If you have the choice, don't ever move during the winter.

I returned to Burlington last Monday evening and moved into my new place the very next day! I knew I had caught a cold during my visit with my sister and her family but, I didn't know that it had plans to stick around for the next 13+ days! I've learned that moving in the winter is the pits. But, moving in the winter while you're sick is even worse. The antibiotics are hard at work now and I'm feeling better already.

So, about this move...it was pretty eventful. I went ahead and picked up my U-Haul on Tuesday morning. While I was filling out the paperwork for the truck, I was asked, "insurance or no insurance?" I initially went with it but, the more I thought about it the more it seemed silly. I thought, I'll be driving about 2 miles total. So, I decided to pass. My new friend Dan, at the Pine Street U-Haul location, made a mistake and ended up printing out my contract with the insurance. In an effort to get out of there quickly, I kept it on the contract and left. Back to my house I went. We loaded up many of the smaller boxes, furniture and my plants and headed down the street about 5 blocks to my new place. I selected a good spot to park the truck and began to pull into said spot at about 3 mph when, out of the blue, a giant tree branch came crashing down on our truck! Nelia and I looked at each other totally shocked by what had happened. We decided to call the police to come and survey the damage. They arrived and took our info down. They also called Burlington Public Works to come, cut up the branch and take it away. (Hi, I'm new in the neighborhood and sorry to take down your tree during my move!) We determined that the branch had fallen because the top of my truck (which I didn't have a good sense of) pushed the branch just enough to break it off. I guess I'm not as skilled a driver as I thought I was. Oh well.

Thanks goodness Dan made the mistake and kept the insurance on the contract. I'd say $15 is much better than $600. What a blessing.

Here is a picture of the damage to the truck:

Where the branch broke off from the tree: