21-VIII-2002.
The move. The apartment we found is by the same rental company, actually just one guy who owns a few buildings in that street. Go and Ricardo thus had to move from 2nd floor (3rd american) in one building to this bigger one on the 1st (2nd) next door, so all three can be together - Nina is now also a college student.
I took a U-haul truck, the smallest they had, I think 12 ft, and we put in two mattresses - Go's double and Nina's single, her desk, chair and the bigger half of the thick couch that Rick left us, I guess the one which contained a foldable bed (if it had one). Also some shelf or whatever furniture we thought would survive the move. And one camping chair. Go and Ricardo slept on the double inflatable for this one semester, the one we bought for last year's vacation.
Lena said the truck was more comfortable than the car - sure, with automatic shift, AC, better sound, tall seats and, above all, she was in the front seat for the first time, with a much better view.
Over there I managed to squeeze the truck between the fence and the traffic signs on the sidewalk, with the rear of the truck against the main entrance. Luckily, there's very little distance to the room, it's about 10m in, then one flight of stairs and there's the door.
The hard part was to move the two from the other house. First I had to remove the truck, as it was blocking the way. Then we had to bring all their stuff from the farthest apartment on the top floor. The only reprieve was that most of the time we carried things down and very little up. I was somewhat disappointed that Ricardo was carrying usually nothing larger than a bag of books or three pillows and such - all the PC boxes, monitors, mirko, amplifier were either mine or hers to carry. He looked he could knock me out flat or tie me into a knot in two minutes, but yeah, I shouldn't fall for the appearances. He did next to nothing.
Anyway, we did that, but now that the Agfa was in Nina's hands, and she took her time taking the photos out of it, I didn't have any photos of this summer until this move, and then I lumped them all together on 24th. But actually our second trip was then, with the corolla - the move happened a few days before that. Here, found it - it was on 21st (most of this text I wrote under 24th, intially - eh, confusion). The truck's clock showed 8:20 EDT, but that's when the sun went behind the mountains - the day doesn't shorten so fast as it does at home.
That was us coming home alone, just to return the truck. Lena stayed with her sisters in Richmond. She had the Agfa for the duration, but they didn't use it.
Dad reports that the apricot on the hill, by the terrace, is dry and he plans to get Faik to cut it and take it out. He's got nobody else at hand, and Faik always needs firewood. My comment was that that apricot was more a decoration where it was - it was there to make shade until the beech grows, and now the beech is almost taller than the house. And even if it brought fruit, it would be very complicated to pick, because it was on a slope. And it's a miracle that it grew that much, as its root were in 80cm of clay, then some 16cm of old black soil, then more clay. And its roots were limited by the basement's concrete wall on one side, and it wasn't getting much water either.
On 22nd he wrote how S. from zzzzz (though she was from CD... seems to be I mixed them up, there could be a girl with the same name in both places) came by to make a phone call - she was at susjetka's (v. house dictionary) and managed to block the line. Then in a few words she gathered who she was talking with and went on wide and large how she knows half of Avai, specially Joja and me, how we are great guys etc etc. She'll arrange for an analysis of water from the vineyard, both microbiological and chemical, and will probably arrange a few customers for dad's brandy as well. He also planned to take out the still for the season, but the others called it off (he can't do it alone, it's a 120l monster and sits in the basement), so the next day.
In the evening, finally alone after a long time, we went shopping (starting with Big Loc) to buy stuff that may be needed there - the trashcan, clothes iron, ironing board.
Mentions: Agfa, Avai, City doctors (CD), Faik Rizvani, Gorana Sredljević (Go), house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), mirko, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), Rick Netter, Voja (Joja), zzzzz, in serbian