What was I doing Monday night around midnight? Moving a piano, of course. My parents moved in to their new place Monday, but they didn’t have a home for their piano. My brother decided he had room, so the plan was to unload their truck first and have the movers unload the piano at my brother’s on their way out of town.

Mind you, the movers themselves were truly great guys – they worked from about noon ’til midnight with few breaks. The moving company, however, was on the rotten side of things. They only sent two men to unload a fifty-five foot truck with about 6 tons of stuff on it (no wonder it took nearly 12 hours)! They also neglected to plan for the piano moving (two guys alone would’ve had a lot of trouble moving the piano). So, try to avoid using Abel if you’re moving.

So the truck finally showed up at my brother’s place around 11:30 that night. We spent about 45 minutes wrestling with the piano before we got it upstairs (both the walls and the piano remained scratch/dent free). The scariest part of the whole affair? After working (hard!) for nearly 12 hours and ultimate lugging a piano up a flight and half of stairs, these poor guys had to drive back to DC last night! I’m sure they didn’t get in until 7 or 8 this morning. I’m very sad to report the moving company actually had scheduled them for another job today – it’s not clear how that’s different from slave labor. It looks like the Federal Highway Administration regulates interstate movers – perhaps they’ll get a letter (or I’ll just send one to the BBB).