05-23-2019, 04:50 PM
Ah, Friday, my love.
I had the POD storage container in my driveway by Wednesday. The UNITS storage container was going to be delivered to my house between 8-9am on Friday. I was told by my friend Maria (No Christmas cards for her this year) That I should have the crew to unload the UNIT by 8am because Bill the driver wanted to get right back on the road. Okay. It says in the contract I can have the container for a month as part of the rental agreement. You would think turning it around in a hour would get me a bonus. Not so much.
I had some idle time on my hands Thursday night so I thought I would look into POD just to see how everything faired. During a commercial break, I grabbed my keys and headed outside. An hour later, I returned into the house.
The POD and soon to be arriving UNIT were both packed by the professional. They made it a point to show how solid and secure they had packed everything. They used miles of tape and saran wrap to make sure everything was safe. They used every packing blanket I purchased.
They didn't secure it quite as well as I would have liked. When I went to pull up the roll-up door, it got about a foot up before it stopped and would go no further. Swearing ensued. No matter how tightly things are strapped down, things shift during the move. Except in this case, things weren't strapped down and were now wedged against the door.
I pushed several things back through the door to get a little more room. I was able to open the door another couple inches. I did some more pushing. I gained a few more inches. I finally got the door up far enough that I could remove a portable air conditioning unit. This created enough room for me to slip inside and see what the problem was.
A stool that I had got from the film Tremors had both it's legs on the lip of the doo. Every time I pushed the door up, the top of the stool hit the roll for the roll up door. The weight of the contents of the POD was pushing against the stool so I couldn't move it back very easily.
Secondly, an air compressor that had just been placed on top of some cabinets without being tied off was now wedged between the door and the cabinets. More swearing.
I pushed. I prodded. I sweated copiously. I finally managed to hold the compressor far enough away from the door to push the door up. I also was able to bend the door enough to get it by the legs of the stool.
I don't think the Queen even noticed the length of my absence.
Friday rolled in and I was ready to unpack the storage units. Too ready.
I had a couple of guys coming in to help with the unpacking. They were going to show up 7. I figured we would unload the POD and the UNIT would show up at 8. Nothing could be smoother.
I headed out to the POD at 6:30. I figured I would unload some of the smaller stuff so the Movers could get to the bigger stuff. I started picking away. Before you know it, 2/3rds of the trailer was empty before the movers even arrived.
The nice men from Turlock showed up and the rest of it went really fast. Too fast. They had the POD emptied well before 8. So, they were going to hang out for a few minutes waiting for the next truck. I had them shift some boxes around in the garage for when the white fridge got moved to the garage into it's original spot.
By 8:10 I realized I had miscalculated. I checked the email and confirmed it said arrival between 8 and 9. 8 was rapidly disappearing and still no sign of the truck.
I hung out with the movers. They were ready to work but had nothing to do.
When the truck didn't show by 9, I called my friend Maria at UNITS. She was unsympathetic to the fact I was paying two nice men from Turlock to hang out at my house. She also didn't care that I should have the rental unit for a month rather than the hour it would be in my driveway.
When Bill finally showed up at 9:15, he, too, was unsympathetic. He had hit traffic. He told Maria between 8 and 9, not just 8. So, he was going to go get breakfast and the truck should be unloaded by the time he got back.
The Turlock movers unloaded the UNIT in a jiffy.
While we were doing that, the POD driver arrived to pick up the small POD. The only problem was the UNIT was in the way. I told the driver the UNIT would be moved shortly if he just wanted to wait. He didn't. There was a way to drive around to the other side of the property to get the POD from the other side. I just had to move my car. He also gave me shit for not having swept out the POD. I asked if him would it be better for me to sweep out the POD or move my car so he could pick up the POD? He grabbed the broom.
Now, the funny thing about the POD pick up was that they were supposed to wait until they got a call from me before picking up the POD. I had never called. I was busy driving back and forth to Los Angeles. I told this to the POD driver. He didn't know who had scheduled the pick-up.
But we sorted it out. The POD driver got the Robo-Truck to pick up the empty pod and he was on his way. Meanwhile the UNITs storage unit was also empty. Our house now had furniture in it. And a ton of boxes in the garage. We had a couch to sit on. A bed to sleep on. A kitchen table at which to eat.
Although the new mattress we got for the guest room it doesn't compare to the bed we have for us. It's a brick and I sleep like a mason.
I didn't even talk to Bill when he came back for the UNIT. He loaded up the truck and was on his way.
