18  Moving day

I have only one photo and very little memory of February 3, our moving day.

Carolyn was still out of commission due to her pelvic fracture, but I was up early. We had received about six inches of snow overnight, so I was up at 5 am to snow blow the driveway and walk for the movers who were due to arrive around 8. Once I’d put the snowblower away, I remember thinking, “I should get out the snow shovel and scrape down the corner of the driveway where ice collects. That could be dangerous.”

And the next thing I know, I’m sitting in my living room chair.

Apparently, as I had walked down the drive to get to the slippery corner, I didn’t see a snow-covered ice patch.

My younger son heard the snow blower stop, but when I didn’t come back inside, he got dressed and came out to help. He found me lying in the driveway, and brought me back inside. That’s when I more or less regained consciousness.

Apparently, I spent the next 15 minutes or so claiming I never fell, which was easily disproved by the lump on the back of my head. So despite the impending arrival of our movers, he took me to the Emerson Hospital emergency room for a professional assessment of my condition.

Pro tip: if you ever want to get moved to the front of the CAT scan line, show up in the ER as an older gentleman who fell on the ice shoveling snow and hit his head. ER’s don’t fool around with potential brain bleeds.

Fortunately, I only had a minor concussion and was able to return to the scene of the crime by around noon. Carolyn and our other son had directed the movers to load the truck, and I was able to help with moving the cats. By early afternoon, all our furniture was either 1) moved to our new location, or 2) stored in the basement of the house for when we move back. And since I was being driven over to Huckins Farm, I managed to capture a quick photo of our new home.

So the good news is that Carolyn and I, our two sons, 2 elderly cats, and four cars are now moved into Huckin’s Farm in Bedford. We are living in 700 fewer square feet of living space than we had in Stow, but we’re making it work. My head and back are sore, Carolyn still can’t do any heavy lifting, and we have a lot of boxes to unpack, but we’re here. It was perhaps our worst moving day we’ve ever experienced, but it got done, and I think that still counts as a success.