SAN FRANSISCO AT LAST – THE GREAT EARTH MOVING EPISODE

Finally we have arrived in San Fransisco and are waiting our goods from Canada. Everything is going well and I’m settling into a new job, new town, new country and more travels. Now before I jump into our life and the sights, tastes and smells of San Fransisco, I need to tell you a tale, before it slips out of my mind forever. I find that now, as a memory passes thru this foggy brain, I need to grasp it and get it on paper before it fades into the distance. The timeframe to capture and forever lock in these stories is brief, so here goes. This story is about moving and settling into a new location.

Each time we were relocated we were provided with a moving allowance from our company. This was to cover the costs of bringing your possessions to your new location, in order that you continue your life in some sort of semblance to normality. I must say, many of Deysi’s possessions, that she had brought with her from Peru, were some of the best travelled keepsakes and treasures in this world. They have been transported all over this world and now reside in our garage 40 years later. Some of which has not been looked at for 39-1/2 years. However it was all too special for me to throw out. My stuff on the other hand seemed to be culled every year or two. Enough of my whining, on with the story.

This is about a colleague that I met on my arrival to San Fransisco. He was relocating and arriving at the same time as me. His relocation was from St. Louis to the Bay Area. Like all of us, we were in place at our new locations immediately after it was decided that we were needed there. And like all of us, his wife was left behind to deal with the packing of household goods, getting children out of schools, and basically taking on everything that is necessitated by a move.

Our wives might say, as I have often heard that “this was your plan from the outset. You didn’t want to stay and help with the work surrounding another move, did you did you, I know you, don’t lie to me, you leave me here with all the work, etc.”. Not true we retort, to no avail, their minds were already made up. Anyway my friend’s wife is dutifully packing and loading and he is eagerly anticipating their arrival. The day comes and let the fun begin!

Shorty after shipment of his goods, he is contacted by our personnel department, those in charge of organizing, loading, unloading and paying for the transport. They inform him that he has incurred extra charges and to be prepared to pay an additional $4500.00 on top of the allowance that we were provided. His wife is enroute, and in those days we did not have cellular phones with which to make instant contact. He is a bit concerned, but confident that their goods would fit well within the allowance and that there must be some kind of mistake. Anyway, we were busy and he pushed this thought to the far reaches of his mind. What could go wrong, right?

The day of arrival of his goods comes and he gets another phone call. It seems like the movers now need to hire a small crane to complete the offload of their goods, and was he prepared to pay the extra costs? Well most certainly he would not! So up he gets and heads out to their house to see what in hell is going on. Now, by this time his wife is there but she doesn’t yet have a phone. In any event she’s not taking calls, especially his. A couple of hours later he is back, and boy is he pissed. He sits in his chair and is silently cursing to himself.

Curious by nature I go to find out what has happened. Well he was just waiting for someone to unload his anger on. He starts out by saying do you know what my wife did? Now I am intrigued, Nope says I what happened. Then he launches into a major swearing fit using some words that, even I, was not yet familiar with. I would go thru his rant in detail. However, if I had to leave out swear words there wouldn’t be much left of it except the occasional and, but, the, interspersed amongst the cussing.

Apparently, his wife had some favourite, favourite potting soil on their property. Seeing an empty freezer sitting on the back patio. She decided that she would need some of this in San Fransisco for her new flower gardens. Yup you guessed it, she filled their freezer full of her favourite soil and shipped it to San Fransisco. Now she knew it was heavy because she had to get someone out to the house with a winch to load it onto the back of the moving truck. She didn’t want to bother buddy, so she just paid for it and neglected to mention it in their conversations. I think she knew that she was in big shit. But delayed the event until it was too late to send it back.

Some good come of this, it gave us many, many hours of and tonnes of materials to tease my friend with for the next year. And he had the nicest flowers in their neighbourhood. You might say bullshit, but this story is as true, as I’m sitting here.