Friday, August 04, 2006

We have arrived

The drive from Colorado to Arkansas was much better than I expected. I'll tell you, however, that driving cross country in a soft-top jeep at 75 miles/hour is a NOISY, ROUGH ride! The dogs (all three of them) did great (we drugged them with benedryl.) The kids did great too (and we didn't even have to drug 'em.)

Of course, our truckload of belongings isn't scheduled to arrive until the last day of the "spread" they gave us. They said, before moving day, delivery in the range of August 3 through August 7. Its going to be the 7th. So, 5 days in a house with three beds, a TV (which we borrowed) and 4 folding chairs. Its like camping with an air conditioner and no campfire. Then, the movers (Atlas) tried to pull a fast one on me (as a good friend has said of me "They haven't discovered that your an attorney, and a dick, yet, have they?") All moving interstate moving companies are subject to Federal tariffs and have to bill according to those tariffs. Everything is billed by weight. My Atlas representative came out, months ago, and estimated our weight to be 19,999 pounds which, as he told me then, was "way too high, but he wanted to be sure to give me a number they could guarantee." The coordinator guy told me yesterday that they "forgot" to get an empty weight for the trailer before they loaded our stuff, so they were "just going to charge me based on the estimated weight." "The hell you are!" We have gotten rid of three beds and a 700 pound weight set since the estimate. I told him very clearly that it wasn't my problem that they failed to get a weight pre-load, that my shipment was lighter than the estimate, and that I simply was NOT going to pay the estimate. They figured out that they had a "standard weight" for the trailer (duh!) and that they would bill me based on that weight and then weigh the real trailer once it was empty and adjust my bill based on the actual weight. Do some people really let them get away with that shit?

We never have intense thunderstorms in Denver. Never. We might have some rolling thunder in the distance and some sprinkles, but never anything more. As the movers were finishing up on Tuesday loading the truck (which took them from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm), we had this VIOLENT storm with pouring rain (things were washing down the gutter streams) and very proximate cloud-to-ground lightening. It was a brilliantly symbolic send-off for the Harrell's departure from Colorado.

We did 3 hours of the drive Tuesday night, slept in a smelly Super 8 Motel (so we could sneak the three dogs in) and finished up Wednesday. Now, if only we had some belongings to go with our new (temporary) home...

Take care.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Welcome home. Glad you arrived safely.

6:45 PM  

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