I can’t drive 25, Big and heavy
I forgot to mention something interesting I saw yesterday on my way to work. I was going the back way through a neighborhood where the speed limit is 25mph. As I was getting ready to make a right turn I had to wait for a guy on bike go by with a running stroller attached behind it. I immediately noticed this guy was going fast but it didn’t look like he was working very hard to do so, so I immediately assumed he was on a pedal assist bike.
So I pull out behind him and get a sense of just how fast he is going, 24-25mph. Being an occasional road biker I know just how hard it is to maintain that speed when only human power is involved. This guy was high on his handlebars taking in the sights. However my attention quickly turned to the stroller.
This road has a number of speed bumps to ensure drivers keep their speed down. The biker was hitting these at full speed which sent the bike and it’s attached stroller off track repeatedly. I started debating if there was a child in the stroller or not. If there was he was living through a roller coaster simulation, it did not look safe. I followed the guy all the way to my turn off. I never was able to determine if there was a living creature in the stroller but if there was not, why would you have it attached?

Last night after work I headed back to Big Lots to pick up the patio furniture. I was not sure how big or numerous the boxes would be but I figured if I couldn’t get it all in one trip I could just come back. I expected a minimum of three boxes, one for the sofa, one for the table, and one for the chair. I was off by one.
The guy brought out only two boxes, one of which was gigantic. It held the sofa AND the table. The box was around 6 feet long and close to 200lbs. My only option was to plop the chair box on top which I then locked in place with my ratchet straps. Since I was going less than 3 miles I was confident I would be ok, I was.

Once I got home the real fun began. My plan was to go around the side of the house, through the fence and plop the boxes on the lanai. That plan was easy with the chair box. The sofa box was another story.
Because it was so long and so heavy it really liked tipping over and off the hand truck I was using. At one point it fell off and onto one of the hedges in front of the house, breaking off some branches as it came down.
After several tip overs I finally was able to get the monster box onto the lanai as well without permanently damaging anything, a big win. By the time I had everything unloaded it was about 7 and I called it good for the day. I had no desire to start putting them together right away.
This weekend I have a number of things I would like to accomplish with putting together and setting up the patio furniture being one of them. I also got three LED light fixtures, the same type I used out at the old house. There are three old boring fixtures that I will be updating with one of them being in the master closet. I also would like to take a whack at getting the 5 or 6 remaining boxes of stuff I have in the garage unpacked. The fact that I have been in the house a month and a half without needing most of it is an indicator some of it might also find it’s way to the garbage or donation pile.