Evil Free Buses

New Englanders have a thing for free buses. This guess comes from what happened both on the way to Maria's wedding in Martha's Vineyard and what happened on Monday when I got to Amherst: in both occasions we were strongly suggested to get a bus, because it's free!, while a car service would have made life so much easier.
(About Maria's wedding and the trip to Rhode Island I will -- I hope -- post in the next few days, or weeks)
Got to Amherst with my three backpacks and one carry-on luggage, I went straight to the real estate to have the keys of my apartment. That was easy. The real estate is conveniently located in front of the bus stop. Then after getting the keys and paying the first month rent, I asked them to call a car service, because I have too much luggage to carry around. Their answer But why do you want to pay a taxi, when you have a free bus which stops right in front of your apartment?. Good question: maybe because luggage = heavy. I spent a couple of minutes trying to explain the -- obvious to me -- situation, then finally they called the car service, which unfortunately had no cars available; the other car services are located in Northampton so I gave in and decided to take the bus. Waited half an hour at the bus stop with no buses on sight. After half an hour, a pious soul explained me that PVTA was not running on Labor Day!
Bottom line: I walked with one mountain backpack on my back and one on front, and carry-on and the other backpack carried by hand -- muttering all good training.

On Tuesday I rented a truck and moved my stuff from the space storage to the apartment. That was no easy feat either. I thought I could do by myself; after all I had no furniture, just boxes and mattresses. At the space storage I realized how big my misjudgment was.
Boxes were easy. Some heavy but with a bit of sweat I could carry all of them on the truck. But the mattresses ... well those were beyond my possibilities. I ended up rolling the mattresses from the space storage to the truck, and them declared my defeat! I called my new boss here, who was so kind to help me bring the mattress in my apartment. Apartment which is on the second floor, just one flight of stairs away from the truck.
Since I talked so much about the apartment, here a video I made yesterday. It's still a complete mess, with boxes everywhere ...