One good move deserves another

We had a wonderful six months in our apartment. We liked our neighbors, we loved our ward, we had a convenient bus stop less than a quarter-mile from our door, grocery stores were close, and we could walk to the thrift store! Unfortunately, we did not love the price. Was it unreasonably priced? It was probably competitive, but with rentals filled to 96.6% capacity the property owners are in a great position to all make lots of money. They also have a cute little Apartment Association that gives rental owners a chance to get together and work out contract terms as a group, give each other tidbits on how to charge more for an apartment, and sage advice that even though all their units might not be filled, lowering their prices is a very bad idea.
Renting makes me grumpy. Undeniably, the property owners are taking a risk in owning the units and there are costs associated with owning and maintaining the property; so they should be compensated. In many cases, however, it seems that the compensation is in considerable excess to the costs and risks faced by property owners. It makes me feel like a serf under a land-baron, but without the reciprocal agreement of protection.
So anyway... we moved. The university owns some housing for married students and our name came up on the waiting list. It was quite a marathon move. I picked up the Budget moving truck after school (5:00 p.m.) on Friday. I drove it home and a friend from the ward helped me load some of our largest and heaviest things.Most of our things, however, were not boxed and ready to be loaded. So on Saturday we packed and loaded all day long. We should have asked for help. That was silly of us. Emily pitched in where she could, but Amanda and I were still really tired and it was about 5:30 p.m. when we finished and drove downtown to the student housing.
As we got close to filling the truck, I called up a friend and member of the Church who lives in the same complex we were going to. I apologized for the late notice but said that we could use a little help unloading when we arrived lest we end up with a mired ox on the Sabbath. I thought he sounded a little doubtful on the phone and I figured I would be unloading the truck until midnight. On the contrary however, quite soon after we pulled up, we had three guys helping unload the rather full truck (how did we get so much stuff?). A few children helped too and several women visited with Amanda while we worked. It was a bit hot (especially for my sensibilities of what February should be like) and we were all sweating, but it was much, much better than our previous move in August. These guys were amazing. They were grabbing armloads of boxes and trucking up the stairs to leave their load before literally running back for more. The truck was empty in less than an hour.
Emily's not sure what to think about the change. We still have a lot of stuff to do before the place becomes a livable home, but the Church came through for us again and thank heaven (as well as Hyrum, Cory, and Joseph) for it.