Movin' To L.A.

Yeah, it was quite a day.
Ya know, I thought I'd get a breather at some point while I was in L.A. helping with the move...
Didn't happen.
My initial plan was that when we had the stuff out of the truck into Big Bubba's apartment, I'd pop the top on a frosty, sit on the balcony, and flirt with females of all ages that passed my way.
The best of plans lasts only until the first shot is fired...
We were looking at 3 bedrooms of stuff jammed into a one bedroom apartment, and some of that stuff was much too heavy for one guy to move. Heck, much of it had to be moved so we could just get mattresses on the floor for our first night's sleep in the new digs.
I'm sure you've been there...
Boxes stacked three/four/five high everywhere. A lamp here, an end table there, the clothes hamper that should have been put in one of the bedroom closets in the way because both bedroom closets have piles of boxes in front of them.
"Let's put the sofa against that wall, Dad."
Okay. We have to move that end table out of the way over here, and we can put those boxes into the hallway for the time being. The coffee table can go... here, and we'll have to move it a little more to get the sofa past it once we get adjacent to it...
And so it went.
Sofa, Love Seat, two end tables, a coffee table, his BIG screen TV, and a computer desk all had to fit in the living room. We started off trying the way he really wanted it laid out, but there simply wasn't enough room to do it that way. We tried a different way, and failed again. He finally took my suggestion and put the BIG TV in the corner, and everything kinda fell into place. But each attempt at change required the shuffling of boxes and box fans and bookcases... it was WORK.

Oh...
Stress! On top of being away from home and my bride during the holidays...
On top of working harder than a man with this much mileage should work...
On top of sleeping on a mattress flat on the floor in a strange place every night...
I left the door open and Desi the Doxie decided he'd disappear!
Big Bubba had taken off to return the moving van and go buy a refrigerator to fill that hole in the kitchen. I was puttering around, trying to at least get boxes in the room where they could be emptied. The front door had been open all morning and Desi had remained in the bedroom, burrowed into his bedding. I went to check on him and he wasn't there. I searched the entire apartment... not there.
I redoubled my search... gone. (All this is made desperate by the fact that Big Bubba unsnaps his collar when he returns from walks with Desi, so he was without collar!)
BB had said something about wanting his boss to meet Desi, so hoping he took him without telling me I tried his cell phone, which immediately went to voicemail. I waited until Big Bubba came home... he didn't take him.
There are 379 apartment in this complex. It's beautifully landscaped, and the apartments are divided in individual courtyards so you get a semi-isolated feeling. Still, it's adjacent to a 6-lane heavily trafficked street, and the wrought-iron fence separating the apartments from the street wouldn't contain a curious Dachshund. Panic time.
I went to the gate to see if there was a black/bloody spot on the street...
No, thank God.

I walked/ran to the North end of the complex calling his name all the way.
When I got to the (locked, but also surrounded by wrought-iron) pool, I took a deep breath and checked it out. At the very far corner there was a long, thin black spot on the bottom of the pool.
It was a stain. The search continued, unsuccessfully.
When I got back to the apartment Big Bubba nodded and smiled...
"Where was he?"
BB handed me a note that was hanging on one of the "Poopy Bag" stands stategically placed throughout the complex:
"Found.
Small dog. Boy.
Bldg. XXXX
Apartment XXX"
When BB knocked on the door there were two different voices barking. When the door opened, Desi's distant cousin, another Dachshund, was standing next to him, tail wagging.
Catastrophe averted. The collar/tag is now permanently installed on curious canine.

Most of the day I had planned to rest was spent getting big furniture positioned in its proper place. We quit in the evening and drove to Newport Beach to meet one of BB's coworkers for a great Mexican dinner and got exposed to late rush-hour traffic on the 405 highway... welcome to the L.A. metropolitan area!

Back home, belly full and exhausted, we once again moved the coffee table out of the way so I could lay my mattress on the living room floor. I laid down while BB hooked up the TV and fired up the new "Star Trek" movie in blu-ray.

I turned over to go to sleep just after 11 P.M. local.
More to come...