“It was the bitterest of times, it was also the bitterest of times.”  “A George divided against itself cannot stand.” “How long halt ye between two opinions?”

These are famous quotes from people that are trying to describe my situation right now. As I pointed out last week, when my blog was closed, I am moving to a new house. Finally. While we are absolutely over the bitter moon about finally being in our new place, we have a little problem. Our kids. Of course they have to mess all the plans up.

You see, they are in schools. They have classes, they have friends, and teachers that expect them to do things. We have lived in a condo for the last year and a half. My son walks to schools because it is only 2 blocks away. My daugter rides a bus to another school nearby. Because of their “lives” we have move over to the new house slowly. You would think that is a luxury, but it is actually quite inconvenient.

Most everyday, there is some sort of visit over to the new house that is about 20 minutes away. We go there to work. Unload boxes, put together beds, move boxes from garages, and figure out why the stupid cable isn’t working.

I envisioned it as our weekend getaway home. Watch TV. Eat snacks from the fridge, lazy around on the couch. Tell furniture people to mush.

Every time we go to the new home we are having to haul one thing or another over to the house. That is fine for things we don’t need like winter gloves, coats and boots. Except, of course, when the weather decides that it wants to snow and I have to either find a coat, or freeze and I have no idea where the jacket is.

Then there is the electronic situation. In our current place, the cable is a plan in which you only have so many gigs to use, and then you have to pay extra. The new place has fast, unlimited internet. Guess which is the place we spend watching TV, playing Xbox, and phone, tablet and any other device that craves the internet? You’re right.

Then there is essential stuff. Shampoo, soap and cables for the XBox. My son decided to take the charging cables for his controllers over to the new house. But then one of the controllers had batteries and he was playing with a friend. The ones with batteries died and he needed more to play with his friend, but we didn’t have any batteries in the new house. The charging cable for the controllers is at the new house, but we needed those at the old house. Oh and he brought the shampoo to the new house to take a shower, but forgot to bring it back to the old house, so my hair smells like flowers and a scented field this morning, because I had to use my wife’s shampoo.

I now know how George feels. A Bitter Ben divided against himself cannot stand. But he cannot lay on his couch either.

ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH

Bitter Tale of Two Cities Ben