Codeword - Percy!

Our stuff arrived from long term storage today! That's the good news.

The funny news is, and if I talked about this when we were on our househunting trip, please excuse me. The last time Ev & I bought a house was a bit stressful. It seems that no matter how much you discuss your "want list" when it actually comes to picking a house, you can still be at polar ends of the spectrum. Since nobody likes couples bickering in front of them, we decided this time we would have a code word that we would utter to notify each other that they were nearing a line they shouldn't cross. My code word for Ev was Percy. (His isn't very nice and contains profanity which defeats the purpose, I think.)

Last night we were anticipating today being difficult and who should have to play the heavy if the movers gave us a hard time. We had to have that conversation that most men just truly don't grasp. If it's the woman who tries to straighten out the movers we are The "B" and we are either complaining, making life difficult, or worse. If it's the man, it's constructive criticism and they are generally respected. The mood does not alter for the balance of the day as it would if the female commented. Ev won the responsibility. We reaffirmed our codewords and did a team cheer before we headed off to battle.

Here's where the issue becomes somewhat muddled. What do you do if the mover happens to be named PERCY? No word of a lie. PERCY from New Brunswick with Summer Teeth....Sum 'er there, sum 'er not. What the heck was I going to use as a code word now and how was I going to convey it to Ev? As soon as he said his name, we just gave each other a knowing look and a bit of a giggle.

So that's where the good news ends because the beginning of the unload was disastrous. The mover that brought our stuff from Kelowna did not like the manner in which the company that collected it from our house in Grand Forks and stored it in Kelowna completed there inventory. So he decided to re-do it. So let's count here. The first move had one set of numbers on it. Then Ev and I added 10 items to it when we were there in the Spring so that's two sets. This mover started a third set and realized, a little too late, that he didn't have enough numbers on the roll of labels he used (that makes three) so he had to use another series which had a different lot number but had the same inventory numbers just to confuse me even more. That makes 4 sets of labels.

Since most moving companies seem think we are all somewhat ignorant to the rules we sign under our contract, some will attempt to pull any number of fast ones on you. Today's was that we shouldn't complete our "bingo" sheet crossing off the boxes that were inventoried because it was just going to be too confusing given the mess that had been made of the inventory, Wrong...and unfortunately that set the tone. After a couple of items were brought in that were missing numbers (1, 2, 3, or 4) or a combination of 1, 2 & 3), things got a bit hot for a few minutes until we all came to a mutual agreement on how we would handle the situation. Then after another ten minutes, in came the top off of a sturdy pine table we own...except it no longer resembled itself. It was green and grey and black. Then came the, "Oh Yeah....there was a flood in the storage locker and your table and sofa are badly water damaged."

OH YEAH! Our two couches that were basically brand new before we put them into storage and were in pristine condition because no one ever sat on them. They were in our "formal" living room. Then came the top mattress from our king sized bed that we spent a small fortune on. It was black, and basically bent in half and squished around the middle, kinda like a sausage.....and I can go on and on and on. Let's put it this way. Anything that was truly important to us or that we indulged in when we purchased it, is damaged. Our hutch that Ev & I painstakingly hand crafted...damaged. Soft table, damaged. Wheels and feet missing off of things. How does this happen? How can someone come to your house, pick up your stuff, drive it directly to a storage facility and off load it and then 3 years later load it up on a truck and deliver it to your door...how does so much damage occur? And how does anything get lost when your stuff is the ONLY stuff on the truck?

I seriously want to take the most valuable possession that anyone that ever worked on our move(s) and drop it off a 10 story building and see how it makes them feel. Where is people's pride in there workmanship? And seriously, why do they all point fingers at one another and in the end, no one assumes appropriate responsibility for the physical and emotional damage that's occurred? Why do they all tell horror stories about other movers and never admit that they have made their share of bad decisions when it cames to someone else's treasures? I mean, if they are all innocent, how is it that the damage occurs?

What's worse is that the boxes aren't going to be unpacked until tomorrow so we have no idea what horrors lie within. AND, we still have our final shipment of possessions from the North to arrive.

We are trying to take pleasure in rediscovering things we had long forgotten we owned, but it's a little difficult when you know the worst is yet to come. We now have to do battle for compensation for damage they inflicted. It's a good thing my record keeping is meticulous but it's only going to help if the boxes with all of our financial records arrive.

Whew....I suddenly feel a bit better having gotten that rant off my chest. Hopefully tomorrow runs more smoothly.

Oh yeah, btw, after tomorrow morning we are without internet until a replacement modem arrives from the internet supplier. Seems somewhere along the line they lost our order for a WIRELESS modem and sent us a hardwire one. Doesn't make much sense having a wireless laptop if you have to be tied to an ethernet cable and telephone jack?

I think it's time to go to bed;)