Preparing to Pack

And so it begins.

The long goodbye to our stuff.

We have the good fortune of two back to back local holidays this Monday and Tuesday, meaning we have a four-day weekend. Yay, Estonia.

Our first day back, Wednesday, is when we have our packout survey. If this were the states, I would tell you that this would be when the moving company would come by and grossly underestimate how much stuff we have and how long it will take to pack our stuff. They would then use that gross underestimation to bring too little of what they need to actually pack our stuff, or at least too little of what they need to pack our stuff the way they tend to pack it (really, how many trees died to wrap my shoes in that much paper?).

But this is not America.

This is Estonia, where people are efficient and generally accurate. So I am cautiously optimistic that I will get a reasonable estimate of the amount and the time involved.

I'll let you know.

And then Friday, they come for our UAB, or Unaccompanied Baggage.

That is the stuff that arrives, or is supposed to arrive, fairly quickly. The stuff you need immediately, like clothes, sheets, towels, some dishes, etc.

I say supposed to, because when my wife was posted to Baku, they forgot to send her UAB until she had been there for FOUR MONTHS. That is a long time to live with the stuff from your suitcase. And coming home from Jerusalem, where we dutifully packed out our UAB two weeks before leaving post so it would get home around when we did, they didn't bother to send it until AFTER they sent our HHE. When I called post to figure out what happened, they asked if there was something in there I really needed immediately.

ALL OF IT! THAT IS THE POINT!

Of course, these are also the movers that tied down our car, the one going on a ship, with bungie cords. Ships rock, bungie cords stretch, and our car was scraped down to the metal. Thank god for insurance.

So it is that time again. It is all I can do not to put things into a UAB pile, but with the in-laws arriving tomorrow, there is just no good place to do it. So instead, I have a list.

Here is what I have for the UAB so far:

Clothes
Summer blanket
Sheets
Pillows
Towels
Shower curtain and rod
TV
PS3 (doubles as a DVD player)
Kitchen - Pots/pans/dishes
Dog’s blanket
Cat food
Cat bed
Litter box
Tool box
*Camera backpack
*Walking stick
*Day packs
*Small cooler
Bose Radio
Shower radio
Laundry hamper
Baby gate
Scale
Flashlight
Step stool

Of course, I also have lists for my suitcase and carry on. I really want to pack them too.

* For our home leave hiking trip.