Monthly Archive for August, 2007

Page 3 of 3

truckin’

Published on August 11, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

day 1. late. western ny. 81°F

stopped to fill up at the giant travel center of america auto & truck stop. since we needed diesel we’re over on the big rig side. dad is using the giant window washer to clean the windshield. can’t have your rig lookin’ dirty. i’m trying to work the pump. i swipe my card and then it asks for my truck id. what? so i head into the unnaturally bright station to see what i need to do. they guy at the counter explains that i’m at the auto part of the station – i need to head back to the trucker fuel desk around the corner. i head on back and the place is straight out of movie. sad lonely looking guy slowly pushing a mop back and forth. trucker women playing arcade games. two guys watching a moving on a screen that has been set up in the chapel. a hallway to the showers. big sale on gigantic tires. and a gal with pink hair working the fuel desk. she takes my card and back i head to the pumps. it seems like it should be easy since they have pumps on both sides. our tank on the passenger side. i put the hose in the tank. turn the hose on. nothing. try again. still nothing. back to fuel desk to look stupid. this was my favourite. she explains that you have to start with the pump on the left. you take out the hose and *lay it on the ground*, turn on the pump, then go over to the auxiliary pump, put the hose in your tank, turn on the pump and you’ll in business. worked just as she said. now ignoring the environment impact of the bit of gas from the first pump spilling onto the ground i’m still asking is this really the best they could do here? business opportunity for the asking here – fuelmaster 3000.

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good news was their pumps could move the fuel. less than a minute and we had added almost 35 gallons and were ready to hit the road.

Farris

bigger and better

Published on August 11, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , .

(better = works)

day 1. boston ma. 83°F

at about 10 am with much ceremony dad and i climb up into the giant 22′ truck to begin our journey. antony at the wheel. engine rumbling. shift into gear. step on the accelerator. engine roars.

but no movement.

dad and antony looking at each other with that “whut?” look. maybe since the truck is loaded and we are on a bit of a hill i need to use a lower gear? shift from “drive” to 4th gear. not movin’. 2nd?. barely budges then rolls back. last chance. trying 1st. pedal to the floor. we’re now inching forward. c – r – e – e – p – i – n – g up the drive.

we make it to the top and as we turn on to major hale drive we see all the flanigan girls lined up on the yard waving goodbye. very nice – i’ll remember that image for a long time. we chug along through the neighborhood and onto the pike with the truck struggling to make it up the smallest of hills.

then dad hears me ask the question you never want to hear – “can you look in the manual and see what the ‘engine’ light means?”

no surprise it means the truck is dying, so i get off at the next exit and call penske to tell them that we are heading back. 10:30 and we’re back where we started. 10 minutes later you can see the mechanic talking to the jay the rental agent. not a lot of smiles.

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jay the friendly rental agent comes over and says the turbo charger is blown and will take days to repair – so we need to get a new truck. they are trying to locate a new truck and will have the mechanics transfer the contents. “uh – nope” i say. we had professional movers pack our truck to ensure everything made it safely and we’re not going to allow the truck mechanics unload our stuff and reload it all into a new truck. they agree and say they will try to get gentle giant to pickup a new truck and then do the unload / repack. at 1100 they confirm gentle giant is lined up and will be there at 1200. this was much better than i thought possible. i thought there was no chance that gg would have a crew available at a moments notice on a saturday in august. jay says he wants to make everything right so tells me that he has taken 10% off of our $1200 bill. based on his expression i’m guessing me laughing out loud was not the reaction he expected. i explained i could not believe that his truck had been serviced properly given it was so noticeably broken less than 5 miles from their depot, that their broken equipment was trashing our plans, and that i was looking to him to sharping his pencil a bit more and see what he could do. he agreed to 20%. i also got the no-longer-so-friendly jay to agree be liable for any damages that occurred during the unload & repack (he seemed quite offended that i asked him to write it down.)

so i call jackie and ask her to pick us up so both dad and i don’t have to sit around at penske for hours. we sneak back into the neighborhood (way too embarrassing to be coming home so soon after that great send off from the neighbors).

at 1215 i drive back to penske to supervise the unpack and repack but no new truck of movers yet. at 1230 two nice guys from gentle giant arrive in an even larger truck – a 26′ beast. no surprise they want to back up the new truck flush with the old one and just transfer the goods from one to the other. i didn’t want to be a total pain in the ass but quickly veto this since the original gentle giant team has packed the truck very carefully with the most fragile items on first and then well surrounded with lots of protection. no way to repeat that good pack without unloading everything into the parking lot and then repacking. at 12:45 the stuff starts moving.
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at 1:30 i realize that jay has not given me a new inspection sheet for the new truck so i head over to the office. now the hours posted on the door said they were open until 2 on saturday. and for some reason i expected jay to hang around until i was on my way again. ah – once again foiled by my childhood innocence. the office is locked up and jay is probably on the 3rd tee by now.

the gg guys are working like dogs and at 2:45 have finished. they did a great job and the load looks tight and secure. i move the truck out of the fenced in lot (i could just see me returning with dad and having the new truck locked in the lot) and go home to have jackie drop off drive dad and me back.

