Cargo!

Yea!! Our cargo is here! From far away over the sea! Yesterday was the absolute last day we could get it before the OCF. We'd pretty much resigned ourselves to not getting it in time, paying extra storage fees while we were gone, missing the barter fair venue, etc... It seemed so cruel.

So when I called yesterday morning and they said come and get it, we dropped everything and zoomed down to the scary industrial wasteland of Alameda, to find the warehouse. I drove our big red van and Krista followed in the little pick up, terrified of getting seperated and lost down there in the heavy heavy traffic. At one point, near our exit actually, she was completely surrounded by huge semi trucks and couldn't see me. Poor Krista! When we finally got there she told me "Never Again", meaning next time we'd hire a delivery service like normal people. Damn the expense.

We had to pick up some papers at the warehouse and show them my passport then drive back on the big scary freeway to US Customs up the road for final clearance. A man wearing a big gun and a homeland security uniform asked us a few questions and stamped our forms 'you're good to go'. It was all going so smoothly!!

When it was finally time to back the van up to the big loading dock (which was 4 feet off the ground) we had our first look at the crates. Oh my GOD. Three of them were fucking HUGE (pardon my French). The loading dock guys were shaking their heads. One said "you and your wife gonna load that in there?" pointing at our van. We said "well, we have a pick up truck too" he just walked off shaking his head. Real helpful.

The other four crates were much smaller so we decided to do them first. Ha! Stone carvings. Each one weighed at least 100 pounds and a few a lot more. It's always fun balancing the fear of crushing one's hands with the fear of dropping something breakable. We wrestled the damn things over, then down, then in, then back. Krista's mantra was 'never again'.

Then we had the three giant crates to deal with. And they were much heavier. Somehow we did it. We stacked two in the truck and, with shaking arms and worn out hands, we got the thing tied down. Never again. Krista joked that we'd have to drive 30 mph the whole way back. Well, she was right, but not because of the load.

It took us two solid hours creeping home in bumper to bumper traffic. I cannot understand how people can live like that, spending hours of their lives stuck on the highway, commuting. But I was in no mood to judge. I had to pee the whole way back! Never again!

We walked in the house at 5pm, having left the kids in front of the TV six hours earlier. They were still there! Christ. I was afraid their eyes would be bleeding, but they said they hadn't watched the whole time. Never again! I figured out we saved about $500 doing it ourselves.

Our blessed friends Meredith and Steve (who just got back from Ireland, Wales and England) had invited us over for dinner, thank god. It was wonderful. They saved us from utter collapse. So today we get to uncrate and unpack our treasures for distribution far and wide. With any luck not too much is broken in there, and our spines won't simply snap. Wish us luck!

love

rob