Never Saw It Coming

There are moments, whether it's while running errands, in the shower or maybe lying in bed, when I try to think about events associated with the move that are coming up. The exercise takes me into visualizing about all the details associated with the events and this usually leads me to a "punch list", similar to what many call a "to-do" list. The point is to reduce the blind spots and make it all very predictable. Less stress is good, right?

Without fail, the more people involved in any production, the more variables one can expect. With relocation to Alaska there are a LOT of people in our production and, consequently, stuff can get uncomfortably unpredictable.

For instance, on Tuesday we were told the amount we have to ship is below our relocation plan limit of 18,500 lbs, but just barely below. We originally wanted to take as much stuff up with us because everything in Alaska costs so much more for the cost of transportation. (Next time you're watching TV or reading a magazine ad and a business offers "FREE SHIPPING", look at the bottom of the screen or in the fine print in the corner and notice the "excludes Alaska and Hawaii".) Anything and everything in Alaska costs more for the expense to get it there. So, now we're looking at the list of items we were going to buy and have shipped up for free and are forced to choose what we could do without. Ugh! Sounds a little trivial, but these little rubs with go/no-go decisions are the first significant ones coming from the move, at least for me.

We've already been told that all our stuff is getting loaded into a 53' container that's getting hauled across America to Tacoma, Washington. Once there, our container will go onto a sea-going vessel and float its way up to Anchorage. What complicates the thought of a 53' container sitting in front of my rented home during the move is that the moving company advised me that it would be a four-day (yes, 4!) process to pack us up. I was perplexed about whether or not to contact my landlord about this revelation from the moving company. The saying "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission" ringing in my ears, I decided to do the stand-up thing and called my landlords. The time I placed the call was somewhere in the late afternoon.

Ring...Ring...Ring...
Whew!...no answer...good...I'll just leave a message!
And that's what I did…I left a message.

Later that evening, at around 9:30pm, I got a call back from Mr. Landlord and this is the way it started (in a deep, gruff Boston accent):

"Now Andy, we've had a great experience with you (as a renter) and now I'm growing concerned that we're going to have some serious problems (with you) at the eleventh hour..."

I handily cut the blue wire and diffused the would-be-bomb that this call represented, and we hung up with the understanding that I would get back to the movers with some guidelines from the property owners. Their expectations were not very "reasonable" and included things like no heavy objects on the asphalt driveway, no parking/setting the container anywhere on the property and no excessive walking on the grass. So, basically, our landlords left us with levitation as our only option for completing our move out of our rental home. Fortunately, the moving company made everything all better the next day when Mark, the moving company rep, told me that they wouldn't be dropping the container off but pulling in front of the home, on the street, and only for one day. Mark explained the packing would take the two days prior to the hauling out of stuff (day 3) and apparently day 4 is for clean up items, presumably whatever didn't get hauled out of the house on day 3.