Dealing with U-Haul

For the past month or so I had been looking at U-Haul trucks and vans for my move. I had been figuring how much stuff I was taking and looked at gas and was figuring all these things out. In the end I figured taking a cargo van was going to be the smartest thing for me to do, both in space needed and gas mileage.

Along comes today when I go to order a cargo van. The website now says that a cargo van isn’t available for that type of move. WTF? This is not good and I kind of head into panic mode of ‘oh shit this is not good!’. I call up the place I had been getting boxes from and was told that cargo vans never go one way. I told him the web site allowed me to set that up just last week, so he gives me the corporate number to ask them.

So I called corporate and they tell me the same thing, and hinting that maybe I read things wrong on the web site. I know what I saw and I wasn’t going to budge on that and so she sees if there are any one way cargo vans she can find. A one way cargo van was found she said in Altadena, which is inside LA, about an hour and a half away from me. So I call that number and talk to Raul, the general manager and he starts telling me nothing is available for that type of move, so I told him corporate says he does have one. He checked and said that yes he does, but that the system will not recognize the reservation, but that we’ll do a 10’ rental and he’ll change it to the cargo van afterwards. Well that doesn’t work either, he says he’ll call the ‘traffic’ dept to get it changed over and 5 minutes later he calls me back and says that we can’t use a van as its not the right ‘model’ to be transferred over. He told me that normally only vans that are being sold out east are available, and that there are none right now.

So I call corporate again and talk to the same girl and tell her what has happened. She doesn’t seem overly pleased I am calling back and that she’ll see if she can find something for me and call me back. Two hours later still no call, and I kind of doubt I am going to. So its off to use the power of the internet (‘Internet! Internet! Internet! Internet HOOOOooo!’), and track down the CEO’s address to see about sending a quick letter to see if I can get some help from him. In my search I found reference to him on Frontline and that after the show was taped he wanted his cel phone # published so that if people have problems, they can call him direct. So this is what I did.

He was very nice, listened to my struggles so far. He was a bit surprised that the van was an option to rent one way like that, but he didn’t doubt I saw what I saw like the corporate girl seemed to. He said he’d look into it and get back to me. AN hour and a half later he called back, appologising for the delay, I was actually expecting a call tomorrow, not today, so that was nice. He did look into it and found that the guy who deals with sales actually did put it up on the site for one way rentals, and that he (the CEO)  didn’t know that was done. What he could do was offer me the 10’ truck rental for the same price as what I saw for the van rental. He said that if I had made a reservation for a van they would have figured out how to send a van to me, but because I hadn’t the discount was the best they could do.

So that’s ok. The money I save on the rental will be about how much more in gas I will have to spend. Its still about another $130 more from my budget, but that’s not terrible.

So today had some frustration in it, and if nothing was going to be done about the mix up today’s post would have been laced with f-bombs. I know Cliff would have been happier if it was. Sorry to disappoint Cliff, the CEO of U-Haul was pretty decent, blame him for a nice post instead of a f-bomb filled rant.

Tomorrow I should get a call from a reservation centre around here with the discount, and I’ll pick it up on Sunday. Tomorrow I have to get a new muzzle for Ares (there is going to be a LOT of new people around him, and he’s somewhat protective, so we are going to be very careful) and get the back windows of the CRV tinted. We called up a place today and got a very nice quote, and my neighbours have gone to them before, and said they are good. So that’s my day tomorrow really. (exciting isn’t it?)

(Give yourself 2 points if you got the Thundercats reference in my post)

 

Be kind, rewind.  Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

Garage sale day 2

Well it was slower, but we still sold some things and made a few hundred bucks, so all in all not too bad. The big thing that sold today was the exercise bike, so that’s good. We still have 6 boxes of books to donate, most of my cabinet supplies and a computer desk and a really ugly 1980’s tv hutch. But we’ll deal with that this week.

We actually got sleep last night too. I was so sore I was walking around like a 95 year old man, and when I wrote yesterdays post I was soooo tired. I should have left all the spelling mistakes in there for you to see, but there was a ton. I could barely think. But Kathy gave me a massage and I fell asleep during that, even though she was digging in so hard she was leaving marks on my skin. But after that we both went to sleep and slept right till 5am when the alarm went off. So we got a good 5 hours sleep.

