POD v DPW

Manny and Justin work for the city of Somerville, MA. Flashback two weeks ago and they were but tiny, moderately tattooed dots at the opposite end of our street, digging up the water main, replacing pipe, and crawling forward. They and the other crew members of Mafia Bros Connected Contracting were to complete the entire street by June 23rd. This would leave plenty of time between the end of their construction and the delivery of our POD. Naturally, I proclaimed that construction would run late and it would come down to a race to see who got to the end of the street (outside our house).

Cut to Friday, June 27. The POD is but a couple of hours from being delivered. The signs and permits - sanctioned and placed by the town itself - have been up for a week in order to give ample time to residents to find another parking place for 4 days. My premonition of the inevitable general delays and race is eerily precise. A mere hour before the POD is due, I see Manny - who minutes before was sleeping in a dormant digger, enthusiastically tearing up the street where the POD was to go. I had been peering out the window all day waiting for this moment. Kate encouraged me to find better things to do than stare out the window, waiting for a problem to develop, but then that just wouldn't be my style, would it? No, this was my watched pot. And the sucker boiled.

I jumped down two full flights of stairs (one at a time). Yelling "Woah Woah" that would make even Joey Lawrence take a second look. I bolted across the yard and kindly asked what they were doing. They were digging up a hole to take out an exposed pipe, with the genius plan of filling it in as the POD comes down the street. Which then happened.

You can actually see the new tar in front of the POD. Oy.

After filling the new hole with hot tar that the POD driver proceeded to then tear up, mangle, and generally ruin with his precious albeit empty cargo, the city workers actually got a kick out of watching the POD guy remote control the descent and touchdown of the POD with a cool belt that would make Batman embarassed at his own belt's lack of cool features.

--------
At present, the POD is all packed. And that is in large part due to our parents. Kate and I looked at each other throughout yesterday and today wondering when the time comes to move back east, if it is cheaper to hire movers or to fly out both sets of parents. While movers may be faster, they certainly won't buy me lunch and then ask if there is anything at all they can do for me and of course I'll ship whatever you want, just leave it here and your father and I will take care of that or anything else you and your wonderful wife need, don't worry about a thing and have a safe trip.

You've seen earlier how my parents helped prep and stage the initial packing. Kate's parents turned in an equally impressive performance by strategically arranging and securing the POD's guts (our stuff). A family of engineers is a great thing to have at your disposal, that's for sure. As you can see below, we did a pretty bang-up job of making sure our things don't get - well... banged up. It's a big POD for sure. Chalk that up to me not realizing we weren't taking any of our furniture (leaving it for my sister who took our apartment), so we had a lot of space to work with. See for yourself:


So here we are now. Basically camping out in our apartment, waiting for the sun to come up and to hit the road and head to Philly. We're excited, anxious, sad, and full of joy all at once about the unknown in front of us, and the great life we've made for ourselves here. It's all about taking the best of what we had here - the friendships, family, and love of our neighborhood and not trying to recreate it all again somewhere else, but allowing these kinds of things to show up on their own and to be on the look out for the things that will continue to make our life rich. GET EXCITED!

Did you know PODS stands for Pacific Ocean: Diego, San? True Story.