The move was horrendous. Here are the salient points.
~ It was raining. really, really raining, with an occasional lost snowflake dropping in just to chortle at the state of affairs.
~ Moving-truck driver challenged a chestnut tree to a duel. Chestnut tree won and truck lost its side loading door. Completely. Ripped the thing right off.
~ The half-loaded, and doorless, truck is unloaded, in anticipation of replacement truck’s immanent arrival. Large raindrops have joined the snowflakes’ gleeful chorus.
~ Accidents happen. Movers seem to be dealing with it, so we head off to the lake, in anticipation of new carpet arriving, before our possessions. (The original carpet is a gruesome combination of 70’s sculptured yellow and 4 decades of hard usage) – ‘scuse me, I have to take a moment to mourn that the 70’s was so long ago. Le sigh!
~ We wait.
~ Still raining.
~ Still waiting.
~ Carpet arrives and we roll it out before our possessions turn up.
~ They don’t.
~ We wait some more, and have expensive cell-phone conversations with new moving truck driver who appears to be lost. How can someone work in the moving business not have a map?
~ Owner of moving business, states, and I quote, “What do you want me to do about it?”
~ Eventually we drive into town to guide the driver in.
~ Still raining.
~ Unloading starts. We discover they have left behind our rather expensive bicycles … not in the apartment, not even in the building foyer. Oh no. These idjits left them OUTSIDE the building.
~ My bicycle is modified to compensate for the missing half of my right knee, and therefore expensive to replace.
~ Only be the grace of Herself, and the fact that the neighbourhood is a very bike friendly place, are our bikes still there after 2 hours. They are rescued and are to be delivered by the idjit who forgot them, several days forward from this one.
~ Mover tries to charge us for the extra time it took to complete the job. He survived the encounter only because he still had to deliver the bikes.
~ Five days after the move, our bikes arrive.
~ Move is complete.
~ Still raining.
~ A week after the move, the sun is shining, the lake is all blue-green and shiny. Widdercat has ventured forth past the front step. It’s a good day.
~ I wonder if I’ll ever figure out why there are so many more bolts and screws than I’ll ever need to put the bookshelves back together again.
P.S. Will have pics of lake when I find the camera – the one in my cell phone refuses to speak to me.
*
“It’s been a long time since I’ve written old-fashioned sword and sorcery; I’m hoping it’s like riding a bicycle” – Lynn Abbey
But how are the squirrels? Priorities, you know.
Karen
http://klsyed.com
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Hi Karen,
I agree. Where are my priorities?
Did you see that wonderful Pixar movie, ‘Up’? I loved the, “Squirrel!” moment.
Squirrels don’t seem to be that thick on the ground here. We’ve had robins and blue coloured birds with pointy bits on their heads – can’t for the life of me remember what they’re called right now – and a bald eagle just soared above the tree-tops looking for a thermal.
… just remembered. They’re blue-jays!
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I’m so glad you got your bikes back, but sad that the 2 Small Men don’t seem to have the big hearts they claim to. 😦
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Hi Lisa.
Yep! I think we’ve both let go of most of the disaster … mostly 🙂
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Oh man, people have so many bad stories about movers. Forget the map, what about GPS?? Almost every cabbie has one. Ridiculous.
But I’m glad it all got there, and the bikes, and the water is beautiful and now you can exhale. …And then unpack. 😉
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Apparently we didn’t exist on his GPS
Exhaling is good … unpacking is happening slowly, we both have headcolds!
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Beautiful blog! Look forward to reading more.
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Hiya legion … nice to meet’cha! Thanks for dropping by.
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Awww Shame man, that’s horrendous. Cant believe he tried to charge you extra just because he couldn’t do his job properly! What an audacity.
Well at least you got all your stuff back. You’re living by a lake? I am absolutely jealous! 🙂
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Thanks Nisha. it’s raining again, and all misty. I’m not missing Vancouver in the least!
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I’m glad you finally manged to get everything worked out. Sounds like a crazy horrible day to live through but one that will make a great story a few years down the road to scare other people who are moving. Can’t wait to see pictures!
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I can understand why moving is one of the three hardest things we can do in this life. The other two are probably packing, and unpacking!
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Lol, Taxes ought to be in there somewhere. Of course, I may just be bitter as we are currently being audited because the government doesn’t believe we adopted our son and therefore we don’t deserve the adoption credit.
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Ijits one and all … a pox upon their house! … what do they think you did? Open a box of Cheerios and out he popped! Jeez!
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How awful. Our last encounter with a moving van was years ago. It wasn’t fun either, but it wasn’t as bad as all of this …. Write something for me when you can.
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Thanks for your thought, Ms de Vienne … will write soon!
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I can’t believe they left your bikes outside. It doesn’t sound like a good moving company.
I’m glad you’re on the lake now, and I’m looking forward to seeing photos (when you find your camera).
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Still haven’t found it! 😦
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The misadventures of moving! May this be the last move for you and your Missus. Have you tootled around the lake on your bike yet?
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The latest update is that the building manager of the old apartment can’t find the elevator key that was left on the stove! They are going to try and squeeze our damage deposit out of us any which way they can … they have no idea who they are taking on! Two irate lesbians who lived through the move from hell! Heh, heh, heh
… We’re aiming for one more move. One of the reasons we moved here was to check out properties to buy. That move we’ll take TOTAL control of. No more of this trusting professionals to do their job!
… no tootling around the lake yet. Several reasons: still too sick, still raining, my bike doesn’t float!
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You go, Ladies! I’ve used professional movers 4 times. The first time was definitely a pain and a growl. Hope you get well soon.
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Next time we’ll be watching like hawks – every step of the way, all the time!
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Sounds as though the experience was character-forming. Yes, I have found that it pays to keep the movers under close scrutiny when shifting house – after all, the stuff matters more to you than to them.
And you get the added fun of unpacking your boxes – it’s like Christmas with each one!
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That’s true – now that almost all of the little buggers are unpacked, flattened, and on their way to the recyclers!
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