 an hour. I am more nervous about that than I let on.
Tonight, though, it is just quiet. Greg is up from his nap, the Reds are on, and Biscuit has taken the spot on the couch Josh used to sit in every summer evening. He did not even wait a full day.