The biggest surprise I think was selling all the computer games. I had about 150 out for sale in total. One lady came out yesterday and today and bought a bunch both days. She also picked up the bookshelves I had made too, so that was good. In fact overall it was pretty decent. It would have been nice to have sold the cabinet stuff, but I’m calling habitat for humanity and seeing if they’ll want them. I hope so.

So tomorrow we have more running around to do. Kathy kind of wants a day off, but I’d rather get everything done and take the days before we go off. Next Sunday I should have the  cargo van packed up and Monday morning we be leaving. Its kind of exciting till I started to realise that I’ll be living in the same country as Cliff, which is kind of a downer. It was nice having border security between us. Ah well, at least we have Sask to be our ‘no man’s land’, our demilitarized zone’.

Only 7 more days till we leave here.

A moment of silence for the black pig please... (you’d know what I am talking about if you read these other blogs. You ARE reading these other blogs right??) Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

Garage Sale day one

Lord am I tired. I’ve had two naps so far today and I could sleep through till tomorrow still. In the last few nights I’ve had very little sleep. The night before last we went to sleep about 5am and I was woken at 8am for a package at the door. It was the new MP3 player speaker and I wanted to  see if it worked, so I fooled round with it right away. If it needed to be returned I wanted to do so immediately. This woke me up so I could not get back to sleep.

Then yesterday I moved two heavy computer desks and an ugly 80’s style TV hutch to the garage in preparation of Saturday's garage sale. I was sore, even more than before, and just could not sleep at all, so before the garage sale I had about 3 hours sleep over the two nights. Not great.

The sale itself went pretty good. Some people just walked up and left, others stayed for awhile. But we sold one computer desk, the big 50” tv, ALL of my computer games (over 110 of them, which was a surprise), all of my cans of spray stains (used for my cabinet touch up work) and a few comics.

Some books sold, but not all. So the rest will probably get donated to the library or hospital. The guy that bought some comics said he’ll probably be back tomorrow, and if he does I’ll see if he wants to make an offer for the whole lot. That way I don’t have to deal with it any more. Same with the guy who is interested in some of the crown molding I have. If he wants the rest of my cabinet supplies he can take em. If that happens I will be very happy.

Both Kathy & I had some fun too. A few of the people that stayed awhile were interesting to talk to and we had some good laughs with them.  We were able to almost watch the entire Back to the Future trilogy before someone bought the tv too. ‘Junk faxes’. lol

I am walking like a 90 year old man though. I’m kinda beyond sore and into pain. So Kathy is going to massage the hurt away too. Coupled with some tylenol and I should be able to get a bit of sleep.

Here’s hoping tomorrow we sell everything else.

The best reason to have children

I mean other than to have them do all the chores when they get older.

To mess with their minds.

Yes, this does mean I have my main computer back up and running. Fear the postings of Brad!

Garage sale starts in 6.5 hours and I wake up in 4.5 hours. I better get to bed.

The land of opportunity

One of the things that has been bothering my wife is that the United States is supposed to be the ‘land of opportunity’, and people are supposed to come here rather than leave the country to find work. She has grown up hearing this, that everybody wants to come to America, its the best place on earth, equal opportunity for everyone if only you work hard enough. Politics aside, she’s taken a big hit to this worldview these past few years.

Almost everyone I talk to sort of has the same surprised reaction when I tell them I’m leaving the country to find work. They all suffer from that view that everybody should be coming here. Kathy & I have talked about how from a very early age they’ve been told the ‘US is number one’, ‘we are the best’, ‘this is the land of opportunity’, etc. But, a watermelon isn’t caviar no matter how many times you say it is. On an intellectual level people know that the US is in trouble, but deep down in the recesses of their brains all those years of indoctrination have taken hold and its hard not to listen to those voices.