3:00 and we are on our way. new truck drives great.

total time hit – 5 hours.

ready for the road

Published on August 10, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

i picked up our penske truck yesterday. it is gigantic. 22′ long. giant cab. great diesel rumble. it looked way too big.

this morning 2 guys from gentle giant arrived to help us pack the more fragile items and then load the truck. thursday night i didn’t see how we would keep them busy for 2 hours (the minimum). we had started loading the truck and it just didn’t seem like there was that much more to do. well, they left after almost 4 hours and we still have a bit more loading to do. they did an amazing job packing the buffet, hutch, dining room table, etc. and then loading the truck so that everything was well protected. and we need almost all of the 22′ of truck. if we had the 18 footer (the next smallest) we would have been in big trouble.

the shop is closed

Published on August 10, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

i sold my last piece of woodshop equipment today. great to not have to move it but it is very bittersweet to see the totally empty shop that i took me so long to create. it made it a bit easier that everyone that i sold something to seemed genuinely excited about their purchase. the guy who bought my cabinet saw was about to start his own company specializing in eco friendly cabinetmaking. i hope he does well.

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a sea of boxes

Published on August 8, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

the packers from gentle giant were here yesterday and today packing the house. they were a great crew that were very patient with us making sure that they weren’t packing anything that was destined for storage in saint louis or had been purchased by one of our loyal underwriters. if you are not familiar with gentle giant is worth a look. it was founded by a 6’6″ irishman who was also a very talented crew rower. his company has grown all along the north east coast and consistently wins the award for best in boston. he hires crew members much like him – big guys who are *fit* and treat the move like a workout. we used them for our last move and they carry loads that seem impossible (one guy hoisted our fridge onto his back and carried it out) and then literally run back from the truck to get another load.

most of the items to be shipped in the container have been packed up so we’re now urban camping. it is so easy to forget all the things you need to have to accomplish a simple task – like eat take out. after the movers had left we all headed to whole foods to get some chow from the food bar. all good until we get home and realize we don’t have a spoon for the soup. doh.

and to calm any potential concerns i can confirm that surf monkey has been packed and will be making the jump with us to nz. i would love to listen in the conversation in the truck on the way home from a house pack. i’m guessing they are all competing for who packed the craziest item – dirty dishes – wardrobe of pet outfits – curio cabinet full of unicorns. i’m hoping we gave hector a winner with surf monkey.

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some childhood photos below

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cheap labour

Published on August 6, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

dad arrived today to help with packing the items we are putting in storage and then share the driving of the truck to saint louis. a bit of excitement at the airport trying to locate his lost bag. two airlines were each blaming the other and telling us that they couldn’t do anything.

side topic. so every bag has a bar code on it, right? can anyone explain why the airlines don’t track the bags using the barcodes? we asked the guy at lost baggage and he admitted that they didn’t. fedex can tell you where you package is at any moment. any why not the airlines?

hangin’ with the homies from the hood

Published on August 5, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

tonight we invited over the neighbors for beer, wine & snacks one last time before we’re off (actually the first time in the 7 years we’ve lived there). once again it was very nice and a poke in the eye that we should have done it earlier. i promise jackie will do better moving forward…

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jackie and me welcoming our guests.

comedians

Published on August 4, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

as we continue to get the house ready for the move we are generating mountains of stuff that needs to find a new home. trash and recyclables to the recycling center, books to the library, clothes and household goods to salvation army, etc. so every day i fill the car and start making my rounds. this morning i was waiting for my turn to toss trash into the hopper. there is room in front of the hopper for two cars. on the left a old station wagon (remember the ones with the fake wood paneling) with a female gypsy in her 60′s and an old geezer who was likely her dad. on the right a guy in his 30′s with a pickup. it’s well into the 90′s. i’ve got a ton to do.

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so in lane one the gypsy starts unloading her car and walking stuff to the hopper. but she doesn’t have trashbags or boxes or anything you would expect to hold garbage. first she takes our an old suitcase that is stuffed but not closed – with items sticking out. now straight out of an i-love-lucy episode the suitcase exploded open half way to the hopper throwing an amazing assortment of items all over. so she puts the suitcase down on the ground and begins gathering up the items and attempting to restuff everything inside. as she is doing this the old timer is shuffling (no joke each foot moves maybe 2 inches each shuffle) over to one tiny item (like a thimble) and then shuffles over to the gypsy and places the item on the pile before shuffling back for a matchbook.
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in lane 2 the guy has a large item like a furnace and lots of black trash bags in his truck. the bags seems to made from black tissue paper. he reaches up and grabs the first 2 bags from the truck and walks over to the hopper. he then swings them up and no surprise one rips open spewing nasty trash everywhere. the sanitation guys help out and start shoveling the trash into a pile and the guy is now scooping it up with his hands and tossing it in the hopper. so he goes back to the truck, climbs up into the bed and grabs the next 2 bags. he then decides to drop then on the ground. as expected one bursts open. time to repeat the shovel and scoop. i just need one of these characters to finish and then it’s my turn. finally the mess is cleaned up and the guy is back in the truck. he grabs ahold of 2 bags that are squeezed in between the the furnace and the side of the truck. as he lifts up both bags split open dumping everything back into the truck. the sanitation guys are laughing now. i’m thinking the guy’s turn is long over at this point, but he is now carrying handfuls of trash back and forth between his truck and the hopper.

i had lost track of the gypsies, but was thrilled to see them piling into their wagon and heading off to their jobs at the circus.

i’m unloaded in 2 minutes and on my way.

the last

Published on August 2, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

this week i began what will be a long series of lasts.

last haircut at scizzors (after 21 years i’ve known john longer than anyone else in boston)
last visit to my dentist (during my visit i was patient #1 for the new digital xray system. unbelievable. no question that 20 years from now we’ll look back in amazement that dentists use to use film and hold the xray up to the light to try and see what was going on)

last time together with many of my boston friends.

on thursday we got together with many of the friends we have made here in boston. some recent, some 20 years plus. it was great to see everyone but it really struck me when folks started leaving that it would be some time (potentially forever) before i would be able to see them again. quite a bummer. jackie and me agreed that we would have to make sure we made it back to boston before too long.