Knackered

Knackered, the Word of the Day at my EarlyBird Toastmaster’s meeting Thursday was eerily appropriate since that was exactly what I was. In a moment of insanity, I had said, yes, I do want the huge sectional sofa that Jamey had offered us. It is furniture that won’t go to their new townhouse.

He’d sent pictures of the dimensions which I’d taped out on the living room floor. It would fit, and we would have a big enough sofa to actually lie down on. I often read on one of our two loveseats that Mary and I bought at Macy’s Furniture maybe 10 years ago. I don’t mind leaning against one arm with my legs hanging off the other. That’s are way too short for Grant.

The only catch in the plan is that the sofa is in DC. They hope to move to the new place by the end of February. However, we’re birding in Belize February 2-13, Mary and kids are visiting after that for a couple of weeks, Jamey and April are off on vacation January 28th. I had Windermere Tree Giveaway Saturday. Bottom line: we rented a U-Haul trailer that afternoon, the next morning at 5:57 AM, we headed to DC at a brisk 55 mph, per the rental company’s rules. Nineteen hours later, we pulled in. 

And I mean pulled in. I can back a trailer. I’ve done it many times, but I couldn’t back this trailer. I still can’t figure out why. I was able to guide Grant into an ugly parking job in our driveway, but we agreed that the rest of the time, we’d only pull through. Thank goodness we could park on the street in front of Jamey’s house. They’d left the downstairs guest room unlocked. We stumbled in exhausted, and slept the sleep of the dead. 

The next day Jamey tried backing in and deemed it almost impossible. He managed to get that dang trailer into his 4-car sized driveway. Good enough. Grandson Nick came by at lunch to help load. With our 8’x5’ trailer, the sofa with its chaise extension and an ottoman fit, with a few inches on either side to spare. Perfect. Tuesday morning, again at o’dark hundred, we were on the road home. This time we pushed the speed to 60mph. In fact, we both pushed it a little faster. A mere 18 hours later, we were home. My ego kicked in. I can back a trailer. I was determined to back into our driveway, but after several attempts, I gave up and pulled in. We’d deal with turning it around tomorrow.

Knackered.

We decided to put the sofa in the office. It’s visually too big, but just fits. (Kyle did have to take the door off to get the pieces through.) Now we have a comfortable place to lie down to watch TV, and an extra room where an adult can sleep behind closed doors. We’ve both tested it with naps. Very nice. When we get back from Belize, I’m going to order a similar one for the living room and have it delivered.