This post is second in a series I didn’t expect to write, scenes of people taking stuff from my home to their homes by any means that aren’t personal or rented automobiles. The first one was called He Had Something To Prove.
I needed to get rid of a couple of bookcases in the process of moving house. My friend David Cook wanted to take home that old IKEA classic, a Billy bookcase. He lives up the Greenway from me a few exits, and hatched the idea of using his grocery push-cart to move it from Midtown to Uptown. Of course I agreed to this excitedly! It’s nice that we both live so near the Greenway that it’s our connection.
I was coming back from running an errand in uptown on a beautiful 14F afternoon in February, and I ran in to him pulling the cart along the Greenway. I dismounted from my bike and walked with him to my place, we talked about the tornado sirens we could see from the trench between the winter-bare tree branches and what new news we might have of the repaving debacle, muffled through our scarves and moving at a brisk enough pace to keep the cold at bay.
We loaded the cart up with the disassembled bookcase and away he went!
I asked for a trip report as he got home shortly after sunset at about 5:30. “just one foot in front of the other. The twilight sky looked nice.” Writing this in March, I realize it’s a good thing he did this in February so that the angle of the sun as he walked west wasn’t straight in his eyes, like it would be as close to equinox as we now are.
The next day I got heard that the shelf would get assembled one of these days, and “update: I have discovered new leg muscles which can be sore!”
I’m so glad the bookcase found a new home and also so glad to share with you an inspiration for moving larger items without motorized transport.