I had the POD storage container in my driveway by Wednesday. The UNITS storage container was going to be delivered to my house between 8-9am on Friday. I was told by my friend Maria (No Christmas cards for her this year) That I should have the crew to unload the UNIT by 8am because Bill the driver wanted to get right back on the road. Okay. It says in the contract I can have the container for a month as part of the rental agreement. You would think turning it around in a hour would get me a bonus. Not so much.
I had some idle time on my hands Thursday night so I thought I would look into POD just to see how everything faired. During a commercial break, I grabbed my keys and headed outside. An hour later, I returned into the house.
The POD and soon to be arriving UNIT were both packed by the professional. They made it a point to show how solid and secure they had packed everything. They used miles of tape and saran wrap to make sure everything was safe. They used every packing blanket I purchased.
They didn't secure it quite as well as I would have liked. When I went to pull up the roll-up door, it got about a foot up before it stopped and would go no further. Swearing ensued. No matter how tightly things are strapped down, things shift during the move. Except in this case, things weren't strapped down and were now wedged against the door.
I pushed several things back through the door to get a little more room. I was able to open the door another couple inches. I did some more pushing. I gained a few more inches. I finally got the door up far enough that I could remove a portable air conditioning unit. This created enough room for me to slip inside and see what the problem was.
A stool that I had got from the film Tremors had both it's legs on the lip of the doo. Every time I pushed the door up, the top of the stool hit the roll for the roll up door. The weight of the contents of the POD was pushing against the stool so I couldn't move it back very easily.
Secondly, an air compressor that had just been placed on top of some cabinets without being tied off was now wedged between the door and the cabinets. More swearing.
I pushed. I prodded. I sweated copiously. I finally managed to hold the compressor far enough away from the door to push the door up. I also was able to bend the door enough to get it by the legs of the stool.
I don't think the Queen even noticed the length of my absence.
Friday rolled in and I was ready to unpack the storage units. Too ready.
I had a couple of guys coming in to help with the unpacking. They were going to show up 7. I figured we would unload the POD and the UNIT would show up at 8. Nothing could be smoother.
I headed out to the POD at 6:30. I figured I would unload some of the smaller stuff so the Movers could get to the bigger stuff. I started picking away. Before you know it, 2/3rds of the trailer was empty before the movers even arrived.
The nice men from Turlock showed up and the rest of it went really fast. Too fast. They had the POD emptied well before 8. So, they were going to hang out for a few minutes waiting for the next truck. I had them shift some boxes around in the garage for when the white fridge got moved to the garage into it's original spot.
By 8:10 I realized I had miscalculated. I checked the email and confirmed it said arrival between 8 and 9. 8 was rapidly disappearing and still no sign of the truck.
I hung out with the movers. They were ready to work but had nothing to do.
When the truck didn't show by 9, I called my friend Maria at UNITS. She was unsympathetic to the fact I was paying two nice men from Turlock to hang out at my house. She also didn't care that I should have the rental unit for a month rather than the hour it would be in my driveway.
When Bill finally showed up at 9:15, he, too, was unsympathetic. He had hit traffic. He told Maria between 8 and 9, not just 8. So, he was going to go get breakfast and the truck should be unloaded by the time he got back.
The Turlock movers unloaded the UNIT in a jiffy.
While we were doing that, the POD driver arrived to pick up the small POD. The only problem was the UNIT was in the way. I told the driver the UNIT would be moved shortly if he just wanted to wait. He didn't. There was a way to drive around to the other side of the property to get the POD from the other side. I just had to move my car. He also gave me shit for not having swept out the POD. I asked if him would it be better for me to sweep out the POD or move my car so he could pick up the POD? He grabbed the broom.
Now, the funny thing about the POD pick up was that they were supposed to wait until they got a call from me before picking up the POD. I had never called. I was busy driving back and forth to Los Angeles. I told this to the POD driver. He didn't know who had scheduled the pick-up.
But we sorted it out. The POD driver got the Robo-Truck to pick up the empty pod and he was on his way. Meanwhile the UNITs storage unit was also empty. Our house now had furniture in it. And a ton of boxes in the garage. We had a couch to sit on. A bed to sleep on. A kitchen table at which to eat.
Although the new mattress we got for the guest room it doesn't compare to the bed we have for us. It's a brick and I sleep like a mason.
I didn't even talk to Bill when he came back for the UNIT. He loaded up the truck and was on his way.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm