This morning I felt like we caught a glimpse of the decline of American civilization (is that an oxymoron?). The movers brought our things today (yeah!), and they--and we--were shocked at how poorly everything had been packed back home. We're fortunate that other than a few scratches here and there, we haven't found any major breakage yet, which is amazing given that so many breakable items were just thrown into boxes with at most a couple of layers of paper around them (and often no protection whatsoever, including a box of framed pictures that were just stacked on top of each other with no paper or padding between them). The movers were very nice about it, but basically said that if anyone packed like that here, it would be their last day on the job. I probably sound like an old curmudgeon, but it made me feel like we as Americans have become cumulatively fat and lazy and have little respect for a job well done. I know that's not exactly news, but sometimes it takes something little to reveal something so obvious. (This is where I'd break out my sob story about how when I was a kid I had to walk to and from school several miles in the snow--uphill both ways--but since I grew up in San Diego I didn't think anyone would believe me...)