The Saga of Moving

Everybody hates moving. Why is it so difficult? It is depressing and exciting at the same time, but there's a ton of other emotions in there, too. There's disgust (why did we buy this?), embarassment (why did we buy this?), confusion (where is that thing?), anger (why won't you fit in this box?!), and there's U-Haulness.

My mother-in-law showed me this today, and I'll try to be brief in recounting our story.

Several weeks ago, I made a reservation with U-Haul online. I was supposed to pick up a truck on Sunday morning, 30 July, drive it up to Santa Cruz on Monday, and return it on Tuesday. On week before we were supposed to move, I called U-Haul to confirm the reservation. No problem. Two days before the move, I called again. No problem. One day before the reservation, they called me and told me when and where to get the truck (10:30 am at Hollywood Mail & Message in LA). So, Sunday morning rolls around and J and I have been calling the store to no avail, calling U-Haul and holding for hours on end, and finally just show up at H-Wood M&M to get the truck at about 11 am. Of course, the store is closed on Sundays. Many hours later, at 6:30 pm, U-Haul calls me and says "why didn't you get the truck this morning?" "Because the store is closed on Sundays." The U-Haul operator confirms this for me. "Yes. H-Wood M&M are closed on Sundays."

"I know," I said. "I went over there and they were closed."
"So why didn't you get the truck?"
"Because they were closed."
"You were supposed to call them."
"I did call, but there's no one to answer the phone at the store," I said slowly, so that the operator would understand.
"That's because the store is closed on Sundays."
"Well how the hell am I supposed to get the truck?" I asked.
"You're supposed to call the guy and make an appointment. His number is xxx-xxx-xxxx."
"How come nobody told me that? How was I supposed to know that? You guys told me on Saturday to just show up."
"Well, sir, you can't just show up because the store is closed on Sunday."

And it went on like this for a while. Finally I asked to speak to her manager and she says, I am the manager. I realized at this point that it was useless to argue with her because she, herself, was useless.

I call the guy who owns H-W M&M and I ask him to go open the store for me. He says he's too drunk, but his kid can go open the store. Great. Well, at least the kid was totally professional and friendly. No problems, and I got the truck home at 9pm, only 10.5 hours after I was supposed to get it!
But the story doesn't end here. No sir.

My brother, Justine, and I loaded half the truck Sunday night, and the rest Monday morning. When we were finally leaving LA, I may have slightly side-swiped a parked car. It really was a minor thing, and since I had U-Haul's insurance, I just left them a note that said something like: Sorry I winged the front of your car, here's my name and number. I have U-Haul insurance, so there shouldn't be any problems.
So besides being totally frazzled about packing and moving, now I had this on my conscience! I felt horrible, since I had probably just ruined someone's day. How awful to come out and see the front side of your car all scratched up.

Anyway, now I was all nervous about driving the truck in the city and I just wanted to get out of LA and onto the freeway. So we drove up to Santa Barbara, and things were going smoothly. We stopped at an Ihop for a break and since James had driven to LA and back, we needed to drop his car off so he could ride with J and I up to the Bay Area. To make a really long story shorter, we found out that one of the rear wheels on the U-Haul had blown out! Possibly from when I winged that car in LA, but also maybe from something on the freeway. So we waited at the Ihop until about 10:30 pm (we had left LA ad 2pm and gotten to the Ihop at 5!) for someone to fix the tire. The guy seemed to think it was something on the freeway, suggesting that there's no way I could have driven it like that all the way from LA. Plus, I check the truck after the incident and didn't notice any problems, and we were doing freeway speeds, also without problems. (By the way, the 17-foot truck we rented has those double-wheels in the back, so even if one does blow out, there's another one for me to drive on.)

Finally, on Tuesday morning, we made it up to Santa Cruz and my in-laws helped me unpack and store all of our stuff in their basement. Here it is, now, Wednesday morning, and all that remains is for us to return the truck.

In case you're wondering, the woman whose car I hit in LA called and said don't worry about it. Well, I'm still worried about it, and I'll tell U-Haul what happened when I return the truck, but at least I probably don't have to deal with this while I'm overseas. Speaking of which, I can hardly believe that I'm leaving for Tokyo in just 13 days. There's still so much to do! Thursday, J and I have to spend all day in San Francisco trying to get our Indian visas.

-Mike