Surviving Pandemonium

Pandemonium – wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; tumult or chaos. It's also the capital of Hell in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. “Capital of Hell” is a little strong, but unrestrained disorder … yup, that's been our lives for the last few days. We've been working hard, things are in total disarray, we can't remember where anything is … it's at one house or the other. We're all short-tempered, tired and ready to be done with the move, but still it goes on … and on.

We've been discarding things left and right. They don't fit; we won't use them; perhaps they're broken or just obsolete (audio tapes? VCR movies?) Half of them have been moved to the new house. We've had one moving sale and another is scheduled for next weekend. We've managed to lose all the signs we made. Where could they have gone? We picked them up after the last sale and it's only been a week for heaven's sake. I'm sure they'll turn up AFTER we need them.

We've really tried to keep the disorder to a minimum, but with five of us moving stuff and buying stuff, it's been pretty much impossible. Amazon is doing a land office business this month with just the Lynn clan purchases. We've cobbled together some of Mary's old furniture with thrift shop and consignment store buys. We've been haunting Craigslist and came up with a dining room set. We call it “eclectic” styling and thus far, it seems to work.

Hopefully, the chaos will soon lead to order. We each seem to have our realm of responsibility and have concentrated on settling those areas. Little by little, we see progress being made. Soon we anticipate that peace will descend. Paul will head off trucking to places currently unspecified. David and I will return to Nine of Cups in Trinidad. Mary and Karen will settle into a routine in the new house and get to know the new neighbors in the new neighborhood. By next year at this time, the moving pandemonium will be a distant memory … and we will have survived.