Categories: greyhound | home | vancouver
Just to wrap up what I realize has been a somewhat dramatic story...
I have moved into a new place, it is terrific, and I am a happy little homebody now. Yahoo! I intend to fight for the return of my damage deposit, but right now that is secondary to the goodness that is the feeling of being settled in a comfortable home. I could putter around all day. It's *fantastic*.
In slightly less good news, there were a few sad casualties among the things I shipped from Toronto on Greyhound. Of course, I managed to wave goodbye to my things just as the temperatures across the centre of Canada dropped insanely. So my boxes of belongings voyaged across this fabulous but frozen country, transferring between trucks 3 times I'm told, in temperatures averaging around -30ºC. (That's -22ºF.) Several of the boxes arrived terribly tattered, and one of the boxes didn't arrive at all – instead I got a bag of my things. "We hope everything is there," they told me. Blessing or curse I am not sure, but the likelihood that I will notice if anything small is missing is slim. They informed me that when boxes get unloaded in the snow, they get wet. Weaker boxes then disintigrate.
Lesson #1: Use new, strong boxes. Some of mine had endured several moves already.
Lesson #2: Don't ship things in plastic when it might be -40 outside. It cracks. (Luckily my only casualty was a plastic binder, which arrived rather shredded.)
Most everything inside the boxes was more or less intact... except for a few sad items. I found my favorite childhood mug in about 15 pieces, and my favorite bowl made by a Santa Cruz potter split in 3. Two other bowls suffered similar fates.
Lesson #3: Pack beloved ceramics very, very carefully. Insurance doesn't really cover these things.
The Greyhound staff in Vancouver were very friendly and knowledgable. While the guy in Toronto was nice enough, I wish he had warned me that my boxes would be transferred 3 times and that I might want to consider using better boxes. (Then again, I didn't really have time to change them.)
And life goes on. Now that I'm all moved... it's time to get some work done!
Duct tape - don't ship w/o it :)
Tue, 2008-02-05 15:50 — Anonymous (not verified)I've learned a similar lesson when shipping cardboard boxes..
I now don't ship anything - shoe box or bigger that isn't reinforced with duct tape, the edges/corners, and all the way around length and width.
May not be indestructible but will last a whole lot longer than w/o.
Duct tape to the rescue again.
:)
lost mail
Fri, 2008-02-08 12:32 — Michael (not verified)Sarah - I had a funny experience like this moving from the states to Windsor. When I arrived I went over the border and got a PO Box in Detroit to send my books to, using the cheaper "Media Mail" rate in the US. When they arrived, it was clear I had totally overpacked and several boxes were totally destroyed and had been patched over with tape.
In one of the boxes there was a standard apology note from the postmaster, but looking through the box I discovered a bunch of stuff that wasn't mine! In particular, a box of quite old photos, family trees, family newsletters and various cards and recipes. Clearly something very valuable to someone! I put on my detective cap and called some of the phonenumbers I found in there, and eventually got in touch with the owner! She was overjoyed! I sent the stuff back to her and a couple weeks later received a huge box of homemade cookies in the mail!
Every once in a while I'll think of a book but remember with a twinge of sadness that it was lost in the mail.
Mike
happy moving day
Sat, 2008-02-09 17:34 — Robert (not verified)And now you get to do the fun part, sorting everything and putting it where it goes. Congratulations on a successful move.
Cod weather shipping
Sun, 2008-02-10 05:10 — John D (not verified)Back in 1989 I retired from the military. We had been stationed on Okinawa and had things in storage on the east coast, where we had been previously.
We retired in Oregon and sent for our things. They were shipped by truck from the east coast. No problem.
But that winter we had an unusually cold snap. It got down to -20 F all they way down to Texas and stayed that way for a week. Unfortunately that was the week that my things were traveling across country in an unheated semi.
Most survived OK but I had a set of Onyx topped coffee and end tables. They shattered from the cold.
Oops. We were reimbursed of course but it's not the same.
Hi Sarah. I
Sun, 2008-02-24 06:37 — Anonymous (not verified)Hi Sarah.
I definitely should have been reading your blog more closely. I just kept seeing the word "Toronto" and not the words "moved from," "no longer in" and so forth :)
Nice to have you back!
TTFN
Travis