When I’ve talked with my neighbours they get uncomfortable talking with me about this too. They have a hard time believing that Canada is doing better than the US is. It doesn’t help when I tell them Canadian banks have been held up as the model to the rest of the world on how to do business, that Canada has topped the G20 in growth for a few years running, and in fact has really been the only G20 country to show growth during these hard times. They are all wishing me the best, but I can tell its also not easy for them to think about this stuff.

So this is one of the things Kathy is having to deal with. Its not easy knowing she is leaving her beloved country to find a better opportunity elsewhere. Canada isn’t a lot different than the US culturally, the attitudes towards things are a lot different (like healthcare), but we are not that different. Who knows what Kathy would be thinking if we were moving to Russia to find work?!?  ‘Didn’t we beat those guys?’ ‘I don’t want to live in Siberia.’ I’m going to live in a communist country?’ I think if we were to be moving there she’d flip.

One other thing that is bothering Kathy is her mother. Last night while a guy was looking at my comics her mother started in on her and said that she should have told me that she was going to stay here, and her mother told her that her doctor told her she should not live alone, and a few other things to pull at Kathy’s feelings of guilt. Kathy’s mom is obviously going to miss her and I don’t know if this is her way of expressing that (badly), or if she is really trying to guild Kathy into staying. Either way its very hard on Kathy and there were a lot of tears shed. I’ll be glad when we are on the road and at least that part will be over.

 

A moment of silence for the black pig please... (you’d know what I am talking about if you read these other blogs. You ARE reading these other blogs right??) Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.

Deconstructing computers.

So I am taking apart our computers now, and will put them back up later tonight (Hopefully). Our current computer desks will be in the garage sale. So off they go.

The biggest worry is if the MIL will keep her car outside the garage tonight. I need the room to put all the stuff we have in the garage.

But before I go I’m gonna leave you with some videos. Both are funny, but one is NSFW (or children). It contains nudity, but not pornographic.

First the funny making fun of Monty Python one.

Now for the NSFW one. (you may actually have to go to the original link as its gonna get cut off, I can’t resize it.)

Elave - Nothing to Hide
Uploaded by hushtoa. - Watch more comedy videos and sitcoms.

I like the commercial, I think its pretty cleaver and funny, but its not something we would ever see in NA. It was a web only ad, and then they did take it down.

Oh, what the hell, one more video. If you really want to know how messed up the pharmaceutical industry is in the US, watch this. Its pretty messed up.

So there ya go. Nuts eh?

I’m sore.

My whole body aches. I guess these last two weeks have kinda caught up to me. All the packing and moving and stuff, not the greatest thing for me body. Kathy has been great in giving me massages which have really helped out. I know I am really glad that we’ll have a week that isn’t about packing or anything like that, it’ll just be relaxing. Making the final arrangements and getting things done.

Kathy worries that this is going to be too much for my body, and while I am sore I do believe I will live. When we get to Wpg I may need a week of sleeping to recover, but I’ll be ok.

Oddly enough though its not the lower back that is the major problem its almost everywhere else. I mean my lower back has been my main problem for around a decade now. Almost my whole spine is fused, from T1 to L4, its all fused. No bendy, no twisty, just held in place. Since my surgery in 1983 all of my spinal movement has been in a few lower vertebrae. The bad thing is this has pretty much caused the discs to deteriorate away to nothing and now my vertebrae are just grinding on each other and pinching nerves. Not a good thing at all.

Normally that area of my spine is just a mass of knots that Kathy massages away, and I could easily have a massage a day, and the next day more knots would appear. I joke that I could be the ‘massage dummy’ at a massage school. But even though those knots are still there, that’s not my worst area right now. Its mostly upper back.

The good thing is that Kathy’s massages do help out a lot and it usually segue into something even more fun.

[Cue cheesy video here]

 

Visit these other blog or God kills a kitten! Cliff - Peer Pressure Works, Chad - The Grind, Kelly - ‘Round the Bend, Kim - In Desperate Need of Entertainment, Erron – From the Inside Looking In, Kyle - Blog, Liam - In the Now, James – Feelings of White, Shaun - Expedition of Truths, Tammy - Tam I am, Vlad – Analog Coast, Janine – Because.